Eating for Two?

Pregnancy is a funny old time. Growing a new life inside you is an amazing thing, but all those hormones certainly can have strange effects on your body, and on your appetite. There is so much information out there about eating in pregnancy, here’s my input 😉

For some people those initial 12 weeks are ones of not eating much, not keeping much down and  feeling quite unwell. For others it is a time of craving carbohydrates to stave off the nausea. I was one of the carbohydrate types and had to nibble frequently on dry crackers and ricecakes.

Then there are the food cravings and food aversions. Personally I’ve always been disappointed with not having any real food cravings, at least none that bad that I’ve had to send the hubby out to buy things for me. I have definitely fancied different things to normal, more fruity drinks and citrus flavours…. and in both my pregnancies I have gone off fish. In fact even watching fish being cooked on the TV has  made me feel slightly ill.

The statement that always gets to me is the “eating for 2”. So many people have said to me that now I’m pregnant I get to eat for 2. Well I’m sorry to say but Nope, it’s a myth. If you eat for two you will most definitely put on far more weight than you need to and will then have the hard job of losing it post-baby. So how much can you eat?

For the first and second trimester of pregnancy you should just stick to your normal calorie intake but in the third trimester your requirements increase by 2-300kcals per day. Now that may sound like a lot but it really isn’t. Plus those extra calories aren’t meant to be cake calories 😉

Think about it being

• an small extra bowl of cereal with milk
• 2 slices of toast with low fat soft cheese
• a handful of nuts and dried fruit
• a yoghurt topped with a chopped banana and a sprinkle of seeds

Try and keep your eating as healthy as you can, think of all that nutrition needed to help baby grow, although a few extra treats can bee good too!