First Trimester – Nausea Tips

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Ok, the first trimester of pregnancy went pretty well for me. I did have a couple bouts of vomiting and felt nauseated pretty often. However, what I did to combat the nausea was eat very often.

Normally I can get through my day ok with breakfast, then lunch, then a snack then dinner. However, my first trimester of pregnancy, I ate pretty much every couple hours. My lunch bag looked like I was going for days instead of just a few hours to the office.

My saviours?

  • lara bars – quick and pretty nutritious
  • fruit cups – packed in juice or water (however, I spilled a few on my outfits while opening them at work)
  • applesauce with ground flax seed – to combat the impending constipation
  • rice crackers – everyone said get Saltine crackers but I try to stay gluten-free because I have a sensitivity
  • baby belle cheese – I also try to stay dairy-free, however, the first trimester my diet wasn’t exactly picture perfect
I slipped up here and there and because I was so hungry and tired for those few months, I did eat more of what I shouldn’t. None of us are perfect, right?

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Cleanse with Your Friends begins!

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I have begun instructing a great group of women with The City of Barrie program – Cleanse with Your Friends.
We are all starting our cleanse within the next few days. I’m gearing up to start tomorrow and came up with a new snack:)

Black Bean Avocado Dip

  • 1 can black beans, rinsed well
  • 1 avocado
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • juice of half a lemon

Blend all ingredients in a food processor. The colour is kind of greyish afterwards but it tastes great! Eat with carrot and celery sticks, cucumber and some brown rice crackers. Mmmm!

Day 1 for me starts tomorrow!

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Almond Coconut Macaroons – Gluten & Dairy Free Baking can taste good!

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Yes, it’s true, gluten & dairy free cooking is tastey! Just take the word of my 4 year old friend, Nigel. He looked sceptical at first looking at these cookies. After one bite, his face suddenly brightened and he quickly ate the rest.

Gluten/Dairy free recipes don’t have to be hard to find. I found this recipe in my Recipe of The Week: Cookies cookbook by Sally Sampson. You can adapt it slightly to make it even more healthy if you’d like. Many people discover through Naturopathic Medicine that they have sensitivities to common foods like these. After they begin to feel so good when cutting these foods out many don’t return to eating the “bad” foods again.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup white sugar (substitute with local honey or try a small amount of Stevia)
3 cups natural almonds, lightly toasted and cooled
1 1/2 cups unsweetened dried coconut flakes
4 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt

Toasting the almonds:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Place nuts on a baking sheet or in a shallow pan, transfer to the oven and bake until lightly coloured and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or tin foil.

2. Place sugar, almonds, and coconut in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until the mixture looks like fine sand. Transfer to a large bowl, add the egg whites, vanilla, and salt and mix, using a wooden spoon, until everything is well incorporated.

3. Place heaping teaspoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Transfer to the oven and bake until the edges begin to firm up, about 15 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack. Let the cookie sheet cool completely between batches and repeat with the remaining dough.

Whitney Young, ND

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