Recovery

How do you judge recovery? It seems that everyone has a different standard when it comes to recovering from giving birth. In the workplace they say it takes 6 weeks to "recover". Many people may say when a woman gets back to her pre-pregnancy weight or size clothing she is "recovered". For me I have been judging my recovering on my performance in the gym. I have run into a bit of a problem with doing that though, my first week back before my shingles were in full force, I could squat and lift more weight than I can nearly 5 weeks post pregnancy. So does that mean that I was recovered the first week and now that I am working out regularly I am just digressing? I don't think so. I think there is so much more that goes on when you have a baby and figuring out how to return to my "old self" is still a work in progress. There are so many other factors that play into how we feel on a daily basis. So let me start with a few of the obvious ones that are affecting me and maybe some of you, even if you have never gone through pregnancy.

Sleep! In our country today, sleep is not regarding as something of high importance. People that work really hard and run on less than 8 hrs (sometimes just 4 or 5) are regarded as hard working and it is highly commendable. Although most of those people will say they don't "need" more sleep than that, I would question their belief. How different would they feel if they did get 8 hours? How much more productive would they be and how would their energy levels change? From personal experience right now I usually get to sleep from 8:30 p.m. to midnight, I'm up for an hour feeding and pumping, sleep again from 1 a.m. to about 3 a.m., up again feeding and pumping, and then some light sleep on the couch until about 5 a.m when I get up for the day. I know this is temporary as having a one month old baby requires me to do this, but I can tell you after doing it for the past month, my energy levels and strength definitely feel like they are decreasing by the day. So if you are feeling like you lack the necessary energy to perform your best, evaluate your sleep schedule. I'm hoping mine will greatly improve in the next month with any luck from my baby girl.

Nutrition! This plays a huge role in your daily health. I am constantly evaluating what I am eating and how it is affecting my baby (since I am breast feeding) as well as me. Right now with the amount that I am working out I need at least 2700 Calories to support my activity level as well as nursing. This can actually be quite a task to get this many Calories in a day so the main thing I need to do is prepare. I do this on Sundays by making about 4 lbs of meat that I put in the refrigerator to have as lunch and in between meals along with veggies, a little fruit, and high quality fats. I have cut out all sugar except for what I get from a limited amount of fruit in a day. So far, coming off of sugar (even though I wasn't a huge sugar person, I did indulge in dark chocolate and paleo treats more than I should) has made my body feel much cleaner, but I do still have cravings and at times feel low on energy. I know this is only temporary as after about 2 weeks of no sugar usually I start to feel much better. Whether you are trying to lose weight or just get stronger and be healthy, nutrition is one of the most important things to emphasize. I credit that with my fitness routine to getting back to my pre-pregnancy size quickly.

Exercise! I have a lot of people ask me how I lost the baby weight so fast. Let me tell you it isn't what you do after you have the baby that is most important, it is what you do before you get pregnant and while you are pregnant that is most important. I say before you get pregnant because if you haven't been active before, during a pregnancy is not the time to get in shape, but you can maintain most of your fitness during your pregnancy if you were in good shape prior.

The workouts in the past few weeks have been really tough for me. I have high expectations of my performance and am not even coming close to meeting them. Although my cardio has been steadily improving the high skill exercises that have always been tough for me haven't got any easier. The most frustrating of all is my squat and deadlift strength is about 10-20% off of how much I was doing even during pregnancy. I know in due time these will come back but it is really hard to put my pride aside and scale to the weights I need to right now. It is funny because as a coach I tell people all the time to scale, scale, scale but when it comes to scaling myself, I have a hard time doing it even though I know it is the right thing to do. In the long run I think this experience will make me not only a better athlete, but also a better coach.

Coming Back

I knew it would be difficult to come back to Crossfit after having a baby, however this past week has proven to be even harder than I thought. My shingles episode definitely set me back more than the pregnancy. My shingles followed my sciatic nerve so I had a rash and pain from my lower back all the way down my left leg. I have been back at it for a week now and have not felt very good about my performance. My cardio, which was usually a strength of mine, has been very poor, and I feel weaker than I did while I was pregnant.

Last Saturday I jumped right back in and think it might have been a little too much because come Monday I couldn't even do basic things in the workout because my abs were so sore. I haven't done much direct ab work as I am trying to avoid it so that they heal with as little separation as possible but even things like front squats and legless rope climbs have proven to be taxing on my very weak abdominal area.

The other thing I have mentally struggled with is my endurance. After spending that past 9 months slowing down or quitting when I feel like my heart rate is getting high or that voice pops in my head saying slow down and actually listening to it, I now have to retrain to push through those times. This week we had an endurance WOD on 9/11 that instead of pushing through, I wussed out and slowed down. I was working out on my own at the time so I have decided that I must workout with a class so I push myself harder.

The other thing is I have a fear of failure and I faced that today. Before I was pregnant I could do ring muscle ups fairly consistently. Although I could not string multiples together, I could successfully do one at a time. I have been afraid to even try until today they were programmed in our WOD. My fears came true and I was unable to do one. I now have a goal that in addition to our programmed workouts, every day I am going to work on handstands (walks, HSPU, and free standing) as well as muscle ups so that I can be proficient at both.

On a positive note, my body has bounced back fairly quickly. Much quicker than with my first and I fully attribute that to crossfit through pregnancy. I am fluctuating between 5-7 lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight of 128 lbs, which isn't too bad after just a couple of weeks. My stomach is also beginning to shrink down so I think in a month or so, I will be close to being back to normal. We are starting a lifestyle challenge Monday so today I tested my body fat in the BodPod. I was at 19% so although most of my goals are all performance related I hope that after 8 weeks I am around 16% as I think I will feel better with my body weight movements at that percentage as well as be stronger in my weightlifting. In order to get there I need to be sure I am eating plenty of Calories but they need to be largely fat and protein calories and the carbs will come from veggies, a little fruit, and limited amount of sweet potatoes. My goal is to be completely free of the "sugar" cravings in 4 weeks, which means no more chocolate chips or paleo treats (at least for the next month:) .

Here are a few progress pics

2 Weeks Post Partum

3 Weeks Post Partum

I love these two so much!

Shingles are for Old People....

Nearly every case of shingles that I have ever heard of is related to someone over the age of 50. I had assumed that it is something that only affects this age group, until Monday. 

While I was in the hospital after delivering my little girl I started to feel pain in my hip that radiated down my leg. I brushed it off as the beds in the hospital were really uncomfortable and let's face it, your hips undergo quite a feat to deliver a baby. When I returned home the first 3 nights at home I had really strong hip pain so I would lather my hip in deep blue and take some advil and sleep as much as I could (which wasn't very much). During the day, the pain felt more manageable, I was even able to get workouts in with little or no pain, but at night it would just flare up. After the third day home I decided to call the chiropractor thinking maybe my hips just needed to be adjusted after the birth. He could not get me in for 2 more days and by the time I showed up for my appointment the pain was gone, but I had a rash on my lower back and a little on my hip. Could I possibly be breaking out because of all of the deep blue I used? I have used a lot of deep blue in the past and never had a problem, but I didn't know what else it could be from. This was on Friday before the long labor day weekend. 

