Pregnancy Archives

5 REASONS TO INVEST IN YOURSELF PRE-PREGNANCY

Posted by glow on 1 December 2022 | Featured

When creating GLOW, our founder, Giorgina Slotar quite literally drew a circle divided into three equal parts. (Bear with us). The top part of the circle focused on pre-pregnancy, the next became pregnancy, and the final section was destined to be postpartum. These formed a cycle, with postpartum heading back into the pre-pregnancy phase again.

It all starts with you…

YOU are the pre-pregnancy phase. As the life source to yourself, you are the most important person to prioritise before going into the phases that follow. If you’re going to meet the demands of each phase (pregnancy and postpartum), you need to lay the right foundation during the pre-pregnancy phase.

Need a little more convincing? Here are our top five reasons to invest in pre-pregnancy:

Our three-prong approach sets us apart. It’s what makes GLOW different from the other apps focused only on pregnancy and postpartum. Don’t get us wrong, there are so many great ones out there. Sadly, we find they’re missing the crucial point of educating women on the importance of investing in and putting ourselves and our health first prior to considering a family. Why? When you do this, not only are you both mentally and physically preparing yourself for this next phase, but you are investing and creating your own internal support structure that will see you through your pregnancy and postpartum, too.

1. Your PRE baby health = your POST baby health

Investing in your pre-pregnancy health and wellness is essentially opening the most important savings account you’ll ever own… a health investment account!

Any sweat “equity” you invest pre-pregnancy builds a cardiovascular and strength blueprint for you to draw from in the coming stages. Think of each workout and nutritious meal as a deposit into this very important account. As you enter your postpartum journey, when you are ready to start your recovery journey, it’ll be more manageable as you get back into exercise. You’ll also be able to recover from exercise with ease and continue to build (yes, build) upon the health platform that you’ve already created pre-pregnancy. As for all of those deposits that you made pre-pregnancy, you don’t lose those either. They’re ready and waiting for you to cash in on postpartum to make the transition into motherhood so much easier as they are going to be your fallback in the weeks that you shouldn’t even be contemplating exercise.

Your sweat “equity” will make you less prone to soreness and injury, so the more exercise you do pre-pregnancy, the more memory you can bank and the easier it becomes to make deposits during pregnancy and beyond.

2. You increase your chances of conceiving

When you get into the best and healthiest shape prior to thinking about trying to conceive, it allows your body the chance to actually prioritize conception. Our bodies are creatures of survival and if you are unwell or even just simply not in your best health – it becomes your body’s first priority to deal with whatever stress it is under: illness, fatigue due to incorrect nutrition, lack of sleep and even over-training to name a few. So developing a healthy, balanced and sustainable approach is key.

3. You can create the healthiest home for your baby to develop in

Your little one’s foundation of health starts within his or her very first home – your womb. Creating a healthy home for your little one to grow in for the first 9 months of development is simply crucial. So even if getting into shape and health isn’t first on your list of personal priorities, it should be number one on your priority list for your future baby.

4. You are able to continue exercising throughout your pregnancy

We see it often with women that fall pregnant and have led pretty sedentary lives up until their pregnancy. They suddenly get a bee in their bonnet to “hit the gym” now that they are expecting, as they are worried about gaining too much weight throughout their pregnancy. This is a very important point to come to terms with: you can only continue to train at the level you were training at PRIOR to falling pregnant. Therefore, if you were not training prior to pregnancy, you should not train hard during. This doesn’t mean that you can’t do low-key exercises such as walking and supervised pilates, but you cannot suddenly start hitting the gym full steam ahead. If you have established a healthy exercise routine prior to pregnancy, providing you have no complications, you can train right up until the end at a maintenance level if you are comfortable and energetic enough!

*Maintenance level: No harder than you were training prior to pregnancy, while making the correct adjustments as you move through your trimesters. This is why the GLOW pregnancy programme is broken down into trimesters: to account for the changes your body goes through at each stage.

5. You will feel better about yourself during pregnancy, reducing your chances of postpartum depression

Being able to train throughout pregnancy will increase your mood, due to the positive release of endorphins. These will encourage healthier eating habits and enable greater control when it comes to gaining unnecessary weight throughout your pregnancy. This makes it easier to get your strength back postpartum, reducing your chances of postpartum depression, often linked to a mother’s lack of self-esteem post pregnancy due to changes in our bodies and a feeling of not knowing ourselves anymore.

Become the best version of yourself at every phase with GLOW

Ready to embrace your strength, enjoy greater health and prepare yourself for the greatest journey of all? It’s time to get GLOWing. Unlock your free trial now and join our all-inclusive community today.

8 PREGNANCY MYTHS UNCOVERED

Posted by glow on 1 December 2022 | Featured

1. Now that you’re pregnant you need to eat for two.

FALSE: The notion that expectant moms need to double up on their daily food intake is completely incorrect, as you do not need to meet the caloric needs of another fully grown person. All that needs to be consumed is 300 extra calories daily, which amounts to an additional balanced meal. It can actually prove detrimental to the health of mother and baby if you eat too much, as this can contribute to excessive weight can and even obesity during pregnancy.

