Change your mindset

So Pregnancy is an AMAZING thing! I mean you are creating a human inside of you! Your body also goes through some crazy changes though.  I mean your blood volume increases, you gain 30+ pounds in 9 months, and if you are like me you have boobs for this first time :-). Pregnancy can also be an emotional time- and not just the joy of creating your baby.  For many women, their first pregnancy is hard to understand all the physical changes happening. You get soft and just look like you have gained weight for about the first 4 months or so.  You may be seeing numbers on the scale that you have never seen before, and even though you know it is all for a good cause, you are secretly freaking out inside about these new changes to your body! Then you continue to get bigger and bigger no matter how clean you eat and how much you work out.  I think this is why it is so easy to "let yourself go" during pregnancy.  It's easy to say well I'm going to be huge anyways so I might as well take a break from working out and eat what I want to when I want to.  Unfortunately, when this happens the road to recovery postpartum is much harder and longer.  Your baby is only 6-10 lbs at birth and you are left with whatever other weight you put on during pregnancy.  Don't get me wrong, I definitely am more lenient with what I eat during pregnancy and do not exercise as intensely, but I still eat clean 80% of the time and keep my body moving.  I think this has helped not only my postpartum recoveries but also by births.  I also think at times, why am I eating so clean and exercising, I just keep getting bigger!!! If you have been in the mindset of just eating well and exercising to look a certain way I encourage you to change your mindset.  Start thinking about being healthy instead of a certain size.  When you are making food choices ask yourself "is this healthy?" "what can this food do for my body?" This applies to anyone, pregnant or not.  It is easy to get discouraged and give up when you don't see results right away on the scale, but I encourage you to focus on being healthy and making healthy choices.  The weight will follow!