A Foodie’s Journey through Pregnancy

I love food! That goes without saying. If you ask my people they will tell you the feelings I have for food. For me, food is an emotion. Be it anger, happiness, sadness food is my comforter. Some people say it is unhealthy, but who cares as long as I am happy, right? So now you know me, I am what the people call a FOODIE. Luckily, I married a man who also enjoys food.

A few months into my marriage, I got the “happy news”, I was PREGNANT. Among various emotions at the time, happiness stood out shining brightly. I was ecstatic for my first doctor’s visit and that was when the truth of ‘being pregnant’ sunk in. I was presented with a list of foods that I should avoid. The list was bigger than the list of food I could have. The ‘NO’ list had a major portion of my favorites. Don’t get me wrong. I love my little tyke to the moon and back, but giving up on most of my favorite food was a big sacrifice. I plan on using this to emotionally blackmail my little one rather than the usual “I carried you for nine months” dialogue.

My husband being the overprotective one, began his sole duty of keeping me at bay. It was like his watchful eyes following me like a hawk. It was a sad story from there when food was concerned. A tragic one! You know, my heart was breaking.

The worst part of all this was watching other people having it in front of me with no regret in their eyes. It felt that the food (and the person eating at the time) were teasing me to have a bite. Oh!! that horror! the person having the prawn curry in front of me was like watching a strip tease. You can see but cannot touch. And thus, began my nine-month waiting period. Each time I looked at my doctor in a pleading way hoping that suddenly she would say “Now you can have whatever you want”. It is weird that when you are asked not to do something, you tend to long for it all the more! I started seeing more people eating the ‘forbidden’ food all the time.

My husband and parents successfully kept me at bay despite me using my puppy eyes on them for nine months. And finally, my little bundle of joy was born, after hours of struggle. The feeling is unexplainable and suddenly all the sacrifice and struggle seemed worth it.

I was brought to my room in the hospital and was anticipating ordering my next food when the doctor walked in. It was like a slow-motion scene. The doctor checked on me and said that the food restriction would continue as I was breastfeeding. WAIT! WHAT! Did I hear that correctly or was my brain playing tricks on me?

I asked my doctor again and she confirmed that what I heard was right. How can someone shatter a person’s heart twice? My husband stood beside me with a smirk on his face.

I have heard people say a whole lot of things about pregnancy, but how come nobody, I mean nobody says anything about food, pre and post-pregnancy? But someone should warn women about the ‘food sacrifice’ (as I call it).

Well, all said and done, now the waiting period is on for me to have the food that my heart desires. Somehow, the light at the end of the food tunnel doesn’t seem to be shining anytime soon!