Back in the Gym

Even though I feel like napping all the time, I am doing my best to keep moving. As long as its not early in the morning I join Josh at the gym here in our apartment complex. Josh usually runs and does some weight training. I either walk on the treadmill or work out on the elliptical machine and then do some very light weight lifting --- just upper body with the 2.5 pound free weights.

It feels pretty good to get off the couch, even if I am barely breaking a sweat. The important thing is raising my heart rate a little and just keeping my muscles moving. I do get out of breath a lot faster because I am carrying extra weight and my lungs are being squished by my ever growing uterus. What's funny though is that I still get the urge to push myself. As soon as I step on the treadmill I want to set it to 6.0 mph and run for at least 30 minutes, but today I settled for 3.3mph for 15 minutes. I did put it at a 1.5% incline though, just to add a little difficulty. But by the time I was finished my pelvis was ready to be done, so I am succeeding at not pushing myself too hard.

Thankfully the machines have a heart rate monitor so that I can keep an eye on my heart rate. The rates are: 1)warm-up 2)fat burner 3)cardio 4)peak high. I try to keep my heart rate between 'fat burner' and 'cardio' which is between 130 bpm and 155 bpm. That is the safe zone for my baby. Also if I allow it to go higher and I start to really heat up it can be very unsafe for my little James because he will heat up also and in the uterus the baby has no means to cool down, which is why I am not allowed in a hot bath or the hot tub for the duration of the pregnancy.

So long story short, I need to be careful and listen to my body, but I also need to keep moving  :)

On days that I don't go to the gym I am trying to do some prenatal yoga or prenatal Pilate's. Since that's in DVD or YouTube form it can be very difficult to get motivated and off the couch, but rest days are also very welcome :) 

I look forward to getting back to proper running once James has arrived, but in the mean time I am very much enjoying a slower pace :)

From One month to Six!



Can you believe how much I have grown in these past six months?! I have gained a total of 14 pounds since conceiving and most of that has been in the past month and a half. And I am only going to keep growing!!!

I honestly had no idea how small I was before getting pregnant until looking at these two photos side by side. It makes me confident that I will be able to lose all of my pregnancy weight by working out and eating right :) 

So far I have done well to stay in the healthy range ... I was on the lower end of the weight gain until about month 4 due to morning sickness, but I quickly caught up and am now smack dab in the middle of the recommended weight gain :)   Oh and I can no longer take photos in my bathing suit bottoms because ... well ... they no longer fit :-/ hahaha!

This morning I stood on the scales (as I do at the same time every week to ensure that I am gaining the weight I need to gain) and was quite shocked to have passed the 120 pound mark ... I am now at 121 pounds! For me that is a lot because I am a petite person who has never weighed more than 108 pounds. So I said to Josh, "I'm getting fat."  .... to which he replied, "Yes, but it's a beautiful fat."  .... One of the many reasons that I love my man  :)  He always knows how to make me feel better  :)  I love you!!!  <3

Anyway, I am going to go and not eat ice cream .... wait, do we have ice cream? .... mmmmm ice cream  :-D

Feeling Positive

Hello :)  Two exciting things this week ... Christmas of course, so quality time with the family and entering the 6th month of pregnancy. I don't know why, but the 6th month has always felt like a milestone of some kind. So I am almost there  :)

I went to urgent care at the end of last week to ask about my chronic fatigue and acid indigestion. The doctor told that I can take pepsid ac rather than tums and that we will only resort to prilosec if the pepsid doesn't work. Well, the pepsid works wonderfully! I take one with breakfast every morning and that one little pill lasts me the whole 24 hours with not a single acid burp  :)  It started working from the very first pill too. So I am very very happy with that. I can now finally eat more than just rice and veggies!
This also means that I am now sleeping through the whole night with the odd bathroom trip around 6am. So guess what ... the fatigue has also gone away. Now I just deal with the regular tiredness of pregnancy. It feels fantastic to be sleeping  :)  It puts me in a better mood for work and with people around me in general and has lessened the stress caused by exhaustion .... so I haven't cried in days!  :)

I am also sleeping better because it seems my body has gotten used to spending the whole night on my left side. I no longer wake up with numb legs and arms. I have also stopped stressing about sleeping on my back because the doctor told me that if its uncomfortable for James, it will also be uncomfortable for me and so I will either roll over or just wake up and change position.

