What I Ate Today: A sort-of recap! {At 29 weeks pregnant}

Pre-pregnancy I maintained my weight on 1800 calories a day.  This is considerably low for the amount of exercise I was managing to push through week to week (3 miles of running a day, heavy weight training a few times a week, physical labor night shift job).  As I work through my pregnancy, I look back and realize I probably could have gotten away with a lot more.  However, seeing as that’s the number I set my goal to everyday and got so used to, it’s the one I’ve chosen to base my pregnant nutrition on.  This means I’m attempting to hit 2100 whole, healthy calories a day.  But it isn’t easy… especially with slow digestion, and I mean SLOW.  Sometimes a girl’s gotta add a couple treats in here and there for fillers!  Or nutrition shakes.  But I’m sort of selective with those.

That being said, I have never found tracking what I eat to be more fun than it has with this baby.  I’m normally, well, easily excitable when it comes to meal planning, anyway – once you’ve lost a substantial amount of weight in life, you change your habits permanently.  My favorite lifestyle change is meal planning and counting calories, because I need that accountability to keep from gaining again.  But man, when it comes to feeding not only your body but somebody else’s, too?  FUN!

I love knowing that I’m trying to hit all my food groups and I love feeling their movement with certain ones.  This baby is active 24/7, but they really like unprocessed protein and homemade baked goods (but who doesn’t, haha).  So far I’ve put on 14 beautiful pounds and I’ve never felt more alive nor more attractive in my life.

So.  Want an intimate look at my diet?  (Can we not call it that, though?  Blech!)

The Exhausted Mama: Should You Exercise On Little Sleep?

If sleep is limited, the risk of injury spikes.  Performance levels will be half of what you’re normally used to, which will either A, disappoint and discourage you, or B, cause you to overexert yourself.

As much as it sucks, especially if you’re pregnant or a sleep-deprived mommy trying to fit in workouts, taking a day to rest is necessary.  It might be a no brainer to some, but for the beginner or the woman who wants to accelerate her fitness/weight loss this is so frustrating!  You’d much rather workout than take the opportunity to nap if it arises.  You’re already seizing extra ways you can exercise and balance everything else, you really don’t have time for this!

But you do.  Believe it or not, tissue repair happens when you’re getting ZZZ’s, so even if you worked out with weights the day before and you wanted to do cardio the next, accepting that chance to nap instead of exercise is still better than logging those burned calories.  This means aiding the process in building toned muscles, which is good!

Think you’re getting enough sleep, even with a crying baby or pregnancy insomnia, but still lack the energy you’re positive you should have?  Ask yourself these two questions, you might be surprised what they reveal to you.