Episode #322: Pregnancy Workout & Nutrition Tips

Intro:

Welcome to The Healthy Catholic moms podcast where we make moving and nourishing our bodies the priority, so that we not only fulfill our vocations, but excel in our callings. I’m Brittany Pearson, a Catholic wife, mom, personal trainer, and I’m here to help you build healthy habits that actually fit your life. I am here to teach you how to get the results that you want and maintain the results that you want. Without spending hours at the gym, or meal prepping all weekend long. I understand I am right here with you getting my workouts done in the nooks and crannies of time, looking up recipes, while nursing babies and trying to prioritize my own health amidst everything else going on. But I have really good news for you, you can get the results you want. In less time without doing hours of cardio and restrictive dieting. I’m going to teach you how to use strength training and eating in a macro balanced way to get you feeling so good and your skin full of energy, and strong to carry out your life. Okay, on this podcast, we’ll delve into how to lose fat in a simple, sustainable way. What your workouts and nutrition should look like during different seasons of life, like during pregnancy and postpartum times. We’ll also discuss healthy quick meals, and how to get them on the table make foods that kids will actually want to eat. Mom hacks for making your day run more smoothly, and so much more. All the while with continuous encouragement to stay the course and live with discipline. This is a place where we’re striving to steward our bodies. Well, in order to joyfully serve. I am so happy you’re here. Let’s dive in.

Main Episode:
Hello, beautiful friends. How are you? I hope you’re having a great day. Thank you so much for joining me and welcome to the podcast especially welcome if it’s your first time. I’m happy you’re here. I hope you come back. I’m here every Tuesday Friday. So you can expect that. And I appreciate you taking the time to spend your valuable time with me here to share some of it with me. So if you clicked on this, chances are that you are in pregnancy right now. But maybe you’re not maybe you’re hoping that that’s down the pike for you. Maybe you’re listening for a friend or to be a good support to somebody who is pregnant. And I’m gonna go through some workout and nutrition tips today. So at this point I have had, technically this is my fifth pregnancy, we had a miscarriage between our first and second son’s and I was about 14 weeks along at that time. So this is technically yes, fifth pregnancy. And I am however many weeks right now is terrible. We are so excited. We’re like over the moon excited. We were hoping we blessed with a child this year. I did ask the Lord to please never give me a child in December. And I do have a due date of December 3 But we’ll see the Lord is kind and merciful. And either way he either thinks that’s the best thing. Or maybe this is the first time I’ll ever go a little early and get in November baby who knows?

I would okay, it’s all good. It’s all in his plan is out of our control. So I am Yes, pregnant with our fourth right now and
do December 3. So however many weeks that makes me because this is the first time I have not although we are so excited and over the moon. I don’t want to convey that at all. Like it was just funny. This baby. We just never at the point of I’m recording this right now. early June. And we have not announced anywhere yet on social media. And I was like talking to my husband about him. Like I don’t want people to think we’re not excited. I just hasn’t really been like it hasn’t occurred to me the people we’ve seen, you know, we’ve told and it’s kind of fun to me to that like the other kids. It was like when can we tell when can we tell like okay, we’ve asked like 12 weeks, like let’s share it or whatever, whatever timeline but it’s been kind of fun and just feels I think this is just more reflective of my overall tone lately, which is I just enjoy
doing things in real life more than like, I think we can share so much on social media that then it’s kind of boring when you see your friends in real life are like, Oh, how was that? Oh, yeah, I saw you went to the concert. How was it? Like we know everything about them already. So I like the organic like you see your neighbor and they’re like, oh, wow, you’re pregnant. You’re like, yes, or whatever. And that’s what’s been happening this time. And it’s been really fun. So anyway, I promise I’m gonna get off this tangent, and get into these tips, but sharing that these tips and tricks have been tried and true for me for several babies, and I’m gonna be honest with you guys. It’s kind of a tough list of like, get her done. My friends like this is the overall theme of today I’m gonna give you real tangible tips and tricks.

