What your Cravings Tell You When you're Pregnant (15 weeks)

Cravings are hard enough to deal with when you're not pregnant, let alone when your hormones are raging and you are starting to realize that your body's not your own anymore. My cravings have changed over time since I became pregnant. In the first couple of months, I would crave a very specific food dish--like pad thai or fried eggs on toast. The next day the same dish would make me feel nauseous at the thought of eating it. I'm also a chocolate lover, and would eat a piece of dark chocolate every day before I was pregnant. Now, chocolate doesn't interest me in the least. In fact, NO sweets interest me anymore. Brownies, cookies, and other baked goods just have no power over me right now.

"Hah!" you think, "leave to the fitness expert to not want to eat junk when she's pregnant"...Not so fast! My cravings for salty foods are at an all-time-high. And when I first became pregnant, I wanted nothing but breads, pasta, and cheese. Not exactly nutrient-rich, low-calorie foods.

Nowadays, in the start of my second trimester, I have found that something bizarre but pleasant has happened to my cravings: I crave veggies and fruits. In fact, just today I ate green beans with my meal--and I actually liked them! When I used to read about other women who said they craved healthy foods during their pregnancy, I scoffed: there's no way that would happen to me. It goes to show, you really have no idea how your body will change during pregnancy.

So what is it that causes pregnancy cravings?
The first and best answer to this question is that our bodies crave what they need. "Yeah right," you think, "I didn't need to eat that whole box of macaroni and cheese dinner." Well, you probably didn't need to eat that much, but your hormones are telling you something when you crave fatty, calorie-dense foods. Your hormones (who will become your worst best friends over the next long while), are helping your body grow your baby. One of the side-effects, of course, is that they tell your body that it needs more calories. Your hormones aren't necessarily great at specifying how many extra calories your body needs, and that's why you may feel like you tend to overeat. In fact, compulsive eating is quite normal during pregnancy.

So why is it that I now crave veggies and fruits? True to form, my body is now telling me that it needs vitamins and nutrients to help my baby grow and develop properly. I'm not a vegetarian, but for those of you who are, you may find yourselves craving red meat, which is because your body is producing a lot of extra blood and it needs the extra iron.

How to Deal with Cravings During Pregnancy
Given that your body is asking for the things it needs via your cravings, it follows that if you are craving something specific while you are pregnant, you should eat it. I don't recommend overindulging, but eat enough to keep the cravings at bay. I know, it's hard when your arm seems to move of its own accord to the third piece of chocolate cake, but take a break from eating for 15 minutes or so to give yourself some time to digest the food. That way, your body has time to tell your brain "hey, I'm good now. I got what I wanted".

3 months down, 18 lbs to gain

Starting Weight: 102 lbs
Weight today: 109 lbs
Week: 14


For the fit mom-to-be, the prospect of weight gain during pregnancy can be quite the mental hurdle to overcome. How do you come to terms with years of working on your body to keep strong and fit, only to watch it seemingly disappear in a matter of months? Insecurities abound, especially for me, where, being under the scrutiny of my clients, I must appear the epitome of "the healthy pregnancy". At this stage in my pregnancy, even my Lululemons have gotten tight--just today a client pointed out that I was "muffin topping". Ai carumba!


How vain of me, huh? To think that the worst thing happening to me right now is that I am gaining weight and am not fitting into my clothes. I obviously can't control this, as my weight gain thus far is nothing more than the sign of a healthy pregnancy. So what are the facts about weight gain during pregnancy? How do I make sure I gain the right amount of weight?


The Facts About Weight Gain During Pregnancy
1) The phrase "eating for two" is a misnomer. Your baby is pretty small in relation to you throughout your pregnancy. At 3 months, it's only the size of your closed fist. So you don't really need to consume much more calories than you did before pregnancy. 100-300 calories per day extra is all you need. That's the equivalent of an extra slice of multigrain toast, an extra 3oz of salmon, or 1 avocado.


2) Most of your weight gain isn't fat. In fact, in the 20-35 lbs of weight you'll gain over the course of your pregancy, only 20% of it will be fat.

Baby	8 pounds
Placenta	2-3 pounds
Amniotic fluid	2-3 pounds
Breast tissue	2-3 pounds
Blood supply	4 pounds
Fat stores for delivery and breastfeeding	5-9 pounds
Uterus increase	2-5 pounds
Total	25 to 35 pound

3) Expect to gain 1 lb per week after the first trimester. You can gain anywhere from 2-5lbs during the first trimester, after which point you should gain about 1lb per week. (That would put me right in the normal range!)


4) Exercise: do what you can. During my first trimester, the last thing I wanted to do was exercise. I was tired in a way I had never felt before. My whole body just felt heavy. Going up the usual 4 flights of stairs to my apartment was tiring...This, from a woman who has trained for and run a marathon! 


One thing I've learned being involved in health and fitness for so long, is that you have to listen to your body.  You might not be able to push yourself like you did before you were pregnant. Your body's energy is being directed towards growing your baby, and your hormones are very much out of your control. Do what you can when you can, but be mindful to try and do something at least 3 times a week: go for 45 minute walk, take the stairs, do a light weightlifting workout. 


Keep yourself in good habits, because by the 2nd trimester it gets easier, and you can increase your intensity again. Even at this point, though, you may still find your heart beating in your chest after doing a brief stint of more intense cardio. It's okay, your blood volume is ever increasing and your heart has to manage a larger blood supply.