E06: On Pregnancy, Meal Tracking, & Trusting Your Gut
When she first joined the Collective, Kristen had lost a significant amount of weight in her first trimester and was concerned about getting enough nutrients to support her vegan pregnancy. In this episode, listen as past client Kristen shares:
what helped her during her first trimester (hint: tracking!)
how she overcame self-doubt
why being a part of a group helped her feel supported
what helped her shift her mindset around tracking her meals
how she eliminated confusion around “what to eat” for her vegan pregnancy
July 2021 Update: Since recording, Kristen has since delivered a healthy baby boy!
Connect with Maya:
Website: The Vegan Pregnancy Collective
Instagram: @vegan.prenatal.nutrition
Transcript
Hi friends. Welcome to the Vegan Pregnancy Podcast. I'm your host, Maya buck, prenatal dietician, fellow vegan and founder of the vegan pregnancy collective from food to fitness. You'll hear from vegan moms-to-be just like you and other healthcare professionals. The goal is to empower, support and inspire you as you navigate your vegan pregnancy.
Now let's do.
Welcome to today's vegan pregnancy podcast. On today's episode, we're going to be talking to vegan mom to be Kristin Perkins, Kristin and I connected over Instagram a few months ago. Now this recording is in June and she is getting ready to give birth in July. Welcome Kristin. Thanks for joining us.
Thanks Maya. In your own words. I like to start out the episode with this question. What does a healthy vegan pregnancy mean to. It's a great question. When I think about what a healthy vegan pregnancy means to me, I have to first think about why it's important to be vegan, why I made that decision and I've been vegan just a year and a half.
So it's still somewhat new for me. I've always sort of been intrigued with the idea from an environmental and moral reasons. But for me, it was really about how's my body for form the best. That's kind of what got me over the hump to make the changes. So when I think about. What a healthy vegan pregnancy means to me, it's being able to respect that important choice that I made to become vegan myself, and to be able to continue that through the pregnancy and have a healthy child.
So being able to do that is the most important thing in order to do that, you need to build confidence and need team around you. Like you, you became from. To know that I felt confident that would happen, but it all comes back to why I decided to be vegan. And then honoring that as a healthy vegan presidency.
To me, I really like how you framed that, going back to our, why that can be so helpful in guiding our decisions and how we navigate different stages of life, including pregnancy being able to. Eat compassionately and in alignment with your values and still meet your nutrient needs, make sure baby is growing.
Everything's on track from a nutrient nutrition standpoint. It's the best of both worlds.
Maya: That's wonderful. I know when you came to me, what was your biggest struggle when you first reached out again as a new vegan?
Kristen: I just figured out how to eat for myself, and I felt pretty good about that, but I never really tracked the nutritional content of what I was eating.
And I particularly had no idea if I was getting enough protein. Which is important for me also, but I guess never became important enough for me to track it for myself. But once I became pregnant, I knew if I was going to continue and I plan to continue eating that way. I had to make sure that I was getting enough protein and then other nutrients as well, but I wasn't even sure which nutrients at that time.
I needed to focus on. So that's why I reached out initially. That's interesting when you're new to veganism or I've been following this lifestyle for a few years, it can be like, okay, I've got this. I know what foods have plant proteins. You answer that question I'm sure a million times to your friends and family.
And then when you are expecting it's “wait a minute. Am I actually getting enough? And what are the sources and what else do I need focused on, exactly?” When we started tracking, I realized that I wasn't getting enough protein. I think it was like two thirds of what you were recommending. So I had to learn and get tips from you.
And those were things I once, you know them, you're like, oh, this is so obvious. I can put hemp seeds in my salad or on top of what I'm eating. I can add nutritional yeast. There are things I can do easily to increase the protein. And what I mean, I just had, I just didn't know. So it's making those small tweaks, small modifications to what you're already doing, because sometimes it can feel overwhelming if you're doing a total overhaul of whatever you're eating and eating patterns and habits. But if you take what you're already eating, make some modifications, different products, swaps. I know you and I talked about different protein bars and easy grab and go options that can feel easier to do so. How parts to things, nutritionally, ease, anything else where you're like, oh my gosh, if you need more protein, this is what you need.