But in my opinion, many pregnancy things are so watered down and so hand holding and so let me stroke your hair and there’s a time and place for that and I know that there
are different personalities who drive really well with that, that’s just not me. So these tips and tricks can be for everybody. But I will say there’s so many programs out there so much advice that is so handholding like only stretch, do what your body tells you eat what you need to wear. I’m a little more than, like, keep it together, sister like you’re pregnant. You don’t have terminal cancer. Like, let’s let’s go like, alright, because I talked about this I am back in the episode, I did an episode like recapping my birth and postpartum experiences, pregnancy and postpartum experiences. And I always talk about it after the fact because I don’t want to come off as this is what I’m doing. And you should just do it like I’m miserable. But suck it up because I am too.

But there’s a lot of truth to that. And that’s what I’m a little bit here to say today. Because I am like right out of the throes of it I am my second trimester. But in my first I was so sick, like this baby I was convinced was twins. I don’t even know if that’s a thing if you get more sick with twins, because like I am so sick and so tired like this cannot be one baby and it is it’s one baby. But at time of recording this i We don’t know the gender yet we are gonna find out but we don’t know yet. And
I still had to make myself do things like first of all, I have three children. So I need and I’m their stay at home mom, like my husband is at work and I need to watch them and care for them and all of that all that entails not to say I didn’t fall asleep once on their bedroom floor because that happened. And you know those days happen however, like they were awake. Sure wasn’t like anybody was sleeping. I was supposed to be putting them down for nap and I fell asleep on their floors.
That’s relatable though. Okay, so besides that, like, you gotta make yourself do stuff is my point. And I would have if I could have just laid on the couch and eat and carbs. For the entire first couple months, I would have felt very happy. In my spirit like that is what my soul wanted to do. But it’s debatable how good that would have been for me in the long run. And it was just wasn’t a possibility anyways, like, we are still called to live our vocation with whatever cross we’re given. And if pregnancy is the current cross and symptoms of pregnancy being the current cross, like we got to suck it up as a soldier on like, what do you think they did back on the Oregon Trail, they didn’t say hang on guys, I got asleep like they were out there. So this you know, take those gentle podcasts and the people that want to stroke your hair and tell you you’re doing a great job and then let it beat this podcast, which is going to be a little more tell it like it is tough love and maybe in the middle is where you need to be. I will include things like there are number one, I’ll just get into these tips and tricks right now.

Number one is to listen to your body. Okay? So I believe that wholeheartedly. If there were days I knew I needed to sleep in and not wake up and work out. I let myself sleep in if there were days where I knew that I could sneak a nap. And that’s what my body needed. I did that.

Okay, so listening to your body is super important. But also wrapped up in this tip is don’t be a martyr. Because like I said, I didn’t want to do anything. Any day of first trimester. I didn’t want to go to a playdate. I didn’t want to host a playdate. I didn’t want to exercise. I didn’t want to eat a vegetable like that is not I wanted to eat cereal and lay on the couch and have no one talked to me. That’s it for those months. I like again, some of you might be like laughing to this because it’s true. And that’s how you feel or felt too. We can’t do that usually mostly. And if we can arguably should we probably not. So yes, raspin, you need to rest. Listen to what your body’s telling you nutritionally, but don’t be a martyr about it. This is just a part of life. And I just always try to think some people have it a lot worse like and that is always true. Some people are and I know some of you might be listening to this who are like violently ill the entire pregnancy. And thank God, he has spared me of that thus far with all these babies where I have felt that turnaround second trimester and I have not ever had to be like hospitalized for nausea or anything like that. So in all honesty, like that’s a blessing. And I know we have varying degrees of pregnancy symptoms. But that’s why we all need to listen to our own bodies and do what is appropriate for us. I just think that’s so much the message of the culture is like just take it easy that I think in the long run, we end up feeling worse. It’s kind of like how the culture tells us self care, self care, self care. And if we just see self care as bubble baths, and like alone time and spa time, we actually don’t usually feel better after that we actually usually feel good when we are serving and when we are being useful. Like there’s a lot of studies and research that backs that up that people feel confidence and feel good about themselves when they’re being useful. So remember that that’s even a part of pregnancy and it’s something truly to offer up and to not be a murderer about so.

