Cankles

The swelling has begun. Not as bad (yet) as last time, but not quite pretty, either. So, back to remembering what helped last time. For early ankle swelling (not third trimester, which is pretty unavoidable) that is not caused by hypertension or other serious problems there is a relatively easy fix (and I guess if the easy fix doesn't work, then it's time to check again for a more serious problem): make sure you're getting enough protein and fluids. The fluids are more intuitive since the less water you're drinking, the more likely your body is going to hold on to what you do drink. (too bad this doesn't work with fat too: your body says, oh, you have enough fat now, so any more that you eat we'll just flush out, and probably reduce your stores too, since this isn't going to be a problem) Drinking more lets your body know that you don't need to hold onto fluids. I'm not sure how the protein works, but last time my Bradley Class instructor told me to try it and it worked almost immediately. The swelling in my ankles went down in a couple of days. I noticed my lovely cankles on Saturday (which doesn't mean that they weren't there before, I'm not always the most observant person). It has been warmer outside, but I also haven't been eating as much protein. For some reason, the warmer it is, the lighter the food I eat and that means cutting out some proteins, too. Which isn't good! My staples from pregnancy #1 were cheese & hummus to snack on every afternoon (not together), which are the two things that I have an aversion to right now. So I really, really need to get my Bradley workbook out (tomorrow maybe?) for some suggestions and to actually track my food intake again. It's always a process.