Saturday, I noticed the rash spreading further down my leg and thought I would call for an appointment on Tuesday. By Monday the rash was growing increasingly uncomfortable, blistering in some spots and it just kept spreading further down my leg. It now covered my lower back, left hip and left leg down to about mid calf. I was getting worried that it would be something I could spread to my girls and husband. I googled to see what it could be and the only thing that really came up for postpartum rashes was PUPPPS but my symptoms were not consistent with this. PUPPPS starts on the stomach and usually starts while you are pregnant. I had no rash on my stomach. By Monday evening nothing was giving me relief. I was using my oils and the rash just seemed to get worse so I decided to go to urgent care. The doctor there told me I had shingles! I asked what caused it and she said any stressor can cause it. Since I have had the chicken pox, the virus lays dormant in your nerves and a stressor (in my case child birth) can make it flare up. She said because I was young the course may only last a week or two as opposed to over a year that it affects some elderly people. For me a week or two felt like an eternity because of how uncomfortable the rash is. At least my hip pain had gone away, or so I thought....

Monday night was one of the worse nights of my life. The hip pain came back ten fold and the rash felt like someone was sticking a million pins in my leg. Nothing was giving me relief. I don't like to take medication anyway and now that I am breastfeeding I really don't like to however in this situation the doctor assured me the antiviral was completely safe and I could also take zyrtec for relief for the rash. I am taking the antiviral as it is supposed to shorten the course but after one zyrtec, I felt no relief and will not take any more of that. I have also been supplementing with my oils, topically putting on a mixture of Maleluca, Lavendar, and Euculyptus mixed with coconut oil. I also internally take a mixture of Melissa (an antiviral), Maleluca, On Guard, Oregano, and Lemon. Even thought it has only been a day and a half since I went in, it feels like an eternity. I know it is in the healing process because my rash is blistering but I would do about anything for some relief at this point. 

Yesterday I called my pediatrician to ask about my girls risk. He said my newborn is protected with my antibodies and breast feeding is the best thing I can do to prevent her from getting anything. My other daughter is not though. She has not been vaccinated for chicken pox so it is very likely she is going to get chicken pox since shingles is derived from the same virus and the virus can be transmitted through touching the rash or through the air. At least she will have immunity after she gets it, but I hope it doesn't put her down too much. Her symptoms will be consistent with the chicken pox, not shingles, so at least she will not have to deal with the pain I am experiencing. Any amount of sickness is difficult to see in your kids so I just pray hers is as mild as possible.

I am one of those people that is always looking for the cause for something. I don't just like to treat symptoms and I feel like there should always be a definite cause.  It bothers me that the only answer is the stress of giving birth. I wonder, could it be from the epidural? After all epidurals are in the nerve just like this is. Doctors say no, but I just don't understand how someone as healthy as I am can get this? Could it be from the exercise I did the week after? Doctors say no, and the hip pain I experienced began before I stepped foot in the gym so this was not the cause either. I will never know why I got it and I just hope it goes away soon. In regards to Crossfit, I will not be doing anything until this heals up. As much as I wish I could, the pain is too great even for me to think about getting a workout in right now.

I will spare you the photos this week because the are really disgusting. But here is a cute one of my little one's first Gopher game with her daddy:)

Birth Story Part 2- Recovery Begins

Time seems to go by so fast when you have a newborn. She is now over a week old and still doing great. She sleeps a lot and (knock on wood) has been a really good baby. I think maybe God thinks we paid our dues with my first, haha!

One thing I can say about my pregnancy and post pregnancy this time compared to last time is my recovery has been 10 times better. I feel like it is further confirmation for me that by staying active and continuing a healthy lifestyle makes all the difference in the world. It wasn't that I was inactive my first time around but I was much more regular with my exercise and kept the intensity higher than last time too. I definitely didn't eat as well with my first pregnancy (don't get me wrong, I cheated plenty this time) but overall ate much healthier. 

While I was in the hospital the nurse asked me if I was a runner. I laughed and said I would not describe myself as a runner but I will do up to a mile when I have to! She said she thought I was because my resting heart rate was so low, it is 48. It really proved to me that the high intensity crossfit workouts have put me in the best shape of my life. 

Now for the recovery. 

I don't know what it is with me but I was once again looking forward to dropping 10 or 15 lbs in the hospital. I hear of so many women that do this, but with my first I retained so much water that I gained 5 lbs after I gave birth and this time I lost a whole 2 lbs in the hospital. A mixture of the petocin and epidural make me retain water so I once again left the hospital with nearly all the weight I had gained, yet to lose. It didn't take long though and in the first few days I had lost about half of the weight and as I write now, I only have 5 lbs and a belly left to lose.

I had planned to take about 2 weeks away from working out before returning to the gym, however that didn't happen. I really felt good in the days after so at day 5 I decided to go in and row. I go crazy sitting at home and since my little girl has been pretty easy so far, I brought her in, set her next to my rower and got a good sweat on. It really felt good. 

I decided to do a WOD the next day which showed just how far out of cardio shape I have gotten. Being pregnant I did not push myself into that high HR zone so I have lost a lot of my metcon. I really don't feel like I can run yet as even a light jog doesn't feel good in some areas yet, if you know what I mean. Returning to my fitness regimen is hard and only going to get harder as I can do more things. There are times where I feel that people judge me for returning so quickly, however I am a true believer everyone's journey through pregnancy and postpartum is different. No one should feel bad for taking a couple of months post to recover and I shouldn't feel bad for jumping in when I felt good enough to. 

I don't think I will be doing much direct abdominal work for at least 6 weeks because of my abdominal separation (although surprisingly it has already shrunk from 2 fingertips down to 1 fingertip width). Running might take me another week or 2 before I feel up to it and getting inverted might also take a couple more weeks. The good news is, with Crossfit there are so many things I need to get better at, I have plenty I can do now to keep me busy until I am ready to get fully back into it.

I have gone back and forth on whether to show any post pregnancy photos but I think it is important that people know realistically how pregnancy and birth changes our bodies. I know with hard work I will be able to get most of my figure back, but there are things that will always be a little different. 

2 days post birth

One week post birth

Birth Story Part 1

So much has happened since my last post but most importantly we have a healthy baby, are home and doing great!

My last post was a week and a half before my due date and I had just found out that my little girl had flipped to breech. I was so disappointed because this late in my pregnancy could mean a c-section if I couldn't get her to flip back. That afternoon I did handstands and used doterra oils to encourage her to flip back. The next day I showed up at the hospital for my version appointment and told the nurses the things I had done the night before. Before they hooked me up to the monitors they did an ultrasound and by the grace of God she was back head down in perfect position! I was so happy I nearly cried. I asked my doctor if I should refrain from working out until she was born as I feared her flipping back again. My doctor assured me that I would be much happier to keep exercising as I had been and my regular workout routine in no way had "made" her flip breech.

For the next week I continued to workout but was cautious of a lot of up and down movement like burpees on the low box. At my 39 1/2 week appointment she was still in good position which made me a lot more confident she would stay there. That appointment was on Wednesday. I was only 1.5 cm dilated and my doc asked me what I would like to do as far as an induction goes. I told her as over being pregnant as I was, I wanted to wait until my baby was ready and go as long as possible without an induction. I mentally prepared for at least another week of pregnancy.

