Taking Control

A while back I vowed to become a full fledged vegetarian. Then I was with child : ) You can be a vegetarian while pregnant no problem but I was having trouble convincing myself I could get all the iron, b12 and protein I needed through a meat-free diet. So I reluctantly went back to my carnivorous ways. I think of myself as a casual carnivore because I still avoid most meat. However, as soon as little Jet zooms out of my womb (Ugh. So cheesy) I'm going green and in the mean time continue to experiment with vegetarian cooking. 

Last night I made these delectable eggplant steaks. I found the recipe here and learned a very interesting fact about eggplant. Large eggplants can be very bitter (I found this out the hard way). To take away the bitterness cut the eggplant into rounds, rub with salt and place in a sieve in the sink. Let the eggplant stand at room temperature for 20 minutes and you'll see the salt draw the bitterness up to the surface, forming liquid beads. Rinse and cook, voila! Juicy eggplant. Valuable information, no? 

Now I realize I'm segueing into a completely different topic although still pregnancy related. This is the point where I caution readers that if you don't want detailed information about pregnancy, STOP here. 

What happens to my body while I'm pregnant is almost completely out of my control. Things are going to get bigger, and truthfully I feel like I'm lumbering around in a fat suit, or at least one of those sumo wrestler costumes. The other day I was looking at my thighs and discovered a new pocket of flesh on my upper thigh. There was an actual dip in my flesh between regular size thigh, and preggo thigh. And then I noticed that my arms were looking a little more toned. At that point I remembered in order to prepare for breast feeding, the pregnant body redistributes fat, storing it in convenient places to produce milk. With Levi the extra thigh fat didn't go away until I was finished nursing. 

All this to say, my body is doing the crazy, beautiful, God-given things it's supposed to do in order to create a new life. And I have to let these natural processes run there course. However, the anal retentive part of my personality grasps for some sense of ownership over my parts. To deal with the loss of control, I've taken to obsessively painting my nails. I get to decide the colour, shape and length (I'm sounding weirder and weirder). Today, I went for a pretty lilac after being inspired by this post. I only wish I'd gone for the Essie instead of the cheap Revlon because Revlon brushed on goopy. Oh well. And please pretend you don't notice my sad, uncared for cuticles. The point is, I'm taking control! 

Or going insane.