An Honest Look at My Pregnancy

The reason we struggle with insecurity is that we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel”.

Social media, while having so many advantages, has at least as many disadvantages as well. It’s hard to hide from, and we’re bombarded with perfection every day: perfect make-up, perfect hair, perfect drops of sweat on perfectly toned bodies, models and athletes showing off their gorgeous pregnant bodies. For most of us, these images are completely unachievable and let’s be honest, while amazing, also pretty unrealistic. 

As a fit health coach for moms and moms-to-be, my goal is to empower women to feel their best through good nutrition, everyday physical activity, and lifestyle changes at any stage in their lives. And some stages are more difficult than others. Pregnancy is a good example.

If you follow me on social media, you see me posting healthy (and sometimes not so healthy) meals I prepare. You see my workout videos, you see my workout pictures. You sometimes get a glimpse at my family. Here are a few facts I haven’t shared:

• I’m a week away from when Sophie was born and I already gained more weight – this is completely normal the second time around in general, plus I wake up earlier, lift heavier and am generally more active, which also means I eat more (with Sophie I started at 132 ended up at 162, with Annabel I started at 128 and I’m up at 160)
• I have varicose veins – they’re absolutely not pretty, and are rather uncomfortable, not painful, but the sore kind of feeling, especially when I’m sitting for a longer period of time
• I have a lot of discomfort, it’s pretty much a downhill ride from after my workout (at 5:30am), which I push through and enjoy, but you should see me later in the day: I have a hard time getting up, I’m walking funny and slowly and you can just tell I’m not having a whole lot of fun (which may be the reason this nice guy offered to place a tub of Philadelphia cream cheese in my cart… )
• I have pelvic pain way more than I had with Sophie, which again is normal, but still not fun

So then what’s the point, you may ask. Why do I keep working out if I have aches anyways?

So many reasons:

• It makes me feel better about myself
• It makes me a better and more patient mom and wife
• It makes me more productive
• It improves my strength and endurance which in turn will make labor easier and bouncing back to my pre-gpregnancy body easier (hahahahaha on my word choice, bouncing, right, it still is going to be hard work but not as hard as it would be without exercise during my pregnancy)
• I would have way more aches and pains if I wasn’t working out, as evidenced by days I take off – my back is hurting, I get injured way easier (nothing major, just a wrong move here or there)
• Exercising makes me want to eat better and studies show that shaping young tastes starts early, even in the womb

So my point with this post is basically this: do what you can, do your best, do not compare yourself to anybody, love your body, love your body enough that you keep it healthy through physical activity and good nutrition, and most of all, love your unborn child enough that if you wouldn’t do this for yourself, you do it for him/her. I’m not trying to use emotional appeal here, do it for your child(ren), but it’s true. It all starts with you. The healthier you are, the healthier your family will be. The more confident you are, the more confident your children will be. And confidence has nothing to do with your look. It has to do with your strength – inner and outer strength. Believe in yourself because I believe in you. 

Pregnancy Week 33 Plan

Oh what a week last week was. So many things have happened. I got my citizenship, I’m so proud. I’ll be honest though, I took full advantage of being pregnant. Hee hee. I made my way to the front of the line, and it’s okay. I mean, nobody has to know I lift in the mornings, right? In all seriousness though, the ceremony is really awesome but incredibly long. Security lines are huge – just that day 3,985 people became citizens, that’s a lot of people, so you can imagine the amount of people. Being pregnant at the ceremony had other advantages as well, like they didn’t take my drink and snack (they took my husband’s drink away…). This was long overdue, and I couldn’t be happier.

Sophie again had a one day fever, Thursday night she went up all the way 102.7 – her fever goes up really high in a really short amount of time… So she skipped preschool on Friday – but at least I got to sleep in with her. Of course, she was totally fine on Friday, check this picture out and you’ll know what I’m talking about. 😉

My overall state of being can be characterized as tired and frustrated, overall. I still wake up at 4:45am to read (right now I’m reading The Power of I Am by Joel Osteen), then I work out, morning prep, take Sophie to preschool, work at home, pick Sophie up, spend time with her, make dinner, have dinner, walk the dogs (on better days, it hasn’t been happening as much as it should lately), evening prep then bed time. The days are long, but productive. And I’m not frustrated with anyone in particular, just in general. Which I think it’s worse, actually. But it is what it is, other than being aware of it and controlling it that way, there’s not much else I can do about it. Did you feel like this during your pregnancy? 

I had a friend  come over and help me sort baby clothes this weekend, it’s crazy how much we have saved, what’s even crazier is how much of what is not salvageable I actually kept. Did you keep your old baby clothes?

