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".