What I Eat in a Day: Vegan Pregnancy

Healthy eating is important during all stages of life, but suddenly when you're pregnant there's all this extra pressure. When I eat something without much nutritional value in my regular life, it affects only me. Now not only am I trying to eat enough in general to grow a human, but I also want to make those meals count and avoid too many empty calories because I fill up faster as baby takes up more and more space.

At my 20 week appointment I hadn't gained any weight from the 16 week appointment - at which I was up 3 pounds total so far. I did lose some weight in the first trimester (a whole other cute story full of lots of nausea and vomiting) but I was surprised about not gaining in those 4 weeks because I have a visible bump so I was sure I'd be up at least a little. 

Today - 21 weeks.

My doctor isn't concerned about it at all; I'd much rather have slow steady weight gain and I'm sure over the next 18 weeks or so I'm going to gain steadily - who knows I could start piling the weight on at any moment.

It did inspire me to pay a little more attention to what I'm actually eating over the course of a day though to make sure it's at least nutritious, so here's a real day of meals and snacks.

Also, I get plenty of protein in my regular diet, but now that the goal amount is 70 grams, I have to think a little more about it so I've included the protein content for my meals. (And who doesn't love to ask a vegan where she gets her protein?)

Breakfast: Avocado Toast, Soy Yogurt, Vitamin, Tea. Protein: 20 grams

Snack: Almonds. Protein: 6 grams

Lunch: Leftover Farina Alto pizza, Homemade Tempeh Bacon. Protein: 21 grams

Snack: Orange. Protein: 1 gram

Snack: Fruit Protein Smoothie. Protein: 17 grams

Dinner: Sopa de Quinoa. Protein: 6 grams

We used the Bob's Red Mill recipe and added garbanzo beans - it's just ok. I think it could use a lot more spices, and the ratio of broth to other ingredients is kind of high, so next time I would add a lot more quinoa especially, but more of everything.

Total Protein: 72 grams

Thanks for coming along with me while I took a look at my day's intake. It was educational for me as I hadn't taken kept track of a complete day of food for quite a while. I'm planning to keep you posted on both my meals and my weight gain as we go along.

Thanks for reading, see you soon.