I was going to make this in the challenges and countdowns, but don't know if that is the right place. After all, this is in the low-carb support focus group section

I'd like to have a thread pretty much dedicated to goals and challenges for us preggers and new mums. The "are you pregnant and needing help with your goals" is awesome, and this thread can just be a side thread which is more nutrition and physically goal oriented. It has to be sort of open, since we're all going to have different goals - but we're all either pregnant or recently pregnant so that's enough of a common theme.

I'll post again with my own goals from now until the baby's born.. and then whatever they end up being once it's out.

Okay, good idea .

My goals for these last few weeks before the baby is born:
1) Really get back on track with low carbing. I have been indulging way too much on things like ice cream and chocolate and fast food.
2) Get back into doing my prenatal yoga....my DVD is a 50 minute work out. My goal is to do that 2 or 3 times a week...or even spread it out to shorter work outs 4-5 times a week since there are 3 different 15 min sections on the DVD
3) Go swimming when I can.
4) Continue to take walks occasssionally for small shopping trips at the local places around my apartment.
5) I'd really like to lose 10 or 15 lbs before the baby is born. If I do the above goals I believe it will happen.
6) Nutrionally I just need to keep up eating mostly whole foods, lots of fresh fruits and veggies...although not too much fruit, good clean sources of protien from pastured animals, and take my "superfoods' everyday: cod liver oil, dolomite for extra calcium, azomite for minerals, wheat germ oil for vitamin e, acerola for vitamin c, and nutrional yeast for b vits. Natural Calm as needed for magnesium when I have legs cramps and back ache.

I think these are good realistic goals.

My goals for the remaining time of being pregnant:

1. Continue to do well w/ diet and exercise so my insulin dose doesn't increase.
2. Lose a few more pounds so I'm solidly under 290 on delivery day.
3. 5000 steps minimum a day.
4. Make the healthiest choices I can with regards to food, drink, activity, etc at least 80% of the time.
5. Enjoy and treasure the remaining time I harbor this new life in my body, even when the little sh*t is dancing on my bladder so bad that I have to buy stock in Scott toilet tissue, or when my pelvis feels like it's about to split in two, or I get winded walking up a flight of stairs or getting up from the couch, or when he's practicing Karate or Jujitsu on my uterus and any other organs he's able to reach from in there, or when I nearly pass out during sex because I can't get air in my squashed lungs, or when .... ....

... ahem ...

That's it for now, gotta go to the bathroom again.

ok last few weeks (grumble, it's so much more exciting to plan for in a few months when I am a normal human being again who can DO STUFF)

-Take a bike ride every day - nothing extreme, still getting my soft heavy butt used to the bike seat
-do my strength training exercises daily, again, nothing where I'm trying to build muscle but I want my body to be used to going through the motions for when real training starts again. I set up the weight bench up because I'm not strong enough to do bodyweight stuff any more like pushups etc.
-I forgot I was going to weigh this morning, will do it now. I think to lose at least 1 kg by the time baby's born would be good, it would stop the upward trend. I haven't been terribly hungry and prone to massive binges lately, the way I was throughout most of the preg. and it's lead me to be a lot more relaxed with my food choices that I should be because I'm just eating a normal portion and don't feel out of control. So.. 2 times a week I'll eat something that is for pleasure (like.. french toast) rather than nutrition. Will also write down everything I eat. I really have to find a food scale somewhere!
-eat my fish oil, eggs and raw milk daily.

LOL #5 Carbjunky!

Hum, I'm going to really have to think about my goals. Life has been so hard lately. So I will go with my most important at the moment, and maybe I will add later.
1. Get my carb intake under control so I can be happy with my BS results. Dr. is happy I am not because I know I can do better.
2. Start workouts again, I have been so tired from bronchitis and suffering with migraines that it has been nonexistant. Tomorrow will be the first day below 80 and I plan on a walk in the morning... outside to enjoy the air.
3 Continue taking calcium and Magnesium everynight, I need the supplements since Milk spikes my BS nearly 20 points at the 2 hour mark. Mag, helps with other problems that come my way.
4. Spend more time with Kendra so when the baby comes it will be easier to read with her and do things she likes so the transition is not too hard on her.
5. Think positive thoughts everyday. I have been very negative lately and feeling very down about myself in many aspects and I need to feed myself spiritually as well as physically, so I'm emotionally stable when this baby comes.
6. Love my family more on a daily basis so they know their mom and wife is not a complete basket case.
Tanya

ok, starting now I am not going to eat any grains whatsoever until Andy gets back (then I get a sample, but can't go back to eating them). They're a problem. Once he gets home I've got to cut out the sugar too, I started eating tiny bits of it, here and there in tea and drinks and I think it's getting a little out of hand now.

