Fit Friday: Staying Active & Healthy During Pregnancy

Today's Fit Friday is a little different. It's been exactly a year since I found out I was pregnant with Vaught, so I wanted to give a little recap on my pregnancy and how I stayed healthy (or at least tried my very best to stay healthy!) while expecting our baby boy.

 

     In a way, I feel like I totally ripped apart the stereotypical pregnant girl. I was heavy to begin with, so a part of me just wanted to say Screw it, I'm just gonna get fatter anyway, but the reasonable side of me said This is the perfect time to be as healthy as you can be! And so I was... Most of the time at least!

     I knew better than to think I wouldn't gain weight during pregnancy, but I set my goal pretty low at fifteen pounds. I did pretty well, only gaining ten pounds in the first five months. In the end, I gained twenty-nine, just nine pounds more than what is recommended for an overweight woman during pregnancy. I was adamant about keeping my weight in check, logging it in a notebook every couple of weeks and at each appointment. I never wanted to go into the doctor's office and see a spike in my weight and not know how or why it happened. I held myself accountable.

     Despite my struggles with my body, I have always enjoyed working out. When I found out I was pregnant, I had already lost about twenty pounds with a healthy diet and lifting weights. At my first appointment, I made sure with my doctor that I could continue lifting--nothing too strenuous but enough to continue building and maintaining muscle. He approved all of my diet and exercise plans, and I was determined to keep a healthy lifestyle while expecting Vaught. I continued going to the gym three to four times a week, as well as running in my neighborhood a few nights each week. In June, I became an ambassador for For Two Fitness, a company that markets fabulous clothes for the active, expectant mama! This was even more motivation for me to continue working out; I was now representing a company that was based on active moms-to-be! I always enjoyed wearing my "Sweating for Two" tank to the gym. I was complimented on it numerous times.

28 weeks vs. 38 weeks!

35 week bump!

Advice for Moms-to-Be:

     Looking back at my pregnancy and knowing what I do now, I sometimes wonder if I would have done anything different. I think about the advice I might give to an expectant mother who also wants to stay healthy active during pregnancy. Keeping in mind that every woman and pregnancy is different, I would have to advise the following:

1. Ask Doc first. Just because mine said "go for it" to my exercise regimen doesn't mean yours will. My doctor knew me well and knew it would be good, if not beneficial, for me and my pregnancy.
2. The first trimester sucks... Rest. No, I was never sick at all. But I sure was exhausted. That's how I knew I was pregnant a year ago today; I couldn't stay awake during a meeting! I began going to bed at six o'clock in the evening, only to feel exhausted again by noon the following day. I can't tell you how many times I had to use about half of my planning period at school to lay my head down on my desk and nap! Rest as much as you can during that first trimester! It gets better, I promise!!
3. Stay away from pregnancy books. Those are the ones that initially made me terrified of exercising while pregnant. Don't go reading about all the things that can (and might) go wrong. Remember, every pregnancy is different. What is meant to be will be.
4. Get a good sports bra and dress comfortably.
5. Eat well and drink water. Fuel yourself and that little sea monkey! Prior to pregnancy, I was eating around 1,400 calories per day. I bumped my calorie intake up to 1,800 but would often eat closer to 2,000. I stayed full and satisfied and had plenty of energy for my workouts.
6. Keep it up. Make it a habit. Research has proven that women who exercise during pregnancy are more likely to have quicker, smoother labors (mine was a breeze) and healthier babies. Whether you're new to fitness or a seasoned pro, now is the perfect time to be the healthiest you that you can be. Every time I wanted to skip a workout and dive into a sleeve of double stuff Oreos, I just remembered my mantra: healthy mama, healthy baby. Healthy mama, healthy baby!

How are you/did you stay active during pregnancy?

Disney Movie Club, Free Stuff, and a Very Valuable Lesson

 

     In my adult life, I am learning a very important lesson. You'd think that after hearing the warning from my parents, teachers, even my husband, I would learn my lesson. Coming from a twenty-three-year-old who's bought her own home, you would assume I would know to always do this, right? To do what? you ask. Ugh. Let me just tell you, to show you what a complete nutcase I can be...

Read what you sign.

     Read it thoroughly, read it twice, three times if you need to. Because the last thing you want is to end up with a dispute that can't be settled because "Ma'am, I have your signature here saying that you agree to the terms... I'm sorry you didn't know that you had to let us know you didn't want the DVD offered within ten days before we charged your credit card for it..." Yes, this is all in reference to my joining the Disney Movie Club. (There's a happy ending to this, I promise).

     It seems as if a bunch of us ladies drank the same Kool-Aid and all got pregnant from doing so at nearly the exact same time. I say this because I have five or six pregnant friends on social media right now, and we love keeping up with one another. I don't know a couple of them all that well, but in a way, I feel like we are just a big group of sisters who can relate to one another and share all that we're currently going through in our pregnancies! So, when two of them posted something about having joined the Disney Movie Club and how they got their first four DVD's for only a dollar (no shipping either!), I jumped for joy. Sign me up! I thought. I was a big Disney fan growing up; I saw Disney on Ice several times, and my mom always took us to see the new Disney movies on opening weekend. A few months later, she would purchase the VHS for us to watch and the cassette tapes with all the music for us to listen to on our radios. I got to go to Disney World when I was five and absolutely loved it. Of course I want our little darling to watch the same Disney movies that we did growing up; although the new stuff is okay, there's just nothing like the classic Cinderella, Lion King, Snow White, Pocahontas, and so on! I visited the website at work one day and signed up. This is where I have to admit that I merely skimmed the terms and conditions... "purchase five DVDs at regular price over the next two years," blah, blah, blah, yeah I can do that. I entered my credit card number and was charged precisely $1 for my first four movies. They arrived just a few days later.

