Here I am in my third trimester and I am feeling more and more like I’m approaching the home stretch!  In general, my eating has been great and I’m making healthy choices.  My blood work spoke for itself and did me proud in that respect.  No sign of gestational diabetes (big relief), and my iron and other levels were all great with no need of iron supplements which I was really happy about.  My doctor (god bless her soul) complimented me on the results saying, “You must be a healthy eater because your iron and everything looks great!” I wanted to hug her because to me that’s like saying “Wow you look great!” because I take that part to heart more than anything else.  All I could think about in my head was “I know you said you’d never slap my wrist about weight gain, but I bet you’re not happy with it” so her positive comment truly meant a lot.

And the big elephant in the room is the curiosity about my pregnancy weight gain thus far that I bet many of you are wondering.   My pregnancy start weight put me into an “overweight” category which gives you the “15-25 lbs” recommendation which intimidated me from the very beginning.  The truth is, I’ve far exceeded that already and have gained 40 lbs at 7 months.

I mean, as much as no person is usually pleased with their weight gain during pregnancy, that truly is a little on the high side no matter how you look at it.  That’s a fact.  For some reason I was a little afraid to admit to that to you guys for a while.  Maybe it was because of all of the weight I’ve lost somewhat in the public eye (at least to those of you who are reading this) and in a sense I think I was worried that it would “disappoint” people in some way.  But now I’ve come to the conclusion that such is life.  I’m certainly not the first woman to gain “more” than you are supposed to during a pregnancy and I won’t be the last (feel free to chime in and tell me about all the weight you gained and lost in the comments section 😀).
   
I pride myself and my blog at attempting to convey the “real” side to healthy living and weight loss from my perspective and I will continue to do so.  I’m not “happy” about the number on the scale, no, but I certainly am not letting it overshadow all of the beautiful and wonderful things and new emotions and feelings that I am experiencing.  Weight loss and healthy living have been such a HUGE part of my life for so long, it was a surprise to me that “something else” would come along that would, dare I say, bump the weight part down a notch on the priority list and be replaced with so much happiness and excitement that I feel truly blessed in all the cheesy cliche ways.  I don’t mean that keeping my weight under control during pregnancy wasn’t/ isn’t a priority, I am just saying that I am not focusing on it as much as I am my transition into motherhood.

I am trying not to beat myself up too much about the weight gain even though I still have 11ish weeks to go.  Wherever the chips fall when the baby is born, I will deal with it.  I have the knowledge and ability to lose it and you can be guaranteed that I will!  So I’m leaving it at that.  I am going to do my best to keep it under control for the next 11 weeks and move to the next stage of this very exciting time in my life.  I’m sure there will be LOTS of interesting blogs to come!

My performance in the exercise department is definitely not where I wanted it to be either.  It gets harder and harder to do the further along in the pregnancy I get.  It’s not easy carrying an extra 40 lbs and walking is really the only thing I’m doing and I have a hard time to get my buns moving to do that regularly.  I’m ready to try out my 3rd Trimester Yoga DVD now that I’m into a a new trimester and I’m making a promise to myself that I’m going to have to just do it and deal with the fatigue and aches and pains and hopefully it will help.  It’s not easy folks, I’m tellin yas and anyone who has been here knows what I’m talking about.

So there you have it bloggies, the skinny on my pregnancy weight gain!  I’d love to hear any of your thoughts and experiences if you care to share.  

As always, I value your readership and support. xoxo

On a fun note, I’m getting my buns in gear to get a giveaway post together that I’ve already mentioned, so stay tuned and I hope someone is ready to win a box of the best snack bars ever that are totally healthy and satisfying….move over Larabars, justsayin’!