Phish and Eggs

I had a nutritional breakthrough yesterday-in the middle of a Phish concert.

I’m sure the rest of the crowd was having all kinds of “breakthroughs” of their own, but I’m pretty sure I was the only sober pregnant lady thinking about nutrition.

It all goes back to Thursday when Chris and I were at our birthing class (we’re taking a Bradley Method class that’s literally around the corner from our house to prepare for the big day and meet other pregnant folks).

Our assignment was for the next 3 days, Chris was supposed to have me record everything I’m eating and calculate the corresponding grams of protein. Intellectually I knew that I was supposed to be eating a lot more protein than before (70+ grams/day to be exact) and thought I was doing pretty good.

It wasn’t until I started recording my food in terms of actual grams of protein did I realize that on a good day I was getting about 55 grams–great for a regular gal, but not sufficient to build a baby!

Let’s take a look at some of the things I was eating in terms of protein:

Glass of milk: 7 grams

Hummus and pita: 4 grams

Beef shwarma: 15 grams

Side of quinoa salad:  3 grams

Brown rice: 2 grams

Broccoli: 7 grams

It’s true, a lot of foods including dairy and grains and veggies do have some protein in it but aside from the beef sandwich, I’d have to eat a whole hell of a lot of broccoli and quinoa to get up to 70-100 grams/day.

Fast forward a couple days and I had significantly changed my diet. Namely, I started to eat 2 eggs a day. Two whole eggs, yolk and all.

I know some of you are thinking, aren’t the yolks bad for you and cause high cholesterol?

Please! That is so 80′s! Yolks are in fashion these days, especially in the prego world.

The yolk of an egg is a nutritional powerhouse when it comes to providing essential cholesterol needed for the production of sex hormones, iron to help with blood production, protein, calcium, folate and vitamin B12. Aside from breastmilk, it’s the most complete protein we can give our baby during gestation.

So, even though I’m not a huge egg lover-I’m learning to like them. In fact, the day of the concert I had a 2 egg omelet with cheese and salsa for lunch.

So how does all this have to do with a breakthrough at a Phish show?  Yesterday was the first day in perhaps my entire pregnancy that I did not crave sugar.

That’s right: I did not crave sugar! I could look at ice cream, cookies and brownies and take it or leave it. Huh? It was then that I realized my sugar cravings were my bodies way of trying to get more energy.

Enter protein, and for the first time in 6 months I didn’t feel like a sugar addict.

What liberation!

Although I’m not a huge Phish fan like my husband, I’ll never forget this show as being the day I solved my insatiable pregnant sugar cravings.

They even played a few songs I knew and the little one and I rocked it out.

l

And as a memento, we got her a super cute onesie for next summer. She’s already becoming daddy’s little girl.