Now first trimester specific these are
Tips and Tricks for you eat what you can. And don’t freak out that it’s mostly carbs, but do try to make cleaner options. There was a good like two or three week stretch where all I wanted every single day was pizza. And nothing else sounded good. I was like, I can eat nothing except for pizza. And I went grocery shopping and I got a bunch of frozen cauliflower pizzas and thought, well bread, if that’s your MO right now at least you’re gonna make them a cleaner option, because you’re definitely not eating regular pizza every day. And it also was a passing thing. I still have one cauliflower pizza in the freezer left from that. And it did even out a little bit. But like this is very common. And I’ve told clients this for years, and I believe I have it in the first trimester survival tips in my pregnancy program that is always available over my website. It’s
primarily a pregnancy workout program with full length videos. But I do have other bonuses in there like first trimester survival tips and whatnot. But that’s something I was talking about like, yeah, if you’re craving cereal, that is totally fine. Let’s maybe not make it Froot Loops, Lucky Charms, let’s look at a good quality whole grain, granola or quality cereal that’s not going to be so sugary and make again, you want to feel good, you’re not going to feel good if you have the sugar spikes, and then crashes. So be mindful of that, like cravings are a real thing. And especially in that first trimester, there’s so much that you might not be able to stomach I could not smell ground beef cooking. That honestly turns my stomach making me think about it. But I told my husband to a lot of times for me, it was like, fine to cook it. I couldn’t eat it that day, but I can eat it a couple days later. So like we’ve tacos, every Tuesday, if I was making ground beef, I could not eat it that night, I would eat something else. But then a couple days later, I could sometimes have it. So eat what you can and just try to make it cleaner I shared before on on pregnancy episodes, that when I was pregnant with my first baby, the lady at the gym who was very fit, had four kids. And she told me she’s like pretty, like I eat cereal, every pregnancy. Like that’s what I ate every day. repugnancy she’s like, and they’re fine, like their nutrition is fine. I’m fine. Like she was healthy weight, very fit woman. And that gave me a lot of encouragement because I was so afraid like, Oh my goodness. But again, there’s the opposite side of the coin, where people gain like 100 pounds being pregnant. And that’s a very difficult spot to be in, especially with subsequent pregnancies. So we want to try to be, you know, our healthiest. At this time too.
I would set this is more first trimester specific, but could go through the whole pregnancy as well.

Set a low bar for workouts, but strive to hit it. So low bar might be relative for me, I work out five to six times a week when I’m not pregnant. When I am pregnant, that bar goes down to three or four. first trimester might be two or three. I promote to most people especially and including pregnant ladies to try to get three string training workouts a week. So that is pretty much the minimum I would set for you to try to hit is three lifting workouts a week now. Maybe like I said, that bar has to be lower and maybe I have a lot of people who just stopped working out in the first trimester because they don’t feel good. There is like this symbiotic that’s the right word to use here. Relationship between movement and feeling better. I just said I never wanted to work out but a lot of times the days I did I felt a lot better my energy was better my nausea even maybe was a little bit better. At least it helped me like fake it till I’m I made it with the kids, where if I started with a workout, then I would you know feel like I had a little more energy to start the day with them. I was starting out by getting moving rather than like rolling out of bed to meet them. So I encourage you, whatever that bar is like don’t stop if you do not you know if your doctor has not put you on bedrest or anything like that or told you it’s a high risk pregnancy. I really strive to give one workout a week in there but again, you decide what your low bar is for me that’s two to three a week in that first try. Then I tried to pop it back up to three to five during the rest of my pregnancy. The end of my local like a little bit more walking I think with my third Judah I did a lot more walking at the end than that was a different case though. Because I think back to some things that his pregnancy like why didn’t I do this? Or why did I do that? Every year I do the Murph which is a CrossFit style workout that you do on Memorial Day to honor Lieutenant Murph who died in combat and it’s a mile run 100 Pull Ups 200 Push Ups 300 squats and another mile run and I’ve always done it even pregnant. And I did it this year pregnant as well. And when I was doing it this year I’m like why did I do it the junior year I remember it was because I was in the hospital with COVID for a week. And then when I got out my lungs were still not great for a while and I was on blood thinners and stuff and I had to ease back into workout so that was a weird time because then I stopped like I was just trying to do walks again and like be able to breathe and that was why I did more walks at the end with Judah. But in general I tried to up it back to three to five for the rest of pregnancy. So again, this is the Don’t be a martyr like you don’t have
To try to hold yourself to six workouts a week, but also don’t be a martyr and say you can’t do any because you probably can. Again, unless this is going against Doctor advice. Okay.

