Well here I go. I noticed there were several ladies posting about recently being pregnant and struggling with or having a lot of questions about being and staying raw during their pregnancy. So I thought I would start a thread where we can all post and talk about how we're doing and bounce ideas off each other. Anyone who happens to have input, answers or comments is welcome to post too of course.
I looked online a bit and there are a few resources to read about raw pregnancies, but everyone seemed so experienced and had already been raw for a while, whereas I'm pretty new to this and somewhat nervous about getting the right nutrition and the fact that I'm still transitioning to 100% raw.
Looking forward to chatting with everyone!

My brain feels like mush today so this will probably be rambly and nonsensical.

I feel like I'm in a brain fog or something. I don't know what's wrong with me. I feel tired and my stomach just feels weird..like I ate too much, but in reality I've had a banana and some raisins and haven't wanted anything else.
I'm having some crazy cravings. Usually when I crave cooked food it's healthy things like pita bread and hummus or rice and beans. I was walking by Mongolian BBQ(hey it's in an adjacent parking lot to my work!) on my lunch today and it smelled so good I wanted to run in there, shove people out of the way, grab a plate and chow down on some chicken.
I stuffed a bunch of raisins in my mouth and kept walking though. Yay willpower!

I really just want to go home and sleep for the next 10 hours or so. I am completely wiped out and honestly all I can think about is sleep. I've been taking naps every day after work. It's generally all I can do to get through the day at my crappy job. I heard the first trimester is like that, most women are totally exhausted. Thankfully I don't have any morning sickness or anything like that.

Ok mushy brain babbling is done.

heh. remember during pregnancy, it's typical to feel dizzy and spacey, as well as exhausted! i've been so tired lately, and a bit stressed. i ate taco bell tonight and i think i'm going to pay for it tomorrow. but i was wanting chalupas SO BAD. i'm going to get a giant bottle of juice tomorrow and have some nectarines at lunch. maybe an avocado! i'm going to start tracking my vitamin intake, so that this kid will get proper nutrition WITHOUT all the junk!

i hope you're feeling better. peace
oshinn

I need to learn to like avocados I think. I'm really not getting enough fat in my diet unless I eat non-raw foods. Yesterday I had a bunch of feta cheese which is no good, but I was craving it and I knew I needed fat. But I really don't like raw nuts, other than the almonds off my tree, which is not producing any right now and I don't like avocados...there has to be a way to blend them in with something else and make them taste better. My husband loves them so I'm sure it's just me.

I'm still trying to eat more and failing miserably. I had 3 bananas, some raisins and a plate of rice and beans. I know that's not raw, but it's vegan and pretty simple to make and has a good amount of protein and magnesium which I think we need extra of right now. I feel so full I can't stand it. My stomach actually hurts I'm so full. Towards the end of my lunch today I was literally forcing myself to eat and felt so miserable.
I need to find raw foods that are high in calories and nutrients and fat. Wish me luck.

are you still in your first trimester, brenna? don't stress about your food intake so much. consider many women who have very healthy deliveries can't keep a lick of food down in their first trimester due to morning sickness. don't force yourself to eat. there will come a time in a few months where you will be HUNGRY, when you feel like "eating for two". many experts consider the first trimester to be a time of cleansing, getting the body ready to nurture the life within when it gets more physically demanding to do so, in the later trimesters. that kind of explains morning sickness, it explains the first trimester tiredness, and it might explain what you are going through, where you don't feel like eating too much. your body might be wanting to devote its energetic resources to something other than digestion right now! let the body deeply rest if that is what it wants to do.

consider womankind, way back in the caveman days, going on instinct, eating when they were hungry and what they were hungry for. of course since there wasn't a mcdonald's or a starbucks on every corner, and meals didn't commonly come in a box, the choices were mostly raw fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds, their diet set them up for optimum health. so it stands to reason that YOU, going on instinct, trusting your body's signals, and relying on those same foods, will set yourself up for the optimum health of you and your baby!

you're doing great. and i DO wish you luck!

