I'm 14 weeks now, beginning to have a need for maternity jeans, and still experiencing the occasional unfortunate vomiting episode if I'm even an hour or two late taking my medications. My struggles with my stomach have made it very difficult to follow through on my high hopes of following the Brewer diet--particularly early on, I had to resort to eating whatever didn't make me sick with the thought of it, however strange or nutritionally empty, and half the time it didn't stay down anyway. I've been pretty consistently good about drinking plenty of milk, but eggs--the so-called superfood of pregnancy--largely lost their luster for me. However, this past week, I felt my appetite coming back with a vengeance, but since I was at work, I had to make do with what meager (and greasy) offerings I could find in the hospital cafeteria. Feeling sluggish as a result, I've resolved to approach my eating with fresh conviction now that I'm beginning the second trimester, I should be feeling better soon, and my expanding waistline is a constantly growing reminder that our baby is no longer the size of a piece of punctuation like he/she was in the early days, and is depending on me to meet his/her increasing nutritional needs.
Given that, I'm resolving to eat MORE of the following:
-Leafy greens
-Free-range eggs
-Red/orange fruits and vegetables
-High-protein snacks (like nuts and cheese)
-Whole grains (like bulgur and whole-wheat bread)
Doesn't exactly make for a cheap shopping cart, especially in the middle of January, but priorities are priorities. To that end, I've started making bread again (substituting half or all whole-wheat pastry flour), keeping a bowl of dark salad greens in the fridge (along with a batch of simple balsamic vinaigrette: a 3:1 ratio of olive oil to balsamic vinegar, a dash of salt, a pinch of sugar, a splash of lemon juice, a couple of cloves of crushed garlic, and some freshly ground black pepper), and packing myself nuts and cheese as a snack at work.
Since I still can't stomach prenatal vitamins and am instead determined to get my vitamins and minerals from food and herb sources, I've also started drinking Traditional Medicinals Pregnancy Tea. I was originally planning to buy loose herbs and concoct my own pregnancy tea, but since this one contains organic versions of just about every herb recommended for nutritional enhancement during pregnancy (including nettle, alfalfa, fennel, lemon verbena, and red raspberry leaf), and they can be hard to find individually around here, I went ahead and picked up a box. (I got mine at Whole Foods, but it's also available on Amazon at around $4 for 16 bags when you buy 6 boxes at a time, with free shipping.) It has a pleasant spearmint flavor, with a hint of black licorice flavor from the fennel. I like it sweetened with a good amount of honey.
Given that, I'm resolving to eat MORE of the following:
-Leafy greens
-Free-range eggs
-Red/orange fruits and vegetables
-High-protein snacks (like nuts and cheese)
-Whole grains (like bulgur and whole-wheat bread)
Doesn't exactly make for a cheap shopping cart, especially in the middle of January, but priorities are priorities. To that end, I've started making bread again (substituting half or all whole-wheat pastry flour), keeping a bowl of dark salad greens in the fridge (along with a batch of simple balsamic vinaigrette: a 3:1 ratio of olive oil to balsamic vinegar, a dash of salt, a pinch of sugar, a splash of lemon juice, a couple of cloves of crushed garlic, and some freshly ground black pepper), and packing myself nuts and cheese as a snack at work.
Since I still can't stomach prenatal vitamins and am instead determined to get my vitamins and minerals from food and herb sources, I've also started drinking Traditional Medicinals Pregnancy Tea. I was originally planning to buy loose herbs and concoct my own pregnancy tea, but since this one contains organic versions of just about every herb recommended for nutritional enhancement during pregnancy (including nettle, alfalfa, fennel, lemon verbena, and red raspberry leaf), and they can be hard to find individually around here, I went ahead and picked up a box. (I got mine at Whole Foods, but it's also available on Amazon at around $4 for 16 bags when you buy 6 boxes at a time, with free shipping.) It has a pleasant spearmint flavor, with a hint of black licorice flavor from the fennel. I like it sweetened with a good amount of honey.
No comments:
Post a Comment