Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Diet during the first trimester

Food, what to have and what not to, is very tricky in the first trimester for you don't know what suits and what doesn't. Its a trial and error exercise. It took me 2 cups of tea and a bowl of cornflakes to eliminate milk from my diet while curd was ok. Sure, milk is very essential and a must-have because it is rich in Calcium. But I figured it was better to avoid than have it and throw up everything else I ate afterward.

Finding a healthy substitute for cornflakes as breakfast was difficult. Used to having a bowl of cereals for over 4 years, it was tough to get used to something else. But then hunger teaches you, doesn't it :) My diet constituted of the following during the first trimester:

7:00 a.m. - A bowl of sprouts (green urad dal and kala chana)
7:30 a.m. - Horlicks
8:00 a.m. - 2 bananas
9:30 a.m. - 3 Idlis
11:30 a.m. - Lunch - a big plate of vegetable/fruit salad with no dressing. Just salt/sugar sprinkled with lemon. Or rice.
3:00 p.m. - Fruits - apples, cheekus, pomegranates, mangoes whatever the season was
5:30 p.m. - Biscuits
7:00 p.m. - Fruits or some light snack
8:30 p.m. - dinner - dosa /idli or something other than rice/rotis. The smell of rotis was nauseating.

As a substitute for milk, I tried condensed milk which suited me. it is worth the initial effort to make a diet chart of what you like / don't. It is best to avoid fried foods and milk based sweets.