Thanks so much. I need some encouragement right now. I ate a bunch of junk food this weekend when I went to the movies, popcorn, cookies, iceee..ewww.. and feel like total crap right now. Thankfully I tend to take after my mom and so far have no morning sickness, which I would expect after eating that garbage. It's terrible that the things that are so bad for you taste so good.
I'm trying to remember that my cravings are probably my body needing some kind of nutrients and probably not a box of junior mints, lol. I just haven't really eaten healthy before I learned about raw food and so I don't know what those cravings are for. 99% of the time when I look around my house nothing looks or sounds good. I'm dying for stuff like garlic bread, feta cheese and pita bread. I'm sure you can tell I was not a vegan before this...I actually wasn't even a vegetarian. I've managed to stick to not eating meat for the most part, but I am not doing so great with the rest.
I want to stick with raw foods, but I am really struggling. Giving up smoking, caffeine, fast food and candy was a HUGE step for me and I have definitely incorporate a lot more fruits and veggies into my diet. I think I am going to try to settle on 75% raw for a while. It seems like pregnancy with all it's cravings and what not may not be the best time to push myself to do something like this. I also have about 50 pounds to lose which I know will come off pretty fast with raw foods and I'm a little worried about doing that while pregnant although I know it wouldn't be so bad to lose a little bit more(I've already lost 30 before I was pregnant).
Gosh, give me a blog and I start babbling. Anyway..thank god for my fruit smoothie today. It's delicious and sweet and keeping me away from the vending machines at work.
Thanks Maui for all your encouragement

brenna Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Giving up smoking, caffeine, fast food
> and candy was a HUGE step for me and I have
> definitely incorporate a lot more fruits and
> veggies into my diet.

this IS huge. congratulations! don't beat yourself up, most importantly. be kind and gentle with yourself, and you will actually move yourself a lot farther and faster down the road toward your goals than you will if you criticize or second guess your every bite. thank yourself every day for doing your best, focus on the stuff that you ate that was super-healthy and nourishing to yourself and your baby, and that stuff will naturally increase!

good job, momma!

Feeling pretty good today. I get out of my routine on the weekend, but during the week I do really well.
I'm going for walks on all my breaks, drinking my smoothie and generally enjoying myself today, other than the actual work part of my day. We have a massage therapist that comes in ever other week and does chair massages, so I got a 15 minute massage day and that was SO great. Of course you have to tell them you're pregnant so they can make sure to massage you safely, so the girl was all excited for me.
I feel really alert and energetic today, no preggo brain fog. I think I'm going to go to the gym after work for a little while and do some cardio for an hour. As far as weight loss goes, I maintain that a raw diet is the best thing ever if you want to get down to your ideal weight. Before I switched to raw I would have been considered a high risk pregnancy, I was a size 22 in pants, could only shop at the plus size stores and never got any exercise at all. I could barely stand to get out of bed in the morning and was tired all day no matter how much coffee and soda I drank.
I tried on my size 12 shorts yesterday and they fit. That is insane! It's only been a few months and I'm in MUCH better shape. I don't know that I want to lose any more weight since I'm pregnant, but I guess if it falls off my arms and legs and goes to my stomach I'll be alright with that.
I decided to take a prenatal vitamin so I could stop worrying about getting enough nutrients for the baby. I feel like I eat pretty healthy but I was getting really worried and so I decided better safe than sorry.
Oshinn, hope you're doing alright.

I am really struggling with staying raw lately. I've been having some intense cravings for ham sandwiches and things like feta cheese and pita bread. I did a really quick jump from meat eater and caffeine junkie to raw foodist and I think I might have pushed myself too hard. It probably would have been ok had I not gotten pregnant immediately after I made the switch, but detox with pregnancy cravings is TOUGH.
I wrote something in the main posting area about my cravings and I think my biggest issue is that I'm not really getting any fat in my diet which of course I need. As far as raw foods go though, I don't like avacados or nuts so I'm running into some roadblocks and ending up eating cooked food to compensate. I love the taste of the food I'm eating, I love my smoothies and my veggies, but I'm usually still pretty hungry and I know I'm not getting enough calories in on a daily basis because I'm such a pain in the ass picky eater. What's raw that has some fat to get me going besides avacados and nuts?

