Exercise and Impromptu Lunch Date

One of the things that I have tried to maintain during my whole pregnancy is working out. As soon as I got pregnant with Lincoln though I took a break from exercising because I was afraid I would miscarriage, again. This advice was given to me by one of my good friends who had issues with miscarrying when she was trying to get pregnant and this is what her doctor had told her to do, so I took the same advice to heart. I know that miscarrying is much more common than we know about and women really don't talk about it, but I wasn't going to do anything to risk Lincoln's life since I was so quick to get pregnant again! Which was a complete blessing!

Once I hit my second trimester the brakes came off and I began walking frequently again. I walked 4-5 days a week for about 30-40 minutes. This routine worked perfectly because I could walk the dog and get my exercise in. I think that this small amount of walking helped me maintain my weight and kept my weight gain at bay. I did notice my ass getting fatter but who cares if I have to lose only 10 pounds after I give birth to Lincoln, so what! I also didn't swell as much and I could see my ankles again in the second trimester after walking. This was the perfect amount of walking and it challenged me, but didn't cause my heart rate to increase too much.

My third trimester is a totally different story. I have been able to maintain 30-40 minute walks and was under the delusion that 'heck I could walk even more!' So today I decided to take Sheila and decided we were going to go for a long ass walk. Now remember where Nate and I live there are hills and some of them are fairly large, but this only led to my delusion more that it would be good for me and a challenge.

We were out there walking for 1 hour and the last 10 minutes we're painful.  I couldn't breath, my ankles and hands were so swollen, and my stomach started to hurt because of all the extra weight.

LESSON LEARNED. Don't try a new walking/exercise regimen at 30 weeks pregnant. Keep with what you know. I then got home and went on fit pregnancy and looked up walking regimen for pregnancy. Found out that walking for more than 50 minutes with most of at an incline probably not a good idea at 30 weeks. Now I'm exhausted, and good thing the next three days are going to be stormy, so I have an excuse to stay home and do nothing.

Where I found Sheila about an hour after our walk.
She really needed her Jesus blanket.
I think she way praying for me to never do that to her again.

Here is the best walking/exercise regimen that I have been following and I love it. They also break it down into beginner, intermediate and advanced:

http://www.fitpregnancy.com/workouts/prenatal-workouts/walk-way

Yesterday, Nate and I also went on our first impromptu lunch date. We're taking this thing seriously! Nate decided he wanted Chipotle and I decided I wanted french fries. So after some discussion, we settled on Chipotle. Nate then said, "Dang it your pregnant and if you really want french fries we're gonna get you some french fries. Why can't we do both?"  I didn't have reason to say no to that! It was so nice to be able to just go get lunch together with nothing to worry about, and sit in the car and just enjoy each others company. (We had to eat in the car because I brought Sheila and it started to rain.) We know that once Lincoln comes just getting up and going to have lunch with Nathan at work will be a bit more of a struggle, so we're enjoying it now.

Me, burrito bowl, french fries and a 1 dollar coke.
(Nathan shared the fries with me)

I know that this is not the most nutritious lunch but Nate doesn't get to have a full hour for lunch very often, so it was worth the splurge! At least I put brown rice in my burrito bowl! Ha!

~Julia