pregnancy cravings + "workouts"

the foods.

this pregnancy is very different from my first. granted, i was quite ill with ulcerative colitis during that pregnancy, but still. with my now 2 year old, i gained about 28lbs, had minimal morning sickness, and craved mostly salty & spicy things to eat. cravings with him went something like this:

• potato chips
• peperoni pizza + jalapeños 
• crispy peperoni
• sriracha on anything/everything
• sea salt on anything/everything
• jalapeño potato chips
• jimmy john's tuna salad unwich + spicy peppers
• french fries

now, i didn't eat these things constantly--i just WANTED them constantly. 

this go around, i'm much healthier than before thanks to new meds, i've gained more at 7mo than i did my ENTIRE last pregnancy (and still growing), had increased morning sickness that has returned for the 3rd trimester (hooray), and crave mostly sweet / sour things. though, truth be told, this mama is one hungry hippo and will eat pretty much anything that is put in front of me. most oft craved foods this cycle: 

• Nerds, Nerds rope, anything Nerds.

• Sour Patch Kids. 
• dark chocolate salted caramels from Whole Foods (THE DEVIL I TELL YOU)
• peanut butter and chocolate melted together in the microwave
• Wendy's chocolate frosty
• garlic mashed potatoes
• lemon juice. i may have desperately squeezed the juice of an entire lemon into my mouth whilst leaning over the sink during one particular nap time. hypothetically. 

• tuna salad on spinach with lots of black olives

• wasabi flavored seaweed chips

again. things i crave, not necessarily things i eat all the time. i have had each of them at least once, though, and daydream about nerds pretty much constantly. 

the 'workouts'

workouts gets real quotes and air quotes. i did really well doing either jogging, the elliptical, or the spin bike 3-5x per week plus weight training 2-3x per week and prenatal yoga 1x week up until about 2 weeks ago, ~31 weeks along. 'tis a far cry from IM training, but still quite active, when you consider i also spend 8+ hrs a day chasing around a FAST, never-stationary 2 year old.

then came the hot-poker-to-the-vagina/cervix (i can't really tell?) - pains. everything is fine, kid is just sitting low and bounces up and down on my ladyparts. and boyhowdy, that gets my attention. since these pains only happen during jogging, fast walking, and the elliptical, i've been forced to spend most of my time on the spin bike. i can't ride my bike on the trainer bc the belly is too big and i ninja-kick it with my knees. i can't ride the regular upright spin bikes bc my ass is so damn huge/heavy that my whole lower body falls asleep within 15 minutes, which is (surprise) counterproductive. so basically i ride the dorky recumbent bike ~3x week, stretch, do weights 3x week, and go to prenatal yoga 1x week. 

i've tried barre a couple of times this pregnancy, and it makes me feel super strong, but so many of the poses are non-pregger friendly or require such extensive modification that it's getting to be not worth the trouble for now. i've got a great DVD that i plan on using for the post-babe toning. 

post babe plan?

i've been thinking (read: obsessing) lately about my hugeness and how i will get back into shape after the babe. i'll probably do some sort of low carb, paleoesque, whole30ish type approach to food at first. walking, barre and the elliptical will be my go to exercises until i get the go ahead to run around 6 weeks. 

and if all goes well with recovery, weight loss, breastfeeding, rearing two chiclets at the same time (no big, right???!), etc., then i'll even try to train for a fall half marathon. Cape Cod Half Marathon is on my radar. i'll either be posting about it in october, or posting a self-effacing excerpt about how overly ambitious/optimistic/ridiculous i was (am) being in this post.