Well, this little bub inside me is starting to make himself known! (yes, HIMself... boy 3! We'll have three stooges in the new year! haha!). We had our ultrasound a few weeks go. Actually we had a fetal assessment. I tend to get high blood pressure in my pregnancies, and this is 100% not preventable or treatable. The treatment is to remove the baby! Blood pressure in pregnancy is related to how the placenta develops. If it develops with notching in the umbilical cord, this makes blood flow difficult, therefore raising my blood pressure in order to force the flow better. The best analogy to describe it, is if you try to drink a smoothie through a kinked straw. You have to suck that much harder. It's the same principle with my body.
Our fetal assessment showed that there is notching on one side of the umbilical cord, so I will inevitably face some blood pressure issues. It's simply a matter of watching for the signs. Some signs are, swelling, extreme weight gain, seeing stars or spots, headaches, dizziness etc...
up till now things have been okay. But lately my weight gain has been coming in higher increments. More like 3-5 lbs a week as opposed to the suggested 1 lb. This combined with my 140/90 blood pressure reading this morning was enough to tip me over the edge and declare it NECESSARY to start back on a keto diet. if nothing else, it ought to help with not retaining water. You need carbs in order to retain water. The less over-all weight my body carries, the less hard my heart must work in general, regardless of the placenta itself.
So today I marked day 1 of Keto during pregnancy. For breakfast I had 2 eggs with spinach, broccoli and some butter. lunch I had a hamburger patty in lettuce wrap, some dried seaweed, and a decaf latte made with partly cream. For a snack I had some shelled sunflower seeds. For supper I had Jalapeno poppers (which, is bacon, wrapped around jalapenos filled with cream cheese).
Now, granted this doesn't appear to be the healthiest of days, but the carb count for the day is incredibly low. This will enable me to pop into ketosis fairly quickly. I should also caution that dietary ketosis is an entirely different thing to ketoacidosis, which happens during starvation. One is incredibly hard on your organs and makes the body very acidic.The other; Dietary ketosis, is benign towards the body other than giving the pancreas a break from producing insulin! This break allows your bodies cells a chance to heal from inflamation. Where people tread the line between ketosis and keto acidosis, is when they do TOO MUCH intermittent fasting. This is obviousely a form of starvation, which can quickly lead to Keto-acidosis as opposed to ketosis. Also, it can lead to adrenal fatigue by exhausting your adrenal glands.
Keto for the average person involves consuming no more than 15-30 grams of carbohydrates in a day. In pregnancy Ketosis can be maintained at the higher level of 30-50 grams of carbs. this is "net" carbs, meaning that if a food has fiber, you can subtract grams of fiber from the total grams of carbohydrates. For example. The sunflower seeds I had for snack, have 10 grams of carbs for 1/3 cup. But 1/3 cup also has 5 grams of fiber. So when you subtract the fiber from the carbs, it's really only 5 grams of carbohydrates your body is consuming.
all this is to say, that with a healthy amount of veggies, a focus on good quality fats like coconut oil, and fish oils from consuming fish, it is 100% possible to eat a very VERY healthy diet on a keto diet. Now... it's also very possible to eat an UNHEALTHY diet. So that is why concious effort is so important!
Anyways, that's my schpeal for today. Hopefully I can stick to my guns. The plan is to eat keto at home and only break ketosis for bigger social occasions such as thanksgiving and larger christmas gatherings. The beauty of being pregnant is that ketosis can be achieved overnight, simply because of the balance of the hormones. And I intend to take FULL advantage of this fact, and also ensure I consume grains from time to time through this little feature I posess.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
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