struggles with pregnancy weight gain

I cannot tell you how nice it is to sit at my computer again! After a week of iPhone blogging (because we were installing hardwood floors), typing on an actual computer feels like such a treat. Guess I should appreciate it a little more huh?

Today I am officially 23 weeks and 3 days pregnant.

The belly continues to grow as little Hunter gets bigger and bigger.  He weighs over 1 pound now and is about 1 foot long.  That's just craziness to me.  Yesterday I was reading that he looks just like a mini-baby now, super tiny, but everything's there now.  Going forward he's just going to grow and grow until he's the size of a pumpkin before popping out.

During my first trimester, before I really looked pregnant, just bloated, I found it challenging at times to stay positive about my changing body.  Before I really got into fitness about 3-4 years ago, I was always worried about my weight.  I'd diet, watch the scale and what I ate.

That all changed when I really got into fitness, and wanted to fuel my body with foods that were actually good for it.  Packaged foods went out (no more garbage filled diet foods), and real foods came in (hello kale!).  I naturally fell into a healthy, comfortable weight that left me feeling fit and how I should feel.  I was lean, building muscle and comfortable in my body.  Of course there were 'fat days', but they seemed to always happened around my that time of the month.  Gotta love our lady hormones. 🙂

Fast forward to today and I'm close to 20 lb heavier.  I don't actually feel that much heavier (except when I do push ups!), and I really do love my growing belly.

But there's just this tiny little thing that bothers me, which then makes me struggle with feeling good about my continued weight gain.

My inner thighs rubbing together.

It's just this one little thing that doesn't even make a difference, but for some reason it brings out my crazy emotions and makes me feel uncomfortable.

It's such a blessing to be pregnant and have our little guy on the way, and I feel bad even feeling bad for myself, but I guess the combo of emotions and changes make me feel this way.

Maybe part of it was me thinking I'd only feel a change in my belly.  I've stayed super active these past 5 months and figured I'd be one of those ladies just gaining the 25 pound minimum (of 25-35lb recommended to gain during pregnancy), seeing only my belly growing.  And while the number doesn't really matter to me, since I know it's not a forever thing and gaining weight is what I need for my little Hunter, when I couple that with those rubbing thighs it just brings me down sometimes.

So at 5+ months pregnant, those are the struggles I'm going through.  Please don't-don't-don't-don't think that me writing this is saying that I'll be dieting or trying not to gain weight.  That's not the message here.

These are just my thoughts and reflections on what I'm going through right now.  While pregnancy is the best gift I've even been given, I would be lying if I said there were no emotions or unhappy thoughts going on.  My struggle takes up maybe 1-2% of my day, so it's not a huge thing, but it's definitely a struggle sometimes.

I continue to eat as often as I get hungry, which is just about every 2-3 hours, and eat foods that are good for me and my baby.  Taking care of my body and health is the most important thing right now, and that's not going to change even if I feel a bit of skin touching.

Heather