I've decided to give myself a bit of a pass on eating cooked food when I need, but only for one meal a day. No meat for sure and no cheese other than maybe the occasional bit of feta, which is my biggest weakness. But if I want some rice and beans I'm going to have it and if I want some steamed veggies I'll have them.
I've been feeling exhausted lately and I think it's due in large part to me being such a picky eating and therefore not getting enough nutrients in the raw foods that I'm eating.
I need to work hard on being a vegetarian and vegan first before I try to be 100% raw. I need to learn a lot more about nutrition and how to eat the right foods. I just can't risk being deprived of anything right now while I'm pregnant and I know I can get what I need from cooked foods in spite of being super picky. I am not going back to junk food, candy, fast food, or meat and I'm still going to eat primarily fruits and veggies, but I think that my dinner will probably be at least partially cooked with a salad for now until I have the opportunity to read and learn more about raw food nutrition.

I think that is a good balance for now, stick to healthy cooked meals and don't stress out about it.

Feeling pretty pukey today. I had a bowl of cereal this morning and apparently that was a giant mistake. I keep having waves of nausea and just want to go home and get into bed. I can't even stand to drink my smoothie and I feel sad thinking I got up at 530, blended the damn thing and wasted it.
I need to go home and find something to eat, don't know what, but I gotta find something.

All the food I've been eating for the past couple months tastes like crap lately. I wasted yet another smoothie today, I can't drink it, it's nauseatingly sweet, but yet I don't want veggies either. I had a baked potato for lunch today. It's amazing how rich and complex a baked potato tastes after eating raw for a while. It's the same with any cooked food I eat now. I have such an appreciation for it all, I mean the thought of a muffin is just mouth watering.
I will never go back to eating like I was. I went grocery shopping yesterday and I was just walking up and down the aisles most of the time marveling at the amount of junk food and just total crap that is in a regular grocery store. Everywhere I looked was soda, candy, cookies, non organic meats in those packages that are full of "air" aka chemicals to make rotten meat look better. I watched people fill up their carts with that stuff. And then I remembered that I used to do that too and stop being judgemental, lol. I bought bananas, vegetable soup, bread and crackers and went on my way.
I want to be raw but the baby doesn't seem to! I'm going to stick to eating healthy foods though even if they are cooked. Rice and beans, minestrone soup, pita bread and hummus, and the like. Bananas still taste good so I'm eating tons of those. Raisins and almost all other fruits taste too sweet for me though. Raw carrots, broccoli, celery, is all tasting really gross too though. Someone at work offered me some junior mints earlier and I actually thought I was going to barf from just the smell of that. I know I absolutely CANNOT eat that crap anymore.
The weight is still falling off me, I went down another pants size and my wedding ring is literally falling off, I have to take that and get it resized. I feel much more energetic and I'm happier than I have been in years. I have so much energy to exercise and walk around and even get my house clean. I'm trying to eat as much raw as I can, which is amounting to about 1-2 meals and snacks at this point. Better than before but not really at my goal. I have been reading this forum a lot and most people talk about really slowly increasing your raw food percentage, which I did not do. I jumped headfirst into it like I always do and now that I'm pregnant it seems to be backfiring on me. I guess I have to go slow...damn I hate that!

It sounds like you need bland. Good to hear you can stay away from the junk!

I do need bland food. What kind of weird craving is that? My baby likes bland food, lol. I had soup last night, totally bland, no salt, very little flavor soup and it was great. Fruit is too sweet, anything bitter or sour or tart is out too. How boring!

