All My Pregnant Ladies...

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I've been feeling extra lazy and haven't been able to make myself get back on the blog train… but here I am, finally! I've been asked by a few people to do a pregnancy post. I know pretty much every book you pick up on pregnancy has advice on food and what not, so I'm going to summarize that and talk a little about my own experience. Obviously every pregnancy is different for every woman, so when you read this keep that in mind.

For all you non-pregnant folk you still might want to read, I mean lets be honest, I'm pretty funny. Plus you might want to see what you have the possibility of getting yourself into. Here goes nothing.

First of all can we talk about how scary google is when you become pregnant. Do NOT try to google symptoms for any weird thing, it will ultimately just tell you that you and your baby are dying. When I had food poisoning I made that mistake, never again! The woman's body is so miraculous. Seriously. You spend 10 months (pregnancy is 40 weeks, I never understood why they say 9 months) growing a human and sharing your body and spit out a tiny little person. The fact that healthy babies are born every day is seriously a miracle because I promise once you're pregnant you will start reading about the million things that could go wrong during the whole process.

There's several conditions that you can develop during pregnancy that can make it more challenging. Hopefully if you're pregnant and reading this you don't have one of those conditions (gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, etc.). I'm going to be focusing more on pregnancies without these added conditions. The basics still apply to you, but there's extra stuff that goes along with a diagnoses of any of these. If you have one of these and have questions, please contact me.

You know what one of my biggest pet peeves is so far? People who say "you're eating for two now" Uhhhhh okay, but that second person weighs like an ounce… don't think that justifies a second double double. You definitely need extra calories while you're pregnant…. but…. in your first trimester your calorie intake really doesn't need to increase. Once you hit that second trimester you should increase by 340-360 calories a day and 452-472 calories a day in your third trimester. That's it. That's really not that much if you think about it. I think a lot of ladies have this figured out. Pregnancy hits and you start caring a little more what you're putting into your body because now you're not just feeding yourself, you're feeding your baby. Just remember, that second person you're feeding isn't a teenage boy.

So what about these crazy cravings? You know what, I let myself indulge sometimes. I mean, if I decided to eat every little thing that sounded good then I'm pretty sure I would have already gained 40 pounds. I try to stay balanced, but if all I can think about it is ice cream for an entire day, then I'm going to let myself have ice cream. This week I've been wanting mashed potatoes, so I made my own. I figure that way I can control the amount of salt and fat and stuff that goes into it way better than I could if I hit the KFC drive thru. This tactic works with all kinds of food. Make your own!

Lets talk about protein needs. In a previous post I told you that protein is a big part of building tissue. Well, if you're growing a human you need to build tissue. In the first half of pregnancy your needs stay the same (that's 0.8 g/kg of body weight). Once you hit that halfway point you should increse your needs to 71 grams a day. Not sure what foods are proteins, or want to know the best protein sources? Check out my previous blog on protein.

Prenatal vitamins. Every doctor's visit they ask me if I'm still taking my prenatals. In the beginning I had the hardest time with them because they made me sick. I had to try a couple different brands before I found one that worked for me. Make sure you get the kind that has DHA in them, or a separate fish oil supplement. That's important for the brain development, and hey… who doesn't want to raise the genius that's going to cure cancer? Bring on the DHA baby. Bottom line, take them. Every. Single. Day. Set an alarm, take them in the morning or night, whatever, just take them. There are too many scary things that can happen if you're vitamin deficient while you're pregnant. I won't list them, just take my word for it.

I've always been a water drinker. That was an easy thing for me to get on board with when I got pregnant. If you're not a water drinker, you better learn how to be. Try the sparkling or flavored kind. You can even find receipes to infuse your water and make your own flavors. Whatever you have to do, just drink your water. I keep a water bottle on me at all times. Drink when you're not thirsty. Get used to the fact that you will have to pee more than you've ever peed in your entire life. Since I've been pregnant I swear the thing we go through the most is toilet paper.

Now for everyone's favorite subject: working out. I had about one tiny week of morning sickness. You know what helped? Working out. When I don't sleep good you know what helps? Working out. When I'm fatigued beyond all belief you know what helps? Working out. Seeing a pattern yet? I'm very fortunate and have probably the most amazing trainer in the history of trainers. He kicks my pregnant booty three times a week. There are days when I don't want to peel myself off of my couch, but I know that my labor and my overall pregnancy will only benefit from one little hour of working out per day. It probably helps that I pay him to make me. If you need accountability you can pay me to make you workout… if that doesn't sound appealing to you then find an accountability partner. Find a friend that will promise to ask you every week if you've been working out, and be honest.

If you weren't an avid worker outer before getting pregnant that's ok! You can still workout. Talk to your doctor and find out what they recommend. And if you were an avid worker outer and aren't sure what's okay and not okay to do now that you have a baby on board, try prenatal workout dvds or googling prenatal workout routines. Just do something. Get off your tired booty and go for a walk even. I promise being active will be nothing but positive for you and the baby. I know it's hard, I'm living it. You just have to make yourself. You can do it. I have faith in you.

I thought about listing all the foods that are good for you when you're pregnant… but honestly they're all the same foods that are good for you when you're not pregnant. My best advice? Use your brain. You know what's healthy and what's not. Try to choose the healthy stuff more than the not healthy stuff. If you aren't sure about something or you have questions, email or message me, I'll point you in the right direction.

I know this blog is probably a lot of common sense… but hopefully it's a good reminder for you soon to be momma's! Til next time!

Leslie