Help me transition back to paleo! « Back to Group Discussions

[spughy]

So here's the thing.  I was in the midst of a Whole30 and doing AWESOME and feelin' great when BAM I got knocked up.  This was a long-hoped-for thing so all was good.  I kept doing my Whole30 for about two weeks after I found out I was pregnant but I felt like absolute crap and I knew I needed more starch.  So I added some rice and potatoes and felt a bit better but rapidly became sick of rice and potatoes and before I knew it there was a sandwich in front of me (a really good one, smoked albacore tuna and wasabi mayo on artisan baguette) and I ate it and I knew that I NEEDED the bread to get me through the first trimester.

I'm okay with this, more or less, but I'm hugely bloated, I look like I'm 4 months pregnant when I'm only 9 weeks along - and I don't want to do it any longer than necessary.  With DD I started to feel less nausea around 12 weeks so I'm hoping to go back to a more paleo/primal style of eating within the next couple of weeks.

Has anyone been through this?  What worked? What didn't?  Why is a sandwich the only thing that makes me feel half-decent?  (Don't even think of suggesting just eating the insides - bleurgh.  Protein on its own is just not going down.)

[TIFF4NY]

I'm still in the midst of our Whole30 but thankfully the serious nausea hasn't settled in yet. I have a pretty bad gluten intolerance so I know that no matter what I won't give in to it. I have been reading that eating protein and good fats will help with the nausea so I'm preparing myself to try that if the ms kicks in. Also, I got spearmint essential oil and will put a small drip on my pillow each night. I read somewhere that it does amazing things for nausea. Some people even smell it throughout the day.

I know that itsajenism had to go to gluten free grains in the beginning with her pregnancy but she's back to paleo now. Maybe she can provide some tips on what she did. 

Good luck and welcome to the group!

[itsajenism]

I just went through this. 

Like you, I really felt an intense need for more carbs (or something... carbs is what I craved) during the first trimester. It didn't happen every day but I did indulge when it happened and I kept it gluten free. The one time I ate something that wasn't gluten free (a french pastry that was delicious) I ended up puking so that was the end of indulging in non-GF treats. Honestly, I didn't do much about it. I wasn't really sure what to do and I was afraid to experiment more because I didn't want to end up puking my guts out (which is how I spent my first two pregnancies). 

A few weeks prior to starting Whole30 on August 1st, I just got tired of being tired and not feeling well (and knew at that point some of it was due to the grains I was eating because I got to a point where I'd feel worse after eating them rather than better).  Now that I'm halfway through my first Whole30 and have really worked hard on figuring out my ratios and what my meals should look like, I'm wondering if I could have avoided the whole carb craze if I knew it all ahead of time. 

I know that right now I'm requiring a lot more fat than the recommended portion size of "this size of your thumb". In fact, I'm eating about 3-4x that amount at every meal. 

1/4-1/3 cup coconut milk straight from the can at breakfast. An entire avocado instead of 1/4 of it at lunch. And this is on top of the fat I'm already using to cook with (which many people count as part of their fat intake). That slab of butter (or ghee) on top of my veggies is not enough.

Now I'm wondering if upping my fat in the first trimester would have helped me make it through it better. I was already eating a metric ton of protein just to keep the barfs at bay, so I'm fairly certain adding any more of that would not have done me any good.

With that said... maybe try upping your fat? Fat and starch are usually the first things I see mentioned that a lot of people don't eat enough of. 

Sorry I don't have any real suggestions for something that actually worked beyond my guessing that more fat might help. I had some trouble finding any good help as well (doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there for Whole30 and pregnancy, even on Whole9's forums). 

Good luck! 

Whatever you decide to do... will you report back if it works or not? 

[spughy]

I would LOVE to up my fat but I just can't seem to make myself do it.  I don't even want to eat ice cream, it's too rich.  I can only eat cheese with apple slices to cut the fatty feeling.  I've gone back to cutting the fat off my meat like I did as a little kid and I even trimmed off some chicken skin from dinner last night.  I put way less mayo in my tuna salad for lunch than I normally do because I didn't want to notice it was there. (Homemade mayo, btw.  I'm not that out of it.)  I suck.  Oh, and I don't want to eat nuts at ALL.  Even Larabars are too full of nuts for me.  Ugh.  I used to be such a fat connoisseur.  It's like I've been replaced by the alternate-universe version of me. 

Avocados might work though.  I will pick some up tonight.  I am going to try cottage cheese (full fat) with bananas for breakfast, too.  Right now that sounds like a good idea, we'll see how it feels at 7:30 tomorrow morning!
 

