Exercise, as noted before, is important for a mama-to-be and can be extremely beneficial for your pregnancy as well as after. But beware, you can over do it. Remember that your heart rate has increased now that you are pregnant and you are starting to carry around a few extra pounds. The extra pounds and elevated heart rate can make exercise feel more difficult than ever before. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that a pregnant woman get 150 minutes per week (think 5 days of 30 minute workouts).
So what's a pregnant girl to do: LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!!
I totally blew this concept today as I decided that I was going to make a conscious effort to walk where ever I went for the day (except to spinning class...too dark at 5:30 a.m.). I have eaten like total crap...I wont go into the gory details...just trust me. So I taught spinning for 50 minutes, walked to my parents' house (3.3 miles...50 minutes) and walked to a client's appointment (1.3 miles...25 minutes). Maybe any other day it would have been fine, but man, I am pooped. My nausea came back with a vengeance as well as an overwhelming sense that my body is going to fall apart or at the very least collapse at any minute.
Moral of the story here, is to be smart about exercise. Just because you were able to do something before you were pregnant, doesn't mean that it's going to be a piece of cake to do it when you are expecting. Give yourself a break. Forgive your body for giving out on you...you ARE making a baby in there!
I'll say it again (mostly for my benefit)...listen to your body and don't push too far...there will be a lot of pushing later :)
I wish I could remember the name of the show right now, but over Christmas break I kept seeing commercials for it, it was about a mother with two teenagers who unexpectedly finds herself pregnant again. Her husband comes home one evening to find that she hadn't done any of the things she said she'd do all day because she wasn't feeling well, and he (foolishly!) asks, "Well what did you do all day?" to which she yelled back, "What do you mean, I'm pregnant! I grew a spleen for a baby today, what did YOU do all day?"
ReplyDeleteThat's one of my favorite quotes now, I love pointing out what my body has done today for our little one! But, moreover, the point is your body has probably never been doing so much before, and growing that little person takes a lot of energy!