All Things Natural: Update (Day 7 / Week 32)

Quick update on how "all things natural" are going around here.  

Brian and I are on Day 7 of Whole30.  In Melissa & Dallas Hartwig's book, The Whole30: The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom, they have a timeline for how you may feel during the thirty days.  Day 7's heading is "I just want a nap."  That's pretty accurate for how we both feel today.  But I'd say it has more to do with the fact that Francis and Ellie woke up about 500 times last night.  Tomorrow, Day 8, we're to expect "NOOO! my jeans are TIGHTER!"  Well, that's pretty much a guarantee these days :)

Pretty sure this is the last week my winter coat will zip shut :)

Overall, we're really enjoying the 'diet' so far.  The vegetable prep can take a bit longer than just tossing pasta into water, but I enjoy having all of these new cheese-less (I hate cheese; yes, I'm weird) meals to try.

Gazpacho - great side dish!

And the fact we're doing it together and Brian does way more than 50% of the shopping and cooking - I'm liking it so far.  My greatest motivation is getting more fruits and veggies to the baby (and myself) and because most of our lunches are salads with left-overs from the night before - that's finally happening!  (Maybe this baby will weigh less than 9lbs?!!)

Salad with leftover steak, almonds, vegetables and left-over 'green cabbage slaw with lemon oil'

But missing a little (or big!) sweet treat after lunch and dinner is still hard....or was, until I discovered the wonderful world of dates!  Not just the ones with this guy...

Brian in Rome with some students last week (he's HOME now :)

But the naturally sugar-filled little fruit.  One of the main goals in doing Whole30 is to break food 'addictions' - like always needing a snack after a meal.  So I was feeling a little guilty replacing gummy bears or chocolate with a date or two after every meal...UNTIL I saw this wonderful post on Instagram from Whole30's Healthy Mama, Happy Baby.

The caption says:

According to a 2011 study in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, women who consumed six dates/day for the four weeks leading up to their due date:
1. Were significantly more dilated and had intact membranes when they arrived at the hospital compared with the non-date fruit consumers
2. Were more likely to go into labor spontaneously and avoid pitocin
3. Were more likely to have a shorter first phase of labor
Why dates? The fruit can influence oxytocin receptors in the body and accelerate the onset of uterine contractions more easily.  So, in addition to the other things you may be doing to prepare yourself for labor (taking a childbirth class, visualizing your birth, preparing your nursery, packing your birth bag, eating well, moving your body, "trying" to get as much sleep as possible) this study suggests that it wouldn't hurt to consume a few dates as well.

Score!!  I was seriously so excited about this news in addition to all the comments from women confirming that they had shorter, quicker births when they'd eaten dates during their pregnancy compared to their other pregnancies when they hadn't!  Now it does go onto say NOT to binge on Larabars (made mostly of dates), which I'd been stalking on Amazon.de - but they were super pricey to ship here.  But then I found this link to make your own Larabars - or power balls.  So I tried out our food processor for the the first time.  Brian uses it for things like the cabbage salad pictured above; I now use for it delicious sweets - like the homemade Key Lime Pie balls!

Key Lime Pie power balls (sorry about the plastic-wrap that I was too lazy to remove for the pic)

Now in my 32nd week of pregnancy, I'm feeling good and we're 'enjoying' preparing for natural birth.  Thank you so much to everyone who has shared their natural (unmedicated) birthing stories and resources with me.  Reading other people's experiences and advice, or listening to them on podcasts (like The Birth Hour), has been super helpful.  Upon other's suggestions, I've been in contact with two doulas who speak some English and hopefully one of them will be able to be with me for the birthing process.  Brian and I are also taking an online natural birth class.  There are 8 lessons...and if the baby arrives 'on time' we've got 8 weeks to go!  But given all the dates, it may not be so long ;)