They say that change is good, and in this case, I certainly hope that they are right. I grew up as an ovo-lacto vegetarian/pescatarian, and with the exception of a few experimental years, I've spent most of my adult life that way too. This blog has focused on vegan and vegetarian food for about two years now, and I can honestly say that I enjoy, and usually prefer, eating that way.
Another thing "they" say is that having kids changes you. I've found this to be very true, but not often in the ways I had expected. While I was pregnant, my midwife put me on a high protein and moderated carb diet with strictly no white starch or added sugar. This was in an effort to keep me from gaining any excess weight.
I didn't have a lot of faith in this plan at first – simply because, historically, I don't lose weight. Even when I diet. Even when I exercise regularly. Even when I went on a 15-Day juice cleanse! My body just doesn't want to give it up.
So as you can imagine, I wasn't too excited about the diet, especially when I figured out how many beans I would have to eat to hit the daily protein goals they had set for me. (That's a freaking lot of beans.) Tofu and processed meat replacements don't agree with my stomach enough to eat them regularly, and with the safe limits for eating fish in place – well, I didn't see that I had much of a choice.
I started eating meat. And you know what? I lost weight! For the first two trimesters I steadily lost weight. I only started gaining it back toward the end. By the time I had Charlie, I was only 17 pounds heavier than I had started. At 6 weeks post-partum I had already gotten back to my starting weight.
I figured once I had the baby I would return to my vegetarian diet and (that part of) my life would go back to normal. Surprise! Charlie was born at a low birth weight due to high blood pressure and possible preeclampsia. He is totally A-OK, and my birth went well, but it wasn't an ideal situation for either of us. He or I could have ended up going through serious complications if luck hadn't been on our side. My midwives advice to make sure that my future births are as safe as possible was to spend the time between now and then getting as healthy as I can.
I do consider myself pretty healthy in general. I feel good. I almost never get sick, even when everyone around me does, and despite being a bit chunky, I'm strong, and I can swim, walk, hike, etc. What's really shocking is that before pregnancy, my blood pressure was always on the low side. In order for me to be more healthy than I am now there is only one thing left: my weight. I need to lose weight, and the high protein diet has been my only real success in that department for more than a decade.
To make things just a little more interesting, my boy is also having mysterious gas issues, so I'm booting gluten and dairy for a little while to see if either one helps. So pretty much I'm living an almost-paleo kind of lifestyle. That's a real boomerang from being a vegetarian!
I considered keeping this blog dedicated to the veg until this little journey is over, but then I thought about how long that could be. I've already spent a good 10 months on this diet. It will be at least 16 more months before we try for a second baby, then I'll have 12 more months of being pregnant! Guys, that's a long time to go without keepin' it real.
So, I'm making a change. This blog will no longer be exclusively vegetarian, though it will still feature plenty of recipes that fit that criteria. I also predict an increase in gluten-free recipes, at least for the next few months.
I realize that this change might alienate some of my readers, and that's a sad thing. To my veggie people, I hope that you'll still find enough value in this site to stick around, but if you can't stomach seeing the carnivorous recipes mixed in with the veggie ones, I totally get it. No hard feelings.
Much love to you all. Thanks for reading!