A Pregnancy Staple

I'm reaching 28 weeks! Yay! And despite not having support on the homefront, I've successfully (with a few bad days of not enough vegetables) survived about two weeks of my new diet.

Pregnant people aren't supposed to diet, you say.

And yes. I agree.

For the most part.

You see, I think it all depends upon the diet.

If you get a guilt trip when your OB tells you that it's fine to nurse and be pregnant at the same time as long as you are eating beneficial calories, and well, you think to yourself, "2 cider doughnuts for breakfast are beneficial, right??"... well, you might need to diet.

Or, if you make a pan of brownies for a family with a new baby, but after you just pop them in the oven, they call and tell you they forgot they had a previous engagement and need their dinner in a half hour vs the two hours they previously gave you- and then you kind of end up eating all but 2 pieces of that 9x13 yourself... well, you might need to diet.

Or practice self-control. To me, it equates to about the same thing.

So a dear friend introduced me to a diet (and then we made modifications). Three servings of veggies a day. Two servings of fruit. 64oz of water. Don't eat after 9pm. Exercise 45min 5x/week. Do devotions. Pray and encourage your diet-mates. No sweets except ONE day a week (that has been a true killer for me- but good too). And a personal goal.

Back in my Bradley days, I was forced to keep a food journal and a food nazi nutritionist literally went over every single thing I ate. She was super impressed by my "peanut butter protein smoothie". I didn't tell her the reason why it was almost 50g of protein was because of the ice cream, milk (both big no-no's in her nondairy mindset), peanut butter and protein powder combined. Some things are better left unsaid, right?!

But so my personal goal for this diet is to try to obtain about 80g of protein/day at least (Good ole Bradley recommends a whopping 100 to 120 by the end of pregnancy).

So how am I trying to get this huge amount of protein in without adding steak to my daily routine?

Greek Yogurt.

I love it. And as far as protein goes, it can't be beat. A 6 oz yoplait yogurt gives you 4-6g of protein. A 6 oz chobani greek yogurt gives you 14g. One cup of nonfat fage gives you 23grams. Yup, in one snack, I'm a quarter of my way to my goal!

It is a bit more expensive. But I still love it. It's the perfect after-exercise snack. But I find myself becoming a bit of a snob. I've tried about every different kind out there, from Yoplait's Greek version, to Trader Joe's full fat mango greek-style. From Greek Goddess to Stonyfield's Oikos and it's Dannon non-organic equivalent. Chobani had me hooked for a while, and then I had multiple problems with quality control and bacterial contamination on their part. And so I switched to Fage. And I love it. It's thick and thanks to my sister and her Costco membership Christmas present, well, it's only 4.99 for a huge tub. Add a little bit of granola (and a couple tsp of honey if you are like me and make a barely sweetened homemade granola) and well, you've got a winner! Yum!

Can you tell that I'm eating a bowl full of it right now? :)