FFF Featured Blogger: The Active Eggplant – I had to give Theresa a special shout out since she shares birthdays with little M! 😀 Plus, she kicks butt at training and workouts. Check out her post today for a good recap of her awesomeness.

Makenzie says thank you for all her birthday wishes. 🙂 I still cannot believe it has been two years! Time really does fly. Did you know that today also marks 9 months since I have been blogging? In some ways, it feels like it has been longer than that…and in other ways it also went by in the blink of an eye. The 21st remains a popular date for me, since my official due date falls on my one year blog birthday – January 21st! Exactly three months from today.

I really hope I don’t go the full three months, however. That date is based off my first ultrasound and is actually about a week off when I know I ovulated and when the midwives believe I could deliver. I’m all for having only around 2.5 months left! Especially if things continue looking well.

I had my 7 month check-up today. What a fun one. The 7 month appointment includes the blood glucose test to screen for gestational diabetes. That entails a fasting period and a nasty sugar beverage to down before my appointment. This morning, I had a typical bowl of oats for breakfast and then followed it up with a Turbo Jam workout since I knew I would have no energy for it when starved later.

I also wanted to try to work up an appetite since I had to be sure to eat a small, balanced meal right at 11 am as my last meal before the appointment. I typically don’t eat until 12:30 after breakfast and didn’t really crave anything. I figured the best option for that time was a breakfast sandwich.

It satisfied…then somehow left me STARVING an hour later, but I could do nothing. I had to wait until after my 3:30 appointment to eat again. I did have the option command to drink this delectable orange sugar beverage 30 minutes before my appointment though. Yummy! Not.

At least my appointment went well. Yet again the doctors can’t keep their mouths shut about my weight. No surprise there, though. Although this time it was because I somehow managed to lose a couple pounds. I’ve kind of given up on the “I don’t want to know” thing. I simply ignore the weight aspect because I still believe it doesn’t show anything and I don’t care.

My body does its own thing, what can I say? Gain 9 one month, lose 2 the next without changing a single thing related to how I eat or workout. All that concerns me is that everything checks out well. My stomach still grew and measures right on track. Baby B is no longer in breached position. My blood pressure is perfect and I trust my blood work to come back normal as well. Now if only I could do something about the achy hips and back, the sciatic pain, the crazy hormones, and my general readiness to feel more myself again. Somehow, I think those 3 months won’t pass as quickly as the past 2 years seem to have passed. 😉

• What scenarios leave you feeling like time drags or flies? Not being able to eat when hungry kind of makes time drag for me. 😉
• How long have you either been blogging or reading blogs?
• Don't forget to ASK ME ANYTHING for the Q + A series in Nov! I've gotten some really good ones so far. Thanks!

FFF Featured Blogger (chosen from your comments): Keeping Slim and Getting Stylish – I think the title says it all! Laura blogs about excellent healthy dining ideas and has fun fashion favorites mixed in here and there. She had a great post earlier today about food choices too.

Today I have really just gone with the flow. It all started after Power class. I had a sudden urge to come up with workout split ideas for after the baby comes. I know I still have around 12 weeks left, but I couldn’t help it! I sat down at my computer and typed up the splits I found myself brainstorming during Power class.

I cannot wait to get back to my favorite workouts and plans! And please note that this is just a random list of rotations and plans I have used before of varying difficulty and set-up. I have no order whatsoever to the above. I simply felt inspired to jot down possibilities of things I’ve done before that I enjoyed for me to pull from when I get back in the gym after this pregnancy. You will just have to wait with me to see how these play out in my future workouts. 😉

Moving on. I maintained that go with the flow attitude for my food today as well. At lunch I felt a tad bit of nausea again, which leads me to think its just a part of this pregnancy. I craved a simple lunch and a few things leftover from the birthday party this weekend. I had a throwback to school days with a PBJ sandwich, sliced apple, handful of chips, and a soda.

Then, a few hours later I craved something sweet. Dang you artificial sweeteners! Luckily, I still had my small square of pumpkin bread from the pumpkin patch on Saturday. Who am I to have saved such a delectable treat for 4 days?!

And who am I to have only eaten half because I realized I wasn’t really hungry and wanted to save some for later?

Lastly, I felt inspired to go with the flow on a topic tonight as well. Quite…literally. Meghann posted about not having her cycle for the past year on her blog today. It really touches close to home for me because I didn’t have my cycle for awhile as well, thanks to nursing and then jumping right into the intense training for my fitness competition. It bothered me greatly that my body did not function properly, especially knowing we wanted to conceive another child.

As soon as my competition ended, I took steps to try to bring my cycle back. For me, that meant not working out at all for a month and then limited workouts for awhile after that. I had to gain weight, which I would have done regardless coming off of show weight. It went further than that, though. Due to wanting to conceive right away, I had to gain weight to get back to the size I was when I got pregnant with Makenzie. A huge mental battle ensued, but I now feel so blessed that I took care of the problem sooner rather than later. Only a few months of competition training affecting my cycle caused a lot more trouble conceiving the little man than we likely would have faced otherwise.

I leaped for joy when my cycle returned. In my opinion,a functioning menstrual cycle is an immense blessing and something we should not ignore or gloss over. Also, we should not wait to consider it an issue until trying to conceive. I can tell you right now that waiting that long is waiting too long. I have many friends who have been through so much to figure out their fertility and the thought that some women out there simply don’t care about it breaks my heart. Also, fertility is not the only reason to be aware of our cycles. They can signal a hormonal imbalance or other issues that affect so much more.

I do not intend to share the steps I took to regain my cycle as advice, because different people face different issues with different remedies. Nor do I post this as a way to say Meghann isn’t doing enough. I commend and admire her for sharing her struggles and can tell she whole heartedly wants to resolve them. I desired to post my experience and thoughts on this topic simply because I want to declare the importance of this aspect of our health as women. If you face this, please work hard and act proactively for an important part of your health. You don’t ever want to wish you had done something sooner.

• Do you consider your visits from Auntie Flo a blessing? Have you ever seriously thought about your cycle or considered reading books like Taking Charge of Your Fertility?
• Do you like creating workouts or does it stress you out? It’s one of my biggest hobbies. I love it!
• Don’t forget to ASK ME ANYTHING for the Q + A series I’m doing in Nov!