Hello All!

Thank you for allowing me to continue to share my journey with you as it is a new and amazing experience for me and I am sure others can relate that the changes day to day are tremendous as well.

I am currently in my seventh month of pregnancy and as I progress, these are the things I have noticed:

You really can do anything you put your mind to – I was told I would be tired constantly and would not want to work out the farther I got along, and so far, I can?t STOP working out. I have so much energy that I actually have to watch myself and stop before I push myself too hard.

I was told I would have a lot of cravings and be super emotional – which I guess is true, especially if you ask my husband about the emotional part – but I honestly haven?t had that many cravings. I crave cheese. Blocks and blocks of cheese? I'm assuming because of the fat. I rarely give in to the craving, simply because having that much cheese cannot be good for anyone! But I haven?t had any WEIRD cravings at all.

I have been a little more emotional than normal. We were told around Thanksgiving that we had 6 weeks to get out of our house because our land lords were selling. We had to get approved for a loan and closed on our house within 2.5 weeks, which is UNHEARD of!! That definitely put some added stress to the situation and I was a little more moody than normal 🙂 but other than that I feel as though I haven?t been SUPER emotional.

The nesting phase does set in, that is for sure. I know I have I still have three months to go but I am so anxious to get my nursery ready and make it special for our little girl. I know she will not know the difference and I completely understand that, but I want it ready for me!! So I can feel like things are complete and I can focus all my energy and attention on her once she arrives.

On that note, the love and affection I feel for her is unexplainable, as everyone describes. I don't even know her, but I feel so close and so connected to her already, and I couldn?t imagine anything happening to her.

I have realized EVEN MORE that diet really is 90 percent of an exercise or weight loss program. I have not had as much time to work out as I had hoped. I am still working full time at the fire department and I run my training business on the side plus I started teaching a fire academy strength and conditioning class, as well as run boot camps on the weekends, and I also do corporate team building. I try to squeeze in my workouts when I can, which is usually in-between clients, or before or after I am done training. I cannot always get a workout in but when I do, I do push it really hard for 30 minutes and try to get the most bang for my buck. I do circuits and HIIT type workouts whenever I can and that'sexactly what I teach in my boot camps as well for my weight loss clients. But with that being said, I have only gained 17 pounds in my 27 weeks and I feel just as strong and have just as much energy in my third trimester that I did in my first and even before I got pregnant. I contribute a lot of this to my diet and the types of foods I choose to eat.

Some of the food items in my diet right now are:

Chicken, turkey, steak, ground beef, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, My all natural Fighting Fit protein powder, Egg Whites, edamame, oatmeal, cream of rice, coconut flour, cream of wheat, bananas, apples, grapefruit, quinoa, black beans, white and brown rice, various cereals, sweet potatoes, canned pumpkin, squash, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, spinach, onion, avocado, almond butter, peanut butter, cashews, flax oil, flax meal, olive oil, coconut shreds/oil, almond milk.

I have been indulging in one cheat meal per week also! And as you may have noticed, there isn?t any fish in my diet. That's because I ate so much seafood in training for my shows that I guess I have subconsciously decided I don't like it and don't want to eat it LOL.

This really has been a fairly easy pregnancy and luckily I have not had any issues or problems as of yet. I really attribute this to my clean eating, continuous workouts and having a positive mindset.

Now, don't think for a second that I haven?t been insecure about some of my weight gain. I have cottage cheese in places I have never seen before and I'm definitely not as lean and or have as much muscle as I did seven months ago.

But, I feel great!!

I am healthy and so far my baby (Sloane Lynne Berman) is perfectly healthy and growing rapidly. I am blessed for that and I have to remember that every time I feel like I am getting fat or losing muscle because I know that I will bounce back and I am taking all precautions to not push myself to the point that I might hurt myself of the baby. She is my number one priority now and the fact that my butt and thighs have gotten a little bigger, and I'm now in Larges instead of Mediums and Smalls in everything, is the beauty of growing a little healthy human and making sure she is getting all the proper nutrients she needs to continue to grow and develop properly.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope it helps some of you in your own pregnancy journey as it is the most fabulous experience – the fact that I'm going to be a mother is a feeling I cannot put in to words. I will continue to document my journey and hope to be able to connect to some of you mothers and soon to be mothers that are creating some of your own life long memories.