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.

The big day - the story of my labour!

Carl and I had predicted he would arriive on Thursday - 2 days early, but Thursday came and went and although I knew he was close, by bedtime I was thinking he may go overdue.

I woke up Friday morining and turned over to cuddle Carl and POP! It was so loud! I was amazed that Carl hadn't heard it! My waters had broken.

I got out of bed and as I got up they started to gush properly. That may seem a little graphic to anyone reading this who is not pregnant, but it's important to know as some women only experience a little trickle, others go into labour with their waters still in tact and have to have them popped.

Well as I said, mine had definitely gone - big time! I called the delivery suite and they asked me to come in within the next hour so they could put a trace on the baby and check everything was OK with me and all was going as planned.

Everything was fine and so we left and stopped by the studio where I used to work to pick up a tens machine so I had some natural pain relief - I didn't want to have any drugs through labour.

At this time the contractions were fairly mild and coming every 45 minutes so we also stopped in Starbucks and had a coffee, (decaf obviously!). This, however, turned out to be a BIG mistake!! Although it was decaf that one coffee gave me intense diarrohea. Add the spasms of a cramping bowel to contractions and it was not comfortable AT ALL!!

Luckily it passed after a couple of hours, but it scared me enough that I didn't eat anything else for the rest of the day, apart from some dry crackers and some fruit. Not ideal when going through the marathon of labour as you desperately need energy, but hey, it was what it was.

By about 3pm the contractions were coming every 10 minutes and both Carl and I thought it wouldn't be long, so he popped round the corner to the shop to grab some supplies. Although I had told him to go, I think I got scared and I phoned my friend Caroline to pass the time. I sat on the sofa and calmed myself down, but this worked so well that I actually stopped my contractions!

Carl returned and his mum came over and suggested that I get in the bath to speed things up again. It worked a treat and soon they were coming thick and fast. By 8pm I was ready to go so we got evwrything together and headed for the hospital. I arrived at 9pm and by 10:30pm I was fully dilated.

At this point I don't know what happened but my contractions, although strong were not strong enough for me to work with them and push. I had to have a drip with Oxytocin to start everything working again. This took a little while and it wasn't until 3:42am that River was finally born.

He is one of only 5% of babies that actually arrive on their due date - so I am extremely proud of his punctuality!

The one thing that I was truly grateful for after the birth was the preparation I put into my diet and training my body for labour. I didn't tear and had only a small graze high up on the right hand side which I barely felt. This meant my recovery was literally a few days and within 10 days of giving birth I was back to gentle exercise.

13 days later I was back to a full workout with light kettlebells and dumbells.

14 days later I am back in my size 8 (UK) pre-pregnancy skinny jeans and I feel strong and have a lot of energy considering I'm barely getting 5 hours sleep a day. Breast feeding is going really well and apart from the soreness, I love it as it is such great bonding time with my baby.

If proof is in the pudding then this is it. If you would liek to learn more about my pregnancy training system then please head on over to the 9 month club to find out more.

My Pregnancy Workout at 39 weeks + 3 days!

Just a quick one today to keep you all posted!

I think I had a show on Friday and then again yesterday, but I'm not entirely sure! Even though my pelvic floor is like steel, I still think it could have been partly leakage and maybe just increased discharge which is totally normal at this stage.

Sleeping this past few days has been a nightmare. Ever since Saturday when I didn't get more than 30 minutes in the whole night, I have felt out of sorts. I've been so exhausted that I haven't wanted to eat properly or train. Fortunately I have an amazing boyfriend who makes sure I'm fed and I have still managed to get in 2 training sessions since Friday, so not bad going for the last week of pregnancy!

This morning I kept it short and sweet with a quick 5 circuits:



15 deadlifts (12kg kettlebell)
10 resistance band rows
10 press ups (girl ones)
10 reverse flys (4.5kg dumbells)
10 curl and press (4.5kg dumbells)

2 minutes rest between circuits

It took me 20 mins to do the lot and I felt energised and only slightly out of breath at the end. Now if you are planning to give this a go, bear in mind that you may need to do this with lighter weights - or no weight, (I've been weight training for almost 10 years now so I'm pretty damn strong). Do as many circuits as you can in 20 minutes without pushing yourself past the point of working somewhat hard. You don't want to be out of breath or struggling at all to get the reps out. It should be manageable to the end and you should finish with room in the tank for 1 more circuit.

37 weeks + 3 days and 2 days off elimination

I AM SO HEAVY!!!!!

Well not heavy as in scales heavy - I'm still 10 stone and 2lbs. My pre-pregnancy weight was 8 stone 4 lbs so I've done really well and hit the target range of weight gain right at the bottom end. If you start your pregnancy at a "normal" or ideal weight for your frame then you should aim to put on between 25-35lbs. I'm slighlty under that at 22lbs but then I still have just under 3 weeks to go so I should be dead on.

Anyway, I digress. What I mean is, I FEEL so heavy. This little one is no longer little and has taken over my entire body...I can't breathe 'cos his feet are in my diaphragm, I can't lie on my side because I find myself resting on his back, I can't sit properly to eat my dinner 'cos his head is way down in my pelvis and I have to spread my legs so wide I can't sit comfortably and I ALWAYS get food down my front 'cos I can't lean forward over the table and I can't sleep 'cos it's bl*ody uncomfortable - AGGGGHHHH!

I've heard it so many times from relatives, friends and clients and not really understood quite how much of a drag it is. I always knew it was uncomfortable towards the end but I never realised just how much of your body is taken over!

So I thought with just a few weeks to go I'd relax and take a week off Elimination, go out for a last dinner with my friends and then get back on it for the last two weeks of pregnancy.

In the words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman,


"Big Mistake, BIG, HUGE"

I had two days of eating non-elimination food -

Sunday: 1 chocolate truffle, 1 foam banana candy, 1 mocha
Monday: 1 decaf caramel latte, 1 magnum ice-cream

And I felt like dog poo! I was really nauseous, had terrible heartburn, really tired and lethargic and on top of that I felt quite down emotionally.

So that was enough, I am back on it with a vengeance and not coming off until the baby is born!

Please take my advice and don't do what I did and quit your elimination before the time is up! It's just not worth it - you don't want to spend your last weeks feeling rotten because you've let up on your nutrition!

TAG! YOU'RE IT!

I got tagged by Leah Segedie of BookieBoo so here are my 7 things you didn't know about me!

1. I used to teach kickboxing in Uni

2. I have a phobia about wires! Well not exactly a phobia, but I just hate them, especially behind our TV where there are loads of leads and they are all tangled up! It drives me mad...

3. I'm a careless parker! I mean, I'm fine when I'm driving but when I'm parking my car or pulling out of a parking space, I have a tendency to daydream and not look behind me, or my attention is caught by something in a shop window and I pull out without looking! Luckily it's only been walls or bollards that I 've hit so far!

4. I would love to be a secret agent - all that cool stuff! Infiltrating gangs, uncovering terrorist activity and having all those cool espionage skills like unarmed combat, weapons training etc! I want to be the next Jack Bauer!

5. I really, really want a Siberian Husky...I'm not allowed yet as we don't have a house.Boo!

6. I love Ben & Jerry's phish food ice cream so much that I once ate a whole tub in just 3 days (agh!)

7. I eat cold baked beans out of the tin - but they gotta be Heinz!

That's it!

Now to pass it onto the next lucky 7 blogs

daily dose of dax

rocofit

Fit Yummy Mummy

Balanced Steps