This whole week has been sweet sweet and sweet stuffs!! I had sweet foods almost every day in this past whole week! I had 1.5 slices (I shared half a slice with a friend for lunch so I won't feel so guilty) of chocolate cake on Friday! I tried to make myself feel better and explain to SJ that it's ok for me to crave for sweet things this week because I'm in week 24! And according to updates by babycenter.com.my, 'Taste buds are now forming, and, believe it or not, acquiring a sweet tooth is all part of it.' Haha!
On Saturday, I have decided to challenge myself to NOT have any desserts for ONE WEEK! SJ is like the challenge-master appointed by me and he will try to make sure I stay in this challenge. Yesterday was the first day and I sort of broke my challenge already because I had an 'ice-cream potong' red bean favour (thinking that red-bean is probably the healthier option) when I was with my friends :( Somehow I had an idea that ice-cream potong has less sugar than other ice-creams because this Malaysian made ice-cream probably had more ice or other ingredients in it than sugar. I know Baskin Robbins and Haagen Diaz are super duper sweet and creamier compared to this.
Plus I am HUNGRY ALL THE TIME for the past whole week!!! :((( I want to eat or munch all the time especially sweet stuffs! I know that I have been having too much sweet stuffs because I could feel itchness in my private area. I had the same problem after chinese new year and the doctor said it could due to eating too much sweet food and with all the hormone changes in my body due to pregnancy, I could have easily contracted fungal infection. After speaking with a few mothers and expectant mothers, I realised almost everyone I spoke to had the same problem in that area! I know that I must must must reduce my sweet foods intake.
A colleague of mine was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at about week 30 and she has only gained 8 kilograms. I have already gained 7 kilograms in week 22. I hope I will not gain more than 2 kilograms in my next antenatal visit. I have sort of like self-diagnosed myself with gestational diabetes yesterday. I wanted to have something sweet after dinner yesterday but kept asking SJ for permission because I was feeling so bad if I had any without his approval. Everytime I wanted to eat something, especially more carbohydrates (such as biscuits) or sweet foods, I would look at him to get his approval but he has been very strict. He wouldn't even want to share a piece of Ferrero Rocher chocolate with me yesterday :( I offered to share a can of Coke or 100 plus with him on Friday night (this is doubly worse because these drinks are chilled and super sweet) and he gave me a box drink (which is still sweet but has lesser sugar content compared to a can of Coke) instead. I guess it's a very good thing that I have such a strict husband because I know he will be a strict parent and our kids will not be able to get their way all the time. I know I can do it, I just need to find substitutes or distract myself from FOODSSS, especially sweet stuffs.
So, I goggled about gestational diabetes yesterday night to find a substitute food that I can take which is healthier and suitable for diabetic patients (I'm not diabetic 'yet' and hope I won't be one). I had this craving feelings that I need to eat something sweet. After a few websites, there was a suggestion that I should take a muesli/cereal bar instead because having carbohydrate is the better option compared to chocolates or cakes. I have a bar of muesli in the house! Told SJ and he said OK, so I happily went to grab it. Was munching happily in front of him and suddenly he commented, 'how come your muesli bar got chocolate one?' because he saw a layer of chocolate around the muesli. The flavour of my Carman's muesli bar wrapper was Dark Chocolate! SJ must be thinking I am such an extreme because the flavour of my muesli bars is also chocolate! But I got these muesli before I got pregnant, so technically, I didn't plan to cheat. I used to be a super crazy chocolate lover before I got pregnant. I can finish a whole chocolate bar at one go.
More info about gestational diabetes: In this website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001898/
Causes, incidence, and risk factors:
Pregnancy hormones can block insulin from doing its job. When this happens, glucose levels may increase in a pregnant woman's blood. You are at greater risk for gestational diabetes if you:
- Are older than 25 when you are pregnant (I'm above 25, so this is one risk factor)
- Have a family history of diabetes (Good thing all my family members don't have diabetes).
- Gave birth to a baby that weighed more than 9 pounds or had a birth defect (Not applicable as this is first baby for me)
- High blood pressure (I have low blood pressure)
- Have too much amniotic fluid (Hmm, this is possible as my bump is so huge. Shall ask dr next time I see him).
- Have had an unexplained miscarriage or stillbirth (Not applicable)
- Were overweight before your pregnancy (Nope, definitely not overweight before pregnancy).
The biggest concern of gestational diabetes is that the baby may get too big for delivery and may have complications at birth. The mothers that had gestational diabetes during their pregnancy, they will most likely to develpe type 2 diabetes in 5 to 10 years time and the children will likely to be obese and develop type 2 diabetes in the future. So therefore, I must try to prevent this from happening.
Been reading more websites on this subject and many women commented that they do not have any of these risk factors at all but still develop gestational diabetes! The only way to prevent it is to exercise regularly and eat healthily to make sure do not gain too much weight, from the early start of the pregnancy. With more information from the media, I am getting more paranoid and I think this will definitely give me the motivation to eat healthily from now onward!
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