Tips for Staying Healthy while Pregnant

How is everyone doing? How are you feeling? I recently turned 18 weeks pregnant this week and I’ve started to really pop! Overall I’m feeling pretty good. I’ve been gaining weight consistently and starting to feel baby kicks. It’s exciting!

While being pregnant is exciting, it can also be nerve racking! Constantly wondering if you’re eating the right things, gaining too much or too little weight, following proper guidelines, etc. It doesn’t help that we are currently going through a viral outbreak. Staying healthy while pregnant can be stressful and hard.

At the end of the day all we can do is try our best. I believe implementing certain healthy activities into your daily routine and making them habitual is super important. I thought I would share my tips for how I am staying healthy while pregnant. I also include some specific tips and resources for keeping myself and baby safe from COVID-19.

Related post: Surviving the First Trimester Tips

Don’t obsess over weight

I am a huge believer that mental health is just as important as physical health, especially during pregnancy. I gained 40 pounds with my first baby and I completely obsessed over every pound.

Yes, it is important to track and maintain a healthy weight while pregnant…but be reasonable! The “recommended” weight gain is between 25-35 pounds, but every woman is different.

I thought it would take me forever to shed pounds once my daughter was born but it didn’t. There are ways to ensure you bounce back more easily like exercising!

With this baby, I eat when I am hungry, check my weight about twice a week and I don’t obsess over every pound!

Buy healthy food

Yes, I do have a huge obsession with kettle corn mixed with chocolate morsels whenever I’m pregnant. It’s my guilty pleasure! You too, are allowed to occasionally indulge in whatever cravings your baby is giving you. But I try to buy (mostly) healthy snacks/food from the store so I’m not as tempted to veg out on cookies and cupcakes 🙂

I try to buy and eat foods that are rich in folate, an important B vitamin for a healthy pregnancy. Some examples of folate rich foods include eggs, broccoli, avocado, bananas, spinach, Brussels sprouts, lentils and beets.

Healthy snacks I’m currently loving:

• Whole wheat english muffin with almond oil butter, sliced hard boiled egg, avocado and sirracha.
• Apples with peanut butter
• Carrots with low fat garden vegetable cream cheese
• Oatmeal with honey and banana
• Activia probiotic yogurt
• Pretzel thins with hummus

Please, let me know what some of your favorite snacks are right now. Always looking for new things to try!

Choose a good prenatal vitamin

This is the first and probably most important thing you can do for your pregnancy. I am super picky about the prenatal vitamins I take. I want to make sure they include high quality ingredients without a ton of fillers, chemicals and sugar.

Ritual prenatal vitamins are by far the best out there. I tried a ton of different prenatal vitamins during my first pregnancy and I am so glad I found Ritual vitamins the second time around.

Ritual vitamins are vegan, only contain the necessary nutrients you and baby need, they ship right to your door every month and my favorite part is they have a citrus smell/taste to help with nausea. Highly recommend!

Get outside + get moving

I am a HUGE advocate for that vitamin D. Vitamin D plays an extremely important role in immunity and overall health. The best source to get it? The sun!

Now that it is warming up a bit, we are outside for hours a day (obviously wearing sunscreen is smart too – but try to go 10-15 minutes without it so your body can absorb the vitamin D first).

Not only is it good for your physical health, it will do wonders for your mental health. Going on nature walks always helps me feel more calm.

Exercise is obviously a must for staying healthy while pregnant too. And luckily my daughter LOVES to go for walks outside. We probably go on at least five walks a day 🤪

I try not to obsess with working out hard during pregnancy. I mostly just go on walks, light jogs and do 2-3 days of mild/moderate strength training per week.

BodyFit by Amy on YouTube has some of my favorite pregnancy workouts.

Meditate

Like I said earlier, I am a huge advocate for mental health, which is why I’m so glad I discovered Insight Timer. I listen to it every single night (ask my husband  😁) 

It’s a meditation app but they have so much to offer. They do guided meditations, music, nature sounds and programs geared towards helping you sleep and decreasing anxiety. Definitely check it out!

How I’m staying safe during COVID-19

There is a lot of uncertainty about the coronavirus, especially for pregnant women. There aren’t a whole lot of studies done yet, but from the studies that have been done it’s mostly good news. 

They haven’t found that you can spread the virus to baby in utero or through breast milk. Some newborns have gotten the virus, but it is believed they got it from their mothers during the birthing process.

We would rather be safe than sorry over here, so this is how we are handling things:

• I try to stay isolated from everyone besides my husband and daughter
• Brendan does the grocery shopping, gets gas and other things like that
• If I go out on a drive or pick up food I always bring sanitizer and wipes and am sure to disinfect any cups, credit cards, etc.
• We always put our groceries on a sanitized table, throw away all the bags and wipe down all packaging. 
• We mop floors and sanitize the house a couple times a week and try not to wear shoes in the house
• We wash our hands constantly!

One of my favorite mom bloggers at Lynzy & Co. wrote an amazing blog post about the coronavirus. She is a PA and her husband works in the ER. She gives personal experience with the virus and provides great resources for pregnant women. Definitely check out this article!

It can be a sad time to be pregnant. Being isolated from everyone is tough, especially when all you want to do is celebrate this new life you’re carrying with friends and family! My hope is that we get over this hurtle soon and can be finally reunited with PEOPLE! 

My prayers go out to those suffering from any impacts the virus has caused 🖤

I hope this post gave you some inspiration and motivation for staying healthy while pregnant! I know it can be tough and trust me I have my days where I am a couch potato and eat all the bread in the world. It’s all about balance and just doing what you can!

Related post: DIY Virtual Gender Reveal

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