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Congratulations, you’re pregnant! NOW, WHAT?!

If you look online, you’ll be bombarded with well-meaning fitness advice from well-intentioned trainers. This is not the time to put your body in the hands of an amateur. If we were friends (and I hope someday we will be!), here’s what I’d tell you:

1. Immediately upon the egg implanting into your womb, your vessels experience dilation. But, you have the same amount of blood coursing through these now larger vessels which can...

“To Everything (turn, turn, turn) there is a season (turn, turn, turn). A time to gain, a time to lose.”

The Byrds were first to remind us, and then the migrating geese, and finally the Fall trees shedding their leaves are one final reminder that “letting go” is part of the natural order of things.  We humans don’t embrace change nearly as easily.

And from my experience, the same applies to women and their exercise regimens. It can be hard to let go of the...

What if I told you there was a magic “elixir” with no side effects that you could take in pregnancy that might help reduce backaches, constipation, bloating, and swelling.

It may help prevent or even treat gestational diabetes.

While it could increase your energy, it will also help you sleep better at night.

Oh, and it will decrease your chances of requiring a Cesarean section, may decrease your postpartum recovery time and prevent depressive episodes in the postpartum period?...

On July 22nd I will turn 40.  I typically don’t make a big deal out of my birthday and don’t particularly enjoy being in the spotlight.  This year, I do feel like celebrating though.  More of a quiet, introspective celebration of all that I have learned (and have yet to learn) and all that I have to be grateful for.  

Here’s what I have learned:

1. You can’t depend on someone else to make you happy.  You have to learn all the big and...

Diastasis Rectus Abdominus is an abnormal separation of the rectus abdominus (“6-pack”) muscles that occur from the excessive, repetitive force on the connective tissue of the abdominal wall.  While this condition is not unique to the pregnant individual, pregnant women are more vulnerable to this condition due to their hormonal environment combined with the excessive forward pressure placed on the connective tissue from the growing uterus.  Some statistics report that...

In Week 3 of my Postnatal Pilates class our topic is “Let’s Talk About Sex (after) Baby.” The reasons most women don’t want to have intercourse or don’t enjoy intercourse can usually be broken down into 3 main categories: 
Pain
Emotional Factors, and
Core Changes and Feeling stretched out “down there”

Let’s start with pain. Usually, pain is the result of decreased lubrication, scar issues, skin disorders or infection, and/or tight pelvic...

My 6 year old son recently celebrated 100 years of school in his Kindergarten class.  They were allowed to dress up like 100 year old people, and they were asked to bring in 100 items for counting and math practice (he chose cotton balls).  He was so excited to show me the paper he worked on, outlining all the things he will do when he is 100 years old.  In addition to having “gray hair”, a “beard” and a “mustache” (a very hairy 100 year old...

Menopause is diagnosed retrospectively 12 months after the last menstruation and occurs on average at the age of 52 in the United States.

Perimenopause is the time prior to menopause that can start in a woman’s 40s and last 6 years or longer. Because women are living a third of their lives AFTER menopause, it serves them well to take stock of how they are treating their body leading up to this transition so they can make some changes to be optimally healthy heading into menopause.

Many...

In a fascinating post by writer, blogger, and brain injury survivor Debbie Hampton, I learned that a thought is an electrochemical event taking place in your nerve cells producing a cascade of physiological changes.  

There are thousands of receptors on each cell of our body that are receptive to one particular peptide or “juice” from a thought.

When we have feelings of doubt, fear, joy, anger these “juices” flow throughout the body and connect with those matching...

I love the Pilates mermaid stretch!  It accomplishes so many things for my pregnant mamas, it feels so good, and it’s such a pretty move.  This is perfect for pregnant women who feel they are “running out of room” in their torso.  

It’s also a lovely exercise for pregnant women experiencing numbness and tingling in the upper extremities (once more serious nerve involvement has been ruled out).  While we most often think of these symptoms as relating...