Being diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes isn’t something I was really prepared for.
My first son’s pregnancy I literally ate whatever I wanted. I now in hindsight question if I did have GD later on and just was never diagnosed. He was born a whopping 9 lbs and 7.5 ounces and my placenta practically shredded when the midwife assisted in helping me “pass” it. I went from 185 lbs to 240 lbs. I was a bigggg lady with a bigggg baby.
My second son’s pregnancy was obviously a lot different than my first’s. I had no choice but to be active, chasing around a little over 2 year old around. I did a lot more around the house as far as chores and cleaning. Our house was bigger, there were more messes and we financially couldn’t just go out to nice restaurants all the time. I went for walks often with my toddler. My starting weight was 195lbs and I believe my weight at his delivery was 225 lbs but I can’t really recall those types of specifics. He was much smaller than his brother at 7lbs and 12 ounces. Since he unexpectedly passed away, this pregnancy with their sister is much, much more difficult mentally and emotionally. My starting weight was much heavier, around 2105/210. I ate whatever I wanted because in my head, it felt like if I did all the things I did with baby #1, then maybe I would be bringing home an alive baby. I have barely exercised, I haven’t walked. Now all of this is biting me in my ass. At 33/34 weeks I was told I have Gestational Diabetes after failing both the one and three hour glucose tests. If things weren’t already fucking hard enough with pregnancy after loss. Of course, this news sent me into a downward spiral. Is this baby going to die too? Did I hurt her in anyway? Is she going to be okay?
I had originally early on asked my doctor if it was likely I would get it because of my starting weight but I was told probably not because I did not have it in my previous two pregnancies.
I’m angry, to be honest. Not only is pregnancy after loss incredibly hard and stressful, but I now have to navigate this new unknown only 4 weeks before her arrival. I spend my days paranoid to eat and constantly checking my blood sugar. I have been avoiding carbs but I know they are essential for a developing baby. I have stopped eating sweets all together. I am grumpy, hungry, unbelievably sad and anxious. It’s not fun. However, with most things in life, if you are given a particular hardship then you can have incredible growth. I am not an expert by any means but I do know a thing or two about healthy eating so for tonight I made myself this recipe.
Chicken, Kale, Peppers and Rice
Note: not everything in this recipe is “made from scratch”. If you have the time and capacity to do that right now, I applaud you but I do not. There are simple ways however to make everything from scratch easily by swaps and pre-prepping things like spices etc.
It’s a fairly easy recipe and some might consider it boring but I added a little bit of homemade ranch flavored sour cream over the top to give it a little bit of appealing flavor.
I will start off with talking about the rice. I guess complex carbs is the type of swap needed to not spike blood sugar levels. I cooked brown rice tonight in my instant pot and it was ridiculously easy. I have the Instant Pot Ultra, which you can find here. I have the 3QT model but I guess they no longer sell that.
I did two cups of brown rice which I rinsed beforehand, in the instant pot with 2 and 1/2 cups of water. The setting I used was the “rice” setting on the ultra model, but at the LOW temperature. It cooks it in 12 minutes after it preheats. I let it steam-release naturally. The texture for me was perfect.
For the peppers, I simply sauteed them over the stove and added paprika to them.
Kale, sauteed in the skillet no salt or pepper added
Once a week, I cook a whole chicken and de-bone it for things like chicken salad, precooked chicken that’s easy access and I use the bones to make homemade chicken stock that I pressure can for our family.
Once you have all four ingredients ready, it’s simply just taking a pan and oil of your choice, sauteing the kale, adding the precooked peppers and chicken and that’s about it.
For the ranch sour cream topper, I used Tillamook’s cultured sour cream with a ranch packet and just mixed together. That’s about it!
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