Navigating Pregnancy as an Intuitive Eater
I am excited, grateful, and a little hesitant to share that I am pregnant! My husband and I are expecting a baby boy at the end of March. Given the wild and wonderful journey pregnancy has been so far, I wanted to share some of my experiences and why I’m so thankful for both a “healthy” relationship with food and an understanding of intuitive eating.
Supplement Sagas
Pregnancy supplements—like most things pregnancy (and apparently postpartum)—are a minefield.
Luckily, I had studied pregnancy and maternal nutrition as part of my training, so I knew that taking a good multivitamin with 400µg of folate was important while we were trying to conceive. I’d spent hours researching different brands, dosages, and was convinced I’d go for a top-of-the-line option. But when the time came to take them, most made me gag—and this was before I was pregnant, so I couldn’t even blame morning sickness!
Goodbye spreadsheet of “optimal” supplements; hello trusty Pregnacare, which has been serving me well ever since. My advice? Take what you can actually stomach! I also added a DHA-dominant fish oil from Barebiology, which I could tolerate easily. I take both with breakfast in the morning.
Other supplements I kept simple:
Vitamin D: I use a spray by Better You to avoid extra capsules.
Iron: Despite regularly eating red meat, I developed anaemia (as blood volume increases, this is common). The NHS prescribed ferrous sulphate, which was effective but caused a bit of constipation— another fun side of pregnancy! However, the benefits (less fatigue and breathlessness) made the trade-off worth it.
There are so many pregnancy supplements on the market. My suggestion:
Start with a multivitamin that includes at least 400µg of folate from the moment you start trying.
Attend your regular midwife appointments, where your blood will be tested, and specific recommendations made.
Any additional supplements, like omega-3 or probiotics, are entirely up to you and your preferences.
No Veggies, Thanks!
I was fortunate to escape morning sickness, but for a few weeks, I developed a strong aversion to vegetables and complex flavours. My appetite regressed to more childlike foods—plain carbs, sweets, and simple meals. It made sense: these foods were palatable, energy-dense, and easy to digest for both me and baby.
In a world that glorifies counting your plant points in a week, it might sound “wrong” to subsist on bagels, cereal, pasta, plain chicken, and ice cream. But being able to lean into my body’s needs, instead of forcing myself to drinks smoothies with hidden veg when I really just wanted another bagel, was truly liberating. And guess what? I didn’t develop any nutrient deficiencies or lose my taste for greens forever.
Before long, I craved my usual staples—stir-fries, roast chicken, and veggies. I’m glad I didn’t push myself to eat things that would have made me wretch.
Extreme Hunger
While I avoided nausea, I did experience extreme hunger in my first trimester—what felt like an insatiable appetite. It was almost like going through another growth spurt, which makes sense since my body literally growing a human.
Sometimes I enjoyed leaning into this hunger. Other times—like waking up at 3 a.m. to eat—was less fun. I learned to be proactive by packing extra snacks whenever I went out because hunger could hit suddenly.
I wanted to touch on this because NHS guidance suggests no extra energy is needed in the first trimester and that weight gain should be minimal. This made me a great anomaly. The first trimester for me was a time of more weight gain and finding myself needing much more food, and more often, than I had previously been used to. I found it very comforting to trust that my body knew what it needed and to ensure I was fully listening to its wisdom without getting caught up in the external noise. Guidelines do not know our personal bodies or our personal needs. Interestingly, around week 14, my hunger and aversions calmed, and my appetite stabilised. Of course, this is going to be different for everyone.
Unreal UPFs (Ultra-Processed Foods)
UPFs have been heavily criticized recently and while they’ve always had a place in my diet (I like a fizzy drink, I love ketchup, I cannot be making hummus from scratch on a weekly basis and I’m a human being in 2025), pregnancy has made me even more grateful for them.
Cereal has been an unsung hero over the past 8 months—nostalgic, comforting, crunchy, and quick and for those alone I am sold.
