As you read in my previous post (1st Trimester + Christmas = LIL!), my first 12 or so weeks were a little tough…. Luckily, I was able to curb the nausea by snacking on healthy treats, but the cravings and aversions were bad!
I started getting relief around week 15 from the fatigue and cravings (binging on bunless burgers and french fries!!), and straightened up on NSNG. I had to recommit myself that I’m preparing my body for the healthiest pregnancy and labor by cutting out the white potatoes completely. We just cook our bunless burgers at home now, and bake sweet potato fries. I toss the potatoes in Villa Cappelli olive oil (save 10% here!), minced garlic, salt, and pepper before baking at 400°, time varies. If I need rest and just cannot cook, my sweet hubby picks up a salad from a local burrito chain (Moe’s, Chipotle, Qdoba). It has all the necessary foods – meat protein, leafy greens, light carbs from beans, good fat from guacamole and sour cream, and more veggies! We don’t add rice since it is a grain. NSNG is a perfect way of eating for pregnancy because you are consuming whole, unprocessed foods, with the exception of adding in a little more carbs than usual which keeps me from maintaining or losing weight and allows me to gain a healthy amount.
We purposely planned a lot of traveling (and babymooning) during my 2nd trimester in the hopes I’d be more energetic and less food sick. With extra traveling comes the eating challenges on the road! Plan ahead and pack plenty of snacks and healthy beverages. We choose hotels with full kitchens so we can grocery shop for foods we can cook ourselves. This helps from caving in on things we wouldn’t normally eat out of convenience. In a crunch, places like Wendy’s, Five Guys, Backyard Burgers, and Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr will lettuce wrap a burger, but avoid the fries!!!
We’re also traveling every 6 weeks for midwife appointments, located about 5 hours from our home, because we did not have any local options. We definitely prepare for these trips as well with a packed cooler of unsweet tea, dark chocolate, nuts, bacon jerky, pepperoni and cheese (I don’t eat the uncooked pepperoni since it could be harmful to baby), and (my favorite) sliced cucumbers. We always travel with at least one case of spring water within arm’s reach!
One of my go-to meals when at home continues to be chopped steak or chicken with peppers and onions. We’ve used several different cuts of beef or pounded and cubed chicken breasts. I like to make my own taco seasoning in bulk and cook the meat first in olive oil with some seasoning added. Remove the meat and add chopped peppers and onions into the grease left from the meat. Add seasoning to the veggies and stir often while preparing guacamole!
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When your veggies soften, add the meat back to the pan and stir (make sure you are using a large enough pan!). Let the meat and veggies blend while you get your cheddar cheese grated and grab the full fat sour cream that probably needs a good stir. We get a medium sized bowl each and fill it with the meat and veggies, shredded cheese, sour cream and guac! You’ll find yourself licking the bowl it is SO good….
If you’d like the taco seasoning recipe, as well as MANY other amazing ketogenic recipes, please get Jimmy Moore and Maria Emmerich’s The Ketogenic Cookbook.
If you try out the meal above, comment and let me know what you think, any changes you tried, etc!