That afternoon benchmark workout "Nancy" was programmed at our gym. For some reason I always had it in my mind that I would go into labor the day of doing overhead squats. I didn't necessarily think that day was today but I was hopeful. Nancy is 5 rounds of a 400 meter run and 15 overhead squats with 65 lbs. You can hardly call what I was doing those days running....I called it a woggle (mixture of a jog and waddle). It wasn't very hot for August so I decided to give it a go as prescribed and finished in 17:50. I started to feel more contractions during the workout but I had them off and on for the past week so didn't think much of it.

That evening the contractions were getting stronger and at about 8 p.m. I told Jarod maybe he should start timing them because they seem to be coming frequently and more close together. After about an hour they were regularly coming about 2-4 minutes apart and lasting 45 seconds to a little over a minute. We decided to make a trip into the hospital since it is a half hour drive for us. When I got there I had dilated to a 3 and they said because I had that much change just from my doctor appointment earlier that day to now I was there to stay. I walked the halls for about 4 hours and did air squats to try to encourage my body to progress further into labor. After 4 hours they said I was not progressing quick enough and they wanted to give me petocin. I really was dreading this because I wanted a natural birth with no epidural. With my first I was given large doses of petocin because my water broke at home and I had no dilation when I got to the hospital. Petocin contractions are much more difficult to manage pain wise than our body's natural contractions. I told them I would like as small of a dose as possible so I could try to manage my way through them so they agreed. After another couple of hours my progress was still slow and they wanted to increase the petocin. Once that happened it was all over for me! The contractions were so strong and close together yet I wasn't dilating any more. Now I had a decision to make. Try to fight my way through them, which I am ok with doing when I know I am getting closer to giving birth, but that was proving to be a dead end because for some reason when my body tenses up, I just don't progress. I was worried if I continued to do this a c-section could be in my future so I decided I would get an epidural. It ended up being a good idea because after that I was fully dilated in about an hour. I only had to push 3 times through one contraction and our little girl was here!

I am still a believer in birthing as natural as possible and feel some disappointment for giving in and getting an epidural, however I also do believe in the situation it was the best decision for me. I can tell you after feeling the pain of those contractions and being told they were not helping me progress through labor is like doing Fran and being told every time you finish the round of 15 that you have to repeat that round again. Ha, well not sure if that is a good analogy but the best one I can think of right now.

More details will come in my next post as well as updates on my postpartum recovery and getting back in shape!


Our little girl was born at 7:30 a.m. She weighted 7 lbs 4 oz and was 21.75 inches long.

Breech

Today was a very difficult day for me (and baby). I went in for my 38 week check up (I am 38 weeks and 3 days so 11 days until my due date).  I went through all of the normal checks and everything was looking great. My blood pressure is good and low, my weight has remained pretty stable around the 155 lb mark, and the baby's heart rate was a healthy 125 bpm. Then my doctor went to do the weekly check to see if I was getting any more dilation, which I wasn't.  Along with that check came the bad news, she couldn't feel her head. She reassured me that she is probably head down but wanted to take a look on the ultrasound to be sure. After all at my 32 or 33 week ultrasound she was head down and every check in the last 3 weeks she has been head down. Surely she wouldn't flip this late in the game? As she put the ultrasound wand (not sure the real term for it) low I could tell by her face that it wasn't good. She then checked up and there she is, head under my left rib and feet down toward my right hip. I know I need to stay positive but this late it can be very difficult to flip a breech baby. The good thing is we know she flipped sometime in the last week so I have to keep hope that she can do it again. The bad news is, the percentage of versions that are successful are only 10-30%.

I decided to go to the gym today and do handstands to try to encourage her to flip back. It may be an old wives tale but I am willing to try anything. I did handstands off and on for an hour until my shoulders felt fried and she still is in the same position. Since then I went home and have used peppermint oil massaging in a rainbow shape on my upper belly to try to encourage her to move down. That has definitely go her moving but I am not sure if she is quite there yet.

Tomorrow I may be faced with some decisions that I'm not sure how we will handle. On the one hand if the version is successful I may have the option to be induced so that the baby doesn't flip breech again. I would consider doing this because the alternative of a c-section is less favorable than induction, however I really want to wait until she is ready to come out. On the other hand if the version is not successful, my chances of having a c-section will dramatically increase because the larger the baby gets the more difficult to flip her. I feel so helpless because to this point I feel like I have had such a complication free pregnancy and been so healthy that I just never imagined being faced with the possibility of a c-section. I will first and foremost pray to God that the baby and I come out in good health, but will also pray that he will guide me to make the best decision for her. I feel very emotional about this, but I know I need to stay positive because she is coming soon! To be continued....

I wasn't going to show anyone these but since this is the place I have been really open about my pregnancy, I figured it was the right place to post a belly shot.

New Perspective

I am finally in the home stretch...my due date is less than 3 weeks away. After my meltdown last Tuesday (which was the subject of my previous post) things have been really great. I am so excited to meet our little girl. Up to this point, I really was just excited not to be pregnant anymore, but now that she is almost here I really can't wait to meet her! (although I am still excited to not be pregnant too, ha!)

I decided to go back to doing our normal daily Crossfit classes instead of the extra competitive lifting. It really has given me what I need. I feel good, I am not discouraged by the things that are limiting me and I am still getting an awesome workout every day. I am proud to say this week I even completed a workout doing pull ups still so I think I may just reach my goal of being able to do them through my entire pregnancy. Yesterday we had a workout that including power snatches (which I do from the hang position) and running. I was looking forward to getting some running in since I haven't done a whole lot lately. That is until I got about 100 meters into my first 400 meter run. I felt good in terms of breathing (I was jogging pretty slow so I wasn't breathing really hard) and I wasn't feeling too hot, but I felt like I was going to have a baby while I was running. The pressure was so great in my pelvis that I had to bike in place of running the last 2 rounds. This actually came as a surprise because the day before I completed an entire workout that had double unders in it and did not feel this at all.

I continue to be able to overhead squat fairly heavy. It takes me a little more time to get my balance and my squats are slower to keep my balance but I still managed 7 x 2 at 125 lbs. I have heard from a couple of pregnant cross fitters that they went into labor soon after overhead squatting so maybe it will help her come sooner rather than later?

At my doctor visit this week I actually lost 4 pounds from last week, which I thought was a little strange but my doctor didn't say anything about it. This pregnancy has been really different in terms of my weight fluctuation. I gained a lot more in the beginning, then went for a long stretch of not gaining or losing a little, and then started gaining again. As of yesterday I was up exactly 25 pounds, which is where I was when I delivered my first. I am only dilated to a one so the chances of her coming this week aren't too good, but that's alright, I would rather wait until my mom is here to help out with my daughter.

I love this video just posted on the Crossfit hq Facebook site about pregnant women crossfitting. It really shows the positive influence Crossfit can have on women and their babies through pregnancy. I love seeing stuff like this because it is really what inspired me to write about my experience and hopefully motivate others to continue their own journey of healthy living through pregnancy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxehb6hQjmI#t=12


I finally decided to do some maternity photos. We are a little late being 37 weeks in these but better late than never!

