34 weeks down and 6 to go. Am I still working out? Absolutely! Do my workouts look the same as they did early on in the pregnancy? Are you kidding me? I’m the Fit Mama 2 Be, not Superwoman.

You may recall (my dedicated readers) that for the first few months of this pregnancy I was still playing volleyball, running, sprinting, lifting, and carrying on as any hardcore fitness fanatic. Well, times they have a changed. As my waistline has expanded, my workouts have become more and more pregnancy appropriate. In the beginning, I would actually tame some of my workouts down, but it was all mental. Despite what the doctor said, I didn’t want to push Baby Ralphie too hard. I mean, he was no bigger than a roly-poly…how much could his little lungs and heart handle? Well, now that little roly-poly is about a 4 pound, 17 inch long pineapple and it’s no longer me telling myself not to push too hard. My belly does the speaking these days. And it’s constantly telling my legs to slow down, take a break, and sometimes trying to convince them not to go to the gym (don’t worry…my legs don’t listen when the belly says that).

So, what am I doing to workout in these final weeks? Well, a little bit of everything, but a lot less of it. I still do a stride (treadmill) class twice a week, but I walk the whole time (sometimes more slowly than I’d like to admit) and I don’t do all the inclines (I’ll walk at a 6% incline while the rest of the class is running at 10%). The only problem with stride class is that sometimes the little sucker is doing a headstand right on my bladder, and I find myself walking more often to the bathroom than up the imaginary hill. It’s quite annoying. I’m also still going to boot camp, but I modify when necessary (karaoke and footwork stuff to half court instead of full, lighter weights, more breaks). The elliptical is still my favorite machine. I hop on it for 20-30 minutes before every workout. I highly recommend this machine to all you fellow mamas-to-be. There is little to no impact on your joints, meaning you can’t feel the extra weight you’re carrying as much. And I’ve continued lifting. Lifting actually still feels pretty good, but I could do without the funny looks from others in the gym. Although I don’t do it, I would also suggest swimming. It’s simply too cold for me to jump in that pool, no matter how much people tell me it’s heated and it’ll feel good. No thank you.

Any of you reading this who happen not to be pregnant, I’d just like to remind you to appreciate some of the little things that you may take for granted. These are just some of the things I’ve been missing lately. I hope you’re enjoying them for me.
1. Deep breaths. Only those who have been pregnant will know what I mean.
2. A good hard sweat during a workout. Sometimes walking just doesn’t cut it.
3. Chai tea. I’m sick of faking my energy in the morning. Gimme the hard stuff!
4. Sleeping on my back. It’s funny how my ears are sore in the mornings.
5. Sushi!!!! No explanation necessary.

Well, friends, it’s time to say good-bye. Hopefully I’ll be writing one more time at the beginning of February before Baby Ralphie decides to make his appearance. We’ve been given due dates by different doctors, nurses, and ultrasound technicians ranging from February 4th to February 18th, so we really have no idea when to expect him. One thing’s for certain, he’s already keeping us on our toes!

Katie Lindquist Jameson, Pro Beach Volleyball Player, Teacher, and Fit Mama To Be

The magic numbers:  25-35 pounds.  Read any of the pregnancy books and they all say that a woman should gain anywhere between 25 and 35 pounds.  Piece of cake, I thought.  I’ll stay active, eat right, and I should be closer to that 25 number.  Maybe below?   I mean, I’m the “Fit Mama 2 Be” right?

Well, let’s start at the beginning.  Trimester 1: I was still playing professional beach volleyball, lifting weights, running sprints, and finishing the school year teaching kindergarten.  I wasn’t eating as healthily as my pre-pregnancy routine, but I wasn’t eating purely junk, either.  I managed to get down a couple fruits and veggies each day. I hardly gained any weight at all (3 pounds, I think) and worried that I was depriving my baby, but I was constantly reassured by my doctor that “Baby Ralphie” was growing normally and I had nothing to worry about.

Trimester 2: No more volleyball for me (the AVP tour going bankrupt kinda made my timing with this pregnancy thing look genius).  I continued my workout regime with yoga twice a week, lifting twice a week, and boot camp or stride class 1-2 times a week.  Overall, a pretty decent workout plan for this Fit Mama 2 Be.  I was getting in about 1.5 hours of physical activity daily, and I felt great.  My eating improved a little as my appetite seemed to return and I could eat chicken and salads and healthier foods again (see below for my new favorite way to eat beets).  Total weight gain:  25 pounds!!!!  What?!  This was supposed to be my final number…my “I only gained 25 pounds” so I can brag about it number.    Twenty-eight weeks and 25 pounds. And 12 weeks to go. What a failure!

