Essential Abs for Pregnancy!

One of things that most expecting mums worry about is losing their figure and the struggle to get it back afterwards. Losing your waist to a huge bump can make you feel like a beached whale at times, but if you want to make sure that your pregnant figure is just as sexy as your pre-pregnant shape and if you want to guarantee your success at getting back into your skinny jeans within a couple of weeks, (it took me 10 days thanks to following my plan!), then you need to read on!

Now when you mention abs and pregnancy, most midwives, doctors or obstetricians would tut dissaprovingly and tell you that you shouldn't be "doing abs" in pregnancy. Well in a way they are right - there's absolutely no way you should be doing a traditional ab exercise like a crunch or a sit-up. These types of stomach exercises which follow the crunch movement work the Rectus Abdominus. This is the six pack muscle. If you think about how a six pack looks you'll see there are two distinct halves which are joined in the centre by a fascia called the linea alba.

In pregnancy the increasing bulk of the uterus pushes out against these two halves and stretches the rectus abdominus causing the two halves to become longer and to separate down the middle. Any additional pressure, i.e. from doing traditional sit-ups will increase the pressure and increase separation causing splitting of your abs. This is a major cause of pregnancy back pain. Although there are exercises to help repair the damage after you've had your baby this really is osmething you want to avoid.

So, the group of muscles we really want to concentrate on in pregnancy is called your core. These are your deep seated abdominal muscles plus the muscles that support your pelvis and back. In particular we want to focus on your Transverse Abdominus which is the deepest of the abdominal muscles and acts like a corset to support your torso. This is also the muscle you will use to push your baby out and the one responsible for giving you a flat stomach after the birth.



To find your TA lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, (if you are past 20 weeks do this sitting up against a wall with your back really tall and straight).

Place one hand on your belly below your belly button and one above.

Take a deep breath right into the pit of your belly so that you fill it with air.

Now as you exhale push all the sir out of your stomach and as you do so flatten your belly button back to your spine.

The muscle you are working is your transverse abdominus.

Now you need to train this mauscle daily throughout your pregnancy to achieve that flat stomach afterwards and also to make your labour a whole lot easier on yourself. In my pregnancy plan there are a whole range of exercises that we go through, but here's an easy one to get you started, (this is also a great stress reliever and perfect for relaxation before bed!).

Repeat the steps above to find your TA and activate it. Repeat for 5 breaths so that you drive oxygen to the muscle and warm it up, ready to work.

Now On your next exhalation hold your belly button flat against your spine for 30 seconds, breathing all the time (DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH!)

To release the muscle take a big breath in and fill your belly with air, allowing it to expand as much as possible.

Carry on for 10 repetitions.

This exercise is great for your circulation and increasing oxygen flow to your baby. It also stimulates the release of endorphins into your blood stream and clears toxins from your system. All of that as well as training your stomach for flat abs after you give birth, what more could you ask for?!

What to do when your baby is sick...

Saturday was a very scary night for me as River was very sick.

I had a sore throat and the start of a cold for a couple of days before and on Saturday morning River woke up very late and very grumpy. When I say woke up, he didn't really, he was just crying in his sleep because his nappy needed changing. I struggled to get him to wake up and he was very grumpy and crying a lot - not like his usual happy self. He hardly took his feed and went straight back to sleep.

This routine carried on all day and by about 6:30pm Carl and I were very worried as he was struggling to wake up and couldn't open his eyes properly. He seemed to be getting worse so I took his temperature, (as I had been doing all day), and it had had gone up from 36.4 to 37.5. 30 minutes later he felt even hotter and so I took it again and it was 38. We put him in the bath to wake him up and cool him down and I immediately phone the NHS Direct who put me straight through to a doctor. The out of hours GP aksed me to bring him straight in.

The bath worked and he woke up and was a lot more responsive than he had been all day and his temperature started to drop. I got him dressed and I made my way over to the hospital with him, but by the time I got there the doctor had left so we went to the A&E at the Childrens Hospital.

They were brilliant and I only had to wiat 20 minutes or so to be seen by the triage nurse. Then instead of making me wait they sent me straight through to a bed in the A&E unit and admitted River to stay overnight to be monitored.