I managed to go for a walk today with Kendra and could only do about 1/3 of my normal route. I was so weak and tired. I can tell that I'm still working on getting better. Will keep at it though.
Tanya

Okay, so I decided I'm going to join Meg in her no grain adventure. My goal is to go without grains of any kind until a week from tomorrow then I will allow myself something so I don't go nutty, and then set a new goal from there. So that's until Sept 9th. I'm writing this as I am toasting bread for my son, it smells good. But I will be content with my veggie juice, veggie soup and a boiled egg

I wasn't content. I bought an emergency ration of rollss.. for toasting in the oven, only because I had a scare on the weekend where I physically felt almost unable to go to the store (it was more mental though) and I was like, OMG what if I can't get out for 3 days.. I won't have food... (remember our kitchen is new and not full of "stuff" the way kitchens normally get after a long time) so I went to the store and bought a few things intending on keeping them around to tide me over should things get to that point. Things like.. the rolls, frozen french fries - the fresh potatoes were in large bags and since I ride my bike to the store and have a wee basket on the back, and a backpack.. they were too heavy for me, and a few other things. Anyway - the point is that the little rolls started to be eaten. And this morning I had one for breakfast with an obscene amount of butter on it, and some brie and that dried cured paperthin ham stuff that is sort of like prosciutto.

Yesterday my activity was pretty good. I didn't actually do a weight workout, but I carried a bunch of heavy (heavy for me right now) things up from the basement, did several loads of laundry and had to go up and down the stairs a whole bunch of times, and moved around a lot of stuff in the appartment in order to clear my bedroom of "piles" of things. I'm trying to get all of the piles into two rooms and then a couple of little piles in the hallway by the time Andy gets home, so that the place looks very clean and inviting.

Today - with the exception of the roll - my food is planned out nicely, and I'll be riding my bike around to several stores AND I really want to do a little bit of weights for my upper back. The weight bench is set up for a bench press, but my chest is so heavy that the back needs the work...any tightening of the chest muscles at this point before strengthening my back, will just contribute to rounded shoulders and poor posture. Man I can't wait until the time comes when I can get a tiny chest. I've never been flat, but did get down to a larger B once, which on my frame - tall and broad is pretty small - and it was heaven. I had a guy (x-boyfriend of a friend of mine) put me down when we were chatting on the phone about my pregnancy several months ago...I was joking about how one of the ways I knew was preg. was out of nowhere my boobs exploded and became enormous. He was very condescending and said and then after I'm done breastfeeding they'll be flat little pancakes. I was like, and that's a bad thing? I'm done with breasts after having these things! As long as my nipples work I'm happy.

Ok, enough rambling. I'm putting of getting dressed and getting out to the stores.

So, I haven't done so well with my goal of no grains. I had a slice of toasted sprouted bread today with butter. I have been doing better though. Not having as much anyhow.

I haven't been exercising either. I mean, I am soooo tired by the end of the day. I've been nesting like crazy. I've been out shopping every day getting things we need before the baby arrives, cooking and freezing food, organizing things in the house. Today I got my food from the farm co-op and it was 4 boxes, 3 of which were extemely heavy (they contained milk and meat). It took me probably 7 or 8 trips total to get it all upstairs because I had to open the boxes and take stuff up little by little in bags. Plus I had to keep getting my toddler back inside becaue he kept creeping outside in his birthday suit .That was my exercise for today I really should at least do 15 minutes of yoga. That would be better than nothing. That's what I will shoot for tonight.

Gosh, it was so nice this morning. I took my 2 yr old with me this morning to go to the thrift store and to Jiffy Lube to get oil changed and stuff, and when I came back I was surprised to find my husband already awake and ready for work, and cooking scrambled eggs for breakfast! I then proceeded to eat my breakfast while in the bath tub because my lower back was aching, and he brought me some Natural Calm drink to help with that. It was such a nice surprise, it made me feel very loved .

And hopefully DH will make his famous pork chops for dinner tonight...he makes them very well and he enjoys cooking them. That with my low-carb veggie soup I've been liking lately will make a good healthy dinner.

I haven't been doing well either. I had the flu the past few days, and a migraine that lasted 3 or 4 days, last week so no workouts. I have tried walking but it is still too hot here for me to enjoy the walks outside with my baby. The past few days have been well above 90, when usually this time of year it is the low 80's, not that I like that much better, but then the mornings are cooler to go for a nice walk.
I have to figure out what I can eat, and what I want to eat because I really don't have anything in the house for me. I found it was so hard to buy stuff just for me because then my kids thought it was special stuff and they should have that as well as what I buy for them, so then I would feel selfish in not sharing. YUCK.
Tanya

Well this was encouraging

As your post was meant to be? This thread is so that we can post, be honest, share our needs and ideas/goal and encourage each other.. sarcasm doesn't help when you're emotional, frustrated, unable to get comfortable in any position and feel like you're going to split apart when you walk - as the people in here are experiencing in their last weeks of pregnancy.

