I want to lay all my cards on the table: I’m a fitness instructor and owner of a successful outdoor group fitness business, and have barely exercised over the past seven months.
I’m 30 weeks pregnant and negotiate whether I really need to walk up a flight of stairs to grab something I’ve left in my bedroom. I often abandon it for the couch.
It’s the most surreal experience going from an incredibly active, high energy, multitasking mum and small business owner, to someone who wants to grab a power nap after school drop-off at 8:30am. I can cite a laundry list of all the beneficial reasons why you should be active throughout your pregnancy: it improves muscle tone, strength and endurance, can lower your risk of gestational diabetes, prepares you for active labour and can help you rebound faster after your delivery.
But I can count on two hands how many times I have ‘properly trained’ this year.
My energy levels have been at an all-time low. Then adding Saigon’s searing heat and humidity, while racing after two active toddlers (Tomas, three, and Ella, two) to the mix, I’m shattered by mid-morning most days. But if I’m really honest with you, the above excuses aren’t the reason I’ve been inactive. It runs much deeper than that.
No amount of knowledge, training and experience I have in fitness or pre- and post-natal training will convince me to exercise consistently throughout my pregnancy because emotionally, I’m just not equipped.
Last year at 19 weeks and five days into my first pregnancy, I gave birth to our beautiful baby boy Harrison. I had a complication-free pregnancy, Harry was a healthy growing bub with a strong heartbeat until I went into labour and devastatingly delivered him in the early hours on April Fools Day. He hadn’t reached the 24-week ‘viable life’ milestone and my heart is still healing from this experience.