     That was late February. Around mid-April, I received a DVD (Thor 2) that I had not ordered from DMC at what looked like no cost. I thought, Oh, it must be some promotional thing from the website. Since then, I received three more DVD's, including a Blu-ray copy of Frozen. A few weeks ago, maybe around the beginning of May, I tried to get a tank of gas using my credit card. It was declined. Now, I'm no good at paying off the balance every month (don't scold me, I'm a teacher), but I knew that I had at least a hundred dollars in credit on it. At least! And I hadn't even used the card in nearly a month. So, I was stunned that my card was declined but couldn't worry too much about it right then. Thankfully, I had my debit card.

     When I got to school, I logged onto my credit card account to check recent transactions. I was already worrying that maybe someone had hacked the number online and had been using it for over a month! When I pulled up the list, I almost wished that's what had happened, for I saw that the Disney Movie Club had charged me over $80 in the past two months. If you're wondering how that much got past me, just know that this is a card I rarely use, so I don't check the balance on it often. I logged on to my DMC account to see what was up. When I logged in, a notification immediately popped up to inform me that DMC had unsuccessfully tried to process my credit card for my fourth movie. WTF?!

      Anyway, I feel compelled to make a long story short and get to the second part of this entry, the fun part about free stuff. I was able to pull up the agreement that I "e-signed." There it was. In a nutshell, if you didn't notify Disney Movie Club via mail or online within ten days that you did not want to receive (and be charged) for the latest special offer(THOSE ANNOYING THINGS I GOT IN THE MAIL AND JUST THREW AWAY), your credit card would be charged for the offer and the DVD would be sent to you. Ah. Well, that explained the four DVDs I'd received! I felt like a complete airhead, but at least from there on out I didn't throw away any of the stuffed envelopes they sent me in the mail!

     One day in late May, I decided to go through the envelope just to see what all they had stuffed in these things. I was about to toss it in the trash (except for the special offer part; I had it stamped and ready to go so that they would know I did NOT want a copy of the limited edition Peter Pan), when I noticed something that always seems to catch my eye in our daily supply of mail: gift cards. Not just any gift cards though, gift cards that had the word FREE on them. Not just any gift cards that had the word FREE on them though, but gift cards that had the word FREE on them and also had cute BABY stuff on them. So, free baby stuff? I had to check these out. Four coupons were enclosed (see photo above), each one for a FREE: nursing pillow, nursing cover, baby sling, and carseat canopy. These were all things I had registered for already, but if I could get them for free, why not?! I logged onto the website for the Carseat Canopy first. I picked out a gray chevron canopy and proceeded to check out. The only thing I had to pay? $11.95 for shipping. Okay, so it's not 100% free necessarily, BUT these canopies are typically $40 or $50; I was still getting a deal by only paying for the shipping! I'm sure I looked like a total goob, bouncing up and down on our bed, thrilled to death about my "free baby stuff" with my husband sitting there rolling his eyes at my excitement. I had a hard time deciding what cute design I wanted for the other things, so I just ended up getting the baby carrier sling and the canopy (when I got the sling, I couldn't figure out how to use it, so it's wadded up in a drawer somewhere). I spent a total of about $20 in shipping for both items, and I plan on ordering the nursing pillow and “udder cover” very soon. Now, I guess we'll have to wait and see if I slipped up and didn't read something and will now be billed and shipped a new canopy every month at full price :) But I don't really anticipate that.

6/24/14

     I began writing this post in early June and came back to add to it today because my mother-in-law called me earlier after ordering me a nursing pillow, udder cover (basically, a nursing cover, if you've not caught onto that), five pairs of leggings for Vaught, and a carseat canopy set. She had all these free coupons too! We put two and two together and realized that we somehow both ended up with the exact same coupons. I hadn’t yet ordered the other stuff I had offers for, so I was so appreciative that she had. She picked out a blue minky nursing pillow (big and super soft—perfect for supporting Vaught while feeding him or just holding him), a super cute nursing cover (probably the same design I would have chosen myself), and a camoflauge carseat canopy set that includes four additional pieces for the carseat. Pictures are below! I can’t wait to use the carseat canopy set, and I’m glad to have two of the canopies. The camo is so cute for our little boy! 

The canopy I picked out. Thought about having monogrammed, but I don't think I will; I can reuse it for Baby Pace #2! 

 

 

               So yes, the Disney Movie Club did cause me a minor headache, but I suppose I should take 99% of the blame. In the end though, I got over $200 worth of neat and VERY useful accessories for Baby Pace that I cannot wait to use! I think I'm going to save the things my mother-in-law got for me and open them at my first baby shower on August 3rd! I still have the gift cards I didn’t use on my bedside table, so I hope to order extras of what my mother-in-law picked out—a nursing pillow and udder cover to keep in the car or diaper bag, perhaps! If you think I'm a total moron for all the trouble I went through just to be able to post this blog, I suppose we could blame it on the pregnancy brain. I'm twenty-three years old and bought my own home and vehicle and spent hours reading over the paperwork for both before my pen ever even touched the paper (no, really--it took me four hours to sign for my car). I promise, I'm not a complete bozo.

And even though I totally didn’t mean to, I have officially fulfilled 80% of my commitment by joining the Disney Movie Club; I now only have to buy one more DVD!

Read what you sign, people. Very rarely does not reading work out this well!