Hi everyone! Apologies for the slight hiatus but I have been updating my website for the past few weeks. FYI you can now shop both mine and Mila’s favourite pieces in the relevant shop sections of my site – I will try to update this as often as possible and add styles that I love.
These images were taken when I was around 8 months pregnant and I’m not sure why I never shared them before. I don’t tend to blog about fitness as Im not an expert and just assumed you all followed me for my fashion pics but after many of you asked me about my pre and post-natal fitness regime I figured it was about time I do a post about it. So here goes…
I’ve been very active and into exercise for many years mainly because I love the feeling I get after a good workout. Before getting pregnant especially in the lead up to my wedding I was working out 4-5 times a week. So when I found out I was pregnant I didn’t see any need to stop working out. I wouldn’t suggest that anyone take up a new sport during pregnancy, but if you are used to working out then there is no need to stop. Just listen to your body! I had quite bad morning sickness in the beginning and honestly working out was one of the only things that made me feel like myself. I go to Lomax in Chelsea as they have amazing classes, and I also have a membership at Grace Belgravia which is great for when I want to work out by myself. For the first few months of pregnancy I continued going to all of the classes I was used to going to (mainly high intensity circuit training) but at around 5 months I decided it was better that I get a personal trainer. Its obviously pricey but I think if you can stretch to it then its worth the investment. If not then its totally fine to go to classes but just make sure you always tell your instructor you are pregnant – most are trained in pre-natal fitness so they can adapt the exercises for you. For those asking about my diet, on an average day I start the day off with coffee (yes I drank one coffee a day throughout my pregnancy!) and an omelette or scrambled eggs with toast. For lunch I usually have some kind of substantial salad (I love quinoa and buckwheat) and for dinner some sort of meat with carbs. But I was definitely more lax about my diet during pregnancy – I ate pizza and pasta more than I normally would because I craved carbs. And ice-cream! I loved having ice-cream. But I didn’t suddenly eat for two – I don’t think thats particularly healthy for you or your baby! Basically I believe that anything in moderation is fine. I worked out 2-3 times a week: usually I had 2 personal training sessions a week and then I worked out by myself on a cross-trainer for 40 mins once a week (just making sure that my heart rate never went above a certain level – this is different for everyone so you would need to find out what is the correct level for you!) Im not going to list the exercises I did because quite frankly I have such baby brain at the moment that I wouldn’t remember half of them anyway but basically most exercises are fine. Lunges, squats, rows. I didn’t do any running or anything that involved jumping as I didn’t feel comfortable with that but I am sure running is fine too! I think these days pregnant women are often treated as though they are so fragile but it is a very natural state for a woman to be in so I was always quite relaxed about the whole thing. I worked out right up until around 2 weeks before giving birth at which point my walk was replaced by a waddle, Mila was constantly kicking me in the ribs and I decided that I really deserved a break! I’m not sure if being fit helped with my labour, but it certainly helped with recovery post-birth.
I didn’t really have a plan for what I would do post-birth. I wasn’t sure how I would feel. Turns out I didn’t really want to sit at home (it helped that it was summertime!) so I spent the first month going for really long walks with Mila every day. Many of you asked how I lost my weight and the answer is a) trust me I haven’t lost all the baby weight and b) I can only assume its down to a combination of diet, exercise and breastfeeding. The breastfeeding definitely helped! I continued training 5 weeks postpartum because I felt ready but I am still doing it at a slower pace even now 3 months later. This week I have started trying to step it up a notch so have gone to classes (pilates, dance, circuit training, anything really!) every day. I’m not sure we ever fully get our bodies back to how they were before but I think thats ok! My belly button looks totally different now to how it was pre-birth but every time I look at it I am reminded of Mila and I love that – a little bit of me changed while creating her.
In other news Alex & Alexa have done a lovely piece on me – read it here.