Friday, November 4, 2011

eating healthy for a healthy baby

I'm 9 weeks pregnant today. Yay! Pretty soon, I'll be 10 weeks, which, to me, feels like the first big milestone in pregnancy. If you tell someone that you're ten weeks, they will no longer stare at your gut bloated belly with a mixture of surprise and disdain on their face.
Speaking of bloated bellies. I'm making it my mission to eat much healthier this pregnancy than the last. You see, the last one started off well. In fact, I was even eating mostly organic in the beginning... but then we found out about Elliot's condition, and it all flew out the window.

Pretzel belly!
Eating a snack while watching TV with my feet up. Basically, all I did every day while I was on bed rest.

I'm an emotional eater in the first place, and then my OB kept telling me how small the baby was, that I needed to eat more so the baby needed to get bigger and stronger. I really took that to heart. In fact, I basically ate anything and everything in sight. I gave in to all of my cravings- no matter how processed, greasy, or sweet they happened to be.
Stuffing my face + laying around all day on bedrest = weight gain.
In the end, I gained around 45 pounds.

36 weeks
36 weeks pregnant with Elliot.

Luckily, I lost the weight easily and quickly, but I know I might not be so lucky this time around. Now that I'm back to my starting pre-pregnancy weight, I'm trying to do it right this time. I want to eat healthy both for myself and the baby. I keep reminding myself that whatever I eat, the baby eats. He or she deserves nutritious, delicious, healthy food! Sure, I'll still give in to the occasional craving... I'm not superwoman, after all! Overall, though, I hope to eat plenty of:

lean meat:

salad:

fruit:

vegetables:

yogurt:

and whole grains:

7 comments:

  1. i really think our bodies are going to gain what they need to gain.

    with my first pregnancy, i was like you, i started out good, but then the last 6 weeks i quit my job and ate and ate and ate. i ended up going from 128-188 pounds. yikes!

    with my second pregnancy i was SUCH a healthy eater. i watched my calories and followed guide diets of what a pregnant woman should eat, and i still gained 50 pounds, going from 123-173.

    so yeah, i say definitely choose the healthy route, but i'm not sure if it directly goes hand in hand with 100% of the weight gain.

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  2. And might I suggest lots of good fats: wild salmon, fish oil supplements, nuts, avocado. Studies have shown big benefits for baby's developing brain.

    I agree with Deanna, I am an extremely healthy eater when pregnant, but I still gained 40 lbs with the first two and 50 lbs with each of the last three.

    I'm still so excited for you!

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  3. I just wanted to say that the bowl of fruit looks so incredibly delicious!

    and good luck on your healthy eating! <3

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  4. Don't feel too bad, I gained like 40lbs during pregnancy too, but I kind of needed it in a sense. I was only like 95lbs before I got pregnant although I did snack a lot too lol. Good luck with it this time around though!!

    Petit Monstree

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  5. Cutie bump that u had with Elliot !

    I'm so rubbish with eating healthy, I'm a junk eater to be honest :s

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  6. What an awesome thing your doing for your little one! I ate super healthy while pregnant with Rylin & still gained like crazy but I know she got a lot of nutrients from my healthy choices. I actually craved Veggies & had food aversions towards greasy things. I still to this day can not eat Bacon by itself! Lol I loved looking up what kind of vitamins where in the fruits & Veggies I was eating as kind of a motivater to keep it up!

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  7. Good post! I must eat so much healthier this pregnancy. i went from 130 to 180 with Lo! But so far I'm doing good and right on track :)

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