Pregnancy: Tips to Minimize Bitter Morning Sickness

So mum to be! It’s your pregnancy phase and your mornings are no longer good mornings, rather they are bad mornings. Even in the daytime whenever you wake up from a nap after dreaming about your little bundle of joy, you find that you are down with nausea during pregnancy, an uneasy feeling of discomfort. Don’t worry, relax. Here are some tips to minimize this temporary rough patch which sometimes tries to overshadow the beautiful experience of motherhood during pregnancy.

Pregnancy cannot be separated from morning sickness or nausea or vomiting during pregnancy, or pregnancy sickness. If any mom-to-be is feeling well and rosy during the entire pregnancy period, she should consider herself lucky but in most cases (between 50 and 95 percent of all pregnant women) morning sickness is termed the bitter part of pregnancy. It is, at the same time, a natural phenomenon during pregnancy so there isn’t much to worry about. Morning sickness can occur at any time of the day, though it occurs most often upon waking.

Morning sickness usually starts in the first month of pregnancy, peaking in the fifth to seventh weeks, and continuing until the 14th to 16th week of pregnancy. For half of the sufferers, it ends by the 16th week of pregnancy. It may take others up to another month to get relief. Some women suffer intermittent episodes throughout their pregnancy.

The exact reason of nausea during pregnancy is not known yet. According to experts, it is most probably due to raised hormonal level i.e. human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) during pregnancy. There could be other reasons too, such as :-
An increase in the circulating level of the hormone estrogen. Estrogen levels may increase by up to a hundredfold during pregnancy.
Fall in blood sugar during pregnancy.

An increase in progesterone relaxes the muscles in the uterus, but may also relax the stomach and intestines, leading to excess stomach acids during pregnancy .

An increase in sensitivity to odors during pregnancy, which over stimulates normal nausea triggers.
Few time tested remedies to deal with morning sickness during pregnancy, and which are also endorsed by grannies, are offered.

Avoid an empty stomach in the pregnancy period. Take toast preferably made of coarse grain with milk or tea on an empty stomach; or a glass of water with biscuit before you rise from bed. Through the day, drink plenty of fruit juice, buttermilk or skimmed milk.

Don’t cut out on meals or food- instead eat less but at short intervals. Else throwing up can leave you dehydrated, harming the baby too.
Focus on high carbohydrate food- whole meal bread, potatoes, brown rice, cereals. Eating five or six small meals per day, rather than three large ones throughout the pregnancy will certainly ease your nausea problem.

Avoid greasy or fried food during pregnancy, as these take longer to digest.
Don’t lie down right after you eat during pregnancy, it will make you uncomfortable.
In pregnancy period don’t indulge in over work. Take all the rest you can. There is nothing like a good sleep. A nap too will make you feel better.

Ginger, in capsules, tea or in any form helps a lot in pregnancy sickness.
Vitamin B6 and zinc are known to reduce nausea, but take them under expert medical guidance. Alternatively take a banana, raisin or hazelnut. They are wonderful remedies for reducing nausea during pregnancy.

Lemons, particularly the smell of freshly cut lemons, might refresh you during pregnancy.

Drink liquids 30 to 45 minutes after eating solid food as this aids in digestion during pregnancy.

More often than not, the desire to vomit is quelled by these simple measures. If not, the doctor can counter nausea with certain medicines. Also request your doctor to prescribe medicines for acidity, pain, and discomfort during pregnancy.

Do adequate light exercise. Start slowly and work yourself up to a tempo. Exercise reduces unwanted fat, particularly in the last trimester of pregnancy. Studies shows nausea can be reduced by regular mild exercises such as walking. Walking therapy will definitely make you feel good especially if you are residing by some green patch. Be one with nature and enjoy cool relaxed walking.

Pregnancy is a time to enjoy and not to be stressed out. Make your pregnancy a beautiful and celestial experience. God has been very kind to women because he has bestowed the right of creating living humans to women alone, and you create a beautiful new life out of your own blood and flesh. Start relaxation, meditation or any other spiritual practice that will calm and center you and help you rid yourself of any anxiety or stress. Put on either some spiritual music, calm instrumental music, chants or other music that makes you feel relaxed and at peace.

