BUMPdate: 15 Weeks!

Quick side note: in case you don't follow me on my other social media sites like Facebook or Instagram, I'm a daily challenge winner with Beachbody today! Check out my story here:

http://www.teambeachbody.com/teambeachbodyblog/success-stories/biggest-challenge

And now back to our regularly scheduled program, which is (I know), a day late because frankly I was too damn tired yesterday from traveling to even think about a blog post! Anywho, here it is!

How far along are you: 15 weeks

Fruit: This week baby is the size of a navel orange

Baby bump: Same answer as last week…..I mostly just feel bloated and fat right now...I'm looking forward to the day when I look like I have a real bump!

Maternity Clothes: I’m in an awkward stage right now.  Most of my pants are officially not fitting, unless they have an elastic waist band of some sort…another (unexpected) wardrobe issue? My boobs are HUGE..like to the point where some of my tops don’t fit now because of them!

Gender Guess: I’m sticking with boy still.

Stretch Marks: No new ones (yet)

Sleep: I can’t get enough, I’m tired all the time, but I end up sleeping for only a few hours at a time before getting up to pee! 

Cravings: Carbs are still a big one, and now salad with crispy chicken too (super healthy, I know).

What Makes Me Wanna Gag: Honestly plain grilled chicken is giving me a hard time still…

Exercise: PiYo and walking, though tomorrow I’m going to try for a run again!

Mood: I’ve been ok, but traveling this week has taken a lot out of me.  I feel pretty run down and just crappy in general today (and yesterday), and have been dealing with a migraine headache since Tuesday so I’m hoping that goes away soon!

Favorite thing this week: We received our first baby gift! It was a little hand puppet with farm animals and a matching book, so cute!

Excited For: I can’t wait to find out the gender so we can start shopping!!!

This sh*t is hard

Quickie post today since I'm traveling for work (I'm in Austin, Texas as I type!) I've never been to Texas before but unfortunately they've got my schedule so jam packed I won't really have a chance to see anything but the resort I'm staying at and the airport :(
Anyways, I just wanted to state, for the record, that this stuff is hard.  This health and fitness stuff.  This making the best choices as much as possible stuff.  I really thought that by the time I got pregnant, I'd have this routine DOWN.  And to some extent I do, but throw in extreme fatigue, an aversion to grilled chicken, and cravings for all things bread, and well...my diet has not exactly been stellar.  I know I need to snap myself out of this funk, and fast, or I'll quickly be heading down the exact road I was trying to avoid, which is an unhealthy pregnancy and too much weight gain.  My body is starting to feel better this week, so I'm going to attempt to be more active; I brought PiYo to workout in the hotel with (hello, no equipment or sneakers!), and although I don't have control over my food while I"m at this conference since all the meals are provided, I am going to make a much bigger effort when I get home, not just for my sake, but for the health of my whole family.  
So, as soon as I can get my butt back home and to a grocery story, I'm getting back to the 21 day fix way of eating.  No, I'm not trying to lose weight (I will adjust my calories accordingly), but I know that this program is designed as a lifestyle change and truly shows you the RIGHT way to fuel your body..and I can't think of a better way to get back on track for the rest of this pregnancy. So, if you want to join me and learn how to eat better, shoot me an email at babebeforebaby@gmail.com...I have to shift gears to becoming a babe DURING baby now :)

Happy BUMP Day :)

It's BUMP Day (get it, instead of hump day? No? Anyone? I digress...)

I figured I'd start to do weekly bumpdates to keep you all up to date with how things are progressing, and so I could have a record for my own benefit too.  So, without further ado, here it is...

How far along are you: 14 weeks

Fruit: This week baby is the size of a lemon

Baby bump: I mostly just feel bloated and fat right now...I'm looking forward to the day when I look like I have a real bump!

