Hey all!!!  This is my first post after joining after listening to Scott on the podcast.  I was forced by my best friend, other than my wife, to listen. Actually he threatened me...I’m not scared but he insisted.  Anyway, my wife is pregnant and is making plans for her next 2 meals constantly.  The point is she is consuming mad calories, because she’s pregnant, and I am eating right with her.  I attempt to lay off but I don’t want her to feel bad(she has said she dislikes being hungry all the time) so I eat with her.  Any fathers out there deal with this?  Let me know how you handled it.

Hey 66,

You are definately not alone.  During my wife’s three pregnancies I ate right along with her.  I think it is referred to as a sympathy pregnancy.  It was part of the reason I got as heavy as I did.  I’d like to share a story, about this subject.

One day my wife (while pregnant with our first child) called me on my way home from work.  “Honey” she said, “I want 5 cheeseburgers.” (That’s right I said 5 cheesburgers) So of course on my way home, being the good husband that I am, I got her the 5 cheeseburgers.  Wouldn’t you know it she ate one and said she was full.  Me hating to waste food, I ate the other 4.

The only thing I could suggest is to have healthy snacks available for you to eat when she is having her cravings.  Celery with Nature Seasoning is a nice way to quench those hunger pains.  Unfortunately you can’t do much about her cravings, but you can support her by eating something while she is snacking also, just make it a healthy snack.

All the best,
Stu

Hi 66,

Being neither male nor married, I can’t give you much advice on this particular question.  On the other hand, I can welcome you to the group.  Hi!  I’m sure that you’ll be able to find a great support group here who can help you.

And congrats on the upcoming addition to the familiy!

Julie

Thanks Stoooo for the input.  Now I don’t feel so bad about scarfing a few of her cheesy-breadsticks on Friday.  The healthy snack is a great idea that I am going to work on...don’t know if I can do the celery though, not real big on it anyway, but definately can do an apple or something.  Thanks

Thank you Julie for the warm welcome.  Please keep this in mind when you are married and pregnant.  I’m sure I can speak for most men and say that we want to support our pregnant and taste-bud challenged wives during this time but having her say it’s ok to snack on something else other than what she’s eating relieves a little stress. 

Peace to you all and see you next post.

Funny you should mention that - my wife is just getting to the hungry stage.  About ten minutes ago I got this in an email from her:

Today I am HUNGRY and eating everything in sight.
I have already had a thing of peaches and string cheese and am now on vanilla pudding.
This is not like me.

Keep the ideas coming (Memo to myself - if she says buy 5 cheeseburgers just buy one and leave the bag closed so she can’t see there aren’t 4 more...)

I do understand, I did the same thing as well.  Sometimes eating really slow can help.  The reason for this is your body will send you signals that it is getting full and since your eating slower you may be able to pickup on these signals.  Decrease your portion size can help as well.  We set up our meals on our island in our kitchen and not on the table.  That way if you want seconds you have to get up walk a distance and then fill up your plate. It always helps me to think, “Do I really need this??” Don’t keep the food on the same table that you eat at, it makes it too easy to overeat. Also drink lots of water to fill up on so it will help prevent overeating as well. I know and understand that you may feel that you need to match what your wife eats so she doesn’t feel bad about eating too much.  Maybe talk to her about it and see if she can help motivate you to eat just enough food to fill and not overeat.  I hope these tips will help you out.  With the proper mindset and the right motivation I know you can do it!!  Remember all is possible with the right frame of mind.