Getting Fit Before Baby

[ireadyermind]

Bronte - Thanks!

And Swimmy's suggestion about asking for a To-Go box immediately when your food's brought out is a good one! I do that too, and remind myself that now I have tomorrow's dinner (or lunch, as the case may be) all lined up and ready to go! Two meals for the price of one, so to speak. Haha

Additionally, most restaurants these days have a "Light and Fit" menu or similar. You can order salads with the dressing on the side, and then rather than pour it onto the food, you dip your fork tines into it. That way you get a little bit of dressing flavor in every bite, without a bajillion calories added in. Fish entrees are also a good deal lighter in calories just by virtue of being grilled fish, and you can ask to swap out any sort of rice the fish is served on for additional veggies.

Many places will swap out the fried chicken for grilled, and instead of a potato as a side, they can sub steamed vegetables too.

That way you can turn a 1200cal meal into a 500ish cal one, easy!


Swimmy - Watermelon in summertime is the BEST! Unfortunately it's also the worst. Haha

The Glycemic Index essentially rates each food with a score from 1 - 100-something (I don't know how high it goes, really.. anyway...). Your goal is to only eat foods with a score of less than 55 points. But there are some fruits and things that are right up there between 50 and 55 that I try to avoid or eat infrequently, just because they're in that gray area...

Here's a chart!
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M6gnHDi0VO4/UOhr6S7R93I/AAAAAAAAAUU/-OKuKp0EVtY/s1600/gi_index.jpg

Hope that helps. I get conflicting info from various sites on just what an item's score is, but a low GI diet doesn't require you to tally up points or anything, so as long as one of the things you're eating is deemed a safe food, that's all you really have to worry about I suppose.

Anyway!

I'm not taking progesterone this cycle. I have the cream in my nightstand ready to go, but I'm supposed to go in for CD7 bloodwork to test Progesterone, Estrogen and Testosterone next cycle, and I didn't want to artificially increase my numbers! So all these high temps going on right now are doing it all by themselves. Haha.

Had a big drop today though. Booo!

Also, I tested 12DPO and got BFN. AF isn't due for 2 more days so there's still hope!

 

[BronteForever]

So I went to the diabetes class last night and also found out watermelon is one of the worst fruits for diabetics. Along with grapes and bananas. Berries all the way, she said! Ironically cantaloupe or other melons are usually fine for you, since the issue with watermelon is that it's very similar to drinking juice in that it doesn't take long to digest so it immediately causes a blood sugar spike.

She also talked about the GI a bit and gave some handouts, but IRYM's photo is pretty similar. Her big thing though of how to make it "easier" on yourself to understand and follow was that you should only have one "starch" at a meal and make sure you are pairing it with lots of "good non-starchy vegetables," proteins, and healthy fats. That way you don't have to count stuff as much and if pairing the starchy food with another item you shouldn't have a blood sugar spike. And of course watch the whole starch intake to begin with.

It was geared towards regular Type 2 diabetes and diabetics with cancer. So definitely not gestational diabetes, which I'm sure has it's own quirks to it.

The foods she brought were just hummus and pita chips, berries, and a nut mix. Though she did bring like 3 recipes. I'll try to post later.

 

[beccabonny]

Hi ladies! I'm excited to be part of the group! It's fantastic that there's a thread for us and I can't wait to follow along and cheer everyone on! Thanks to Bronte for inviting me over here

Stats:
Height: 5'6"
Starting Weight: 218
Goal Weight: 165
MyFitnessPal Username: beccaxsos

Goals:
Stay healthy and gain ~15lb during pregnancy as is healthy


My Plan:
-control the overeating
-all things in moderation
-healthy substitutions
-limit sodas and sweets
-take my prenatals
-stop making excuses!
-exercise as possible, but taking it easy until 2nd tri

Weigh-ins:
6/27/2016: 216
7/4/2016: 216
8/1/2016: 220
8/22/2016: 220
8/29/2016: 215
9/12/2016: 214

Things I struggled with this month: I was pretty motivated this month. I had some issues after family came to visit (as usual) and left lots of goodies. I have trouble throwing things away even if I know they aren't healthy (if I like them, anyway).

Things I did well this month: Workouts, Food tracking, replacing fatty foods with healthier, higher protein versions, replacing starches with veggies. Step tracking.