Maternity Clothes: Not yet, although fold-over pants/skirts and dresses have been my best friend.  I can technically still fit into my normal pants, but by the end of the day I’m super uncomfortable so yesterday was the first day I tried out wearing a bella band with my pants unbuttoned.

Gender Guess: Lately, I’m really feeling boy, but I had a dream that said girl, so who knows!

Stretch Marks: No new ones (yet)…remember you’re talking to a tall girl and former fatty, so I’ve already got my fair share J (Aren’t genetics fun??)

Sleep: I’m sleeping like a log…except when I wake up every night to go pee.  Every morning I’m now up at 5:30 without fail since apparently my bladder can only make it 3 hours before emptying again 

Cravings: Carbs, Salt, and Salty Carbs.  ‘Nough said.

What Makes Me Wanna Gag: I’m doing better now, but the thought of protein killed me my first semester.  I was very lucky to not have bad morning sickness (only nausea, no vomiting), but if I snacked constantly I was really ok…except I wanted nothing to do with grilled chicken breast, like AT ALL.  I’m slowly introducing it back but I’d much rather have a grilled cheese right now J

Exercise: This week I’m taking it easy per doctor’s orders (see my post from yesterday), so I’ve just been sticking to walking for now.  Hoping next week to get back to some running and PiYo.

Mood: In general, I feel great! I worry a lot more than I ever did before, but I suppose that’s to be expected.  Oh and I cry at just about everything these days.  Seriously..the Iphone commercial made me cry the other day (what’s wrong with me?)

Best Part Thus Far: Hearing my baby’s heartbeat last week J

Excited For: Our next big milestones, like feeling the baby kick, and finding out the gender.

The stuff no one tells you

I promise I won’t let this blog become overrun with nothing but baby stuff, but the reality is, pregnancy is part of my new journey here, so I’m going to talk about it a bit.  Today I’m going to talk about the stuff no one ever tells you before your pregnant…like how terrifying life suddenly becomes because of all the little things that could go wrong.

Last week, I had a bit of a scare on Tuesday, right before I shared my news with all of you.

It was about 8 o’clock at night, and I went to pee…and there was blood.

Now, in hindsight, I guess it wasn’t a lot of blood, but ANY blood when you’re pregnant is the scariest thing you can ever see.

I was terrified.  I reached out to both of my sisters (who both have babies) and who reassured me everything was probably ok, but to call my doctor just in case.

I called the doctor, and the on-call physician told me I’m fine, that so long as there is no cramping or pain, and that the blood flow isn’t seriously heavy, there’s nothing to worry about.

Luckily, I had an appointment on Wednesday anyways, so he said they’d check everything out in the morning.

That wasn’t enough to stop my thoughts though.  Every possible scenario jumped into my head.  I went running for the first time in a while on Monday…did I push myself too hard? It was so hot and humid, did I let myself get dehydrated? Did I do this? What if I harmed my baby??

Flash forward to Wednesday morning, and at the doctor’s office, when they put the fetal heart rate monitor on my belly and I heard the heartbeat, I literally burst into tears.  I know everyone said it was “probably nothing to worry about” but “probably” means there’s a chance, even if it’s tiny, that something might be wrong…and that tiny chance kept me awake all night long.

The doctor told me after an exam that it’s just the way my cervix is built, that there are lots of little blood vessels closer to the surface now and that it will probably be a normal occurrence for me throughout my pregnancy, but holy cow were those 12 hours waiting to find out what happened were nerve wracking.  I hadn't had any issues before that, so this was a total shock. 

To be on the safe side, I’m supposed to take it easy for a full week.  No running, no high impact workouts.  I can still walk, and PiYo is probably ok too, but I have been too scared to push it, namely because the bleeding never really “stopped”, so I don’t want to aggravate it.

So, in the meantime, I’m trying to focus on getting my nutrition back on track.  The first trimester was tough with nausea (I was lucky to not have any vomiting, but the only thing I wanted to eat were carbs, carbs, and more carbs!), so now I’m trying to focus on getting enough protein again.

