Whole 60- 17-25 Weeks Pregnant

[slesca]

I became pregnant earlier this year while doing a New Year's Whole 30. For a bunch of reasons that are basically lame excuses, I'm not happy with what I've been doing with my diet since then. So, I've planned for the last week or so to kick off a 2nd trimester Whole 60. It's twice as long because I feel like I have issues sabotaging myself when I'm done with 30 days and I want to see if extending it helps with that. Plus, as a pregnant person, I have even more incentive to be at my top health. Finally, I have several stressors in my life over the next few months that I will need to push through. A good diet always helps me with this. 

 

I'm normally an average weight woman but my face looks puffier and my weight is up more than it should be in 17W. This is my third pregnancy and I'm in my 30's. I enjoy crossfit, hiking, and going on long walks. But, tiredness usually trumps everything. I have had easy, uncomplicated pregnancies in the past but I do hate being pregnant and have trouble being positive about it. I love my kiddos, though, and know the pregnancy is a necessary evil. Today is Day 1 and it looks June 18 is Day 60. Here I go! 

[sistereyepatch]

Hey! I am also 17 weeks pregnant, and I am starting my 3rd Whole30 today. Like you, I started a Whole30 on January 1st, but then got pregnant very soon after that. My first trimester was BRUTAL with morning sickness and food aversions, and I got very far off track.  The only thing I could keep down was bread and crackers, the very thought of meat and veggies made me want to wretch. The bad food choices led to a downward spiral, ending with me eating an entire pizza, ALL BY MYSELF. Pregnancy already makes me feel CRAZY and uncomfortable, but add tons of terrible food choices on top of that and it's just a recipe for disaster, tears, and tight pants. 

 

Anyways, all this to say, you are not alone. Good luck on your Whole60! I hope you get passed the yucky part quickly and get on to feeling awesome very soon! Let me know how it's going! 

[Noelle]

Congratulations on your pregnancies, ladies! You're doing an awesome thing for yourselves and your babies.

[Karyna]

I also plan to start a whole30 when I reach 13 weeks (I am currently 8w+3). I started my third whole30 the day I found out I was pregnant and got all the way to day 19 before food aversions and cravings hit. That led to all of Easter weekend having carbs and dairy and sugar.

I am trying to get to at least Paleo but we will see as the same foods that tasted so amazing to me during the whole30 now make me queasy. Oh dear.

Good luck ladies! And congratulations! Xx

[slesca]

So glad to know there are other pregnant ladies out there who are doing this! This will be fun. I took all of my pre-Whole 60 measurements on Monday, thought I'm not sure why. I was kind of curious where I was at with everything, I guess. 

 

Days 1 and 2 were predictably easy. My usual experience is that 1-5 are easy, the first weekend is tough, I'm crabby during the second week, the second weekend is the worst, and then it's all uphill from there until I start resenting that I can never, ever have other people cook for me. We'll see. Each time has gotten easier and I've had to spend less time pumping myself up in advance. I'm actually a bit relieved to have the structure of the program as it makes things simple most of the time. 

 

By this point in my pregnancy it appears that all weird food related issues are gone. I was really into plain potatoes and rice earlier. I also don't feel the pull toward any particular foods as strongly. Finally, my appetite seems to have stabilized. It was off the charts for a bit there. I have been fortunate enough to never experience morning sickness so at least I haven't had to deal with that. 

 

I'll be curious to see what and how much I eat by the time I get 2-3 weeks into this. In the past, I'll start off eating a lot and eventually reach a point where I don't have to eat as much. It's kind of freeing. 

[kimsy]

Hi! 

Sounds like we are similar. I am 24 weeks with number 3, love crossfit and hiking, don't love being pregnant (other than the end result, of course). I am also gaining faster than I'd like. I gained 45# with each of my first two babies, and even with eating much better and exercising more, I am still on that pace right now.  

 

I am on day 10 of my second W30, and it's going pretty well so far! I did my first after I weaned baby #2 last February and had great outcomes, but I'm not expecting such drastic improvements this time since I remained 80% Paleo after my first W30. I may be leaning a little heavily on dried fruits, which makes sense because I started this one to help tame the sugar dragon. 

 

Good luck to you! Hope it's going well so far! 

