6 Things You NEED To Know To Beat Morning Sickness and Stay on Top of Your Fitness During Pregnancy!
beat morning sickness with fitness during pregnancy
One of the worst things about the first trimester is morning sickness. Although this should be a joyful time, morning sickness can put a real damper on your elation and scupper all thoughts of following a good pregnancy diet and exercise plan out the window!
The problem is that you know that this is a crucial stage in your pregnancy and that you should be doing everything you can to maximise your pregnancy fitness including doing your pregnancy exercise routine regularly and following a healthy nutrition plan for pregnancy, so you can be sure you are providing your baby with everything he needs for healthy development; but that horrible metallic taste in the back of your throat makes even water taste odd!
Fortunately it doesn’t last forever and most morning sickness tends to abate around week 14, but still when you’re only in week 8 that’s a hell of a long time to wait to get your pregnancy nutrition on track!
So what can you do? Well there are tons of different remedies around but none of these are proven to work; in fact most are based on old wives tales, (which is not always a bad thing), and it’s pot luck when it comes to finding something that works for you.
So it makes more sense to understand the causes of morning sickness before you go trying every potion, concoction and lotion around to beat the pregnancy blues.
Here’s what happens:
1.Morning sickness is one of the symptoms of vascular underfill. When your fertilised egg implants into the wall of your womb, it sends out hormonal signals to the rest of your body. These signals command your vascular system to expand in size and it literally doubles its capacity overnight.
2.Blood Volume does not double overnight. So you suddenly have half empty veins and low blood pressure, i.e. vascular underfill which makes you feel sick and fatigued.
3.Morning sickness can start a vicious circle of events that lead to more morning sickness. You see, when you are feeling sick from the vascular underfill you need to eat to provide adequate nutrients for the production of blood cells, but because you are feeling sick, you avoid food.
4.Next your blood sugar drops – making you feel more sick, more fatigued and less like eating. Pregnancy nutrition is out the window and your morning sickness gets worse.
5.All of a sudden your body realises that it hasn’t been fed and shouts for a quick sugar fix. You kindly oblige with a chocolate bar, packet of chips or some other unsupportive food and your insulin shoots through the roof. As soon as the sugar is metabolised your blood sugar drops rapidly and leaves you feeling sick.
6.Now your body is severely lacking the nutrients it needs to nurture your baby and provide for its safe development. One of the key nutrients within the first 13 weeks is Vitamin B6, which incidentally helps control morning sickness. But as you have no intention of following your pregnancy nutrition plan just yet, the morning sickness carries on in force.
So now you know what is causing it what do you need to do?
1.Eat Regularly
2.Eat nutrient dense foods
3.Get a lot of rest
4.Make your body as efficient as possible at using energy from your food through regular resistance based pregnancy exercise, (it also diverts blood flow away from the stomach, alleviating morning sickness).
5.Eat protein with every meal to keep your stomach fuller for longer and avoid sharp rises and falls in blood sugar
6.Drink a lot of water to avoid dehydration which can add to feelings of morning sickness
This is not a quick fix! You will feel better within just a couple of days but you need to be consistent with these steps through your first trimester to keep morning sickness at bay!
