When I first found out I was pregnant I had a range of emotions sweep over me. There was, of course, the expected excitement, but mixed in was also the fear of the unknown. It is such a momentous change and you know your life will never quite be the same again.
As much as it shames me to admit it, I must concede that one of my greatest fears at that time was how pregnancy was going to alter the look of my body. I have always had a fairly easy time of maintaining my weight, but being in my thirties and generally quite lazy when it comes to exercise, I did not know if I would be able to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and shape after the birth of my baby. I also have an abnormally large sweet tooth (for ice cream and chocolate in particular) and pregnancy was, by no means, helping to curb that.
In the two years preceding, I had discovered Pilates. A long time hater of all forms of exercise, Pilates was a fantastic breakthrough for me. I do not enjoy going to the gym, loathe team sports and was blessed with a complete lack of coordination. Pilates was something I could do from home that toned my muscles, made me feel strong and worked with my one physical asset – flexibility. You could say that it had really transformed the look of my body. It had given me an incredibly hard, flat stomach and long lean thigh and bun muscles that no amount of sit-ups and walking had ever achieved for me before.
Pregnancy, I feared though, might derail my Pilates experience, for nine months or so at least. Would I be able to get all of that back after such a long time off? So I asked my doctor and he told me that as long as I was feeling fine, I could continue on with my current exercise routine. In fact, he recommended that I try to stay in shape. I was happy, but doubtful that I would be able to keep it up for very long. The more I researched and read about Pregnancy Pilates though, the more I discovered that it is one of the best forms of exercise out there for pregnant women! It really builds and maintains the core muscles that are so necessary for carrying around a growing baby. It is also great to have those muscles toned up for labour and for getting back in shape after.
I kept up my routine for about six months of my pregnancy, modified it for months seven and eight and took the last month off because the belly was too big by then. Only minutes after the birth of my beautiful daughter the nurse commented on how flat my stomach was again. It only took about two more weeks for the muscles to pull back in and look flat again. After about six weeks I resumed my Pilates routine and began to tone the muscles back up. Now my stomach looks just as it did pre-pregnancy and I owe it all to Pregnancy Pilates!