As it was so busy we had to wait in the A&E until 2am for a bed on the ward but the nurses were amazing. I hadn't brought anything with me in my rush and they provided me with nappies, spare baby clothes and when I got to the ward a toothbrush, toothpaste and saline solution for my contact lenses.

River spent most of the night sleeping or breastfeeding and after a dose of Calpol his temperature was back to normal. I, on the other hand was absolutely wrecked! I was also sick and after being up for around 36 hours with him was so tired and run down, I felt terrible!!

We are both much better today, River is over his virus, mine is still hanging around but paracetemol are helping me! I think the most valuable thing I learned this weekend was not to take chances and I'm so glad I phoned the NHS without hesitating. It's always better to be safe than sorry and you should never feel like you may be wasting someone's time. That's what the professionals are there for!

How I beat morning sickness!

Morning sickness playing you up?

Don't you think it's weird how they call it morning sickness when it can happen any time of day? I know mine was worse in the afternoon and early evening, when I would hit my tired points. I also suffered really badly in the middle of the night.

The last thing I wanted to do then, when I got home from work was cook dinner. If I did manage it, more than likely it would be somthing less than substantial like porridge, or an egg on toast as I wasn't prepared for it! I also started to grab at sugary quick fix snacks that would give me a temporary sugar rush then leave me feeling exhausted, moody and even more nauseated. To add to all this, more than a few times I found myself skipping dinner altogether and feeling 10 times worse later on in the night and the next morning.

Thankfully I soon realised that these bad habits were by large causing a lot of the nausea and sickness I was feeling. My blood sugar was all over the place what with bouts of starving myself followed by huge hits of sugar, sending my insulin into huge spikes and troughs. I also realised that I was just asking for trouble with my erratic eating as I was doing all the right things to create an insulin resistance in myself as well as putting my baby's development at risk.

It was time for a major change and quick style! For years I had implemented the Elimination plan with all my clients, both prenatal and postnatal and had amazing results, now I got to experience it in pregnancy myself.

Elimination is all about eating from only whole and natural food sources and eliminating all foods that are toxic or denatured by processing and manufacture. There is no counting calories or cutting out food groups so there's no need to worry about whether you'll be getting a balance of nutrients - as long as you eat from a wide variety of all natural wholefood sources, you'll be supplying your body and your baby with foods that are jam-packed with high quality nutrients. Not only that but eating the Elimination way and avoiding all toxins means that your body will get rid of any excess water and surplus fat that it is holding onto, (that is non-essential to your pregnancy). What more could you ask for from a pregnancy nutrition plan?

Well within days my sickness and fatigue had stabilised and within one week, it had disappeared altogether. I believe this was largely due to cutting out all added and refined sugars as when I finished the 30 day Elimination plan and introduced sugar back into my diet, the sickness returned with a vengeance. Needless to say, I didn't make this mistake again!

OK so I know you're gonna be asking what the nutrition plan entails. In order to clean out your system and get ot working at peak performance you need to cut out all denatured, manufactured and artificial foods. These are:

Alcohol

Wheat Products (including soups, sauces and other products that use wheat as a thickener)

Processed dairy (milk and cheese - you CAN still have eggs, live yoghurt and real butter)

Processed foods - anything with non-natural ingredients (i.e. something you can't pronounce on the label or ingredients with numbers in)

Sugar - in all forms including honey

Microwaves (as they alter the structure of food cells)

Caffeine

That's it. So all you should be left with are foods that are whole, unaltered and natural in source, i.e. your food should either come from the ground, swim in a river or sea, walk on land or fly in the sky!

In my Complete Pregnancy Support System, I take you through a complete 30 day nutrition plan to help you detox your diet and free your body from toxins safely and gradually. It is important to note that if you attempt to detox your diet too quickly you will suffer with detox symptoms which include headaches, nausea and flu-like symptoms.

As with any change in your diet you should always check with your physician and pregnancy care team first. This post is for information purposes only and is not intended to replace advice given by your medical practitioner, registered dietician or nutritionist.