Another thing that helps me in pregnancy, but specifically first trimester is peppermint oil. I am not an essential oil expert, I do not sell essential oils, I just know that peppermint oil helps you with nausea. So I’ll put a little bit on my temples or my wrists or whatever. This was a lifesaver first trimester in the car, especially if I’m not the one driving I have a really hard time. So like driving to church with my husband on Sundays was always rough. And I would like have the window down, have my peppermint oil going. And that might help you for labor and later on in pregnancy too. It’s also good for being energizing. So that’s actually something I haven’t been doing since first trying I need to get back into so probably just help energy too. All right now, not necessarily first trimester specific, but just in general, have a zero option mentality about hitting your workout frequency for the week. So I mentioned Don’t be a martyr and I mentioned lowering the bar. Okay. Make yourself do it. Holy cow. This is actually like the crux of health and fitness in a nutshell, pregnant or not pregnant when people say like, but how do you motivate yourself to how do you make yourself? No, no, no, there’s no motivating you just do it. Okay.
I don’t care. It’s true, holy cow, most of us would do fine. If we just made ourselves do the things that we don’t want to do. This can carry over in a lot of areas in the spiritual life in the financial realm in the workouts, whatever. Like, we just don’t make ourselves do things if we don’t feel like doing it, a lot of us. And that’s the trouble we get into. And we’re all human, there’s times that we just, I do this too. Okay. But that’s the big, but they’re in the big asterik. Like I said, I am not there was a time that first pregnancy when I was
pregnant with our first son and I was teaching spin class three times a week and teaching a bunch of other classes. But that spin class was early morning and I was really sick and I had to get up first thing in the morning and go teach spin. I never wanted to do it. Not one single day that I want to do that. The good news is, I did more often than not feel better after the class. Same thing because it like got my energy going help the nausea. But I just had no choice because I was literally getting paid to do it. Well then I had people say like, well, you of course, you could have a zero option mentality because you were getting paid to do it. Well, no one has paid me and babies two, three and four to do my workouts. This is just part of my life. Okay. So it’s something that I value for myself for my health for the baby for my health. So I just have to do it. Like don’t bargain with yourself. There’s the listen to your body piece. But then there’s the what you plan to do, you have to get in. If I plan to do three workouts a week, and then Tuesday and Wednesday, I felt really terrible and thought no I needed a nap or rest and said, by the time it gets to Thursday and Friday and I’ve only gotten one workout in I have to do it, it doesn’t really matter if I feel really terrible still because I have I said I’m gonna get two or three and I need to get those in. And again that that like relationship where probably if I do it, I’m am going to feel better. It’s just like when we’re tired. This goes for pregnancy and pregnant. You know, times, we feel exhausted. So we don’t think we have the energy to workout but we get energy from working out. So you need to just do it first. It’s the chicken or the egg, you’re just workout. Okay.
Two more little tips for you. I told you this is gonna be more hard hitting then you probably want to be like Britney, I wanted you to tell me to do some pelvic floor exercises. Try different options like sparkling water to hit your water goals. Don’t drink it on an empty stomach, etc. It’s very important to stay hydrated when you’re pregnant. This is one of the toughest things for me. This second and third trip well I’m not even in the third yet this hasn’t been too bad. Even the first actually even though it was so sick. I feel like water wasn’t as big a problem. But in my other pregnancies it was really hard for me to get water in unless it was sparkling water. So find ways to make it fun and find what works for you i at this point can