Failing at raw during pregnancy - HELP!

[VeroP]

I've been 100% raw since April, 2007 - well, maybe except for a salad dressing here or there, until last Wednesday. I'm almost 13 weeks pregnant, raw food isn't appealing to me and I'm starved! During most of the 1st trimester I would fill up on just a couple of bites - now I am not filling and raw food isn't as appealing. I've had 4 cooked meals since last Wednesday and my scale says an increase of 9 pounds in that time period. I know I shouldn't be as concerned about weight gain during pregnancy, but to go from losing weight to a 9 pound gain in 6 days seems extreme.

I'm trying to go through Alissa's book and making things there that look appealing at the time, but then I feel disappointed in the taste of raw foods. I even made apple pie yesterday and it was delicious, but somehow, I just didn't want it.

My cooked meals have been totally vegan, but as I was eating some soup that had been cooked for my stepsons last night I sat in the spare bedroom crying, not wanting to eat it but feeling so hungry with nothing else appealing to me. I feel guilty to not eat raw, but also guilty to be hungry during my pregnancy.

I'm raw up until supper time and that is when I feel so hungry that I am eating cooked meals.

Any tips or advice would help. My raw daughter and mainly raw husband have been supportive of me and tell me it is okay, but I don't feel that way. This was a new way of life for me and I didn't feel that anything would change that . . .

[coco]

listen to your body during this time. there is very little research on raw vegan during pregnancy though gabriel cousins has some good advice in conscious eating and rainbow green live cuisine. prescription for nutritional healing is an excellent guide as well.

make SURE that you are getting adequate and balanced essential fatty acids, i cannot stress this enough. the baby will take all that you have for the developing brain and can leave you will not enough for yourself. this is directly related to mood and a major cause of postpardum depression.

i personally wouldn't be fanatical about staying raw or even vegan during this time. you have an excellent indicator (your cravings) letting you know what you and the baby need. address your cravings, make the best possible choices based on what it is you are attracted to eating but don't suffer due to an ideal. if a pregnant woman is seriously craving a pound of butter there is a reason for that.

as for weight gain, expect it to be interesting. so long as it doesn't veer too far from the average measure you are doing just fine. and increase of 9lbs is nothing at all to worry about IMO.

take care, stay stress free as much as possible and honour that baby! raw dogma aside, you know what you need right now.

happy pregnancy!

[Raene]

I second what the other person said. It's better to get some nutrients in than not eat. You need to eat; you're feeding two.
I too would love a 100% raw pregnancy but I only know of two people who have had 100% success...Jinjee and a friend who lives near me and had to go from raw vegan to raw with raw fish added (ugh, I don't know how she did it...but that's what her body felt a need for apparently).
Obviously don't go out and eat SAD food, but some slices of sprouted bread or some steamed veggies are better than not eating. Honestly. Listen to your body. Sometimes our bodies tell us to eat sugar, meat, etc, and we know it's the brain and not the body behind it...but pregnancy cravings are really important to listen to. If you can't stomach raw food, try something mild and healthfully cooked. Good luck.

[Raw Angel Mom]

Add green smoothies, it will help you to feel more appeal to raw food. Speaking for myself, once i have done exception with cook food even though it was healthy, i couldn't find raw food appealing, except to have fresh fruits in the morning and some nice salad with my meal.

Try if it work, with the green smoothies and if not, please don't beat yourself up and only eat organic healthy cook food if you do go back to cook food. Green smoothies really work.

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

[coco]

remember too that a craving for sugar can be satisfied with fruit and a craving for meat is a need for protein and fat. you CAN make healthy choices around those cravings, they are excellent messages about what you need to have.

i craved shrimp with chocolate. it was tricky trying to decifer just what that meant but i managed not to eat that combo and still have a pretty darn healthy kid! ha ha. a sense of humour about it all helped me a lot too ;).

[Raene]

i craved shrimp with chocolate. it was tricky trying to decifer just what that meant but i managed not to eat that combo and still have a pretty darn healthy kid! ha ha. a sense of humour about it all helped me a lot too ;).

OMG that is too funny.

[Moretta]

Sorry, I don't have any information to offer you on this, but wanted to send some good luck vibes your way and congrats. on your pregnancy.

[cherries]

You are supposed to gain weight during your pregnancy, but you'll loose it fast. I went from cooked vegan to raw during a pregnancy and lost weight, and my midwife was going to start doing tests and other screening proceedures on me. I explained that I had changed my diet a little (didn't use the word raw) and was eating more healthy. She then said that if I didn't gain weight by my next visit she would do the tests.

So I pigged out on fatty things and gained that weight back. I was also doing enemas for cleansing and I stopped doing those before the checkup. A few months after my baby, I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight. During the first few months of breastfeeding, all that extra weight (theoretically) gets converted into milk and the BABY gets really fat. And if you are raw or high raw during that time, you WILL loose that weight.

So good luck and don't be too hard on yourself if you fall off the diet a little. Were you raw for your first baby?

[VeroP]

Thank you for all the kind and helpful words.

I was SAD for my first child (18 years ago) and vegan for my second (5 years ago). I've been so happy raw and was so looking forward to the raw pregnancy.

Green smoothies have occurred to me, but I haven't had any lately. I missed going to the store today so I need to get some ingredients too. My daughter is raw with me and hopefully tomorrow we can sit together and review Alissa's book and see if we see something that would look appealing - even if it is a more complicated recipe, if we make it together, it should help.

I will stop beating myself up and will work to make healthy choices instead, even if cooked. Perhaps this is a phase in the pregnancy and I'll be able to go back to raw soon. I was gestational diabetes with my last pregnancy and was really hoping to avoid that by being raw this go around. My early glucose tolerance test was perfect, but they will do another at 28 weeks. (By the way, I avoided the sugary drink by discussing it with a nurse and we agreed that eating 3 bananas would be the same as drinking their 50 g of carbs drink.)

Thanks also for the congrats. This is an unexpected late life pregnancy that is giving me mixed feelings, but overall I am very much looking forward to the wonders of pregnancy and infanthood.

As for shrimp and chocolate . . . that would be bizarre and I can understand it being hard to decipher . . . thanks for the smile.

VeroP

[cherries]

After I graduated from highschool, my folks had a baby, but a few generations ago it was really common for women to have babies over a long period of time. My Grandmother-in-law says that her mom and her MIL were pregnant at the same time that she was pregnant!

[Vegan Princess]

It's very normal to not be able to eat raw foods in the first tri. My midwife told me that your body is supposed to reject dark leafy greens early on bc the thing that makes them bitter may be bad in early pregnancy. I couldn't even think about eating a salad or vegetable - whereas I had been eating an entire bunch of kale every day for months before that. I ate as much fruit as I could but mostly I just accepted the fact that I had to eat cooked food bc it was all my stomach could handle. At about 12 weeks the veggies started tasting better slowly and now at 14 weeks I am back to a high raw diet. Not all raw but way better than before and getting better by the day. Don't beat yourself up - just eat the healthiest you can manage right now and it definitely will get better very soon. I'm sure you will be able to go back to raw in only a few weeks! Congratulations!

Cindy