Time for a Change

Hi girlies!

This was a private message on facebook, but that was getting outrageously long so I thought I'd throw it over here instead.

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WHY I'M GOING TO START EXERCISING

A personal facebook novel written by Annie Hull to her beloved soul sistas.

Okay, so you know how we had talked pregnancy stuff? (Franny, to bring you up to speed, Chelsea's Mike asked about how much more emotional/hormonal he could expect Chelsea to be when pregnancy comes along.) This is just a to-whom-it-may-concern-or-interest follow-up.

I have been UNBELIEVABLY more of a basketcase this pregnancy than last. Emotional, depths of despair, depressed... the nasty stuff. There are many different factors that are likely playing into that, but I'd like to cite one huge one in case you ever want to remember it for the future:  I haven't been exercising the way I did when I was pregnant with Eliza. Especially during the first trimester with Eliza, I was walking A TON. Like miles and miles and miles. This was largely motivated by the adage that walking during pregnancy makes for easier deliveries. (Which I believe in.) I was slightly terrified of labor and figured this was one little aspect of it I could have control over--prepping my body the best that I could.

My mileage slowly decreased through the second and third trimesters as the months got colder. However, during the second trimester and into the third, I was in a Zumba class in college where I worked my tail off twice a week. I also generally did Zumba on my own at home one or two other days during the week and walked every so often.

And, for the record, my nutrition was pretty decent. Not wow-your-socks-off healthy, and Blake and I definitely did a lot of pregnancy craving runs to Panda Express, but I was getting a lot of fruits and vegetables... I guess just a good, balanced diet. That has been considerably less of the case this go around. Less fast food, but also less wholesome, well-balanced food.

I'm not saying it's a cure-all, but I'm definitely feeling motivated to up my exercise in the hopes that I can be more even keel for the next few months. And I feel even more motivated to be active during future pregnancies right from the start. It's kind of hard to *start* being active halfway through a pregnancy... I'm having to start out annoyingly slow and my body would WAY rather just sit on the couch. It's much easier to just be active from the get-go... You don't really have to let-up at all with workout intensity unless you or your doctor feel like you should.

Just thought I'd throw that out there. Might come in handy someday. Also, if anyone is interested, there's a Word of Wisdom health challenge that I think I'm going to be starting shortly. (It's an excel spreadsheet--you get points for eating fruits, vegetables, drinking water, refraining from soda, exercising, etc. Just normal good stuff--nothing extreme.)  If you want to join, I'd welcome the company and group motivation.:)

Hope everything's going well for everybody! Love you!