This week I’ve still managed my two mile walk on most days. I’m starting to feel the need to slow down as I enter the third trimester and find myself growing larger. A back, neck and shoulder massage helped greatly from Kate  at the Chester branch, but I’m still feeling quite a few aches and pains as most pregnant people do.

This week I’ve given a lot of thought to running the marathon next year. There is also a lot of mental preparation that goes into running as well as the physical exertion – 26 miles is a long way! There is no kidding the body that it’s just a short trip around the block, the mind must be prepared for the long and mental battle that a marathon brings. The last two long races I did back in 2007 I approached very differently. The 20 miles I ran in 2hours 15minutes, I broke down into two mile segments, which mentally worked wonders for me.  With the marathon however, I was already plagued with injury and didn’t approach it in such a positive way, which left me struggling towards the end. The mind wanders a lot when running, and focusing it really helps!  There are many different mental techniques all of which we can help you with here at Anatomy, and working out what went wrong in your last race is one of them!

This week, I’m starting to feel like the size of house. That said, I still managed my 2 mile walk each day and swimming on Tuesday.  I’ve managed to eat healthily all week, making sure I have at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.  I’m starting to find it difficult to eat big meals so by making them smaller and adding in healthy snacks I’m making sure me and the baby get the right nutritional intake.  My mid morning snack has become mixed berries and yogurt giving me at least two portions of fruit added into my diet, as well as it being a good source of antioxidants.

I’ve also been experiencing bad headaches again this week.  This is something I normally suffer with but with the hormones and the heat they have been out of control again!  As medication is limited, I saw Tina the acupuncturist in our Manchester branch.  With a few needles in my face, arms and feet she managed to clear the constant banging feeling in my head after 20 minutes. It doesn’t work this quickly for most people, a few sessions is always needed, but it is an amazing alternative to western medicine with some brilliant non-contraindicated results in pregnancy.

Well, I’m guessing I started this blog at a silly time, right after my holiday. The first holiday for 3 years that is.  Apart from eating half a stone of pancakes (they were for the baby honest) I still managed to walk most days trying to get my 30 minutes of exercise in – the amount they recommend during pregnancy.  I’ve been suffering with very painful thighs and some sciatic back pain.  After a couple of sessions of gentle mobilisation and soft tissue massage from the girls at Anatomy I was able to sleep much better.  Its recommended that you don’t sleep on your back but on your side, but so far the extra two stone I’ve put on doesn’t quite agree to sleeping on my side for very long, but the massages definitely helped.

Since returning from holiday I’ve been walking two miles a day at a steady pace.  It’s a mixture of trying to keep fit, balanced with not over doing it, especially in this heat.  All contact sport and impact sport is out so trying to find something gentle, fun and that leaves you slightly out of breath is quite hard (I’m not a yoga type of person).  Swimming is a great exercise, I tried it on Tuesday however I found it quite hard to stretch out and I ended up sinking!  They do many Aqua-natal aerobic classes around my area, next week I intend to try this.  As for my marathon choice, I’m looking to you for ideas?  I’m thinking Berlin in 2015.  What would you suggest?