 

[BronteForever]

IRYM - I forgot to mentioned that I'm sorry to hear of the slight temp drop. Still keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Becca - so glad you decided to join us to help with weight loss. Your plan sounds great! What do you normally like to do for exercise or workouts?

 

[beccabonny]

Bronte, I usually do 3-4 sets of 15 of crunches, standing push-ups (for now), heel lifts, and squats before I head out to the gym, where I will do a half hour of weights and a half hour of cardio. My weights depend on the day (arms/shoulders/chest one day, legs/abs/back the other). I use some machines and do some free weights for upper body. Cardio is usually the elliptical though I would like to change it up if I found another thing I liked. I need to get back to doing my yoga video as well for that all important core strength. My SO is pretty athletic so I get a lot of tips from him.

How about you? Any tips? I think your rollerderby history is so cool. A group tried to recruit me back in Richmond and I regret not following up to this day, thought I have to mention how terrible I am at skating.

 

[ireadyermind]

Bronte - Thanks for sharing about your diabetes class! Looking forward to those recipees. And thanks, too, for your sentiments on my chart. I'm sure keeping my FX'd too!

Becca - Welcome! Good to have you here. I've got you added to the first page and you're all set to go!

It sounds like you have a great workout plan in place already. That's something I really struggle with and I keep trying to get back into. I usually end up on a good workout routine for about a week or two, and then get fed up when the scale keeps creeping up and up.

Now that I'm taking Metformin for my PCOS, I hope that upwards creep turns to a downward one. Maybe that will keep me going on those workouts!

 

[BronteForever]

Wow Becca that does sound intense. Good for you! Good luck keeping it up. I have a hard time at the gym, since I tend to make excuses and get lazy in actually traveling to the gym. So for now I was doing Beachbody workouts at home, since it was easier for me. I love mixing it up though, since I get bored easily. Plus, it's better for your body to get some variety. Right now, I'm not working out much due to IVF, but I need to at least walk my dog every night. I really need to do that!

My husband is also athletic and does triathlon, duathlon, and ultra marathons. But I don't have a desire to do anything like that. He gives me tips, but I usually ignore them, because I don't think he understands a more casual or relaxed "work-out style." Oh and with Roller Derby, they will teach you everything. I hadn't skated since I was a kid. It was alot to learn a new sport as an adult, but super fun as well.

IRYM - really hope the scale starts going downward more with the new med and it's much more motivation for you. I would have felt like throwing the scale frequently if I were you as well.

 

[beccabonny]

Thanks for the welcome, IRYM! I totally understand getting discouraged with workouts for lack of results! I have trouble following through after a couple weeks, but I'm hoping this thread will add to my accountability!

I'm sure the meds will help and you'll be encouraged with it! I can't wait to see how it goes for you.

Thank you for starting this thread. I look forward to being here to encourage and support everyone on our journeys through WL and TTC, and beyond!

Bronte, it's not as intense as it seems! I maintained some of the strength from before the MC somehow and worked up to where I am now over the last couple months, but haven't lost more than two pounds because of my bad eating habits. I've never heard of Beachbody, it sounds intimidating! I really want to try Fitnessblender, too, but my living room is so crowded...I have to find a place at home to do it! I think taking a walk with your pup is a great way to stay active while doing IVF, even if it's just a short one, it still helps! That's what I tell myself, lol.

These men! Gotta love it. I remember you mentioning your DH was into those marathons and that's really impressive. It takes so much dedication! I was upset when I read that he still decided to do that race with everything you were going through, but it sounds like he realized that and you guys got past it. Mine was a high school athlete, then in the Marines (infantry) for a decade, did kickboxing when he was stationed in Asia, and now he just lifts a lot of heavy things all the time. I tried letting him train me but his workouts are WAY too intense! So now I apply some of the things he told me, but use them my way. And watch him do pull ups when he comes with me to the gym. I have never done a single pull up. One day I would like to do one. Is that weird? I still remember those days in elementary school when I couldn't climb the stupid rope, and it still bugs me.

 

[BronteForever]

OMG - I've always wanted to be able to do a pull up. We used to have to try in middle school and high school for those presidential fitness awards (which I'm assuming is the same, since it involved rope climbs as well). But yeah, I've never been strong enough for a true pull up either. GOALS!

