Paleo Pregnancy ... kinda

Like a good little crossfitter, my diet for the last year or so has primarily been zone and/or paleo.  I followed the zone diet very strictly for a couple months, but I found that things like weighing my lunch meat, counting almonds, and mathematically planning every meal seemed a little too obsessive for me.  So I shifted my focus to paleo but would still try and get all three macronutrients (carbs, protein, fat) in each meal, without worrying much about the proportions.  With paleo, I saw a ton of improvement in my workouts and overall energy levels.  What I've found about the paleo diet is that by cutting grains and processed foods out of my diet, I hardly ever crave those foods ... until this whole pregnancy thing.



YUM!

I'm still mostly eating a paleo diet (thanks in large part to my wonderful mother who makes her spoiled children and my husband dinner many nights of the week).  And I haven't had too many weird cravings or food aversions, although sometimes the thought of eating meat, especially bacon, makes me want to gag - and I LOVE bacon! - and garlic bread has sounded amazing for about the last month!  (I haven't had any...yet.)  Being pregnant hasn't changed my will power to eat healthy, but I'm not used to having to tap into that will power ALL the time.  So I have given in and used pregnancy as an excuse to eat like crap a couple times.  When we returned from the Heart of America competition, I forced my family to order pizza and cheese bread ... it was almost like garlic bread :)  And when my sister and her boyfriend invited us to a food and wine expo last weekend, I got my $20 worth of chips and dip, bread, and popcorn while everyone else got to partake in the fun stuff. 

I've been pretty lucky with the pregnancy symptoms and haven't experienced much morning sickness at all (I'm 12 1/2 weeks, so hopefully almost in the clear on that one!)  But if I get too hungry, I start to feel queasy so throughout the day I don't go more than a few hours without eating something.  Pregnancy also hasn't changed the fact that I feel SO much better when I eat paleo, even though my brain is often telling me I want something else.

I think it's unfortunate that many women use pregnancy as an excuse to indulge and eat whatever they want.  I recently read Jenny McCarthy's book Belly Laughs (a gift from a friend - I didn't buy it), and got pretty upset about her advice on the subject ... basically, this is the only time in your life you get to not care what you look like and gain weight, so go all out.  I understand the urge, maybe even the need, to have some cheat meals during pregnancy.  But sorry, Jenny, eating for two should mean putting the baby's nutritional needs above your own desire to stuff your face with fast food and brownies every night because you're going to get "fat" anyway.  As I see it, this is the time I need to be more concerned than ever about eating a healthy diet and getting all of the nutrients that I, and especially the baby, need.  (Remind me this when Thanksgiving rolls around next week ...)

192 days left :)