When I started this pregnancy I optimistically started a food journal thinking I could catalog all the great and healthy foods I ate. This would keep me on track and help me to be more accountable to myself so I didn't stray far from my diet. I was determined to be healthy and finally have one of those 25 pound pregnancies that I keep hearing about. It was a great idea and worked wonderfully the first few weeks. Then the nausea hit. I had to eat every two hours or it got horrible. And I don't mean eat a little snack. A few carrots and a yogurt would have been a great option, but no. This is not what I meant. I meant I had to have a full meal every two hours. Plus it was tricky because I couldn't eat just anything. EVERYTHING sounded horrible. There was so little I could eat. For several weeks the only thing that sounded good was salad. So salad I ate. I added ham and cheese for protein and it was a wonderful option for vegetables. Unfortunately, it was only edible to me if I absolutely drowned it in ranch dressing. So I did...several times a day...for several weeks. Then one day, halfway through my salad, it suddenly wasn't good any more. I moved on the ham and cheese sandwiches. This would also not be a bad option health wise but I liked to eat them on a toasted cheese and onion bagel, with lots of mayo and avocado. So this was my staple for several more weeks. You get the idea. And to top it off, my exercise was suffering. I was still doing my pregnancy scaled workouts most days but I had intended on not missing days and adding running or stair stepping to the mix to keep things under control. None of this happened. I was just too sick and tired (and depressed) to make it happen. And finally, if I'm being totally honest, there was also a junk food factor. I was so emotionally off (meaning feelings of depression, hopelessness, and anxiety) that I ate a lot more candy that I ever would have normally allowed. I just didn't care. I sort of felt like it was all I had. I know that's not healthy, but there it is. My failure of a first trimester.
Now my nausea is mostly gone and I am looking to my second trimester to try and make up for some of the dismal failure in my first. I plan to go back to my food journal tomorrow and eat better balanced meals (though mostly food still strikes me as gross). I have already started walking and running my kids to school some mornings so I get a couple of extra miles of exercise each day. I'm hoping to do that a few times a week plus my regular workouts. I'm still hoping for a small weight gain because as I get older and have more children it seems like it gets harder and harder to lose the weight after the birth. I was down to my pre-pregnant weight by the third month with my first two kids. Number three took about 6 months to get back and number four took over a year. We will see what this one brings. So now I'm working on kicking the candy out (at least controlling it better) which is, by the way, not an easy thing to do a week before Easter and upping the exercise. So many people tell me that this is my time to eat whatever I want and as much as I want, but I'll tell you what I tell them. Everything that I gain now, I have to lose later. So wish me luck because I'm off to a really bad start.
3 Comments
Lauren Arrington
4/17/2011 11:28:47 am
Oh Brandi, you pretty much described me this time around. At this point I will have to go on a strict diet to stay under 35 lbs.! I have just stopped weighing myself, because I know I am doing my best. There is hope though. I gained 50 lbs. with Noelle, and lost 60 lbs. within a year after. If I can do it, you definitely can.
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Cindy Hernandez
4/17/2011 12:35:03 pm
Brandi,
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Jana
5/2/2011 08:24:05 am
Love you girl! I so get this one. I couldn't believe it with my last pregnancy when the only thing that seemed to sneak through morning sickness was McDonalds cheeseburgers. It didn't help either, that there was a McDonalds just around the corner from my office. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to keep some food going in. I'm eating much healthier now. -Jana
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AuthorI am a stay-at-home mother of four, currently expecting my fifth child and couldn't be happier...or maybe it would be more accurate to say that I'm very happy with what I have. Archives
December 2011
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