Well, I’m here to tell you (and to reassure myself) not to listen to the books.  Sure, they mean well and they give you a general idea of what to expect, but everyone and every body is different.  Maybe 25-35 pounds is the average weight for women to gain.  Maybe it’s a conservative number and health professionals just want you to aim for the range.  I don’t know exactly how they came up with those numbers, but I’m over them.  I’m over obsessing about them.  Over worrying that I’m blowing up like a balloon.  I am over those numbers!

I workout every day.  And hard.  I start every workout with the elliptical machine for 20-30 minutes. I do squats, lunges, dead lifts, pull ups, bar dips, and anything else that strikes my fancy.  I do the ladder for footwork, sprinting off the end.  I workout hard!!! I can run circles around non-prego ladies. And I’m topping the charts in weight gain.  How do you explain that?

I’ve stopped trying to explain it.  I know that I’m fit.  I am doing my best. I am staying committed to a workout plan and eating right (usually).  The books may tell me that I’m gaining too much weight, but I don’t care.  Baby Ralphie has a strong heart beat (150 beats per minute) and he kicks and turns, wiggles, hiccups, dances and lets me know he’s fine all day long.  He’s thriving in this ever expanding belly of mine, and that is the only thing that matters.

So, if you’re like me, and you just can’t seem to stay in that “magic number” range, I say just stay active, try to eat right, and don’t worry so much.  Enjoy this magical time with your own “Little Ralphie”.  It’ll be over before we know it (and a whole new wonderful life will begin).

Here is a recipe I’ve been enjoying.  I sort of improvised from a beet salad I had at a restaurant.  It’s one more way I’m getting myself to eat my veggies.  You can add different veggies to it (for instance I threw in some chopped grilled asparagus that we had left over from dinner the other night, and it was great).  Enjoy!  And let me know what you think.

Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

1 or 2 large beets
4 oz. crumbled goat cheese (Trader Joe’s has this for about $2.00)
1 handful of dried cranberries
1 handful slivered almonds

Cut beets into chunks.  Boil for about 30 minutes (or until tender). Drain and cool.  Slice beets into small pieces.  Dump in a big bowl.  Add the goat cheese, cranberries, and almonds and mix it all up.  Enjoy it warm or cold.

Katie Lindquist Jameson, Pro Beach Volleyball Player, Teacher, and Fit Mama To Be

****Information contained in this website is not meant to be taken as medical advice, we are not licensed medical physicians; the information presented should not replace the medical advice of your doctor or pediatrician.

pickles & ice cream...

Huge green salads with lots of veggies.  Grilled fish with brown rice and asparagus.  BBQ chicken with quinoa and grilled corn.  You’re thinking this is the diet of the Fit Mama to Be, right?  WRONG!
Before becoming pregnant I vowed to myself that I would put only healthy, nutritious foods into my body.  I would set my fetus on the right track to a healthy lifestyle by feeding him only the best foods made with the freshest ingredients, jam packed with vitamins and good stuff to ensure his love for fruits and veggies.

Unfortunately, Baby Ralphie had other things in mind.  He definitely had his own agenda, as well as an uncanny power to steer my car to a drive thru window.  Funny how powerful a 1.5 pound unborn baby can be!

The simple fact is, during that first trimester, no matter how much I knew that eating a big salad loaded with broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, and beets would provide my baby with loads of vitamins, I could not get myself to eat one. Mine and my husband’s staple dinner, grilled chicken with brown rice and some sort of vegetable never once made it to the table in those first 3 months.  Although I pretty much skipped the morning sickness phase,  food aversions and lack of appetite made it hard to eat the way I had envisioned.  No chicken and salads for me.  I wanted corn dogs, In ’n’ Out, and avocado egg rolls.

So, how to eat right during pregnancy?  I can’t say I have the answer to this one.  My advice is this:  eat the healthiest thing you can stand to look at.  For me, I went through a soup phase.  It was all I wanted to eat at night, and I figured that with the meat and veggies in most soups, it wasn’t the worst thing I could be eating.   I even pulled the “pregnancy card” and called my mom and asked her to make me a big batch of her famous butternut squash soup.  I only had to ask once.  The next week I got chicken tortellini.  The following week clam chowder. And this past week beef and barley soup.  Although I have passed the lack of appetite phase, soup is still my meal of choice (and luckily my mom is a great cook who happens to live nearby!).

Another thing I have come to depend on is my morning fruit smoothie.  My breakfast of choice has always been vanilla yogurt with blueberries and sliced almonds.  It’s funny how barfing something up once can completely turn you against it.  I haven’t had yogurt since.  Now, I rely on my smoothie to get me through the first hour or two of the morning.  And here’s my favorite trick:  I put a huge handful of spinach in.  You can’t even taste it.  Now I don’t feel so guilty for passing on the big salad.  I know that I’m getting a large serving of spinach each day.  And since pregnant women often become slightly anemic, I’m getting a huge dose of iron to combat that.  See below for my favorite smoothie recipe.

