When Life Gives You Lemons . . .

Okay, I am about to make a comment that : pregnancy is good for your diet.

Let me explain: everyone's experience is different, don't get me wrong. And you're supposed to gain weight and bust out of your clothes - this is the only time you get a pass for being unable to buckle your seat belt. I don't mean because now that you're responsible for another being, all of the sudden you start eating healthy. I mean suddenly those foods that you loved suddenly no longer have a hold over you. In fact, food no longer has a hold over you.

Now granted, I have not seen any pictures of myself (and I AVOID the camera like I'm on America's Most Wanted), so I could look like a cow. I certainly feel like one. But on the other hand, I don't think (and neither does the doctor) that I have gained too, too much weight. And considering the amount of time I am sedentary (not by choice!) that is a surprise.

There are two things that are happening that are preventing my rapid weight gain: my nose and my appetite.

I feel like a damn Bloodhound these days. I smell smells that no one else smells, that never bothered me before. They get stuck in my throat and I cannot even think about food. For example, there's a restaurant in downtown Oakland (it shall remain nameless) that I have frequented a couple times. For some reason, the smell in there just makes me SICK. It doesn't stink, at least not in the traditional sense, but I CANNOT stand the smell. And so I'm just not as hungry.

And then there's the lingering morning sickness. It's not as bad as it was for the first 4 MONTHS, but sometimes it comes in waves. And my stomach says, "You are not putting anything in me, I don't THINK so." So I just don't feel like eating. At the same time, it conspires against me sometimes. For example, for about a week all I have wanted to eat was berry pie. I think I told everyone that I was lusting for some berry pie in hopes they would feel pity and bring me something. I could have eaten berry pie all day (I actually did one day, when someone was nice enough to bring some berry cobbler). Prior to that I was obsessing over an Orange Julius. I even tried making one in my blender (didn't work out). And I almost cried when, after a quick web search, I saw the nearest Orange Julius was in Hayward at the mall. Damn bed rest.

In the end it balances out - the hate of a certain unhealthy restaurant and the love of berry pie have worked out so that I haven't gained too much weight, I don't have gestational diabetes and I didn't have any new cavities at my last dentist visit.

So besides the whole bringing new life into the world benefit of pregnancy, perhaps the choke hold that food has held over me for the last 20 years will loosen up too.

As my friend Jesse says (for no other reason than it sounds cool), "Take that, Sasha Fierce!"