Pregnancy journal

[okayest]

Zumba-ed today! It was a ton of fun and just shy of an hour long.

Will be stretching for sure tonight. I can feel those Romanian DLs so much today. When I was doing AllPros I picked out too light of a weight erring on the side of caution. Not knowing how going heavier would do my condition. But the heavier ones feel comfortable and fine.



Breakfast: scrambled eggs, buttered everything bagel, big peach
Lunch: Cucumber Chicken salad with mayo, sour cream, dill and a scallion with crackers, all bran + granola and milk
Dinner: could be a big healthy chopped salad with more chicken or it could be unsalted tortilla chips, salsa verde and chicken mixed in a bowl and eaten with a spoon or it could be a mountain of pasta because a ton of carbs sounds amazing right now

No matter what. It looks like my sodium is going to be under 2400 today. Actual recipes seem to be sodium bombs too. Like the Unstuffed Peppers. Simply throwing things together and lightly salting them is the way to go.

EDIT:

I settled for a big bowl of pasta with butter, EVOO, fresh basil and parsley, Parmesan and salt.

Fat was high today and like always when fat is high total calories are high. Went over by 300. But sodium was amazing today. Less than 1900 mg!

[Isilya]

I settled for a big bowl of pasta with butter, EVOO, fresh basil and parsley, Parmesan and salt.

Fat was high today and like always when fat is high total calories are high. Went over by 300. But sodium was amazing today. Less than 1900 mg!

This is one of my favorite meals.

[okayest]

This is one of my favorite meals.

It was a pretty good fancy step up from buttered noodles.


Last night I was super tired and today I woke up exhausted. Then I felt hot all day. Uh and now that I'm typing this out I realize it might have been dehydration again. Damn it's too late for me to fix it and do weights. I wish I would have realized this sooner. So absolutely nothing physical was done today. But it's not a total waste. I bought Poliquin Principles to start reading tonight. Does reading about working out make up for not working out?

Meals today were me trying to get rid of the last of my poached chicken before needing to throw it out.

Breakfast: two chopped BBQ chicken sandwiches on the last of the ww buns with a mix of the last of the frozen sweet potato and white potato fries
Lunch: the same cucumber chicken salad as yesterday with crackers, all bran with banana and milk
Dinner: definitely a peach, maybe watermelon if it's good and I don't know what else

My calories today are going to be a little low unless I feel like eating something substantial for dinner. Right now I don't. Sodium is at 2300 mg so far. It could have been lower if I made my own fries but then they wouldn't have been waffle cut and crispy.

[okayest]

BRUTAL workout! I was reading the Poliquin book last night and decided to try to slow down parts of my lifts because I do go quite fast. Even more so now that I'm using lighter loads than I could be. Just doubling the eccentric and pauses of most my lifts turned the intensity of my workout up a big notch. But on paper my numbers looks so easy. And my last workout with the same numbers but going faster was so easy.

*Bar assisted Pistol 4x10x0#
*DB Lateral Raise 4x15x6#
*Single leg Hip Thrust 2x15x25#
Single arm DB Row 4x15x20#
*Hamstring Curl 3x15x15#
Bench Press 3x10x45# / 1x6x45#
Calf Raise -skipped-
Seated band Abduction 3x20x16-27# red band

Everything marked with a * was done at a different than my normal tempo. The pistols were 2-2-1-1. The lateral raises and ham curls were 2-1-1-2. The hip thrusts were 1-1-1-2 because going any slower on the eccentric would have led to failure before 15 and I didn't have a plate to use that would have been the right weight. But a slow eccentric with the same weight would work very well for my next workout when I'm doing 10 reps.

I started to get pretty fatigued during the Rows and Curls, but by the last set of my Bench Press I was totally done. I had to stop mid-set immediately. My tank was very suddenly empty. The thought of loading up weight and doing 3 more sets of another unilateral exercise for calves was too much.


