Hi friends!
So if you've seen our instagram post you'll have seen that Cait's COVID-19 Quarantine Project is rather exciting. She's pregnant with her first child and has decided it would be valuable for both her and the wider community to publicly share this journey! She'll be talking about training, nutrition, and life in general. The aim of this blog is to be as brutally honest as possible about the highs, lows, pains, joys, and general experience of a first time pregnancy.
With that, here's how week 13-14 of pregnancy looked...
Training
I'm sure everyone will agree the weather was GLORIOUS this week so the theme for this week was "let's change all plans for training and maximise time outside".
Monday 13th:
Happy Easter Monday! Over the weekend I'd experienced a bit of round ligament strain whilst training (not the most comfortable sensation) so decided to take Monday a bit slower. I went for a 90 minute walk in the morning and took it easy (i.e I took a book to Repulse Bay and lounged in the sun for most of the day).
Tuesday 14th:
Happy Birthday Dad! He'd taken the day off work so I went for a morning bushwhacking hike with the (not so old) man and did 30 minutes of yoga in the afternoon (focus: pelvic floor). I probably could have done a training session later on in the day but I decided to give my body the rest for an extra day. By the end of the day I was still completely strain free and was energised and excited to try a slightly more normal training pattern tomorrow.
Wednesday 15th:
I might have overdone it a bit but I was excited and the weather had me on such a high! I grabbed a weight from the gym in my building and went outside to have some fun in the sun.
Morning
- 45 minute run followed by:
- 5 sets:
A1. 100 skip ropes
A2. 10 Single arm rows
A3. 10 Push Ups
- 5 sets:
B1.100 skip ropes
B2. 10 Deadbugs
B3. 10 Shoulder Taps
(Yes, I may or may not have found a skipping rope in my flat...)
Afternoon: 20 minutes of yoga (focus: hamstring flexibility). Disclaimer: I'd initially planned for 45 minutes but after about 20 minutes I was feeling increasingly nauseous so decided to pull the plug and instead did some mindful meditation for 20 minutes.
Thursday 16th:
Woke up and was still riding the same high as yesterday so I did a quick body check to make sure I was as physically up for a session as I was mentally, and continued on.
Morning:
- 3 Sets:
A1. 12 Bulgarian Split Squats
A2. 10 Shoulder Presses
A3. 10 Bird Dogs
- 3 sets:
B1.12 Romanian Deadlifts
B2. 12 Y Pulls
B3. 10 Feet Elevated, Single Leg Glute Bridges
Afternoon: 45 minute stroll in the sunshine
Friday 17th:
This was a poorly managed day to train as I somehow I assumed I had more hours in the day than I actually had, so it was short and sweet.
- 5 sets:
A1. 100 skip ropes
A2. 12 Heels Elevated, Narrow Stance Goblet Squat
A3. 60s Plank
- 5 sets:
B1. 100 skip ropes
B2. 12 Crossover Step Ups
B3. 60s Stir the Pot (30s each direction)
- 30 minutes: stretching
Saturday 18th:
After 3 days in a row of more intense training I toned it down, went for a 2 hour walk, did 30 minutes of yoga by the water (focus: hamstring flexibility), and then assumed the same position as Monday. I lay on the beach with a book for a few hours.
Sunday 19th:
Today was our weekly "take your husband to work day". My legs were absolutely fried so we (meaning "I") opted for upper body.
- 3 Sets:
A1. 12 Incline Chest Press
A2. 12 Ring Rows
A3. 10 Plank Push Ups
- 3 Sets:
B1. 12 Bicep Curl to Shoulder Press
B2. 12 Banded T Pulls
B3. 45s Side Plank
- 3 Sets:
C1: 10 Decline Push Up
C2: 10 Lateral Raises
C3: 12 Double Leg Lowers
- 20 minute stretch
Nutrition:
If someone is pregnant, a personal trainer, and a vegetarian how do you know? Don't worry - they'll tell you. Ok, maybe that's not actually the joke but you get the gist...
I won't go in too much depth here unless you want me to! Each pregnancy is going to be different with regards to nutritional needs, I am not an omnivore, and individual food aversions and cravings might make a more detailed breakdown useless.
- Breakfast: everyday I make sure to get some green veg and a fruit in and I take my pre-natal supplement (which I've been taking since November).
- Lunch: varies depending on where I am, where I need to be, and how much time I have. With gyms closed in HK I unfortunately can't do what I normally do and bring a lunch into the studio so I've had to adapt a bit. If I have time I go home, if I don't I normally find myself in Great picking up a salad.
- Dinner this week was variations of legumes + green vegetable + other coloured vegetable all roasted and then on top of couscous or some other grain. I finish it off with a different fruit for dessert.
Food Cravings:
Luckily, none so far. I went through a phase a few weeks back where I craved certain textures (either crunchy or chewy) but that was easy to appease. For the crunch I'd grab an apple. For something chewy a banana with peanut butter worked but on 2 occasions I also made homemade 3 ingredient cookies (oats, bananas, chocolate chips).
Life in general:
As with most pregnancies I was instilled with a new desire to actually be awake and function as a human(ish) towards the tail end of the first trimester. Coincidentally, this also happens to be around the time I started to have half a cup of coffee in the morning again...
I'd like to think that my skin is starting to look a little less like a 14 year old's but I think I'm kidding myself. My husband is too lovely to "notice any difference", but my mum tells me it's terrible so I'll go with that. Still waiting for the seemingly mythical pregnancy glow...
There are still days where by 4pm I'd really prefer to just be in bed (and based on my end of day moods some days I think my husband would probably prefer it too!) but I haven't yet succumbed to that. Normally I'm in bed by 9:30pm, up at 6ish, and off with the day. The gym closures mean I get to spend most of my days outside training clients which has been amazing but it does also mean I'm much less busy. I've decided to look at the bright side though as it's allowed me to invest much more time in myself, my health, and my reading. Most importantly, I was able to finish all of Tiger King before any spoilers came out.
So that was week 13-14 in the life of me. If I'm completely honest there are many times during the day where I completely forget I'm now responsible for not only keeping myself alive but also making sure I'm creating as clean, safe, and optimal an environment for growing a human. I imagine it'll be a bit more hard to ignore once the bump looks a little less like I ate too much food all week last week and a little more "oh, I guess she's pregnant".
If there's anything you'd like me to talk about in more detail or in less detail. Please do let me know via Calibrate's instagram or email!
As always, stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy, and ENJOY THE WEATHER!