It’s often said that when pregnant, you’re “eating for two” – that actually couldn’t be further from the truth.
Once you see those 2 red lines, it’s easy to want to put your movement & nutrition on the back burner and to use pregnancy as your excuse… when in reality, it should be your REASON.
During the 1st trimester, you may experience things like extreme nausea or fatigue, food aversions, morning sickness, etc. My best piece of advice? SOMETHING is always better than NOTHING and your 100% will look different on a daily basis. On the days where you are feeling okay, use that to your advantage and get some strength-training in! On the days where you feel like your energy is nowhere to be found, a short walk and some stretching or yoga will do. Again, something is always better than nothing and a body in motion stays in motion. Getting movement in during the morning is also a great option when you’re more than likely going to have the most amount of energy for the day! There are many studies out there that note the significance that keeping your body in motion during pregnancy has on your body + your little one’s developing body - which you can read about more here!
If you’re questioning whether strength-training is safe to do during pregnancy, a good rule of thumb is that if you were doing it prior, you should be safe to continue unless your doctor notes otherwise. Around 16 weeks, you’ll start to make some modifications to movements in terms of not lying on your back exercises but instead, you’ll elevate your shoulders to prevent supine hypotension (low blood pressure).
On the nutrition side of things, you should be eating close to maintenance macros for the 1st trimester, ~350 additional calories with the second trimester, and another ~100 calories/day with the third. In total, you’ll only be eating ~450 extra calories a day above maintenance at the end of your pregnancy! This defeats the “eating for two” impression that many of us are given and will help eliminate unnecessary weight gain. During the 1st trimester when food aversions/nausea/sickness tends to be the highest, “something is better than nothing” still applies - try to get SOME nutrition in. Prioritize protein and whole foods when you can, but ultimately make sure you’re not avoiding eating simply because the choices that you’re able to “stomach” aren’t as clean or nutrient-dense as they might have been prior to conceiving. To be completely transparent, I survived off of hot sandwiches, cereal, and protein shakes during my 1st trimester!
My personal game plan during pregnancy: Lexi J Wellness workouts 5x/week, 8-10K daily steps, 100oz water, aiming for ~7hrs of sleep, and tracking macros to ensure I was eating enough + prioritizing protein.
The supplements I used:
- Postworkout Stack
- Prenatal Vitamin
- Collagen
- Full Mega (Fish Oil)
- Level-1 Meal Replacement Shake
- Opti-Greens
The pictures shown are 9 months in vs. 9 months out and is a transformation that I’m very proud of! No extremes, just sustainable change that helped me get back to feeling like myself again postpartum.
I know that not every pregnancy is easy, and some come with less than ideal side effects or risks. I want to make it clear that you should always listen to your doctor’s advice and that I am speaking to those with no preexisting health conditions or a high-risk pregnancy! If you’re considering tracking macros but aren’t sure if you should wait until after you give birth, I highly recommend starting now and working on building those habits that will help with a healthy pregnancy, safe labor and delivery, and will aid in postpartum recovery!
Always in your corner 🫶
