pregnancy throwing off my habits...

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lbb (Liz)
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Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 4:35 pm

pregnancy throwing off my habits...

Post by lbb (Liz) » Tue Jul 24, 2012 4:44 am

I am so grateful to be newly pregnant.
But with that, comes waves of nausea and strange cravings and some habits I hope to not sustain.
The past few days I have been caught standing in my sister's kitchen eating Ruffles out of the bag. Licking the salt from them.
Today with friends I polished off the box of wheat thins while they all ate salads.
Tonight in the drive-thru at Wendy's with my kids, I scarfed fries driving home.
The common denominator: breaking every No-S rule known to man.

Question: for all you preggies or have-been, or those with just good advice, shall this phase pass?
Or do you let 'er ride...

I'm not necessarily gaining any weight (yet), but fear new (er...old) bad habits...standing, eating out of bags, and eating driving, snacking, and sweets. Yikes.

I need to have a "get real" moment and decide if I REALLY need this or that, or if I'm simply giving this "I'm gonna throw up if I don't have *blank*" a little too much power...
Hmmm.
Liz

tobiasmom
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Location: Texas

Hey

Post by tobiasmom » Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:04 pm

Firat of all, congrats!! The first trimester was pretty bad for me. If I had it to do over again, I would have just allowed maybe a fourth meal. The nausea is hard to deal with for sure!

I am now 20 weeks and am out of excuses. I am sticking with the three-meal structure now. Of course I crave sugar and snacks, but I would crave that if I wasn't pregnant too. Keep in mind....I am overweight with high blood pressure so I REALLY have to watch it!

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Tue Jul 24, 2012 8:12 pm

I think the nausea of early pregnancy is probably an S (sick) day. You do what you have to do. However, it will end. Then you really don't need to do more than eat three meals daily and possibly a snack if you're really very hungry. The baby doesn't want cheesecake or nachos or anything else.

It only takes 300 extra calories daily to grow a baby and you can very easily add those to your meals.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

kccc
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Post by kccc » Wed Jul 25, 2012 12:49 am

My child was born before I found No-S, but I remember the incipient nausea that was kept at bay only by eating the instant I felt it coming.

It does pass.

You might switch to mini- meals for a bit, or call it S-for-sick and let it go.

Just be honest with yourself about how much is necessary eating and how much is choice.

And for bonus points, stock up on things you like that don't make you feel too guilty.

Congrats on your pregnancy, and best wishes!

oolala53
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Post by oolala53 » Wed Jul 25, 2012 1:08 am

Wosnes brings up an important point. Women do not need to "eat for two," or at least two whole human beings. It doesn't take many calories to provide for the baby's needs.

I'm pretty sure not every culture thinks pregnancy is a time to let moderate eating go. It seems like it would be a good time to eat real, well-balanced meals, not a lot of one food type out of the bag. I don't say this to embarrass you but to give some support for not feeling all bets are off.

However, dealing with nausea is a personal choice.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

Nicole in MD
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Post by Nicole in MD » Wed Jul 25, 2012 2:15 am

As a childbirth educator and doula, I will say that the most important thing to help with nausea is making sure it eat enough protein throughout the day and eating no less than every 2 hours. I know that goes against No S but one of the reasons women get nauseous is because their blood sugar drops drastically (hence why we crave carbs)...BUT protein is what will actually help to stabilize your blood sugar and make you feel better. This won't last forever so I would just do what you need to do to get through this phase and then focus on No S in your second trimester when you're feeling better. For now, don't go any longer than 2 hours between meals/snacks and make sure every snack or meal has a healthy protein along with your carbs you're craving :)
Nicole in beautiful Annapolis, MD
Started No S 8/15- 173

Nicole in MD
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Location: Annapolis, MD

Re: Hey

Post by Nicole in MD » Wed Jul 25, 2012 2:19 am

tobiasmom wrote:Firat of all, congrats!! The first trimester was pretty bad for me. If I had it to do over again, I would have just allowed maybe a fourth meal. The nausea is hard to deal with for sure!

I am now 20 weeks and am out of excuses. I am sticking with the three-meal structure now. Of course I crave sugar and snacks, but I would crave that if I wasn't pregnant too. Keep in mind....I am overweight with high blood pressure so I REALLY have to watch it!
If you have high blood pressure, you REALLY need to check out the Brewer Diet for pregnancy! The main tenants is to be sure to eat 80-100 grams of protein a day and salt your food to taste (best if it's sea salt). Just by having his moms do this, Dr Brewer was able to eradicate pre-eclampsia and toxemia from his obstetrics practice over his more than 40 years of being an OB! It does work--I've been teaching childbirth classes for 11 years now and this is the diet I recommend to my couples and I have yet to have a mom with pre-eclampsia!
Nicole in beautiful Annapolis, MD
Started No S 8/15- 173

Nicest of the Damned
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Re: pregnancy throwing off my habits...

Post by Nicest of the Damned » Thu Jul 26, 2012 6:14 pm

lbb (Liz) wrote:I am so grateful to be newly pregnant.
But with that, comes waves of nausea and strange cravings and some habits I hope to not sustain.
The past few days I have been caught standing in my sister's kitchen eating Ruffles out of the bag. Licking the salt from them.
Today with friends I polished off the box of wheat thins while they all ate salads.
Tonight in the drive-thru at Wendy's with my kids, I scarfed fries driving home.
The common denominator: breaking every No-S rule known to man.