Those were two of the big ones. I would say, I guess I was surprised when I started tracking that there was protein and things I didn't realize, but like, I need to like focus on having like one protein thing in each meal, but those were two big ones just to add a little bit more. I started eating more nuts and nut butters as well.
That was helpful. I had a lot of questions, I think like a lot of people do. Soy and different tofu and how much you should be eating or not, and understanding what's healthy and what is it? So I got more confidence, like, okay, I can keep eating my tempeh and my tofu. I feel good about that, right? Maybe I don't have the beyond burger three times a week.
Not that I was, but kind of understanding which protein sources that are meat replacements are healthier than others.
Maya: What would you say in your opinion helped you overcome the struggle, but you mentioned tracking earlier and that built that confidence.
Kristen: I think it was all about tracking and the accountability that you gave me and the group gave me to check in on that.
So I needed education, which you also provided, but actually just putting the food in and seeing where I was at was so helpful in making decisions of what to eat and how to build the right meals for me. And from a protein perspective, but also calcium and iron were two things I was under on, and just didn't have any idea.
So we added fortified cereal and which was a big. Help for me to get some of those other numbers up. So I really focused on through that six week program on getting my intake where it needed to be. And then knowing that I learned the things I needed, because I also tracking your food very carefully. I know it was triggering to some many people did that at points in their life.
And it coincided with other eating disorders or issues and can bring back memories. And I didn't want to go, I didn't want to be someone who tracked every day. So I was focused on if I can do this right. If I can learn what I need to, then I can trust myself to make the right decisions going forward. So we're really focused on that contained amount of time.
And I thought it was the right amount of time to get all that learning in from you, from the tracking and then also from the other women. And the group every week.
Maya: That's wonderful speaking to tracking. I'm really glad you brought that up because you're definitely not alone in feeling like that tracking can be, whether you've done it as a part of a weight loss program or performance improvement, program sports, something like that.
It can be a really valuable tool to give you insight into what are the gaps and how to address those gaps. And how do we do that in a way that feels good to you? Would you say that's something that you'd recommend if a vegan woman is listening out there and she's like, I feel like I'm missing this. I'm not sure.
Kristen: Absolutely. Yeah, because there were, I just had no idea what nutrients like cooked spinach was giving me. Right. I just didn't or the difference between cooked and not cooked spinach. So, I don't know how you would really, unless you had a tracking system that really learned that effectively or efficiently.
Yeah. And how it can be applied to what you're, what you're eating, not just so cook spinach has X milligrams of iron, but what does that mean? In context? Yeah. So you have your own individual insight from the tracker and knowing what your gaps are as far as the group, what do you think the biggest benefit of that was for you?
The group was great because people would bring up things that I didn't even know to think about or worry about, and not necessarily that I needed to share their worries, but sometimes you don't even know the things you don't know. Right? Like I didn't even know to some examples of questions asks if I'm hearing other people going through the same experience as me with these questions that helps inform the questions I'll ask going forward, or helps me go back and look at my tracking to see how I did have a certain thing.
It was really useful from that perspective. And also getting tips. Like sometimes my question would be “my sweet tooth is out of control.” Like what, what are you making at home? But it's not me going to the vegan bakery and buying a cupcake every day. So, yeah, that was helpful. Good to hear questions that you might have.
Think about right off the bat, or if you're in your first trimester, second trimester, maybe you're planning for pregnancy. So there's value in hearing other women go through similar experience, too.
Maya: Definitely for those women who are in partnerships who are not fully vegan, can you shed some light on what your experience has been with your partner?
