Advice needed on exercising with 1st trimester nausea

[lynn]

Hi there everybody-
I am now officially in my 8th week of pregnancy and that wonderful queasiness/nauseousness seems to be really peaking. Any tips from people out there who were able to exercise during this time? My nausea goes all day, so unfortunately I can't even exercise later in the day.. I seem to have good days and bad.. So far, I just am not exercising on the bad ones.
Thanks in advance for your help.
From, "Barfy Feeling" Lynn

 

[giacchina]

No advice to offer...

Lynn -

My nausea was accompanied by extreme fatigue, so I took weeks 8-11 off from exercise and just walked as much as I could with the dog. Just getting up in the AM and going to work exhausted me. Other than trying all the tricks to keep morning sickness at bay (I assume you've tried all those - ginger, constant snacking, switching prenatal vitamins, etc.), I'm not sure there's anything you can do. When I did resume exercise, I only used the tapes I was REALLY enthusiastic about (this was not the time to break in new tapes). Sorry I can't be more help.

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Lynn! Congratulations on your pregnancy! I'm sorry that you are not feeling well. Thank goodness that this phase does pass.

I found that some days the nausea was just really bad and I would not work out at all that day. Other days it would come in waves. I found that if I ate some saltines and kept myself busy, I would forget about it and it would pass. One day I was supposed to teach and I wasn't feeling all that great. I was going to just "talk the class through" but I did the warm up with them just to get them in their groove. Well, it actually seemed to get ME in a groove and I suddenly felt fine and continued the class with them. I'm not suggesting that you ignore your feelings and push yourself. I'm just sharing how some days it worked for me and some days it didn't.

Oh, and if the feeling is REALLY bad, day in and day out, see if perhaps your pre-natal vitamin could be the problem. I found that Stuarts over the counter was much easier on my stomach than the Stuarts prescription. Just some foods for thought.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[lynn]

Thanks for the advice! I am glad to know I am not the only one who couldn't seem to muster up enough energy to exercise on those really bad days!
Oh by the way, another suggestion to share that may help w/ nausea.. There are these things called Zbands, they are little wristbands w/ a metal dot in the middle of them you wear on both wrists that is supposed to help w/ nausea. Apparently, the dots presses down on a key vein in your wrist that is supposed to eliminate the nausea. Being desperate to feel good again I bought a pair, and I think it works. I feel much better today than I have in a long time! (Even if it is a placebo effect, I don't care...it is just nice to feel like a human again!
Thanks again for your words of advice, and will definitely be looking forward to the second trimester.!

Lynn

 

[ChristinaK]

Lynn,

If you think that your prenatal vitamins are contributing to your nausea, I would recommend taking them at night with your dinner. My best friend gave me this tip and the only time I actually threw up while pregnant was when I forgot to take the vitamin with dinner and took it later on an empty stomach. I also found that I had less of a tendency to be nauseous if I didn't let myself get too hungry. I ate a lot more frequently but smaller portions which seemed to help some with the nausea. I still had good days and bad days. I was particularly sensitive to strong odors. I couldn't handle taking out the trash, throwing out leftovers, cooking eggs, etc. during the first trimester.

Unfortunately, I was not much of an exerciser until after I had my son so I don't have any exercise suggestions for you.