GET FIT and GET HEALTHY 2. Every Saturday come back to The Art of Making a Babyand ShutterMama to read the tips on how to be fitter, healthier and more confident. 3. Weekly write a post about your progress, following the questionnaire below, take a self-portrait (optional) and link up with us. 4. Don’t forget to grab the GET FIT challenge button on the sidebar and display it proudly on your blog or GET FIT post. 5. Link your post with Selfie Saturdays if you took your week’s self-portrait. LINK UP:
RULES: 1. If you haven’t yet, join the challenge here: Vitamin and Mineral Supplements.
In the course of my preparation for pregnancy, one of the topics I did extensive research on was vitamin and mineral supplements. We all know the importance of taking daily vitamins, especially if our diet leaves something to be desired. Now supplementation it's not as simple as pop a pill each morning if you want to do it right. There's vitamin toxicity to pay attention to, minerals mashing together in all the wrong ways and negating each other, proper absorption, etc etc... Here're a few important fact everyone taking a supplement needs to know. This is especially useful to pregnant women or those TTCing, because having proper nutrients in your body is crucial: There are certain minerals and foods that prevent absoption of others and vitamins that aid in absoption. You need to know that to get the maximum out of your vitamins.- Pretty much anything interferes with iron absorption, so if your goal is to make sure you have plenty of iron in your stores, read the following: -do NOT mix calcium rich foods with iron rich foods, the same goes for supplements. Take iron and calcium supplement at least 2 hours apart. -do NOT drink tea after eating an iron rich food or taking an iron supplement. -the easiest way is to make sure you take an iron supplement completely separate with iron rich food - take vitamin C with iron for best absorption.If you're a vegetarian, great sources of iron include: beans/lentils,some nuts, spinach, collard greens. Make sure to add some of those at every meal.
- If you're taking an iron supplement, make sure to take zinc and copper with it. Iron supplements interfere with the absorption of copper, which in turn is very closely related to zinc. So if you're taking copper, you need to supplement it with zinc and visa versa. Since excess of one will give you a deficiency of the other So since iron interferes with copper and copper interferes with zinc, you need to take all three to make sure you're even. In nature it's done automatically, most foods high in iron are also high in zinc and copper. Never exceed 100% of DV an any of these minerals, because of it's close relation and intricate balance system.
- Calcium is best absorbed with Vitamins D. Most Calcium supplements have vitamin D in it, just make sure it doesn't exceed 50% DV, since vitamin D has a toxicity level.
- It's hard to get enough DHA in a pill form and it's pretty expensive so look for a morning cereal that is a good source of Omega-3s and load up on some avocado and walnuts.
- FOLIC ACID: TAKE IT!!!! Please please please, if you are of childbearing age and not infertile, please take a folic acid supplement, even if you're not "planning" any more kids. Neural tube develops during the first 27 days of pregnancy, well before most women even know they're pregnant. Folic acid can prevent most neural tube defects in a baby as long as you take it before and during the first month of pregnancy. Unless you're like me and plan pregnancies that meticulously, the last thing you'd want is to get pregnant, not know it for a month and miss that 30 day window.
So there you have it!
Now, my entry for week 12
1. Height: 5’11", weight: 134 lb 2. Your fitness challenge(s) for this week: 30 minutes of pilates every other day + 30 minutes of cardio ( rollerblading, running, swimming or treadmill) every other day+20 sit-ups every hour for 8 hours on cardio days. Special exercises designed for pregnancy to increase flexibility (daily) + Kegels (twice daily). A total of about an hour or more of physical activity a day. 3. Your health challenge(s) for this week: My eating habits are close to perfect, however I could improve on my water intake. My goal will be 8 glasses of water daily + continue eating the way I do now. Start snacking more during the day to prepare for the first trimester of morning sickness.4. How well did it go:
- Fitness: It was awesome. I did everything I set out to do. Worked out daily. I feel it's starting to become a habit, one that I will not want to give up. Yesterday, hubby and I even did both strength and cardio and abs in one day, even though we're supposed to do cardio/strength every other day.
- Water: I’m back to my KleenKanteen bottle and being hydrated.
- Food:Food intake was perfect. Nothing to complain about. 5. Failures and slip-ups: Can't say anything here. I'm getting in the groove and getting stronger.
{for more shots, go to my photography blog, Selfie Magic}
10 comments
So trippy!!! And cool!
Love the selfie! You made me wait so long. haha.
Oh but it was such a disappointing one too 🙁 I had much bigger things in mind. You should check out the rest in that series at http://www.selfiemagic.com if you haven’t already!
Thanks again for the supplement info, Elena! I went to my natural pharmacy, found all the Solgar individual ones I need so I am checking one more thing off my pre TTC list!
There are lots of certain supplements to be taken by a woman that should corresponds to her health and situation.
Where are your references for all the vitamin supplement info?
One line you wrote caught my eye. But then you only wrote one line on it 😛
can you explain — “Watch your vitamin D intake.”
Tell me more. Is it bad? Are you saying, dont take more? or are you saying make sure you have enough? how much is enough? what happens if you take more? too many questions…
Tell tell. Do tell.
By the way, you write a lovely blog!
Vitamin D has a toxicity level, since it’s fat soluble, so by saying watch it, I mean don’t go crazy with it. You can Google what the maximum RDA for it is, since I don’t remember off hand and make sure not to exceed that from foods and supplements. (D from sunshine is ok, though)
I am a vet tech and we have been trying to get pregnant for about 7 months. We have plans A,B,C and D. We are plan B for one more month. My Doctor advised me not to do xrays but the Vet I work for doesn’t understand why. Not sure if our machine is even up to date or has been checked, it is over 30 yrs old. What do you advise on this matter??? Thanks, Cyndee
I would not do x-rays while pregnant if you can avoid it. There is plenty of information on that out there. Be sure to look it up and present it to your employer.