How hard or easy was it to give up bad foods?

[savignon]

Hi, Everyone

I'm just about 6 1/2 weeks pregnant (hearing the heart beat next week!!) When I first found out which was only a week or so ago, I was eating great and going to the gym a lot. This past week though I've been to some cookouts and work parties and I've eaten much more poorly than my expectations for myself. My husband and I go out to eat about 2 or 3 times a week and sometimes there's cake/cookies/etc. at work. I was sure that with the knowledge that I'm pregnant, it would be so easy to just go cold turkey on caffeine, alcohol, fried foods and sugar. The first two have been effortless and the second two are starting to feel like a chore. I've been wanting a lot of soft foods like bread, soft pretzels, mashed potatos, pasta, cookies, etc. I'm really disappointed in myself and I'm sooo tired and in the end eating like this just makes me feel worse (naturally). Today I re-read a lot of the information I have stressing the importance of a healthy diet and exercise during pregnancy and it's not new information to me....which is why I'm disappointed. I already know all of this!! I don't want my child to suffer the same diet/weight problems that I've had and certainly don't want to deprive him/her of the nutrients he/she needs to grow into a healthy, full-term baby.

Is anyone willing to share their own experiences? Was it easy for you to just quit the bad stuff? What were some things that helped?

Thank you and happy baby-making!!

Sav.

[Shortpants]

First off, congrats on the little one Sav!! How exciting!

 

I quit smoking, quit caffeine, quit soda, and started eating 3 meals a day (instead of 1, my usual) when I found out I was pregnant with Littlepants, so I feel your pain on having to give up so much of the "good (bad) stuff". LOL

 

Honestly, I really didn't worry too terribly much about my diet when I was preggo. I mean, don't get me wrong, I wasn't eating McDonalds every day or anything, but I pretty much ate what I wanted... within reason. I made sure to have something for breakfast, even if it was a bagel with some veggie cream cheese or something small. For lunch I am lucky enough to work close to a CoOp (Natural Foods Store) so I went there exclusively for lunches and would usually get a good sandwich or some soup with a milk and decaf iced tea. Dinners we usually eat well balanced meals anyways so that just worked right into my "watching my diet" just fine. My biggie was the snacking at night, cookies, turnovers, ice cream, etc. I actually tried to keep a little more fruit and veggies around for snacking. I really tried to just not have the stuff in the house at all, then I wasn't tempted. Made sure to take my prenatal vitamins, and I had a happy healthy kiddo, no issues. Granted I did gain almost 80 lbs when I was pregnant, but Littlepants is almost 21 months now and I'm about 10 lbs from my pre-preggo weight.

 

I think the biggest thing is moderation, don't chow down on all the snacky stuff. Make sure you get a well balanced meal first to fill you up and keep the snacks to a minimum. Or if you must snack have some grapes or carrot sticks, or even some popcorn with a very little butter and salt if you crave something like chips.

 

I was actually pretty suprized how easy it was to adjust my diet and what I ate and drank. I really expected to be a monster with no coffee or Pepsi, but I did fine... drank LOTS of lemonade. LOL

 

Good luck and take care of yourself and the little bebe!

[arwen]

First of all, congrats Did you already have a US?

 

The hardest thing by far was to eat at all for me. I lost my appetite the first 3 months, ten I ate like a giant the next 3 months, to loose my appetite again the last 3 months. I was happy to eat at all, and since I always kept a very healthy diet, I didn't worry. Your baby is now living on your reserves, what matters seems to be (in fact) the food you ate the past months, not what you are eating now. To eat healthy now is mainly important for YOU. Your baby will get what it needs anyway.

 

My advice: stay away from fatty food, make sure you balance out carbs and proteins, and eat what you can keep in and what you like to eat (out of the healthy stuff, of course). I hated most vegetables in my pregnancy. I love veggies normally. Tomatoes would make me want to puke, as did most types of salad. Very strange. So I ate more fruits to make up for it, esp not so sweet fruits (grapefruit, oranges, apples).

 

Take special pregnancy vitamins! There are certain vitamins that you shouldn't take in in bigger amounts (vit. A I believe), so it's advisable to take special vitamins. I still take those since I am breastfeeding.