merylwhite1's Journal

Food diary 143

Nov 30 2009 22:41

Today...

Breakfast: muesli, plain yoghurt; 1/2 a mango, apple

Snacks: tomato omelette and another apple

Lunch: another stir-fry with chicken, udon noodles, veges and sweet chilli relish

Snacks: bowl of papaya; 2 passionfruit; 4 pieces of chocolate

Dinner (out): chicken wrap, chickpea salad with an unholy amount of dressing!

Snacks: sliced banana in yoghurt

Argh. M has started looking for jobs overseas again because he thinks he won't earn enough in New Zealand to look after me, Wriggly, and be able to keep paying into an investment account (which he has to keep depositing into monthly until May next year). I hope he doesn't apply for anything. I know money will be very tight but I can't imagine being away from home, family and friends with a tiny baby. I am keen to avoid the pitfalls of postnatal depression and I think being in our home country will help me a lot. We have plans to go overseas again after 12-18 months, so it's not like we will be broke forever. I guess there are pros and cons to both options but I thought we were all decided...

On the plus side, I have a few new books today thanks to a sale at the big bookshop near my house, so it is time for a cup of tea and a read in bed.

Food diary 142

Nov 29 2009 21:15

Today...

Breakfast: muesli with milk; mango

Lunch (out): beef noodle soup with lots of lime, mint, coriander and beansprouts

Snacks: 2 apples, 3 pieces of chocolate, 2 bowls of yoghurt

Dinner: braised lamb shank + veges with buttered couscous

Snacks: 2 passionfruit, but will have a bigger snack later

I have been eating more meat lately. You are supposed to get more protein when you're pregnant so I have been eating either eggs, meat or both every day. It's quite a change from a couple of years ago, when I used to be a very occasional meat-eater, but I don't feel at all unhealthy. It must also be good for my iron count!

We are still spending all day talking about names. We've decided to go with either Callan or Soren if it's a boy. I am thrilled because I love unusual names but never thought Mac would like either of them - both my suggestions. Our girl's shortlist is: Arden, Oriella, Nolita, Lyra and Mieko (mee-ay-ko). I realise these names are all a bit odd-ball and won't be to everyone's tastes, but I do think they look stranger in a big list than they will when we have just chosen one!

Arden and Lyra are probably my favourites. Arden is Welsh and means "eagle valley", and Lyra is Greek and means "lyre of Orpheus" - the Greek poet and singer. Mieko was MacLean's pick: it means "prosperous" in Japanese. None of the names we picked for the meaning, we just like how they sound. Nolita actually means "unwilling" which is not a great moniker, but I think it sounds pretty, in English at least.

Three weeks to go until we can find out what we're having.

Food diary 141

Nov 28 2009 21:17

Today...

1st Breakfast: slice of buttered toast with marmite; 2 passionfruit

2nd Breakfast: cheese and tomato omelette; 2 passionfruit

3rd Breakfast/Elevenses: muesli and plain yoghurt

Lunch: roast chicken and gravy with stoemp (potato, carrot, garlic, cream & thyme puree) and buttered veges

Snacks: 2 Chinese fragrant pears; apple; bowl of steamed veges with tomato chilli relish

Dinner: lamb Turkish kebab and a side salad

Snack: bowl of yoghurt with chopped dates.

Outdid myself on the breakfast front today! Well, we had to get up early as had the first appointment in the morning for the ultrasound scan so I had a quick breakfast at 6am. Then I had my second breakfast when we got home again at 9.30am... Got hungry again and had a third breakfast at 11am - lucky as we didn't end up eating lunch until 3pm. We had a quick dinner tonight at a Turkish kebab house and it seemed surprisingly healthy, given what a bad rap kebabs get.

Anyway, enough about food... the scan was wonderful! I had begun to convince myself that all would not be well but the baby is alive, happy, and active. We have decided that he/she has graduated from Bean and is now called Wriggly, in honour of the gymnastics on display at the scan. The obstetrician had to chase Wriggly around my uterus with the ultrasound pen in order to keep transmitting images!

The scan showed the baby as 13 weeks and 6 days old, however the doctor advised us to keep to our original dates (13 weeks 4 days) for the time being. Wriggly had a nuchal fold test done (they measure the thickness of fluid at the back of the neck) and is low risk for Down's Syndrome. This was what I expected but it is still nice to have it confirmed. Our next scan is on the 19th of December, when we are going to find out if it's a boy or a girl - can't wait! Still having monthly scans because of my medical history but so, so happy and relieved that everything is going well and I am finally safely out of the first trimester.

Here's Wriggly!

Food diary 140

Nov 27 2009 19:59

Today...

