Running and Pregnancy

Since I have become pregnant, exercise has become increasingly more important to me.  Certainly exercising was important to me before, but now it has become a gift I can give to my baby as well.  Keeping Mommy healthy means the baby is more likely to be healthy and I take this truth very seriously. 
However, not so long ago, many doctors did not recommend exercise for pregnant women.  Certainly a brisk walk was encouraged, but keeping your heart rate at an optimal level was always a concern.  However, opinions on this have now started to change, and exercise is seen as a crucial part of pregnancy.  To find more information on this topic, I borrowed the book Runner's World Guide to Running and Pregnancy from the library. 
This book gives great information and advice as to how to run during pregnancy, where your heart rate should be, how your body will most likely react to running during the different trimesters of pregnancy, and personal testimonies to how mom's stayed in shape while pregnant.  If you are a runner and are wanting to have children soon, I would highly recommend reading this book. 
Now, I would not consider myself to be a runner.  I run, but I do not identify myself as a runner.  In fact, I have personally decided not to run during pregnancy, but have been interspersing stationary biking, pilates, yoga, and walking 5-6 days a week, 30-60 minutes a day.  My goal is always 6 days a week, but my pregnancy napping (non)schedule sometimes precludes me from getting my exercise in for the day.  However, this book still gave me great information on cross-training and the overall effects of exercise on pregnancy. 
My decision to discontinue running stems from the wish to preserve my joints, and that I was not where I wanted to be fitness-wise when I became pregnant to maintain running the three-miles I had built up to over the course of the summer.  If I had perhaps been able to complete a good five mile run in an average amount of time, then I would feel comfortable doing 2-3 miles at a slow pace while pregnant.  Another goal for another baby, perhaps?   
I have not foregone running altogether, however.  Indeed, I am cross-training throughout this pregnancy so that when I am ready to go back out there to run after the baby is born, I won't be starting from scratch. 

During pregnancy, doctors do not advise losing weight.  Since I am still not at a healthy weight for my height (although I am 7 pounds lighter than I started a while back), my goal is to maintain my weight for as long as possible.  I will gain weight during this pregnancy- anything less than 15 pounds would be very inadvisable- but exercise will keep me on a path that will be allow me to gain the weight necessary in a healthy manner.  My diet has also been mostly good (another post of another day).  So with these combine efforts, my hope is that after the baby is born, with the help of breastfeeding, the excess pounds will just melt away.
Are there any books that you have read that have encouraged you to keep exercising, pregnant or not?  Feel free to post any advice you might have regarding exercise and pregnancy. 

Prenatal Yoga

Can I just say before I begin the essence of this post that I am fully frustrated that I can never remember my password for this blog on the first try!  I wonder how many passwords I will create in my lifetime?  My head is already swimming in them.
Moving on, as you can imagine even though I removed my "eating and exercising" tab a while ago, I have still been trying to eat healthy and exercise regularly.  As you may know, my goal is to attempt having a VBAC and I am going to give myself the best opportunity by keeping myself fit, avoiding gestational diabetes, and keeping my body limber.  I admit that flexibility has never been a strength of mine.  With a husband who has a black belt in Tae Kwan Do, I get teased about my lack of flexibility pretty regularly.  No, I can't touch my toes, but they are gross anyway, so I figure I'm not missing out on much.  
In my effort to become more flexible and more fit for this pregnancy, I have been looking into prenatal yoga DVDs.  I have been doing (non-prenatal) Pilates for quite some time, but eventually this DVD is not going to be conducive to my belly that is continuing to grow (this is the DVD I use, by the way, and I love it: 10 Minute Solution: Rapid Results Pilates).
So, I first checked out a library DVD to see what Yoga was all about.  I have read many things that made me leery of trying yoga, specifically the spiritual aspect of it that makes me want to vomit, but I thought if I could find a video that stayed away from that and just focused on the poses, I could deal.
This first DVD I tried, Prenatal Yoga Complete, was hilarious.  I knew I was in trouble when I saw a hyphenated name on the box.  But wow, worst exercise video ever made.  This lady wants to seriously show you how relaxed she is in everything she does, including the time it takes for her to formulate a sentence.  Also, the props are just so time consuming to set up that I never actually get to any of the poses.  I nixed this DVD pretty quickly.
The next DVD I tried was a gift from a friend.  I actually just finished up just now, and I am much more pleased with the outcome.  I was also nervous about the name of the trainer, Shiva Rea, because it just sounded made up to sound like she is an awesome yoga-gal.  But, I guess the name is real- too bad for her.
Well, the video, Prenatal Yoga, is miles and away better than the aforementioned yoga video.  Yes, I had to roll my eyes (I've been doing that a lot lately) at some of the comparisons she made between motherhood and yoga, but other than that I didn't feel over-spiritualized, and I felt like it was very practical in its approach.  Something that was also great was that she had two other ladies doing the exercises with her, one in her 2nd trimester and one in her 3rd trimester.  Rea exampled the first trimester while the other ladies modified their poses for the stage of pregnancy they were in.  So, it is a DVD that I can continue with down to the last days.