Putting my nutritionist hat on, it’s also a great source of iron due to fortification. In pregnancy, the NHS recommends 27mg of iron daily. Even with my Pregnacare coming in at 17mg and eating red meat often, I was still ending up iron deficient – cue the cereal (and the 200mg supplements).
For example:
Four Weetabix provide around 6mg of iron.
A small bowl of bran flakes adds 2.7mg
Comparatively, a serving of steak gives you 2.5mg. I’m not trying to trade one off against the other – I love steak – but it is more expensive and more of an effort to cook. My point is that UPFs have a very important role in providing quick and easy nutrition and are not just the devil reincarnated. Soon, folate will also be added to white flour, and this will be another supportive change for pregnant women to more affordably meet their nutritional needs.
Other UPFs I’ve loved: Thank you supermarket snack bars (Nature Valley, Trek, Tribe), ice cream, crackers, biscuits, toast—and, of course, my beloved cereal!
Body Image: Clothes, Gratitude & Appreciation
It’s important for me to note in writing this that I live in a straight-sized body that has been afforded many privileges which I know will have impacted on my experience of body changes and health care throughout pregnancy.
The trickiest period for me was around 11-13 weeks. My clothes no longer fit comfortably, but I didn’t yet have an obvious bump and hadn’t told anyone yet. The clothes not fitting comfortably didn’t bother me too much as I was pregnant after all and so grateful for that, but it was a bit of a pain when I had a wedding, party or hen to go to and nothing to wear.
The best thing I did was get a big plastic laundry bag from amazon and filled it with all the things that were no longer fitting comfortably. It started with a few bits and bobs and is now bursting at the seams. This helped me clear the space for comfier options and think about what I might need to buy. My mum kindly helped me buy some staples—new jeans, maternity tights, and undies—and friends generously shared maternity dresses and jeans, which were lifesavers. Friends generously shared maternity dresses and jeans, which were lifesavers. Whilst I could have easily lived in tracksuit bottoms for the whole of my pregnancy, it has helped me to have a few items that I feel stylish and like myself in. Sometimes, this is in pair of shoes, earrings or other accessories.
In terms of other changes, I feel grateful working in this field that I had mentally prepared myself for the body changes and accompanying emotions.
I do think a bump is maybe one of the most beautiful things in the world (even if it’s pushing down quite heavily on my bladder at this point). I am genuinely in awe that my body has been growing my gorgeous baby boy from the size of a chia seed up, my placenta has nourished him, my hips are supporting him so on and so forth. Every time I get to hear his heartbeat or feel in kick I feel overwhelmed by love. Yes there are changes that our culture would deem less favourable but these are a normal and natural part of growing a human, which is such a privilege in and of itself. Aside from the new clothes I’ve found the following are helpful if I am having a more challenging body day:
Really comfy loose clothes
Little things to give back to and connect with my body - moisturising, having a warm epsom salt bath or using bubble bath, doing an at home face mask, painting my nails, hair mask and washing my hair.
If I’m feeling a bit more boujis I have enjoyed facegym and a pregnancy massage here and there.
Body Trust
The first trimester was filled with anxiety for me. After a miscarriage in March and a not-so-straightforward journey to conceive, every week from 4 to 12 felt like a lifetime. I would lay awake at night counting “ok it’s 5 and then 6 and then it will be 7”. My husband would tease me that yes, 6 did indeed come after 5 and I was going loco.
Pregnancy has required a huge amount of surrender—to food aversions, cravings, tiredness, appetite changes, heartburn, constipation, nosebleeds and generally just not being in control. It’s the time in my life when I’ve had to listen most closely to my body and work with it.
I also became more aware of the tendency to push myself—whether physically, socially, or professionally. I’ve had to actively shift toward gentleness, balancing work and memorable nights out with tuning into my body’s needs and easing off the gas.
Conclusion
This blog post was a somewhat self-indulgent way to document my experiences over the past eight months. If you’ve made it this far, thank you! I hope you found it interesting. I look forward to sharing more on this topic, as I’m already diving into everything from breastfeeding to baby-led weaning and beyond.