But on to this week: I’m 33 weeks pregnant!!! I’m definitely feeling it, I’m sore, have more belly ache and pressure, baby girl is definitely putting mommy to the test. I’m excited to meet her but of course, for now, she needs to stay in there where it’s safe for her. I’m worried a tiny bit though, about how mornings and evenings are going to be, how we’ll manage two amazing girls with both of them getting love and attention. I know, I know…. These things resolve on their own, but the truth is, both will get less love in a way. 

Last week our meals were good and I got all my workouts in – took Friday off but used Saturday as my makeup day. Mornings are the best, it’s all downhill from there, haha.

With that, this weeks plans are:

Until next week, stay active, eat well, and be happy. 🙂 

Pregnancy Week 32 Plan

It’s so nice to finally have my energy back. I still get more tired by the end of the day than in my second trimester, but I can at least wake up in the morning and do my workout, which truly is such a great thing. I did tell my husband though that if somebody sees me some evenings, they wouldn’t believe I work out in the morning. Sciatic pain is getting worse, the abdominal pressure is getting increasingly intense, Braxton Hicks contractions are getting more frequent, and there is just general discomfort all over… That’s not to complain though, it’s just important to note that it’s not always fun and easy, but that shouldn’t immediately mean we give up our healthy habits. 

So last week I did complete all my planned workouts, and our meals were almost on par, with a few hick-ups here and there. It’s all about making good and sometimes “itsokay” choices as I like to call them. One evening I was so tired we had to go out and eat. I had a power kale salad and a vegetable soup with sprouted grain bread on the side. The other evening our friends took us out for my birthday, I did have cake with ice cream and whipped cream. It’s all about finding balance. 

In the meantime I’m busy working on creating my pregnancy course helping other moms be their best at this time, but progress is slow, something always comes up. 

With that though, I’m really excited for this week. I’m excited to have Tony Horton back in my life for a whole 22 minutes on Monday with a sneak peak at his new workout routine. 

Until next week, stay active, eat well, and be happy 🙂 

Pregnancy Week 31 Plan

You know how you calculate where you are in your pregnancy and then sometimes double check it? Well… It turns out, on my workout plan, I skipped week 7. So that made me wonder whether I was truly only 30 weeks pregnant and not 31. But then I check our ultrasound images, and based on that, I am 31 weeks and 5 days today. Well, it’s not an exact science, no matter what anyone says, but on one hand being only 30 weeks would give me more time to finish creating my prenatal course, on the other hand, being 31 weeks and 5 days means I’m that much closer to meeting Annabelle. 99% on the name. For now though, it’s 100% push time, and when Sophie came down with a fever, push time came early, my view at 6am last week:

Was it easy for you to pick a name for your child(ren)? Sophie’s name came so much easier, but we really struggled picking a second girl’s name. And for some reason, I sometimes have this feeling that Annabelle could be a boy. This pregnancy is just so different, in so many aspects, and anybody who sees my belly immediately says it’s a boy. I know, I know. The ultrasound said girl, but then again, it’s not like the ultrasound was never wrong – and you know how you start hearing those tales of people who were told it was going to be one and then turned out to be the other. My husband doesn’t want a 4D ultrasound, and I get it. But I so do. Haha.

So last week was tough. My husband was down with a stomach bug since Saturday the week before, and I could feel I was coming down with it. Neither of us had any energy, which is always bad, but especially when you have a toddler full of energy that wants to run around, ride her bike, play, and neither parent is in the shape to do it. We really felt so bad…. The worst day was Wednesday – my birthday. The stomach bug hit full on, which was really crappy (pun intended, and I apologize for my choice of words… kinda 😛 ) So I had to take meals easy that day, to keep my tummy safe… But that of course gave me an insane headache by 5:30pm, at which time I overate and was sick for the next 9 hours…. But at least I got to chat with my friend a bit in the middle of the night. 🙂

Then of course, Sophie came down with a fever, just for one night/day. I freaked out a bit, thinking it could be vaccine related. See, we’re in the catch-up phase (not to start a vaccine debate here, I believe in vaccination just not giving so many vaccines at a time so we’re a bit behind and have a new pediatrician), so by my own mistake I thought she got a 4th Polio (IPV) vaccine, so I frantically called her pedi’s office only to make them think I’m totally crazy. Haha. It happens, and I might just be a little bit in this pregnancy. But either way, Friday Sophie had a Celebration of Love Party where they exchanged cards and a ridiculous amount of candy and had a lunch party. It was the cutest thing. 

