Keeping a food journal during pregnancy is a really helpful tool to ensure that you are eating the right foods and avoiding the wrong foods. It is also a wonderful way to keep track of calories and where your daily calories are being spent, which in turn helps improve your eating habits.
I began keeping a food journal while I was pregnant with our first baby. It revealed early on that I was not eating enough vegetables and that I was consuming too many sugary snacks. I quickly corrected this once I saw this disturbing pattern . Later in my pregnancy the food journal revealed that I was eating too much cereal and grain based foods which explained my excessive weight gain (thirteen pounds in one month!) Once I started limiting my grain intake, I only gained two pounds in the following month (my ninth month)!
I started keeping another food journal when I was in the midst of trying to loose all the excessive weight I gained. Along with a daily exercise routine, the food journal really helped me stay on track to meet my weight loss goal and within ten weeks of grueling exercising and yes calorie counting, I had lost twenty seven pounds.
I started a new food journal as soon as I found out I was pregnant with our second baby. So far the food journal has revealed that I was eating too much grains (already). This first revelation was quickly corrected by the my midwife’s requirement that I eat one hundred grams of protein daily which wasn’t happening because I was filling up on less protein dense grains. Once again I find myself eating less vegetables than I should, but with morning sickness still hanging on I am finding it difficult to choke down certain kinds of vegetables. The one thing I’m not lacking is fruit … I love fruit and even morning sickness can’t take that away!