Essential Abs for Pregnancy!

One of things that most expecting mums worry about is losing their figure and the struggle to get it back afterwards. Losing your waist to a huge bump can make you feel like a beached whale at times, but if you want to make sure that your pregnant figure is just as sexy as your pre-pregnant shape and if you want to guarantee your success at getting back into your skinny jeans within a couple of weeks, (it took me 10 days thanks to following my plan!), then you need to read on!

Now when you mention abs and pregnancy, most midwives, doctors or obstetricians would tut dissaprovingly and tell you that you shouldn't be "doing abs" in pregnancy. Well in a way they are right - there's absolutely no way you should be doing a traditional ab exercise like a crunch or a sit-up. These types of stomach exercises which follow the crunch movement work the Rectus Abdominus. This is the six pack muscle. If you think about how a six pack looks you'll see there are two distinct halves which are joined in the centre by a fascia called the linea alba.

In pregnancy the increasing bulk of the uterus pushes out against these two halves and stretches the rectus abdominus causing the two halves to become longer and to separate down the middle. Any additional pressure, i.e. from doing traditional sit-ups will increase the pressure and increase separation causing splitting of your abs. This is a major cause of pregnancy back pain. Although there are exercises to help repair the damage after you've had your baby this really is osmething you want to avoid.

So, the group of muscles we really want to concentrate on in pregnancy is called your core. These are your deep seated abdominal muscles plus the muscles that support your pelvis and back. In particular we want to focus on your Transverse Abdominus which is the deepest of the abdominal muscles and acts like a corset to support your torso. This is also the muscle you will use to push your baby out and the one responsible for giving you a flat stomach after the birth.



To find your TA lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, (if you are past 20 weeks do this sitting up against a wall with your back really tall and straight).

Place one hand on your belly below your belly button and one above.

Take a deep breath right into the pit of your belly so that you fill it with air.

Now as you exhale push all the sir out of your stomach and as you do so flatten your belly button back to your spine.

The muscle you are working is your transverse abdominus.

Now you need to train this mauscle daily throughout your pregnancy to achieve that flat stomach afterwards and also to make your labour a whole lot easier on yourself. In my pregnancy plan there are a whole range of exercises that we go through, but here's an easy one to get you started, (this is also a great stress reliever and perfect for relaxation before bed!).

Repeat the steps above to find your TA and activate it. Repeat for 5 breaths so that you drive oxygen to the muscle and warm it up, ready to work.

Now On your next exhalation hold your belly button flat against your spine for 30 seconds, breathing all the time (DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH!)

To release the muscle take a big breath in and fill your belly with air, allowing it to expand as much as possible.

Carry on for 10 repetitions.

This exercise is great for your circulation and increasing oxygen flow to your baby. It also stimulates the release of endorphins into your blood stream and clears toxins from your system. All of that as well as training your stomach for flat abs after you give birth, what more could you ask for?!

Prepare Your Pregnancy Pantry!

In the last email I sent you on nutrition we talked about how certain foods act as toxins in your body and pollute your system, making it harder to control things like morning sickness, extreme fatigue, water retention and swelling and other pregnancy ailments.

I asked you to make a note of what you've been eating over the past 3 days so that you can start to identify which foods you rely on most and which of those foods are on the banned list. So by now you should have a pretty good idea of where your weak points are.

So today we are going to kickstart you on the way to nutritional success over the next 9 months by sorting out your cupboards, so that you always have a healthy option to reach for.

First off, I want you to take a good look at your food journal and pick out all the items on there that are classified as one of the toxins we identified earlier this week. These are:

Alcohol

Wheat

Processed Dairy (execpt eggs, live yoghurt and real butter)

Processed foods (anything that has non-natural ingredients, like chemicals additives and stabilisers)

Caffeine

Sugar (including natural sugars like honey)

Microwaves

Now that you know what those items are, I want you to come up with an alternative meal or snack that contains only natural food sources. So for example, if you had cornflakes, (a processed food), and milk, (processed dairy), for breakfast, you could replace this with steel cut porridge oats cooked with almond milk - two naturally occuring foods that have no tampering involved in their manufacture.

Or if you regularly have a sandwich for lunch on wheat based bread you could replace this with rye bread, millet bread, rice bread or another wheat free alternative.

Once you have a list of all your alternatives, the next thing to do is clean out your cupboards and replace all the toxinous food items with their natural alternatives. Simple, but highly effective!

Now be sure to throw out all the banned items. Don't be tempted to put them to the back of your cupboards for "later" as I guarantee you'll be tempted to eat them!

A 2 Minute Pick Me Up to Have You Smiling All Day!

You know, there will always be those days where you wake up feeling more emotional than usual. It maybe that you've been feeling sick or tired for a few days on the trot, or that stress at work or at home has got you down and as a result you just can't be bothered to do your workout that day or stick to your nutrition plan. That's completely normal and to be fair if it's the odd day, it's never gonna hurt you.

