It’s been almost 9 months since my last blog post.  I could have had a baby in that time, instead I’ve been knocked up twice.  The bad news is the first one didn’t work out.  The good news is the second one did.  As I write this I am almost at the half way point and feeling like a human again, a human with a bigger belly and an unusual penchant for papaya but a human nonetheless.  I have been spending way to much time googling all things pregnancy and while reading about the myriad of problems I could potentially face hasn’t been all that helpful I’ve found that reading pregnancy stories written by other women has.  I am especially interested in the seemingly elusive but hopefully attainable “fit pregnancy”.  What exactly does it look like or feel like? What can I do to keep me and my baby happy and healthy?

I am hoping to find some answers and maybe help some other haplessly googling pregnant ladies find some too.

I’ll go into more depth in my latter posts (which hopefully won’t take another 9 months to write) but for now a word on the first trimester:

The first trimester sucks, especially when you have two in a row.  Things that helped without fail for me:

Exercise: Since my job requires me to teach fitness classes and demonstrate exercises the majority of the day I found this one out by default.   When I would sit down after teaching a class I would feel as if I could never get up again, when I had to get up for my next personal training client I felt better.  When I would get home after work and fall onto the couch I would feel like I could never get up again.  When I finally got up and went for a walk I felt better.

Exercise seemed to help ease the nausea and give me more energy.  I usually start my day with exercise as I find it prepares me for the day ahead and have found this especially true during pregnancy.  I practice yoga and walk or run every day and let my schedule and body dictate aside from that.  As I have become more confident in this pregnancy I’ve been able to bring my cardio and strength training back to almost pre-pregnancy levels.  My mantra has been if it feels good keep doing it, a happy mama makes a happy baby.  (This only holds true for exercise, although I wish it worked with other things, like wine tasting…..)

Sleep: Work hard, sleep hard has been my pregnancy motto.  During the first trimester I remained very active but fell asleep during Jeopardy most nights (and sometimes during Wheel of Fortune).  One blessing of the first trimester is that falling asleep comes easy.  I felt less symptomatic on the days I slept more.

Eat: Eating was definitely tougher during the first trimester.  I had strong aversions to most of what my diet had previously consisted of.  I had the stereotypical  cravings for bland food and comforting carbs.  One day after work I went to Whole Foods to pick up the healthiest version of whatever sounded good at the time.  I came home with sprouted grain bagels, whole grain cereal, nut butter, and lots of fresh fruit.  Whole wheat pasta with butter and cheese was another favorite.  Basically I ate like a picky 4-year-old for a while.  I had a theory that having a baby in your body makes you revert back to your childhood tastes, thankfully the second trimester has proved this to be false.

If you are pregnant you can take this with a grain of salt.  Every pregnancy is different and what works for one person may not work so well for another. Maybe this post will inspire you to try going for a walk next time you are in the throes of pregnancy induced nausea.  Maybe you will end up feeling better.  Maybe you will end up puking in the bushes, if so, listen to your body and get back to the couch, ain’t nobody got time for that.

We all know that a little encouragement goes a long way.  Think about your favorite boss, teacher, or little league coach…odds are the person that pops into mind made you believe you had it in you to pursue whatever endeavor you were intent on pursuing, even when doubt and fear was telling you otherwise.  Most of us thrive on the positive kind of reinforcement rather than the negative kind.  Sure there is something to be said for the adrenaline/testosterone combination that kicks into overdrive when we are hit in the face with a negative comment.  Anger is usually a wasted emotion but can on occasion spur a pretty powerful strength training workout (or boxing if you have the resources available).     However, over the long-term even the strongest of personas will eventually be beaten down by constant negativity.  When you are told something often enough you eventually come to believe it.

The beauty of this fact is that it works both ways.  If you are told something positive often enough you will also come to believe it.  Unfortunately, when it comes to thoughts about ourselves we tend to believe and recall the negative comments much easier than we do the positive ones.  Remembering this is especially important when it comes to health and fitness.  Surrounding yourself with positive people will only boost your resolve to stay the course.  Studies show that obesity is often “contagious”, or in other words the people who surround you daily help to inform your concept of what normal is.   If you notice the people in your daily life are having a negative effect on your health and fitness, try to surround yourself with a new normal.  You may have to work a bit to do this, especially if the problem people are family members.  Though you can’t change someone who does not want to change you can incorporate your own healthful beliefs into your home.  It might be as simple as inviting family members on a walk after dinner or as complex as replacing the contents of your cabinets with nutritious, healthy options (depending on the adaptability of your family you may get some backlash with this one but keep trying, it’ll get easier).  You can’t always change the people you live with but you may be able to improve on your household situation.

