pregnancy vs. dinnertime

Ugh, food.  I never had a great relationship with food in the first place.  I'm too picky for my own good, and I only seem to really like bad-for-you foods (and an abundance of carbs).  I menu plan to keep myself on track.  However, my first trimester made my relationship with food even worse.  The simple idea of most meals make me turn up my nose.  I actually un-followed more than half the recipe blogs I used to frequent.  Anything new or different is out the window.

If you look at my menu planning board, it's still the plan I wrote in early June.  A handful of meals have been crossed off.  At some point around my 7th or 8th week, I was lying on the couch around 4pm, feeling miserable, and then tried to think of what I would make B and myself for dinner.  I cried.  I had no desire to cook, and I felt like a terrible wife because I couldn't even do my one daily task.  I eventually sent B to the store for a bag of frozen chicken nuggets.

I choked down the nuggets much in the way I ate when I was a kid.  I knew I had to it to get some protein into my body, but I certainly didn't really enjoy it.  I used to be able to fight through a bit of hunger and then enjoy a decent-sized meal to sate me.  Yeah, not any more.  The more hungry I am, the more it hurts to eat.  That means that I'm basically eating every 1-2 hours now.  I eat about a fourth of my dinner, but B is still expecting a big meal like before.  There have been other nights when I peer into the messy fridge looking for a dinner idea, just to end up in tears all over again.  Good thing I never really loved cooking to begin with.

Apparently the new MyPlate hasn't been update for pregnancy, so here's a pyramid

The worst part about this?  The garden.  It's doing pretty well, and I don't want anything to do with it.  Last week, I actually gave away tomatoes to a Marine I volunteer with because I didn't want them.  Sure, I can eat jarred spaghetti sauce until my face turns red, but an actual tomato?  Or basil?  No thanks.

I loved it when my parents came to visit over the 4th of July weekend.  Mommy sure took good care of me!  We had leftovers for a week, and I didn't have to worry about this cooking nonsense.  To the women who are pregnant with their second child and beyond, I bow down.  I have no idea how I'm gonna do this while also being responsible for another child's nutrition.

Now that I'm out of the first trimester, it's getting better.  I promised B I'd have a menu plan by the time he got home.  It has four meals on it so far . . . we'll probably end up eating spaghetti for an entire week again.  But, as most women would hopefully say, I still wouldn't trade it for anything.  And thank God for Instant Breakfast, a true lifesaver.