2. Now that you are pregnant, it is important to start exercising rigorously.

FALSE. You cannot begin a vigorous exercise programme if you’ve never done one before, especially if you never worked out pre-pregnancy, as your body is not accustomed to doing this type of exercise. However, pregnancy is the ideal time to get moving. Nowhere in the medical literature does it say that moderate exercise such as walking is unsafe, even for previously sedentary women. So why not put on those walking shoes and take a stroll?

3. Now that you are pregnant you need to stop exercising.

FALSE. Exercising during pregnancy is extremely beneficial to both mom and baby. It is however important to note that training needs to continue at the same pace (maintenance level) as what you were doing before pregnancy and no harder.

BENEFITS OF EXERCISE DURING PREGNANCY
• Increases the size of the placenta and therefore the transport of blood flow of oxygen and nutrients to your baby.
• Increases the use of fat as an energy source at rest and while exercising.
• Reduces insulin resistance and the risk of gestational diabetes.
• You will get back to your pre-pregnancy weight and fitness levels quicker.
• Energy levels and self-image throughout pregnancy will be elevated and the risk of post-partum depression will be reduced.
• Improved circulation and therefore less swelling will be experienced, as well as reduced levels of water retention through sweating.
• Helps maintain/create good posture, preventing lower back pain.
• Weight gain throughout pregnancy will be more controlled, as less fat will be deposited.
• Prepares you for labour if you are planning for natural delivery and decreases recovery time postpartum from either natural or cesarean deliveries.

4. From the second trimester you should not do any exercises lying flat on your back.

TRUE. Ladies, this is one rule to abide by. From the beginning of the second trimester, when you lie on your back, the weight of the pregnant uterus slows the return of blood flow to your heart by putting pressure on the vena cava, which reduces blood flow to the fetus. This means the baby is getting less oxygen and fewer nutrients. Furthermore, exercise requires the muscles to utilise more oxygen and nutrients, which has a compound effect when exercising on your back while pregnant. Luckily, GLOW’s pregnancy programme guides you through safe, effective workouts with exercise modifications to accommodate the changes your body goes through during each trimester so you never need to worry about what you can and cannot do.

5. If you do any abdominal exercises during pregnancy you will get Diastasis Recti.

FALSE. Abdominal exercises are not only safe during pregnancy, but they are also recommended, which is why you will find them in our pregnancy programmes. All you need to do is focus on the types of abdominal exercises you do. You are not aiming to build a six-pack during pregnancy, but strengthen your core, specifically the deep core. During pregnancy, your core weakens due to stretching and hormonal changes that prepare a woman’s body for the birthing process. It is therefore extremely important to focus on strengthening your core with specific attention to pelvic floor and transverse abdominal exercises, both of which impact your deep core and help to support your growing belly. Diastasis Recti occurs when the ‘six-pack muscles’ begin to pull apart from the midline of the body, most notably around, above, and below your belly button for a width of 2 fingers. Therefore training your Rectus abdominals should not be your main focus.

6. Training during pregnancy puts your joints at risk.

TRUE. As your body prepares for labour, a hormone called relaxin is released throughout the body, causing connective tissue to relax. As a result, the joints and ligaments between the bones in your pelvis will begin to loosen to allow the baby to pass through during labour. HOWEVER, relaxin is mostly present during the third trimester of pregnancy and for three months post-pregnancy. You do not need to stop weight training or exercising; you just need to be mindful of doing any exercises that put joints in an unstable or strained position. It is therefore recommended that you keep all leg exercises bilateral, where both feet are on the ground – such as a squat or leg press and to stay away from unilateral movements, such as lunges as your pelvic region does not offer you the same support at this stage of pregnancy. As a result, the muscles in the surrounding areas will try to pick up the shortfall for the instability in the joint and ligament region – potentially causing muscle or ligament strains that will take months to rehabilitate post-pregnancy. If all this sounds too much to think about, it’s all accounted for in our third trimester workout programme so you don’t have to worry about a thing!

7. Running is unsafe during pregnancy.

FALSE. You can’t “shake your baby loose”; they are safe and sound, swimming around in amniotic fluid while you jog around the block. As long as there are no changes in your joints and ligaments, you can continue running, just as long as you used to do prior to falling pregnant. Some runners are able to keep going many months into their pregnancies, but eventually, discomfort may cause them to switch to lower-impact activities such as walking, water workouts or the elliptical trainer.

8. Cravings indicate that your body is lacking something.

FALSE! Stress, anxiety, and emotions can all impact our ‘need’ for certain foods – take carbohydrate foods like bread, biscuits, and sweet treats, for example. Eating them has a calming effect and boosts levels of the good-mood brain chemical, serotonin – which is just what you crave when you’re feeling down, or you’re stressed out. Remember that even though pregnancy is a wonderful process, it still puts stress on your body – especially if you are not getting a balanced daily diet. Your baby will begin to leach all the nutrients it needs from your body if they are not present in your diet. Therefore, the best way to curb the cravings is with a balanced and healthy diet, where nothing is left to be desired and luckily our GLOW meal planner and wholesome recipes have never made it easier! We even have meals that cater to nausea and healthy treats to satisfy the urge to eat things on the sweeter side wholesomely.

At GLOW, our passion is to ensure that you have a happy, healthy pregnancy that results in an equally healthy baby and postpartum period.

Discover the GLOW pregnancy programme when you sign up for your FREE TRIAL now.

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