Being Veggie and Preggie

HAPPY FRIDAY!  Anything fun going on this weekend?  Tonight Solomon’s mom and his second mom, Carmen are coming in for almost a week!  I’m so excited to have them!  Carmen actually came into Solomon’s family when he was 6 months old.  She was his nanny.  Since then, she began to work for Solomon’s father’s company and helps around the house a lot.  She is an incredible cook and a total firecracker.  She is just a part of the family 100%.  Solomon calls her his second mom and she calls the baby to be her grandbaby!  We call her Señora!

Anyway, I did want to address something I’ve been getting a lot of questions about, both via email and in real life-pregnancy and vegetarianism.

First, let me back up a bit.  Right around the time that I got married, I started being kind of turned off by meat.  Honestly, it wasn’t an ethical issue, it was purely texture.  I’m such a texture eater, and the feel of meat and poultry started to skeeve me out a ton.  At that point, I became flexitarian, eating meat once in awhile, whenever I decided something was worth it.  I also read Skinny Bitch, and it had absolutely no impact on me, except to make my flexitarian tendencies a little less, meaning I was eating less and less meat.  I’m not exactly sure when it was that I stopped eating meat entirely, but I guess it was just a gradual progression.  It’s been well over a year, and I am now pescetarian.  I eat fish rarely (not ever where I live because I am really particular- I grew up 30 minutes from the Jersey Shore and spent the last 10 years in New England after all!) but stick primarily to a vegetarian diet.  I haven’t missed meat at all…until recently.

A few weeks ago I started craving meat…badly.  It was strange.  I phased meat slowly out of my life, and I haven’t really wanted it since.  I knew that continuing my vegetarian diet while pregnant was fine.  I chiggity checked myself with my doctor, who said it was OK.  I also did a ton of online research, and knew I didn’t really need to change the way I was eating.  There are even whole books devoted to vegetarianism while pregnant.  I decided they weren’t really going to help me though.

It was weird that I was craving meat and I had to figure out the root of the problem.  I researched and checked with my baby message board, and it seems that just like normal cravings, pregnancy cravings tend to mean that your diet is lacking something.  In this case, it was probably iron.  I found that if I ate other iron rich foods, like spinach, certain nuts and beans, I was fine and the cravings went away.  It’s just about knowing what foods make you feel your best, especially when so many foods are off limits (sushi!).  Vegetarianism, veganism, raw foodism (is that what it’s called) or any other eating habits are all right when a baby is on the way.

So for those of you that had concerns, yup, it’s totally OK to continue your eating habits once you get pregnant, as long as they were healthy to begin with!  Your main concern becomes making sure you are eating a balanced, healthy diet and getting all of the vitamins and minerals you need to help the baby grow!  Maybe I will end up eating meat at some point in my pregnancy (one of my friends is certain this will happen!) but we’ll have to see.  Right now, being veggie and preggie is working just great for me!

On the topic of pregnancy…more belly pics!

Week 16
The fetus was roughly 4.6 inches long, and weighed 3.5 oz!  The baby’s ears are forming, and it can hear my voice!  Eyebrows, eyelashes and hair began to fill in, and taste buds formed.

Week 17
Baby is about 5.1 inches and weighs 5.9 oz.  The baby’s skeleton is starting to hardening, changing from cartilage to bone, and fat is forming.  Baby is working on sucking and swallowing.

Are you vegetarian, vegan, pescetarian, flexitarian or any other kind of specific eater?  Why or why not?

What’s on tap this weekend?  Anything fun?