I get asked quite frequently if I'm careful with what I eat or it is sometimes assumed I lead a very healthy lifestyle based on the appearance of lack of excess fat I have put on during this pregnancy. Similar to how I was before I was pregnant, I just try to eat good things and be active in relation to how much energy I have. To me this means less processed carbs like white bread, pasta, fried foods and excess butter. I didn't see the point that just because I was pregnant, I now needed to indulge on bad foods. With that being said, if I feel like a pluto pup by god I will have one. I don't deprive myself of anything especially being pregnant but I do choose the good things to nourish little bub over the bad.
Oh, and my mother gave me great genes.
This isn't going to be a rant about good nutrition, exercise or what you should or shouldn't eat during pregnancy. I really don't care about the issue all that much and each to their own but I did want to share my own pregnancy diet experience as it seems to be somewhat of a curiosity.
Breakfast
During the week I tend to stick to transportable meals or ones that I can prepare the night before and serve easily at my desk at work at about 8am. This means either a mixed fruit platter, some omelette/scrambled eggs (Just the ingredients; I mix and microwave at work), or asparagus on toast with cheese and ham. Normally a huge milky decaf coffee will accompany whatever I have. Breakfast normally fills me for two hours before I'm sniffing around for a little snack.
Lunch
Like breakfast, I pre-make my lunch the night before so I'm not rushing around in the morning. A typical lunch during the week would be a salad or left overs from dinner the night before.
My salads are full of protein and good carbs. This means chicken breast dry fried in spices or marinades with a plethora of various veggies or another type of meat like tuna, beef or turkey.
If I am lazy, then its McDonalds! Hold up... it's not what you're thinking. McDonalds actually serve an extremely healthy grilled chicken salad! Its called the warm chicken salad with grilled chicken and sesame soy dressing. Salad in Question's nutrition information found
here.
Dinner
Because I have more time of an evening to prepare, I like to mix it up with dinner. Its usually some form of meat protein (steak, chicken, fish or pork) with either a bunch of veggies or salad done with a prawn sauce or home made sweet potato fries. I do love to make my own homemade pizzas, soup or stir fries but with pregnancy, it's really whatever I can stomach and whatever I feel like. So vegemite toast wins a lot too.
Snacks
Normally I would have a morning snack and an afternoon snack. Sometimes all I will do is snack, but pending morning sickness, I like to have something about 10:30am then something again at about 2:30pm. I like to think my snacks are primarily healthy when I have things like rice crackers, a piece of fruit or a little zip lock bag of cereal like Unlcle Toby's 'Plus' range, but a lot of the time its a muffin, a cookie or a piece of cake with a decaf tea in the morning and I allow myself a small cup of caffeine-filled coffee of an afternoon. I don't bother with caffeine on the weekends because I'll just nap instead.
Cravings & Aversions
I haven't had any outrageous or weird cravings but there have been a few things that have stood out to me.
During my first trimester all I wanted was tuna. Tuna, mayo, pickles and sweet chilli sauce with lots of white pepper. At least once a day. I couldn't however, eat any beef or pork products. Even the smell of them would turn me off.
The second trimester brought back the joy of steaks but funnily enough, I have not touched tuna since about week 14. Also, before I knew my iron was low, I went an entire week of just enormous steaks for breakfast lunch and dinner. I'm good now.
Third trimester I call my chicken trimester. Chicken Salads, chicken stir fries, chicken soups, chicken omelettes; chicken stuffed with chicken if I could.
I hope this has quenched some of your questions but if you have any more or if you would like any recipes of any of the meals mentioned above, just let me know!
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