The Crossfit Games

We decided to take a trip out to California last weekend before our bundle arrives (hopefully in less than a month!) There were a few reasons for our trip, one was that we really wanted to have our daughter have one last vacation as an only child and make it a special one, so our first stop was Disneyland. The good news is she had a great time. She loved the Winnie the Pooh tunnel ride and the Toy Story one too.  Luckily with her being so young and me being really pregnant the rides that we were able to enjoy had fairly short (about 20 min wait) lines. The thing that is ridiculous to me about Disneyland is that you pay nearly $100 per person to get in and most of the good rides had at least a 90 min to 120 min wait. Maybe if we went a different time of year it wouldn't have been like this but I can say I feel sorry for our little one on the way because it is going to take a lot of coaxing to get me to go back there and fight the large crowds. At least we accomplished our mission and our daughter had a really great time!

Another reason for our trip was the largest Crossfit event of the year, the Crossfit Games were going on. We knew having our daughter with us would make it harder to get the full experience, but we really wanted to go to see the fittest athletes in the world compete. They did not disappoint! It was truly amazing watching the strength, endurance, and athleticism of all of the athletes that competed. We left the Games feeling humbled, motivated, and excited to improve on our weaknesses.

With this great feeling of motivation brought a couple of rough days when I returned back to reality. While on vacation I didn't workout a single day. We did a ton of walking which actually took more of a toll on my body than the more intense but shorter workouts I have been doing. It was nearly 100 degrees at Disneyland and after walking around for about 8 hours there were a few times that night I thought I might have a California baby, ha! Anyway I didn't realize how difficult it would be to get back into the swing of things after taking 4 days off. I thought it would do my shoulders good since I have had trouble with overhead movements due to the pain when the weight gets a little on the heavy side. While I knew Monday's workout would be tough b/c it consisted of pull ups and shuttle runs, my expectations were low and it really just felt good to get a sweat on.

Tuesday is when my hormonal  emotions all kicked in. I went in to do jerks, squats and push presses. I felt really good warming up my split jerks and then once I hit 105 and 115 (which are not very heavy weights) all of the pain came rushing right back. I felt so frustrated. I stayed at that weight and although I was very discouraged I decided I would at least do the squats. Now that the baby is dropping and I am less than 4 weeks from my due date squatting heavy is proving to be a bad idea too. I am feeling a lot of pelvic pressure and my belly hits my thighs before I break parallel unless I keep my stance wider than usual (pregnancy problems:) At this point I only went up to 175 lbs for 3 reps which I completed very easily but I knew I shouldn't be going heavier than that, at least not today mainly because of the state of mind I was in, but also because I really just wasn't feeling great. For once I "listened" to my body. I should have gone and done some rowing and body weight movements but I was feeling so down and on the verge of tears, I just decided to leave. It was the first time I have ever not completed a workout in my time doing crossfit. I got into my car and cried.

Why was I crying? I think it was more than just because I didn't do well or finish my workout. It was for a lot of reasons. First was coming to terms with the fact that I feel so motivated after being at the games to work harder at my weaknesses but now is not the time. My body is preparing to have a baby so I need to just save all of that motivation for later! Then I was feeling really guilty because the last thing I should be thinking about is how fast I can come back or be worried about losing my fitness. I am about to give birth to our baby girl and she should be filling my mind instead of just staying in shape. I was also crying about things I won't bore you with that happened at work the past 2 days. And to top it off, my husband was out of town on business so I felt like a single mom, cooking, cleaning, and caring for my busy toddler (good thing I have been doing crossfit!) I am not really a cryer but I tell you, being pregnant just amplifies every emotion you feel.

Moral of the story, it is ok to be emotional and have bad days. I have plenty of them, the main thing is to look back and reflect on the true reason you feel these emotions and adjust. For me yesterday was just a reminder that now is a time to be patient, focus on the positive that I have the ability to exercise and live a healthy lifestyle through the last 8 months, and thank God for giving me a complication free pregnancy thus far.

Hmmm, which photo does it look like she was having more fun? 

Natural Living

Today's post isn't meant to tell anyone what is right or wrong (just like all of my posts:). Instead I thought some people might find it useful to know some of the things my family and I have chosen to do as far as nutrition, supplements, and everyday living go. For those who know me you will know that I really like to eat paleo, choose products that I understand and can pronounce what is in them, and incorporate as natural ways of living as possible into my families lifestyle.

Nutrition
I have to give my husband the most credit for getting me started eating paleo. It all started in month 8 of my first pregnancy. I wasn't making the healthiest choices and which made him not feel as good because he eats mostly what I eat. One day he said, "cheese is gross if you really think about it." What?? I love cheese and with one month left of my pregnancy I am certainly not about to give it up! It sparked our discussion and he mentioned he had read a few things on the paleo diet and he wanted to try it. I wasn't completely on board (after all I was 8 months pregnant, who wants to get strict about their diet at that time?) but I did my best to cook meals that were mostly paleo so he would feel better. I noticed that I really started to feel better myself and after I had my first child it was the answer to me getting my body back too.

Fast forward a year and a half and what we keep in our house is almost exclusively paleo. We have tailored it to fit our needs. What I mean by that is we ate strict paleo with absolutely no grains, legumes, dairy, and processed sugars for 2 months and have since tried to add certain things back in and have found some things our bodies digest well, while other people may not feel well after consuming them. We drink organic whole milk, not a lot but we will add it to our protein shakes and give it to our daughter. We also use grassfed Kerrygold butter and occasionally goat cheese. Other than that we pretty much stay away from other dairy products especially highly processed cheeses. The other thing that I will buy on occasion is black beans for chili. It is an easy meal and I only use about half of what we used to and have not noticed any negative effects from them so we choose to eat them occasionally.

Here is what a typical day of eating looks like for us including during my pregnancy:

Morning: Fruit and Veggie shake- we put banana, organic frozen berries, an apple, carrots, kale, broccoli, homemade almond butter (if you have a vitamix this is super easy to make), organic milk, and water in it. This is really good for our daughter as we struggle to get her to eat veggies. She loves it b/c the fruit masks the strong taste of broccoli and kale that we would never be able to get her to eat plain.

We also eat eggs with our shake and on the weekends usually have a bigger breakfast with eggs, meat, sweet potatoes, etc.

Lunch: My staple is chipotle salads. Chipotle is by no means perfect but I really like how they use hormone free meat most of the time (except when their suppliers run out and then they post it to let us know), and you can stay paleo with the salad. I get lettuce, peppers & onion, chicken, pico, med salsa, and of course guacamole.

Dinner: Usually I make some sort of meat, vegetable, and sweet potato for dinner. I love paleomg.com and civilizedcavemancooking.com amongst others for recipe ideas. I buy free range, organic meat from the store and we also partner up with friends a few times a year to buy beef and pork from local farmers. Most of what I buy for fruits and vegetables is organic as well. Just because something is organic doesn't mean it is perfect (ideally we would grow it ourselves, which we do some of) but it is better than the alternative of buying things with a lot of chemicals sprayed on them that we prefer not to consume. When we have a sweet tooth after my husband is the king of paleo chocolate chip cookies so he makes them.

