“I know how to feed myself.”
Coming from Sophia Roe, the proclamation is an almost laughable understatement—after all, the James Beard Award-winning chef, writer and Emmy-nominated TV host, and nutrition access advocate has built a 12-year career (and voracious community) around her inclusive, ingredient-focused approach to food. But when Sophia began to think about cooking up an entirely new kind of recipe—a pregnancy—she found herself uncharacteristically flummoxed by the best way to nourish her body.
“I was very intimidated,” she says of her journey to conceive. “To manage the supplements and extra nutrition that you not only need to get pregnant but throughout your pregnancy is a whole different ball game. And I don’t have time to take 700 pills six times a day.”
The solve was Perelel’s Conception Support Pack—and when she eventually became pregnant with her first child, our Trimester Packs. It’s a decision that Sophia calls a “no-brainer.”
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“I know how to nourish myself when it comes to my diet,” she says. “But for my prenatal supplement routine, I needed something to grow with me. Something simple, streamlined, and intuitive.” And something, of course, that aligned with the chef’s sky-high standards for ingredients. (And flavor—she's a big fan of our Synbiotic Greens and Cellular Hydration, too.)
“People don't realize there is this conception period,” she adds. “That has totally different needs nutrition-wise than, say, early pregnancy or postpartum. After you have a baby? During that fourth trimester, you need totally different stuff. I love that these products work with me and change with me in this really wonderful way.”
A good chef knows that their finished product is only as good as the ingredients that go into it. For Sophia, that level of thoughtful selection isn't just a guideline—it's her doctrine. (It's something we have in common.)
The biggest thing with a quality ingredient is impact," she says. "Not just human impact, but ecological impact, earth impact. It has to be in season. It's supporting your local farmers and local growers. Those things matter to me a lot."
As she moves into the later stages of her pregnancy, Sophia has uncovered another kind of recipe: her approach to self-care during this life-changing chapter.
“Nourishing my pregnancy has been about what I’m taking in. What I put in my mouth—but also, what am I watching? What people am I around? What music am I listening to?”
It also means slowing down—and occasionally having to be okay with changing her approach to food, particularly when she was moving through her first trimester. “If I have one meal that I make for myself, then that's a success, especially in early pregnancy,” she says. “Sometimes you're having a hard time even just getting anything down. If I can get my prenatal vitamins and just that one meal in, I feel proud of myself. Or, not really stressing or worrying about the fact that I might be eating the same meal every day for three weeks.”
“I mean, every day for three weeks, I was eating the same romaine grilled chicken, steamed rice and broccoli little salad situation, and you know what? Oh, well, not really so concerned about the monotony. Just giving myself as much grace, acceptance and bandwidth as possible has been a really great recipe.”
And as she looks ahead to motherhood?
"I'm nervous about being a mom," she admits. "But I've had my whole life to be about me. I think I'm ready to dedicate some energy and some time to somebody else. I don't think I've ever really had the feeling of family before. This little human in there is my real family. And I'm really hyped about that."