So back to last week: meals were not on track and I completed 2 out of the 5 planned workouts. #itsokay though. Being healthy is way more important and my body needed the rest. 

I finally feel a lot better though, I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to have the energy again to work out.

So with that, here’s my workout plan for this week:

And our meal plan for this week:

Until next week: stay active, eat well, and be happy. 🙂 

Pregnancy Week 30 Plan

I think I should print this one out, maybe if I see it enough I’ll believe it. 😛 

Last week was rough. We all came down with something, AGAIN, cough, stuffy nose, extremely low energy. Saturday got to the point where I couldn’t really stand up anymore I felt so weak. But I had to, and that’s probably topic for another post once I find the words, but Saturday was the day we said goodbye to my friend. Just a very few people close to her and her family, on the beach…. Yes. Another day.

Saturday was also the day I felt Braxton Hicks contractions for the first time in my life, I did not have any with Sophie, so it was a little bit scary. 

Sunday we took Sophie to a bounce house, she wanted to go, and though neither of us had the energy to go out, we did and it was so worth it. She had a blast. We even took the pups out for a walk, which wasn’t something I thought I’d be able to do but it actually felt nice and it also served as a nice reminder that a good walk is sometimes exactly what the doctor ordered.

With that though, I only completed four workouts out of the six and didn’t get to cook all the meals I had planned. It’s okay though. Third trimester can get a little tougher, and for me it is. But that, again, is post for another day.

Workout Plan for this week was modified from the original, as for the rest of my pregnancy. I reduced my workout days from six to five, I’m tired. I need a rest day (Sundays I still wake up around 7am to go grocery shopping).

And our Meal Plan is one I’m hoping to stick to better than I did last week, but then again there’s a reason I plan for five days and not seven. It’s because life happens. 🙂

Until next week: stay active, eat well and be happy! 🙂 

Pregnancy Week 29 Plan

It seems I completely forgot to post last week’s plan… It’s been a rough past two weeks, with Sophie transferring to a new classroom, one level up, and me spending a lot of time observing this transition (they have an observation room) which is nice but it was also heartbreaking to see some of the things I observed, like her struggling to communicate with the teachers and them understanding her or seemingly not taking the time to understand her (I know when she speaks English it’s sometimes a full on English sentence completely understandable, other times it’s mixed with Hungarian or it’s plain fairy dust, as I like to call it), or her being unhappy at the end of every day we would pick her up. So it hasn’t been easy, but after talks with her previous teacher, the director, and her current teacher (in that order which I realize is not necessarily ideal, we should have talked to her current teacher before talking to the director but a few of the things I observed and needed change were out of her control, like adding another teacher to the room or adding an extra snack table, transferring the completely out-of-control girl to a different class). Anyways. After the talks I saw immediate changes, so I’m hopeful they will stay permanent.

But on to week 29. Week 28 marks the beginning of the third trimester, I can’t believe I’m already in the last trimester. Looking at the pregnancy diary we kept with Sophie, she was born less than 60 days from now, at 37 weeks and 5 days. She was early term, but term, and clearly turned out to be perfect. 🙂 

So while last week was pretty hectic, I did my best to stick to our meal plans and my workouts.

Workouts: I had to take both Saturday and Sunday off because I’ve been really tired by the evening, so much so that I’ve been taking involuntary naps (I call them involuntary because I just somehow fall asleep while watching my husband play with Sophie 😛 ) But I did start a a new trimester, which also means new routines. I wasn’t crazy about the cardio portion of it, so I’ll be substituting. I’m thinking Turbo Fire, modified, of course. 
Meals: I’ve been noticing that my heartburn has been getting worse. It’s usually bad after about two hours of consuming my meals, so I just need to start following my own advice and eat smaller portions – I mean, even smaller portions because I don’t have a whole lot of space in there anyways, baby is taking up more and more space. 🙂

This week

My workout plan is:

And our meal plan is:

Oh the dates are off. Hah! Changed them in my excel sheet, pregnancy brain note taken. 😛 

My goal for this week is to get way more of the pregnancy superfoods in my diet (such as wild salmon for brain development, flax seed for more omega-3’s and of course, more of the rainbow).

Until next week: stay active, eat well and be happy!  🙂

Pregnancy Week 26 Plan

It truly is crazy how time flies by. I can’t believe that I’m only two weeks away from my third trimester. 

This is me this am after a killer total body workout. My back is still hurting so I had to do push ups on my knees, which is okay – do your best and forget the rest, right? The most important things anyways during pregnancy are maintenance and safety. Maintaining health, muscle and cardiovascular strength all while keeping mommy and baby safe.