drink water on an empty stomach. So when I first wake up in the morning, I’ll drink a bunch of water after I brush my teeth. But often and most times I cannot drink water on an empty stomach. And I will try to mix in things like sparkling water or some people I’ve heard like will drink water before bed so that they don’t feel themselves get sick. They just get in bed but I don’t know that seems dicey with the having go to the bathroom a lot then during the night so use your judgment but do try to still prioritize water I think not doing on an empty stomach works for most of us. Lastly, you definitely need to accommodate and modify your workouts. So that’s a true thing that’s not being a murder that’s being you know, realistic about what’s going on. You should be doing things like you know, propping yourself up past the first trimester so that you’re not flat on your back. You should be doing things to assist your balance. There have been a couple of workouts I filmed for the chasing greatness group, which is just our monthly workout group that’s not a pregnancy tailored program but I’m even though still filming those workouts and there have been a couple of things where I’ve just said in the video like you can do this but I’m going to do this
because my balance, you know, is a concern here where I don’t want to jeopardize that or put that put myself in any kind of danger or anything like that. So if I have a, I definitely have a podcast episode about modifications that you need in pregnancy. That is also not a shameless plug for my program. But it is that it’s all done for you. If you go to my website, and there’s, there’s a pregnancy workout program. That is by week, and I am pregnant with our second and those videos. Everything is safe for pregnancy, because I modified it right along a week at a time as I went and made sure we were not doing any of the not safe things that we elevated ourselves when we needed to be that we didn’t, you know, crunch and criss cross and twist and jump and all the things you’re not supposed to do. When you’re pregnant, they’re all really safe. They’re also at a pace that’s this is actually my workout program, in my opinion is very in line with like the message of this podcast where I found too many pregnancy programs to be nothing like, I’ve not tried every single one out there. So I can’t attest to all of them. But some of the ones that I was familiar with were like lay on the ground and do some leg circles for 40 weeks. And that was not going to vibe with me. And I knew that there’s enough people out there who want actual workouts and feel like they’re sweating or to feel like they’re working their muscles and being able to maintain a lot of your, you know, body composition, while you know, pregnant because it’s not a disease. And it’s not a disorder, like you can do a lot of the things you did before, but you also do need. It’s true. And you know, both can be true at the same time that you also need modifications to keep yourself and the baby safe. So that program to ladies is like lifetime access. So if you’re like 30 weeks pregnant right now you’re like, Well, I don’t really think I should waste the money on it. Now you can use it for other babies as well. So throw that out there. It’s always available on the website. And that is it for my list of tips and tricks today.
Part rent part whole helpful, maybe part motivational, truly, what has always helped me is to think someone else out there is doing this. So even if I feel dead, like I did, I thought when I found out it wasn’t twins. I was like okay, Brittany, someone out there feels like this. And they’re also pregnant with twins. And they also have six babies, like six kids. And I mean like I tried to like okay, you have three kids and you’re really tired and pregnant with one. But somebody has you know, 10 kids and they’re pregnant with triplets and they’re doing it so you know, whatever, helps you you know, whatever gets you off the couch at the end of the day. All right. And now you can always reach out to me for questions and concerns on Instagram is where I’m at a lot healthy Catholic moms or by email is pretty brittany@healthycatholicmoms.com. All right, ladies, have a great rest of your day.

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