How I overcame Pregnancy Fatigue (Ha! Ha!)

Or how I tried and then failed, and sort of succeeded and then failed and then mostly succeeded!

This is exactly what I felt like!!!

Exercise… yep, my old faithful answer to everything turns out to be right again. I didn't exercise at all for almost 2 months and I was so fatigued walking my dog up the street and back was like running a marathon. I remember working from home taking a 1 hour phone conference and then needing a 20 minute nap just to recover! Me!

I asked my doctor how to overcome the fatigue and he said ‘Girl, you don’t overcome this. You just let this do its thing. You’re building a person. Respect that.” But it just kept getting worse - the more tired I felt, of course, the less active I became. I started wondering if the less active I was becoming was perpetuating the fatigue. I felt like I was losing myself!

Starting Slow

Before Pregnancy -
5 Mile Race

Like I said in a prior post, I’m an active person. I was always working out, hiking, bike riding, or just playing in general. That's me running the 5 mile Vincent Thomas Bridge race. So, doing nothing for months at a time was making me mad. I finally just decided to try and work out. I started by forcing myself on longer walks with my dog and then I started picking up the pace. I chatted with my mom on the phone and as it turns out, 30 minutes started whizzing by.

Yoga! I also signed up for some prenatal yoga classes. But I was only 10 weeks along and not even showing and really I just felt kind of out of place being around all these 20, 30+ week ladies. (Plus, the place I went to was next to door to a kick-boxing school… it’s hard to relax when you keep hearing – “Huh! Huh! Huh!”) I’ll start taking yoga again when this belly of mine pops out… somewhere quiet. I found an awesome Meet-Up for Pregnant Goddess Yoga... I'm so in!

Picking up the pace

I bought Denise Austin’s Cardio Blast. It has two videos, one with weights and one without. I prefer the one without, I can do weights on my own. It’s just a bunch of exercises done in a circuit with a few active recoveries where she focuses on the abs. its only 20 minutes (30 minutes with warm up and cool down and the warm up is pretty invigorating on its own). I’m definitely sweaty when I finish it.

Note: This has a lot of twisting moves in it - which I understand you're not supposed to do the further along you are. I just improvise other fun movements when she twists a lot. 

Pulling out the big guns 

Lastly, I hired a personal trainer. JJ Flizane, owner of Invisible Fitness, worked with me to develop a routine that suits my current needs for keeping in shape, and she will work with me through the pregnancy as routines become harder and I need modifications. I am buying a heart rate monitor and I bought cords that go in your door hinge so I can work out in my living room. My goal is to do cardio three days a week and resistance training (weights) three days a week.

And aren’t goals fun to have, I say sarcastically… The last time JJ trained with me I told her that some of the workouts were really lengthy and I couldn't get through them which in turn frustrated me and then made me pretty much just not do them at all. I was falling back into the tired trend! She asked me if they were too hard… my response, “Right now existing is too hard!”

JJ saves the day! She created three intensities of working out: High energy, medium energy, low energy. On days when I was super tired but still wanted to feel like I accomplished something I would do the low energy routine – basically fewer exercises, fewer reps and lighter resistance. She said doing anything is always better than doing nothing. Even if it’s just 10 minutes…  and it definitely works! If I complete the 10 minute workout at least I feel like I did something, which gives me some modicum of pride, which actually motivates me to do at least the same if not more next time. If being less active makes you more tired, then being more active gives you more energy…

And Now...

First Trimester - Walk/Hiking with
Ma in Santa Cruz!

I definitely don’t work out like I used to.  When I finish I’m obliterated. I used to exercise and that would give me a rush of energy. I would finish a run and then clean my house! Now I exercise and immediately sit on the couch and veg out.

I’m still fatigued but I have so much more energy than I did originally! Of course, I recognize that it could just be my body adjusting on its own and that nothing during that one month period could have saved me… that I only started exercising because I was already starting to snap out of it.

But I like thinking exercise made a difference. I mean, it does in every other aspect of my life, right?!

Bonus Photo - Ma and I at the top of the brutal
peak at Runyon Canyon. Definitely before
Pregnancy!!!