Lately I have been on a bit of a health kick. A couple of my friends on Facebook have inspired me. 
Also, I figure I can’t eat too healthy with a baby growing inside of me, so why not? And since juicing is one of the easiest ways to get good nutrition, and since we have a juicer, I’m juicing.
After the morning sickness went away, I suddenly couldn’t eat as much as I had been. If I ate anything solid in the evenings–even a smoothie–I would crawl into bed with a heavy feeling in my stomach and sometimes even a sensation a little like heartburn.
I quickly realized that my body just couldn’t handle food in the evening. At least, not as late as I was eating–and since we were not eating breakfast early, there was no way to get a third meal early enough.
Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem. I maintain my weight much better on two meals than on three. However, I am pregnant, and I don’t want to deprive the baby of calories or nutrition. Granted, the baby is only about 5 inches long right now and doesn’t need a whole lot of calories right now, but I want to make sure I am giving it all the best nutrition possible.
I recently bought a jar of wheat grass
Then I thought of juicing. I bought a 5 lb bag of organic carrots at Whole Foods and juiced them. This I could mix with the wheat grass, and it was very satisfying. I also started mixing in Melaleuca’s fiber with this juice (adding extra water), and I found this very tasty and good for my digestion, too.
Sometimes I juice other things with the carrots. Last night I juiced carrots, kale, and apples, all organic. And I took pictures. My kids were helping me.
Organic Carrots, Red Kale, and Apples
I had made kale chips with half a bunch of red kale, so I used the rest for this batch of juice, I had almost 5 pounds of carrots, because I had used 3 or 4 in recipes during the week. And the 3 apples that had been on sale the last time I went to Whole Foods.
So I washed them and started juicing. As soon as he saw the juicer, Manny wanted to come watch. He likes to nibble the carrot fiber as it comes out of the juicer.
He was trying to help, but the carrots were too hard for him to push down. He put some of them in, though.
After juicing most of the carrots and all the kale, I started on the apples. Since apples are much softer than carrots, he was able to do it all by himself.
When it was all done, I let Manny and Gislaine have a little bit of the apple juice (it had 2 or 3 carrots in it, since juicing a carrot with the slender end up last leaves less unjuiced food than a chunk of apple), and then I mixed the juices together. I added the extra water and fiber to mine, left one for my husband, and froze the rest. Here is the result (before adding fiber to mine):
So now when I feel a little bit of hunger in the evening, I mix up a liquid drink. Since my husband drank one, there are a total of 4 servings per week for me. I mixed fiber with one, and drank it down. I stored the extra ones in the freezer. I get one out the night before I want to drink it. On days that I don’t drink one of these juices, I will add a bit of whatever reconstituted frozen juice I have in the fridge (right now I think it’s apple raspberry) to my fiber drink and throw in some wheat grass. With the kale in this, I don’t think I really need the wheat grass with my organic juice.
So that’s what I do for supper most nights. It digests very quickly, so there is nothing to make my stomach upset when I crawl into bed, and tastes delicious. Granted, there are some evenings when lunch was light and I’m hungry early; then I’ll eat a little something. And I’m sure in the last trimester I will be very hungry and will need more calories than I do now. But for now, I’m content that I am giving my baby the best nutrition I can while still listening to my body.
This post is participating in the Modest Monday link-up on The Modest Mom blog.
I love reading about things like juicing during pregnancy. I had a friend so scared of fresh produce during her pregnancy; convinced she was going to get E. Coli from fresh fruits and veggies. It’s refreshing to come across someone who understands that it’s a great nutritional boost especially when you can’t eat like you’re use to. I also like the idea of freezing your juices. I might try to do this for my oldest so she can grab her juice from the fridge on her way out the door to school. Thanks for the tip!
I have learned that I can’t really allow myself to dwell on all the potential things that could go wrong. Hey, my baby could be down syndrome or have cystic fibrosis. But the chance of that is very slim. I figure the healthier I eat, the more likely I am to have a healthy baby. And be healthier myself to care for it and my other two kids! I wish I could afford to juice for the whole family, but right now I figure the baby is the most important, as is my health. My kids wouldn’t drink much of the juice anyway, and I usually save my husband one glass out of a batch if he’s around. Especially since I try to juice only organic foods.