I have a morning routine now that I quite enjoy. I don't really sleep in anymore, so when Josh wakes up around 630am or 7am for work I usually turn on the bedroom TV to watch GMA (Good Morning America) while I slowly wake up. Once I feel alert enough, I start doing my physical therapy stretches which are done lying down. I do those for about 15-20 minutes and then slowly sit up. Once that feels good I get out of bed and do a few rounds of pigeon pose (squat position pushing my hips outwards) and forward fold. All of these stretches are to loosen my hips and strengthen my pelvis floor for birth. By the time I am done with all of that I feel ready to start my day!

I am feeling ready and able to start a little workout routine too, so Josh and I are going to start going to our apartment complexes gym where he will probably jog and I will walk. It will be nice to get moving again ... heck, it feels nice just to have the energy and motivation to want to workout again!

Anyway, I am starting to ramble. I will try to remember to post my 6 months belly picture on here on Thursday so you can see the progress! Have a great day!

Some of the coaches at South Coast Gymnastics here in Irvine, CA on December 17th for the Christmas Party. Pam and I are sitting on the blue block front and center. Can you believe that we are both 6 months along?!?! Pam is just two weeks ahead of me and we are both having boys  :)

Back in the Gym.

Now that I am 16.5 weeks pregnant and past the first trimester I have started feeling much better. Nausea is a thing of the past (touch wood) and the worst thing I deal with now are the hormone headaches, some fatigue and nose bleeds. And trust me ... those are better than the nausea! My cravings are also lessening so I am making a better effort to eat healthy  :)

Today was my second day back on the treadmill. I have been walking with Pam for the past few weeks, but I've been getting the urge to run. When I went to the gym with Josh a few days ago I jogged for a total of 6 minutes and walked for 14 minutes. I just wanted to get a feel for running again, and I have to admit that it feels different now. My boobs are heavy and uncontrollable! And I did feel the extra weight in my knees a little bit. But other than that, it felt good to be moving again.

Today I jogged for 8 minutes at 4.1 mph and walked for the rest of the 30 minutes at 3.5mph or less.  I was hoping to jog for 10 minutes but had to listen to my body. I started getting some minor lower abdominal cramping, and so didn't want to push it. Though for me, its very difficult to stop due to some minor pain. I am used to pushing through it and I am used to going all out. To think that I am used to running 3.3 miles in 30 minutes and today I got to 1.75 miles in 30 minutes ... it's quite a change of pace.

But right now I am not running to better my times or to train for a race ... right now I jog because I want to stay healthy throughout my pregnancy and make it easier on myself to get back into running shape after Peanut has arrived. I have also read that the uterus vibrates while I exercise and that feels good for the baby. It also brings more oxygen to the baby and there are some studies to support a higher likely hood of an active/healthy/intelligent child when a mom exercises during pregnancy due to that extra oxygen on a regular basis. So I want to do it for myself as well as for Peanut :)

So jogging, yoga, whole grains and veggies ... I feel like I am finally in the pregnancy stride I envisioned myself in, and I'm feeling good :)

The blog title?

You know, if you are reading this as someone who doesn't know me, it just occurred to me that I have never really explained the title of this blog. As far as I can remember I have not mentioned running of any kind in any of my blogs. So here it goes ... 12 blogs later, finally an explanation.

Before I became pregnant I was an avid runner. I was on the road or in the gym 5-6 days a week running a minimum of 5k (3.1 miles). I also did the elliptical machine, the StairMaster, the bike and rowing machine from time to time as well as light weight lifting. I like to think I did swimming too, but I don't think once every 2-3 months really counts.

Obviously since taking the pregnancy test which came up positive I have scaled back big time. I remember the last workout before the pregnancy test ... by the end of it I wasn't feeling well and had some abdominal cramping. I also read that if you work out hard for prolonged periods of time keeping your body temperature elevated you could be doing damage to your unborn child. Of course I don't want to do that, so I haven't been pushing myself as I was before. I had been working on improving my 5k time, but that can now wait.

For the past few weeks it has been difficult to workout anyway, due to the nausea and exhaustion, but when I do make it to the gym or out the front door, I just walk. My muscles feel like they are getting a workout, but I am not turning red and sweating buckets like if I was running. I sometimes lift lighter weights than before, but it has really come down to listening to my body. If something doesn't feel right, then I stop.

I do still have a mud run with my dad a week from tomorrow. I considered dropping out, but its only 5k. I figure we can walk/roll/skip/jog through the mud. We are not out to win, just to have fun. I signed up months ago and it wasn't cheap, so I'm still participating! I am not missing out on my chance to get dirty!