Another option is to find the inner cheerleader inside your own head.  Most of us are well-aware of the tiny drill sergeant in there.  The one that tells you why you can’t do something, why you’re not good enough, and other bad news of the like.  Tell that little guy to take a hike and start working on ways to banish him for good.  Affirmations are a great way to start the process.  Sure it feels a little hokey at first to stick a post-it note on the bathroom mirror that reads “I’m a fitness rock star” (or whatever little phrase turns you on) but eventually that post-it becomes as much a part of the scenery as your toothbrush holder.  The only difference is the phrase gets stuck in your head like that irritatingly catchy tune you hear on the radio 24/7 and just like those bad song lyrics it will keep repeating somewhere in your subconscious and you are thinking without realizing…then believing without realizing…then doing without realizing…and soon you have realized your goal.

Of course you can always rely on the encouragement of a health and fitness professional.  There are a handful out there who will yell and scream in your face Biggest Loser-style and like I mentioned earlier and the extra boost of adrenaline might help for a bit (or might drive you to punch their face instead of the heavy bag depending on your personality…).  However, most of us are just regular people with an irregular love of all things fitness related who want to cheer you on (and sometimes incessantly correct your form).  There are many ways to motivate yourself but if all else fails you can pay someone to do it for you.

Before you set foot in the gym or press play on that workout DVD, be sure you’ve got your head right, your body will soon follow.

It’s hard to believe it has been over a decade since Tae Bo came into popular culture.  If you have ever owned a Tae Bo tape (or for those of you who are younger, DVD) you might remember Billy Blanks in all his lycra-clad glory asking you to “call upon a higher power” to keep yourself going during the last few grueling exercises of the hour-long workout.  I remember that striking me as a young fitness enthusiast.  It had never occurred to me that spirituality and fitness had anything to do with each other.  Quite the contrary, I assumed they were polar opposites.  Growing up Catholic I did do a great deal of standing, kneeling, and sitting during mass but can’t say I ever considered it a “workout”.  With vanity being one of the seven deadly sins I somehow automatically assumed it wrong to dream about flatter abs and leaner thighs.  However, I’ve recently come across a growing body of evidence that faith and fitness are becoming more intertwined.  Beachbody (the same company that owns the extremely popular P90X)  has recently backed a series of Body Gospel workouts, well-known self-help author Geneen Roth’s book “Women, Food, and God” has remained popular since it’s release in the spring of last year, and some churches have even opened fitness centers or started hosting workout classes for their congregation.

We often hear about mind-body connection but it might be even more helpful to think in terms of spirit-body connection.  We tend to look to a higher power for strength in life circumstance, but what if we looked to that higher power for help in lifting that 15lb dumb bell?  No matter what your faith, anyone who has been through a heart pounding, muscle burning workout can tell you it takes more than willpower to reach the finish line.  Praying  for weight loss (or for the workout to be over) is missing the point.  The saying “God helps those who help themselves” applies directly to this situation.  So, if you are listlessly logging mind numbing hours on the treadmill and think this fitness revolution might be for you read more about it here.  “My body is my temple” just got a whole new meaning.

“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change”- Carl Rogers 

I was reminded of this quote by a question I received this week (thank you for asking, your questions are always appreciated!) about how to get motivated when you are stuck in a rut.  In many of my posts I write about motivation, about how the small steps we take lead to the big changes we want to see and feel.  But what happens when you want to start the journey but you feel your feet are stuck in cement?  Putting stipulations on yourself is natural, thinking “I’ll be happy when…” is a common problem in fitness and in life.  When you are feeling down about yourself and your fitness level it’s hard to get motivated to change.  When a client shows up for their first session they usually look at that as their first step, but I know it is actually their second.  The first step towards health and fitness happens internally.  It is the moment when you decide that you are worth the time and effort needed to improve your quality of life.  It’s the moment when you let go of who you were and who you want to become and look at who you are presently.  In order to spur the process of change you need come to terms with where you are now and work from there.  Start with some simple day to day exercises:

-Practice gratitude: Sure, your life isn’t perfect but focusing on the negative will only keep you from moving forward.  Focusing on the things that are right in your life no matter how small can give you the energy to improve upon what is not right.  Listing a few things every day (the car started, you made it to work on time) can assist in changing your perception.