Snack: banana (got up not long before lunch)

Lunch (out): cup of veggie soup; turkey in a German laugen baguette with salad, tomato, gherkins, onion and lots of honey mustard mayo

Snacks: big tomato and spinach omelette; banana; 2 apples

Dinner: smoked chicken and new potato salad with romaine lettuce, tomato, spring onion, cucumber and balsamic vinaigrette

Snacks: pear; 32g packet of chocolate smarties; thinking about making a sandwich soon

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Well, no thanksgiving for me but I did eat turkey, does that count? Had a nice surprise today - it is actually a public holiday today here too, but for totally different reasons. Today is the traditional day of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca for Muslims, so everyone gets a day off to pray to Mecca. I didn't realise until last night that Mac was going to have today off work so my plans to have a more organised day, get up in a timely manner and cook lunch went straight out the window!

Oh well it was lovely to have an extra day out together... Sticky, hot and humid as always but we did do a lot of walking, eating, shopping and talking about the baby. I ate really well but probably could do with some more calcium in there, don't imagine there is too much in chocolate smarties.

I have an ultrasound scan appointment tomorrow at 8am. I am nervous but also hopeful. This is the first appointment we will have been to together and I am keen for Mac to see the bean jumping around and waving at him! I will be 13 weeks and 4 days tomorrow so providing everything is going ok there should be plenty to see.

Hope everyone had a lovely day and enjoyed those Thanksgiving feasts for me - your descriptions all made me hungry!

Food diary 139

Nov 26 2009 20:37

Today...

Breakfast: muesli with plain yoghurt and a sliced banana; 2 apples

Snack: cheese, tomato and thyme omelette

Lunch: chicken and udon noodle stir-fry with pumpkin, tomato, onion and broccoli with sweet chilli sauce

Snacks: 2 pears, banana, 4 pieces of chocolate

Dinner (out): cheesy potato-topped pie with fish, veges and spinach in a cream sauce; side salad with balsamic syrup

Ooh, life is chaos right now. Not having a study schedule has flipped my routine out of whack... actually, I just don't have a routine right now and I need to get one. I've been getting up late, going to bed later, not getting much of my to-do list done, not cooking much and it's making me feel a bit blah.

Today I made an effort to cook a proper lunch and it was delicious, healthy and kept me full for ages - I will definitely try and cook again tomorrow. Also only a few more days until I can start my December membership at the gym - it will be good to get in some regular exercise aside from just walking, which has also been haphazard this last week.

Last night Mac and I came up with a shortlist of possible names for our little sprog but today I've already gone off most of the girl's names... oops! I really want something unusual and it turns out (after a bit of research) that the names are not as uncommon as I thought. I am looking at Welsh names for a girl at the moment as my grandfather was Welsh but he died before I was born, so I thought it would be nice. Unfortunately one of my favourite Welsh names, Arwen, was the name of Liv Tyler's character on Lord of the Rings. I love the name but I'm not going to subject my kid to having people think she was named by mad LOTR fans!

Food diary 138

Nov 22 2009 21:46

Today...

Breakfast: muesli and plain yoghurt; 2 apples

Lunch (out): handful of potato wedges; 1/2 a huge steak sandwich in a French baguette; big side salad

Snacks: 3 mandarins, 1 apple, lollipop

Dinner: Caesar salad

Snacks: 2 mandarins, sandwich of cheese, lettuce, tomato and cucumber on sprouted grain bread

Had a big pub lunch today. It's a British style pub and most of the people who go are expats and we usually see the same people there propping up the bar. I have to say, it is a "fat man" bar - the portion sizes in that place are ridiculous - I couldn't finish my meal and I tend to think my eyes are usually bigger than my stomach.

Big portions are not common here, nor are they in New Zealand - I have never doggy-bagged anything in my life because the portions are nearly always the same as what I would have at home, so if anything is left over it isn't worth saving. Plus, because the portion sizes are normal, doggy-bagging is pretty rare anyway. When I was waitressing we always thought it very strange when people wanted to take their leftovers with them... did they not have enough food at home? I guess it is just one of those little cultural differences but I was amazed at all the meals coming out of the kitchen today. Who needs to eat that much food?!

Anyway. It was a good weekend. I had a nap both days but my energy is slowly getting a little better. The morning sickness is all gone and I am starting to feel better. I think in a week or two I will have shaken off all the rest of this tiredness and will be onto my second wind. Looking forward to it!

Food diary 137

Nov 21 2009 21:23

Today...

Breakfast: muesli and yoghurt; 3 mandarins

Snacks: carrot sticks, slice of watermelon

Lunch (out): honey-baked ham on a German laugen baguette with honey mustard mayo, gherkins, lettuce, tomato and onion

Snacks: 2 apples, yoghurt

Dinner: 2 pieces of buttered sprouted grain bread; 2 bowls of pumpkin soup with thyme and rosemary

Snack: banana.