Oh and believe me I was mad at my husband about that race as well...it was only a 5 K, but that was when he was just starting fitness stuff. But we have gotten passed it and now he does crazy races, like the 50K trail run in the middle of December in the Midwest and we just got back from Duathlon World Championships in Spain, which was a super cool experience.

But your husband sounds even more intense then mine. At least you take his advice to heart and try to modify them.

The Beachbody exercises are nice, I'd been doing 21 Day Fix and a bit of PIYO (which is kind of like yoga and Pilates combined). They are probably most well-known for Insanity and P90X which are their bigger name brand of videos. I love the 21 Day Fix though, because it's workout DVDs, but also has a simple eating guide that involves portion control which has been one of the first things to make sense to me and has helped a ton in figuring out the foods for me to eat.

I don't like to cook. I'm not a huge meat eater (by husband is a vegetarian), so I have horrible time getting proteins in. So following the guide was easier for me to make modifications in my lifestyle to help with eating. It's pretty much a standard portion control diet though. Nothing super fancy. I was just doing things wrong.

 

[swimmyj1]

IRYM - thank you so much for the chart!! seriously makes so much more sense to me why my BS have been all over the place. Time to pick up some apples and berries instead of watermelon lol. Idk why I thought you were already on the progesterone this cycle had a total brain fart lol. Hopefully your labs next week will give you more answers. Stinks about the BFN and temp drop i was really hoping this was it.

Bronte - thanks so much for sitting in on that meeting Looks like im gonna be avoiding grapes now too ugh! I love hummus so I'm totally gonna get some of that, its so yummy on veggies. If you have time to post the recipes that would rock Super loving that you do roller derby. I use to go and watch a lot of the girls play in Detroit. It was fun to be the medic on staff encase someone got hurt. I have no skating skill at all lol, like seriously I put on skate and fall down pretty much right away haha.

Becca - welcome to the group!! Your plan looks great! and your work out plan sounds like its a great mix up to keep your body on its toes. I totally get what you mean about family coming out and eating good goes out the window ugh. I live in the biggest mirco-brew city in the USA so whenever everyone comes out we are hitting brewries all the time. The food + drinking yikes i don't even want to think of the calories

AFM - apparently i have enough good blood sugars not to need meds at this time yay!!! the last 3 days I have had all really good ones, super proud of me lol. Hopefully I can just keep it going. can't wait to get back into a better work out routine. I'm hoping by this fall to get back into hiking at least 3 times a week. on days I cant do that my gym has a daycare in it so hopefully I can just bring baby with me and work out for 30 minutes. Or i'll just wait until my DH comes home and slip out of a little bit.

 

[BronteForever]

Okay, sorry it took me a sec to post these. I've been having trouble with my dropbox camera uploads, since I'm running out of space and need to tidy up. Anyway, here are the recipes she gave.

https://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq276/em_ma16/d5d47064-b790-4961-84df-828612426e35_zps19pkqivc.jpg

https://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq276/em_ma16/d25823d4-c798-4a05-94ef-582deeabdb2c_zpsb0bwzhco.jpg

https://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq276/em_ma16/4c110f8d-f95c-4eb9-9704-e207e1d14b08_zpsujyvrtdz.jpg

 

[BronteForever]

Swimmy - are you from the Detroit area then? I lived in Brighton, Michigan for awhile and also the UP. I live in Indiana now. However, Detroit is definitely one of my favorite derby teams to watch. The Masonic Temple venue is true derby ghettoness at its greatest.

So happy you don't need meds at the this time and hopefully you can just make a few modifications to help.

 

[ireadyermind]

Bronte - Thanks for posting those! I have a no-bake cookie recipe that's similar to the granola bar one you posted. I bet with a few modifications it'd work great as a diabetic recipe, too! Swapping out the white sugar for raisins or dates would probably fix it right up!

You could add unsweetened cocoa powder to that granola bar recipe and you'd pretty much have the cookie recipe. lol.

Swimmy - Hmm! My temp almost flatlined today and hasn't dropped to the 98.0 I always see right before AF! It still could do that, since AF is due tomorrow (15 day LP), but I'm hoping it doesn't!

I have an HPT drying right now and I'm afraid to look at it!


