Why I am a calorie monitor

For the past year or so I've tried to make healthier eating choices. Yes, I still love my Double Stuf Oreos and Half Baked Ice Cream, but in general I'll choose healthier options. 

Since getting pregnant I've been trying to eat really good to give baby and me the best start to life. You're only supposed to gain 25-35 pounds during pregnancy, and most of that is due to actual pregnancy stuff: baby's weight, amniotic fluid, placenta, and all of the extra blood your body made (an extra 50%!). Out of all the weight gain, only about 7 pounds should be in fat. When you gain more than that it can lead to baby getting bigger than he should and labor complications for both momma and baby. Not to mention it's easier to lose this weight after birth which helps with energy levels and postpartum depression. So why not actually aim for this?

In doing a lot of research on the subject on how to best feed my body during pregnancy it was pretty straight forward: lots of protein and calcium with fruits and veggies. That's pretty much how simple it is. Cut out processed foods and sugars and you're pretty much golden. 

The saying "eating for two" is not accurate either. In your second trimester you only need 300 extra calories a day. That's a bowl of cereal. Or two handfuls of trail mix. I feel like the stereotype of women binge eating and using pregnancy as an excuse has set a bad example for women.

So I've been using an app to track what I'm eating. Normally this app is used for losing weight, but  you can also set your calorie goal for gaining weight. So I have it set to gain half a pound a week. And it tells me how much I should be eating. I say "should" because I'm NOT limiting myself. I've never deprived myself if I feel hungry. But I'll often choose the options that are going to benefit me. Bananas with peanut butter, nuts, cereal, etc. instead of grabbing for the Oreos. My app also allows me to see the nutritional percentages of vitamins and minerals that I'm getting so that I can balance it out if I need to. I'll grab a glass of milk if I need more calcium, or a food with iron in it if that is low.

And this is why I'm a calorie monitor. I use the word "monitor" because I feel like it's different than a calorie "counter." I track what I eat so that I know what's going into my body. A lot of times we simply guess what we're putting into our bodies, and we often guess very low. Yesterday I was at Vons and a box of baked blueberry muffins looked sooo good. I would have guessed that one muffin would be 250 calories. I scanned the barcode with my app and they turned out to be 460 calories each! That's an expensive snack! And one that wouldn't be filling. But I'm "monitoring" in that if I'm still hungry at the end of the day and I'm at my calorie limit, I'll eat something anyway. I'm hungry for a reason. Baby might be growing a lot that day. Or I was more physically active than I realized that day. I'm just being aware of what is going on with my body,  not strict or limiting (besides portion control, which is how I am able to still enjoy my snacks). 

Take the photos above. A tunafish sandwich and a salad. Which would you guess had more calories? Well, the salad actually has about 120 more calories than the sandwich. And no, it's not just the dressing (the dressing only has 57 calories). Both of these options are healthy choices. With the sandwich you have a lot of lean protein and whole grains. With the salad...this is my favorite salad that I've been eating for almost a month straight. It's got kale, spinach, red quinoa, black beans, avocado, corn, beets, green bell pepper, cheddar cheese, and a barbecue ranch dressing (literally barbecue sauce and fat free ranch dressing). So yummy. Sure, it's a salad, but it's a full meal. It is about an average amount of calories for a meal (445), but these are GOOD calories. These are calories full of vitamins and minerals and energy. They aren't empty. If you ate 6 Double Stuf Oreos it would be the same as this salad, and there is NO nutrition in those!

And I honestly feel so good eating healthy. And I feel good about what I'm giving baby boy to eat. I am gaining pregnancy weight and I'll have my days where it makes me anxious, but I just have to remind myself that my body knows what it's doing, that it has been prepared for this, and that weight gain it completely and totally HEALTHY. And this makes me happy and excited to meet my sweet baby boy!