Frustrated with protein

FL_Hiker

esharpmajor wrote: »

Hey folks,

I was recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes, so ive had to once again overhaul my diet. I’ve been trying through my whole pregnancy to eat healthier and got this ap to help. It’s been great, but enlightening in that I realized how much had to change and how poorly I was eating before. I have always been a carb junky, so I cut out white flour, pop, and as much added sugar as possible. The result? I hate everything. I thought I would retrain my body to like healthy food but instead my appetite has plummeted and I am struggling to eat enough.

With my new GD restrictions I’m finding it even more frustrating to meet caloric and nutritional goals. I’ve lost 6lbs over the entire pregnancy and now I’m almost 8months a long and my OB keeps telling me I need to be getting more calories! I just can’t! Not without eating cakes and breads and that sort of thing - it’s the only food I am able to keep down/pallet. I’m supposed to be at 2500 (maintenance + 500 for third trimester) but I’m eating more like 1500-1800 at best. I’m told I need to eat a million little meals but short of just eating straight meat every half an hour I can’t figure out how to keep Cals up while meeting protein goals and not going over on carbs, fats and sugar.

The result is I’ve been losing weight without really intending to. I just can’t stomach this diet! All the protein and fibrous foods I choke down, eat just enough to fill up and then gratefully stop eating. Eating has become a chore. I hate it.

Anyway my main question is how the hell are people meeting their protein goals? Anything more than 4oz of meat and I start throwing up. I’m constantly under my Calorie goals (a problem I’ve never had before...) and the only way I ever meet them is if I go way over on fats (adding avacado or eggs to everything = too much fat and cholesterol.)

Below is an example of my day, please let me know if you can see where I’m messing up:

Breakfast: I’ve replaced my morning coffee with one cup coffee mixed with low sugar ensure protein drink. I drink half now. I then have a high protein and fibre cereal, (currently liking “edge”) with skim milk, or a fibre 1 bar (5g sugar, ugh), depending on if I’m running late or not.

Snack: pepperoni stick or hard boiled egg and a babybell.

Lunch: sandwich with ancient grain bread, three slices turkey breast, spring greens and an oz of cheese. Side of raw veggies.

Snack: mid afternoon: 1 serving fruit, the other half of my coffee and protein drink.

Dinner: 4oz meat (usually chicken, I have fish or red meat once a week each. This is paired with a either a big salad with nuts, cheese, berries or fruit. (Last night we did spinach, feta, blackberries and walnuts for example.) or roasted veggies. Small serving of starch like grains or potatoes, no white flour. 2 cups skim milk.

Sometimes if I threw up or my husband calls me out on not having finished a meal he force feeds me a smoothie with Greek yoghurt, kale, and banana. I *loathe* smoothies. this always results in me begging for mercy but I usually manage to down a cup.

To me the above seems balanced, healthy, but once entered I fume realizing I’m way under on protein, over on fat, over on sugar, under on fibre and under on overall calories. Add in some walking, cleaning or excersize and I’ll be anywhere from 1000-1500 under. I worry I’m hurting my baby, and losing muscle. I’m super worried that it will impact my milk supply once I’m breast feeding cuz I’ll need even more calories then.
I’m tempted to just eat a croissant or cake or something just for the calories but I can’t due to the GD. Sometimes I’ll end up having crackers and cream cheese or nut butter but then I go wildly over on fat, and still don’t meet protein targets. I’m At a loss.

Any suggestions on how to improve this with substitutions that will allow a similar amount of prep? Thanks for any help.

I hate protein too... I force myself on days my protein intake is low to chug a protein shake. Premier proteins alright, it’s 30 g of protein and only 160 calories. Also try Dannon fit and light VANILLA Greek yogurt, it’s not disgusting and actually tastes like regular yogurt not your typical sour bitter Greek yogurt taste.

aokoye

esharpmajor wrote: »

XxAngry_Pixi wrote: »

I highly reccomend the GD forums on baby center. Your dr gave you a diagnosis, so they have you testing your blood sugars? Is there any monitoring, are you on insulin and have they given you a carb allowance? If none of this is in place this seems extremely irresponsible! Are you having extra growth scans, have they spoken to you about possible complications or the possibility of needing to induce early or anything? I've just been through a gd pregnancy, and have been left pre diabetic now. I'm more than happy to chat through things with you by PM if you want 😊

Thank you for your advice, I’ve actually been really frustrated with the care I’ve received so far. My doc didn’t even have me take the first hour long glucose test, waited waaay late to have me take the two hour so I’ve only just found out and no monitoring in place yet. First appointment to address that is on Friday and it’s some weird group meeting. I sincerely hope they give me a monitor cuz I have no idea what I’m doing. No growth scans or ultrasounds since week 20 when we did the detailed ultrasound.

I don’t know why my ob waited so long to order the test because I am 5’10, 245, so “obese”. I brought this up with her and she said I “don’t look obese”...like how is that even relevant? Why not just be safe? Idk. Sometimes I just want to scream at how cavalier everyone is, I’m a FTM with no living female relatives (mum died last week after a long illness and she was never pregnant -in adopted- so I wasn’t able to get advice from her before she passed 😣) so you’d think they’d pay a little extra attention and try to explain *kitten* to me? Nope. I feel so clueless and in the dark. Blah. Sorry for venting.

