I need to eat. All the time.

One of the first things I’ve read about a proper pregnancy diet is that the whole idea of eating for 2 is bull shit.
Yes ladies – for those of you who thought that getting pregnant meant that you could throw all caution to the treadmill gods and toss back a pint of Cherry Garcia with a side of Thin Mints – I’m here to tell you to do a little research first.
In the first trimester you only need to tag on an extra 300 calories per day to your normal daily requirements. This means that by most standards you should only consume around 2300 calories a day.
And graduating to your 2^nd and 3^rd trimesters doesn’t mean you get to add many more calories either.
Before I got pregnant and I read about this I thought – ok, no problem. I’ve been watching my diet for years. I can certainly keep things under 2300 calories.
What I didn’t expect was that I would have the opposite problem; that it’s harder for me to actually make sure I eat THAT many calories.
Yes, you read that right.
I am having trouble getting enough calories each day.
I will try to explain.
But I must warn you – this could be lengthy.
When you get pregnant all of a sudden your body becomes this science experiment. And if you’re like me, you start reading.
All the time.
There will be (at minimum):
- 3 books sitting on your toilet tank in case, as you are jumping out of the shower, you need to read up on when you should feel the first kick
- 4 books on your nightstand as a quick reference for when you wake up in the middle of the night wondering when is the best time to start shopping for a stroller
- 1 book on your kitchen table to read while eating cereal
- 2 books on your coffee table to flip through while your husband has chosen something annoying to watch
And one of the most common topics in all the aforementioned literature is what not to do while pregnant.
Or, more specifically, what not to eat.
Basically over processed food is the devil.
Chips, crackers, breakfast bars, just about anything in the snack isle at the supermarket – are all the devil’s sidekicks. Does it have more than 10 ingredients? Then it’s probably full of ingredients that are questionable on the pregnancy food list.
So this means that I, someone who is used to CUTTING her calories, is now having to consume more calories than usual – and do so by eating healthy low-calorie foods.
And?
I’m still exercising because what is one of the other popular topics in all my pregnancy books?
How important it is to exercise while preggers.
Which only increases my daily calorie needs even more.
As a result I am walking around feeling FULL all the time.

Speaking of which...I should probably eat something.