Welcome to my first ever The Muscle Mumma news post…

Now that I’m in my second trimester I can thankfully say that my body is getting into a nice food rhythm & my hormones have started to settle down which is helping my food choices.

My cravings for healthy hormone balancing foods are back to normal & I feel like I'm getting a lot more wholefood back onto my plate including quality proteins, good fats & good carbs.

In my first trimester, I was craving unhealthy foods high in sodium & I remember thinking; “If my hormones keep up this erratic behaviour, I am going to have ALOT of work to do post pregnancy lol.” Fortunately now in my second trimester, I am feeling much more energised & my moods are more stable from craving & eating a healthy balance of foods again.

I will have another news post on my first trimester shortly & have Nutritionist Lynsey Koch from Seed & Sprout, that will be a contributor & provide clarification around why the cravings can be so extreme in that first trimester. One of my favourite quotes I repeated quite a bit in my first trimester was “I will never judge a pregnant woman ever again for eating bad food!”

The first trimester is the time your body will show its weakest links & as a result, the strange & out of character cravings can occur. In trimester 2, all has been great & below is my current day on a plate which I find sustainable & helps keep my hormones balanced, which is so important for moods & weight management during pregnancy.

Find out more about balancing your hormones & shredding fat for life in my upcoming Hormone Balance Masterclass.

Meal 1

My first meal upon arising usually consists of healthy granola with fruit topping, whether that be berries or banana & organic almond milk.

Meal 2

If I'm hungry between breakfast & lunch I snack on almonds (really enjoying the macro pea protein & turmeric almond snack packs at the moment) & or quality pea protein powder with almond milk.

Meal 3

For lunch I've been trying to get at least 150gms - 200gms of animal protein, rotating between quality red meat & white meat along with getting more vegetables & salad into this meal. I also love getting my fats from things like feta or haloumi.

Meal 4

I do find as the day progresses now being pregnant, I feel like my body needs more starchy carbohydrates. I'll either have a small serve of granola & fruit, sweet potato or opt for another fat dominant snack like almonds or seeds.

Meal 5

For dinner I'll shoot for another 150gms - 200gms of quality protein in & have found in this meal if I don't eat enough protein I'll feel hungry around bedtime & I certainly don't feel as satisfied or sleep as sound which I know is so crucial for hormone balance.

In my first trimester when I lost my taste for meat (which for me is unheard of lol) & felt as though I filled up on the wrong foods (more on that later…) but now having cravings for protein again I try to rotate my protein source. For example, I might have rump steak one night, chicken thigh fillets or lamb another night etc.

I always mix it with different vegetables or salads from my Best Foods To Eat For Hormone Balance List like baby spinach, cos lettuce, olives, tomato, carrots & beetroot etc. & add a variety of fats like feta, haloumi, nuts, seeds & coconut flakes etc.

Meal 6

After dinner my go to are oranges & I've spoke to women who are pregnant & oranges definitely seems to be a common craving.

Our body knows what it needs in order to stay healthy & improve immune health & it's definitely a fruit I have consistently had & craved throughout my pregnancy.

Load Days

I still have 2 x clean loads a week which would consist of a combination of my beautiful husbands clean food treats & ingredients from my Hormone Balance Load Day Food List. I believe Load Days are key for enjoying your food, avoiding binge eating & balancing appetite hormones like ghrelin & leptin.

In Comparison To Before Pregnancy…

In comparison to how I used to eat, I would previously fast up until 10:30am & have a meal of protein, fibrous carbs & good fats. If I tried to fast now when pregnant, I would feel nauseous & need more energy. Overall I am having more healthy carbohydrates from fruit & starches. The amount of vegetables, salad, proteins & good fats that I'm eating is very similar to what I would have eaten prior to being pregnant.

My portion size hasn't changed too much. I definitely eat more frequently which would bump up my overall calorie intake but seeing I don't track my calories, I couldn't report how many calories that I'm on, however, I do find I'm eating very consistently & if I ignore that feeling to eat it makes me feel nauseous.

I am eating good quality food which has helped my hormones stay balanced throughout this journey & if you'd like to find out more about eating for hormone balance & weight management, tune into my next live webinar by following the link here. As soon as you register, you'll get the details to tune in to my next live webinar.

I'll be bringing you more news posts on nutrition & pregnancy, including my first trimester experience as there was a lot of things that I didn't expect to happen that did & again when I get to my third trimester I would love to share that journey with you all as well.

As always, I hope you got lots of value out of my first ever The Muscle Mumma news post & I hope to see you in my next LIVE Webinar! Please leave a comment below if you want to see more news posts like this one :)

Yours in hormone balance and fitness,

Sally Gatt xx

@themusclemumma