21 weeks into pregnancy and 17 pounds gained. Love it when people say, “You’re going to get bigger”. Uh, ya, I know, thanks for reminding me….
I know that there are a lot of Jillian Michaels fans out there and I too am a fan but must say that I lost some respect for her when I read an article where she stated that she has no desire to get pregnant because she didn’t want to see the changes to her kick-ass body.  The average individual will gain weight at some point in their life.  Some will lose it, some will keep gaining and some will maintain their new weight.  Whatever the case may be, weight gain and fluctuations are an inevitable part of life.

So, here I am, seeing and feeling the changes in my growing body and I must say that I’m now more at peace with these changes because I have felt the baby kicking- it justified the weight gain as I’m growing this little being inside of me. (Please understand that being a fitness professional I have acquired a certain standard of the way my body looks and feels to me and that this, I’m sure, is the same for most women whether pregnant or not)
Here’s the thing, I’ll probably gain anywhere from 35-60 pounds during the course of this pregnancy which means I will have to work my butt off to shed those pounds when I’m done being pregnant.  At a pound a week, it could take anywhere from 8 months to a year to get back to my pre-pregnancy body and this is a challenge, I’m ready for!
Have you ever heard that gaining weight is easy and that it takes 10X as long to take it off? (or more…) It’s imperative that I try to maintain some of my muscle mass in order to keep my metabolism at a higher rate so that it will be easier to shed the pounds gained post-pregnancy.

As a matter of weight being the subject I’m discussing, I really try to educate all of my clients into taking the focus of the scale and put their focus on their circumference measurements and body composition- how much of your body is lean mass and how much is fat.  If I were to put 5 different scales in front of you, you would probably end up with 5 different numbers for your body weight.  So, which is true?  Why do we obsess about how much we weigh on a scale? It’s so frustrating to see women beating themselves up over that damn number on the scale.  I really wish that we could take the focus off of the scale and put the emphasis on how we feel when we put on our clothes, when we look at our beautiful selves in the mirror and when we confidently strut our stuff.  What if you lost 10 lbs of fat and gained 10lbs of muscle??  It would mean your scale weight may be the exact same but yet, your clothes are looser and your body is stronger.  Wouldn’t that be an AMAZING feeling??

So, to summarize…
#1 taking “weight” off is harder than putting it on so don’t expect to lose it over night… give yourself time
#2 muscle on your body will help keep your metabolism at a higher rate but you won’t get muscle by sitting on the couch
#3 gaining weight (on the scale) sucks but can certainly be lost if you make the commitment to DO IT
#4 more importantly, muscle weight is going to make you feel better than fat weight
#5 weight on the scale is the worst kind of weight there is because we’re obsessed with being a certain weight. Healthy = having a healthy body fat %
#6 THE TIME TO FEEL BETTER AND DO IT IS NOW

Start getting active NOW your body will love you and in return, you will love your body!

Let me know if you have any questions,

Sara