A new kind of journey

I have been living a healthy lifestyle for 2.5+ years, and suddenly, life has thrown a surprise my way. One of the things that led me to develop poor eating habits and laziness was pregnancy. I gained too much with my first child, and before losing it all I found out I was pregnant again, and gained even more weight that time around. I lost a little after having my son, but I soon piled it all back on until I was above my highest weight, only without a baby growing inside of me.

As many of you know, I started out on spark in the "Obese" category, after less than 9 months of hard work, better eating, smaller portions, and finding a cardio I loved to burn calories, I had dropped 50 lbs. I continued my journey and would end up with a total loss of 77 pounds and would go from a snug size 20 in jeans to a wearing 9/10's as well as fall into the middle of the "healthy" category.

Here I find myself, pregnant with my third child. I'm coming to grips with the reality of having a baby, accepting it is becoming more easy as my body continues to change. I'm very determined to do this the right way, third times the charm right? I've been eating healthy and active for 2.5+ years as I mentioned, why would I stop now?
You know that saying... "you're eating for two now!" Umm, yes, but as of right now the baby is about the size of a plum and only requires about 300 more calories than what I had before. Some of you may of known that already, I didn't the first two times.

For me, being pregnant came with this right... the right of eating whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted, however much you wanted.
Do I have cravings? Yes... do I get hungry for something at weird hours? Sure... but does that mean I should just live that way throughout my pregnancy? No. I have to draw the line somewhere. I have had cravings for ice cream in the evenings occasionally, and I have went ahead and had some from time to time. But I still moderate how much my portion will be, and try to consider everything I have had to eat throughout the day.

The other right that came with pregnancy was laziness... after all I'm growing a human, I have the right to just lay around, right? Nope.
Oh I know ALL about the exhaustion that comes with being pregnant, I have been BEYOND tired this trimester, I take a nap in the afternoons, go to bed pretty early for me, and have a hard time getting up in the morning. I'm not saying you don't need to just sleep or rest sometimes.... but it doesn't give us the right to laziness. After all, I'm growing a human!!! I should be eating healthy, and being active to remain healthy, and so on.

They say you shouldn't start an exercise after finding out you're expecting... so set it in place before YOU get a surprise like myself!

I love running and I plan to keep it up as long as I'm comfortable... during this pregnancy I have run a 15k(just before finding out I was expecting), I ran a half marathon at 9 weeks, and I just completed a 10k this last weekend at 12 weeks. Sure, I have had to slow my pace down, but I had to because of knee trouble anyway, but I love running, and it keeps me active. Thank goodness I wasn't injured to the point of doing nothing when finding out I was pregnant! I can't imagine otherwise.

I hope to be able to give you all, ladies particularly (men, you can take from this that you shouldn't encourage the eating for two and laziness rights to your wife), some insight into changing the way we look at being pregnant. It all starts with us, BEFORE we try to get pregnant, or discover a little (big!) surprise.
If you ever find yourself pregnant before your healthy lifestyle is in place, don't think you're beat! You may not be able to start exercising, but you can get off the couch and go for a walk! And most importantly, change the way you eat! Doctors never say you have to live on pizza and french fries while you're pregnant just because you did before!

I hope you all will join me on this newest journey of mine, a healthy pregnancy, and the journey to lose any "extra" weight after.

Hold me accountable peeps, because we all can slip up and make mistakes.

Much love!

Em

Rock it out!


15k


Half Marathon at 9 weeks


How I look at just 12 weeks when I wear fitted clothes and don't try to suck it in ;) guess it's true, every pregnancy you show faster, I'm PROUD to say that my weight gain is spot on. Just saying :)