Last time I checked in about my pregnancy I was talking about how I felt that I had gained too much weight at my last doctor’s appt. I had decided to take a look at what I have been eating and how I have been exercising and seeing what I should change. Since I haven’t been feeling very well it has been harder than with my first pregnancy. I still have morning sickness and my body is just sore all the time. I have still been exercising the same as before but I did change some things that I was eating.
Last month I had been chowing on many empty carbs for my snacks. I was buying cereals for my daughter that we wouldn’t usually have in our home. What happened was she didn’t really care for them and so I ended up eating them. I remember the same thing happened to me when I was a freshman in college and I gained the “freshman 15”. My roommate’s family belonged to Sam’s club and so she would have these huge boxes of cereal and cookies in our dorm room. She wouldn’t eat them so guess who did? I am like many of you, if it is in the house I eat it. So I know that I can’t have things in the house that will be traps for me. We don’t have food in our house just because. It has to be food that we are going to eat at a meal or a healthy snack otherwise it just can’t be here.
So, I went to the doctor yesterday and found out that I was back on track with my weight. I was surprised. I shouldn’t be because I just followed my plan. I stopped eating the empty carbs and replaced my snacks with snacks that were higher in protein. I chose snacks such as trail mix, that I assemble myself, peanut butter with fruit, hummus with veggies etc. You can check out the healthy snack page for more ideas and recipes.
A little off on another tangent but I common problem with being pregnant is constipation. Not being able to escape this I have also had to change my snacks a bit to add more fiber. I eat a bowl of oat bran for my afternoon snack now. I never count calories but I did look at the calorie count for this entry. I was amazed that a serving was only 80 calories! I add a little whole milk and a little honey to it. A serving has 5 grams of fiber and is very filling. I feel much more satisfied than when I was eating two bowls of honey nut o’s for a snack before.
The other thing that I did was to really listen to my body. The time when I overeat the most is when we go visit my parents. My parents like to cook and sometime their meals contain bread and pasta that I am an addict for. They also make so much and leave it on the table. So when I finish I need to stop and breathe and ask myself do I really need seconds? Usually I don’t.
It is amazing how these simple things really make a difference. Please take note I really didn’t eat less, except at mom and dad’s. I ate the same amount, however what I did was that I changed my snacks. I don’t feel deprived at all.
Please note that I am not saying when you are pregnant not to gain weight or that you should be overly concerned about your personal weight. I happened to think that I gained too much weight in one month for myself so I wanted to change that. Just be healthy and take good care of yourself and your baby and try to relax as much as possible. I just want to point out how simply changing what you eat can make a big difference on your body.