When I was pregnant with my second child in Pennsylvania, I was asked in my midwife’s intake paperwork to keep a food diary for three days. I was confused and slightly intimidated. But I did it anyway. I feel like I learned so much about my habits just by writing down what I ate and when. In the end, I am not sure that my midwife even looked at it but I am glad she asked me to do it.

I discovered I ate a lot of heavily processed starch. Pasta. Bread. Cereal.

I also discovered I ate a lot of vegetables, but in very small quantities.

For example: Breakfast of two eggs, bacon, and toast Lunch of sandwich, a few slices of paprika, and a wedge of melon Snacks of cheese and crackers, a small handful of nuts Dinner of chicken and dumplings: a carrot, a cup of peas, chicken, and biscuit mix into a soup. Then split three ways with my family.

What a delicious day. But that did not add up to even 2 servings of vegetables. So the days went on and I was feeling very self conscious as I can see on the paper that my diet isn’t as fantastic as I thought it was. What else is there to do besides try to do better?

I became very curious what a ‘serving’ of various things were and how many servings are recommended.

I did a lot of research as we all do when we’re expecting. Everyone wants to have a healthy and easy pregnancy and give their child the best start. I am so grateful for doing the food diary for a few days for the awareness it brought me. I hope Midwives here in the Netherlands consider asking their clients to do the same. But if not it’s something we can do for ourselves.