adjustments

When I went on a hard core diet in 2006, I ingrained a few things into my diet that I'm slowly having to give up with this pregnancy. For example, I stopped eating cheese, quit drinking milk except for in my cereal (but I always measured it until recently--1/2 cup--no more, no less), and I wouldn't eat after 8 pm.  Being pregnant has completely forced me to stop living by my "rules" and listen to what I need.  One way to get all my vitamins is to drink two glasses of milk.  This was super exciting to me because milk has been the hardest thing to do without since I love it so much.

But the biggest thing is letting myself eat at 9 pm, 10 pm, or even in the middle of the night.  Being nauseous, the only cure has been to eat.  Kinda doesn't make any sense, right?  Well I'm figuring out that when my stomach is empty, the nausea hits, and hits hard.  Not that I veg out and just eat all the times, but I pick sensible choices and eat just enough to give me a full feeling.  But it still took some getting used to after not eating so late for 5 years!

Another adjustment is drinking so much dang water and cutting out sodas and coffee.  They say that a certain amount of caffeine is "OK,"  but certain foods and desserts in everyday life have caffeine as it is, so it's easier for me just to cut out the obvious sources that I can do without.  Plus, who has time to keep up with your caffeine count among all the other things you're doing? I like water and all, and always seem to have a water bottle in my hand--but I'm already counting down the day when I can have a big ole caffeinated, aspartame-filled diet coke.  Speaking of aspartame, that's another thing!  I lived by artificial sweeteners instead of sugar since dieting, so grabbing a bit of sugar instead of splenda to sweeten my oatmeal or strawberries has been another big adjustment.

I feel like I could go on and on, but all these things kind of took me by surprise when figuring out my new diet while being pregnant.  Thankfully, it's pretty easy to make good decisions knowing that I have life growing inside of me.  I know pregnant people get the stigmas of eating of ice-cream and pickles all day, but I've never felt more compelled to eat healthier in all my life.

Hopefully, I won't get any crazy cravings, but for now, I'd love just to be able to think of eating without having my stomach sink a little bit.  :)  Come on 2nd trimester!!