[itsajenism]

Do you like canned coconut milk at all? 

I've been eating it with berries nearly every morning along with the rest of my meal. I just dump the milk on top of the berries and sometimes add some crushed macadamia nuts (more fat!). It's really yummy. 

We also do a homemade "ice-cream". Same idea, berries (or some type of fruit) mixed with coconut milk. 

With an ice-cream maker, you just blend together the milk and berries until smooth and then throw it in your ice-cream maker. It makes a soft serve consistency. 

You can also do blender ice-cream if you don't have an ice-cream maker. Dump a can of coconut milk in your blender with an entire 12oz or 16oz bag of frozen fruit (has to be frozen) and blend it on high until it becomes soft serve consistency. 

When not on Whole30 I'll add honey and vanilla. 

[TIFF4NY]

Good luck Spughy! I hope you find something that works for you. I actually asked my husband to bbq a tri tip tonight *just* because I LOVE the charred fat on it. There's something about the way he cooks meat that is just amazingly delicious.

[Wenchypoo]

This conversation showed up on Google news under the "Paleo" heading--I just found this article in Yahoo Health that might be the answer you all are looking for:  http://news.yahoo.com/pregnancy-changes-moms-gut-bacteria-231508918.html

[spughy]

Yeah I saw another article about that study a few days ago.  But the gut bacteria in the mother don't change significantly until third trimester, and I'm still in my first trimester when my guts should be normal.

Trying a non-starchy version of protein-fat-carbs for breakfast failed.  I ate some banana and cottage cheese when I got up, and it did nothing for that hollow-stomach, icky low blood-sugar feeling.  Having a pancake and 2 slices of bacon an hour later fixed it up nicely.  Sigh.  I guess I will just roll with it for another few weeks. 
 

[TIFF4NY]

I had that hollow stomach / indigestion feeling last night as I was getting ready for bed so I put a drop of spearmint essential oil on my pillow and by the time I had gotten comfortable in bed my stomach was completely fine and I felt normal. I'd read good things about that oil so I'm very glad I got it and it was pleasant to smell throughout the night. Maybe I will put it on a rag and sniff it when I start to feel nauseas throughout the day once MS really hits me.

[spughy]

Hmmm... I think I will get me some of that spearmint oil.

[TorreyMomma]

I must apologize, I don't know what the Whole 30 is, I am thinking from what I have read that it means primal for 30 days? At any rate I am a firm believer of listening to your body, and trusting your body. Furthermore, I have discovered with my kids that when they crave a food, a food allergy is frequently a culprit. A midwife in WA introduced me to ALCAT labs, their blood test seems to be pretty accurate so far. And she recommends ALCAT testing in the first or second trimester because antigens cross the placental barrier and you can learn what the peanut is allergic to before you have nursing induced food allergies. Cleared up my sisters' chronic MS as well. We follow a primarily primal diet due to food allergies in kids and medication that makes me gain weight. But feeling guilty about what you eat is counterproductive, guilt gets your body pumping out cortisol and epinephrine, as well as adrenaline, because guilt generates stress. Cortisol and epinephrine cause the liver to release more glucose (to fuel your fight or flight). This can also cause the stomach and bowels to empty themselves, so you can run or fight more efficiently. Great for when we lived in caves, not so great now. If it were me having this problem with nausea/MS I would get the ALCAT blood work to rule out allergies, have my doc/midwife/OB do complete blood work to identify any vitamin/mineral deficiencies, and then enjoy any food that will stay down. Good luck to you, hope this helps!!!

[spughy]

Whole30 is 30 days of uber-clean eating.  No sugars at all (except fruit in moderation), no seed oils, no dairy, no legumes, no white potatoes, no grains, etc.  Pure paleo.  The only readily-available sources of starch are root vegetables and sweet potatoes.  I couldn't keep it up because I just needed more starch.

I am pretty certain I have no allergies.  Nausea in pregnancy is a universal symptom even in non-industrialized cultures, I don't think it's anything to be alarmed by - rather it helps you eat what your body needs.  Right now, I need starches - but a friend of mine went through her first trimester craving nothing but protein and intense exercise.  She has a lot of diabetes in her family but I have none - we figured you just need to eat what your body needs to keep your blood sugar consistent.  So I am just going with it, and being thankful that I live in the modern world which includes bakeries instead of having to dig up tons of cattail tubers and force my 6-year-old to pound them for me because I'm too tired.  My gut flora is simply more accustomed to a less starchy milieu, so I bloat up something awful, but if that's the worst I've got to whine about, I'm doing ok.