[JenGreen]

I'm 25 weeks with my 4th baby, in the middle of my first whole30. I've been largely grain free the entire pregnancy, and if I did cheat with wheat, I would have a 3 day migraine. About week 20 I started having HORRIBLE back and hip pain, barely able to get up and walk most evenings. I haven't gained much weight at all, but I felt like it was A LOT. I had been thinking about whole30 and decided it was worth a shot. Within 3 days of starting, my pain had almost completely subsided!!! So, I'm pretty sure I'm going to do pretty strict paleo until the end, and beyond.

 

[KariAnne]

I'm normally an average weight woman but my face looks puffier and my weight is up more than it should be in 17W. This is my third pregnancy and I'm in my 30's. I enjoy crossfit, hiking, and going on long walks. But, tiredness usually trumps everything. I have had easy, uncomplicated pregnancies in the past but I do hate being pregnant and have trouble being positive about it. I love my kiddos, though, and know the pregnancy is a necessary evil. Today is Day 1 and it looks June 18 is Day 60. Here I go! 

 

This is my third baby (the others are currently 3 and 2), I'm 34, and each pregnancy has been SO dramatically different. I had bad morning sickness for four months with my first, had hyperemesis gravidarum and threw up at least once a day for 8 straight months with my second (despite being on some pretty heavy drugs), and was only moderately nauseous for two months with this baby. The weight gain was also very different - I gained 24lbs with my first and I was back in my old pants about 8 weeks postpartum. I gained close to 50lbs with my second, about 15 of which was in the first trimester (even though I threw up everything I ate) and it took a year to get back to my normal size. I've had slow, steady weight gain, no swelling and minimal discomfort with this one. Maybe the swelling and early weight gain are just indications of a different type of pregnancy? Are your other children the same gender? For me, carrying a boy (my second) felt completely different than carrying girls (first and third). The female pregnancies just felt more... harmonious. Carrying a boy was like trying to grow a wild, parasitic alien baby. He sure is cute though.

I also don't love being pregnant, so I feel you there. Learning to cook and eat strict paleo / Whole30 has been a nice "hobby" through this pregnancy, and I've seen great strides in my other two kids. They will now gobble down a whole salad or plate of broccoli with no complaints. Good luck!!

[slesca]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who doesn't love pregnancy! 

 

I can't really say if my pregnancies had any differences related to gender. My first, a girl, was a more traditional pregnancy with some early morning nausea, heartburn, backaches, and 40 lbs. of weight gain. My second, a boy, was after I discovered paleo eating and weightlifting and I had no symptoms except extreme fatigue from about 10-16 weeks, a hard time shaking colds when I got them, and about 30 lbs of weight gain. I recovered quickly from both and was back to running races at a pretty competitive pace (age group placing, not overall winning or anything) within a month or so. 

 

This third has been symptom free except extreme thirst and somewhat uncontrollable hunger in the first trimester. I've only started noticing a difference at crossfit when I hit 15-16 weeks. But, I'm heavier and my face doesn't look great- breakouts, puff, etc. 

 

And, ugh, I have to confess that I fell off the wagon earlier this week. I recommitted starting today, May 1, and I'm ready to do this! I think I've recruited a family member, which should help. I'm good at doing this when I'm accountable to someone else. Here we go! 

[slesca]

My sister who is helping me is so supportive! I was clearly going through a body-hating phase this last week as I can't button my pants anymore. I just need to give in and go with the stretchy waistbands, I think. I'll have to see what I can find at home. 

 

Day 2- nothing unusual going on. I have to make cake for my husband's birthday tonight so that will be a bit of a challenge but really, it's better to do that on day 2 than day 10. 

 

I need to make sure I spend a lot of time doing food prep for the week on Sunday. If I don't, it's a recipe for disaster. 

[slesca]

Day 6 and all is well. The weekend was nice and easy and I appreciated the structure of the program rules in a few instances where I was faced with decisions. 

 

Yesterday, some cravings hit pretty hard (or rather, the emotional whining I do in my head that goes something like this: I'm a damn grownup and should be able to eat whatever I want), so I staved it off by simply eating A LOT of compliant food. This made thinking about or consuming non-compliant food impossible. It worked pretty well. 

 

I think other people have mentioned this, but at least this early in the program, I really cannot forgo snacks while pregnant. I could do that during previous Whole 30's but something is different- I can't eat enough in one sitting, or it burns off faster, or something. I'll be curious to see if this changes as I go along. It may also have to do with whether I go to crossfit on a particular day: I'll pay attention this week.