Tigersue I hear your frustration on the heat!!! Even when slim and in top sports shape (as opposed to a roundie with a beach ball in front shape like now heheh) the heat kills me. I refuse to go out unless I have to because it's just so miserable, it feels "wrong" somehow... unhealthy lol, like eating icecream. Or maybe that's just me and my nordic/celtic background without melanin speaking.

Don't have any advice for the kids.. sorry! Do you take them grocery shopping with you? What about telling them you're getting some things "just for you" because you need to "be healthy" especially since you're pregnant. And then offering them a couple of their "own" special things that you can help them choose. That way they've seen your particular food and if they whine about getting any it's their problem, you've been fair - and they also have their own little things so that they don't feel left out. I get annoyed when people eat my diet food. I used to travel to my grandparents a LOT, like every month and stay there for a bit with DH. My grandmother was dying to buy us food but we liked to buy our own because a) we didn't want to be leeches and b) we liked our stuff better and c) we liked to get pricier stuff from the ethnic specialty shops rather than the standard north american crap white bread and whatever d) I would usualy TRY to maintain some semblance of healthy eating, at least at first. Anyway, the family - my uncles and aunts, grown up successful people with their own houses nearby would come over and make a beeline to the fridge and raid OUR food. The expensive stuff... if would drive me nuts because we're the ones travelling up there, on our time and money and it's to see my grandparents NOT to buy them food AND we're "the kids" why are we feeding them? Lol I don't know where this came from sorry!!

So. The day before yesterday I had a great workout and a little too much carbs.
Yesterday I was super sleepy all day and had a REAL feel sorry for myself and cry day. I was so weepy.. everything made me cry and feel like it was the end of the world. I placated myself with many carbs. But they were so delicious My first batch was a big bowl of oatmeal with sugar and butter. Second were some dumplings in my pfifferlinge sahne sauce.. and then it was a couple of tiny potatoes drenched with butter and salt. People think it's a great thing I've "gone off" sweet for this pregnancy but it appears I've over compensated with the salty fat starch.

Today I am in good spirits. Having tea and peaches w/cream for breakfast.. not long after will workout, making it a little harder than last time and my mother in law is coming this afternoon to take me shopping. <cheering> we'll get a portable tape player so that I can listen to the birthing course a friend lent me. My husband is the gadget man, we have so many gizmos and high tech gadgets that I don't even bother to KNOW what we actually have.. yet I have nothing to listen to a tape on heheh. And his boss is turning out to be the ultimate resource here!! He has led me to raw milk, farms with fresh healthy meat so that after the pregnancy I can eat raw meat again, his brother in law gave us a gorgeous kid's solid wood bedroom set: a bed, 2 shelves, a wardrobe, a dresser, a little thing with drawers and 2 desks.... AND now a baby bed too that he (the boss not the BIL) actually slept in as a baby but with a new mattress.
Enough rambling for now. I'm happy to have enough energy for a workout. They're pretty tiny at this point: 1 arm dumbell rows, shoulder presses, calf raises, squats with my back on the exercise ball against the wall, leg lifts, various pelvic stuff which sort of resembles bellydance. and.. I don't know what else, I'll see after today.

Yeah Meg, I take my kids with me. This has been going on ever since I started low carbing, I think a lot of it is the idea that it seems to be "special" food. For the most part I don't cook any different for my family than I do for me. Example if we have hamburgers they get the bread I eat it with out, so it goes ok. I try to limit the treats and snacks I get them, but they seem to love the "expensive stuff I get" including almonds, and other nuts. So I have to start buying for them what I do me, and they have to understand that what they used to get I wont get because money is an issue. We have plenty for our needs, but I try not to overdue what I get them. It becomes a juggling act of sorts at times. Part of being a mom, and battleing weight problems all my life. My biggest fear is if they feel that they don't have the occassional treat, or something special they will binge, and that will lead to future problems, I know that is something of my problem, the idea of being deprived, when in reality I'm not in anyway shape or form. I get a kick out of you talking about your family, we all have gems in some way shape or form. LOL
Anyway, you are getting closer, and good luck in the next few days to couple of weeks. when you hit that 37 week mark it really starts to set in that boy this baby could come anytime now, am I really ready for this. Then again I have been thinking that since I found out I was expecting this time. I have no clue as to how I'm going to handle two babies 17 1/2 months apart.
I'm working on the positive aspects of my goals, the positive thinking, paying attention to my family, working on controling my temperment, (it has been very volitile this pregnancy, probably due to my anxiety as much as hormones), and increasing my spirituality, something very important to me, and I hope will help combat any post partum depression.
Tanya

I don't mean to barge in on your thread. I just wanted to add that I have tons of respect for you here. I am currently trying to lose weight..but now we are also thinking of having another child. We currently have 5..4 boys and 1 girl. I think I want another and yet after working so hard on my weight the thought of gaining again scares me. you know? Any suggestions as to not gaining too much in pg? Again..sorry for barging in. You are both heading into a wonderful and trying time. good luck and hugs.

Janel