Milk and Meat

I was a lactose-intolerant vegetarian....and loving it! And then, these tiny little boys come along and all of a sudden...all I want are bowls of cereal ( I am grateful for lactaid), yogurt, grilled cheese, and any pork product I can get my hands on. Not fish (strong, strong strong fish aversion still going on), not chicken (AP Biology turned me off a long time ago) and not beef (so tough to digest). We are not talking about unreal cravings, just a strong preference for meat and milk products. What's a girl to do?A rack of ribs is staring me in the face.

For some, pregnancy can have a positive effect on Crohn's symptoms. Did you know that when you are pregnant your immune system is somewhat suppressed? I just learned this...It makes sense- this happens so that your body does not reject the little one growing in you and treat it like an invader. Your body attacking invaders is also why conception can be tough, and was tough for us- my body was treating EVERYTHING like an invader.

If you are considering pregnancy, I highly recommend collecting as much information as you can. Here are some of the topics I was concerned about:

• conceiving/fertility
• getting into a "good place" with my symptoms: how, for how long, would it stay?
• medication/safety: during pregnancy and breastfeeding
• my prior abdominal surgery and scarring (which could affect the fallopian tubes): tests can be done to check!
• flaring during pregnancy and immediately following the birth and action that could be taken
• my immunity if I were to continue on biologic medications (which I couldn't, but that is something to think about)

So I perused the web, asked my GI Doc a lot of questions, asked my ob-gyn a lot of questions, sought a consult from maternal fetal medicine at a phenomenal local hospital, talked to my mom, and talked to my husband. We made decisions that were right for us.

And now I want milk and meat.

Perhaps I need the iron? The calcium? Is my kind diet a lost cause? Of course not. If you are interested in learning more about kind food choices and exploring a vegetarian lifestyle to help you with your IBD symptoms, I was incredibly inspired by this book (thanks for the recommendation Becca!):

The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone
Her blog: http://www.thekindlife.com/

In the meantime, I will work on balance.