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I am following the Brewer diet for this pregnancy, which means eating a ton of protein.  That’s hard enough, but the vitamins and supplements are even worse.  I have a history of pregnancy induced hypertension and gestational diabetes, which I’ve always been able to control through diet, exercise, and supplements.

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I seriously have a checklist on the fridge to make sure (or at least attempt) that I take what I am supposed to when I am supposed to – in addition to the Brewer diet checklist.  When did eating get so complicated?  In a few weeks I’ll be adding L-Carnitine, too, for the gestational diabetes.  How many pills can someone swallow before their throat goes on strike? (I’ll have more on how I manage gestational diabetes naturally through diet and supplements tomorrow!)

I have 12 grass pills every day, along with four glasses of milk.  I’m not a big milk drinker and honestly?  Not a big grass eater either.  OK, they’re not grass, but they are green and filled with some kind plant life and smell just like a lawn after a hard rain.  I’m a little cynical about those ones, but my midwife gives them to me and she’s a doctor of naturopathy.  They certainly can’t hurt.

I have a date with cod liver oil three times a day, to be taken with a calcium supplement, if you please.  Both of these are liquid and so I mix it with a little bit of lemonade which tastes odd, but not as putrid as taking them straight.

And twice a day I’m to take Iron + Herbs, which holy cow is expensive, but I think is effective.  I have been anemic for 20 years (are there any long term side effects?) so if it can get my iron up over 12, I’m going to call it a miracle drug.  It’s not horrible, but again I mix it with lemonade.  That one I have to take at a separate time from the cod liver and calcium, and none of the supplements should be taken with coffee or black tea.

It seems every time I wander into the kitchen I’m drinking some kind of lemonade concoction and staring guiltily into the fridge wondering what kind of meat to eat.

My problem is remembering to eat all that food.  Now, if there was a check box for brownies or chocolate covered pretzels, I’d have no problem.  But two eggs and 50 grams of protein?  I have to really force myself.

That’s part of pregnancy, though.  Eating for two. Choosing the salad.  Eating a pear instead of Payday.

I love being pregnant and eating without apology any time I am hungry.  And I love eating food designed to make me rounder.  It’s a diet for optimum nutrition, not for trying to fit into cute jeans.  A diet that will have a lasting, lifelong outcome.

I live in an amazing place.  Can you imagine?  My problem is too much nutrition!  How many mothers barely get what they need to survive?  How many mothers have complications, stillbirths, or die in childbirth because they had no vegetables or not enough protein or runaway diabetes and preeclampsia?

I have so many abundant blessings, even if I have to drink them with lemonade to mask the taste.  I wonder if this baby will be born with a permanent pucker.  What weird foods have you ever overdosed on?