As I’ve mentioned before, my last pregnancy was fraught with high blood pressure problems. I know that my diet was a big part of it back then. All I did was eat junk and salty foods. After working in the NICU, I see the effects that high blood pressure can have on a fetus. It’s not good.
So I made a promise this time, to both the baby and myself, that I would not let this happen again. But the cravings are hard to ignore. DH called me out at one point after a bad few days and I realized that he was right. I was eating crap. and I was eating a lot.
After that, I called myself eating right, but I still have a major problem: Sodium.
I bought some pickles to snack on when I felt really hungry, added salt to my cucumbers and tomatoes, put tons of creole mustard (I had no idea how much sodium it had!) on my tomato sandwich. And of course, I’d indulge in the occasional lean cuisine when I didn’t have time to make a meal…talk about lots o sodium!
I crave salt. During weight loss, sweets were always my biggest enemy. Well no more.
How did I know that I was having a problem already? You may think my blood pressure has been up, but no. I’m having really, really, really bad headaches when I eat salty stuff. I was at work the other day and felt absolutely terrible for the fourth day in a row. I went and took my blood pressure and it was 116/68…which is fine. But just because it’s not up now does not mean that my body is not being affected. When it was time for me to leave work, I had car trouble and my headache intensified, even causing some dizziness. This scared me a lot.
My MIL was actually the one who mentioned salt and it gave me pause. I had eaten a ton of salt that day. The next few days, I made a conscious effect to lower my salt intake. The headaches went away. Problem solved! Or is it?
Like with all things, I need a plan. Here it is so far:
- Most instant meals are a no-no, unless I can find any exceptions
- Lots of fruits and veggies (I actually had been doing that, but adding tons of salt! Yes, even on my watermelon…which I have never done in all my natural born life!)
- Find other seasonings such as onion, pepper, oregano
- No fast food at all!
Today’s meal is a baked pork chop( seasoned with a little olive oil, pepper, and onion), mashed potatoes/cauliflower (made from scratch, with a little skim milk and very small amount of unsalted butter and pepper), Steamed carrots, Green pea/Corn combo with onion and a whole wheat roll. It was pretty good! DS enjoyed it too, though he was angry that the carrots were cooked…he likes them raw.
My lunch today! Probably would've been better to have chicken, but at least it's baked.
I have another Dr’s appointment today, I will try to update afterwards.
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