fitness
tension in my low back, hips, chest, and upper back than a gentle prenatal stretch session. Even a short fiſteen-minute stretching and deep breathing session can do the trick to calm your nervous system, aid with digestion, and improve sleep as well as your immune system.
Aim for 30 minutes of activity every day
Being active doesn't mean you are working out every day or even doing activity in a continuous 30-minute session. It means you're moving your bum and that bump daily. Even two fiſteen-minute walks can do the trick.
Change when your body changes
Just when you think you're catching a groove, your body moves on to the next baby-building phase, and what was working before doesn't feel right anymore. I found this especially demotivating early in pregnancy, as your new pregnancy hormones are showing you just how little control you have over your body. Perhaps I'm stubborn, but it took me several weeks to accept that my body had changed, then it finally clicked for me and I accepted that my body was changing with or without my consent. Acceptance of these continuous changes empowered me to move forward and have a healthy and fit pregnancy. „
Reprinted with permission fom Your Fit Pregnancy © 2016 by Erica Willick, Sterling, an imprint of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. Photography by Carston Leishman, Lemontree Photography, Inc.
skinny!
CASE STUDY: MEAGHAN TERZIS
I love being a full-time mum. My other passion is fitness; however, being a mum and being fit collided during my second pregnancy, as I was sick 24/7 for the entire nine months. I'm not talking queasy; I'm talking about round-the- clock debilitating nausea. Medication helped subdue the sickness to make the nausea manageable. So 'being fit' in the ways I used to, in the ways that I loved, was not possible. So I fell into a rut. A big one. Being active is a joy and I felt robbed of that until I shifted my mentality about what I could do in fitness. I have a treadmill at home and I told
myself, 'Meaghan, just 20 minutes a day. No matter what, you can do just 20 minutes a day on that.' And so I did. For my entire pregnancy, I did what I could and moved 20 minutes a day. Some days I made it to 30 minutes, and on the really good days I did 40 minutes! No records were set, but I did it - I moved. I moved for me and I moved for my baby. My son Jack was born, a healthy six pounds, nine ounces and, as time went
“Just 20 minutes a day. No matter what, you can do just 20 minutes a day”
by, I slowly got back into fitness. Looking back, I'm grateful I did my best and didn't get hung up about being 'super-fit-preggo-mom'! I was better for it, and so was Jack. If I let it all go, I think I would have had a more difficult labour and my mentality would have been worse. It made me feel better that I did what I could.
Spring 2016 MODERNMUM 9
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