My last tidbit for all you fit mamas to be…always be prepared for hunger to strike.  I never leave home without a few healthy snacks in my purse and a big bottle of cold water.  This way, I am less inclined to grab the first thing I see at the checkout counter or succumb to Baby Ralphie steering me to Weinerschnitzel.  Now that fall is here and the new crop of Fuji Apples has arrived, I never leave home without one.  They are my absolute favorite thing about fall.  Some other healthy snacks I’ve come to depend on are oranges, bananas, raw veggies (jicama, carrots, bell peppers), cottage cheese, and dried fruit.  Of course, as I’m writing this I keep having to wipe my fingers from the bag of cheese puffs sitting next to me, but next I’ll go eat an apple and feel better about myself.

Katie’s Favorite Smoothie

We call it the “Spangoflaxein”

(recipe credit to my husband, who came up with this delightful concoction).

1 cup frozen mangos
1 cup canned or fresh pineapple
a large handful of spinach
1 scoop whey protein isolate
half a scoop ground flax seeds
water
(measurements are approximate)
Blend and enjoy!

Don’t be scared away by the color (Frankenstein green). It puts me in an island state of mind, even on those mornings after Little Ralphie has kept me up kicking and doing the Lambada in my belly.

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Katie Lindquist Jameson, Pro Beach Volleyball Player, Teacher, and Fit Mama To Be

Welcome to blog #2 in my series of 7 on being fit and healthy during pregnancy.  I figure there is only a predetermined amount of time I can call myself the Fit Mama-to-be.  Eventually Little Ralphie is going to pop out and I’ll have to think of another title (plus another name for the kid).  Until then…

Working out…  It’s always been a daily staple in my schedule.  Whether I was going to the gym at 5 AM before work, heading to the beach after work for practice, or doing some sort of boot camp class, I have always made it a priority in my life.  However, by being pregnant I was faced with the great dilemma: To workout or not to workout (Will Shakespeare’s pregnant wife said this I believe).  So, in keeping with my militant attitude toward working out, this past summer I woke up every morning and headed to the beach to practice, to the gym to lift weights and do some cardio, or to YogaWorks to get my zen on (and a killer workout, by the way!).  Granted, being a teacher with the summer off definitely helped, but now that school’s back in session I still make sure the gym or some other activity is scheduled into each afternoon.

Being a 32 year old first time mama, I’ve had a lot of friends who have already gone through this pregnancy thing.  I kept hearing about taking it easy and keeping their heart rates below a certain point (valid medical concern or convenient excuse for lazy pregnant mamas around the world?  You be the judge).  While some people may think that being told not to work out would be a blessing, I was pretty disappointed.  What would I do without my daily dose of endorphins? Walking and stretching aren’t exactly my idea of a workout.  Well, I was completely relieved when my doctor told me that the heart rate thing was old science and it had never been proven*.  He informed me that whatever I had been doing previous to getting pregnant, whatever my body was used to, I could continue doing.  I even played in 4 AVP tournaments while pregnant… diving on my belly on several occasions (this scared me every time, but Little Ralphie appears to be no worse for wear).  I was playing terribly, which I’d like to attribute to the kidney bean sized baby dwelling in my belly, but playing nonetheless.

*  Quick footnote here: please, please, please always check with an actual physician to make sure working out during your pregnancy is right for your body.  All situations are different.

Why stay fit during pregnancy?
I’ve heard of people (professional volleyball players included) who view pregnancy as a 10 month period where they have free range to eat whatever they’d like, not workout, and not worry about it.  “I’m eating for 2,” they’d say.  Tsk, tsk (picture your mother-in-law wagging her finger disapprovingly).  That little fetus only needs about 300 extra calories a day, about the equivalent of a cup of yogurt and an apple, so that excuse gets blown out of the water.  “I will lose the weight after.”  Well, studies show that the more weight you gain during pregnancy, the harder it will be and the longer it will take to lose that weight.  Plus, gaining too much puts you at risk of developing gestational diabetes, which adds a whole slew of complications.

I know, I know, it can be hard to motivate to get moving, especially when that 5 ounce fetus is weighing you down like a two ton anchor, but we must see the big picture.  That hour of working out will save us untold amounts of pain and agony later on.  For me, the idea of an easy labor is all the drive I need to get off my couch.  From what I’ve read, women who are in shape have an easier time pushing their little suckers out.  Also, I’ve heard that labor really really hurts.  So, if there is any way I can shorten that process, I’m jumping on it.  At least, that’s my plan.  Little Ralphie will probably be working on his own agenda.

So, pregnant ladies of the world, let’s shake our groove thangs and belly bumps, waddle to the park, or roll to the gym and get movin’!!

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Katie Lindquist Jameson, Pro Beach Volleyball Player, Teacher, and Fit Mama To Be

Photo credits:

pregnant woman running-  dailymail.co.uk

pregnant woman exercising- scrapetv.com

pregnant woman lifting weights- inmagine.com