How I Started Running (While Pregnant)

I don't have much of a story yet because this is all so new, but I would be glad to tell you how it got started. Once upon a time... oh wait, it was actually like this.  Back in January, when I was less than 20 weeks pregnant, I decided that I needed to turn this life around.  I weighed 175 pounds and was really not looking forward to gaining up to 200 pounds and then needing to lose that much weight to return to a healthy BMI.  See, I never lost the weight from baby number two (even though I had more than ample time to do so) before getting pregnant again.  My frame is much more content at 120 pounds and let me just say the way things were headed was t-r-o-u-b-l-e.  

So I talked to my mom, who is a registered dietitian, and basically said "HELP!"  She worked with me to design a healthy pregnancy eating plan that would lead to enough nutrition for the baby, without excess weight gain for me. Sounds good right?  Now I just had to follow it.  But the funny thing was I did follow it!  I actually started doing the right thing with my eating habits and stuck to my plan.  If you know me (which you all will if you follow this blog long enough), you know that following a diet is very hard for me and I tend to be an emotional eater (and every other kind of eater) who adores food.  But never-the-less I was totally doing this.

Fast forward to March and I was still doing fabulous on my eating plan.  I saw that Disney had just hosted this amazing event called the Disney Princess Half Marathon, and for some reason I just knew that in 2013 that was going to be me racing across the finish line.  I don't know what hit me?  I mean, at this point I was about 24 weeks pregnant and was not exercising at all (save chasing my two daughters around).  But just like I seemed to be able to control my eating for the first time in who knows how long, I decided that I was going to run this race.  I didn't even ask my husband... I just knew it was my race.  My race?  How weird does that sound because I was a non-exerciser!!!

I asked my husband (actually, I rarely see my husband because he is a resident physician so I posted that I wanted to do this on facebook).  He commented back that if I was seriously going to train for it that he would pay my way, take time off of work and watch the kids so I could go get this one.  I was blown away!  Really, I knew inside that I could do this and my husband just told me that I was totally free to go and get my dream.  Nothing was going to hold me back.

But wait, I'm pregnant right?  This might seem like a rather strange time to train for a race but at the same time there is nothing wrong with deciding at any moment that you are going to become a healthier person... and so that is where I set my goal during pregnancy.  I want to get myself back to healthy, from rather blah, so that after my post partum 6 weeks are over I am ready to jump in and train for real.  So that is where I am at right now.  I am pregnant.  I am training myself to be healthy.  I am exercising.  I am eating well.  And I'll see how far this takes me!  I know one thing... in February 2013 it will be taking me across the finish line of the Disney Princess Half Marathon.

◆ Want to see my training log? All those pregnancy workouts - eek! CLICK HERE