For dinner tonight I was prepared to go out to my favorite sushi place and stuff myself but it was such a let down. Their selection of fully cooked rolls was pretty limited and when my rolls did come they were half rolls! The prices weren't cut in half only the portions. My husbands meal was also noticeably smaller. Makes me sad and wonder if they're about to go under financially. So here I am hungry and disappointed.

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, Genesis toast with jelly, a banana
Dinner: fried brussels sprouts, half a soft shell crab roll, half a shrimp tempura roll
2nd dinner:???

Yesterday I ended up having a peach and a bagel for dinner. Tonight all I wanted was lots of sushi. I have no clue what I'll eat to satisfy that craving.

EDIT: Nutrition ended up pretty bad yesterday. Dinner ended up being a huge garden salad with cheese and fried onions and ranch. I tried the onions as a very low sodium, crunchy alternative to croutons. They were tasty but not close to crunchy enough. Two plums. And unsalted tortilla chips with salsa verde.

I cut into the watermelon to discover it was unripe and not sweet. Sad.

[aquamarine84]

EDIT: Nutrition ended up pretty bad yesterday. Dinner ended up being a huge garden salad with cheese and fried onions and ranch. I tried the onions as a very low sodium, crunchy alternative to croutons. They were tasty but not close to crunchy enough.

Try unsweetened cereal. My sisters got me putting Fiber One twigs on my salads when we were doing WW. It's a nice change of pace.

[okayest]

Hmm. Wouldn't have ever thought of that. I have some all bran buds that are pretty crispy in the pantry. Thanks.


Today I biked. Got 14.5 miles in in an hour. I was expecting more though because I saw 15-16 mph most of the time I looked at the display. But I did have music playing and depending on the song it can actually bring my pace down. It's strange I've noticed I go slowest when listening to high paced music. Moderate when zoning out. And I go fastest when reading. It seems like it should be backwards but it's not.



Breakfast: lots of canned salmon mayo salad on Genesis toast
Lunch: white potato and onion hash with fried eggs
Dinner plan: huge garden salad with tons of ww pasta and light Italian drssing

Nutrition was good. Sodium was at 2500. I've been doing decent and I keep reminding myself that if I weren't being mindful of that number it would be closer to 4000. So any improvement is a good job.

[okayest]

Bent leg Band Pullthrough 3x15x50-120# green band
Inverse Row (2-1-0-1) 4x10xbar set @10
Single Leg Hip Thrust (2-2-1-2) 3x15x25#
OHP 4x10x35#
Leg Extension (2-1-1-2) 3x15x30#
Incline Fly 4x15x10#
Calf Raise 1x20x85# / 1x20x95#
Walking Hip Abduction 4x10x16-27# red band

I am replacing pullthroughs. I simply hate using a band for them. I'll do RDLs with the same reps. Overhead presses were tough today. Next week I'm going to drop 5# and see about going slower.


Nutrition crashed and exploded by breakfast! I picked up sushi because I still had to get my fix and looked at the nutrition for it. An entire days worth of sodium! But it was worth it. Lots of sushi rice, lots of shrimp, lots of krab, lots of spicy mayo, lots of avocado. Everything I've been wanting. And instead of crispy panko on one of the rolls there were fried onion pieces. It was a really good idea I'll keep in mind if I end up making sushi bowls at home.

Breakfast: 3 half rolls of cooked sushi
Lunch: cinnamon raisin bagel with butter, a banana
Pre-dinner: small bowl of husband's homemade lentil and wild hog soup
Dinner: a plum and a toasted everything bagel with melted cheddar

Well I cooked nothing today and my nutrition was unsurprisingly pretty poor.

Today my husband also dropped 35# of wild hog off to be processed. In a few weeks we're going to have 70# of a variety of sausages!!!OMG

[okayest]

Cardio today. I didn't want to do it. It was tough at first but after the 20 minute mark it was a breeze. 15 miles in 60 minutes. Ever since I found out that your energy pathway changes around 20 minutes it has made cardio that starts tough easy to be optimistic about. I know if I can make it to the mark chances are it will get easier and most of the time it does.



