That Infamous Pregnant Love of Food

I'll admit that as I type this, I'm indulging in one of my favorite "guilt" foods: peanut butter M&M's. I love them all the time, but I'll admit while pregnant, I definitely splurged for the bulk size packages and ate them. Well, ate them while alternating between pretzels and pickles. Not at the same time, that's gross, but a nice rotation. It made me wonder about those things I've never eaten or enjoyed before pregnancy that I ended up loving and wanting more of the entire time I was pregnant, and whether or not I feel the same about it now.

I remember going to Boston for Pax East while pregnant last year, and it was great. There, something happened to me where I became obsessive. We ate at this Irish pub inside the hotel we were staying at, and my husband ordered a steak that came with this macaroni and cheese on the side. I tasted the mac and cheese, loved it, and preceded to stuff my pregnant face with it. I wanted to know what cheeses were in it that made it so good, I wanted to know how to make it. I wanted to order it again and again and again. For the entire rest of my pregnancy I wanted to try and figure this out. I needed to figure it out. Now I can't even remember why I loved it so much, or even if it was as tasty as I thought because I was just a ravenous pregnant woman. Next year I'll have to eat it again to see if I still love it as much.

Then there is the caesar salad with croutons. Or really just croutons in general. I remember being in grade school and eating a crouton once and immediately becoming sick. Since then, I refused to eat another crouton. During my pregnancy, we went to a restaurant and I just wanted that salad. Extra croutons. It was amazing. Again, wasn't sure if it was because of the pregnancy or not but I devour it every time we order from there still. I suppose at least it's a salad, there are worse things. I've had the same reaction before with steaks, fish and chips, and mayonnaise.

You don't really regret any of that until the moment where you don't even want to look at the scale during your pregnancy because the numbers keep going up and up. And then when the baby is born and you realize "maybe I shouldn't have had those extra M&M's". You're sustaining another person, but you don't need to be excessive about it. Sure, having a huge steak that takes up your plate sounds delicious at the time but is it really worth it? Actually, it is. As long as you don't go overboard all the time, I say indulge yourself now and again. You're only pregnant a few times and you have enough to worry about than whether that steak is going to be excessive or if that extra bowl of ice cream is going to harm you. Doctors will let you know if you're doing something wrong. You just have to worry about keeping active, cutting most of the bad stuff out but allowing yourself the freedom to enjoy it too. And yes, food is just as delicious when you're not pregnant.