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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookI have been lurking around goneraw for awhile now and was doing awesome for many months switching to raw. Chronic fatigue went away, my eczema finally was under control.. I just felt great. Then I got pregnant (Im about 5 months along now)with my 2nd child and it all went out the window. I had morning sickness this time around and have been struggling horribly to get back to raw.
Someone kick me please! My biggest problem is my brain is telling me greens dont sound appealing and I have been bread binging which makes me feel sick. I need some happy thoughts folks. I wanted so badly to do a raw pregnancy. Ive read the ebooks from Jinjee and got great info but I still just keep migrating back to carbs and I dont want to do it again. I need to stay on track because it makes me feel so much better in the long run. Grr. Im totally depressed
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Your body does what it does for a reason. There is NO reason to beat yourself up about it. I'm recently getting into juicing and very excited about that... It may help you get in your greens.
Best wishes for you and your child!
The best suggestion I can make is to not "swim upstream" against your carb cravings. During my wife's 2 pregnancies I learned that will get you nowhere fast and make everyone miserable in the process.
If you are feeling a craving for bread, go get some of your favorite bread. Don't just settle for something like wimpy white bread, find something you really like (I use to be a sucker for huge soft bagels). Then take that bread and make a big sandwich out of it. Toss in a bunch of greens, some tomatoes, sprouts, slather it with avocado and anything else raw you can pile on there. Then enjoy the bread. Don't feel guilty. Allow yourself this "treat". What should happen is you'll develop a nice association between the bread and veggies. Then the veggies will start to appeal to you more and more. It'll make it easier to pass on the bread in a little while.
It's just a thought...But if that doesn't work I hope you're able to find something that does. Good luck!
I've never been pregnant, or completely raw, so I may not be the best person to give advice, but the first thing that comes to my mind is to try to eat as many heavy raw foods as possible (nuts, seeds, avacados, coconuts).
It's not good for baby to eat a light raw diet (especially when you've been eating a lot of SAD) because the lighter, more raw you eat the more your body detoxes. Detox isn't a bad thing, unless the increased toxins wandering around your blood stream are making their way through the umbilical cord and into baby.
Maybe that's why you're having the starchy cravings- your body is trying to slow down detox to protect the fetus. My sister-in-law kept a giant pot of cooked brown rice on hand when she was pregnant to fend off the bread/sweet cravings. It's not raw, but it's a healthier alternative. Maybe even sprout a big batch of sunflower seeds (soak shelled seeds for an hour, drain and leave out to sprout overnight) in the fridge to grab when the starch urge hits?
Don't feel bad about yourself. Just incorporate as much raw as possible. and WITHOUT beating yourself up mentally, remember how cooked food(s) make you feel.
I'm 6 weeks pregnant and I went 90% raw 2 months before getting pregnant. No morning sickness so far.
I eat raw flax crackers, you can buy them or make them yourself with a dehydrator. I don't know where you live, but there is a raw restaurant called Leaf that sells raw croutons in Los Angeles (I'm sure if you do a search you might find a recipe for raw croutons).
Right now the 10% that I don't eat raw is meat, but today I found that meat is starting to make me feel sick. So I may soon be 100% raw.
Most of all, don't feel depressed about how you are eating. Your body is going through a lot of changes and everyones cravings will be different. Eat what you can get down and get excited - you are having a baby!!
Thanks guys. I will keep at it. Its just frustrating how much the cravings take over when I get pregnant :(
Cravings aren't always a bad thing; you just have to understand them. A friend of mine who ate healthy before pregnancy found herself craving ham & cheese on white bread. She was frustrated about it, until I told her that cheese & enriched white bread both have lots of vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), and that nausea in pregnancy can be treated with B2. Her body was just asking for what it needed in the form it knew how to get it.
When I was pregnant I craved starchy food too... I wasn't eating raw at the time, but I was concerned about gaining too much weight. In hindsight, I worried over nothing-- just eat everything and anything except junk food, and have a healthy baby-- worry about your diet after baby's out. But as for your bread cravings; have you tried the sprouted grain breads? They cost a little more, but I believe it to be a healthier option.
Good luck with your baby!!
you don't need a kick--you need a hug! You are doing great mama! Every day is a new day. So you have been eating bread, maybe tomorrow you will eat less of it... I am about to start trying to get pregnant and am too wondering if my raw attemps will go out the wayside. When I was pregnant last time I only wanted things like grilled steak, bagels and hot fudge sundaes. I have not had that stuff in ages and am grossed out by the thought. Now I live on bananas and romaine. But who knows what will happen once that baby is in there. When I was preggers last time the thought of eating a salad was unbearable. For now anyway, give yourself a break. Once that baby is born and healthy you can place your focus back on your diet. For now just take a deep breath and don't put too much pressure on yourself.
you might have to trick yourself into eating greens. i was starting to get nauseuous at greens the other day. it turned out it was what i was putting with the greens, since greens actually have a neutral flavor. so today I mixed a bunch of fruit in my salad, including grapefruit. it was more appealing to me. also green smoothies with some banana and cashew are delicious to me. keep trying different things.
You know the funny thing with this pregnancy is that Im finding Im really lazy when it comes to food. So I made myself a monster snack tray with cut up fruits and veggis, got some dried unsulfured mango slices, some mana bread... stuff like that. Now at least when I get hungry (which is often) I have something immediately on hand so I dont go after junk. Thats interesting about the B12 and bread. Maybe I should grab a supplement or look for a B12 food source alternative? Im still hoping Santa will get me a juicer for xmas. I think that will really help with the greens. I was throwing it in the blender before and straining it and then fell off the wagon. I'll get there ;) Its just really annoying how quickly your body's food cravings change during pregnancy from day to day.
Juicing greens and taking htem out of a blender are so different! The difference in consistency really surprised me. I hope you get a juicer too! They are lots of fun, although take some practice to get used to.
It's vitamin B 2, not B 12. :) Good luck - the snack tray sounds like a great idea!
Hey Mung,
The best way I've found to get greens is in a daily smoothie. Some of the great benefits are; you get the whole food...lots more fiber & more filling, & it is quicker than juicing with way less mess, and it can quench most food cravings.
I make ours a little different everyday, and you can adjust it so much more than juice for taste, sweetness, hiding greens flavor, etc.
A sample of one I did this morning...keeping in mind I go extreme on ingredients since this is our breakfast: Almond milk, a fruit juice (fresh squeezed orange today), and water...equal parts(24oz. total in mine).
Couple of scoops of protein...I use shelled hemp seed from Manitoba Harvest. Banana, piece of fresh ginger, greens of your choice( I rotate mixed baby greens, spinach, kale, etc.) I also add a scoop powdered greens in the winter. Fresh turmeric (from the asian market, but starting to grow my own), or dehydrated powder when I can't get fresh. An apple, half an avocado-for thickness. Blueberries and cranberries (frozen when not in season). Dried Ginseng root ( ...also in bulk from the asian market).
Sometimes I add seaweed, moringa, dates, grapes or raisins, beet, cucumber, even hot peppers to spice it up...and the list goes on. It just depends what you like, what's available, and what you're craving. It only takes 20-30 seconds to blend in my Waring Extreme blender, and cleanup is almost as quick. The great thing is, you can prep it all the evening before in the blender, stick it in the fridge, and just blend it in the morning.
I hope you'll give it a try. It's the best way we've found to get our raw food and greens daily.