What’s the Deal?

I’ve always been one who needs to eat. I could never be anorexic. When I was a child I would scream if I wasn’t fed in a timely manner, as I got older I would get weak and sluggish, and in college I could survive without a meal, or at least an extra hour or so, but the all-you-can-eat cafeteria food was my friend. During the m/s of pregnancy I was miserable – hungry but too sick to even think about food most of the time. For the past few months I’m rarely satiated. I know that experts say we should eat small meals/snacks about every two-three hours, but what once could satisfy me until the next meal barely satiates my appetite for that two hour time frame. I’ll eat breakfast, a snack, lunch, sometimes a second lunch, dinner, and there’s usually another snack or so thrown in there as well. Often times, after all this food, I’m still not eating my recommended calories for my baby and me. So my question is – if I was eating way less food than this prior to becoming pregnant, why didn’t I lose 50 pounds? I guess I should just be glad that I lost the weight I did. I remember returning home from Disney World one year and I stepped up on the scale to discover I weighed (confession time here) 168 pounds. I’m 5’6, so I knew I needed to lose weight, and hadn’t seen the 160s since I lost it, until last week. When I first became pregnant I was just below 150 – still not ideal, but closer, and definitely better than starting in the 160s. I know I could gain up to my post-Disney weight, and if that’s what bambino needs then that’s what I’ll do, then just work extra hard later to take it all off. I recently read that for every child you bear you gain 7% extra weight, and your husband gains an extra 4%. Can we say “stroller strides?” I just read another Nestie’s post about being healthy so she and her husband are there for their children. That’s all DH and I want, too – to be healthy and pass on healthy habits to our children so we can live a long and happy life. Fortunately for me, DH keeps up with many of the latest nutritional findings – trans fats are virtually outlawed in our house, we try to keep saturated fats and cholesterol to a minimum, and I avoid most prepared dishes that are high in sodium. Hopefully we can pass on these good eating habits to our children for their health. Now if I can just pass the GD test tomorrow. Why does it have to be over the holidays when there is so much free food (potlucks, treats from coworkers, gifts, etc.) and so many that are seasonal desserts you hate to pass them up? Good luck to me. If only I could still have the taste aversion to sweets I did during the first trimester. I did read recently that if the mom has GD then the baby is more likely to become obese as a child and/or adult. However, if the mom changes her diet then the baby has a better chance of avoiding obesity later in life. So here’s to hoping all is well.