Staying fit while pregnant: ‘we’re allowed to be flawed’

Both of my pregnancies happened right around the time my latest health kick had really gotten into gear. There’s probably some correlation there, but at both times, I have to admit it was a little bit of a blow to transition from “All right, I fit into those jeans!” to “OK, my body’s gonna be a mess for the next two years.”

I know it sounds superficial, but I’m of the belief that it is completely possible to care about your own health – yes, including how your body looks – and that of your child’s at the same time. Also, I think we all need to stop pretending that pregnancy and childbirth don’t wreak havoc on your body. More on that later.

It turns out being fit and being pregnant aren’t mutually exclusive. But despite all the fabulous celeb pregnancies we get to analyze in detail and the dozens of “fit pregnancy” articles, magazines, books and DVDs, it’s also not terribly easy to do both at once. At least, not when it’s not your job to do so, and especially when you are pregnant while working or raising other children.

Still, it’s not impossible. The key, I discovered, was finding ways to exercise that also accomplished some other goal. So if I have an appointment that’s a 20-minute walk away, I add that time into my schedule and get a walk in that doubles as transportation. I’ve got two dogs that need to be exercised, and I sometimes work in radio, so I can justify a longer walk by making it do triple duty as work research (hello, podcasts) and responsible pet ownership. When I’m hanging out with my toddler in the afternoons, I try to get him out to the park or the pool, doing something active that I can also participate in. It seems like I’m a super fun mom, but actually I’m just getting some low-impact exercise. Thanks, kid.

Then there’s the fact that my back is killing me all the time, so I’ve been looking for exercise that helps with that, namely yoga and swimming. Those are tougher to fit in, but I try to make it a priority at least once a week. The hardest bit is actually the one I’d most like to include: strength training. I bought three workout DVDs when I found out I was pregnant this time around – and three months later they are still wrapped in plastic. I’m determined to break them out. Soon. But in the meantime I’m also trying to find ways to work strength training into my daily routine – doing squats while I brush my hair, for example, or using the jungle gym at the park for some quick push ups or tricep dips. Does a pregnant lady doing pushups on a jungle gym look ridiculous? Yes. But worth it to tackle the arm flab.

Another thing I’m working on? Body acceptance, but not of the “I love my mom bod” variety so much as “welp, this is certainly a new look, but I think I can be okay with it”. The thing is, this whole tyranny of self love is all the rage of the mom blogs these days. I know it’s well intended, but it adds yet another layer of pressure to mothers – we’ve got to have healthy, fit pregnancies, raise amazing kids, bounce back after giving birth, and now we need to embrace stretch marks and saggy butts too? Nope. We’re human, and we’re allowed not only to be flawed, but also to be bummed out by those flaws on occasion. To work on them, to accept them, but to acknowledge that we sometimes wish they weren’t there.

So exercise on, preggos! Swim, stretch, get moving – you’ll feel better for it, no matter what. And if you occasionally catch a glance of yourself in the mirror and say “woah, what happened there?”, that’s okay, too.

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