Time to Chow!

A woman carrying two babies, I have been told, should be eating 3500 calories.  Say what?  This has been difficult, and to be honest, I don't know if I am eating that much.  I do know that I am eating all the time.  breakfast, morning snack, lunch #1, dessert, lunch #2, afternoon snack, dinner #1, and dinner #2.  The bulk of this is supposed to be complex carbs and protein.  It's a good thing I like peanut butter!

I have had a hard time maintaining my weight over the last year or more while breastfeeding my son.  I gained 40 pounds with my pregnancy with him.  And lost 50, and that was with drinking Ensures to help me not lose anymore.  So when I went to my second MD appt, I was thrilled to see I had gain weight.  And the doctor said it looked like they were growing well.  What a relief!

Basically, everything I eat, I add something to it.  And I try to eat as healthy as possible.  So a salad is not just some greens w/ dressing.  No, it is greens, chicken, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, strawberries, and almonds.  Ice cream is usually my dessert for the day.  I always add peanut butter to it.  My fruit smoothies I have about every other day also contain greek yogurt (more protein than reg. yogurt), granola, and spinach.  If I have some silken tofu, I will add that too.  Smoothies are a great way to get a ton of those complex carbs!  My son loves them too, so it's a great PM snack after his nap for both of us.   Per my doula recommendations, I am also drinking 1 regular Ensure a day.  She said it is really hard for a busy mom to get all the nutrients they need, especially the protein, to go full-term with twins.  This was not a big deal for me, as I was used to drinking them while I was struggling to maintain my weight while breastfeeding my oldest. 

The hardest part of eating is not the eating part.  It's the preparing part.  It seems like all I do is prepare food.  After getting done dinner #1, we get DS ready for bed.  After he's in bed, I would love to go to bed too, but I know I will wake up starving if I don't, so I need to eat dinner #2.  I take either a nutrigrain or Larabar to bed to eat in the middle of the night.