So lately all I want is super sweet food. I caved in and ate some junk but then realized what I really want is watermelon and have been eating that every day for a week. It's ridiculous how happy watermelon makes me. No morning sickness or anything, just a lot of bloating and tiredness. I went to see a doctor yesterday who I could not stand. He will not be my doctor. I didn't even tell him I eat raw foods, heck I didn't even tell him I was a vegan, all I said was I'm a vegetarian and he looked at me like I was crazy. He asked if I eat fish. I was like fish is an animal which is meat so no. He started lecturing me about getting lots of protein and blah blah blah and I just tuned out. I don't think I could handle having a male doctor deliver my baby anyway, that just feels wrong.

brenna first off congrats on your impending bundle of joy

instead of tuning out your doctor perhaps you can discuss with him the possibility of him sending you to a specialist to discuss vegan protein (and other ) choices ..protein *is* important to healthy fetal (as well as carbs and and fats all in the right proportions) growth so its not something tune out entirely ..just get good information so you can make some well informed choices.

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I will try to see a nutritionist about what I should be eating. I'm reading a lot about nutrition and what is needed during pregnancy and trying very hard to make sure I get what I need. I even decided to take a prenatal just in case and have been eating some cooked kidney beans to get extra protein(I figured out of all the things I could eat cooked, that's pretty darn good).
I am going to a different doctor who is a bit younger and my mother in law says she's wonderful, so hopefully she will be a bit better about vegan eating.

Hopefully this is just normal stuff for the first trimester, but dear god I'm sick of being exhausted all the time. I realize I'm lucky to not have terrible morning sickness like a lot of people I know, but I think that's related to not putting toxic junk in my body.
I'm just SO tired all the time and it doesn't seem to matter how I fiddle with my diet. Nothing makes a difference. I barely make it through my day at work and immediately go home and either take a nap or lay in bed. I have such a hard time sleeping too. No matter how exhausted I am, I toss and turn all night and trust me I'm exhausted. I went from a person who would sleep through a hurricane to not getting more than a couple hours at a time. I thought maybe I wasn't getting enough exercise to wear me out so I started going to the gym for a bit longer and swimming to make sure I'm getting allover exercise but nothing makes any difference. My poor husband is sure getting sick of my shaking him all night to quit snoring. It never used to wake me up and now it drives me nuts. He even quit smoking so it's less, but it's still so bad.
Supposedly I will feel better after the first trimester, but right now I feel like a lunatic. I'm only two and a half months into this and it's like my brain and body have been hijacked. I told my husband if we don't have twins we're adopting the next kid.
Yes I'm cranky today.

I'm starting to show a little already. I haven't gained any weight, it's more like my weight has shifted. My face, arms, and legs are thinner and my stomach is bigger(boobs too). Wearing my regular pants is very uncomfortable so I'm wearing maternity pants already. It feels kind of silly since I'm not very far along at all, but whatever...they fit and they're so comfy.
I'm craving watermelon like crazy today and in fact lately every day. I'm going to have to find somewhere in the backyard to plant some this year.

Hi brenna!
I am in my last trimester now (due mid-July!) and all I wanted was really bland stuff during my first trimester because I felt so nauseous! And I usually love spicy food.
I lived mostly on fruit and green juice because it was all I could stomach (literally!). I only threw up twice, but felt nauseous All the Time during the first trimester.
I highly recommend juicing alot throughout your pregnancy.
It is the easiest thing to digest and you are sure to get tons of folic acid and nutrients.. the nausea completely went away for me during the second trimester so hang in there. I never took any supplements (except Vitamineral green, spiriula and bee pollen if you count them as supplements...)

Don't be afraid of some good goat cheese if you are craving feta. I believe it is healthy good fat for the growing baby brain. I love raw feta from our farmer's market.
I am now in the process of looking for a good midwife in the NYC area.
Had an ultrasound last week and baby looks very healthy and perfect and a good size and all for his "age!" so go with what your body tells you as long as it is natural and healthy food and try juicing, too!

Good Luck!

~Jamie