With that said, my workout plan for this week is:

Meals as planned for the week (Sophie’s lunch is planned around whatever the school provides only I make it at home to keep it healthier, but I try to make whatever the rest of the children are getting).

I’m really looking forward to this week. Probably more to figuring out why I can’t speak a full sentence without this shortness of breath and choking up. Going to see the doctor tomorrow, hopefully we’ll figure this out. I wonder if my respiratory tract infection from around Christmas created a secondary infection. Either way, I’ll know more tomorrow and I’m just happy it doesn’t keep me from working out.

Until next week: stay active, eat well and be happy! 🙂 

***NOTE: This is a repost, my blog has moved to http://www.momofbalance.com. If you’re still interested in my blog (I know I’ve been MIA forever, your life has changed, mine has changed…), please subscribe on my new page. Thank you. 🙂 ***

You know how when we decide we wanna do something, like get back on track, start reading the Bible, work on personal development, etc… and we start journaling it, but are ready to tear out the first week if it didn’t go well? Why? What do we want to prove and to whom? That we’re perfect? We’re not. I want Sophie to know that too. So no starting and restarting. Embrace your journey, good days and bad days, cause they’re what make it worth it.

So clearly, I don’t have a routine for keeping up with my blog yet. And normally, I probably would just want to erase it all. Start fresh. Hope that this time it will be perfect. But why? I really am not perfect and neither is my life. Things don’t always align to support my plans. Some days I don’t get to accomplish anything I had planned on doing. And that’s also the beauty of life. Learning to adjust, to enjoy every moment, even those that come in place of the ones we had originally planned. Maybe… just maybe, there is a reason for those moments. This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by a very famous Hungarian child psychologist, who mentioned that it is very new that moms have to do everything by themselves: before there were servants that helped, or big families of multiple generations. And today, most moms need to be super moms, do-it-all moms. A lot of times, we forget how to enjoy the little moments. To quote Mr. Vekerdy, he said “just try to enjoy that kid”. And it’s so true. So if I don’t get to my blog one day, or for days in a row… SO WHAT? I did something else that was probably more important – to me or to the big picture. (That’s not to say I’m not a little disappointed every time I don’t get to do what I had planned, but I’m, just like everyone else, am a work in progress).

But of course, some important highlights from these couple days:

I did work out every day, didn’t skip a single day, even after going out on Friday night and getting back at 2am. Of course, Sophie sleeping in helped as well, and my public announcement of this #ayearofconsistency because now it feels like I have an obligation towards others, I know they’re watching. And even if they’re not, it helps me stick to my routine regardless. 😛

Two of my favorite breakfast: oatmeal with maple syrup, cinnamon and fresh peaches and frozen waffles with fresh peaches and Greek yogurt. Frozen waffles are never my number one choice, but it was one of those mornings…

And I revisited an old favorite: ChaLean Extreme – Extreme Intervals which uses the ball and light weights for a killer workout and I also did some stretching on Sunday cause my body was aching for it….

Days 71-77

Whenever I don’t post at least every three days, my posts get long, so I promise to keep it short and mostly to pictures so you like me. 😀

Highlights of the week: I worked out every day. I tried new classes (Les Mills Step, which is a killer workout, I don’t remember my step class having burpees and weights before) and also Sports Attack was new, which works up a great sweat despite me thinking it’s not that tough. By the end it is. I did not always do what I had planned, mainly because of time restrictions.

Lowlights of the week: No food tracking every day, but that’s why it works for me, because I take it easy and it’s not forced. When I don’t have time, when it’s a hard day (week, which it has been), I just don’t do it.
The most important “lowlight” of the week would be the, for me, inevitable emotional plateau marked by two weeks being left from my hybrid. It doesn’t matter how much in love I am with the current routine, which I absolutely am right now with Combat, I just get bored. Does this happen to you as well??

So here are the pics for the week, as promised (but more detailed posts are to follow in the next couple weeks).

Day 71

Meal Details

Pre-workout snack: banana
Breakfast: scrambled eggs (three egg whites one egg) with 2 slices of multigrain baguette and orange juice
Snack: homemade chocolate zucchini bread
Lunch: Morningstar chick patty on one slice of multigrain bread wit veganaise, tomatoes and cabbage
Snack: coconut milk latte
Snack: buckwheat and hemp cereal with cow’s milk
Dinner: multigrain bread with avocado spread and canned salmon

Days 72 & 73

And that picture above brings such a smile to my face. Sophie did the step class with me (more or less and was pretty distracting but hey, this is exactly why I work out in her presence, so that it becomes such an integral part of her life as well), she even imitated the burpees, that’s you see on top. And the bottom picture is simply not fair. She took my resting spot. Both of us were completely beat.

