So excited to finally be able to share some of my pregnancy journey with you all! I am currently almost 18 weeks pregnant with my first child. The first trimester was good and bad (mostly good!) so I wanted to share that with you all now.
Thankfully I did not have any morning sickness!! I wasn’t really hungry for the first 2 months which is pretty strange for me because I LOVE food and sometimes had to force myself to eat. I was SUPER tired. I am usually full of energy (some of that is from caffeine which I had to cut back quite a bit on) and I was not used to wanting to take naps haha! It made my training pretty rough too. I actually had a really hard time doing much cardio. I was pretty strong still lifting weights but running in particular was very tiring. BTW I just want to mention I was cleared to continue all my previous activities including training for my half marathon I just completed last week. I was told to listen to my body and to go slower if I need to with all my normal exercising.
So anyways I did continue to workout throughout my entire first trimester. I just only worked out 3 times a week generally bc I just honestly couldn’t find the energy to do my usual 5-6 days a week. I typically only ran 1x a week too and usually around 5-8 miles. Around the beginning of the 3rd month I did start to get some energy back and was able to run a couple days a week. I tested out how I felt doing long runs (close to half marathon distance to be sure I felt comfortable enough to still run the half marathon I had planned. The first one I did was pretty terrible! I started with my usual long distance pace I used to run at (around 9 minute average per mile) and I totally died halfway through my 10 mile run ending up at close to 13 minute miles including walking some of it. While I did finish it my hips and knees hurt so bad half ways through I thought I would have to throw in the towel on the whole half marathon race. So the following week I tried a different tactic. I started much slower than I normally would (10:30 per mile pace) and was able to maintain that pace for the entire 11 miles. I did get a bit of hip pain and knee pain but I also am not taking any medicine (ibuprofen) and it was nothing I couldn’t handle. So that is pretty much the pace I completed my most recent half marathon at. I felt pretty good but I do think I am going to be dropping my distance as I gain more weight. I am hoping to complete some 5ks and maybe a 10k throughout my pregnancy but will update y’all on how I feel and if I decide to pursue those!
Also wanted to point out that I am not able to take any kind of prewokrout or BCAA’s per my doctor. So recovery and energy is even more difficult if you are used to taking these supplements. I highly suggest taking BCAA’s if you are not pregnant though bc I think that was one of the things I noticed most was that my recovery was much slower after I had to take that out of my diet.
Additional exercise/fitness updates. I am currently back up to working out 5x a week and feeling great. I have actually been able to maintain all of my lower body strength and most of my upper body strength. I am focusing on lifting fairly heavy but with a lot of control and breaking sets up to keep an eye on my heart rate and maintain balance. Along with upper and lower body weight lifting I am focusing on planks and vacuums for my core and at this point I am not doing anything that puts pressure on my stomach, no direct abdominal or oblique work (it can create more severe diastase recti or abdominal separation which can be very difficult & even require surgery to correct if too much separation occurs). I am also running, incline walking, and also doing yoga. More on how to do stomach vacuums here
Diet wise I am trying to eat healthy most days but the pregnancy cravings are hard haha!! I seriously am loving French fries, Mac & cheese, and sour things like & sour patch kids candy lately lol! I am trying to space it out and not eat those things every day though! I have gained 5 pounds so far.
So that’s my update for now! I will continue to blog once a month regarding physique, diet, and exercise changes along with other fun random posts and recipes. Feel free to comment below & chime in with your own pregnancy tips!! Thanks for reading!! 💗
2 comments
Maegan Coolbaugh
April 5, 2017 at 4:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yay! 😀 So excited and happy for you! I also had no appetite in the beginning and was repulsed by meat. I ate a LOT of bagels! I’m sure you’re going to do great with labor because you’re in such excellent shape! Have you thought at all about your birth plan? It’s early still I guess. 🙂 I had a doula because I wanted to try unmedicated. I knew I would need coaching! I ended up in labor for 37 hours and she was invaluable. I didn’t know at the time, but I’m hypermobile and had a lot of pain in the last month of pregnancy. Lots of pressure in the pelvic area and it literally took me about 10 minutes to turn from one side to the other when trying to get comfortable. I gained 20 lbs and it all fell off within a week of labor. Inna was almost 8 lbs. Overall I liked being pregnant up until the last trimester. It was so great the first time I felt a little kick. 🙂
Sarahlinbrockner
April 5, 2017 at 5:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thank you so much for reading Maegan!! 💗 Yesss I literally have 4 kinds of bagels in my fridge right now bc they taste so delicious to me right now haha! Mostly craving salty and fatty carry stuff generally speaking! I have not really thought much about birth plan. I am not sure a doula is covered under my insurance….actually pretty sure it is not. I think I need to take a class on this whole thing though bc I honestly don’t know even how I go about this lol! I just figured my doctor would deliver it. I cannot imagine a 37 hour labor! Sounds crazy!! I like the part you said about the weight falling off though hahaha!! Thanks for the info! Definitely need to look into some things and do some planning!! 💗💗💗