She's So Cold

Terrible cold! Apparently, pregnant women are more susceptible to colds because of lowered immunity (which keeps the body from rejecting the fetus). Not a good idea to take cold medications -- not that I do anyway -- so I'm mega-juicing.

Today:

green tea with probiotic cap
4 super-duper green drinks with spirulina and lemon, drunk throughout the day
3 vitamin caps, spaced throughout the day
4 small green apples, spaced throughout the day
yummmy raw soup of carrots, celery, garlic, tomatoes, and avocado

Recommendations: Good articles about what to do when you have a cold and you're pregnant:

Pregnancy and Colds (About.com)
Coughs and Colds in Pregnancy (Dr. Spock)
Is It Safe to Take Cold Medications During Pregnancy? (Baby Center)

Nitty Gritty: Very constipated lately. Time to back off from the soy and rice!

DHA and Food with Friends

I went to visit my regular physician yesterday; I wanted to assess my nutritional levels, get some advice, and possibly get a referral for an OB/GYN. He told me that I should supplement DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid), because babies will leach that from a mother's body if they aren't able to get it through the mother's diet. He said that there's speculation that a lack of DHA can lead to postpartum depression, too.

Looks like you can get both vegan and fish versions of DHA supplements. My GP recommended fish-based Nordic Naturals, but said vegan was fine. I ordered the vegan version from Life's DHA, mainly because Kris Carr recommended it. Otherwise, he just took some info, ordered some tests, and congratulated me. I'm glad I went.

Tricky day, foodwise, because I had lunch and dinner at other people's houses.

Fasted for the morning (for blood work)
Quart green juice (cucumber, spinach, apple, ginger, kale, parsley -- bought at a juice bar)
3 vitamin caps, spaced throughout the day
1 apple
Bowl squash soup (my friend and I made this together -- she's a wonderful cook and so generous and cool)
Salad of two ears corn, two tomatoes, 1/2 head celery, parsley, 1/2 avocado
Spinach salad
Rice with cooked peppers and onions, steamed broccoli, 3 chocolate-dipped dried apricots (!!!Yum!!!), 2 gluten-free macaroons

A few things I've learned in my many, many, many years:

1. Don't fast unless you're sick. It'll just lead to overeating later.
2. Foods that are sugary or fried taste good, but they are the opposite of satisfying. They leave you craving more.

I'm not sure if that's just true or just true of me, but it's definitely worth remembering. Also, when I eat too much cooked food I get sick (this morning I woke with a chest cold). But so it goes. To me, it's more important to connect with people -- it's not healthy to let your diet alienate you from the world. And I'm not so fragile that I can't cope with a tiny cough.

Just the Facts

No reflections today, just a record of my diet:
green tea, 2 probiotic caps
green juice (1 head kale, 1 head spinach, 1/2 cucumber, 2 apples -- yuck, did I buy arugula instead of spinach?) drunk during the day
3 vitamins, spaced throughout the day
1 green apple
4 ears of corn, two tomatoes, 1/2 c. parsley, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 head celery
sm bowls of marinated kale salad and sauteed shiitake mushrooms
several sundried tomatoes

All's well on the western front.


Recommendations: I read through Sherah's pregnancy story and really enjoyed it. Not medical advice, again, but encouraging and so fun to read. Onward!

Every Possible Mistake

Yesterday I made some, um, sub-optimal choices. So it goes. I think beating yourself up about mistakes is often more damaging than making a mistake, though...so I just keep going.

My choices:

green tea with 2 probiotic caps
green juice (1 head kale, 1 apple, 1/2 head celery, 1 head romaine, little parsley) drunk throughout the day
3 prenatal vitamins, spaced throughout the day
4 sm. green apples
cup guacamole with 1/2 head celery and 1/2 cup parsley
Vegetable roll (from the sushi place)
cup edamame
sm. piece tempeh

Well, not terrible. But I definitely ate past the point of hunger -- and even satiety -- with that guacamole. Oh, guac! Why are you so delicious? It's the fresh but store-bought kind that inspires my overeating. Just seems like such a treat, and I didn't have to make it so I have no sense of its value.

Recommendations: I recently saw a list of The Dirty Dozen -- the most heavily sprayed produce items -- and realized that many of my regulars are on the list. I wish more stores sold organic produce...in my neighborhood, it's very difficult to find. Anyway, I went to buy a bunch of organic greenery, which was fun.