Morning sickness is the indicator of your journey towards motherhood. Take precautions to avoid the inconvenience during this first stage of pregnancy. Take care and enjoy your precious Pregnancy Period.

Maintain Quality Family Time by Learning How to Keep Working Out in the Family

It is a rare event for most of the women I know to easily fit in a womens fitness routine each day. This is because we get so busy with our jobs, families, and other responsibilities that we don't feel like we have enough time to exercise. And certainly after a long day at the office, at home being a mom, or even a student attempting to get a degree, you don't want to sacrifice time away from bonding with your family. This is understandable. But instead of foregoing exercise in order to spend time with the family, how about getting the family involved with your exercise and build on a workout bond?

There are a number of benefits in getting your family involved with your exercise.

First and foremost is that you do get a workout in. Womens fitness is important. Your health is important and staying fit is a big part of being healthy. Exercise is the necessary action to stay fit.
You teach your kids the value of being fit and staying healthy. We have an epidemic of overweight and even obese kids. (Did you know that this generation of kids is not expected to outlive their parents because of bad health caused from being overweight and obese?) Teach them healthy habits when they are young so that they can apply and stick with them when they get older.
You get quality time with your family. Yes, it's true. Even though you're working out with the family it can still be made into a bonding experience. Keep the exercises fun and share some laughs while creating great memories.
They can give you the support and motivation to keep you going on your womens fitness program to achieve your goals. I remember hearing the story from one woman who said it was her 4 year old daughter that kept her going. The little girl would put on her tenny shoes and run up to mommy and say, "Come on, it's time to work out!" And on the days the mom didn't want to it would break the little girl's heart so the mom would have to work out just to keep the little lady from being upset. Not once did the mom regret changing her mind and getting her work out in.

There are plenty of ways to get the family involved with your exercise. Go for a fast walk. Do some push ups with the little ones on your back. (Make sure they hang on.) Play a game where the kids mimic your exercise.

Use your imagination and get created. And get your family involved in your womens fitness regimen. That helps you to keep your fitness on track and provides a benefit for your family. This is a way a busy woman can exercise and spend time with family too.

Are you trying to get into shape? Do you have a goal you are trying to attain with your body? I know how hard it can be to get into shape. As a twenty year old female I had a 34% body fat ratio and was 45 pounds overweight. After several years of trying to learn how to get into shape the right way, I finally figured it out. Now my body fat percentage is lower, I've dropped my excess weight and at 41 years old I'm in the best shape of my life. You can read my story at Womens Fitness Central.

Hey, I don't want to be a fitness model, I just wanted to get healthy and fit. The great thing is that my fitness level just keeps getting better and better. If I can do it, anybody can do it. If you are serious about getting into shape, check out Womens Fitness Central for expert tips to help you reach your goals too.

Stretch Yourself to Health

Stretching can and will help you to avoid injury, reduce pain, and increase mobility. Stretching exercises are thought to give you freedom of movement, but stretching alone will not improve your health. It would be best to incorporate stretching with weight training and aerobic exercise to achieve complete women’s health and wellness.

Stretching is best done while your muscles are warm. So be sure that your muscles are warm with a brisk walk, or even some jumping jacks, before you begin your stretching routine. It is not a good idea to try and stretch your tendons and muscles while they are cold.

Don’t jerk or force your muscles during your stretch. Move slowly into and out of the stretch. While stretching to the point of resistance be sure to hold each stretch for twenty to sixty seconds. A mild pulling sensation is normal, but be sure to stop stretching immediately if you feel any pain. Stretching should never cause pain.

Standing Quad Stretch (front of thigh) Stand with foot flat on ground Bend knee toward buttock while grasping ankle with hand Pull foot directly toward buttock Do not twist knee Stretch can be done standing alone or balancing with partner or fence/wall

Standing Calf Stretch While standing, place your left foot near the wall. Bend forearms and rest them against the wall. Keeping the right foot flat on the floor, move right leg back until you feel the stretch in the calf muscle. Stretch the other leg.

