January 16, 2003

Cravings and Aversions

People talk about pregnant women having cravings -- it's almost a national joke. I don't know if my recent eating habits qualify for cravings, exactly, but they certainly are different than they once were. In the first trimester, absolutely NOTHING was appealing to me. Every food I normally love was an absolute struggle. Forget fish, forget chicken (gag!) forget salad and most other veggies. I pretty much lived on mashed potatoes (from a box; that's how desperate I was!), palacsinta (Hungarian crepes), oatmeal, water, crackers, ginger ale, and Ensure shakes. I literally sometimes went days without letting solid food past my lips, because I just could not do it.

Now that food is more kind to me again, there are a few items that had mostly left my diet that are back with a vengence. Pierogies, for one -- I stopped eating them when we were avoiding carbs, and now want them about once a week (even though I am still mostly limiting carbs). Ravioli, if we go out for Italian.

And my diet has become a little more rigid, if healthier. I have had the same exact banana-peanut butter-yogurt-wheat germ smoothie for breakfast just about every day since the new year. I have great frozen strawberries in my freezer (everything in my freezer is frozen, with a nod to Keri), but I can't seem to bust out of the banana-peanut butter mode. I've gone through an entire jar and a half of peanut butter so far. I am eating pears just about every day when hunger strikes around 3 pm. And lunch is almost always moussaka at the great Greek place in the food court -- meat, eggplant, custard, potatoes, often with a big side of steamed broccoli, cauliflower & carrots; it's a perfect well-rounded meal. I am proud to say that I gave away most of the chocolate I received as a Christmas present (and several of the eaters commented that they were the best truffles they had ever tasted!), and have mostly avoided the candy dish that is constantly calling from my secretary's desk. I am really trying to keep the eating under control.

Of course I say I am not having a lot of cravings -- and certainly, I have not yet sent Michael out on a middle of the night quest for any particular food -- but on the one day last week that I didn't have moussaka for lunch I ended up at the smoothie place, where I purchased a bannana/blueberry smoothie, a bag of wasabi peas, and huge dill pickle. And I ate every bit of them. That's just this side of the pickles and icecream stereotype!

Posted by Dineen at January 16, 2003 10:38 AM
Comments

hhmm, a smoothie, wasabi peas, and a pickle.... I am a little afraid what sort of meals we'll eat when I visit!

Posted by: Keri on January 16, 2003 04:49 PM

No worries. I will feed you real food. I mean, you don't actually expect me to SHARE my wasabi peas, do you????

Posted by: Dineen on January 17, 2003 02:06 PM
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