Boy, it's been a long time since I was here!
I used to be on this site several years ago, and it was a big encouragement for me losing a little weight, so it was the first thing I thought of when I decided I wanted to find some support!
I've been a little bit derailed lately with my weight loss/maintenance efforts, first with an international move and a new job, about 10 pounds put on while trying to get pregnant, and now another 20 pounds so far actually BEING pregnant.
I'm not trying to lose any weight just yet, but my doctors are recommending I at least slow it down a little. And since getting pregnant, although I kept up being active and pretty healthy for a while, as the months go on I'm getting less and less active and more and more a lazy eater, past the normal extent that one should be while pregnant. I want to live a healthier next couple months for my baby's health as well as my own efforts after the baby is born when I try to get back into shape again.
So my goal is just to cut out all the non-nutritional snacking on chips and ice cream I'm wont to do while working during the day, save those treats for sharing with friends and family. I'm not supposed to do any intense exercise at all, but I want to try to get back into a minimal exercise routine, just walking a slow 5K each day and doing some really light ab exercises, wall push-ups, leg raises, those kinds of things, every day. Then I can get more serious in a couple months when I'm no longer pregnant.
Hello to anyone still here who might remember me, and to everyone else new that I don't know!
Do you have access to a pool? I swam while I was pregnant with my first child and it was wonderful, especially toward the end, to be weightless! I'm not particularly good at swimming (I love to play around in the pool and I was a diver when I was young but never swam laps or anything), so I just grabbed a kickboard and swam easy laps alternating a flutter kick and a frog kick. I swam right up until the day before I went into labor and I swear it helped my recovery because I was fit.
And it's a very personal choice, but I recommend breast feeding. I'm not great at losing weight but the pounds melted off while I breastfed.
I'm not sure what kind of ab exercises you're considering, but when your belly gets big, I believe there's a risk of damaging your abs by working them too hard when they're all stretched over your belly. Something about splitting down the middle.
My advice, after three healthy pregnancies, is to focus on HEALTH not WEIGHT during the next several months. It is all about the healthy baby and the weight will take care of itself in the end (not to contradict your docs -- of course it is important to watch your weight WRT gestational diabetes, etc, but I doubt you're at risk of that).
Thesame7lbs- Thanks for all the advice! I love hearing from others with experience. There have been so many surprises so far, haha.
I could probably find a pool nearby, but at this point I hesitate to pay the money for a new suit and membership since I'm so close to the end and so tired I wouldn't get out much anyway. But now that I know how hard it gets to move, next time I'm definitely getting into swimming and maybe maternity yoga for the next baby!
I will be breastfeeding if at all possible, just really want that connection and the whole natural-feeling thing, plus money saving on free food, lol, but if it's true that it helps the baby weight come off, that'd be a nice benefit too! As for ab exercises, the doctors have just said to like sit against a wall and tighten up my ab muscles and breathe a couple times, things like that. Especially because I already had the diastatis recti prior to getting pregnant, just to prevent worse injury if I can.
I'm definitely focusing on health rather than weight! Honestly, I feel like my body is doing what it wants regardless of what I try to do...and even as I gain a lot of scale weight, it doesn't show in my face like it normally would just from overeating or whatever, so I know it's not that I'm just getting fat, of course. Actually, I've loved the experience of wanting and trying to be healthy for health's sake and not have to worry at all about dieting or weight. It's very freeing. (: And I'm hopeful that a lot of these good natural non-extreme habits will carry on even afterwards and make the crash dieting I sadly used to do not applicable anymore! That went off on a total tangent, haha, but it's really been a great mindset change to want to exercise and eat right for HEALTH and NOT just to be skinny.
Back again!