Hamstring Stretch Lying on your back raise your leg up to the ceiling. Supporting your thigh with both hands behind the knee. Slowly straighten your knee until a stretch is felt in the back of the thigh, and pull your leg towards your chest keeping your leg straight. Hold, and then repeat with the other leg.

Cat Stretch (mid and lower back)
Kneel on all fours on the floor with your palms flat on the floor. Remembering to maintain a flat back. Inhale and contract your abdominal muscles and arch your back
towards the ceiling. Create a curve in the middle of your back and push your spine up towards the ceiling, hold it for a few seconds and then return to the flat back position. Repeat a few times and feel the tension and stress release from your muscles.

Overhead Stretch (mid back)
Bend over at the waist and rest your arms on a table. Then slowly drop your head and body below your shoulders. Hold at the point that you feel the stretch in your shoulders and back.

Pull across (shoulder)
Stand or sit in a chair, and sit up straight. Bend one arm and place your hand on your opposite shoulder. With your opposite hand, grab the elbow and pull it across your chest until you feel a stretch in the back of your shoulder. Repeat with the opposite arm.

Check out this video from DIET.com



Kimberly Jamieson http://www.healthypainfreeliving.com has achieved success in living and maintaining a healthy fit lifestyle and has helped thousands achieve this success by using her fitness, diet, lifestyle and motivation tips. She is committed to helping women‘s fitness, and the womens health and wellness others achieve ultimate health and wellness.

Working 4 Weight Loss After Childbirth

During your pregnancy, you will likely put on at least twenty-five pounds. Some women put on a lot more. After the baby is born, you might feel like you still look pregnant. It can appear this way for several weeks while your uterus shrinks back down to size.

Months after you have your baby, you might find that you are still carrying extra weight. Weight loss after childbirth can take time to happen. First of all, it took you up to nine months to gain all that weight; it won't drop off over night.

While you will have lost a fair amount of weight during the labor and delivery, it can take months before you lose the balance. If you gained excessive weight during your pregnancy, it can take time and effort to achieve weight loss after pregnancy. There are several reasons why it may be taking you time to lose weight.

If you are breastfeeding, weight loss after pregnancy will probably not start to happen until at least your baby is six months old. If you breastfeed your baby, your body will hold onto a certain amount of fat reserves due to the caloric requirements for making milk. It takes about five hundred calories per day to produce breast milk. Your body will go into a mode where it hoards fat stores to ensure that you have enough calories to feed your baby. Once your baby reaches six months old, you can suddenly see weight loss after pregnancy occurring. At the six-month mark, many babies are having less feedings, which triggers your body's reaction to begin shedding the fat stores.

Weight loss after pregnancy may require some diet and exercise from you. If you are now a stay at home mother, you also may be facing the reality of being less active than being a full time worker outside the home. The result is that fewer calories are burned on a daily basis and many women find that they eat more often when at home.

As a mother, you need strength so starvation diets are not the answer to achieve weight loss after pregnancy. After you have recuperated from your labor and delivery, your body needs time to heal.

Some women shed the weight fairly easily while others need to work a bit harder. It's important to not only be healthy for your self but also for your children so having an active lifestyle and eating well will go a long way towards your weight loss after pregnancy goals and your overall health and well-being.

Azzam Sheikh Facilitator 'Strengthening families, strengthening communities' parent programme. pregnancy resource center

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Weight Training 4 Women

Women's weight training is becoming more popular. Men are not the only ones who weight train to develop a nice, muscular figure. As a matter of fact, the women do it as well as they too desire to look buff. Here are some safe ways the women do it.

Many times women, when wanting to work out, have been told that is was only something that men do. If they were not told that, then they were told that it was too much on the female body, and they would hurt themselves participating in such activities. Many women also have been led to believe that weight training will make them have huge masculine looking muscle which is another myth. Women have worked hard to prove these are all myths; thus, there are several websites, books, and training guides devoted to this topic.