I also read a good article about a raw food diet and its use during pregnancy. They also recommend tempeh for its B12. I like it, but I think now I better chill out on the soy. Once in a while is okay. I've just never learned the difference between "okay, now and again" and "okay, now! and again!"

The nitty gritty: As usual, this is way TMI, but... I evacuated pretty well, some gas. The, a-hem, issue is clearing up. I feel some odd ghostly cramping low down -- lower than I would feel it during a period. My nips are ridonkulously sore. I went running and, towards the end, it felt like I was being stabbed in the nips by tiny, vicious assassins.

My sleep was a bit different, too. Instead of a nap, I went to bed at 11 and woke at 8. Whoo! Wish I could do that when I'm working. I should get a jump start on my work, come to think of it, because I have school and a full-time job to contend with come January. Sigh.

***

I think sleep and morning light erase all errors. Or not all, but most. Yesterday I felt sad, really gloomy, for much of the day...but a good sleep has put me to rights. Here's a passage about morning's temporary reprieve from Elizabeth Bishop's "Roosters":

In the morning
a low light is floating
in the backyard, and gilding

from underneath
the broccoli, leaf by leaf;
how could the night have come to grief?

gilding the tiny
floating swallow's belly
and lines of pink cloud in the sky,

the day's preamble
like wandering lines in marble,
The cocks are now almost inaudible.

The sun climbs in,
following "to see the end,"
faithful as enemy, or friend.

Don't Tell a Soul

Someone once said to me that fears are wishes. To be fearless is to embrace all of your desires, right or wrong. I'm afraid to miscarry. I'm afraid to talk about this.

***

Here's how I treated my body yesterday:

Green tea with 2 probiotic caps
green juice (beet greens, romaine, cucumber, apple, 1/2 lemon, ginger -- not so good), drunk throughout the day
3 prenatal vitamins, spaced throughout the day
Big box o' blueberries
3 ears corn blended with 1/2 avocado
1/2 head celery
arugula salad with tofu, mushroom, zucchini, peppers, sweet potato
some baked fries
some dried apple slices

The nitty gritty: My stomach felt great yesterday -- no gas, easy evacuation. But I'm definitely having squooshing feelings down below. Is this dangerous?

Recommendations: I read Pulling Daisies and a pregnancy nutrition article on Crazy Sexy Life yesterday; both were good, but not really the information I was looking for. I want to know if there's medical evidence that a diet made up of mostly raw fruits and vegetables is enough to sustain gestation.

I also watched this video interview with David Wolfe:



The video is full of medical-ish terminology, but I have trouble believing David Wolfe. He has the resume of a rock-star grocer, not a physician. So I take his recommendations with a grain of salt. How can you prescribe what you sell?

***

Last night, we went to dinner with friends who are 4 1/2 months pregnant. I wanted to talk about all this, but I didn't or couldn't. I need advice, and I can't say a word.

Just Another Tricky Day

Yesterday was just a crappy day. Raining and blowing, my sugar levels all wackadoo, too much time on my hands. Here's my attempt to get back in the groove:

cup of green tea with 2 probiotic caps
green juice (1 head kale, 1 head celery, 1 cucumber, 1 apple, little parsley and ginger) drunk throughout the day
3 raw vitamin caps, spaced throughout the day
hearts of palm
2 green apples
1/2 head celery dunked in dip of 2 ears corn blended with 1/4 avocado
salad of two tomatoes, hearts of palm, parsley, 1/4 avocado

Definitely feeling more peaceful now. The green juice and the vitamins really calm me down...I'm so grateful for them.

Recommendations: I watched some videos yesterday about raw pregnancies. This one had a good idea:



I liked the idea of keeping things you know you like, things you know are good for you, on hand so that you don't get kooky with cravings. Some other good videos at

Women Go Raw, Gina
Jinjee Talifero on her 5 pregnancies

I also read Talifero's ebook on her raw pregnancies. I enjoyed it, although there's not a lot of medical information in there, just stories. One of Natalia Rose's books, Raw Food Detox Diet, includes some helpful information. She says that women who have been eating a raw diet should continue that way as long as they're comfortable, although she does not recommend that women try to go raw during pregnancy. My eating patterns are probably closest to those described in Rose's book, so I'm hoping this advice applies to me!

Maybe I'm not far enough along yet, but I don't feel as if I have cravings. I'm eating a little less, maybe, than I usually do. My workouts are a bit mellower, too... I do about 4 miles, maybe lift some weights. I feel really, really good, to be honest.

Of course, this makes me worry that I'm not really pregnant. I'm such a spaz.