Breakfast: white potato hash with butter, onions and bell pepper, 2 fried eggs, big peach
Lunch: chicken fajitas on corn tortillas with guacamole, all-bran + granola and milk
Dinner: chicken pulao with sour cream and parsley

Everything tasted amazing today. One of the best menus of late. Sodium was 2500 but potassium was also slightly high at 5000 so it was 1:2 which is good. I'm really making a point of trying to eat more potatoes so a delicious carb source doubles as a big potassium source. Fiber was high for a normal person but not high enough for my pregnancy hormones. 45g but I really need 55 to be happy.

[okayest]

Reverse Lunge (2-2-1-1) 2x15x20#
Overhead tricep Extension 4x15x20#
Laying band Abduction 4x15x13-21# heavy yellow band at ankles
Rear fly 1x15x3#s / 3x15x5#s
Romanian DL (2-2-1-1) 3x10x75#
Straight arm Pulldown 4x15x10-50# black band
Single leg Calf Raise 1x10x55# / 2x10x65#
Upright Row (2-1-1-2) 4x10x35#

I dropped the weight on Romanians and Uprights so I could go slower. Slowly doing the RDLs was a grip test. I did the very last 3 reps at normal pace because I was going to lose the bar. They felt so excellent slow. I could really focus on form and where I was feeling it. Upright rows felt awesome on my shoulders. And the slow reverse lunges were very challenging. I take a wide stance and coming out of them after pausing at the bottom was tough for my left side so I expect good things to happen from doing these.


Breakfast: cinnamon raisin bagel with almond butter
Lunch: chicken pulao with parsley, raisins and cashew pieces, a plum
Dinner: chicken fajitas with corn tortillas, avocado and pepper jack, genesis bread with butter and hagelslag, a banana

Sodium was very low today at 1700 but so were potassium, fiber and calcium. Not great. The huge serving of rice in the pulao really eats up space of something more nutritious. But it tasted really good today. All last night I was waiting to eat more today because I knew adding raisins and cashews would hit the spot and it so did.


I am 16 weeks today but didn't take a picture. I'll get around to it tomorrow. I'm excited to see how it measures up to the previous weeks because I feel noticeably bigger but is it just a feeling or did the baby hit a growth spurt?

[okayest]

I don't think I'm that much bigger and by the looks of my upper stomach it mostly seems to be bloat.

16 weeks is when kicking may start to be felt but it might not happen until up to 24 weeks. I'm really excited about this! It is such a unique experience and I can't wait to feel it.

[okayest]

Took my rest day today. i went shopping and bought a couple of pairs of low rise maternity jeans. I cannot sit and eat in my jeans anymore so I've been wearing exclusively leggings for weeks and that needed to stop.

Breakfast: cinnamon raisin bagel with sunflower butter, a banana
Lunch: fried chicken sandwich with jalapeño mayo
Dinner: large Caesar salad, a peach, all-bran with granola and milk

2500 mg sodium. Not great nutrition. Tomorrow will be filled with vegetables.

[okayest]

Did an hour of Zumba again today.

Breakfast: white potato hash with butter, onions, bell peppers and eggs, a plum
Lunch: cucumber, tomato and surimi salad with mayo and crackers, all-bran with banana, cinnamon and milk
Dinner: caprese salad, toast with jam
Late night snack: half a cinnamon raisin bagel

Sodium was horrible. 3700 mg! I didn't realize a serving of surimi has 1500 mg alone. The third pound of mozzarella at dinner didn't help either :P Nutrition was otherwise great!

[okayest]

I didn't have energy to really update last night. I had a project due before lunch today so I was up until 11 working on most of it. Hence the late night snack. Which I shouldn't have had. I am so easily pushed from feeling fine to feeling bloated and a half a bagel pushed me over that edge last night. I even woke up still a bit bloated.

