Fitness Fridays: Pregnancy Cravings

Perhaps not entirely fitness-related; more related to keeping on top of weight gain – at some point soon, I might talk about my struggle to accept my changing body as a good thing (please don’t berate me and tell me that I’m growing a living human being inside me – I know that logically, but that doesn’t mean mentally I’m just OK with gaining all the weight I worked super hard to lose last year). Right now, though, let’s talk about cravings.

The #1 question everyone asks me is, “Any cravings? What do you want to eat?” Having never been pregnant prior to this and having always been ‘me’ – I don’t know if everyone asks every pregnant woman this question, or if it’s specific to me. Either way, it’s been an interesting question to answer!

My first ‘strange’ craving was definitely sweets. I also craved dairy/calcium, in the form of my body telling me “I want something cold and creamy,” which I initially tried to satisfy with Greek yogurt. Since my body took that but laughed at me when I thought that might sate that desire, I began eating ice cream… a lot… which is unusual for me. I like sweets just fine, but I rarely craved them — and then the peanut butter cravings hit pretty hard. I constantly ogled peanut butter snacks in supermarkets, until Hubba Hubby was like, well, why don’t we get some? I finally hit the jackpot when I discovered Torico Ice Cream’s peanut butter banana chocolate chunk ice cream, which hit all the right notes – cold, creamy, sweet, and peanut buttery. Then the motherlode: Reese’s Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cups, on sale at BJ’s for something like $6-7 for a box of 18.

Of course, that craving quit on me halfway through the 2nd box, so we’ve still got some in the freezer.

I also went through a brief “need more veggies” phase, but I generally eat a pretty substantial amount of vegetables so that didn’t really change my life much. The nicoise salad phase was brief, and satisfied with salmon instead of tuna on my salads, but led to eating this very unsatisfying version at Beauborg at Le District.

But the one craving that has remained consistent throughout the past 10 weeks…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRCliB8g79n/?taken-by=feistyfoodie

BLT.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRpOdtKAFcu/?taken-by=feistyfoodie

Kind of strange, but I attribute it to Hubba Hubby’s affinity for bacon/meat and mine for tomatoes being combined into one super craving. Plus, I’m not really eating/able to eat sandwiches in a traditional sense, so this cures that easily without the risk of listeria.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BR9l7N_ALKp/?taken-by=feistyfoodie

Honestly I’m not even sure how many BLT I’ve eaten in this time period, just how many I’ve put on Instagram!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSKlHDkg8bA/?taken-by=feistyfoodie

I try to get avocado on all of them, and it’s so, so good.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSm99kyAxo7/?taken-by=feistyfoodie

I’m learning where to get the best-made BLT’s in the neighborhood and beyond…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTAo5C9Avor/?taken-by=feistyfoodie

And that sometimes a toasted sesame bagel with veggie cream cheese, bacon and tomato can be an excellent substitute for a BLT. Well, sort of. It’s an amazing sandwich in a different way, you know?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTP9xQ5Ailr/?taken-by=feistyfoodie

One more BLT, shall we?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTWmdBiARIp/?taken-by=feistyfoodie

I kind of want one right now…

(I also notice that I want Asian food more often than I used to, specifically Chinese food, but I don’t know if that counts as a craving!)

If you’ve ever been or are now pregnant, what kind of cravings did you experience? Did you indulge them? How often? What kinds of cravings do you have [if/when not pregnant]? MOST IMPORTANTLY, where can I get your favorite BLT?