Fitness during pregnancy can be a little daunting. I know it was for me. Learn more about how I found my love for fitness through my pregnancy.
Growing up I found a love for dance. I danced on a National dance team and loved every minute of it. Other that dance I never really did any other active sport or class but I always wanted to run but could never get myself to run a mile. I had the hardest time finding my form and my breath. It wasn’t until 2011 that I had decided to explore my abilities and sign up for the Utah Valley half marathon.I was married at that time and My husband and I had been trying to become pregnant for the last several months. I began training and after a month into it I learned I was pregnant. (HMMM FITNESS AND PREGNANCY???? IS THIS OKAY?)
I remember the excitement that came over me when I found out. I could hardly believe that I had a little human growing inside of me. Right when I found out I got nervous to workout much and was VERY nervous to run. I just pictured this precious little baby trying to grow and me bouncing around making it much harder. I wasn’t sure if the force of running was too much for my growing baby.
I decided not to do the half marathon that year and really just got too nervous to do much at all. I had a friend tell me that whatever I didn’t do before pregnancy I shouldn’t do it now. I asked my doctor and he told me that it was okay but I kept finding excuses for myself not to do much. For the duration of my pregnancy I stopped working out. I also found all the excuses in the book to eat poorly. “I’m pregnant its not a big deal ill just eat whatever, I am carrying a child I deserve this hamburger” In the end I gained 42 lbs and was very uncomfortable. I got very swollen and just wanted to have a baby. After I had my baby girl recovery was hard. I still weighed a lot and I physically felt drained. It was then that I knew that the next time I wanted to do things very differently!
Fast forward to 2013 I again learned that I was pregnant with our second child. Fitness became something I did regularly at this point in my ilfe. I had just lost the pre baby weight from the first baby 3 months before I got pregnant. When we found out I knew that I wanted to continue this time around. I had started teaching a fitness class called ballet blast. It was a great barre’ class that was low impact but delivered great cardio and strength training. If there was anything that I learned the first time around it was that I wanted to incorporate fitness and healthy nutrition during my pregnancy. FUN FACT: It is great to incorporate fitness during pregnancy and actually can help with delivery and recovery. With my first I ate out a lot and really didn’t focus too much on healthy fruits and veggies so this is something I wanted to change as well. (I have a whole bunch to say about nutrition but we will save that for another post). The whole pregnancy I ended up gaining 23 lbs and even though I felt pregnant I never felt miserable like I did with the first pregnancy. I was not very swollen or sore and I really enjoyed the nine months. I was so grateful that I decided to be active because it truly made the world of difference for me. This lifestyle has carried on as I have become older and continued to have children. Being a doula I always talk to my clients about healthy eating and physical activity. Keeping in mind not everyone is going to be able to run a marathon during pregnancy. Everyone will be at different levels of physical ability but there are many things you can do still.
To learn more on how you can encourage a healthy pregnancy by staying active check out the link below. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for free videos that you can do before during and after pregnancy.