I'm worried about a few pregnancy related things. My weight has been going up way faster than it should be. I did increase my calories this month by 100 because my gains last month were slightly lower than they could be but my rate of gain now is still higher than expected. It could be amniotic fluid but I think it's mostly constipation. My fiber intake has almost consistently been in the 40s but that's not enough for me to go everyday now. Crazy! And I think that increasing my iron supplement to 1/day instead of 1/every other day has contributed to the constipation to. It feels sucky.
So I went to the pharmacy to get a pill cutter so I can do 1/2 pill/every other day and to pick up Vitafusion fiber gummies. They seemed like the best form for how much fiber they have. 2 servings/day will kick me up to the 50s. And mmmmmmm they are yummy.



While I was at the pharmacy I tested my blood pressure to see if limiting my sodium was helping and now I'm upset enough to contact my doctor. My next appointment isn't for 3 more weeks and I'd like advice sooner than that. My reading was 111/65. I know it is normal but it is the highest reading I have ever had in my life and it keeps going up. So my systolic has now increased by over 20 mmHG in 3 months.
My pulse was also 95 when it's used to be 60 something. That was an up and running errands pace but still it has increased so much more since pre-pregnancy.

So those are my woes. Below normal iron/RBC, increasing blood pressure, increasing heart rate and constipation. And I'm trying really hard to fix everything but it doesn't seem to be helping. I guess I'll aim now at sodium = 1500mg. There isn't much else I can do. I exercise, I rest, I drink lots of water, I eat enough potassium. I'm feeling pretty helpless. I've never had health issues like this before and I feel beat down.

[okayest]

Yesterday's update.

I was super busy and ended up not getting a lot done including weights. Disappointed to skip it but I'll do it today.

I got a prompt reply back from my OB. She's more concerned with diastolic and mine is still very good so I shouldn't be super concerned about my blood pressure but also shouldn't go crazy with excessive sodium levels. And lowering my iron dosage is fine. My new fiber supplement also seems to help already.

I spent the evening at a friend's "dinner" but it was really more of hors d'oeuvres and cocktails for the non-pregnant.

Breakfast: LOTS of all-bran with granola and milk
Lunch: classic style lean burger with low sodium cheese on a ww bun, spicy sweet potato fries with lite salt, a peach
Dinner: french bread with tapenade, brie, gruyere, truffle sausage, cucumber salad and potato salad

[okayest]

Bar assisted Pistol (1-2-1-1) 4x10x0#
DB Lateral Raise (3-2-1-2) 4x15x6#
Single leg Hip Thrust (1-2-1-2) 2x15x25#
Single arm DB Row 4x15x20#
Hamstring Curl 3x15x15#
Bench Press (1-2-1-1) 4x10x40#
Calf Raise 3x15x45#
Seated band Abduction 3x20x16-27# red band

I did half of the first set of ham curls at a 2-2-0-2 pace and nearly died out. I had to go at a normal pace to get through. Today felt tough. I think it might have been because I ate just before and I never do that. I even threw up a little in my mouth. Gross.
I'm going to finish up the 5 weeks I have planned for this routine but I'm already itching to switch to either a 2 full body or 4 day upper/lower. I feel like my workouts take too long and I get too tired during them. Today's workout particularly feels like it takes forever. Probably because there are 11 sets of unilateral exercises. The next workout has 3 sets. And the last workout has 5 sets.

Oh yeah. Gotta mention that my shoulders are looking cuter and rounder! I think my legs are starting to look shapelier and my husband mentioned that my hips are too. So maybe I am building muscle?

Breakfast: mountain of scrambled eggs and egg whites, cinnamon raisin bagel with butter, a plum
Lunch: bbq cheeseburger on wheat, white fries with canola, lite salt, garlic and paprika, a banana
Dinner: big caesar salad, a peach, genesis bread with almond butter

I need to remember to make tomorrow's burger big mac style. I NEED TO REMEMBER VERY IMPORTANT. I also need to remember to make summer rolls one day. I have been forgetting to do that for about a month now. So much food I want to eat but such a bad memory.

[okayest]

Really busy day yesterday but I got in everything I had to. Biked and did a tiny bit over 15 miles in 60 minutes.

