Hi everyone!
Another week has come and gone (this one seemed to fly by), which means another post is due. First off, you might have noticed that this week’s title is very similar (read: exactly the same) as last week’s. That’s because I can’t count. Last week was week 12-13 and this week was week 13-14. I’d like to say that’s pregnancy brain kicking in but in reality it’s just that counting isn’t a huge forte of mine. A fact that most of my clients can attest to. “Just 4 more!”...”We’ve already done 12”.
Oh well, back to the week!
This week was a week of some lows but after a few conversations with myself I can happily say I've emerged the other side slightly better off.
Training
Monday 20th:
Unfortunately my husband had to work over the 4 day Easter Weekend so this week he took his days in lieu on Monday and Tuesday. That meant I scrapped any form of gym training schedule in favour of spending time together outside. Monday was a bit of an errand day but we did manage to squeeze in a lovely boardwalk stroll before dinner. I wish the errands were baby related but they weren’t. Amongst the errands we ran: one of our framed pictures decided to free itself from the wall on Sunday night after 3 years of being seemingly quite content on the wall. This caused slight chaos in the form of shattered glass, luckily no one was injured and the painting and the frame came away unscathed but it did mean we had to pay a visit to the framers to replace the glass.
Tuesday 21st:
Tuesday we took our kayaks out and went for what should have been a lovely paddle. Glorious weather, clear waters, and perfect temperature and conditions. Unfortunately we came across a disgusting amount of ocean waste so our paddle turned into an ocean clean up.
Mini rant: Team/Citizens of the World, we are all in this together. It is completely unacceptable that in our short 2 hour paddle we were both able to fill a bag of rubbish. Issues like ocean waste and global warming isn't the last generation's fault, nor is it the future generation's problem, this is all our fault and all our problem. If we want to see change, let's stop talking about how to best enact it and just start acting.
Wednesday 22nd:
Today I was finally able to ditch the husband and get back to training.
Morning: 45 min run
Afternoon:
3 sets each:
A1. 8 Barbell Box Squats
A2. 15 Banded Hip Thrusts
A3. 40s Copenhagen Side Plank
B1. 10 Barbell Deadlifts
B2. 20 Lateral Walks
B3. 60s Grasshopper
C1. 12 Offset Overhead Split Squats
C2. 45s Isometric Squat Hold + 15 Pulses (because I'm obviously a sadist)
C3. 12 Half Kneeling Vertical Pallof Presses
25min yoga
Training today was a bit of a downer. The run was great but during the gym session I found myself getting frustrated. I had to drop weights significantly compared to my pre-pre-natal strength. While I know this is perfectly normal and it's to be expected, and while I know it was the safer thing to do, it was still frustrating to see how tired I got lifting weights I normally wouldn't have even warmed up with.
Recognising that this growing frustration was going to be dangerous to the session, I stopped to do a mental health check. I took a few moments to let myself feel frustrated but then reminded myself the beauty of why I feel this way. I put life into (just a bit of) perspective and with a clearer head, happier heart, and calmer spirit, finished training.
With the mental health check it meant the 45min I'd allocated to yoga got sniped for only 25min but that was still better than nothing and was an important experience to have overcome.
Thursday 23rd:
Had a rather busy morning with calls and by the time I got to training I found myself experiencing a bit of strain and discomfort in my lower abdomen so I swapped a gym session for a 45min recovery walk.
Friday 24th:
Feeling alive and ready to seize the day I opted for my favourite type of training, kettlebells. I love the diversity, the complexity of motions you can work through, and general fun of training with them. Still slightly emotionally scarred from Wednesday I opted for a tamer kettlebell session, kept the weights lighter, and gave myself lots of rest between sets.
Success!
3 sets each:
A1. 10 Push Ups to Single Arm Lift Offs
A2. 60s Plank Drags
B1. 10 Single Leg Deadlift with Row in Isometric Hold
B2. 10 Kneeling Chest Press to Halo
C1. 10 Bottoms Up Presses
C2. 10 Offset Single Leg Box Squat
Saturday 25th:
Wasn't in the mood for much today but I'm lucky enough to live right outside a trailhead to the HK trail so my husband and I packed our bags and took to the hills. 3 hours later we emerged at South Island School.
Last time we took the same exit to SIS I ended up in the emergency room due to a wasp attack, I'm happy to report that the same thing did not happen this weekend. Instead I ended up at my parents' house for lunch.
Sunday 26th:
Today is normally weekly “take your husband to work day“ but I'd already spent Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday with him and a 4th day is just too much.
I woke up determined to put the emotions of Wednesday aside so I fashioned a bodyweight and resistance band only training schedule and set off for the studio.
3 sets each:
A1. 12 Curtsey Lunges
A2. 8 Eccentric Pull Ups
B1. 12 Swiss Ball Hamstring Curls
B2. 10 Quadruped Weighted Shoulder Swims
C1. 12 Seated Leg Extensions
C2. 12 W Presses
I didn’t completely ditch my husband today though, we did take a long 3 hour walk with one of our bestfriends and my parents‘ 3 dogs.
Nutrition
Nothing new here! No cravings, no aversions, no nausea. Just plain old healthy eating with some fun foods in between because it's important to live a little (it's illegal in my books to partake in sunny outdoor activity and not get ice cream after).
As always I ate some fruit and veg at breakfast, had a lighter lunch, and always had a veggie packed dinner.
The fruit of the week this week was peach followed very closely in second place by the rather boring apple.
Life in general
I was definitely filled with much more energy this week and although I had some mental lows in the strength training space I'm grateful that I experienced the lows and knew how to pull myself out of them.
Pregnant fitness bloggers will have you believe that as long as you stay active in your pregnancy that you won't experience any lows, that anything and everything is possible, that you'll always be happy and ready to go, and life is always swell. I'd always assumed this was false but now I know with certainty that not only is that image they project a lie, it's also dangerous. Now more than ever is the time to listen to your body, take the rest, and temporarily abandon the training session or change it altogether. It's perfectly normal and acceptable to not feel ok. Acknowledge the frustration, acknowledge the discomfort, but remind yourself why it is you feel this way, take a big breath, and smile.
It's no easy to task to grow a body inside your own whilst still maintaining your actual body and still living a somewhat normal life, so I suppose it's ok to get tired every now and then.
With that, the week is over! Hope you all had a lovely week and hope you’re all looking forward to yet another short working week next week!
As always, stay sane, stay healthy, stay happy, and help keep HK clean!
Fist bumps/elbow bumps and love from 1.5m away,
Cait
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