my protein problem

So, it seems that when you're pregnant with twins, you have to have more protein in your diet than you would with one baby. When I first heard this, I didn't think this was going to be a problem, but frankly, it's been the hardest part about eating while pregnant so far.

You see, I'm not a huge fan of meat. I mean, I eat it, but it's not always my favorite. And for some reason, lately? It sounds really not good. I think it sounds better if I don't make it myself, but in general, it just doesn't sound good. And meat has one of the highest concentrations of protein.

I'm supposed to have 90-120 grams of protein a day. This is a lot, people! I mean, one egg? Has only 7 grams of protein. And also? I don't really like eggs. They're okay... but, I kind of have to choke them down. And then I was like "oh! Peanut butter! It has protein!" Yeah... but only 4 grams per tablespoon. On top of it all, I have to restrict my calories to 1800 a day, since I started out this pregnancy with extra weight. So, it's not like I can just carry around a jar of peanut butter and a spoon and just eat that all day. Also, I'd need at minimum, 22.5 tablespoons of peanut butter to get my daily requirement, and, well, that might get old.

Normally, I'd eat turkey sandwiches for lunch, because I like those, but you're not supposed to have cold deli meat when you're pregnant because of the risk of the bacteria listeria. You can sidestep this worry by this by microwaving your deli meat first to kill the possible listeria, but that just grosses me out. I don't know why. I know my friend Kristin is rolling her eyes :) but I think it's gross.

Anyway, I'm just having a really hard time feeling like I'm eating enough protein while also keeping my calories down to 1800. Also, I think my uterus is already starting to smoosh my stomach and not leave much room for food, as I get full WAY faster now. Which makes it all the more difficult to eat enough protein.

I DID get some protein bread, and it has 14 grams per slice. So, I suppose I should make sure I have a couple of slices of that per day. For a while I was having smoothies for breakfast with protein powder, but that got tiresome. I think I'll have to go back to that though, as I'm running out of ideas.

I mostly get worried that I'm not getting enough and maybe it's affecting my babies. That's the worst of all! So, I think I'll just have to try and be extra diligent and maybe just not have the most varied diet for the next 5 months or so. Gotta feed those babies what they need!

~M