30wks pregnant healthy eating

melissac278

So I’ve been on MyFitnessPal for a few years but have never explored what the app has to offer. I never new there was a community part. I have seen one of my best friends lose 41kg with the help of MyFitnessPal so I thought why not explore this app and use all it has to offer.
I am currently 30weeks pregnant and I don’t want to diet I don’t want to cut out certain food and stop enjoying the food I love. I just want to eat healthier and smaller portions to fit what I should be eating.
My OB and neurosurgeon are both concerned about my weight and the impact it will have on my back. I’ve previously had back surgery and been told I can’t do a lot of things. I want to change that by losing weight and gaining fitness. Being 30weeks pregnant there isn’t much I can do besides my hydro and stretches to help strengthen everything. But I can change my diet to eat more whole foods that arnt so processed.
I am really looking for help and support in how people combate the cravings and stop them selfs from over eating
It is the biggest problem I have is to over eat.
Thinkin what is on my plate is ok when deep down I know it’s not.

kommodevaran

Welcome! I think you can do this. You're already acknowledging that you're overeating. (Many overweight people deny it, and even believe they aren't eating enough!) There are differences in what people call things, but I think about "dieting", in its core, as nothing more than "eating fewer calories (and moving more), or otherwise restricting food intake, with the intent of losing weight". There are also "diets" with different purposes, not just for weightloss, but also to manage diabetes, epilepsy, high blood pressure, etc. And finally, "diet", can mean just "what you eat".

The thing about overeating, is that we dont eat just to fuel our bodies, we eat because it feels good. In theory, if we just changed our diets into some ideal super-healthy regimen, we'd be super-healthy and never have a problem in the world. That's not how things work. We have lives and struggles and worries and commitments and hangups and have to deal with stupid people. Food tastes good and is easily available, and it can temporarily take our mind off the things that bother us. Denying ourselves pleasure from food, can make us feel proud and strong and healthy and like we're doing the right thing, but it builds resentment. And resentment can easily be cured with some of the food we just deemed off-limits. And if you believe the food is "evil", unhealthy, fattening, you're giving it power over you, and your desire for it will soar. So you have to balance things. That is difficult. You have to get in sufficient nutrition every day, and not too many calories over time. But you also have to eat food you like. And what you like, is something you know best, so you have to figure it out yourself. And even with the most optimal diet combination, you'll have cravings, hopefully not all the time or debilitating, but you will have to learn how to tolerate and accept them without acting on them. This takes practice and patience and actually lots of guts. But it's also extremely liberating and empowering.

Using your food diary here on MFP can be a great help. Use a food scale, and prelog a whole day. Add and subtract until you find something that looks like it could work, try it, assess, and use the information you gathered to log the next day even better. But dont expect perfection. You will mess up, and that's okay. You're not a bad person for messing up. It's what you do when you have messed up, that defines you and sets you up for success, or failure.

Momepro

Welcome, and Congratulations!! Taking care of yourself now is a great start to being an amazing Mom!
Here are a few things I've figured out in the last several months.
Log EVERYTHING.
Don't JUST weigh (with a scale is best) everything you eat, also write why you are eating it (i.e, lunchtime, hungry, kind of bored, out with friends, watching tv) and how you are feeling right before, right after and an hour after (hungry, comfortable, normal, full, very full bloated, drowsy, OMG I am so damn sick of this crap I want to throw the whole plate out a window, etc).
This gives you a baseline pattern for your normal habits and routine. From there, it's just a matter of experimenting. Are you very full after dinner? Cut back on a few things. Does lunch leave you bloated and gassy after an hour, try less or no mayo, and see if there's something you don't mind dropping each meal (fries, or cheese, or maybe only 2 tacos instead of 3).Are you starving an hour after dinner?Maybe more fats during.
It's amazing how quickly these small and easily sustainable changes will add up to big calorie cuts. Only cut one or two things at a time, until they become habit instead if trying to do everything at once. That way they become individual habits instead of one big "diet".
Break things down into individual behaviors and habits. Instead of looking at this as an all at once, or all or nothing proposition, find ways to break things down into smaller and more sustainable habits. That makes it much easier to pinpoint where something is not working, and fix it, rather than staring at the whole jumbled mess of NOT WORKING. Plus, when you do backslide, you are less likely to drop everything, just one or two habits, that can then be fixed again. Otherwise, trying to everything at once, means that you are likely to leave out something important (like weighing food), and pay excessive attention to things that aren't. (Like fiber drinks and vinegar)
Don't demonize foods that don't actually make you feel bad. Obviously if you have food sensitivities avoid those things, but don't cut out all your favorite goodies because they are not "healthy". Think of your calories as a type of currency. You should purchase the nutrient rich stuff first, budget for regular treats, and don't waste any calories on stuff you hate, even if it is theoretically good for you.