Realistic but concrete goals in 3rd tri?

jhmomofmany

I'm about 27 weeks, so not quite in my 3rd trimester. I've been doing full-body strength training three day a week, plus walking almost every day.

I'm having a hard time seeing the big picture, what my long-term goal is between now and delivery. Obviously I want to "maintain fitness" and "control weight gain". But I know I'm going to be feeling slower, weaker, and bigger as time goes on regardless. So those goals are too vague to even make sense to me right now.

I guess my question is if and how you are setting fitness goals, and how you are measuring your progress toward those goals.

Also, I'm always open to friend requests! Thanks!

katiebrew

I just had my baby, but from about 25 weeks onwards I had the goal of doing *something* for 20 minutes a day (often it was walking, and often I'd do more than 20 minutes but telling myself I only had to do 20 would get me out the door) or a prenatal yoga routine from YouTube. I also tried to do popsugar prenatal's arms and legs routines 3x a week (I wasn't as good at accomplishing this part of my goal though).

I also tracked what I ate. Even if it was 3000 calories, I put it in my diary.

I found it made me much more mindful and I counted it as a success that I managed to do something every day until about the last week of pregnancy but I tracked consistently too. I also had a goal to drink enough water (64 oz min- I had terrible Charlie horses in my first pregnancy and wanted to avoid that this time).

Meeting these goals as best as I could REALLY helped with weight gain for me. I was overweight to begin with so my goal was to gain 15-25 lbs and I stayed firmly within that - 17 lbs gained when I delivered at 39w1d. These goals really worked for me - you sound like you've been much more active and in better shape than I, so your goals will be different I'm sure. I guess I just wanted to offer support and say that setting a couple of goals and trying to meet them as best you can is a great idea and personally I found it to be hugely beneficial.

JustAnotherGirlSuzanne

@katiebrew nailed it. I've been walking worry day (but I wasn't much more active before) and logging everything no matter how awful it looked that I drank coffee, ate processed food, or ordered takeout while pregnant.

I do wish I'd kept up with my workout video that focuses on arms and glutes.

But overall, my goals have been mostly to be accountable to myself and my MFP friends by logging and moving.

JustAnotherGirlSuzanne

Worry = every

autocorrect. Sorry.

jhmomofmany

Thanks for the feedback. It's good advice for me to focus on logging right now, that's a helpful reminder. I was doing well with my food log until this week.

JennyV2013

I'm only 22 weeks so nowhere close to the 3rd trimester, but my focus has also been on tracking my calories (even if, as @katiebrew said, it's 3000 calories for the day. I gained 65 with my first (but started maybe a touch underweight), then 40 with my second (started at a normal weight), and 40 with my third (started overweight). My third pregnancy was awful - I developed sciatica around 34 weeks that became debilitating by the end.

SO, this time around, even though I started out at the exact same weight that I was with #3, I'm focused on controlling the weight gain and walking every day. My goal is 10,000 steps logged on my fitbit and I'd like to come in around 2000-2100 calories/day, but it's been more like 2,400 per day thus far. I've gained 8 pounds and hope I can stay on track to gain 20 or less by delivery.