Counting Calories while Pregnant?

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

We’re still on cloud 9. A son! What a privilege it is to be carrying a son. It makes all my efforts come to perspective, they become more personal. I’m eating well and working out so my son can have a great start in life. How exciting!
I’m a healthy pregnant woman carrying a son who is much, much loved. We spread the news to friends and family and I also went ahead and worked on my registry some more. I was all excited about being pregnant and forgot I didn’t know the gender, so I had to stop my registry half way through.
THANK GOD my health is GREAT. This previous years of preparation for pregnancy have given me a great start. I know to exercise most days of the week, I know what to eat and what brings the best nutrition to me and the baby, we know how much water to drink and we know to rest. All we need to do is to practice. The past month hasn’t been perfect. A month ago I went to the gym only twice. The following week the same happened so I decided to increase my number of visits to the gym. I went 3 times last week and this week so far I’ve been there 3 times. I told my husband my challenge is to go tomorrow and if I go Friday, that would be HUGE because I haven’t worked out a whole week for a while. I’m excited. My prayer has been that the Lord will bless me to continue to go to the gym as long as I can and after the birth of my son, that I may go 3 times a week at least. They have child care at the gym (what a perk!) and I’ve been talking to my husband about going early in the morning before he leaves for work so I can get an early start. I enjoy working out in the am when I can, lately I’ve been getting there in unpredictable hours but the goal is to meet the 4 times a week goal of working out.
I’ve been going to different Christmas parties. I did well on the first one (I ate before I got there) but the second one sucked. I was really hungry when I got there (I failed to eat before I went) and I just ate a lot more than I was supposed to. I don’t like to eat large dinner because it’s hard to sleep with a full stomach. It seems that at this point, I’m hungry when I wake up, around lunch time and around 3 or 4 p.m. after that, I’m okay to just snack very lightly.
I’ve been paying attention to hunger signals from my body during this pregnancy. Of course I come to work armed with snacks and lunch for the whole day, even a light dinner if I have that need. The thing I quit doing is counting everything like a crazy chick.
I heard of people who say they want to count things while they’re pregnant but I just don’t have the time. The counting I did before was temporary, I don’t plan to spend my whole life counting portions and calories, I see it as bondage. I believe in counting and watching til I learn to walk in self-control. I don’t believe in perfection when it comes to eating but I also don’t believe in being bound to calorie counting.
I have more to say but I’m gonna have to stop here. Talk to you later on this week.
Goals for the week:
{1} Go to the gym at least 4 times (1 out of 4 to go!);
{2} Snack before going to holiday parties;
{3} Drink at least 32 oz of H2O per day;
{4} Treat myself to a mani or/and pedi;