Well it seems like we might be the most blessed couple right now! Dan and I are expecting our first child!
I’ve already been getting lots of questions about how my diet and training will change so I’m glad to fill you in and keep you posted on this amazing journey!
First, I am thankful for the opportunities I have had in the past to work with pregnant women – I have learned so much from Annie, Lyndsay, Winnie, and others, so that even though there’s no way to know what it’s like until you experience it yourself, the background I have in research and real-world training helps me feel more confident going forward myself! Thanks girls!!
Dan and I had been praying for a baby and we knew it could come at any time, so I had already changed my diet to include the necessary supplements (prenatal vitamins, probiotics, and cod liver oil), and I had been working on reducing my intake of coffee and workout supplements.
We were in the middle of the CrossFit Games Open competition series and I started to get a feeling that something was different, my energy levels started to shift, and I found myself feeling more sensitive to hunger. By 17.4 we knew! I was careful to monitor my intensity during the last 2 workouts of the series, and when Dan was yelling at me to keep going during 17.5 all I could think was “does he remember that I’m pregnant?!”
Finishing the Open in the top 500 of Canada East was a big accomplishment for me, especially considering the circumstances, and lead into the perfect time for me to rest and de-load and learn more about this new body of mine!
In the 3 weeks between the Open and our “Babymoon” I got in 6 solid workouts and got to think about and plan what kind of training I really wanted to do while pregnant. After 9 years of CrossFit, I have been relatively injury-free, but I’m sure I have some weaknesses and imbalances. Having jumped right from “outdoor hippy” to CrossFit junkie, I missed a lot of the typical gym exercises – bodybuilding, Globo-Gym, accessory training, etc. that many people did before they started CrossFit.
I have learned so much watching Dan and other trainers at Radix implement single-arm/leg exercises, dumbbell training, banded accessory work, and cable strengthening systems into their clients’ programs, and watched the CrossFit community and workouts evolve from a simple metcon to include many of these same exercises, such as weighted step-ups and front-rack walking lunges, and elite athletes including long slow cardio and banded triceps extensions – stuff the CrossFit community would have laughed at in 2008!
I am going to take this time to learn more about this type of training, and incorporate workouts from strength & accessory work in addition to CrossFit-style conditioning and simple gymnastics, so if you see me doing out-of-character stuff like sitting on a swiss ball or cable chopping on the functional trainer, it’s so that I can be a better coach and learn more about different types of training methodologies, and to build up my “body armour” to be a better athlete down the road!
If you’re interested, I’d love to have you follow along with me @RadixFitBaby on Instagram, and of course I’ll fill you in with Radix Baby Diaries here, too!