Kaylsikins

It is interesting to see how many ladies on here have PCOS! Ugh, yeah, they definitely are not comfortable! Haha Sometimes I have to wonder how some of these doctors got their degrees. I once had the Reproductive Endocrinologist who removed my fallopian tube tell me that he wasn't going to do anymore IUIs for us and that if I "would JUST lose weight" then I would get pregnant. Nevermind the fact that I was on a 1200 calorie a day diet and going to the gym fairly regularly. Nevermind that whole PCOS thing that makes it HARD to lose weight even when you do what you should. I did! I brought it up at my appointment, and the apprentice midwife actually used to be a CrossFit trainer! She said it's safe to lift, just to start slowly and light since I have so much relaxin in my system right now. She also told me to make sure I'm getting enough water and food. I understand life being crazy! I'm getting behind in school, so I've been trying to power through that. I've been pretty good about sticking to my food and exercise goals. The day after I did the bodyweight workout I I was so incredibly sore and unstable that I spent the day stretching instead of working out. The following two days were too rainy to walk, so I did yoga instead. Last night I did the full body work out again, and I'm not nearly as sore. I'm not sure if that means I didn't do it right or if that means my body is just getting more used to it. As for food, I've eaten at home every day except for yesterday, when I joined a friend at CFA so our boys could play. While there I had a grilled chicken salad with oil and vinegar and my little boy and I shared a bowl of fruit. I did get a small peach milkshake, which wasn't a great choice, but oh my was it tasty and baby was happy. Beyond that, it's been lots of good choices and I've even discovered that I like sweet potatoes and spaghetti squash. My baby shower is next Saturday, and I'm going to make the best choices I can from what is available. I am going to let myself have a hummingbird cupcake and a glass of strawberry lemonade, though, because I have been waiting more than a month for them! It's all going to be homemade, so at least it won't be loaded with corn syrup and coloring... Or at least that's how I'm justifying it haha!

Just curious, if the weather calls for rain, do you pack up the kids and go anyways? I have a toddler, and we've had rain for several days now, with the chance for rain at 70% all day today. I'm debating whether or not I should pack him in the stroller and just pray the rain holds off.

I feel your pain! I tried doing some prenatal yoga this morning in the presence of my toddler, and it was definitely interesting. I tried giving him a zippy and a waffle before I started so that he would be distracted, but no luck. He spent the entire 20 minutes trying to sit on me, hug me, talk to me, whine at me, ask for more green juice, basically everything but cooperate haha! It was cute (at times less so) though. I stay home with him, so my situation is a little different. I feel guilty to ask my husband to watch R because he's been working all day. Haha You can never win. I've found that the best solution, if working out at home, is to wait until the littles go to bed.

Tired and sore mean progress. I feel ya, though! I did a work out last night, and my legs have been complaining all day. Good job going to the gym even when you were feeling that way, though. You did better than me! I convinced myself that stretching would count as my work out today.

Why, hello again! It's always nice to find another homebirther! The bottles are about a pint each. I set my goals to be a bit more rigid than I probably needed to, which is something I'll adjust in future challenges. When it comes to water, I'm focusing more on paying attention to my body. It isn't unheard of for me to only drink half of one of those water bottles in an entire day simply because I don't think about it. So I've been making a conscious effort to ask myself if I'm thirsty, and if so address it. It's working out that I drink about 3 of those bottles a day, and I'm already noticing an improvement. As for calories, I set my goal at a number, but I haven't counted calories once. Like you said, I'm focusing more on the quality of what I'm eating. I'm avoiding processed food the majority of the time, and I've really upped my protein and veggies. After setting my goal for 2300 calories, I immediately knew I wasn't going to be able to do that. I have a history of bouncing between anorexia and bulimia, and I can become a little obsessive about calorie counting. Calorie counting leads to weight loss for me, but usually because I start to slip back into old habits. My midwife wanted me to keep a food diary for a few days just to see how I was eating, and even then I would find myself restricting and not really meaning to. So, my real goal there is to, once again, follow my body's cues. If I'm hungry, I'll eat, if not, I won't. I'm listening to my cravings, which have been for avocados and beef, and trying to steer myself towards the healthier options. I have been aiming myself more in the paleo direction, but not very strictly. I have PCOS, so I know that my body freaks out when it comes to carbs. Because of that I'm working to lower my processed carbs and sugar intake.

I'm just hoping the motivation sticks! I tend to be a mixture of the Overeager Beaver and the Emotional Rationalizer. So, I get super gung ho for a little bit, and then I let life fizzle me out. Or I'll rationalize why I can stop or indulge or what not, which then leads to a downward spiral. I've always attempted to go at it alone, though, so I'm hoping this time will be different.

That sounds like an awesome start to the week! Go you! I've found that if I'm going to work out it absolutely has to be first thing in the morning, no matter how tired I am. If I say I'll do it later in the day I'll continuously find reasons not to go. Oh, Roran is cranky. Oh, now he's sleeping. Oh, I should work on this paper. Oh, the dishes need doing. Oh, this show needs watching. Repeat ad nauseum. I usually feel pretty energized afterwards, too. Pre-pregnancy, when I would try to do C25K at the gym, I would find that I didn't even feel the need for coffee if I went first thing in the morning. Keep at it!