Snacks: We usually have on hand plantain chips, fruit, nuts, and protein for daily snacks.

Our Pantry

Water!!!: I usually drink about 100 oz of water per day. We own the best water bottles I have ever tried, hydroflasks, which will keep your water cold all day, even when it is 110 degrees out in Phoenix. The bottles are stainless steel on the inside so you don't have to worry about all of the BPA seeping into your water like you do with regular water bottles, and it is less expensive than buying bottles of water.

One thing you need to know is even though these are the things we buy at home and do on a regular basis, that does not mean you will not see us out eating pizza as a family or at a coffee shop getting a latte. We enjoy indulgences, which usually come on the weekends but feel much better when our regular diet consists of the things above.

Supplements
During pregnancy you are usually advised to take prenatal vitamins which I did during my first pregnancy. Fast forward a year and a half and I actually started reading the ingredients on the prenatal vitamins and realized in addition to the vitamins of course they have soy in them and the folate is in a synthetic form of folic acid. Another important thing to take during pregnancy is a vitamin with DHA in it. DHA is found in the fish oil I take so for me my prenatal vitamins this time were Solgar Folate and PurePharma O3 Fish Oil. I of course discussed with my doctor first and as long as I keep a balanced diet taking these 2 supplements were all I needed.

Supplements I take during pregnancy

For Information on the difference between folate and folic acid visit:
http://chriskresser.com/folate-vs-folic-acid

Household/Everyday Products
As I have changed my diet I have also started to change some of the other products I use. So many things these days contain unnecessary chemicals and additives. It is overwhelming to change everything at once so I have slowly introduced more and more natural products into our family. Here are a few examples:

- Sunscreen: I make my own sunscreen with Zinc Oxide as the active ingredient along with my doTerra essential oils. We need to protect ourselves from the sun, especially here in Arizona but it really bothers me to be lathering in all of the things found in sunscreen or even worse spraying it on so instead I made my own which is about SPF 20.
- Soap: I make my own baby soap with pure castile soap, olive oil, and essential oils
- All Purpose Cleaner: I make my own with vinegar, water, borax, and essential oils.
- Laundry Stain Remover: I make my own with castile soap, vegetable glycerin, water, and lemon oil
- Diaper cream: Maleluca essential oil and coconut oil

There are so many other things you can make yourself and eliminate or reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals. I have started with these few things and hope to make most of my own everyday household products.

Some of my homemade household products

Workout Update:

I am 35 weeks in and hopefully only 5 more to go (fingers crossed)! In the last week I have seen the largest decrease in energy in quite a while. I had one day where I was even contemplating finishing just because I was so tired. I had just a couple sets of body weight movements left and I opted to finish after a short conversation with myself and feeling that I would be disappointed for leaving with only a few things left to do. After all I only have my 25+ lb training vest for about another month!

This weeks overhead squats were sets of 5. This was much harder than the sets of 3 from last week because overhead squats require so much midline stability, not something I have too much of these days. I was proud to finish my last set of 5 at 125 lbs without failure although it took me some time steadying myself between reps.

Saturday I also broke my no snatching rule. I do all my olympic lifting from the hang position (just above the knee) because it is so hard to maneuver all the way to the floor. I didn't go too heavy but did 95 lbs, which felt fairly easy. I am looking forward to getting back and practicing the snatch. My last 1- rep max of 100 lbs was in September of last year so I am really excited to work on improving that.

Our box was hoppin' on Saturday with a fun team training session. I got excited about working out just watching them do the WOD together. That is by far the hardest thing about crossfitting through pregnancy, watching, knowing you have the capability to perform when you aren't pregnant but also knowing that right now there are just things you can't do or do very well.

When will your last workout be?

As my due date approaches I get asked more and more often, "how much longer are you going to workout?" When I first heard this, my initial reaction was "when I have the baby I will take a break." I have always imagined working out to up until the day I give birth. Even with my first before I ever started Crossfit, I hiked the mountains by our house the day I gave birth. I have learned not to set your mind in stone on anything when it comes to giving birth but what I can say is my answer now is, I will take a break if one of 3 things happen.

1. I give birth
2. My body tells me to stop
3. My doctor tells me to stop

I have been thinking about the days and weeks after this baby comes. I am not sure how long of a break I will take but I am hoping to start some light activity a couple of weeks after if I have a natural birth like I hope to. I am just trying to figure out how to not go crazy taking 2 to 3 weeks (or more if I am not feeling up to it) off from physical activity?

As my due date nears, my patience is wearing. I don't always sleep well, I have a hard time getting comfortable, and my energy levels vary a lot from day to day. This week I had some really good workouts and also some crummy ones. On a high note I overhead squatted 130 lbs for 3 reps and did 21-15-9 of 75# hang power cleans and burpees in 4:30, however my burpees are not RX, I have to put my hands on rogue blocks to avoid my belly getting to the ground. On a low note, my shoulders are still feeling bad, and felt worse on my push jerks so I decided I am going to take at least a week off on the shoulders to see if that will help. I have been trying to fight through it because I know I will have some weeks off starting next month, but I know that it is smart to take a break now.

My belly has dropped quite a bit this week. I really struggle to get the barbell all the way to the ground on deadlifts. I have been doing them but I'm not as fast and not doing as much weight with them.

Speaking of belly dropping, that brings a whole new problem, a lot of my shirts are getting too short. Haha #pregnancyproblems.

Less than 6 weeks to go!

Ups and Downs

Today I had an ultrasound at my doctor visit. I was a little worried going into it because at my last appointment the doctor said she wanted to take a look because by belly was measuring small.  It really made me take a step back and pray that I am doing everything right for my little girl to be healthy. During the last couple of weeks I started to wonder, maybe I am exercising too much or not getting enough calories for her to grow fast enough? Well turns out that is not the case at all. Despite by belly being a little smaller (she said that is common for taller women or women with longer torsos, which I guess I fall into that category) the baby is measuring a little over a week ahead of the average growth at this point in my pregnancy and my fluid levels are perfect. My doctor told me that everything looks really good and to continue doing the things I have been doing. Yay!

I think I have started reaching the nesting phase as well, which in a lot of ways is kind of nice because I feel more energy to get things done. I have a few last things to do to personalize baby's room so she doesn't have the exact same room her sister had, but other than that we are ready for her! The bad thing about nesting is that my patience seems to run a little thinner. At work I am really trying to get all loose ends tied up since I will have 12 weeks off, but when your customers don't have the same urgency it can get frustrating at times!

The past week has brought some really high points as well as low points (or more positively put, "challenges") on the workout front. Last time I wrote was the day before we were doing Fran at our box. I really wanted to go through it once while I was pregnant just to finish it and also see what time I would get. I actually exceeded my expectations and RX'd Fran in 6:12 at 33 weeks pregnant. The pull ups definitely took up the majority of the extra time. I started out with 5 reps at a time and quickly went down to 3's and 2's but made it through, even no repping myself on one because I don't think my chin got over the bar. The thrusters felt pretty good, I went through 21 unbroken, broke once on 15, and then the last 9 unbroken. I was definitely out of breath a lot faster! I love doing Fran with all of the other members because there is just a different atmosphere than a regular WOD. It is really fun to cheer everyone on and see people push themselves as hard as they possibly can!

