How Things Change in Five Months

Honing in on 6 months. Pregnancy so far has been nothing like I expected. I read my first post on this blog and all I can do is grimace at how charmingly naive I was. For one thing, I'm a nutrition major who loves clean eating. Before pregnancy I had a natural aversion to even eating a cookie. Despite the yummy taste I couldn't imagine putting junk into my body most of the time.  After I found out I was pregnant I ate even more perfectly, not wanting my baby to be exposed to bad nutrition and chemically preserved foods.

And then came morning sickness...

Suddenly, I went from a girl who turned her nose up at whole wheat bread to a pathetically bedridden invalid who could only get down ramen noodles and Jack in the Box tacos. I gained nine pounds by 10 weeks. Try as I did, I couldn't even stay in the gym for the vomiting afterwards. Even sipping water was unbearable. And this went on until 15 weeks. By then, I was out of shape and generally just weak from both morning sickness and the two colds I'd already caught. I felt like I failure. It's taken a few weeks to work through those feelings and forgive myself. My diet is about 50/50 now as far as clean eating and indulgences go. I've gotten another sinus infection since then and, apparently, pregnancy has taken my dairy and wheat problems from annoying sensitivities to full blown intolerances (just another little perk) but it helps to keep me away from unhealthy food.
I'm back in the gym and have recently come to realize that my prego body is not nearly as fragile as I think it is and I've been able to keep a lot of my lifting weights the same. Here's to a (hopefully) healthy last 20 weeks.

Pearfectly.....Pregnant?

It usually happens that, when I start something for one reason, it changes into something else.  I started this blog more as a novelty than anything.  I have had a life changing three years as far as my fitness level goes and I wasn't happy just talking about it on Facebook and Instagram.  So I started this blog, as an experiment to gain comfort working in the public eye before I complete my RD courses and internship.

And then, about two weeks ago....

                      

Yep...pregnant!

So, naturally, the nature of this blog has changed. I couldn't be happier that I was already in shape before we got pregnant.  This means that I can continue my normal workouts with some exceptions.  I have always lifted heavy ( I've never believed that weights would make me "manly." If it were that easy, body building wouldn't be competitive.) Obviously, I have been laying off the really heavy stuff, switching to lighter weights with a lot more reps which, incidentally, is a little boring.  But we do what we must.

Diet

Nutritionally, being pregnant has been a miracle.  I haven't had any cravings (fingers crossed) and, if anything, my normal 80% clean diet has boosted to about 95% clean.  I have this overwhelming disgust when I approach junk food. I think about the fact that it's not just me eating it anymore.

Weight has stayed consistent, I am at 127lb.  I worry about gaining too much or too little weight, but all of that will be sorted out on the 22nd when Harvey and I go for our first ultrasound!  Specifically, I'm eating what I always eat:

Chicken
Obviously very lean.  I usually by the unfrozen chicken breasts in the meat section vs the frozen that have a lot of added chicken broth.
   
Salmon
Less than 12 oz a week now to lessen risk of mercury intake

Turkey burger
And lots of it (my favorite)

Deer Meat
 Love it! It's so lean! I use it in everything from tacos to spaghetti to chili.

Sweet Potatoes 
I have always eaten A LOT of these since I don't eat many grains apart from oatmeal. Which brings me to...

Oatmeal
I eat steel-cut, Irish oatmeal

Berries 
Blueberries especially. But also blackberries and strawberries.

Vegetables
I eat pretty much every vegetable available to me except green peas. My favorites:
Broccoli, Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts, Spinach, Kale, Peppers....pretty much anything green, red, or yellow.

I really don't eat bread except for the occasional slice of Ezekiel.  Except for rare occasions (were talking maybe once every three months, usually because I'm somewhere where I can't get good food) I do not eat white bread, fried foods, prepackaged baked goods, or white sugar.  I use raw honey to sweeten just about everything.  I keep a little raw sugar on hand for cooking (and yes, sometimes I like it in my oatmeal :)

I've also been juicing a lot.  I don't like plain oranges very much so I've been trying to get my Vitamin C.  I usually make the same juice everyday

                                                    

Super Juice Recipe

 1 large Orange--------------Vitamin C

1 Apple---------------------Vitamin C, Vitamin A

Parsley----------------------Most detoxifying green

Cilantro------Binds with heavy metals like mercury

1-2 Carrot--------------------Vitamin A

So, right now I am 6 weeks pregnant.
Food cravings: steak
Food aversions: pretty much anything fried, baked with flour, or super sweet


                                              

Happy Trails,
Bree