My Yoga Journey during Pregnancy

It is here!  Week 27. The third trimester.  The home stretch…

I promised to share some of my pregnancy tips with you, so I thought it would be a good time to do just that. I am feeling really good these days physically.  I feel like I really owe it to my yoga practice.  Prior to my second pregnancy, yoga was not really a part of my life.  I spent a lot of time working out.  I was training for a half marathon when I found out I was expecting Kaya.  I was running ten miles every Saturday and logging lots of short runs during the week.  I was lifting weights too.  I thought that my fitness was at its peak.  That was until I found out I was pregnant.

I am sure I could have kept up some of my routine, but I just did not have the energy in the first trimester to keep up the intensity of my workouts.  My runs were leaving me physically exhausted instead of energized.  I backed off, and started going to yoga class in my neighborhood.  I immediately fell in love with the practice.  It seemed like no matter how crazy things got at home with my life, that little bit of time on my mat was my own.

I continued to practice almost daily after Kaya was born, often waking up before the sun to fit it in.  I noticed a change in my body too.  I was leaner and stronger than I had ever been as a runner.  Yoga had transformed the way I thought off of the mat too.  I started to care more about what I put in my body and on my skin.  I cared more about the environment.  I started to eat a mostly vegetarian diet, and started this blog about my journey.

Since that time life has taken many twists and turns.  As my daily yoga practice kinda went to the wayside, so did so many other things that I held so dear.  My clean diet slowly got messier, I quit blogging, and I started to feel really depressed at times.  When I found out I was pregnant this past September, I would say I was probably in the worst shape of my life.  I was still walking my dogs a few days a week, but not enough to make an impact.  I had no problem eating at Dairy Queen a few days a week.  We were living in a small farming community, and it is just what everyone did.  I thought I was just fitting in to my new life.

Then my husband heard from an old coworker.  He was at a new job in Dallas, and they were needing geologists.  My husband was working on his family’s ranch, with really no intention of going back and restarting his career at the time.  We thought we were happy.  The opportunity seemed too good though to pass up though.  We are both from Dallas.  I was so excited at the thought of moving home.

Move home we did.  On January 1st of this year.  I set some new goals to get back into shape, and to not use my pregnancy as an excuse to laze around all day any more.  I joined the YMCA.  I have gotten back into my yoga practice, practicing three or four days a week.  I have started fueling my body with clean and healthy food again.  I started taking a barre class and walking my kids to the park on the days that it is nice outside.

Now at 27 weeks into my pregnancy, I am actually stronger now than I was before I was pregnant.  The body is an amazing thing when you treat it the way it deserves.  I feel happier too knowing that by taking care of myself I am also connecting with and nurturing the life inside of me.

Now I do not think I could ever let myself go again.  I have found that by losing my yoga practice, and coming back to it, how important it is to my overall health and happiness.

Have a great week yogis!

XO-Jenny

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