By Larissa Beeby
If you follow my Facebook page and blog you will notice I have been pretty quiet recently and for a very good reason. For the past few months I have been growing a little one. We are now past the half way mark, and I thought it was about time I wrote this blog I started (well I wrote a title for) a few months ago.
Right from the moment we found out we were pregnant I felt the intense tiredness and all day nausea. I was ‘lucky’ in the sense that my nausea didn’t come on until about 30min-1hr after getting up, that I still felt like exercise. Well, I should really rephrase this as movement as I felt sick if I got my heart rate up, so out went high intensity cardio and heavy weights and in came more yoga, dog walks and low key weights!
Out went my usual weekday breakfasts of smoothies, bircher or chia puddings too. Instead I went with what I felt like, so I had a week or two of omelettes with lots of veggies and cheese, and homemade banana and cacao granola with heaps of unsweetened greek yoghurt and raspberries seemed to go down a treat (you may be already sensing a theme of dairy cravings here!).
I also found I had to eat regularly, so would prep myself for the day with lots of easy snacks with my go-to being: crunchy and sour green apples, natural nuts, raw veggies (but only in the morning!), homemade seed crackers with butter and vegemite (OK anything with butter and vegemite went down a treat, I even brought back my old childhood favourite of weetbix with butter and vegemite).
I was ready to eat my lunch by 11am most days, and I found leftovers from the previous dinner was the best lunch for me or if I wanted something simple it was toast with avocado or peanut butter.
By mid afternoon I was normally starting to feel average again as by this stage I was working, so in the weekends I found sleep the best answer but during the week peppermint tea and a snack would keep me going. I found as the night progressed, dinner was often a struggle, I just physically couldn’t finish large meals so found eating little and often the best.
Even with my best nutritionist wisdom I often found I just couldn’t eat all the veggies on my plate, which for me was weird. But I didn’t stress about it. I knew I was filling my body with the goodness it needed at the times I could. I was eating a lot more fruit than I normally would and I was snacking on raw veggies everyday. So when I needed chicken chips I had them. I just tried to eat a small portion and not the whole bag.
Overall I found my diet didn’t change too much (apart from the increase in chicken chips), I added in a few extra snacks but generally stuck with the options mentioned above and there definitely was an increase in carbohydrates. Anything that included bread, potatoes, rice and pasta I wanted.
While I don’t normally supplement my diet, during this time I have also been taking Elevit with Iodine and a fish oil supplement as I completely went off all fish. Along with my usual probiotics.
Larissa Beeby: Director Nutrition By Design/ NZ Registered Nutritionist. If you would like help with meal ideas and plans , contact NZ Registered Nutritionist Larissa Beeby for your own nutrition consultation either online, in person or over the phone.