Went out for dinner last night and managed to put away a stack of food, waddled home feeling I'd overdone it a bit and parked ass on the couch for the rest of the night - not exactly a great way to burn it off! Not surprisingly I wasn't as hungry today and ate a bit lighter, although those baguettes they have at the German beer garden we go to are pretty big... Can always finish one though!

At dinner last night I really missed having a drink. I'm getting to miss it more and more - I don't need to drink to get drunk but I just really enjoy the odd beer or glass of wine and I'm starting to get jealous of other people drinking! So far I've only had sips of Mac's beer when he is having one, but I don't know if that just makes it worse as I am tempted to steal the whole thing off him once I've tasted it.

Making the soup tonight was a bit of a mission as we don't have a blender here and so everything (onions, garlic, carrot, celery, pumpkin) has to be chopped into tiny pieces before it's cooked. Argh!! I kept meaning to buy a blender, even just a stick blender, but they are still a novelty item over here - and pureed soups are definitely just a Western thing - so they cost about $200 for something basic. It seemed like a waste of money for something we will have to leave behind when we go, but man there are times when it would come in handy.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.

Food diary 136

Nov 19 2009 19:55

Today...

Breakfast: 2 bowls of muesli and yoghurt

Snacks: 2 big granny smith apples

Lunch: 2 wholemeal wraps with roast chicken, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and mayo

Snacks: 2 kiwifruit, 2 mandarins, chunk of cheese

Dinner: roast chicken salad with avocado, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, yellow capsicum and olive oil vinaigrette

Snack: handful of lychees, cinnamon pinwheel pastry

Had a good day today. We were given a roast chicken by a friend (people are always giving us food over here!) so I have pretty much lived off that today. I also seem to have eaten two of everything today but hey, at least it was good healthy stuff... pinwheel excluded.

I also went grocery shopping today and bought avocados, bread, fruit, veges, cheese, eggs and lots of other healthy stuff to eat so that I have good options. Mac has had another cholesterol test and it is actually worse than it was last time which I was really surprised about as he has been eating much better lately. He thinks red wine is going to be the solution to all his problems, but I think it's more that he doesn't move around as much with this job, and because we live on-site. Anyway, my point was that with all this healthy food around I hope some of it will end up in his hands too.

Food diary 135

Nov 18 2009 21:34

Today...

Breakfast: muesli, plain yoghurt; 1 poached egg on toast; 2 pears

Snack: piece of carrot cake

Lunch: 2 wholemeal wraps w mayo, chicken fried in olive oil, lettuce and cherry tomatoes

Snack: 5 pieces of chocolate, piece of cheese

Dinner: cheesy shepherd's pie with sauteed veges; icecream cone.

Snack: 2 mangosteen

I have not eaten well the past few days. Too many treats and I am starting to feel it too: putting on more weight than I would like and feeling more lethargic than ever. I have been so exhausted lately that I've been treating myself to more and more sweets, but it's getting OTT and I need to work on that.

On the plus side, my main meals have been fine. It's the snacks that are doing me in. Having a bit of a fat day I guess - just feel bloated and hate having gained more than the recommended amount for my dates. I did have a big Indian meal yesterday which tasted fairly high in sodium, so I'm hoping some of it is just water. Either way I suppose it isn't the end of the world.

Plan for tomorrow - go grocery shopping and restock my fridge with healthy food, especially snacks!

Sorry everyone that I have been so bad keeping up with journals. Everything else in my life is similarly disorganised right now too!

Food diary 134

Nov 14 2009 20:38

Today...

Breakfast: muesli and plain yoghurt, slice each of honeydew melon and papaya

Snack: pottle of yoghurt

Lunch (out): cup of very rich cream of barley and bacon soup; turkey pastrami on German laugen baguette with tomato, lettuce, onion, gherkin and honey-mustard mayo

Snacks: fruit salad with mangosteen, pawpaw and fresh lychees

Dinner: leek and potato soup with creme fraiche; wholemeal roll; bowl of buttered veges

Sncak: haven't had one yet but might later

It might look like I ate a little lightly today, but you would understand if you had seen my lunch. That baguette was the size of my head, I swear! I have no idea how I managed to pack away the whole thing, but I did. The deliciousness helped. After that I only had an afternoon snack because I was feeling a little queasy and food helps, not because I was hungry.

This is going to be a quiet weekend - good!! All I have wanted to do this last month is sleep. I'm getting up later, going to bed earlier and having a nap in the afternoon - and I still feel like I've been hit with a sledgehammer most days. I definitely feel a step up in that the morning sickness has all but vanished. I am enjoying food again and able to eat much better now that vegetables don't repulse me and buttered white toast is not the staple of my diet. Hooray to that! That said, there will always be a place in my heart for marmite on buttered toast.

Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!