AFM - Man, I wish roller derby was a bigger thing out here! I used to rollerskate like 24/7 as a kid, and we'd have races and whatnot. I was really good at it! But never could learn how to use roller blades, probably because the ones Mom bought me second hand didn't have ankle supports at ALL and I couldn't balance myself on them. Anyway!


No PMS symptoms for me today. I'm usually super cranky, very tender/sensitive breasts, bloating, etc. and that just isn't happening. The only thing I noticed was that this morning, the sides of my breasts and underarms are sore IF I happen to poke or bump them.

Is lack of symptoms in itself a symptom? lol

EDIT: I take that back. This morning there was a TON of creamy white CM when I went to the bathroom, and last night I was so tired I went to bed at 830 and slept through to 745 this morning.

 

[BronteForever]

IRYM - goodness you can't just drop that the HPT is drying and not give us results. Update please.

And I prefer quads to rollerblades as well, and I really hadn't skated since I was a kid, so had to relearn everything when joining. I'm not super great or anything and still get wobbly at times. It's alot of blocking and hitting and mash ups that can catch you off balance. There's tons of teams in California too, IRYM. Just depends on where you are at.

 

[ireadyermind]

Well that's because I only posted a few minutes ago! lol. It's looking like a BFN. I'll probably look at it again in a few hours because I can't help myself. Maybe we'll see something then. AF isn't due until tomorrow morning or so. Hopefully she stays away for 9mos and I get a BFP! lol

There's a roller derby here in town but I believe it's a college team?

I'd never be able to get into the sport now, with my old foot injury that never healed, my spinal issues and my weight. But had I known it was a thing when I was younger.... look out, world! Haha

 

[BronteForever]

Well that sucks. I hope it changes to a BFP or it's just early still. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

And you should go check out derby to watch sometime. It's fun. I'm not aware of any college teams, but anything is likely. It's more likely to just have a lot of college-age members on the team.

Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[ireadyermind]

The team name's the same as a local junior college. I could be wrong about it, I haven't really researched it! But that's what made the most sense to me. haha

With my BFP/miscarriage I didn't get a line until about 16DPO. On 14dpo I had one that only showed up hours after the test had dried, so I'm wondering if that might be what's happening now?

I went back through my last 2 years of charts and on every cycle EXCEPT the miscarriage cycle, by 15dpo my temp had already dropped to 98.0 or lower, and AF arrived the next day.

At this point I'm half excited, half confused!

 

[BronteForever]

I will remain cautiously optimistic for you then!

 

[beccabonny]

Bronte, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who is still affected by that fitness test. They really should have worked us up to the test instead of just subjecting us to it, right? Anyway, even women testing in the military have a hard time doing pull-ups...but definitely, GOALS!

My SO is pretty intense, but 50k?!? wow! One thing I think of is that our babies will have that athletic encouragement growing up, which I love! Good habits for life! I have heard of P90X but it seems really hardcore! I like the idea of something that provides portion control, so if I don't get results like I want maybe I'll look into that!

Those recipes look delicious! Definitely want to try out.

Swimmy, thank you for the welcome! I'm excited to be here Where in MI do you live? I love it up there! I know what you mean about beer, I'm a big fan and splurge once in a while on some nice IPAs, but I've been trying really hard to be good after the fam left. I'm not buying any more unless AF shows up in a couple weeks...or, we go fishing this weekend....

IRYM - Fx for you!!

 

[ireadyermind]

Becca - I was always horrendous on those fitness tests, too. I was born with spinal issues and the test administrators never seemed to take that into account. Even with that problem, which resulted in things like me not being able to bend fully at the waist, they expected me to perform to the same extent as "normal" girls. In fact, I had to remove the massive plastic back brace I wore 22hrs per day to complete those tests. lol

Add in the fact that I'm almost 6 feet tall and that they don't scale the tests based on your height or build, and I pretty much failed every single thing they threw at me. The "sit and reach" test scores were particularly low. Partially because I had ridiculously long legs, and partially because I can't bend fully at the waist. To this day, despite fitness routines, stretching, and some yoga/pilates, I still cannot bend over and touch my own toes.

I think those tests are pretty ridiculous and I agree that the physical education program should spend the year working kids up to the point that they have a chance to pass the tests, and then test them at the end of the school year. I think, but I'm not sure, that our tests were always in late winter, just a few months after we'd started classes. How silly!