Well, I can tell right now that it is going to take me a while before I will be ready to do the full 50 minutes, but I did about 25 minutes and my body can feel the activities in a good way.  Here's to 27 more weeks of preparation.
Did you do yoga during pregnancy?  Did you have a favorite DVD that you can recommend?  

Guess what?

Guess What?  Well, I've heard it explained several ways before.  My husband would prefer to say that the pop secret is in the microwave.  But I've heard it put in many ways: we're renting out the guest room, sardine and pickle purchases are in my near future, I've got a three month pass to the morning porcelain express, we're flipping the bird at the Chinese government.  Or, more commonly, there's a bun in the oven or we're basting a turkey!!!  

Man, it has been difficult keeping this secret from my readers.  You are all so pushy, ya know, asking when the next one is on the way.  Would you give a woman the chance to surprise you?  But in all seriousness now, we are so pleased that the Lord has blessed us with another little one and I hope you will all join us in our prayers for this little one.  Pray the this child would be of God's elect, that he/she would be healthy, that the Lord would bless us with a successful VBAC, and that he/she would be glorifying to God. 

I have been feeling just fine so far, but very, very tired.  Even more tired than with Noah.  But, really I can't complain.  Two pregnancies with morning sickness?  Really?  That's awesome.  Thanks God!  

Well, Brandon, Noah, Baby #2, and I are heading down to the Outer Banks today, so I'm not sure that a whole lot of blogging is going to happen this week.  But when I come back, you better be ready to be inundated with baby talk!    

A hate affair with my scale

I am four days short of a month into my diet and exercising plan and I have to admit I am just a little bit annoyed.  I am making a lot of sacrifices every day in my diet and yet I am seeing tiny results.  I am also exercising nearly every day for at least 30 minutes (many times more like an hour) and my body looks pretty much the way it did a month ago.  This annoys me.
However, I am encouraged.  I do feel quite good.  I also have been able to maintain a very good sleep schedule, which many of you know has been a struggle for me my entire life.  Furthermore, I am actually enjoying exercising and calorie counting.  I don't know why I enjoy it.  I have done these types of plans in the past, but have hated them so much that I give up in about a week.  So, I am glad the Lord has given me joy in this pursuit this time around.  I am also grateful for an encouraging husband who allows me to have time to exercise and tells me I look pretty.
So, 4 weeks down and only 4 pounds to show for it.  If you take my highest weight during this time period and subtract from my lowest weight (which came and left 3 days ago), I have lost 7 pounds.  But from my starting weight to my ending weight to date, I can only claim 4.  I don't understand why my weight fluctuates so much.  Even throughout the day, I can gain something like 3 or 4 pounds from my morning weigh in to an evening check up.  I am sticking to a 1600 calorie per day diet, so it's not like I eat a ton of food.  I also have been making sure to drink plenty of water.  In fact, I think I have a total of 5 sodas total this whole past month (2 coming through our mini-vacation to Indy) and literally nothing else besides water.  I wasn't even this strict about my diet when I was pregnant with Noah.
Counting calories through http://www.caloriecount.about.com/ has also opened my eyes to the amount of good and bad nutrients I put in my body daily.  As I had posted before, my sodium intake was through the roof.  Now, thanks to good suggestions and realizing what foods are sodium no-no's, I have that under control.  I even took one of my reader's excellent advice and bought a really turkey instead of deli meat for making sandwiches.  Sure, it is easier to buy deli meat, but when 1 serving has 24% of your daily need of sodium, you realize something needs to change ( 1 cup of a roasted turkey only has 4% of your allotted sodium intake).
Now dear readers, I need your help on two more items.  Calorie/nutrition awareness has showed me that my diet is too low in potassium and calcium.  I have been eating 1 banana a day and have been incorporating sweet potatoes into my diet more often, but I still am only taking in about half of my need for potassium.  Do any of you know any super foods that don't have a huge caloric impact, but hit hard in potassium?  Also, is it even possible for me to have 100% of my daily need for calcium when I am on a 1600 calorie per day diet?  How do I get 100% of my calcium needs met when my sodium is supposed to stay under 1500 mg a day? Please feel free to to share any ideas you have run across that have worked for you.          