Now, say a woman is starting weight training for the first time. What she must first do is look for a gym that is no more than fifteen minutes or so from her house. This is because if the gym is too far away, then she may not want to go. Secondly, she should make sure the gym has plenty of free weights. These are not dangerous for women but are perfectly healthy. Third, if the gym offers a free session with a personal trainer, she should take advantage of the offer and feel the trainer out to see if her needs for exercise needs can be effectively met. When talking to the trainer, she should ask many questions that will help her come to her determination of whether or not this would be the right person to train with, and she should make sure this trainer does not believe in the myths about weights concerning women. Women can lift heavy things and train just as the guys do.

Now, suppose that she does not want to always travel to a gym but would like to work out in her home. This is fine, too. The home gym should have a plenty of free weights as well as weight training equipment. She should look online for sites and books on the topic and make sure she understands how to do the weight training exercises correctly. Safety is also a factor so she should be sure to wear shoes in case of dropping the weight and when lifting heavy weights or lifting over her head, a partner is recommended so they can catch or spot the weight if she has difficulty with it. Should she want to work alongside a video that will walk her through the motions, these are available as well. Weight training for women does not have to be this big scary task that many have long since told them to avoid. Women can have fun, get in shape, and show the guys what they are made of!

Beth Campbell holds a Masters degree in Counseling. Having lost 122 pounds, her articles often discuss how to do an effective weight loss cardio workout and ways to lose weight. Beth also gives free diet tips about ways to lose weight on her Squidoo lens

Try this Killer Home Arm Workout....

Strength Training Benefits for Women

Most women desire to have a higher metabolism is order to further their weight control efforts. Strength training increases muscle mass and increasing muscle mass most definitely will increase an individual's basal metabolic rate. What this means for females is that they will have a harder time gaining fat as the percentage of lean muscle tissue in their body increases.

Obesity can be greatly reduced by sustained participation in a vigorous weight training combined with a sensible eating plan. Osteoporosis is common among women who do not exercise as they age, strength training is a proactive step women can take to prevent bone density loss. Scientific studies prove that weight bearing exercise increases bone density. Strength training done with moderate resistance also fights aging by strengthening ligaments and tendons. Weight training has also been shown to improve balance by increasing the power or core muscles; which in and of itself will prevent injuries due to falling or stumbling.

Strength training has been shown to decrease blood pressure and increase circulation. Circuit training with weights has been shown to improve cardiovascular fitness. Improved cardiovascular fitness works to prevent cardiovascular disease. Women who strength train can also expect to perform better in sports, activities and life in general. Strength training women have more energy, strength, and stamina for all kinds of activity. Energy, strength, and stamina are factors which can also improve relationships with spouses, friends, and even children.

Who does not want to improve their appearance, confidence and self esteem? These are all improved in women who participate in strength training programs. Depression is a huge issue among the women of America. It is this writer's contention that much of the mild depression treated with medication could be eased or eliminated by a sustained participation in a vigorous strength training program. Increased self esteem due to improved appearance and health is a natural antidepressant.

Anti-aging medicine is one of the fastest growing industries in our country today, strength training is almost always prescribed as part of the Anti-aging doctor's overall program. Strength training helps women naturally age more gracefully because it naturally fights the decrease in muscle mass, strength and flexibility that comes with aging.

The benefits to women that strength training can provide are myriad, this writer doubts there are few if any women who would not desire to have the benefits provided by weight training. Ladies, it is time to put down the laziness and procrastination that has stopped you from self improvement. Start today and improve your life.



About The Author

Fort Lauderdale Personal Trainer Joe Kozma is a master trainer who has been practicing over twenty years.Joe is a former national bodybuilding champion and college football player. Joe's fitness and weight loss service provides body makeovers, body sculpting, strength gain, and more. See his clients results at his Fort Lauderdale Fitness website at http://www.joekozma.com