Breakfast: unglazed marble cupcake, lean cheeseburger with bigmac sauce and toppings on ww bun, watermelon
Lunch: genesis bread with almond butter, a little all-bran with milk and cinnamon
Dinner: a lot of super delicious thai food, another part of an unglazed marble cupcake with nutella on one half and pistachio ice cream on the other

It was my husband's birthday. We both took the day off of work. That's how cake for breakfast happened.

We got our sausage back from the processor and got a great surprise. They are no longer adding half the weight in lard to the sausage so it's 100% wild hog and much leaner. But still kind of fatty because it's cuts of pork. But still not super duper fatty.

[okayest]

Terrible day. Woke up exhausted, stayed exhausted all day, got nauseous in the morning, got a headache, my hips and feet hurt and everything is making me bloated and uncomfortable. I didn't do weights today. I might take the next two days off too. All week I've been feeling on the verge of run down and today it hit me hard. I mentioned wanting to switch to either 2 days of full body or 4 days of upper lower split. I might just start that now instead of sticking out my current routine. I think it's taking a little too much out of me.

Anti-nausea: 2 crostini
Breakfast: cucumber, tomato, scallion, surimi, mayo salad on crackers, watermelon, half a cinnamon raisin bagel
Lunch: lean bbq cheeseburger on ww bun, a banana
Dinner: all-bran with granola and milk

[okayest]

17 weeks today! Growing slow but growing.

[okayest]

Breakfast: last of the lean bbq cheeseburgers on ww bun, broc**** tots, watermelon
Dinner: tortellini with pesto and a big garden salad

2 meals while pregnant is a TERRRRRIBLE idea. Dinner made me so bloated and uncomfortable that I was burping for over 3 hours until all the bloat went away. Awful. 3 or more meals only. Lesson learned.

I am also very done with burgers. I think I've had 10 or so in a month!

[okayest]

Another rest day. my hip and SI joint is still hurting so tomorrow I'm going to only do extensions and curls for my legs. Upper body should be fine.

Breakfast: egg whites, genesis toast with jelly, peach
Lunch: watermelon, corn, peas, carrots, broc****
Dinner: chicken korma, rice, naan, mixed greens and lite dressing

I had no whole eggs for breakfast. Lunch was grabbing a little something between prepping dinner and cooking it. Dinner was having guests over. It was another large meal but it was much lower in fat than that pesto pasta yesterday. I was really full but didn't feel incredibly uncomfortable.

[okayest]

Fantastic workout today. I felt so fresh! I ditched anything that either loaded my back too heavy or required my hips. The shorter workout was a relief and taking a couple of days off did me good. I was able to add some resistance. I am reading this as it is definitely time to switch to an U/L split.

Ham Curl 3x15x20# (+5#)
Leg Extension 3x15x35# (+5#)
Inverse Row (2-1-1-1) 1x10xbar @10 / 3x10xbar @11 (+ angle)
Overhead Press (2-1-1-1) 4x10x30# (-5# on purpose to double eccentric)
Incline Fly 4x15x10#

Nutrition was great today too!

Breakfast: all-bran with granola and milk
Lunch: spring rolls with shrimp, lettuce, cucumber, carrot, avocado and mint with peanut sauce, a plum
Snack: banana with almond butter
Dinner: chorizo and sweet potato hash with bell pepper, onion, black beans, canola, lite salt, cheese and a fried egg

The hash wasn't that good. I'll stick with my regular hash instead and have meat on the side. It got too lost in the vegetables. The spring rolls were everything I have been craving. I am always amazed at how delicious the combo of shrimp, mint and peanut butter is considering it sounds awful.

I bought a couple of cookbooks that arrived today. I know I can find everything on the internet for free but I like having the books to look through and find things I might not otherwise try. All of the delicious Thai food the other day made me look for a Thai cookbook that had some of the recipes we ordered and I found one! Jungle Curry, Son in Law Eggs, Crying Tiger.



But since I love Vietnamese food more than anything I also bought a VN cookbook.

[okayest]

No cardio today. I wasn't sure if biking would exacerbate my pain so I skipped it. I think Zumba is what caused the pain so I won't be doing it again for a long time. My joints seem to only behave during controlled, aligned movement. Every time I get into dancing it causes aches but this is the worst I can recall.

