Here’s the real deal: you will either feel like you’ve gained not enough or too much weight. Your weight gain will not be a steady line—you will have a month where you gain 9 lbs and freak out. You will have a stranger ask you if you are having twins. You will look at other pregnant women and feel like you look wrong- too big, too small, too high, too wide. You will eat like you always have and still gain weight. You will spend a week or two eating lots of ice cream and cookies without gaining any weight. You will suddenly revisit your entire body issues history- the stuff you thought you were over at 13 or 18 years old will come back and you will suddenly hate your arms or hair or height… You will feel enormous. You will worry you aren’t big enough.
Here’s the really real deal: How much weight you gain, when you gain it and how pregnant you look are things you have very little control over. This is why exercising during pregnancy is so helpful– it lets you exert some control over your body when nearly everything is out of control. Beyond eating a healthy diet, you really can’t control how much weight you gain, but you can control how strong, and flexible, and in shape you are. If you’re exercising, you’re going to feel more in charge of your changing body.. and that is a really good thing. At least that’s what 8,000 moms have said.