Thanks! Well, I said I didn't talk him into it, that doesn't mean I didn't try. Weeeeell today wasn't nearly as good. I had two bottles of water, which is meh at best. Alex decided to be sweet and take us to lunch at a pizza buffet (These military guys! They can eat anything, it seems, and it has no effect on them!), and I did my best job at trying to convince him we shouldn't... Which basically means I just asked if he was sure, and then happily filled my pie hole with deliciousness and soda. That was also the first thing I had had to eat, so I ate a lot and the calories weren't very meaningful. For dinner I had a boiled egg, a banana, and some grilled chicken, so that was better. I did, however put a good deal of work into my paper, and I will definitely have that finished by tomorrow. Alex also helped me do a slightly modified version of this tonight. I could only get through one set before I was having trouble just standing on my jelly legs. Running after Roran and the two little boys I agreed to watch for a couple of hours is going to be *so much fun* tomorrow! Today did result in some major progress, though. Over pizza, Alex and I discussed what I needed from him to make this work. I explained that I needed him to be the leader of my Jedi council. We talked about what I should do dietwise and how to approach working out. We agreed that processed sugar is going to need to be cut cold turkey for at least the next month so that I can try to kick this addiction. After that I can have it at special occasions in small quantities, but never again in the quantities I consume it now. I get way too hooked way too quickly. He also agreed to help by putting his foot down. It sometimes helps me to be told what to do, so if I'm dragging my butt, not wanting to do my work out, he'll tell me to get on it. If I'm whining about wanting to get [insert horrible for you meal] he'll say no. We hada really good talk, and I think having us on the same page is really going to help me stay on track.

I'm moving towards a primarily paleo diet, but so far I'm having a love hate realtionship with it. I am constantly hungry, and I'm hating it! I'm pregnant, so I'm not doing much more exercising than going on walks, so I wouldn't think that would be the issue. Is this just a normal part of it?

This is true, but natural sugars are still going to be better than processed ones. Yeah, changing dietary habits while picky has to be really hard. I'd just go at it slowly. If it's a texture thing, try different preperations. My husband has a thing about texture, and if I alter that he tends to eat a better variety. Thanks!

Haha I've had a really healthy pregnancy, so I was going to go the route of asking forgiveness before permission. I'm trying to get a work out of some sort in every day, and since it's raining today, I was going to try some of Steve's beginner full body workout. I figure I can follow my body's cues for now. If something hurts or just feels wrong, then I won't do it. Thanks for the congrats and the welcome! So far I'm loving it here!

I completely understand! Google was just failing to give me any sort of real answer, so I thought I'd ask. I'm incredibly motivated right now, I just don't know how motivated I'll still be if I wait to start until after I'm cleared for exercise postpartum, ya know? I have an appointment with my midwife on Wednesday, so I'll get her opinion then. For now I'm going to continue to look at my diet and work on making walking a habit.

I'll definitely look into that book, thanks! It definitely is not easy right now, because all I want to do is sleep haha! It'll be worth it, though. Yesterday went very well. I got in 3 bottles of water, I walked with my toddler for a mile and a half, and made very good food choices that mostly lined up with paleo. I think the biggest success was that even though the walk made me incredibly tired and had my hips complaining for the rest of the day, I didn't talk my husband into us grabbing dinner out. I also put a good dent in my paper, which I think I can mostly finish tonight.

I second a good prenatal vitamin! In my first trimester there was very little I could eat. Romaine, avocado, beef, and potatoes were it for a very, very long time. It will get better, though, I promise! For example, the mere thought of chicken in my first trimester was revolting, but now, even though it isn't my favorite right now, I can eat it. In the end, the first trimester isn't that long, and if you really can't stomach the veggies, that's okay. It's better to eat what you know you can keep down instead of eating what you "should" and it not staying down. Something you might be able to try is green juice. The fruit really helps to mask the flavor, and it's the only way I can get veggies into my toddler. Elsfaire, just curious, what do you know about starting strength training in the third trimester?

Well, today went okay, but it could have been better. I have had 3 bottles of water, which comes out to 50.7 ounces of water. I should probably drink more than that, but that is a huge accomplishment for me. Yesterday I barely finished one. I haven't kept track of how many calories I've had, but they were quality calories, at least. I had coffee for breakfast, leftover chicken and pasta for lunch, a handful of pretzels as a snack, and a big plate of chicken with peas for dinner. I'm currently ravenous, so I'm going to hunt something else down here shortly, probably an apple and some yogurt. I know I need to eat more than that, so tonight I'm going to boil a bunch of eggs so that I have a protein packed snack available just whenever, and I'm going to try to eat breakfast in the morning. As for exercise, that crashed and burned today. According to the app on my phone, I walked about half a mile while at the store, but it definitely did not come out to be half an hour of continuous walking. It's almost 10, but I could still squeeze in the DVD... That isn't happening though, because I also have not made any sort of dent in the paper that I really should turn in tomorrow. You see, I tend to get really excited about something and then pour hours into researching it. I have spent all the time I should have used to write my paperon reading articles on this site, planning out next weeks meals, researching how to eat paleo, looking into what exercises are safe during pregnancy, etc. This means my poor paper on the pros and cons of formal vs. informal assessment fell to the wayside. So, tomorrow I am going to get up with my little boy at 6:30, because he is cruel, peel myself a couple of eggs, grab his green juice and banana, load him into his stroller, and walk. It'll be early on a Sunday, so no one should be out, and then the walk is done. From there I'll come home, tag my husband in, chug water like a champ, and plow through my paper. Wish me luck!