We’ll give you a hint: immediately! Uh-huh. Seriously.
We know all about the circles your mind can run.
And we know that, for many mamas, mental circles are the only running that gets done.
Before you were pregnant, you might have liked the idea of exercise. You thought, “I’d love to do that … but maybe next season”. Or next month. Or next lifetime.
And then you found out you were carrying bub, and you thought, “Well, now I’ve just got a little buddy taking all my energy, and I’m going to get enormous anyway, so I really can’t exercise now.”
Right now, let’s kick to the curb any negativity about starting an exercise plan during pregnancy. Begone, Debbie-downer thoughts!
You CAN begin a new exercise plan when you’re pregnant–and we’re here with some great reasons why.
Exercising during pregnancy is totally safe
Leading obstetricians advise – and clinical studies confirm – that you can be an absolute hibernating bear for months (you get the idea) before getting pregnant and can still safely start exercising during pregnancy.
Didn’t exercise yesterday? Or all the yesterdays before that? It doesn’t matter, you can still exercise today! As long as you’ve got a typical pregnancy going on, starting a reasonable exercise program is strongly recommended.
The best thing to do? Start with walking, and some modified Pilates (we’ll give you some tips for that at the end of this post!) 10 minutes a day, and work your way up to 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
Simple, safe, and oh-so-doable.
One good habit will lead to another
You’ve heard of the “broken-window theory”, right? It’s the idea that if one part of life begins to fall apart, other parts will follow.
Well, the opposite is true, too!
If you get one good habit going, others will follow.
Because, gorgeous, you’ll spend some quality time in the right mindset. The one that thinks, “I’m a healthy, responsible, kick-ass lady and I make awesome choices and feel great about it!”
And the longer you’re in that headspace – for say, 30 minutes each day, five days each week 😉 – the easier it’ll be to stay there.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if your shiny new exercise habit also helped you kick caffeine, eat more fruits and veggies, and draw boundaries with your MIL?
Because that’s exactly the kind of boost that a regular exercise habit can give you.
A chance to choose a better “why”
If you’ve been a woman on planet Earth, you’ve experienced pressure to make your body look different for other people’s benefit.
And that feels so, so yuck.
That’s why many women find pregnancy to be an odd sort of relief. Think about it! Finally, you don’t have to be a certain type of thin, be a certain weight, or worry about having a flat stomach (because obviously that’s not going to happen for the next nine months).
If you’ve had a fraught relationship with working out because you’ve always felt pressure to get appearance or weight-based results, pregnancy is a golden opportunity for you to get reacquainted with fitness in a healthy way.
You’re not exercising to lose a certain amount of weight. You’re not hitting the gym to get a drastically different body.
You’re exercising to stay healthy in the ever-changing, always beautiful, human-growing body you’ve got right now.
Doesn’t that feel freeing?
Ready to step into a habit that’s safe, healthy, and totally fun?
Check out our Pilates-based pregnancy fitness program here, and see how great it feels to treat your body right!
