What I Ate Wednesday!

At last we are in my favourite month of May and the sun has finally got its hat well and truly on! The skies have been completely cloudless and I am freckling up at a rate of knots. It’s so nice to feel the warmth and everything seems so alive and bright.

I am sorry that I didn’t post a What I Ate Wednesday last week, it was a really hard one for me, I am positive it was all pregnancy hormone related but I was feeling so low all the time. There was absolutely no snapping out of it, and no matter how long a walk I went on to release endorphins or how much I felt my precious bundle kick, I just couldn’t do anything to get off the emotional roller coaster.

I’m sure a lot of my feeling so low was because I was on my own a lot. Working from home has so many positives but there are, of course a few negatives too, the major one being that you have way too much time to sit, think, dwell and worry.  When I was in full-time employment back in London I never had a second to myself, I was relied upon and always had deadlines to meet and things to prioritise. Life was chaotic and stressful, the days were long and with commuting added on, as much as I hated it, I also loved it.

So, the situation I find myself in now is one of great fortune, and I would never knock it, it’s just taking some getting used to, especially now that I am free from the Hyperemesis Gravidarum and can actually do the work I have to do! However, being your own motivator and boss and with only a cat (although the most wonderful cat in the world) as your closest colleague and confidante can sometimes feel a little harder than it should.

As soon as the weekend had come though and I had my husband by my side again I was feeling much better and since then I have been non stop busy, have felt much more myself again and am finally back on track.

Wednesday 4th May:

We got up at 5am as we had to drive into London for some meetings. Even though we are only 1.5 hrs out of London the traffic on the M4 is notoriously terrible so we left ourselves a LOT of time. My sugars on waking were 3.5mmol (not counted as hypo during pregnancy) and it was too early to eat but the night before I had made us both each a 2 egg omelette with blueberries, raspberries, mixed seeds and almond nut butter to have on the way. I also took a pot of cashew nuts, goji berries and dried coconut to snack on.

Once we arrived in London, we parked and hopped on the train in to the City. It’s the first time I’ve been back in since I’ve been pregnant so I felt so excited to walk the same steps I had done for 8 yrs as a non pregnant lady. The train was packed and hot (nothing changes) and the tube was no better but it was actually really nice to be back and to feel busy. On arrival I had a sparkling water and some of the cashew / coconut / goji mix. I regularly take homemade trail mix with me if I’m out and about as they are easy to snack on and mean I don’t go buying something that I shouldn’t. In terms of where I get all these ingredients from, I get everything in bulk from Bulk Powders as it’s great value with no additives.

After our meetings we headed to Barnes and sat by the river for an hour and had a little picnic salad lunch that I had prepared the night before of rocket, wok’d tenderstem, cherry tomato, sun-dried tomato, feta, avocado and beetroot with sea salt. My blood sugar was 4.0mmols.

I had a Drink Maple water, which I hadn’t had before but was really nice. I’m always a little sceptical about these “healthy drinks” as so many of them are laden with hidden added “natural sugars”, but at the end of the day sugar is sugar full stop…and will still affect your blood sugars, diabetic or not. This had 5g carbs per carton (250ml) so is actually very very low in sugar and didn’t seem to have any affect on my blood sugar. It tasted great, and was like drinking a very slightly sweet water and was really refreshing and hydrating in the sun.

I gave myself 2 units of insulin for lunch and the maple water which was clearly 2 too many as by the time we had driven back to Wiltshire and to the hospital for my appointments I had a really low blood sugar (1.6mmol ). So, there I was with the Sonographer gel’ing up my tummy downing a carton of pure apple juice! The baby seemed to like it though as there was lots of kicking and turning. We were really lucky with this Sonographer as she talked us through every second of the scan so that we knew what she was looking at. Everything was perfect on the scan, the heart was healthy and as it should be and all the measurements were in line for the 24 weeks. One big relief all round. But still, my sugars wouldn’t rise!

After this I had an appointment with my obstetrician where I asked my usual 1001 questions and then I had my diabetic dr appointment. All is so far so good and we both came away feeling really happy with everything (TOUCH WOOD).

By the time we got home it was 7pm and I was literally a walking zombie. We threw together a salad as neither of us had the energy to cook. Blood sugar was at 4.5mmols so this was certainly a no insulin supper of wok’d kale, avocado, mackerel, cashew nuts, olives, capers, sun-dried tomatoes and beetroot. I drizzled olive oil on top and sprinkled dried chilli. I drank pepper mint tea and was in bed and asleep by 9pm!