Kristen: Yeah, absolutely. When I made a decision a year and a half ago to become vegan, it was my decision for me. And that's something that my husband didn't necessarily felt was the right choice for him, which we both respect for each. But it was a little bit of adjustment in terms of how to eat together. It's important to us to share meals and from an efficiency perspective for varied meals together makes a lot of sense.
What we've done is we do eat together every night. The base of what we eat is the same. Sometimes it will be a completely vegan meal and he's fine with that. I mean, he's happy to be eating more vegetables than he was, but sometimes he might have a steak with a big potato and I'll have the big potato, but I'll have a salad or.
Maybe that would be the treat day. I have a beyond burger, so we would have a different protein source, but still share the same sides. Then breakfast is also hard because we don't need to say for breakfast, but I'll be baking my just egg and let one pan, and he's next to me with his. But we make it work because we respect that we've made different decisions.
And I think we feel the same way too, about my baby when he's born, that will ultimately be a decision that he'll make for himself. That's not something we would put on him, but a lot of what he'll be eating from us, it's going to be plant-based. That will just be the nature because that's the base of how we eat together, but we make it work.
Maya: That's wonderful and very inspiring because I know that can be sometimes tricky subject to navigate, especially in a society where raising vegan kids is still outside of societal norms and coming together as a partnership and making a decision together for how you're going to approach that with your child is important.
Kristen: It takes the right partner to, I think that can affect. Because it wasn't something that I'd eaten otherwise with him, as long as we known each other. And when I shared that with him, it was never the decision I was making it. Wasn't just try it out at the beginning. But I realized it was really working for me.
I felt really good. And he never questioned that. He's a great. That's why that's perfect for you. He's been very supportive. I'm really happy to hear that. Kristin, it makes me really happy to hear. Thanks. As far as feeding your kids, are you going to both offer, what would that process look like? It's a great question.
If anybody has any tips. I do that is obviously at the beginning, we're just giving food, we're making those decisions. But I think at some point I'm sure we would get asked a lot if we hadn't already explained why we, you know, I don't eat meat for example, or cheese or things like that. So we'd have to talk through in advance, how to handle that.
And then what's the right age for that conversation, but a little love any, because I'm not there yet. Another path to cry. Last question before that you go for women listening, who might be feeling anxious about therapy and pregnancy concerned. Maybe they don't have support from their provider or families and really feel alone.
Maya: What would your number one piece of advice be to them or that you'd give them any advice would be the it's really important to educate yourself for me, that was both through learning and tracking because I don't know that. Done the learning I need to, without the tracking component and then trust yourself.
Kristen: Right. I questioned whether I was doing the right thing for my pregnancy at the beginning, by continuing to eat in a way that matched my values. So there was, it was a struggle for me, but once I felt that I had the tools I needed. I knew I just needed to trust myself and continue on. And I felt totally confident ever since I think that that would be it.
Do your due diligence, but then trust yourself. You're doing the right thing for you. No matter what someone else might say to you, I love. Trust yourself and stick to your values, what to eat, how to supplement all of those different pieces fit together and can really support your vegan pregnancy journey.
Maya: There has got to be a different word than journey, and I cannot think of one that's. Absolutely. Kristen, anything else you want to share? No, I'm just so happy that I found you when I was searching for resources, because I think there's a very specific need for the services that you offer and doing it both in the one-on-one and combined with the group setting is really the right way to do the learning that that we need.
So I appreciate everything that you've helped me through this. Awesome. Well, I loved having you in the group and I'm so excited to see baby pics if you decide to share them.
Kristen: Sure, absolutely. That's a whole other thing, but vegan baby, 2021. Here we come.
Maya: Thanks, Kristen.
Kristen: You're welcome. Thank you.
Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you're ready to go from feeling concerned to competent as a vegan mom, to me, send me a DM I'm on Instagram at @vegan.prenatal.nutrition. I'd love to hear from you and we can chat more and see if the vegan pregnancy collective is for you.
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