My Lifestyle Changes in the First Trimester

I am 13 weeks pregnant with my first and I have been fortunate with my first trimester. The worst it got was barely 2 weeks of pretty bad nausea then the rest of the time it was random days of nausea, but it was bearable for the rest of the first trimester.

The hardest time I had with this trimester was the eating. I was eating every hour and a half or so because while I ate it eased the nausea, but then it came right back. There were days that by nighttime I was so nauseas from being pregnant, but also because of all the food I ate through out the day that I just wanted to go to bed and start over again.

For someone who enjoys eating healthy about 80% of the time and going to the gym about 5-6 days a week this was a struggle mentally for me. The last thing I wanted was vegetables and lean proteins; all I wanted was carbs and lots of them! On top of this, the nausea made it hard for me to want to lift weights, but I found that light cardio actually helped ease the nausea so I tried to do that as much as I could.

I wanted to be healthier with all of the carbs I was eating because I wasn’t about to force down anything that I didn’t want, but I wanted to be smarter about the carbs. I stocked my house full of healthier carbs, lots of fruit (luckily I still wanted a lot of that) whole grain pastas, breads and crackers and vegetables I did want such as, potatoes, sweet potatoes and I really enjoyed carrots dipped in ranch so I made sure to have plenty of my favorite yogurt based ranch.

On top of these foods I bought a super food wheat grass powder that I started taking everyday mixed with acai juice. This made me feel like I was getting in the greens that I needed but that I didn’t want to actually eat. I would also make smoothies with fruit then add in spinach since you can’t taste it.

I’ve read a lot of forums and books where women say just give up now, skip the gym and eat whatever you want and that may be fine for some women, but not for me. I genuinely don’t feel good when I eat a bunch of unhealthy fast food and I know that it is not good for my baby either. Don’t get me wrong I have enjoyed some Wendy’s, Sonic and Papa Johns in the first trimester (sometimes all in the same week) along with a good amount of sweets, but I balance it out by eating my healthier foods because that is what makes me feel good. I would say my eating has now become more 65-70% healthy and the rest whatever the hell I want.

Closer to my second trimester I started feeling better. When the nausea starting letting up around 9 weeks I was able to get back into more of my normal eating and fitness habits. One thing I noticed however was my physical fitness already declined quite a bit. The first time I noticed this is when I was trying to lift my normal weight one day and after one set I could not catch my breath, I knew this was a sign I needed to back off the amount of weight I was use to lifting. Everything just seemed heavier and harder.

I talked to my doctor at my first appointment at 6 weeks and asked her about lifting and luckily she was a heavy weight lifter herself! She was still squatting heavy a week before her due date so she said just listen to your body and you will be find and that is what I have been doing. Most experts agree that exercise during pregnancy -- with your doctor's okay -- can lower miscarriage risk and make mom and baby healthier (by reducing stress, aches and pains, gestational diabetes risk, and even building up stamina for labor).

My strength has declined drastically, I went from squatting 200lbs to struggling with 100lbs and I have had to cut my workout times down as well. This was also mentally hard for me to do because I assumed this kind of change would not happen till the middle of the second trimester when I had a decent looking pregnant belly, but I know that me backing off somewhat from my weight training and just incorporating more cardio is what was better for me which meant it was better for the baby.

At 11 ½ weeks we had our second ultra sound and everything looked great! The baby was so active it was doing summersaults with a heartbeat of 164. It is crazy how big they look on the screen when in reality they are still super small at this point. I am already anxious to be at the end, but I know I just need to sit back and enjoy the pregnancy because it will go by fast and there are many women out there who dream of being pregnant, but never get the chance to be. I am lucky.

Changes I am experiencing:

Aversions: Meat, cheese, broccoli and coffee ( I was a coffee addict before pregnancy) I now drink lemon ginger tea every morning

Cravings: None

Mood: Anxious to have more of a bump

Weight gain: 4lbs in the first trimester, making it hard to fit into jeans.

Sleep: Amazing! Feeling more rested then ever.

Other: My face has completely cleared up starting with week 13 even better then before I was pregnant! This pregnancy gave me back my clear complexion.