Contrary to what I expected, and what everyone incessantly asked about, I didn't have any bizarre food cravings during pregnancy. Maybe it's because I crave weird things outside pregnancy and don't feel bad about acting on them that it didn't feel much different.
What did change, however, was the sense of satisfaction after eating. After being ravenously hungry (seriously. never in my life have I ever been so panicked at the idea of not eating all of the sudden), an incredible peace came from eating.
Three times in particular, what I ate felt life-changing, and I can still, a year or so later, remember the sheer elation of my meal.
1. Som Tam
Apparently I've got a Thai baby, because I ate spicy food without consequence and the smell of jasmine rice could almost bring me to my knees. But one weekend, Porter was out of town and I had been in the mood for Thai papaya salad. I walked down to one of the Thai restaurants in town and did the whole song and dance about me speaking Thai and how I wanted any food to be legit Thai, not American Thai. All I really wanted was som tam, but they didn't have it, so I had to politely excuse myself and make my way to the other Thai restaurant in town (owned by the same family, it turns out).
After another little I Speak Thai intro, I ordered my som tam (thai thae) and spent the next hour eating it bite by bite, all by myself. I was the only person in the whole restaurant the entire time I was there. I think I had brought a book with me, but it was all about the papaya salad. I walked home in a daze like I had just left an hour long massage and didn't stop talking about the meal for a week. The word 'life-changing' was used, and I meant it.
2. Big Mac
I'm generally an order off the dollar menu kind of girl, so I don't usually do any of the 'Real' burgers at fast food places, but I must have seen one of McDonald's million billboards or flashy trucks because I had Big Mac on the brain. After a few days of thinking about it but sold on eating healthy, I was in a yoga class and decided that health-be-damned, I was getting a Big Mac. You hear sometimes about how serial killers get off on picturing their crime before it happens. My Big Mac was like that. Yoga classes are over an hour freaking long and Gentle Yoga is a total snooze, so I absolutely fantasized about my burger for well over 30 minutes. Even more creepy was that I got it drive-through, drove into a random neighborhood and ate it in my car. Ravenous pregnant woman on the side of road absolutely destroying a Big Mac.
3. Dr Pepper
Work was pretty stressful the last half of my pregnancy and I frequently fueled up on DP. You can always count on DP. There was one particular time, though. It was Christmas time, which means Year-End giving in the nonprofit world, and we were gearing up for a sprint toward our Luncheon just after New Year. It must have been one of the first times I really realized how busy the next 4 months would be. I don't remember what happened on the day, but I know which gas station it was from and which attendant was at the register. It was a magical soda and I'll never forget it.
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