Pregnancy Health & Wellness

Workouts

I was nervous with working out in early pregnancy for a few reasons, one of the main ones was the fact that my immune system and levels of energy took a real hit during the first few weeks after finding out I was pregnant. I was also concerned about working out and whether it was safe for the baby, which looking back was absurd as he was the size of a little pumpkin seed back then so I could have carried on doing whichever exercise I pleased! Now however he has grown quite a fair bit and my body is working hard to grow and develop him which puts it under extra strain, I have to be careful with when working out. I’ve been going to KXU in Chelsea since they opened at the end of September and quickly fell in love with Paola’s Body Barre, I love Paola’s focus on strong, long and lean muscles and find that her exercises are ideal for pregnancy with a few tweaks which she is really careful to ensure that I know exactly what I can and can’t be doing, she’s honestly one of the most incredible people and her energy is infectious. As I’ve put on around 10lbs already I’m finding that I want to keep as toned as possible to ensure that the post baby body isn’t too difficult to achieve. It also gives me a massive boost of energy. My levels are much lower than what they were so I make sure to breathe deeply and don’t over do it – if the weights are too much I simply put them down, Paola is excellent at adjusting the workouts to ensure I don’t put any strain on myself.

Mindfulness

My anxiety found a whole new playground with pregnancy – especially early pregnancy where I would find myself in a black hole of forums. It was a dark time and one of my top tips if you are trying to conceive or newly pregnant would be DO. NOT. GOOGLE. ANYTHING. Ask your mum/sister/best friend who’s had a baby and best of all ask a doctor! Don’t google random stuff for the sake of it. My husband and mother banned me from forums which only made me more addicted to them, but now *touch wood* I seem to be behaving much better and haven’t found myself on any in a while. Instead I’ve been trying to be more mindful and positive and will listen to some awesome music and have a bit of a cardio dance session in my living room or try and do some meditation to ease my mind. My favourite metaphor to envision whenever I feel a wave of anxiety rise is of myself getting into a lovely hot bath and easing myself in, that’s how I feel all women should be in pregnancy – eased into it like a warm bath and letting things go with the flow.

Diet

At the beginning my nausea was so awful that I was all about the junk food – Chinese takeaways, McDonald’s Chicken nuggets, french fries twice daily, salt and vinegar crisps – just all of it, daily burgers became a regular occurrence, my body craved red meat, pickles and salty snacks, weirdly my IBS seemed so chill throughout this time, it’s almost as if it said “you pregnant, we gonna give it a rest for a bit”, I did contract a stomach bug at around 10 weeks which was hellish and at first I couldn’t distinguish it between normal morning sickness or not but luckily it only lasted a few days. Now, however the nausea has dissipated I’m a lot more balanced, (my IBS also has caught up with me so I’m back to trying to be good). I have gluten free toast with crunchy almond butter and chopped banana and berries with a hot water with lemon for breakfast, guacamole and grilled chicken with a sweet potato wrap or something similar for lunch and for dinner I crave Vietnamese Pho or steak frites (the red meat obsession thing hasn’t gone!). I’ll snack on fruit and cookies throughout the day and love to either bake my own ones (recipe here) or buy the Bodyism Chocolate Chip ones which are so delicious!

Work Balance

I’m not going to lie to you, I’m incredibly fortunate that I get to work for myself but my work has definitely suffered since being pregnant. I can’t have imagined dragging myself to an office 9-5 during my first trimester when I could barely do my makeup without needing a nap or dry retching over my loo (sorry for the TMI, also more TMI, if I left it too long to eat, i.e longer than 2 hours it wouldn’t just be dry heaving). My baby is my number one and my work has taken a back seat, I stay on top of all the behind the scenes though which includes emails, brand negotiations, invoicing and editing and have just been more selective with content. I made a decision after coming back from Hong Kong that events were going to take a back seat so I could put content creation first. That is my priority now and I much prefer working and getting content out there instead of tiring myself at yet another launch event when I’d rather be cosy at home!

Stretch Marks?

I’ve always been an advocate of a heavy duty body moisturiser so even though I didn’t start using stretch mark specific creams until I was around 15 or 16 weeks pregnant it did ensure that my stomach region was always well moisturised. I now am on a rota depending on my mood, I love the Mama Mio Tummy Rub Butter when I want something super emollient and creamy, the Clarins Body Tonic Oil and Stretch Mark Prevention Cream when I want to feel like I’m in a spa and then when I’m feeling a little more tender I opt for Victoria Beckham’s favourite oil for stretch mark prevention – the Elemis Japanese Camelia Oil which has such a light lovely scent and sinks in beautifully. I think I will continue to use body oils daily even after my little one is born. They’re such a luxury and make my skin feel so lovely and supple.

Me Time

Carving out “me time” is something I’ve been attempting to do for the past 7 months or so when I realised that I spent the majority of my life focussing on my work or spending time with other people and when not just vegging out in front of Netflix and not being pregnant it’s more important than ever. Whether that’s a barre class or some meditation or something a little more indulgent like a prenatal massage I’m really intent on making it part of my weekly routine. I recently had a fantastic massage at the House of Elemis and would recommend any other mamas-to-be to book in for a treatment. It’s so relaxing and gentle and such a lovely time to just zone out. I’ve also started to look into seeing an osteopath and acupuncturist for some pain in my left shoulder blade which has been pretty bad for the past year and has a tendency to really flair up when I’m out and about at 6 back to back meetings/events in Central London. Now there’s a little life relying on me to be fit and healthy I feel less guilty about the indulgence of carving out that time for myself,  I know that in a few short months that “me time” will be few and far between! My friend also has an excellent new business called Bump to Box which ensures mamas to be get that pamper me time in a beautiful trimester boxes – so three in total – including goodies such as barre class passes/healthy snacks/relaxing candles/cosy cashmere socks and gorgeous recipe books.

One final word

Lastly I would recommend all pregnant ladies to invest in a pair of maternity jeans and a pregnancy pillow ASAP. I wish I’d invested in both sooner, I was squeezing into my stretchy regular skinny jeans until 15.5 weeks when I realised that it was just unnecessary. I’m so much comfier now, I love the Topshop “over the bump” Joni jeans (linked below) but am in the market to potentially invest in a slightly more premium pair, I’m also acutely aware though that in the final months I’ll most likely live in dresses and leggings – especially if we have some lovely heat here in London over the Summer! A pregnancy pillow is a must and I noticed my body feeling more and more weird in the night after week 17, it just didn’t feel right sleeping on my stomach or my back anymore and actually at around 20 weeks it can be quite dangerous to continue to sleep on your back for both yourself and the baby. I bought a pillow off Amazon Prime which was £35.99 and is an absolute dream, perfect support in the night, my husband has even tried to suggest we time share it as he’s so jealous! So that’s all for now, I will of course update you on the next points later down the line in my pregnancy!

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