What is a problem, is if that one day turns into two or three and suddenly a whole week has gone by and you've gone completely off-track. Now it's so much harder to get back to it and here starts the slippery slope to hit and miss nutrition and workouts. Suddenly the fatigue, aches and pains and emotional ups and downs are much more evident and all these things that you so wanted to avoid are the very things stopping you from enjoying the fabulous pregnancy you dreamed of...

The great news is that just a simple 2 minute exercise morning, afternoon and evening will keep you positive, focussed and feeling so excited about all the great times to come!

OK have you got a pen and paper?

I want you to list out all the reasons why it is so important to you to stay fit and healthy during your pregnancy.

You can list them by category:

So...eating well, exercising safely and effectively, remaining positive and emotionally balanced

and by the benefits they will bring:

a)to you

b)to your baby

Don't rush this bit, it may take you a little while to get right to the core of what's important to you, but that's what you really need to identify. Once you have this then I want you to condense it into a written statement of your core values. What you should end up with is a short but deep and meaningful statement that truly identifies with your deepest core values surrounding what you envision for your pregnancy.

Write this statement on a card and put it next to your bed so you can read it morning and night and also pop a duplicate card in your handbag so you can read it whenever you need a boost or a quick reminder during the day.

You'll be amazed at the difference it makes to you when you've got a major case of the "I can't be bothered's"!

Chillax!

It's not very often that we mums get to take time out for oursleves, (and believe me this time becomes especially precious after giving birth so make the most of it now!) and we often forget how important it is to let go and give ourselves some time out with all the million and one other things that are going on in our lives.

The thing is, even though we know it is important to relax, we always manage to push that time to the lowest priority on our list of things to do. Suddenly a whole week has gone by and you still haven't managed to get that 10 minutes of complete time out to yourself.

Meditation and relaxation in pregnancy is particularly importnat to the welfare of your baby and also helps you with the transition of pre-conception to pregancy to motherhood and allows unique bonding time with your baby. Stress hormones and chemicals cross the placenta with ease so it is imperative that you counterbalance this by dedicating 10 minutes a few times a week to sending your baby feel-good hormones.

Unfortunately this is sometimes a lot easier said than done. Many women find meditation impossible or frustrating as they can't switch off. A simple way around this then is to concentrate on something in particular, like your breath.

Breathing Meditation

This simple meditation is also great for working your transverse abdominus, (the muscle you use to push your baby out and the muscle that will give you a flat somach afterwards!)

Sitting in a comfortable position place one hand above your belly button and the other below.

Take a long deep breath and iomagine you are drawing that breath into the pit of your belly. Your belly should rise and fill up with air as you inhale.

As you exhale focus on pushing out all the air from the bottom of your belly and as you do so, draw your bally button back and in and flatten in against your spine.

Inhale to relase and start again by filling your bellly with air.

Carry on with this diaphragmatic breathing for 10 minutes.

15 Minutes to a Sexy Pregnant Body

Did you know that you can get a sexy toned pregnancy figure in just 15 minutes?

No more slogging it out on the treadmill for 45 minutes or doing long boring exercise routines that zap what's left of your remaining energy so that you feel worse than before you started!

But is it possible to get a thorough workout in just 15 minutes?

Sure it is, but you need to work out strategically. There's no point in just zoning out and watching TV, whilst you half-heartedly pedal away on a bike for 15 minutes, as you'll never get the results you're looking for. You need to plan to win!

As long as you are doing the right modality of exercise and targeting the key pregnancy hotspots you'll find that you look fitter, more toned and sexier than ever before. Plus these short burst workouts are the perfect way to energise a tired mind, help rid you of nausea and sickness and pep up a sluggish and tired body.

So what is the "right" exercise and where do you need to target?


Resistance training is your golden ticket to a sexy toned pregnant body and a healthy baby to boot!

Resistance training builds lean muscle which will increase your metabolic rate and literally melt away any excess fat that is surplus to your pregnancy needs. Not only that but by targeting your resistance training to the pregnancy hotspots you'll find that you become even stronger and fitter than before you conceived, as resistanace training whilst pregnant is actually more effective than when you are not pregnant! Bonus huh?

It has also been found that babies born to women who exercised regularly through preganancy carry less fat on them, are more adaptable to stress outside the womb and are generally happier than those born to women who never or rarely exercised whilst pregnant.

The key areas you need to hit are the ones that your changing body shape will put strain on, i.e. your pelvic stability, your mid back and your neck and shoulders.

Your changing body shape means that as your bump grows your centre of gravity will change. Your bump will force your pelvis to tilt forward, increaisng the the strain on your lower back; your shoulders will also start to round forward as your chest grows heavier and drops down and in and your head will migrate forward to counter balance all this, putting strain on your upper back and neck.

Therefore you need to concentrate your efforts on strengthening these areas in particular.

A sample workout

Squats x 6-10






Rows x 6-10



Step Ups x 6-10 (each side)



Reverse Flys x 6-10



Spiderman Lunge x 6-10 (each side)





Repeat as a circuit 2 - 5 times through depending upon your existing exercise level.


