Counting Calories while Pregnant?

We’re still on cloud 9. A son! What a privilege it is to be carrying a son. It makes all my efforts come to perspective, they become more personal. I’m eating well and working out so my son can have a great start in life. How exciting!
I’m a healthy pregnant woman carrying a son who is much, much loved. We spread the news to friends and family and I also went ahead and worked on my registry some more. I was all excited about being pregnant and forgot I didn’t know the gender, so I had to stop my registry half way through.
THANK GOD my health is GREAT. This previous years of preparation for pregnancy have given me a great start. I know to exercise most days of the week, I know what to eat and what brings the best nutrition to me and the baby, we know how much water to drink and we know to rest. All we need to do is to practice. The past month hasn’t been perfect. A month ago I went to the gym only twice. The following week the same happened so I decided to increase my number of visits to the gym. I went 3 times last week and this week so far I’ve been there 3 times. I told my husband my challenge is to go tomorrow and if I go Friday, that would be HUGE because I haven’t worked out a whole week for a while. I’m excited. My prayer has been that the Lord will bless me to continue to go to the gym as long as I can and after the birth of my son, that I may go 3 times a week at least. They have child care at the gym (what a perk!) and I’ve been talking to my husband about going early in the morning before he leaves for work so I can get an early start. I enjoy working out in the am when I can, lately I’ve been getting there in unpredictable hours but the goal is to meet the 4 times a week goal of working out.
I’ve been going to different Christmas parties. I did well on the first one (I ate before I got there) but the second one sucked. I was really hungry when I got there (I failed to eat before I went) and I just ate a lot more than I was supposed to. I don’t like to eat large dinner because it’s hard to sleep with a full stomach. It seems that at this point, I’m hungry when I wake up, around lunch time and around 3 or 4 p.m. after that, I’m okay to just snack very lightly.
I’ve been paying attention to hunger signals from my body during this pregnancy. Of course I come to work armed with snacks and lunch for the whole day, even a light dinner if I have that need. The thing I quit doing is counting everything like a crazy chick.
I heard of people who say they want to count things while they’re pregnant but I just don’t have the time. The counting I did before was temporary, I don’t plan to spend my whole life counting portions and calories, I see it as bondage. I believe in counting and watching til I learn to walk in self-control. I don’t believe in perfection when it comes to eating but I also don’t believe in being bound to calorie counting.
I have more to say but I’m gonna have to stop here. Talk to you later on this week.

Goals for the week:

{1} Go to the gym at least 4 times (1 out of 4 to go!);

{2} Snack before going to holiday parties;

{3} Drink at least 32 oz of H2O per day;

{4} Treat myself to a mani or/and pedi;

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Nutritionally Speaking

Summer is almost here. It might as well start in the next two weeks. I had my first cookout – I’ll give you details on that later. My company is filling up with summer workers and interns. Once I see them, I know summer is here and it’s going nowhere.

I love the summer. I want this summer to be my best one yet. Last summer I was so busy I could hardly breathe. This summer I can not only breathe but I can choose what in the world I can do on my down time. Isn’t that great? We are working hard, traveling and doing more fun stuff. I’ll keep you updated.

The Cookout last Sunday was awesome. I didn’t take any pictures this time. We had plenty food. There were no meatless hamburgers or hot dogs so I moved on to the salads. We had four lines going on, so I browsed both tables and got in the lines between them. I filled up my plate with salads. I looked for salads with legumes (I needed protein!). I avoided salads full of mayo. I avoided the stuff that you eat all the time (baked beans, slaw, some potato salads, etc). I went for salads full of legumes that were not drowning in cheesy or thick sauces. I did have a croissant (haven’t had those in ages!). I did drink water. As I predicted, the dessert competition was fabulous. I kept my back to it. With God’s help I did not eat any dessert. It was hard but with God’s help I was able to do it. How? I made a decision last week I wasn’t going to eat it because nutritionally, I didn’t need it. I kept my back to the darn table with all the desserts. I talked to friends, enjoyed the fellowship and when it was time to leave, 99 percent of the desserts were gone. When I got home, I still wanted to eat something sweet, so I drank some orange juice I squeezed the day before. The sweetness of the oranges helped to quench that craving.

I am learning that stopping eating sweets is not enough when you still have cravings. I waited 1 hour and my craving did not leave. What should I have done? Ignore it? When I made the decision to be a vegetarian, I substituted meat for other sources of protein. When I made the decision to stop eating desserts, what in the world will take place of sweets?

Sister girl has some research to do. I also thought that I need to walk around with dry fruits, a piece of fruit and I need to work on making fruit based desserts (like fruit with nuts and yogurt for example) and taking them with me when I’m invited for dinners.

Yeah, it’s inconvenient. It’s annoying at times but when I made the decision to have a healthier life, I left being in the crowd and I joined the few who are looking for a healthier life because most things they eat make sense nutritionally.

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The 12 Types of Emotional Hunger

The 12 Types of Emotional Hunger
Type 1. Dulling The Pain With The Food Trance
If you get really hungry when you feel angry, depressed, anxious, bored, or lonely, you suffer from Type 1 emotional hunger, and you use food to dull the pain that these emotions cause.
Type 2. Sticks And Stones May Break Your Bones, But Cake Won't Heal What Hurts You
If you react by getting hungry when others talk down to you, take advantage of you, belittle you or take you for granted, then you suffer from Type 2 emotional hunger. You eat to avoid confrontation.
Type 3. A Full Heart Fills An Empty Belly
If you crave food when you have tension in your close relationships, you suffer from Type 3 emotional hunger. You eat to avoid feeling the pain of rejection or anger.
Type 4. Hate Yourself, Love Your Munchies
If you tend to become hypercritical of yourself, if you label yourself "stupid,” "lazy," or "a loser," you have Type 4 emotional hunger. You eat to "stuff down" self-hatred.
Type 5. Secret Desires Have No Calories
If your hunger gets activated because your intimate relationships don't satisfy some basic need like trust or security, you suffer from Type 5 emotional hunger and you use food to try to fill the gap.
Type 6. Forty Million Big Gulps And The Well Is Still Empty
If you eat to make up for the deprivation you experienced as a child, you have Type 6 Emotional Eating.
Type 7. It's My Pastry, and I'll Eat If I Want To
If you eat to assert your independence because you don't want anyone telling you what to do, you have Type 7 emotional hunger.
Type 8. I Can't Come To Work Today--I'm Eating
If your appetite kicks in when you're faced with new challenges--if you use food to avoid rising to the test, or to insulate yourself from the fear of failure--you have Type 8 emotional hunger.
Type 9. Aroused by Aromas, Not by the Chef
If you stuff your face in order to avoid your sexuality-either to stay overweight so that nobody desires you or to hide from intimate encounters--you suffer from Type 9 Emotional Eating.
Type 10. I'll Beat You With this Eclair
Emotional eaters often eat to pay back those who have hurt them, often in the distant past. They use their bodies as battlegrounds for working out old resentments.
Type 11. Peter Pan and the Peanut Butter Cookie
If you eat to make yourself feel carefree, like a child, you have Type 11 emotional hunger. You eat to keep yourself from facing the challenges of growing up.
Type 12. That Stranger In Lycra Wearing Your Face
If you overeat because you fear getting thin, either consciously or unconsciously, you have Type 12 emotional hunger.
Source: Latina Style

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