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What To Eat During Pregnancy

PREGNANCY | 2 comments

What To Eat During Pregnancy


You just found out you are pregnant. If this is your first pregnancy, you would probably start googling for what you should or shouldn’t eat. Ohhh… what about chucking your existing diet plan out the window now you are eating for two? When is a better time to buy that big tub of Haagen Daz ice-cream you’ve been eyeing at the supermarket, right? So wrong!!

Most people think when you are pregnant, you should be eating double the amount you would usually eat pre-pregnancy. In reality, this baby inside you is still tiny and wouldn’t be needing as much calories as a grown person like us. This is the rough guidelines:

  • No extra calories during the first trimester, 
  • 300 extra calories a day in the second trimester, and
  • 450 extra calories a day in the third trimester.
 

I believe if you HAVEN’T been eating right before, this is the time to start. I may have been one of the lucky ones that didn’t experience any morning sickness, swollen face/hands/feet, constipation, nor leg cramps, but I put it down to the fact that I ate right. I gained 10kg in total and my baby was 3.3kg when she was born. I didn’t go to any prenatal yoga and I didn’t work out consistently. All I did was some light stretching in the morning (2-3 times per week) and walking (mostly to get groceries and window-shopping at the mall).

 
This are my typical meals and snacks taken during my nine months of pregnancy.

Breakfast:

  • 1 cup of low-fat natural yogurt, with
  • 1 cup of toasted muesli with dried fruits and nuts, or
  • 1 whole apple
Breakfast
Photo courtesy of www.therisinghollywood.com
or
  • 2 slices of wholemeal bread, with
  • kaya or nutella spread
  • 1 cup of soy bean milk

or

  • 1 glass of milk or chocolate milk, with 2 cups of cereal (choose wholemeal or bran)
 

Lunch (usually eating out):

  • Economical rice: 1/2 cup white rice with 1 choice of meat, 1 choice of vegetables and 1 choice of egg or tofu dish, or
  • Noodle soup: I usually ask for 1/2 serve of vermicelli or flat rice noodle instead of flour noodle, and add vegetable, or
  • Grilled fish with some pasta or steamed vegetable, or
  • Fruit rojak (a type of Malaysian fruit salad coated with sweet, spicy prawn paste sauce)
  • Minestrone soup, or pumpkin soup, or mushroom soup, with a bread roll
 

Snack (around 3 to 4pm):

  • 1 piece of fruit (pineapple, grapefruit, orange, apple, watermelon, honey dew, peach, grapes, anything you want), and
  • 1 glass of soy milk, or 1 bowl of soy pudding, or
  • 1 glass of milk, or chocolate milk, or
  • 2 slices of cheese and crackers
 

Dinner (usually eating in):

  • Fish or chicken congee with lots of chinese cabbage and spring onions, or
  • Chinese style clear soups, with rice, or
  • Fried rice/vermicelli with pork, chicken and lots of vegetables (carrots, corn, peas, french beans, spring onions), or
  • Oven grilled chicken and roasted vegetables, or
  • Meatballs with homemade tomato gravy, with mixed vegetable and fruit salad, or
  • Pan fried salmon with avocado and side salad
  • Any curry dish with vegetables on the side, eaten with rice or naan bread
  • Steamboat (my husband and I would buy lots of sliced meats, fish and prawn, green vegetables, enoki mushroom, etc, make the soup base with store bought stock for convenience, cook and eat at the same time)
 

Midnight Snack:

Midnight Snack
Photo courtesy of http://pixelatedcrumb.com

Snack (around 9pm, I have developed a bad habit of snacking after dinner but if you could help it, you could skip this. I do find that having a bit to eat before bedtime, especially during the 3rd semester, helped me from waking up hungry in the middle of the night).

  • 4 squares of chocolate, or
  • 1 cup of potato/corn chips, or
  • chopped carrot /corn chips with homemade guacamole (shared with hubby), or
  • 1 piece of apple or grapefruit, or
  • handful of dried fruits (raisins, apricots, prunes, etc), or
  • handful of nuts, or
  • a glass of warm milk or chocolate milk
  • 1 slice of cheese and cracker
 
Good luck and all the best!


PS: Do you know what else you should do during pregnancy?

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HELLO! I’M MICHELLE.



I love my family, building successful ventures and helping others achieve their dream motherhood. This blog combines those three loves.

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