Friday 12 July 2013

Pregnancy eating review

I am not far off having my little girl now, almost certainly in the next 2 weeks she will be here. I thought that I would look back at my 'diet' since being pregnant and see what I have learnt from it.

Initially I was full of determination that I could carry on with my healthy eating throughout my pregnancy. However I learnt that plans don't always go the way you think they are going to and that if I'm given any kind of 'excuse' then I will take it.

I was ok for the first few weeks and then I couldn't eat much at all for several weeks due to nausea which was hideous. I barely ate anything and lost weight as a result. Then came Christmas and the new year and my nausea subsided. I think that I felt like I had to make up for not eating or something. I ate.....and I ate....then....I ate a bit more - whoops. I remember having cravings for ice cream and coleslaw (not together I hasten to add). I was eating a massive bowl of ice cream most nights and then I was pretty much eating what I liked the rest of the time. Looking back at my weigh-ins from this year you can really see that. From March - April I put on 15lb in just 4 weeks. It just goes to show quite how easy it can be to let the weight pile back on. I think it was after that weigh-in in April that I started to realise that I could end up putting on 3 or 4 stones in this pregnancy if I continued on this destructive path. I think I then had a couple of better days but I still wasn't being brilliant. I put on about 1lb a week until I had my glucose tolerance test. Up to that point I had put on almost 2.5 stones and I could see that with still over 2 months to go I was heading completely in the wrong direction. Then I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes in mid-June and that was a real turning point. I was given a medical reason for me to evaluate my diet. I would do anything for my children and I knew that I had to control my sugars as best as I could for the health of my unborn daughter (if that's not a bloody good enough reason I don't know what is). So I was given lots of info about blood sugars and what can cause them to go high and what foods are best. After 4 weeks of trial and error I managed to find a 'diet' that works for me. I am having to eat very low carbohydrates in order to control my blood sugars. Since 15th June I have only had 4 out of 112 readings that have been higher than the limit. Of those 4 high readings they were all due to trying something new or having been out for a meal. I have had to dramatically overhaul my choice in foods to achieve this. Despite making more informed choices about my foods I have had to take medication to control my sugars in the morning only. But at least I haven't had to resort to injecting insulin at any point so far. Since I started my diabetic diet I have actually lost 6lbs. At the moment I have put on exactly 2 stones from the very start of my pregnancy.

The diet I have had to follow, although completely necessary, has been boring and unimaginative to say the least. I worked out quite quickly that the best way to control my sugars in the morning was to have a cooked breakfast. Now at the start (and any other day previously) I'd have been overjoyed at the thought of having a cooked brekkie everyday, but to be honest I'm quite bored now. There's only so much egg and bacon a girl can eat. I'm really looking forward to having cereal or toast again once Squeak is born. Lunches and dinners have been particularly difficult recently due to the hot weather. I don't like eating a hot meal in hot weather unless I have salad with it. Before this little heat wave we're experiencing in the UK, I was having soups at lunch to try to give myself some sort of variety, but now it's pretty much protein and salad for both lunch and dinner. It's actually quite difficult to come up with new ideas of jazzing up meat and salad. I did discover Ryvitas which I always thought weren't that nice. But when your diet is pretty much meat and salad, something salty and crunchy like Ryvitas are a god send. But the whole way through I have just telling myself that it's not forever and that it's good for Squeak.

I had a growth ultrasound scan yesterday to see how little Squeaky is developing and in 4 weeks she put on approx. 1lb 12oz and was measuring a pretty average weight for her gestation. That alone made every piece of lettuce, tomato and cucumber worth while. I know that it has been dull and repetitive, but I have managed to control my sugars enough so that my baby girl's growth wasn't affected. I know that I have less than 14 days until she's here and I can totally cope with that.

The down side for me with this very restricted diet is that I have had to extremely limit a food group - carbs. Those that have followed me for a while will know that I don't like to cut out any foods as I believe that you (well me at least), will start to crave those foods and give into temptation. What I have found in the last few weeks is a major craving for sweet foods. I've wanted things that I'd never normally think about such as doughnuts, flapjacks, cake etc. I have however been able to resist so far. The moment I deliver Squeak though I do not have to check my blood sugars and do not have to watch what I eat due to diabetes. So I have to admit to having packed a Kit-Kat Chunky in my hospital bag for after she's born.

The plan at the moment for after she's born, is to have a few weeks grace whilst we all adjust to life as a family of 4. I know that I will indulge in that time however I would like to hope that after 3 or 4 weeks that I will be able to get back to eating as healthily as I did before I fell pregnant. I would then like to lose weight gained during my pregnancy and a little bit more as well as work on my fitness.

So for now I would like to thank you for following me on my bumpy pregnancy journey (haha excuse the completely unintended pun). I aim to weigh-in on Sundays still so if you see a dramatic weigh loss one week it's because I've had little Squeak. I will probably not post other than weigh-ins for a while, but rest assured......I will be back.

No comments:

Post a Comment