Breakfast: last bit of korma with rice and naan
Lunch: all bran with granola and milk
Dinner: egg with whites, genesis toast with jelly, a peach
Snack: cucumber and carrot sticks, gruyere and brie, unsalted tortilla chips and salsa verde

I overate a tiny bit with the chips and salsa but it was expected considering breakfast was nearly 1000 calories of mostly refined carbs and fat. Whoops. But also no regrets.

[okayest]

I felt so lazy today and didn't want to workout so much but I did. It's the last workout until Tuesday. I'm leaving for a little vacation tomorrow until Monday evening so more rest for my pelvis. It should feel great by the time I get back.

Upright Row 1x10x35# / 3x10x40# (+5#)
Straight arm band Pulldown 2x15x10-50# black band / 2x15x10-50# black band but with a small step backward so a little harder
Rear Fly 4x15x5.5#s (+.5#)
Overhead tricep Extension 4x15x25# (+5#)

Good workout. Made progress! I've been working on my upper lower split and I'm very optimistic about it and excited to start next week.

Breakfast: split chicken breast seared in butter on 2 ww buns with sriracha mayo, lettuce and pickles
Lunch: all-bran with granola and milk, a plum
Dinner: chicken breast with parmesan, seasoned potatoes roasted in olive oil, plus the 4 crispy fried broc**** tots I managed to steal off of my husbands plate

Nutrition was actually fabulous considering I was working with only the food that remained in the house before we leave. I realized I could kind of recreate the amazing fried chicken sandwich I had last week with what I had and it was so juicy, spicy, sour and good.

[okayest]

4 months down, 5 to go!

I'm 18.5 weeks right now. Still haven't felt any kicking. Have been doing a lot of growing though. Since I was on vacation I missed my 18 week belly photo but I definitely popped this week. Now people can clearly tell I'm showing in clothes. I started wearing maternity jeans for the last 2 week too.

My weight has been going up quickly. I put on 4.5 pounds in month 4. That makes it a net total of 5.5 pounds for the pregnancy. In the beginning of the month it was gaining at .75 pounds/week but now it's up to 1.25 pounds/week. My intake didn't change too much from last month. It's been around 2200 calories. Vacation though, who knows! I had taken measurements to buy pants online before getting pregnant so I've been using my thigh as a gauge to see if the weight gain is baby related or fat. I lost 1/2 inch in the first 2 months and it's stayed there so I think most of the weight is blood, amniotic fluid and such. The baby himself if still tiny and only around 1/2 pound.

This past month I was doing full body 3x week and cardio 3x week. I started to get pains in my hip and SI from introducing Zumba as cardio so started to take some rest from lower body and cardio for about a week and then a little more rest from vacation. But I feel great again. Will be going back to biking only for cardio. I also really started to feel a need to ease up and take a break anyway. Don't know if it's a normal response to exertion or one to pregnancy. I have been getting tired around 6pm for the past couple of weeks which is not normal for me.

Even though my systolic pressure has been going up my doctor said it's still fine and normal but I did start watching my sodium intake anyway to try to not go crazy into the 3000+ mg range.

All in all I am feeling great and getting excited to be approaching the halfway point. I was around babies and kids during vacation and it made me want to meet my little guy badly.

[okayest]

I didn't want to include my vacation experience in my monthly summary so here it is.

My NEAT was higher than normal because that's the kind of vacationer I am. The rest from exercise was good for my pains since they went away and I didn't feel them the entire time.

Food was dreadful. I love my normal diet of extremely high fiber, high protein, trying to stay lower fat and lower sodium, and fresh fruits and vegetables. I had wicked constipation, bloating and indigestion every single day. If I ate 'normal people food' every day I would not be enjoying pregnancy at all. It would be miserable. So I'm happy to be back home to my own kitchen.

Also the number of times I heard "You're allowed to" "If not now, when?" and similar comments encouraging me to overeat junk food was crazy. I'm not normally around that mentality and it isn't something I agree with. I'm *allowed* to eat junk food whenever I want because I'm an adult. I usually don't because it makes me feel awful and isn't healthy and being pregnant is even less of an exception. So I'm grateful that usually I'm left alone by the people I'm normally around when it comes to eating.