ETA: it’s really just dumb luck that I’d cut out refined carbs and sugar for the health benefit when I first found out I was preggers, so it shouldn’t be tooooo much of a shift now that I’ve been diagnosed, and hopefully haven’t done much harm.

Given that transphobia is a thing I'm completely and utterly unsurprised that you're getting substandard medical care (I'm assuming that your providers know that you're trans). I wish I could be surprised, I really do, but I'm really not (I'm also FTM). You have my sympathy. My only other suggestion would be being really proactive about trying to get information from other doctors (ie a second opinion), though given that you're in Canada I'm not sure how easily that is.

esharpmajor

aokoye wrote: »

esharpmajor wrote: »

XxAngry_Pixi wrote: »

I highly reccomend the GD forums on baby center. Your dr gave you a diagnosis, so they have you testing your blood sugars? Is there any monitoring, are you on insulin and have they given you a carb allowance? If none of this is in place this seems extremely irresponsible! Are you having extra growth scans, have they spoken to you about possible complications or the possibility of needing to induce early or anything? I've just been through a gd pregnancy, and have been left pre diabetic now. I'm more than happy to chat through things with you by PM if you want 😊

Thank you for your advice, I’ve actually been really frustrated with the care I’ve received so far. My doc didn’t even have me take the first hour long glucose test, waited waaay late to have me take the two hour so I’ve only just found out and no monitoring in place yet. First appointment to address that is on Friday and it’s some weird group meeting. I sincerely hope they give me a monitor cuz I have no idea what I’m doing. No growth scans or ultrasounds since week 20 when we did the detailed ultrasound.

I don’t know why my ob waited so long to order the test because I am 5’10, 245, so “obese”. I brought this up with her and she said I “don’t look obese”...like how is that even relevant? Why not just be safe? Idk. Sometimes I just want to scream at how cavalier everyone is, I’m a FTM with no living female relatives (mum died last week after a long illness and she was never pregnant -in adopted- so I wasn’t able to get advice from her before she passed 😣) so you’d think they’d pay a little extra attention and try to explain *kitten* to me? Nope. I feel so clueless and in the dark. Blah. Sorry for venting.

ETA: it’s really just dumb luck that I’d cut out refined carbs and sugar for the health benefit when I first found out I was preggers, so it shouldn’t be tooooo much of a shift now that I’ve been diagnosed, and hopefully haven’t done much harm.

Given that transphobia is a thing I'm completely and utterly unsurprised that you're getting substandard medical care (I'm assuming that your providers know that you're trans). I wish I could be surprised, I really do, but I'm really not (I'm also FTM). You have my sympathy. My only other suggestion would be being really proactive about trying to get information from other doctors (ie a second opinion), though given that you're in Canada I'm not sure how easily that is.

Ooh haha no sorry been spending too long on pregnancy forums, I was using FTM to mean “first time mom”! My bad! 😬 that confused the hell out of me for a minute. But hey since you brought it up I agree trans people have the worst time with medical care and I so wish it wasn’t the case. Social change is too slow. 😔

aokoye

esharpmajor wrote: »

aokoye wrote: »

esharpmajor wrote: »

XxAngry_Pixi wrote: »

I highly reccomend the GD forums on baby center. Your dr gave you a diagnosis, so they have you testing your blood sugars? Is there any monitoring, are you on insulin and have they given you a carb allowance? If none of this is in place this seems extremely irresponsible! Are you having extra growth scans, have they spoken to you about possible complications or the possibility of needing to induce early or anything? I've just been through a gd pregnancy, and have been left pre diabetic now. I'm more than happy to chat through things with you by PM if you want 😊

Thank you for your advice, I’ve actually been really frustrated with the care I’ve received so far. My doc didn’t even have me take the first hour long glucose test, waited waaay late to have me take the two hour so I’ve only just found out and no monitoring in place yet. First appointment to address that is on Friday and it’s some weird group meeting. I sincerely hope they give me a monitor cuz I have no idea what I’m doing. No growth scans or ultrasounds since week 20 when we did the detailed ultrasound.

I don’t know why my ob waited so long to order the test because I am 5’10, 245, so “obese”. I brought this up with her and she said I “don’t look obese”...like how is that even relevant? Why not just be safe? Idk. Sometimes I just want to scream at how cavalier everyone is, I’m a FTM with no living female relatives (mum died last week after a long illness and she was never pregnant -in adopted- so I wasn’t able to get advice from her before she passed 😣) so you’d think they’d pay a little extra attention and try to explain *kitten* to me? Nope. I feel so clueless and in the dark. Blah. Sorry for venting.

ETA: it’s really just dumb luck that I’d cut out refined carbs and sugar for the health benefit when I first found out I was preggers, so it shouldn’t be tooooo much of a shift now that I’ve been diagnosed, and hopefully haven’t done much harm.

Given that transphobia is a thing I'm completely and utterly unsurprised that you're getting substandard medical care (I'm assuming that your providers know that you're trans). I wish I could be surprised, I really do, but I'm really not (I'm also FTM). You have my sympathy. My only other suggestion would be being really proactive about trying to get information from other doctors (ie a second opinion), though given that you're in Canada I'm not sure how easily that is.

Ooh haha no sorry been spending too long on pregnancy forums, I was using FTM to mean “first time mom”! My bad! 😬 that confused the hell out of me for a minute. But hey since you brought it up I agree trans people have the worst time with medical care and I so wish it wasn’t the case. Social change is too slow. 😔

Ah ha that makes sense!