-Be kind to yourself: Maybe you didn’t work out every single day this week but that doesn’t mean you are a complete failure.  Celebrate the things you do that impact your health in a positive way, no matter how insignificant they may seem.  Congratulate yourself for choosing an apple instead of a brownie for your afternoon snack or taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work.  We all enjoy being recognized for what we do right, why not give yourself some much needed recognition?

-Look at eating healthy and exercising as self-nourishment, not self torture: The desire to eat right and exercise comes from a very positive place, so don’t ruin it by placing unrealistic and unhealthy expectations on yourself.  Resigning yourself to a life of eating only rice cakes and spending 5 hours a day on the treadmill is not the way to go.  Instead of restricting yourself, treat yourself to a new fruit or vegetable you’ve never tried or take up a new activity that you’ve always been curious about.  Don’t question your initial instincts, find what inspires you and go for it.  It doesn’t have to be what inspires everyone else, so long as it gets you moving in the right direction.

-Get some support: You don’t have to go it alone.  Getting support from others, whether it be in a group class or online will help you reach your goals faster.  Being held accountable for your actions gives you a sense of purpose and achievement.  Reach out to others through online weight loss websites, joining a local exercise group, or even posting your goals and achievements on Facebook.  This will add some external motivation to your internal motivation.

As always, questions are suggestions are always welcomed.  Have you tried any of these steps?  Do you have some others you might recommend?  Feel free to post below or click on the  “Get Your Fitness Questions Answered for Free” tab to join the conversation!

As a species we are hard-wired to adapt.  Those who can quickly adjust to a given situation or environment are most likely to survive.  This seems to be especially true when the situation is a group exercise class and the environment is the local gym.  Step into the studio, shut the door behind you, and watch as evolutionary biology kicks in.  Suddenly you are performing exercises you would never think of performing on the gym floor due to the simple fact that everyone else is too.  That burpee or box jump looks much more appealing when instead of sticking out like a sore thumb for doing it you would look out of place by refusing .  Fear of hyperventilating lessens when you glance across the room and see a sweet elderly man happily completing his second round of mountain climbers.  Exercising becomes fun when you have someone to commiserate with, make faces at the teacher with, and go out for a non fat soy latte with afterwards.  Nothing builds friendship faster than tandem hardship, even if that hardship is a heavily loaded squat.  Going through the trenches together helps people bond like nothing else.  Before you know it 45 minutes have gone by, you’re sweating more than you ever would be if you worked out alone, and you’ve made a few new friends.  Maybe there is something to this group exercise thing.

“I used to be (insert weight at age 16, position on high school football team, or any unrealistic expectation of what client thinks they should be here)”.  As a trainer I hear this several times a day.  There is a name in the industry for this these clients.  They are called used-to-coulds.  They look to the past and use that version of themselves to determine their goals for the future.  It is interesting that in a world in a constant state of flux we expect our bodies to stay the same.  Realistically, we have many machines in the gym but a time machine we do not.  Would you want to go back there anyway?  Sure, you may have weighed a few pounds less but remember that awful 80’s hair?  Remember how insecure you were?  How broke?  How ignorant?  Or maybe your life really was perfect back then and the rest has been a downhill tumble.  Are you going to keep on tumbling or use those quads and hamstrings to work your way up to the next peak?  Our cells are constantly turning over, we are literally not the same person we were a decade ago.  Who are you going to be now?  Why does it have to be about getting back to where you were then?  Couldn’t it be about moving forward to something even better?  You don’t have to forget where you came from, but maybe don’t cling to it so hard either.  You have to loosen your grip on the lower ledge to pull yourself up higher.  Try it.  The next peak might be closer than you think.