19 Weeks: Nutrition, Workout, and More

Yes!  I made through one of my workout goals.  In my last post I mentioned I wanted to get up at six AM and workout about three to four times a week.  So far I have worked out five times last week and two times this week.  This has been a huge challenge to me since being a mom of four kids already, I hardly have time to rest much after waking up early and working out.  When I was pregnant with my third child I would workout and nap while my two children slept in the afternoon.  Amazingly, I feel great regardless of the lack of naps.  I do seem to feel extremely tired around three PM, but other than that second trimester is treating me much better than the first.

There are other goals I want to set during this pregnancy.  It has been easier to follow a much healthier diet when I was pregnant a few babies ago, but now I literally feel like I have been pregnant for three years straight, almost have been, and all I want to do is drink coffee when I feel like it and eat sugar.  NOT good.  Let me tell you, these things lead to serious energy crashes.  I also learned from my second pregnancy that adding more pounds on because I felt like eating half a grocery store cake a few times a month does not make that weight easy to get rid of post baby, not to mention my baby did not need that.  I still have not lost ten pounds from my second pregnancy even though I had almost two full years in between the that baby and baby number three.  Since then I have been able to loose all but the last five pounds of my baby weight in the first four months post pregnancy.

So what should I be eating instead of cake and goodies?  It is really important to make every single calorie count regardless to being pregnant or not, but when one is pregnant keeping a full stomach has kept me from throwing up a lot.  With my first baby I had morning sickness for about five months.  I was not used to eating a whole lot for breakfast and I was not focusing on protein.  My midwife has me make a diet chart of the three days worth of meals.  One of the main things she looks for is protein. Am I eating some kind of protein with each meal?  This does help with overall energy and not suddenly feeling starving.  Without protein I would get really hungry and feel like if I did not eat right away I would throw up.  Strange I know, but regular meals and snacks really do help.

I wish I could say I am the type of person who never craves or eats sugar during my pregnancies, but I am not.  There are certain kinds of rules I put on what treats I eat.  I will eat high quality ice cream after dinner and the baked goods I consume are either homemade (often honey or maple syrup sweetened) or bought from bakeries I know use good sources to make their food.

As far as coffee is concerned, I know the number one ideal would be to cut it out all together.  In fact, I had a decent amount of success in this area during my last pregnancy, but this time it has been harder.  I associate coffee drinking with friendships because I used to go out to coffee as an enjoyable social event.  Now that I have four kids going out is less frequent and drinking coffee reminds me of times when I spent more time out and about.  So one can already tell I am not really dealing with a strong desire to enjoy a coffee rush, I am missing my social rush.  This is a harder habit to kick because of it.  When I have felt down this pregnancy I find myself loading kids into the car to go to my favorite coffee drive though place.  Um...I think my next goal it to replace to coffee with red tea. 

Even with my weaknesses, the great thing about pregnancy is I have more motivation to make changes that are better for me, not just the baby.  Body image never was a problem for me in high school or college, but once I started gaining pregnancy weight I began to feel more pressure towards staying in shape and eating healthy.  It is a balancing act because one can get too obsessive as well.  It is helpful to examine how amazing and beautiful the whole pregnancy process is.  I mean it is amazing to think there is actually a person growing inside of me.  Pregnancy is a miraculous blessing. :)