Question: for all you preggies or have-been, or those with just good advice, shall this phase pass?
Or do you let 'er ride...
During my pregnancy, I've been glad that I was on No S for a year before I got pregnant. I had already learned from that experience that ignoring or postponing food cravings would not hurt me. I had also learned that cravings do not come because you're deficient in some nutrient, like some people think. If they did, modern Americans would not crave sugar or salt, since we get too much of those things in our diets as it is. But we do crave those things, as we all know. We crave foods that don't provide many nutrients other than sugar and salt.

I got some candied ginger from Trader Joe's to eat when I was feeling nauseous. I count those as medicine, not food, so eating one or two of them does not count as a snack, any more than taking any other medication would count as a snack. But they weren't something I would tend to eat a whole bag of at a sitting- I might have had to do things differently if I had found that I did tend to do that.

I stuck to my mod of not eating out of food containers (except single-serving packages) and of not eating standing up. I gave up my mod of using 9-inch plates on N days, because I was just too hungry from that. You may have to modify things if you really are feeling hungry all the time when you're pregnant.

If you do add more food to your diet, you want it to be at least mostly meal-type food, not snack food or sweets. If you're like me, you know you eat healthier at meals than at snacks or desserts. You want more of that kind of food, not more crackers, chips, and cookies.

Even before my pregnancy, I have tried not to have much snack food or sweet foods in the house. That way, my laziness can help me resist junk food cravings, by saying, "yeah, I want X, but not really enough to get in the car and drive to the store to get it". When I do buy snack foods or sweets, I buy the smallest package I can find, and never have more than one package of the same foods at home at the same time. That way, if I do go totally off the reservation and end up eating the whole container, there's at least some damage control. You're not going to be perfect all the time, because nobody ever is, was, or will be. It's good to reduce the harm that can come from the inevitable slip-ups.

I didn't go to mini-meals, because I'm barely organized enough to plan to have nutritious things for three meals a day, let alone five or six. I know that, if I go to mini-meals, a couple of those mini-meals are going to consist of convenient junk food. Be honest, even brutally honest, with yourself and how any modifications you're planning to make are really likely to affect you. If a modification you make isn't working for you, even if it sounds like it should be working in theory, or even if what's keeping it from working is something you don't particularly like about yourself, be willing to admit that it's not working and try something different. A diet that works only for someone with no character flaws is not going to work for a real person. And you're just going to be frustrated if you try to eliminate all your character flaws at once.

I stopped doing No S in my ninth month, and don't plan to resume it until I've got breastfeeding well under way. I'm still trying to tilt any increases in eating more toward meal-type foods than snack- or dessert-type foods, though.

One thing I've learned during my pregnancy: I can't always keep myself from vomiting, and it's not the end of the world if I do. I can eat something that I crave and that I think "no way will this upset my stomach", and still vomit shortly afterward.

One thing I've done to cope with the vomiting is that I went to a restaurant supply store and got a couple of big plastic sleeves of 32-ounce paper cups. I keep one of these paper cups with me at all times, especially when I'm in the car. That way, if I do vomit, there's something to contain the vomit (I found that those cups are almost always big enough). Better yet, they don't have to be washed afterward- I just throw them away, ideally in an outdoor trash can. It's also a good idea to keep a roll of paper towels in your car. I have decided that I will keep having paper towels in the car after the baby comes, since babies make messes in cars, too.

noni
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Post by noni » Thu Jul 26, 2012 9:41 pm

My sister-in-law told my pregnant daughter-in-law that when she had been nauseous in the morning with her pregnancies, she would sip a small glass of cranberry or apple juice and it helped. My DIL tried it and said it helped her also in the morning, but helped only a little bit when she drank it later in the day when she felt nauseous.

ironchef
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Post by ironchef » Tue Jul 31, 2012 9:41 pm

Congratulations from me too.
oolala53 wrote:Wosnes brings up an important point. Women do not need to "eat for two," or at least two whole human beings. It doesn't take many calories to provide for the baby's needs.
I heard someone describe this as "you're eating for two, but one of you is the size of an avocado" :)
I'm pretty sure not every culture thinks pregnancy is a time to let moderate eating go. It seems like it would be a good time to eat real, well-balanced meals, not a lot of one food type out of the bag.
In fact, some traditional cultures make a point of providing pregnant women with the best whole foods to nourish her and the baby (the choicest parts of an animal, cheese or milks etc).

I had horrid all day nausea in the first tri, but it did settle around the 14 week mark. I wouldn't say I craved things, more that there were only a few things I could stomach. I only just found No-S, so wasn't trying to do anything except eat healthy-ish.

A couple of things that helped:
- I kept healthy versions around - i.e. good pickled veg, rather than salt & vinegar chips, if all I could think of was salt / sour flavor.
- Exercise. I was already active before I got pregnant, so I kept it up. Although it is the last thing you feel like when you are ill, once I got going I found it made me feel better. Obviously follow doctor advice here and stick with exercise you are already fit for.
- A little lemon squeezed into things I couldn't stomach (e.g. water, salad) seemed to help.

One final motivator - after a certain point (not sure how many weeks) the fetus can "taste" what you eat via amniotic fluid (and later via breast milk). So not only does eating real, healthy food provide you both with nutrients, it helps set them up to like healthy foods later.

Nicest of the Damned
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Post by Nicest of the Damned » Wed Aug 01, 2012 1:49 am

ironchef wrote:One final motivator - after a certain point (not sure how many weeks) the fetus can "taste" what you eat via amniotic fluid (and later via breast milk). So not only does eating real, healthy food provide you both with nutrients, it helps set them up to like healthy foods later.
And after he or she is born, where do you think your baby is going to learn eating habits, healthy or otherwise? From watching you and your SO, that's where.

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