Wogging through life: my path thus far

Thirteen days ago I announced my weight loss initiative.  I have learned so much in such a little time.  I am pretty disheartened that it took me 28 years to learn these lessons, but better late than never I suppose.  Thank you all for your helpful suggestions.  Keep them coming as I have learned so much from you all that have already vastly improved my health.
When I began this process, I really did not want to calorie count.  It wasn't that I was scared of counting, I just believed that if I ate healthy meals and listened to my body when I was hungry that I would be good.  Well, as I am sure that is a very good approach for some, after one day of attempting to calorie count I realized that my body has no idea what it is talking about.  My friend recommended a really awesome website that makes calorie counting quite easy and not very time consuming.  This website, www.caloriecount.about.com, informed me that if I want to lose the amount of weight I want to in a healthy time frame, I would need to be moderately active and eat only 1600 calories a day.  Well, after I entered in my information for that day, I admit I was feeling hungry and wanted to see how much more I could eat.  Well, it turns out I was already +200 calories over the recommended allotment.  I went to bed hungry.
So, all this to say, if you are like me and you are trying to get back to a healthy weight, "listening to your body" is probably not the way to go.  Listen to someone else who is actually healthier than you.
Another realization through this calorie counting website (I have only been using it for a few days), is that I have an exorbitant amount of sodium in my diet.  I was shocked to find this out as I don't add salt to anything and I am avoiding junk food like the plague.  Well, it turns out the meats one normally eats to "be healthy" like turkey and tuna have a huge amount of sodium in them.  What do you all eat that is low in sodium but still filling?  I realize that I do need to up my intake of fruits and veggies as well.  I eat a lot, but I can eat even more.
On the exercise front, God is helping me make great strides of improvement.  I have been more consistent with exercise in these past two weeks than I have been since high school.  Still, I have a long way to go.  I ran two miles this past week without walking.  I know that may sound like nothing to many of you, but for me, this is a small victory.  I am continuing to push myself and only wish I had more time to give to this endeavor.  But, the good thing is I haven't given up yet.  Usually by this point I get so discouraged by how slow I am or how hard it is to run, that I just give up.  Pray that I continue to get stronger and that I have a positive attitude.  I am my own worst enemy when it comes to exercise.
You can continue to track my progress here.  As you will notice, I started to track my calories earned and burned.  I have lost one pound thus far and got my first compliment yesterday at choir practice that I am "looking svelte."  Haha, I do think even though the weight is slowly coming off, that my flab is turning into muscle.  At least I sure hope that's true.  Otherwise, I'm going to go have a chocolate milkshake.     

