Gaining Weight is Hard to Do

Having a baby is such a wonderful experience and being pregnant goes along with that.  Physically, emotionally and mentally I'm not an ideal candidate for pregnancy.  I like feeling my best, I like being in tip-top shape, I like water skiing, riding roller coasters and running 10 miles with my running partner.  So, I'm selfish.  I don't like being helpless and feeling so badly I can't keep my house the way I like it.  So, I'm selfish.  And I know there are so many women out there who love being pregnant.  And my heart just breaks for the women who want to be pregnant and aren't.  So when I'm feeling selfish and wish this process would hurry up, I think about how blessed I am because for so long I was that woman who wanted to be pregnant and wasn't.

Aside from all the mixed feelings about pregnancy, it's hard to see the scale go up.  I've managed to maintain my pre-pregnancy weight with exercise, food aversions from first trimester nausea, food journaling and the fear of gaining 50 pounds because of the blood, sweat and tears that went along with losing it all the last time.  I don't want to do that again.  First of all, 50 pounds was too much to gain.  Doctors and books tell me 25 is my number.  So when I got on the scale last Thursday for my weekly weigh-in, why was I surprised that the scale finally went up?  Did I think I would go the last 24 weeks and not gain anything?  That all my running, yoga, strength training and food journaling would subside the weight gain?  No, I'm pretty sure I didn't think that but at the same time it's never easy to see the number increase. 

Now the scale will start climbing.  It's going to start climbing because that baby inside my belly is going to grow from the 4 inches long and 3 ounces it is now to much bigger and that's what I want.  The trick for me is to get that baby to grow without my booty growing along with it!  So I think exercise is the magic formula for me, especially when I know how good it is for the baby. Plus I feel amazing emotionally and mentally when I'm doing it.  Pushing myself to get up and going really helped with morning sickness and I think it'll help to keep me feeling better through the rest of the pregnancy and into a drug-free delivery.

The moral of the story is that gaining weight is really hard to do the right way. I think exercise is the trick to keep the weight gain slow and steady. We'll see though, I'm determined to be my own guinea pig and stick it out with a pretty structured workout plan for the rest of this pregnancy.  Oh and definitely keeping an eye on those sweets.  Gosh, it seems like lately all I can think about are candy bars and cookies.  Ugh, hormones!