A couple of other high points this week are I PR'd my overhead squat by 5 lbs. My max attempt was 145 lbs and it felt really good. I also felt like things were promising with my shoulders after my visit with my chiropractor and he worked on them helping me target my problem areas. That same day pressing weight over my head felt better than it has in a really long time. This also brought on some frustration the next day because we were doing push jerks and jerk balances and although I didn't feel as much pain as I had felt previously, I felt weak and still limited in my range of motion. I was very tentative and not punching out more in fear of it hurting than because of actual pain. I know I am pregnant and I have other areas that hinder my ability to jerk efficiently (such as no core and my quickness to drop under the weight isn't there), however I have been working so hard on my mobility and getting my shoulder range of motion better so the slow progress or set backs still really frustrate me. I know from others' point of view it might seem like I should never get frustrated during a workout because I have an "excuse", but I think it can be even more frustrating because I am still working hard but progress is slowed and in some areas it is regressing for now and patience is not my strong suit.

Some pics of my pregnant Fran

Fran

Fran....a classic or should I say "THE" classic crossfit benchmark workout. I still remember my first couple of times doing Fran which is 21-15-9 of Thursters at 65# and pull ups. I remember how hard the round of 15 was b/c I burned myself out in the round of 21. I think it took me until my third attempt to realize it wasn't smart to do all 21 or as many pull ups as you could unbroken in the first round. I knew she would come again at some point in my pregnancy. We usually give her a go every 4-6 months. I have thought about whether it would be a good idea to do Fran when she came up b/c although she is short (my best time is 4:47 last September) she takes a lot out of you! Would I be able to "listen to my body" which I still sometimes struggle to do? If I feel OK tomorrow I am going to give her a go. Being this heavy (I am now 153 lbs or +25 from my starting weight) I will likely fail in strength quickly on the pull up bar, which will allow me to keep my heart rate in check.  I have no idea what time to expect but I suppose if I could get through her in around 8 minutes, that would be pretty good.  I will let you know in my next update how it goes!

I am nearing 33 weeks and have really felt like I have slowed down this past week. I am feeling really tired and so hot! Every day it has been nearing 110 degrees and when you have your own furnace growing inside of you, 110 feels like 120. I have still managed to get my workouts in but my body just feels slow. The one thing that keeps me going is the alternative to going in and working out is staying at home and falling further behind in my training. Right now I may not be able to make gains but I do feel like I am maintaining, which will help out a lot when it is time to return from having this baby.

I have an ultrasound coming up this week. I am a little worried b/c I have been measuring exactly on track up until my last appointment. My doctor said my belly was measuring smaller, which could mean a number of things. It could mean nothing, it could me that fluid levels are too low, or she isn't growing as quickly as she should. My doctor did not seem too concerned so I have tried not to concern myself too much either but anytime something is slightly "off" I do worry that I am doing everything right for my baby girl.


Some highlights this week:
-I was able to do GHD raises, which I wasn't sure if I would be able to with the extra weight and I hadn't done them in months
-Squats still felt good, I did 185 lbs for 5 reps
-Not necessarily a highlight but I completed Fight Gone Bad RX for 285 reps. I was gassed.
-I feel like she is dropping a little (maybe she will arrive on time or a little early???)
-It was a short work week and we get a long weekend, Happy Independence Day!


Some not so highs this week:
-I continue to struggle with Jerks and Push Presses. Despite my increased mobility I still feel pain when doing these movements. It has nothing to do with being pregnant, they are just hard for me.
-2K row took me 8:33, I can't wait to get my endurance back!
-I got my first leg cramp at night of this pregnancy. I got them during my first pregnancy but haven't had them this time until the other night. Despite drinking 100 oz of water in the day, I still got one and it was excruciating. I think Jarod thought I was going into labor b/c of the ridiculous noises I was making b/c the pain was so bad. He stretched my foot to extend my calf and even he had a hard time doing moving my foot because it was so tense. I put some deep blue on and that took care of it. I keep it by my bed now so if I feel any cramping coming on I put it on and I haven't had one since then. Deep Blue is the bomb!

GHD Raises with 25 Extra LBS

The Whiteboard

32 weeks today! Wow, time flies, well not really but everyone else thinks it does when you are pregnant. I have been lucky and felt pretty good throughout this pregnancy but I am ready to have this baby! I was tempted to skip working out a few times this past week just because my energy level has not been great and she has been sitting in an uncomfortable position putting pressure on my lungs but each day I thought about how I would feel if I went home and laid on the couch compared to if I would go workout and exercise won every day.

One of the most difficult things to adjust to with crossfit and being pregnant is adjusting my view of the whiteboard. For those that are not crossfitters the whiteboard is our daily scoreboard that measures how you do in each workout. Being the competitive person I am, prior to pregnancy my goal was always to RX workouts and be as close to the top of the whiteboard as I could every day. I have really had to change my mentality of it these days because I can no longer perform workouts as prescribed (RX), not because I don't have the strength to do so, but either my body is limiting me or it is not safe to do so. It was really hard at first when I had to start modifying things because a lot of the reason I love crossfit is for the competition and now that I am not competitive what do I have to look forward to?

Well, besides staying in shape to make my pregnancy better and feeling better after I workout, I have taken this time to really embrace improving my movements and focusing on maintaining as much strength as I can and in some areas even getting stronger. For example, knowing that I won't be able to RX a workout with push ups has moved my focus from finishing the workout as fast as I can to making sure I perform the pushups with the best possible form I can. Form should always take precedence to time but in the past this was difficult for me to commit to at times. In my pregnancy push ups, my hands are elevated but the movement is the same as if they are on the ground. Keep my core tight, not sagging, and not tenting, keep the elbows in, feet close together, and don't worm as I push up (By the way, push ups are really hard now, even with my hands on a low box!). This is the one part of pregnancy that has been really good for me in terms of the type of athlete I am and will be. It is really easy to get caught up in times both in comparison to other athletes and when you are trying to beat your own previous times, but after you have been doing crossfit for a while and PR's don't come as often you learn that it is more important to improve your quality of movement first and then your times will get better. I am lucky that pregnancy has helped me realize this earlier rather than later in my crossfit career.

Here are some highs and lows for this past week:

The Good

-In addition to the snatches I tried at the beginning of the week, I also did some cleans this week. I didn't go too heavy but they felt good. Cleans come easier for me partly because I learned and worked on them in college (as opposed to snatches that are a real work in progress, which is halted right now). I did 115 lbs for 5 unbroken hang cleans (some power and some squat) and it felt pretty good. The next day my traps were on fire because of the shrugging motion that I haven't done in a while.
- Overhead squats have felt pretty good as well. I did 100 lbs with a 3 second pause at the bottom with no problem for multiple reps.
- Jarod and I have committed to doing more mobility at home. Every night we have been rolling out with the lacrosse balls and doing some partner stretching. (I subscribed to mobilitywod.com and love it!!) In the past I always knew I should do mobility but when you are young you can get by without it but post 30 it is more important than ever before.  I definitely struggle with overhead pressing movements because I have limited shoulder mobility so I am working hard at changing that. It always helps to have your husband do it with you, we hold each other accountable.

