Hellobee Boards

my doctor told me that while pregnant I needed to consume about 200 more calories everyday than I normally would pre-pregnancy. Which really isnt that much more, but in the beginning with nausea and all that it was hard to get that extra 200 in.
Lately I TRY to incorporate atleast one pregancy "super food" each day like green leafy veg, eggs, lots of milk, fresh fruit and veggies and suprisingly even popcorn can be good for you while pregnant.

I've struggled with my weight most of my adult life, but was able to settle into a normal bmi weight for the year or so before getting pregnant. I completely assumed that the weight would just pile on as soon as I was limiting my exercise and trying to increase calories with pregnancy. I was so wrong! My metabolism must be totally kicked into high gear, so don't assume it will automatically stay low while pg. I'm eating quite a bit, but struggling to put on the 1 lb per week that I'm supposed to gain with twins. My intake usually looks something like this:

-Bfast: Bowl of cheerios with 2% milk & glass of OJ
or 2 scrambled eggs with spinach and 2 veggie sausage
-Snack: piece of whole fruit or a yogurt
-Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup
or a frozen personal pizza
or a plate of spaghetti with spinach in the sauce
& glass of milk or juice or V8 fusion
-Snack: yogurt and nuts or a sandwich or a bag of salad
-Snack: fruit smoothie
-Dinner: veggie burritos
or black bean burgers with a veggie side
or chicken sandwich with veggie clear-broth soup
-Snack: ice cream (not low fat) or a bowl of cereal

I will say that any aversions you have in the first tri will totally affect how you eat. I had a hard time with veggies and protein in my first tri, and am now finally able to phase them back in. But when you can, fruit and veggies are great, you can eat a lot of them to get nutrients without worrying about calories, healthy plant and animal proteins are good too. And remember, reasonable exercise is also recommended in pregnancy, so that will definitely help you maintain a healthier weight even with increased food.

In the first trimester, all I could eat was popcorn, lime popsicles, and various other breads. Not so healthy. But now that I feel better I'm eating something like this:

1) Banana shake (1 cup milk, 1 frozen banana, 2 Tbs almond butter, splash of vanilla all blended together - so yummy and replaces ice cream for me)
2) 1 1/2 cups tomato soup, & a small salad
3) baked sweet potato fries, a salmon patty, & small dollop of mayo
4) some roasted cauliflower with olive oil
or some fruit and cheese
5) 1 scrambled egg, 1 slice cheese, 2 slices crisp bacon, some sauteed peppers and onions in a whole wheat pita
6) a small piece of dark chocolate
or a small mug of hot cocoa

I try to eat 5 or 6 small meals a day and tend to eat breakfast for dinner, or dinner for breakfast. If I'm feeling especially hungry one day, I'll just eat more fruit, some yogurt or nuts, or maybe a baked potato with sour cream.

Depending on how you feel in your first trimester and how sick you are - all bets are off for your first trimester. All I could stand to eat were carbs, carbs, carbs - and even then I couldn't keep most of it down. Prior to pregnancy, I ate salads almost every night and fish/seafood several nights a week, and I couldn't even think about fish until I was over 10 weeks, so, be open to listening to your body and not feeling bad if you are not sticking to a healthy schedule right away. With that said (lol), here's sort of what I'll typically eat now:

breakfast: bagel and cream cheese and fruit, or hot sandwich (I like the morningstar brand biscuit with veggie sausage, egg and cheese), or hot bagel sandwich from somewhere like Dunkin' Donuts.

snack: fruit, full fat yogurt, cheese sticks, etc.

lunch: sub sandwich, BLT, leftover pasta, quinoa salad, greens salad with tuna or chicken salad, frozen meal: Amy's or Ethnic Gourmet, etc.

snack: cheese sticks, yogurt, cereal, fruit (not all - usually 1 or 2 of these)

Dinner: salad, large serving of veggies, small lean protein serving (usually fish/seafood). Pasta with salad, tacos, etc. (we eat a very "clean" diet - no processed foods, tacos are lean protein not ground beef, with onions and avocado, not cheese and sour cream, etc.). Quinoa/farro/other whole grains. Salads are dressed in olive oil + balsamic or lemon juice, not heavy dressing - try to use healthy greens like spinach, arugula, bok choy, other darker greens instead of just blah lettuce.

Dessert: chocolate ice cream with bananas! (Favorite throughout pregnancy!). Other icecream with some fresh fruit.

Whew - I'm in my first tri and while I don't have food aversions, I'm super nauseated and exhausted to make healthy food. I grab what is easiest.

Thanks for sharing all of these ideas, I'm going to steal many of them and incorporate them into my meal planning as soon as my appetite is back (hopefully in a couple of weeks).

@tequiero21: add a drizzle of honey to the toast and peanut butter... yumm!!!

I have been trying to accept the scale creeping up a bit in the past couple weeks! It is tough though. But here is my day yesterday as an example...

Breakfast #1 (when I woke up at 5:30am and couldn't fall asleep because I was so hungry) - Paleo "hot cereal", which is ground up nuts and pecans mixed with coconut milk and chopped apples

Breakfast #2 - Sweet potatoes with shredded beef

Lunch - Roasted red pepper and tomato soup and a spinach, strawberry and bacon salad

Snack #1 - Bananas with almond butter

Dinner - Taco soup topped with 1/2 avocado

Snack #2 - popcorn with raisins and pumpkin seeds