Trying to “eat right” is hard work. I am trying to cause I’m in my last trimester, where sources tell me the little guy is developing tastes for what I eat. It would be nice for him to like fruit and veggies and whole grains, but me ingesting them right now is a bit more selfish. Good for you food doesn’t make me feel as gross as bad for you food. And it causes less constipation.
Kris is trying to eat better cause the doc has put him on meds to lower his cholesterol.
So we’re trying to buy more fruit and vegetables. I’m trying to avoid fried foods. Less added sugar and salt. Whole grains. Lots of water. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
The whole concept of trying to not take in too much saturated fat, sodium or sugars and to look for things like vitamin content and dietary fiber – it makes you a label-reader. And what you find is usually sad.
A Hershey’s bar has 46% of your daily saturated fat?!? Well, maybe if I just use half of it for my smores…
A serving of sandwich meat represents 26% of your daily sodium? It’s not even salty!
Yay, this cranberry wheat bread has 7% of dietary fiber per slice… at 160 calories for just one slice? Who eats one slice of bread?
This doesn’t even count social outings like hanging at a friend’s house… I managed to avoid Liz and Chris’ waffle fries, but then Cookie had cheese pizza. I am pregnant, not made of stone!
Or it being a Friday night and you want to go out with your spouse. For Mexican food. And Dairy Queen blizzards.
Or twice-monthly dinners at Mama Juanita’s where the woman only knows starches. And two selections of dessert. Every time.
I’m not even “dieting” – just trying to avoid heartburn and constipation while still enjoying the last two months of pre-motherhood.
Switching to fat free milk hasn’t bothered me. I was already doing the 1%, so I guess that helped.
Buying the yogurt with fake sugar instead of real sugar has been all right. As long as I’m not buying it at Johnson’s, I can still get my favorite flavors like vanilla, raspberry and key lime pie.
For a light, low-calorie, doesn’t-do-much-for-you-but-doesn’t-work-against-you snack, there are several Special K bar options, as well as lite chewy granola bars, at 90 calories.
My favorite snack as of late is six reduced-fat Triscuits for dietary fiber, 1 ounce of cheese (it’s an eighth of a block and you can cut it into six baby slices) for calcium and protein and a handful of grapes. (Fruit, duh.) It feels like my own little wine tasting party. Y’know, with actual grapes instead of wine.
