Pregnant Whole30: Why?

Well, I did it! I completed my third Whole30 in October! You may be asking why on earth a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy would undertake an eating challenge that, along with excluding soy/legumes and alcohol, nixes grains, sugar/sweeteners of any kind and dairy. You know...all the stuff in foods that a pregnant lady is supposed to eat excuse-free, like doughnuts and ice cream. I will share my reasons, but I think the better question is, "Why not?"

1. It's delicious and I love food. Every time I embark on this eating plan, I realize even more how much I love "whole" foods and preparing everything we eat from scratch. There are definitely times in our house when the kids might eat a pb&j sandwich, or have some pasta, but we all really enjoy the protein and veggies featured on this plan.

2. I don't like much sugar in pregnancy anyway. A definite and long-lasting aversion in each pregnancy has been to sugar. Normally, I love to bake. One of my favorite things is cupcakes with killer buttercream frosting. However, just thinking about smelling the sugary-sweet scent of frosting gives me a headache these days. Chocolate gives me heartburn. Sweetened dairy makes my ears itch. For some reason, it's a lot easier for me to avoid ALL and ANY sugar than just try to avoid desserts, because sugar is a hidden ingredient in TONS of packaged items in the store, like lunchmeat, salad dressing and pasta sauce, not to mention processed grain items like cereal/cereal and granola bars. It really adds up, so cutting out anything in a box or wrapper lets me totally control my sugar intake. And I feel better all over when I don't eat it.

3. I'm hoping to go into labor and delivery in the healthiest version of me possible! I ate total garbage during my first pregnancy - lots of convenience foods, fried foods, sodium-heavy foods...and I felt like garbage. I slept poorly, had joint pain and gained too much weight. I had a really miserable postpartum period with anxiety, difficulty breastfeeding and just an overall terrible first 6 months of being a mommy. Isn't that sad? Looking back at my blog posts from those days doesn't even feel like reading about ME. It was someone else.

I had a wake-up call at the start of my second pregnancy that I needed to change my diet and lifestyle STAT. There were health concerns I realized could be in my future if I didn't change...so I changed.

Moving on to my third, current pregnancy - I tried to stay active as long as it was comfortable and ran at 5k at 20 weeks. I completed my second Whole30 not long before becoming pregnant. Sadly, dense veggies and greens sounded horrible for the first 20 weeks (morning sickness lasts forever for me!), and I could only stomach white carbs like sourdough bread and white potatoes. Once real food started to sound good again, though, more veggies started creeping onto my plate. And my husband said, "Hey, let's do a Whole30 in the fall!" Well...twist my arm, will ya?

I've been induced with both of my children, at 40w5d and 41w. While I did have relatively uneventful labors and deliveries with both, I'd really like to avoid the extra hospital time and discomfort that comes along with an induction. I know there are many factors at play, so changing my exercise and eating habits in pregnancy aren't an exact science or proper experiment - after all, I've heard 3rd pregnancies can be drastically different from previous ones. It was not "easy" to load up the jog stroller and run in the Texas summer, mild though it was. It wasn't "easy" to shop for huge carts of food and make every single meal from scratch for 30 days (we didn't eat out once in October!) BUT...what if it pays off big-time with a more straightforward labor/delivery/recovery? If I DON'T end up with a quick hospital stay following spontaneous labor, that's ok, too, because I'm almost positive that my health right now will help me have a much better postpartum experience in many areas. I expect to end up gaining about 10 fewer pounds than with my other pregnancies...and I'll STILL be below my pre-pregnancy weight from my first child. Yes, pre-pregnancy. Yes, I have about 5 sizes in my wardrobe - I've been all over the place!

I received lots of comments about being brave or crazy trying such an eating adventure at this point of pregnancy. But I have to say that I feel great - still - at 35.5 weeks. I'm far from miserable, and sometimes STILL forget that I'm pregnant until my belly bumps into stuff or I feel December Baby kick me. Bottom line: if I can do this plan, YOU can do this plan. And I hope you try it and feel amazing!