The Bad (or should I say Challenging)
- My metcon is really bad and the heat makes it worse. Even a highly modified workout of rowing, pike presses, leg raises while hanging on the bar (I can't call them toe to bar attempts anymore b/c my legs don't get too far past parallel) and wall balls was slow and I felt so out of shape. I am nervous about how long it will take to get this back after our little girl comes!

The Ugly
-It took me about 5 minutes to buckle my shoes one morning this week when I decided that I had to wear a pair of wedges that required buckling rather than slipping on.
-I ate some ice cream this weekend and felt guilty after. (at least it tasted really good)

Abdominal Separation

Last Saturday I was waiting in the lobby for Jarod and my daughter at her gymnastics class. He was walking in with her when a lady and her young son were walking out (they had just passed me in the lobby) and the woman turned to her son and said "that woman's pregnant belly is huge, but she was really skinny!" She had no idea that it was my husband she was walking by. Hmmm, I think I'll take that one as another compliment?

Right now I also wear a lot of maxi dresses since Arizona summers are hot and they are stretchy so they fit better than most things. The other day I wore one that had a print on it and one of my coworkers walked in the office and said, "you look like a snake that swallowed a giant rat." Uh, thanks?

At my last appointment I had some devastating news, ok not devastating but when you are pregnant all of your emotions are taken x 10. I was at my doctor visit and she was doing the usual check of the babies heart rate and then measured me and asked if an area in the middle of my abdomen was bothering me. I said, no, why? Well you have some abdominal separation. What is that? I google to find out anything I can on it and basically it is common in pregnant women (especially those with multiple pregnancies) when your belly grows the connective tissue between your abs stretches.  The worst part is after pregnancy, it doesn't always go back! I read stories of women that were asked 10 months post partum when the baby was due and it wasn't because they were out of shape it was because the diastasis recti gives the appearance of a big pooch, and if you are thin in other areas besides your belly it can look even worse. There are exercises you can do to help the muscles go back together however many times it never goes all the way back to how it was. In this case you can opt for surgery, but that would just add time to my recovery and I am ready to get back in shape and compete again!

I have read quite a few internet articles posted by women who have had kids saying they are proud of their post child bearing bodies and we should embrace all of the imperfections such as stretch marks, mommy pooches, etc. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't trade my children in for a perfect body but I really don't embrace those things at all. Do people really like their bodies better after having kids or are they just saying that because we "should" feel that way?

I had my 31 week appointment today and I am at 151 lbs which is +23 from where I started. I haven't gained anything in the past month but that is because I gained too much in the second trimester due to not eating as well. This week hasn't been the best as far as my diet goes. I have given in to some cravings but I try to remember the saying on the wall in our bathroom at the gym. "Saying Oh well, I've already ruined my diet today" is like saying "Oops, I just dropped my phone so I think I will smash it until it breaks."

As far as workouts go, I did some really light snatches with overhead squats this week. It is the first time I have even attempted a snatch in a few months. I miss Olympic lifting because it is challenging and I have so much work to do on my technique! Going to the gym and watching everyone else do it is like giving a kid a bike and making them watch everyone else ride it. I watched a video blog of another competitive cross fitter and her experience through pregnancy. She did hang power snatches and cleans through the better part of her pregnancy which is why I wanted to do a few this week. After this week I don't think I will do them again until after the baby comes because for me I already have a tendency to keep the bar too far away in a snatch and the big belly just makes that worse. I don't think it is a good idea for me to train a bad habit so kettle bell snatches it is!

My strength is staying pretty steady. Right now I am just focused on maintaining the best I can. It is so hard because my competitive spirit sees everyone else getting stronger day by day and week by week and it makes me want that too! I know that my time to make gains will come later but it is so hard to be patient.

We had a workout this week with box jumps and strict pull ups. It was an ascending ladder for 8 minutes. I was able to complete it RX but had to use an underhand grip for the strict pull ups. This allowed me to use more of my arm strength and I didn't feel as tight in the belly, but pull ups are getting so hard (especially strict ones)! My goal is to be able to do a pull up through my whole pregnancy but with 9 weeks left I'm not sure if I will be able to accomplish it. Time will tell!

Regionals

Those of you that have been pregnant before probably remember some good comments you hear on a daily or weekly basis. I was in a Starbucks the other day getting drinks for a customer and a guy comes up to me and asked when the baby is due? Before I even started to answer, he looks at me and says "I hope you are pregnant and not just fat".  I guess some people have the gift of just saying whatever comes to mind! The funny thing was, he was definitely not a trim man.

A few weeks ago some friends from our box and I traveled to Utah to watch our friend and coach Claire compete at regionals. Claire has been such an inspiration to me. If you are a crossfitter you will know how elite of an athlete you need to be to make it to regional competition. There were over 2800 women competing in our region alone (more than that that began the competition but that was about how many finished all of the workouts) and only the top 48 make it on to the regional competition. Claire was one of those 48 women in the southwest region to qualify. It has been a goal of mine to compete on a team at the Crossfit Games Regionals since I competed in my first open a year ago. Being at the event made that drive even stronger, but how long would it be before I would be able to condition myself to compete at that level? After all, I had only done Crossfit for 9 months before I became pregnant, which was enough time to start to become proficient at some of the movements but certainly not to be elite at them, and I definitely have quite a few glaring weaknesses. I have to assume that it will be at least 4 weeks after I have our little girl before I can resume my workouts, which brings me to late September, and then the uphill battle of getting back into shape begins. If you read stories from women who have competed at a much higher level than I have, they mostly have one thing in common, the first 2 months back are so tough! If my experience is similar this will bring me to the end of November before I even start to feel like I was where I left off, then there are just 3 more months to get ready for the Open. I also have had this fear that my time is limited because I am in my thirties now (I'm 31) and won't my fitness level just decline as I get older? Man, I wish I would have started this earlier! I know, I'm such a Debbie Downer, but these are real thoughts I have had many times throughout my pregnancy.

Being at regionals really helped me rid some of these negative thoughts and gave me hope that I can compete at a high level post baby. It was cool to watch the top competitors like Tiffany Hendrickson, Mandi Janowitz, Chris Spealler, and Tommy Hackenbruck compete, but where my main inspiration lay was in 3 people and one of them I get to train with on a regular basis.

