Top tips for eating well

• Eat a good breakfast. Here's where you set the stage for your day. A breakfast with protein, fat, carbohydrates, and fiber will make you feel better the rest of the day.
• Eat small meals with snacks in between, rather than three bigger meals.
• Include protein in every meal and snack, and avoid foods with refined sugar or processed white flour. This helps your blood sugar levels stabilize and keeps hunger at bay.
• Work fruits and veggies into your meals in creative ways: Toss assorted chopped vegetables into your breakfast eggs, or sprinkle shredded zucchini or carrots into low-fat quick breads. Apple and cucumber slices make great additions to sandwiches. Add apple chunks, dried cranberries or currants, or chopped dried apricots to salads.
• Focus on folate: Plus-size women, according to a study, may need more folic acid than smaller women, so it's essential to take a daily prenatal vitamin with 1 milligram of folic acid both before and during pregnancy.
• Choose unsaturated good fats (olive, canola, peanut oils) over saturated and hydrogenated bad fats (animal fats, palm oil, margarine).
• Use a food diary to keep track of your food and nutrient intake so you can make sure you're getting enough good stuff. It's also useful for tracking your mood and hunger levels so you can spot patterns you may need to change.