Our YBC® Editorial Director L.G. is expecting her second child and we thought it may be fun to follow her pregnancy from a health and wellness perspective. I hope you enjoy! XO Candace
So as you can probably guess by the photo, I am pregnant again and expecting our second baby in April 2019! I’m still in the first trimester at the time of this draft, and will wait to post until I’m in the clear of the second trimester. I talked to Candace who thought it’d be a great idea to share my journey through this pregnancy and aim for two posts per trimester. The first post of the trimester will be how I’m feeling and what my workout, nutrition, and mental health are looking like, and the second will be how that trimester actually went. I’ll also do a few posts on my current trimester prenatal workouts and then some prenatal clothing and baby items I’m loving. We figured there may be some existing mothers, expectant mothers, fathers, or even anyone who may know someone pregnant among the YBC® community and may find something useful from my experience and intentions.
As you may remember, I’m a certified personal trainer and enjoy all aspects of health and fitness and am looking forward to incorporating those aspects into my prenatal journey. But that’s just it - these are hopes and intentions and we all know things can change in an instant. My last pregnancy, over almost exactly a year ago, was overall healthy, but I ate all the things my entire pregnancy, and I suffered from severe pelvic pain my second trimester which greatly limited my workouts. My third trimester was pretty easy going, and at that point, I had put on almost 50 pounds so I just did what I could and hung on until the end. After the birth, you may remember, I suffered greatly from severe postpartum anxiety, and it took 4 months before I felt physically and mentally ready to go back to the gym. But after 6 months, I lost 50lbs, and more importantly, I felt mentally, the best I’d ever felt. So, going into this pregnancy, I am going to try things a little differently and I hope you enjoy.
If you have any past experiences with pregnancy, health and fitness, be sure to let me know in the comments below, or drop me a line here.
Teddy seems just as excited as I am.
First Trimester Outlook
So, first trimester, here we go! Six weeks into my second pregnancy, things still seem so surreal because I just feel so good! Last pregnancy wasn’t too bad, but I definitely had my ups and downs with some morning sickness, some exhaustion, and some pretty intense anxiety over a healthy pregnancy. The first trimester, I did feel nauseous, exhausted and had all the cravings, but honestly, this time, I just feel so great! My energy level is normal, my food aversions have yet to appear, and my workouts are pretty much consistent. I want to take advantage of all these good vibes before things change either in this trimester, or the others to come, so I’m staying active, following macros and enjoying my high energy!
Nutrition
So far, without any food aversions, morning sickness, or cravings, I’m sticking to my current macros from Coach Keeler. I’m at about 1790 calories per day and while if I do go over, I don’t sweat it. I feel it’s important to still maintain my macros as best I can because doing so has greatly regulated and balanced my hormones and with all the hormonal changes taking place with pregnancy, I want to try to keep them as balanced as possible. Breakfast is usually a banana and nut butter, lunch is egg white, avocado, Ezekiel muffin sandwich, and dinner is a protein and sweet potato or spinach, or both! Snacks are a protein shake or Perfect Bar. This is much different from last time when I couldn’t even look at a healthy salad or a piece of chicken without wanting to puke and the only thing that appealed to me was anything simple carbohydrate! Bagels, pizza, donuts, etc. I also frequently told myself ‘oh, you’re eating for two!’ (this just in, your fetus does not need an additional 1,000 calories of bagels and pizza lol). Looking ahead, I plan on riding this good feeling out! I will say, I’m currently craving: snow cones (impossible to find here in DC) and hot pickles (not together)!
Mentality
Overall, I’m feeling so great. I’m obviously ecstatic at the news that we are pregnant again, but I’d be lying if somewhere in the back of my head, I wasn’t worried about being able to care for a newborn while providing the same care and attention to Teddy. I struggled greatly in the “fourth trimester” with anxiety and am trying to stay focused on the fact that I’ve got a long way to go, to live in the moment, and that I now have experience and know what I’m in for in the event that I have another colicky baby! I’m still sticking with my therapist and staying hyperaware of my mental state - but so far, so good!
Workouts
My workouts are at my prepregnancy level. I’m taking advantage of my high energy levels, and working out 5-6 days per week. I also am taking advantage of the knowledge I gained from my first pregnancy. Now I know what to expect from my body.
My workouts generally start with a 3 minute row to get my heart rate pumping then, I’ll do an 8-10 minute warmup getting my hip flexors loosened up, my joints lubricated with jumping jacks, arm circles or air squats, and oxygen pumping specifically to the muscles that I’m going to be focusing on during that day’s workout. Because of the release and increase of the hormone ‘relaxin’ from your placenta during pregnancy, your ligaments begin to loosen to prepare your body for the physical changes it will endure before and during childbirth. As such, it’s very important to warmup before working out. Then I’ll move into a weighted workout or interval workout focused on either back and bis, chest and triceps, shoulders and abs or legs.
I’ll be doing a separate post in the coming weeks on an example of my current workout and some health and safety tips to remember for prenatal exercise.
For now, this trimester is looking phenomenal! I am feeling pretty lucky so far at how great I’m feeling. I have two friends who are two weeks ahead of me and they both are having all the feels - nausea, exhaustion, a little depression at knowing their time with having just one child will be changing. I’ll be back at the end of the trimester to see how if I really felt this great by the end!
For more pregnancy related posts, you can always follow me at That Ginger Latte or on IG @thatgingerlatte