I've always known Claire to be a great athlete since I first met her. She demolishes every woman and most men's scores in our gym (even when she does the WODS at their weight), but it wasn't until her preparation for Regionals that I realized how much better you can get at this sport in a short period of time if you are willing to put in the work. If you haven't already read her blog about her experience, you need to! (http://crossfitblade.com listed on the main page) I saw Claire transform as an athlete with the help of her husband Chris's programming in a short 2 month span. When they announced the workouts she was disappointed because not many of them would showcase her strengths (she is incredibly strong and an amazing Olympic lifter). She really is good at everything but those two things are her strengths. After the workouts were announced I told her not to sweat it because I thought only the top 5 or 10 women would even be able to complete them. Luckily Claire didn't take my approach and bank on everyone else not doing well. Instead she worked her butt off every day, twice a day putting in grueling workouts even she couldn't always complete. At the end of the 2 months I was in such awe how she went from barely being able to do a strict handstand push up (by the regional standards) to knocking out all 54 of them along with front squats and burpees under the 20 minute time cap. Watching her accomplish this gave me hope that I can come back and dramatically improve on my weaknesses despite my short timeline before the 2015 Open begins.

My other inspiration came from a  couple of women that I don't know personally but I really related to their life experiences. One of those women is Michaela North. She qualified for regionals just 8 months after giving birth to twins. She had to take off an entire year prior due to a high risk pregnancy and a surgery following the birth of her twins. I can't imagine the struggles she faced coming back after such a long time off, but she did it, she proved she was still one of the fittest women in our Region even though she had such a short time to prepare.

The 3rd woman that I drew inspiration from was Darcie Warren. I don't know how old her kids are, but she has 6 of them! The other cool thing is that she is 35 years old and has a build similar to me. She is 5'5" 133 lbs according the the games.crossfit.com site and I am 5'7" 128 lbs pre-pregnancy.  Maybe I'm not too old after all??!!

When we returned from Utah, a few of us began putting in some extra work with the common goal that we will send a Bladestrong team to Regional Competition next year. I don't know if I will be one of the athletes elite enough make the next Regional team (there are only 3 men and 3 women competing on a team), but what I do know is I will be working hard to improve on my weaknesses and become the best athlete I can be and push others to be the best they can be so Crossfit Blade will be well represented at the 2015 Southwest Regionals.

Southwest Regionals

Today I am 31 weeks pregnant. Yes, I am down to a single digit week countdown! Here are a few things I have been doing for exercise, nutrition, and beyond. Please note that I believe the journey through pregnancy is different for everyone. In no way is what I do the right or wrong thing, it is just what feels good for me.

I am still working out 5 days a week, this week I actually got 6 days in since I coached class on Friday and it was a team WOD (which is always fun). We had odd numbers in my last two classes so I decided to join in. The last one was especially fun because I partnered with another pregnant member at our gym for team preggo! For the strength portion of my workouts, I do back off the weight a little from what I feel like I could do, to be sure I keep my lifts at a good speed. This week I did a 2 RM front squat of 165# but I think that is the heaviest I will be going on that lift since the second rep got a little slow.  I am using dumbbells and kettle bells in place of the barbell for workouts that require snatches or cleans. Last week I had a frustrating day when after a workout I was going to finish up with some strict pull ups and only did one, which didn't feel good. I was so bummed because I still had 10 weeks left and didn't want to see my pull up strength dwindle for the next 3+ months. A couple of days later I came in and felt much better on the pull up bar and completed a workout of pull ups and double unders. Another great example of listening to my body, just because something doesn't feel good one day, doesn't mean it won't feel good the next. I just need to remember that when it doesn't feel good that it is ok not to do it (I'm getting better at that).

As far as nutrition goes, I have been eating mostly meat, fruits, veggies, and nuts during the week and usually end up with some cheats on the weekends. I admit it, I had pizza last night and it was really good! I do still have protein shakes since it is an easy snack and my doctor said it is completely fine but would recommend being sure the ingredients don't contain soy. Haha, if she only knew how conscious I am of eating things that contain crap (soy) fillers. My favorite protein is SFH chocolate pure whey. It comes from grassfed cows and doesn't have any crappy fillers.

One last thing that I want to share is one of the doTerra essential oils I started using this month. Immortelle which is an anti-aging oil. I know you are thinking I am probably crazy about this age thing, but actually I have been using to help prevent stretch marks. I got just a couple of little ones from my first pregnancy that started to look worse again. I had been using other essential oils on my belly but nothing has worked as well as this one. I have been using it multiple times a day for 3 weeks now and you can hardly see the ones I was worried about and have not got any other new ones (knock on wood:). Ladies, if you are worried about getting these you must try it!

Snatch Grip Deadlift at 29 weeks

Due any day?

A word to the wise, don't ask a pregnant woman if she is due any day? Or even worse, after she says, "no, I still have 2 months left" don't follow up with "it doesn't look like you can get any bigger".  That was what a woman at work asked me last week.  I'm not the sensitive type so in a way I find it kind of funny, but really? I know my belly is huge, but yes it is going to get even bigger!

After the Open I was really starting to feel better and my workouts were pretty good since I have accepted that the norm for metcons (cardio) is pretty slow. One thing that I have done is take a more positive approach to my training in the sense that, when in my life will I ever get to train with 20 extra pounds on a daily basis? The answer is never since this will be my last pregnancy. (Yes I am sure of it, I will be scheduling Jarod's appointment before I return to work, haha!) I really started focusing on strict bodyweight strength, doing ring dips and pull ups. I was down to 5 strict pull ups and 4 strict ring dips around week 25-29, but once that 20+ lbs is gone they are going to feel easy right?

By the way, when I say 20+ lbs, that was another sore spot for me. I went in for my 23 week appointment and I already weighed more than I did when I gave birth to my first! I know that I started this pregnancy 3 lbs heavier, but I still had 17 weeks to go! My doctor and Jarod kept trying to reassure me that I was right on track. Dr. said I would be the last person she would worry about, but it did make me take a step back and look at my diet. After all, I had done a bit of emotional eating and wasn't exactly saying no to all of the crap that people put in front of me at the office lately. I decided that I needed to be more careful about my sugar intake and started sticking to my paleo eating since I always feel better when I do. When my 27 week appointment came up I had actually lost 3 lbs. My doctor asked me if I was eating enough because she knew how mortified I was last time I stepped on the scale. I assured her that the weight I had gained last time was not all for the baby, a good chunk of it was due to eating more carbs and sugar than my body was used to. I felt much better now that I was eating like I normally do.

At week 26 it was max deadlift week. I hadn't even tried to max any lifts since I found out I was pregnant and really didn't intend to that day either. I came in early since I missed the day before and coach Chris asked me if I was going to max out since he saw me going through the normal max lift warm-up progressions. I said, probably not, I am just going to see how I feel. My main concern with lifting heavy is holding my breath for long periods so the reps need to be fairly quick compared to a normal max effort deadlift. That day I ended up with a PR on my deadlift by 30 lbs, fairly easily lifting 270 lbs. I stopped there just because I didn't want the lift to get slow and hold my breath. What the heck? I have been working hard but maybe you get some crazy hormones that help when you're pregnant? As I said in my previous post, I read quite a bit about crossfit and pregnancy on the internet and I see all of the comments people make. Most are supportive but
about 25% of them are along the lines of "you are selfish", "you must not care about your baby", "that is irresponsible" and so on. I will end by saying I love my baby very much and I think one day she will be proud of her mama for how strong she is. Here is a picture of my max lift, I really don't ever post pregnancy pictures to Facebook but since that is the subject of my blog I figured, why not?