28 weeks: a review

Early in my pregnancy I quickly accumulated a stack of pregnancy books with the assumption that I’d read through them all because if I didn’t, how would I learn the “right way” to be pregnant?

Besides What to Expect When You’re Expecting, the only other book I read cover to cover was The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy, which was a gift from a friend. I can’t say I learned a lot from it; the book read more like a trashy tabloid you toss in your grocery cart while waiting to pay. Take this passage, for instance:

Here are the biggest reasons why we Girlfriends don’t think you need to keep up your gym membership while you are pregnant:

1. You will be too tired.
2. You won’t like yourself in the harsh gym mirrors.
3. You will get fat anyway.
4. Exercise will not help you in labor or delivery in any way.
5. You might endanger the pregnancy
6. Even if you don’t endanger the pregnancy, if something (god forbid) goes wrong, you will forever wonder if your exercising caused it.
7. It’s “nine months up and nine months down” in the weight department, no matter what you do (give or take a few months on the downside).
8. Our compulsion to exercise when we are pregnant is a reflection of our inability to surrender and let nature run its course.

I can find at least 17 things wrong with Vicki Iovine’s list of reasons why pregnant women shouldn’t exercise. I’m sure you can too, even if you aren’t pregnant. I exercised before I got pregnant and have continued to work out these past 29 weeks because it makes me good, physically and emotionally. “You will get fat anyway” is not a valid reason to avoid exercising. Yes, you grow a baby bump, but you don’t have to get fat. “Nine months up and nine months down” doesn’t sit well with me either. Friends have proven that it’s not necessarily true. Every body is different, but I don’t think “nine months up and nine months down” is law.

Once or twice a week, I lift weights under the supervision of a personal trainer for 30 minutes. I try to get back to the gym once or twice to do 30 minutes of cardio, but there have been plenty of weeks when I didn’t step on the elliptical machine at all. I’m not hardcore about working out. Never was. I listen to my body and try to do as much as it and my trainer allow me.

Normally I try to take my weekly self-portrait on the one day a week when I’m dressed in a proper outfit (one of the perks of working from home is that I spend most days in pajamas or lounge clothing), but I decided to take this week’s photo after a workout because, well, this is what I’m usually wearing! Very unglamorous…

{self-portraits taken at 28 weeks, 4 days}