Preparing for Pregnancy

When I started this blog I was asked by one of my fellow uni students, what can I do before I get pregnant to help with recovery afterwards? As I am in the process of getting my body ready for pregnancy number two I have decided to answer this by blogging about what I am doing at the moment to get ready for the next pregnancy. I will discuss my fitness and health regimes as well as share my progress over the following months.

I am aiming to be ready to start trying my January so all my goals have the end of 2011 as their time frame. Briefly the 6 things I am focusing on are:

· Building my core strength so that I have less back aches and related issues during pregnancy.

· Even though I am now 2kg below my pre pregnancy weight, I am still a little overweight, so I am working on losing more weight. I am aiming to lose another 10 kg by the end of the year. This equates to slightly less than 1 kg a week – achievable with a LOT of hard work.

· Detox. I did a doctor lead detox prior to my first pregnancy, and my doctor stated that this was the reason I didn’t get any morning sickness (she claims morning sickness is in part the body trying to detox). I don’t know if this is true of not, but I will definitely be doing a detox soon just in case.

· Nutrition – at the moment I am eating to lose weight. When I get a bit closer to my goal I will work on moving what I eat towards the way I should eat in pregnancy (with a few less calories a day for now).

· Increasing my fitness. While exercise during pregnancy is possible and indeed recommended, it is not advisable to get your heart rate above 140bpm (beats per minute) when exercising in pregnancy. As such I will be working on getting my fitness up as much as possible before I get pregnant. This should help to make an easier pregnancy as well as meaning I’ll likely be fitter at the other end.

· Strength training. I have been doing strength training for over 10 years. When pregnant it is not advisable to lift the heavy weights I am used to lifting as the weaker joints are more likely to be injured. As such I lost a fair bit of strength during my first pregnancy (though lifting lighter weights helped a little). Knowing I will lose strength during pregnancy I am trying to build as much muscle before hand to ensure that I am still strong at the other end, specifically focusing on muscles that get used lots when looking after a little one (e.g., upper back).