Pregnancy Fitness

This is a topic I've been meaning to write about for a while as fitness has always been an important part of my life.  I need (and like) to work out for stress management 5-6 days per week.  Pre-pregnancy, I did a mix of cardio (running and spinning) with strength training (BodyPump and Hot Yoga).  Needless to say, now that I'm 7+ months pregnant, things have changed.

The beginning of pregnancy brought a lot of nausea and tiredness, which resulted in lots of naps and not much running (I felt so slow and would feel like I was going to get sick).  Add moving and giving up my yoga studio and gym to that and there wasn't much motivation.  Not to mention, I was totally out of my routine.  So I decided to take it easy on myself  until I felt better.  I did find a yoga studio, Inner Bliss Yoga and attended their slow-flow classes for a few months. Then I joined a gym, L.A. Fitness and started taking their version of BodyPump (aka Urban Iron).

These days, my goal is two days of strength classes at the gym and walking 2 or so miles 4 days a week with Lila.  I don't beat myself up for missing a day (or three) and realize that in order to have a healthy pregnancy, it's a balance of staying in shape and getting the rest my body requires.  I also am very aware that the better shape I'm in, the easier childbirth (especially important since we are planning an unmedicated birth).  And I'm trying to keep the pregnancy weight gain under control...I'm currently in the healthy range and want to stay there.

Here are a few photos over the last 20 weeks in the same (pre-pregnancy) work out top (no particular order due to technical difficulties):

32 Weeks:

14 Weeks:

20 Weeks: 

Not sure if this top will make it the whole 40 weeks and if it does, I probably shouldn't be wearing it in public :)  Either way, my goal is to keep it up til the end!