I’m lucky to have my Shakeology still to help fill those voids in my nutrition, but the healthier I can eat, the healthier baby will be, so I’m trying!

What are some things that you learned as a first time momma that no one ever told you or warned you about?

HUGE NEWS!!!

Struggle, failure, and success

Today I want to talk a bit about struggle…I've seen a lot of buzz in some of the online groups I’m in lately about the fact that there’s a lot of people struggling, but more so that they feel like they’re alone in that struggle.  I’m here to tell you that you are NOT alone in that category.

I've done my best to try to keep this blog as open and honest as possible, and for those of you reading that have been with me for a while, you know that my progress has never been totally linear.

The truth is, we ALL struggle.  In fact, if you show me someone who claims they NEVER struggle, I’ll show you someone who’s not being honest about their journey.

It’s totally normal for you to have moments of weakness, days, even months where you just can’t seem to get your head in the game.  The difference here between success and failure is how you decide to look at this struggle.

Adversity IS your advantage.  Just like with weight lifting, where stress and strain actually make your muscle grow, the same can be said about your personal health and fitness journey.  If you never experience failure, you won’t know the joy of success.

There is no quick fix; success is EARNED one day at a time.  Decide every day, every choice you make, whether you are going to contribute to your goals, or give in and accept that one bad choice will not make or break you.

Like I mentioned yesterday, small changes DO add up.  Success is a result of small (seemingly insignificant) choices you make today that can add up to make a HUGE impact in the end.

Did you know that we could LITERALLY END OBESITY with 125 calories per day!? If everyone in the “obese” category simply eliminated 125 calories per day from their diet, the change over the course of the year would be staggering.  You must have patience in this journey, because although these small changes might be unnoticeable immediately, think where you could be 1, 5, or even 10-15 years down the road.

Going off track doesn't define you.  Staying off track does.  

So what small change will you make today to get you closer to your goals?

Small Changes

This past week has been so much more consistent for me in the exercise category; I've managed to get a workout in most days of the week both last week and now into this week too.  I’m trying to just switch up my routine a bit to keep from getting too bored, so last week I took a step class at the gym, and yesterday I threw in a run for old time’s sake.

I’m still doing PiYo, but in the summer time I like to get outside too, so when my husband offers to go for a long walk instead of being cooped up in the basement, I happily agree J Either way, I don’t think it matters too much WHAT I’m doing, so long as I’m doing something!  

But that brings me to part 2 – nutrition.  I haven’t been so good with this one.  To be honest, I’ve let a lot of my old habits sneak back in, and I have to put a stop to that! One of the biggest changes I made when I got serious about my health and fitness was to stop accepting free food at work.  I even came up with a saying to stop me…”Free food is FAT food!”

Seriously.  My office celebrates a birthday just about every other day, and because we have a peanut allergy in the office, it’s ALWAYS an ice cream cake.  I used to skip this unless it was my own personal birthday but I’ve been lax about this rule (who doesn’t love ice cream in the summer!?).  Not to mention the countless sales reps that come in on an almost daily basis with things like cookies, brownies, bagels…need I say more? So this is an effort I’m going to make this week – remember that small changes add up to big changes, so simply cutting out the mindless snacking on free treats at the office will go a long way for me, and pairing that with my renewed commitment to daily exercise from last week will mean even more progress.

So, small changes this week and last, in anticipation of re-starting the 21 day fix next Monday.  I need a reminder of portion sizes and what foods are the RIGHT foods to be eating, so it’s time to get back to a program so I’m not just eating whatever gets put in front of me.

If you’re interested in joining me, today is the LAST day I’m accepting new challengers for my accountability group starting Monday 7/21, so email me ASAP if you want in! babebeforebaby@gmail.com

After my first 2 rounds of the fix, I got down to my lowest weight EVER, and I’d love to get back there again, so it’s time to buckle down.