[TorreyMomma]

Actually, what we discovered with my sister's ALCAT was the munchkin was allergic to certain foods, even in utero. When she quit eating the foods the ALCAT flagged, her morning sickness went away. After her DS was born, she tested as fine on the ALCAT, but he would puke after nursing if she had eaten them. He also had lots of earaches and developed asthma. At 8 months he was tested and every food and allergen she had reacted to in pregnancy he reacted to. I am also a doula (almost 15 years) breastfeeding peer counselor working on my IBCLC and earning my midwifery degree. I know MS is common all over, but after all the studying and research I have done this summer I wonder how much MS is caused by things that might actually be preventable. However, that is just a theory with no testing yet, but my sister's ALCAT testing w/ this last pregnancy resulted from early research to develop this theory. Not trying to persuade you one way or another, just trying to share information. =D

[tillymonster]

This is interesting... I am not pregnant but just attempted a 30 paleo challenge that sadly went south 2-3 weeks in. I felt so deprived. I really didn't want to to stop drinking red wine (I am a wine snob, and just got back into it recently when my daughter self-weaned during the day) oh yes, and cheese/sugar cravings making me insane when AF came around! I am still nursing so, I feel like I probably should have a little extra, even though I am not nursing much.

I understand cravings for carbs. When I was prego-- I barely ate any meat until the end. Steak was a major craving! I too was the same-- I had to have cheese with apples. I had that all the time! Fats/meats disgusted me! But I also drank soy milk everyday because I though that was *healthy* for the baby.  Probably exacerbated my hormonal issues I didn't know I had. Soy is baaaad for people with thyroid issues, and I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.

Here are some suggestions to feed the carb/sugar dragon but keep it mostly paleo/primal:

Sweet potato hash. Lots of cinnamon/sage helps disguise the greasy taste I think. Can you handle sausage? Great to add as well.

Fage greek yogurt is freaking amazing stuff. Just put some honey in it-- it's at least semi-primal. Berries would be better. Or splash some coconut milk in and blend it up.

Stir-frys heavy on the ginger, which is known to stave off nausea. It really helped me. I used to eat that pink pickled ginger from our sushi restaurant all the time. So refreshing!

Peppermint tea. Had that every darn day while prego.

Udi's gluten-free bread is awesome! If you have to have a sandwich or bagel with cream cheese--- go that route!

Homemade mayo means you can add some herbs/spices and make it a ranch dressing. That could help get the meat down?

Avocado chocolate pudding--- Mothering.com had a recipe here that I believe was paleo-ish.

Bananas and almond butter. 

Hope this helps and congrats on the pregnancy. I think you are amazing for even attempting a Whole30!

[spughy]

UPDATE:  I've been feeling less squicky over the past week so yesterday I thought I'd give a more paleo eating plan a go.  I felt a little yucky after lunch (which was raw veggie sticks, cheese and meatloaf) but aside from that, I was fine.  I had a very small serving (1/2 cup cooked) of rice cooked in bone broth with vegetables - essentially rice pilaf - with my salmon and tomato & artichoke salad for dinner, but aside from that I was grain-free all day.  I made sure to eat lots of fruit and veg to keep my carbs up.  I'm gonna stick with the dairy just because it's such a convenient way to get calories and carbs, but maybe once I hit third trimester and my raw milk supply dries up, I'll go back to straight paleo.

This morning, my bulgy "upper tummy" is almost gone.  It's amazing what a difference that makes.  I look like a real pregnant person, not a human impersonation of the letter "B" when I stand sideways.  I had banana and cottage cheese, and 2 scrambled eggs for breakfast and the scrambled eggs tasted GREAT as opposed to disgusting like they did a few weeks ago.

Looks like I should be okay from here on out!  And I packed on about 10 lbs during my 6-7 week binge-o-badness so I don't feel pressured to eat vast amounts of calories - which means more delicious vegetables.

[itsajenism]

spughy - Yay for feeling better!! I packed on about 14 pounds in the first trimester while binging on protein and the few weeks of eating grains. 8 of those were in a 4 week period. Now that I'm in the 2nd trimester and eating paleo again, I've only been gaining about 3 pounds every 4 weeks, so I'm up to 20 pounds now at 22 weeks. I've never been one to worry about weight gain in pregnancy (I gained 80 with #1 and 60 with #2), but I do find it really interesting how much different this pregnancy has been in regard to morning sickness and weight gain with the change in diet.