[okayest]

Well nothing on my personal agenda got done today except a lunch run to the grocery store. I just got done with work at 9!

Food wasn't perfect but my stomach felt great today.

Breakfast: lots of all bran buds with granola and milk
Lunch: 3 half rolls of cooked sushi, a plum
Dinner: cucumber and tomato salad with evoo, vinegar, lite salt and pepper, an everything bagel with butter and a big juicy peach

[JustBulk]

congratulations to your pregnancy! good luck and good health!

[tina722]

From the monthly summary it looks like everything is moving along nicely. I love salt and can't imagine keeping track and keeping it low!

The average person has a terrible approach to eating...sometimes it is only the word choice that is terrible, (eg. they eat nutritious foods at reasonable portions, are healthy weight, but still talk about feeling guilty/can't eat/"clean food"), I blame media for the education of the general population. I'm glad you are not normally in that environment - it is really frustrating. I work in academia, so my colleagues are better than most, but still talk about "how fast such and such metabolism must be, because of how skinny they are but look at how much they eat". And we study metabolism! I feel like hitting my head on the wall sometimes!

Any changes for the next month? Can you add in a meal or nap to help with the 6pm tiredness?

[okayest]

congratulations to your pregnancy! good luck and good health!

Thank you!

From the monthly summary it looks like everything is moving along nicely. I love salt and can't imagine keeping track and keeping it low!

The average person has a terrible approach to eating...sometimes it is only the word choice that is terrible, (eg. they eat nutritious foods at reasonable portions, are healthy weight, but still talk about feeling guilty/can't eat/"clean food"), I blame media for the education of the general population. I'm glad you are not normally in that environment - it is really frustrating. I work in academia, so my colleagues are better than most, but still talk about "how fast such and such metabolism must be, because of how skinny they are but look at how much they eat". And we study metabolism! I feel like hitting my head on the wall sometimes!

Any changes for the next month? Can you add in a meal or nap to help with the 6pm tiredness?

That is so interesting that that's your field. It has to be frustrating to be well educated on a topic that a lot of laypeople feel they know what they're talking about because they read magazines.

Watching sodium has definitely been an eye-opening experience but I hope post-pregnancy my blood pressure drops back to 90/60 and I can go back to high sodium. Salt is so delicious!

I have no plans to increase my intake. I do it as needed. If I start finding myself hungry at the end of the day even though I've eaten my normal amount then I'll add more until I don't feel hungry. Dieting for so long has given me the experience to tell the difference between hunger and cravings so it's been easy to trust and let hunger guide me. I do not nap though. Not even as a kid. I laze instead so I just need to make sure I take care of responsibilities by the evening so I can sit on my ass for the end of the day.

[okayest]

Woo! First day back at weights. I forgot I wasn't quite done with my new routine. I had all the exercises and schedule chosen but had not got to reps/sets yet. I did whatever today but it will change next week.

Bench Press 1x10x40# / 3x10x45# (+5#)
Pullups 1x6x25-80#purple band + 10-50#black band / 1x6x50-120#green band / 1x10x25-80#purple band + 50-120#green band / 1x10x10-50#black band + 50-120#green band
Upright Rows 2x12x35#
French Press 2x15x25#
Rear Flys 2x15x5.5#

It took all the tries to figure out pull-up resistance but the green and black is good. I would rather work upright rows at 10 so that will be changed for next time.


Breakfast: white potato hash with onion, bell pepper, canola, seasoned salt, an egg, a leanish wild hog breakfast sausage patty and 2 plums
Lunch: lots of all-bran buds with granola and milk
Dinner: krab salad with mayo, cucumber and tomatoes with crackers
Possible snack: genesis bread with almond butter

My stomach hurts right now after dinner but it started hurting a bit before dinner. Feels like cramping but not uterus related. Definitely digestive. I could eat some more but if I keep feeling like this I'm not going to push it.