Food Cravings And Aversions

I must say, I didn’t have much morning sickness so the only way I can describe it is “food aversion”. Most people suffer from morning sickness in the first trimester, but mine was very mild – something the Hubs attributed to my tummy of steel (conditioned by years of street food).

I’ve read up on this, and some sites say that if you have prenatal vitamins, it might lead to less symptoms of morning sickness. How true that is, I don’t know, but as I’ve been hoovering up those GNC prenatal vits since even before getting pregnant, I guess it works for me?

Anyhow, although I didn’t have the full-on run-to-the-loo-gagging thing going on, it’s not to say my appetite was the same as always. For starters (ha ha), for around 3 months, I only felt like having the foods I’d been used to having as a kid:

• Rice porridge – That got me through the first trimester. Everywhere I went, I searched for congee. My favourite turned out to be either Xin Wang Café’s claypot pork ribs porridge, and A1’s claypot fish porridge. #carbfest Now I know why I put on so much weight.
• Toast – The Hubs commented that my appetite turned English during the first trimester. I went for days eating just toast with jam and butter. The ultimate comfort food I used to have when I had a fever as a kid.
• Cereal – Refer to English appetite above. Chinese appetite went on holiday to England.
• Curry laksa – So when I didn’t have my toast, congee or cereal to hand (ie when I was at work), I needed to have curry. Not the real Indian version, but the coconuty, Chinese, soupy version. The only place which did that was the food court at my office, from the Yong Tau Foo stall, so I had that pretty much daily for lunch too.
• Sprite and root beer – Basically, I would’ve cherished some Coke, but as that was another thing off the list, I pretty much drank only those 2 soft drinks in the first trimester. Cue weight gain.

As for the stuff I just couldn’t eat, I remember standing in front of this famous Chinese restaurant on Balestier Road where Hubs was getting his takeaway, and I’m not sure what it was (maybe the smell or something), but at one point I felt like I was having cold sweat and literally about to gag, and he had to run in to buy me an ice-cold root beer. Till now, I can’t go back to that restaurant #pavlov

Good thing was, this food aversion thing went away after the first trimester. I went back to eating the stuff I usually ate (everything), and no longer looked at toast with creepy fondness. I still enjoy it now, but at least I no longer feel like I just needed to have it, you know?