Saturday Night and I Ain’t Got No Body

Well…at least, that’s how I’m starting to feel on this new sugar free diet.

Three weeks ago I was diagnosed with the disease “gestational diabetes”, which means that my pregnant body is not producing enough insulin to convert the sugar in my body into energy. Therefore the sugar ends up staying in my blood stream and builds up in unhealty (for me and baby) amounts.

I talked a lot about it and how I was diagnosed in this post. It’s hard to believe it’s already been going on 4 weeks since that horrible testing experience. In fact, I have another pre-natal appointment coming in this coming Wednesday, Feb. 20. (Time is definately flying).

So anyway – being a gestational diabetic means that I must regulate my sugar as much as possible. Normal pregnancy cravings of ice cream, chocolate, and comfort foods can no longer control me because I can’t have them if I want to stay healthy. Reading nutritional labels has never crossed my mind until this diabetes thing cropped up, and now I’m practically obsessive about them (what, this has 12 grams of sugar per serving?! no way!). Starchy foods that turn strait to sugar – white flour, white potatoes, pasta, corn – also do not cross my plate. It’s been very very hard (to say the least!) to turn my hand away from the creamy, garlic mashed potatoes and homestyle macaroni & cheese that is so prevelent at the all-you-can-eat buffet’s we frequent. But I’ve done good. I’ve also been able to wean myself from mom’s sweet tea.

(Well….that is, until my gracious mother spent a buttload on a bag of splenda just for me so I could have her delicious tea!)

Now, with all of this sugar avoidance, I’ve discovered an unexpected side affect. My body feels like it is melting away, and I’m conflicted over that. Should I feel good or bad?? What women on earth complains about losing weight? I’ll tell you. A pregnant one does!! I’m eating healthier than before (apparantly) and following my diet of whole grains and good wholesome sugar free foods, yet I now feel like the most abnormal pregnant woman on earth.

I started out this pregnancy at 141 pounds. Over the next 4 months of dr’s visits I weighed in at 141, 143, 142, and 141.5 resectively. Finally, at my December 27th visit I was overjoyed to learn I weighed a whopping 148 pounds. I was finally gaining weight! I was in heaven. I mean, wasn’t this what pregnancy was about? After somehow avoiding the typical nausea of the first trimester, it felt “normal” to finally be doing something as…uh…normal as gaining weight. I had truly been worried, especially when other pregnant friends all would make comments like “Oh, I’ve gained 20 pounds already!” or “I gained 50 pounds”, blah blah blah. Hiding under a rock is what I felt like doing. Somehow I must have been doing something wrong.

I kept my fingers crossed and at the January 24 appointment, I weighed in at 148.5 lbs. Not bad. At least I wasn’t losing weight, right?

Well, that was before I went on the sugar free diet. I just weighed myself on our home scale tonight and I’m back down to 140 lbs. ARRRRGG. Wasting away from this diet was not on my 9 month to-do-list.

It’s amazing at what you obsess with when you are pregnant. Gaining weight (or the lack thereof) is just one of those many many weird mental worries that was unknown to me 8 short months ago.