Days 74 & 75

Days 76 & 77

And one last puppy love picture. Sparky, our beagle, does not do the handshake. If you ask me, the doesn’t do it because our coonhound does it and Sparky feels he doesn’t need to. He’s alpha in his own eyes. He is an extremely smart dog, so he could learn it. He just refuses to. He met his match though, because Sophie is just as stubborn. Sophie loves her dogs. She loves them so much.

So how did I do? Manageable/readable yet still lives up to the accountability expectations?

Days 66-70, Pancakes, Salmon Dinner, and Babies Know it Best (proper form and technique)

Another week is over. And the end is kind of eh. But let’s start with

Day 66

Upper Body Blow Out gets me every time. Though my upper body strength has tremendously improved over the course of the last 10 weeks, and the results are visible (can’t wait to share them with you), this workout never gets easy. I wish my husband joined me in this one. He just “doesn’t do that stuff”. That stuff being my workouts. He does go to the gym though every now and then when his schedule allows for it.

Meal Details

Pre-workout snack: banana
Breakfast: Sophie’s leftover oatmeal with yogurt and apples (gotta say, she’s a trooper for eating it, I’m not the happiest with the consistency the second day. I’ll try and see if she likes overnight oats next week…)
Snack: Vega chocolate coconut protein bar
Snack: Minnie’s Bake Shop cookies (don’t judge…..)
Lunch: Morningstar chick patty with bread and veganaise
Snack: Coconut milk latter
Snack: almond butter jelly sandwich
Dinner: Penne with roasted red pepper and artichoke puree and shrimp
Snack: Greek yogurt with stevia and strawberries

Yeah, I was starving. I ate over 2,000 calories, which is pretty rare. But the body works in mysterious ways and we need to let it talk to us. Fine, not with the Disneyland cookies, but in general. Some days we eat more, some days we eat less. If the body wants food, don’t deny it, just make that food nutrient dense and healthy.

Days 67-68

I planned a Combat routine originally but decided to do Shock HIIT Plyo on Thursday – which was a great idea until the next day when I could really feel my hip. Not in a good way. So on Friday I just did the stretch routine. But oh do I have so many pictures to share with you.

First off: babies know it best. They do. They instinctively use the right technique. Just observe Sophie on the following picture:
– perfect squat to pick up the weights, not bending from the waist
– shoulders back, straight back
Pure perfection…

Some foodie pics. I love pancakes (I posted the recipe for this one before, search pancake in my blog to find it, it’s the banana coconut pancake). If you make it, you absolutely MUST have the shredded coconut on top. It makes a huge difference. It truly does.

And dinner. So easy, and so yummy. I just put garlic salt on the salmon, maple syrup (it does flow down, but you just gotta keep putting the “marinade” back on – I marinated about 30 minutes before). Bake at 425 for 18 minutes. The asparagus is just 22-25 minutes at 425, simply spray it with olive oil, put garlic, salt, and Parmesan cheese on top (I did not have any…), wrap in aluminum foil and voila. Yumminess.

And my very own warrior stretching workout. Generating my own chi energy (which is difficult with Sophie around, though I would not have it any other way). This was a much needed workout. Sometimes you have to give your body a rest day, especially when it’s screaming for it. And mine was. I used to be scared of taking rest days. It felt like a setback, that I was lazy, or something. It’s not true. Our bodies need rest. Even a week off is not a setback. Unless that week turns into a slide with continuous bad nutrition choices, in which case, you might fall off track. But a conscious rest week, nah-hah. It’s smart to do.

Quick stats for these two days (no meal details – you saw the highlights above, but you’ll see I’m a bit low on calories….)

Days 79 & 80

This post is going to be short. I did a HIIT Power workout Saturday morning and all the good stuff pretty much ends there. We had a BBQ that evening for my brother-in-law’s birthday. I’m not even going to type all we ate (my neat handwriting in my calendar serves as a reminder). The next day I felt terrible. Sluggish and moody. I was not the most pleasant person to be around. Funny how when you watch how you eat (for the most part), sugar can kick you into such a low and nasty gear. And if that wasn’t enough, my husband brought me chocolate…. And (promise, this is the last negative thing 😛 ) Sophie slept until 10:30 am and by that time I was 1) too hungry to work out 2) the day would have been pushed out way too much. But all this was only motivation to be better in the following days. Not in this post though. If you read this far, you are amazing and I thank you.