DISCLAIMER: Please note: check with your physician prior to starting a new exercise programme. This blog post is for informational purposes only and is not meant to replace the advice of your pregnancy health care team. If you choose to follow the sample workout provided you must ask a certified personal trainer or coach to show you how to perform the movements safely and effectively.)

Control sickness and fatigue through your belly!

How did you get on yesterday with your vision board? Hopefully you'll have started creating something wonderful and positive that will give you that boost every morning (and whenever you look at it or add to it), that will help you stay on track with your perfect pregnancy all day every day!

So today we are going to move onto the second principle in my system for the perfect pregnancy and that is metabolism.

Now this concerns your nutrition and hydration. Ever hear that little saying:

"what you put in = what you get out "

Well it's particularly true now that you are pregnant and I'm pretty sure that you want only the best performance out of your body, so that you feel great and your baby gets the highest possible concentration of valuable and essential nutrients.

It's fairly easy for us all to guess at what should be included in a healthy diet - vegetables, fruit, good quality proteins, wholegrains...right? But did you know it's just as important to know what you should be excluding from your diet to get the most out of your pregnancy?

Well there's the obvious things like raw eggs, undercooked or rare meat, mould ripened chesses like stilton or blue cheese, but there's also a lot of things that just aren't obvious at all - like wheat!

Yes that's right - even wholegrain. This is because wheat is one of 6 foods that our bodies treat as a toxin. The others are:

*Alcohol

*Processed foods (basically anything that has stabilisers, additives, colourings, or words you can't pronounce on the label)

*Processed dairy (except live yoghurt, real butter and eggs)

*Caffeine

*Sugar (in any form - yes even honey)

When we take in toxins frequently in our diet it becomes too much for our bodies to deal with and what you get is toxic overload. What this means is that instead of flushing toxins out we stop trying to fight them and start storing them instead. Accomodating toxins in our bodies means that our performance slows down and in pregnancy we become more predisposed to things like extreme fatigue and morning sickness.

Toxins also divert water from our cells. As toxins are poisonous to our systems, we have to dilute them to be able to hold onto them without allowing them to do too much damage. So even when you are drinking 2 litres of water a day, you can still be dehydrated. The water bypasses our poor dehydrated cells in our organs and tissues and goes straight to the toxins to dilute their effect on our bodies.

Dehydration in pregnancy is a serious issue. In non-pregnant women just 2% dehydration renders you 25% weaker, 40% less mentally elert and 37% more likely to hold onto body fat. In pregnancy the effect is much greater and the more dehydrated you are the worse your symptoms will be.

By eliminating toxins from our diet we allow our systems to clean themselves up and everything revs back up into 5th gear. We find we have more energy, we eliminate food cravings and providing we eat regularly and from only natural food sources nausea and morning sickness, subside considerably.

In my Complete Pregnancy Support System I take you through a gradual and safe 30 day detox for pregnancy; unfortunately I don't have the space to go through this in full detail here, so instead, over the course of this series I'll give you some easy pointers to follow to help you get the most out of your pregnancy nutrition without it becoming a real chore.

In the next nutrition post we'll look at how to prepare your cupboards for a succesful pregnancy diet.

Until then, start taking note of what you are eating on a daily basis so you can identify which foods you rely on and what you can do to change them to pregnancy friendly options.

Here's your first action step to a Positive Pregnancy Mindset

How are you feeling today?

Not too bad? Or are you a little nauseous and tired?

Even if you are feeling pretty good right now, chances are that you won't wake up feeling like that every day of your pregnancy and this is where things can start to go off track pretty quickly.

No matter how good your intentions are, I'm sure you've already had the odd day where you've used the fact that you're pregnant as an excuse to skip your workout, skip a meal here and there or pig out on junk food that you'd never normally touch - I did exactly the same! But what I rapidly found out was that these little slip-ups were making me feel a lot worse in the long-run. Sure, I'd have a temporary sugar high, or an extra 20 minutes to veg out on the sofa,but I felt ten times worse because of it!

It didn't take me long to figure out that it was my mindset that needed focussing. If I was to have a great pregnancy and stay fit, healthy and looking and feeling amazing all the way through, I needed something to keep me thinking in my pregnancy mindset.

So I started my vision board.

(Here's where your pictures and cutouts come into play :0) )

I want you to create a mental picture of your perfect pregnancy.

Think about:
what you will eat,
how you will look and feel,
how you will dress,
how much energy you will have,
the exercise you are doing every week,
what people are saying about you...

Now I want you to take all those pictures that you found that represent your perfect pregnancy and stick them up somewhere where you can see them frequently every day. Maybe your fridge at home, or your desk at work?

You can add to this collection whenever you feel like, with pictures, quotes, recipes - whatever you like really, but use it to remind you every day just why you are going to eat well or spend 15 minutes exercising, instead of reaching for the tv remote and ice-cream instead! It's a very simple but effective tool to keep you on track even when you are feeling like hiding under the duvet and telling the world to go away!

You'll also be creating a valuable keepsake that you can one day show to your child to show him/her just how much love and care you put into them from the very start!