How To Manage Your Pregnancy Cravings

“Oh you’re pregnant? You should eat for two now, you know…”

I have heard that like a 1000 times during my pregnancies, and sadly, I believed it at first and I gained over 20 kg! In only 7 months! That was a nightmare! I fought for a long time to control my weight again and it was very hard, especially with sleepless nights and breastfeeding. During my second pregnancy I noticed that I was hungry all the time while only 10 weeks pregnant and it was almost impossible to control the crazy cravings. But with a little bit of research, I came out with the best method for keeping my hunger under control.

To get started, what is a “pregnancy craving”?
According to common knowledge, it is an eager need to eat a particular kind of food during the first four months of pregnancy. Some women crave either salty or sweet foods, others crave for more specific food types like peaches or avocados. I even knew a friend who ate soup saying that she craved that and she couldn’t help it!nutritional-benefits

However, according to science, those cravings are calls from your body expressing its needs to you. So women who have low potasium levels in their system will crave for something with a lot of potasium like bananas. Science also suggests that a woman’s brain during pregnancy gets resistant to the leptin hormone, which means that no matter how full your body is, your brain still sends hunger signals. Although studies haven’t gotten the science down 100%, there are steps that we can take to prevent gaining a lot of weight during pregnancy. You may feel like you can’t do anything about it, but you actually can! Just follow these steps:

Step number one: eat small meals
If your brain is going crazy because of the leptin hormone and keeps you in a state of starvation all you can do is to listen to it. Go ahead, have up to eight meals a day! Yes eight! A meal every three hours. Its not the “meal” that causes the problem its what’s in it, so your diet plan should include:
● Healthy carbs for breakfast. Like oatmeal or high-fiber cereal with semi skimmed milk and a cup of orange juice.
● One portion of fruit with a teaspoon of honey
● Green salad with some whole wheat toasted garlic bread
● Frozen yogurt with some berries
● Roasted chicken with vegetables – no fat added.
● Light ice cream or some hot vanilla pudding with some dark chocolate
● Greek yogurt, plain or with cucumber or tomatoes or both!
● toasted mixed nuts with some honey. Or some butter free popcorn

Step number two: don’t believe what people tell you!
Maybe you can’t convince your brain that you’re full, but you can tell everybody else that you don’t need to eat for two! You don’t need extra portions of any meal, you don’t need that over-flowing scoop of whole-milk ice cream, and you don’t need extra butter to cook everything in! You certainly don’t need 10 teaspoons of sugar per day, and I’m not a doctor but I’m pretty sure that you don’t need the XXL fast food meals! Keep in mind that your baby will not get healthier by harming your body, it’s you who’s making the wrong choices, not him.

Step number three: be happy for Allah’s sake!
Please be happy sister! Don’t get stressed out about what to eat and what to not eat, that stress will only tire you! Remember that you are blessed with a miracle growing inside you so close to your beating heart. Praise Allah, pray on time and take your time. Ask Allah (SWT) to help you remain healthy and be strong for your child.

Now dear sister, dear beautiful mother..
★ be wise ★ make the right choices ★ be happy ★ always pray for the best ♥ because you deserve the best.

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