HEALTH & HEALIN G
What I learnt from pregnancy food aversions and weird cravings for ’no-no’ foods. Do less, be more. The first trimester of my surprise pregnancy is teaching me some crucial lessons that life has tried in a myriad of other ways to explain to me.
by Casey Conroy
the ‘wrong’ way. The smell of food cooking in the kitchen on the floor below even with my bedroom door closed (coconut oil being heated is the most repulsive thing to me in the world right now!) The older man behind me in line at Woolworths who, upon inspecting my groceries, challenges me with his own theories on the futility of buying organic food. The Richter ratings of these events
and more are greatly amplified in my hormone-flooded body, leaving me cowering under a blanket holding my nose, or trembling in fury outside my local supermarket when usually I’d barely notice such stimuli. For someone who has been flat-
When a nutritionist craves Coco Pops…
IT’S TAKEN GETTING PREGNANT to finally realise that my self-diagnosed disease of constant academic and career achievement is not always in my or others’ best interests. That softening, doing less, and deferring my third university degree are in this case the sane options. I’m 12 weeks pregnant and so far it’s
been a wild ride! Wild in the same way one might feel after crash landing on an alien planet and finding themselves not only in a new outer landscape, but in a new extra-terrestrial body too. It’s my first pregnancy and although Andreas and I are thrilled, we didn’t plan for this pregnancy nor do we have any idea what the hell we are getting into, having spent hardly any time around kids, ever. It’s been downright challenging, having
to learn a whole new way of being in this new and constantly changing body. Some days I feel exhilarated, strong, feminine, capable, proud, and intuitive. Others I’m bewildered, overwhelmed, depressed, anxious, furious, and clueless. Often I feel
24 MAY 2015
chested her whole life and has become comfortable with the physical and social ramifications of this (even living on the Gold Coast where surgically enhanced breasts are a dime a dozen), watching my breasts grow has been surprisingly disturbing. Brushing my teeth and jogging have never been an issue until now, when I’m constantly reminded of their growing presence. I find myself wondering why on earth I coveted bigger boobs throughout my entire adolescence and early 20s as I had no idea how bloody annoying they are – and I know they’re only going to get bigger. Morning sickness is like being stuck on
a ferry between southern Thai islands in the Andaman Sea during a storm, except the ferry ride never stops. For a period of a couple of weeks and still on the odd day, the feeling of nausea is nearly as frustrating as the inability to actually vomit. Why they call it morning sickness has me stumped as it certainly extends far into the afternoon and night. Eating has become a whole new
all of these emotions on the same day. For me, being pregnant is like having PMS, all the time – or at least what I imagine PMS to be as I’m one of those lucky women who usually gets no unpleasant physical or emotional reminders that my period is coming until it’s actually there. I feel overly sensitive to EVERYTHING.
The cigarette smoke from 200 meters away. The way my partner touches me on the back
world of food aversions and radically different bodily cues. Being a three-solid- meals-a day kind of person for most of my whole life, I’m used to eating a large and satisfying meal, then not thinking about eating again for at least four hours. Nowadays I can be perfectly fine one minute and ravenous the next, yet my stomach capacity seems to have shrunk to the size of an egg. Having to eat small portions every two hours has finally allowed me to sympathise with those people who get hangry (i.e. hungry to
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