Newly pregnant and have an appalling diet - help!!

[HypotheticalMummy]

After the initial joy of discovering I am pregnant, fear of inadequacy has set in! I have quit smoking, come of some medication i had been taking for years, stopped drinking and am all about the decaf - but my diet still SUCKS. If any one has any suggestions of how to have a healthy vegetarian diet which isn't complicated to make (im a dunce in the kitchen) and isn't too expensive to maintain!! Help?!

I made smoothies (fruit ones but you could do trendy veg ones ) Managed to get my 5 a day in one glass.

Hope it helps, good luck with the pregnancy and congratulations! xx

is your diet just bad because you don't want much atm due to pregnancy? or has it always been bad?>

Well the thought of salad made me sick. I swear all that I ate throughout pregnancy were the stodgy puddings in the work's canteen and sweet and sour king prawn balls! DD was a nice solid 8ib 2 and has been happy and healthy ever since. You can worry TOO much.

for the first trimester of both my pregnancies the only things i could stomach were full fat coke, corned beef sandwiches with butter and jaffa cakes. and i went off broccoli so strongly that i'm only just getting back to it after four years.

both girls in fine form. smoothies are a good idea, though. good luck!

well yes, this is what i was getitng at! my diet consisted mostly of mcdonalds strawberry milkshakes, crisps and mashed potato with ds1!

but if you're generally a "dunce" in the kitchen as you say, and don't have a great diet then I am sure we can all give you sdome easy fool-proof recipes to try out

Hi,

I really struggled with my diet as well because I used to eat really badly (and rather sporadically) before I got pregnant. My mother helped me, she basically broke it down into simple rules for a 'good diet day'.

Rules I followed included

always eating wholemeal (bread/pasta/rice)
eat at least 4 pieces of fruit every day
make sure at least once meal has green vegetables in it (like salad/broccoli)
try to have protein (meat/cheese/beans) with most meals
if you have pulses or beans as your protein, make sure you have something wholemeal as well as pulses and beans are apparently 'incomplete' proteins on their own. So beans on wholemeal toast is a fab meal, but beans on white bread is not great.
try to eat iron rich foods like broccoli
if you eat an iron rich food make sure you have some vitC as well as this helps you to uptake iron. So lots of breakfast cereals have extra iron in - when you have a bowl, have a glass of orange juice afterwards.

Having rules for eating made it easier for me, might not work at all for you but thought I would share.
x

don't worry too much - all the rules above are great but I absolutely can't follow them as most foods make me sick - white toast with butter, sausage rolls and cheese are about it - and I crave KFC chicken burgers

I normally eat a decent amount of fruit and veg but right now any is a one way ticket to hugging the toilet (again)

listen to your body and try to be healthy but don't obsess

Have you been taking folic acid? if still early on (1st trimester) it's still worth doing that.
Remember, if you're not in the habit of eating fruit straight from the fruit bowl, there's nothing to be ashamed about eating tinned peaches, pears, mandarins, prunes, pineapple etc. - all great with ice-cream!

With DD1 i changed my diet completely, i forced down loads of fruit during the day. I say forced down, i actually had to pace the room while eating little pieces of whatever fruit i had and very often it would come back! Every single time i ate brocolli/carrots any type of veg, it came back. But i forced it down anyway and spent my pregnancy feeling crap and being sick!

This time, i have listened to my body. I still cant really stomach fruit and veg but it is better than last time, doesn't come back i just cant get much down me. I have been enjoying lots of yogurts, cheese, hot buttered toast, apple, lots of cereal, chocolate chicken and mash lots of nice things and not forcing down anything i dont fancy. I dont manage 5 a day, probably more like 2 or 3 a day but i dont think im doing too badly tbh. I definately feel much much better this pregnancy.

When DD1 was born she was a whinger, never drank much milk and didn't sleep well. If DD2 is calm, guzzles her milk and sleeps well i will be convinced that it is because i listened to my body in pregnancy and only put in what it wanted

Of course i could be talking rubbish but just thought i'd share!

I'm also vegetarian and whilst normally have a pretty good diet, felt terrible for first month and struggled to eat healthily - best solution for me was lots of fresh veggie soups from M&S, yoghurts and innocent veg pots! Not as good as fresh food but much better than cheese on toast....