Shaming myself into weight loss

I finally found my scale this past week.  When Brandon, Noah, and I moved into the new house we could not find it.  Unfortunately, my reunion was not all I imagined it to be.  When I went to the doctor last (about 3 months ago), the scale informed me I had lost about 29 lbs. over the course of Noah's life.  But, as I weighed myself tonight, the scale informed me that I had gained 13 of those lbs. back.  Needless to say, I was devastated.  I can't understand how this has happened.  I do not eat very much as Noah keeps me more than occupied during the day.  I have been exercising with my hubby at North Park.  I am fitting into some of my old clothing that haven't seen the light of day since pre-womb Noah.  WHAT IS GOING ON?
I have to lose this weight.  This is not a matter of my generation's obsession with self-esteem.  This has everything to do with getting down to a weight that is healthy to carry another baby into this world.  When you are pregnant, you gain weight.  Add that on to an already obese body and you have a recipe for gestational diabetes, another possible c-section, and other possible future health problems.
I have tried to remain calm about this weight loss project of mine, but after this weighing, I realize I cannot be relaxed about this anymore.  I need accountability, I need drive, and I need the utmost consistency.  Starting on Saturday, May 29th of 2010, I vow to lead a healthy lifestyle and to tell you, my readers, and myself the absolute truth about what I eat and how I exercise everyday.  I need to change today.  I will be posting a daily accountability food & exercise diary on the "Eating and Exercising Momma" page  and will be posting about this struggle on the main page 2-4 times a month so you can share your comments.  Please pray for me and encourage me as I go through this endeavor.  Also, feel free to share your firm but gentle thoughts about my diary as to how I can improve my quest for a healthier me.

When will it stop?

You know what I don't understand? Arm flab. Where did it come from? I haven't been over eating. I carry my 27 lbs. son all day and my arms just keep getting flabbier and flabbier. WHAT THE HECK? STOP IT PLEASE!

Nimrod and Zoe

I went for a jog yesterday. Well, to be honest, I went for a wog. All of my jogging includes walking at some point or another. So, while I was "wogging" @ North Park I gave myself a specific landmark as my goal as to when I would turn around and walk a bit. As I was jogging, Nimrod- inner dialogue #1- popped up, (it likes to chatter on during exercise) and as my legs tired, my landmarks kept changing becoming increasingly closer than originally planned. But then, surprisingly Zoe, my other inner dialogue (who never talks during exercise) showed up and yelled, "hey, if you can't even make it to the swing set, how are you ever going to be able to deliver a child naturally!"

Point taken, Zoe. I made it to my original destination after that kick in the pants. I have so much more work to do though.

Recently, Nimrod and Zoe have been going after each other a lot. I am always going back in forth on decisions that need to be made. How do I shut them off and just make the best decision for God's glory?

In the case of running, it's a no brainer. Whatever voice is telling me to be lazy is the voice to ignore. However, like many decisions in life, good and evil are not so easily distinguished. In fact, sometimes you are choosing between which good is better and then other times you are choosing between presidential candidates.

What always throws me for a tizzy, is what others will say to me or behind my back when I make those decisions. I constantly feel the weight of a non-Christian society's scorn of my decisions. I gave up my career, my freedom, my body, my voice, so that I may love and take care of my husband and son. I still have my pinkie toe holding open the door to all that I gave up. Do I move my toe and let the door shut or do I add arch support?

When I shut out all these extraneous voices, I have the courage to nudge my foot away, but oh how the voices start to flood the room immediately when I do. I am a proud woman. Lord, grant me relief from my sin-deluded mind!

Losing the Baby Weight

Throughout my pregnancy with Noah I gained about 30 lbs. I looked like this at the end (literally days before Noah's birth):
Just a note: Yes, I did plead with my doctor to induce me, since I could tell Noah was sooooo big and I didn't believe I could deliver him naturally. So much for listening to the patient, right?

Since Noah was 9lbs. 6oz. and my placenta was apparently massive, I lost nearly 15lbs. in the first two weeks post-delivery. Over the past 6 months, I have lost another 10 lbs., but am struggling to get that last 5 off. Of course, on top of that, I really would like to lose about another 30 lbs. (I know, I'm crazy) so that if the Lord should bless us with another baby, I would not get too overweight during the pregnancy. I feel like losing another 30 lbs. would be a good goal for me and my overall health.

The last month, my husband and I have really picked up our exercise routine. I had a c-section, and was forced to be inside the first 2 &1/2 months of Noah's life, so I am finally just now feeling slightly human again. My husband and I have been taking brisk walks at Hartwood Acres with Noah in the stroller once a day for about an hour and then in the evening we walk around our neighborhood and I jog for part of the time, too (another 20 minutes or so of exercise).

Beyond long walks & jogging, what exercises did you, dear readers, do after your c-sections to get rid of the extra baby fat? My tummy is definitely still the problem area, but feel uncomfortable about doing crunches as of yet. But I would appreciate any advice, so I can go back to looking like this: