Monday 5 April 2010

The worst thing for a food lover...

...is morning sickness.

My life is normally filled to the brim with food. I'm the sort of person who has planned what's for dinner before I've even had breakfast. The stack of books next to my bed is made up of cookbooks rather than trashy novels. I can spend whole weekends in the kitchen cooking up delight after delight. My notebook contains a 'hit list' of must visit restaurants, cafes and food shops.

Yet at the back end of last year I found myself unable to stand the thought of food, let alone the sight, smell or taste of it! It was all I could do to force myself to eat anything vaguely healthy. For some reason, having spent years eating a healthy well balanced diet, I found myself eating anything in crispy crumb coating - fish fingers, spicy bean burgers, cheese and onion breadcrumbed 'things' from Marks & Spencer, ready made meals and a lot of Nairns oatcakes with cheddar (whilst dreaming of oozing, ripe brie, epoisses and stichelton...).

There were a few casualties of this seemingly never ending period of purgatory. The main one which remains is broccoli. Knowing that dark green vegetables are good for me I tried my best to subsitute some of the rubbish I was eating for healthy vegetables. But for the humble broccoli this effort (even coating it in a rich cheddar sauce) was all in vain. There was and is notihng that will entice me to eat this once much loved vegetable. I'm not even rejoicing in the arrival of the purple sprouting broccoli season. This makes me sad.

Eating out became impossible. Starting with the fact I don't eat meat anyway, my choices on a standard restaurant menu are already limited. Add to that the apparent desire of many chefs to create their, often solitary, vegetarian offering from one of the millions of cheeses a pregnant woman is advised to avoid. And finally throw into the equation me - a normally food loving woman with constant nausea who had lost all desire to eat and couldn't stay awake past about 7.30pm. A recipe for enjoyable evenings out this did not make...

But here I am, through the worst (depending on who you listen to...), nearly 22 weeks pregnant, back on my horse and raring to go!

7 comments:

  1. Wow, congratulations!!! Wonderful news!

    I'm really glad you're back and raring to go, really hope your appetite is back to normal soon. Speaking as someone who has never been pregnant, morning sickness must be horrible! Perhaps you'll learn to love broccoli again once the little one has arrived!

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  2. I feel for you - it's all fresh in my mind what it was like. Remember you can eat any of the proscribed cheeses if they're cooked...that made a big difference to me.

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  3. Congratulations
    and welcome out of the other side. Time to enjoy your food again.

    I think now is a time to eat anything your heart desires, without the guilt of over indulging.

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  4. Lovely to see you back! Now just don't overdo the chocolate tart!

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  5. Congratulations - both on the pregnancy and being able to eat again!! So glad you are back on your blogging horse. GD.

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  6. This sounds all too familiar. I too (now 34 weeks pregnant) went off green vegetables completely, and mourn the oysters, steak tartare, whisky, unpasteurised cheeses I so love! Agree it's very difficult to eat out, though I'm still trying, convinced as I am that I won't be getting through my 2010 restaurant wishlist very fast once the baby arrives. Congratulations, and good luck. I can't wait to try your delicious chocolate tart.

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  7. luckily, i never suffered from morning sickness much - and whatever they tell you, you don't need to restrict your diet all that much... i had severe sushi cravings in my third pregnancy and gave in to them at least once a week - from the right source, of course. but you can be pregnant AND a gourmet/glutton... congratulations, what wonderful news. if i didn't feel so old, i would gladly have a fourth ;-)

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