Table of Contents
A PLUME BOOK
HOW TO EXERCISE WHEN YOURE EXPECTING
LINDSAY BRIN, C.P.T. AND B.S.E. Exercise Science, is a fitness and nutrition expert and a former NFL cheerleader. For nearly fifteen years, shes been helping women achieve healthier bodies and minds. She has starred in, choreographed, and designed thirteen fitness DVDs just for moms. Her most recent ventures include not only becoming an author, but an infomercial and network TV.
Brins lifelong passion for fitness developed while growing up and watching her mother teach aerobics. Since then she has become a fitness expert for magazines such as Fit Pregnancy and Mom & Baby and a contributor to online sites specializing in pre- and postnatal health. Leading research facilities use Brins DVDs to certify fitness professionals. She is also a spokesperson for Fertility Lifelines, helping women become mothers.
Brin is an approachable, real, and inspiring resource for moms of all ages. Her faith and the strength of her family have helped her get where she is today. She lives in the suburbs of St. Louis with her husband, David, their little girl, and their baby boy.
To find out more about who Lindsay Brin is, and not just what she does, please visit her blog, lindsaybrin.com. Youll also see the good, the bad, and the ugly pictures of her getting her body back, with week-by-week photos starting from the day she got home from the hospital with her daughter and her son.
Shed love to hear from you! Chat with her on Facebook, Twitter, or her blog.
facebook.com/momsintofitness
twitter.com/lindsaybrin
Also by Lindsay Brin
The Cheerleader Fitness Plan
For Nelly, Bubby, and Honey
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
So many people dedicated their time to get this book published! Its hard to know where to begin, so here goes.
To my editor, Cherise, I wish I could go inside your brain and pick out some of the knowledge in there! Your intelligence is unreal. And it was a pleasure working with you through the birth of your two lil ladies.
Kate, I dont know how you do it. But thank you for always staying on top of me and making sure things got done.
Scott, thank you for finding me an outlet to say everything I have to say! Who knew being an author would have been in my future? I owe that to you.
Gary, your writing amazes me. And I couldnt be happier. For the lump of unorganized data and exercises being made into this bookwow!
Kevin, thank you for countless hours of staring at pictures of me and making illustrations out of them, all two hundred of them!
My family, from cheering me on and never doubting I could do it to watching the kids while I pulled all-nighters to get this done, I couldnt have done it without you. Some people just say that, but I really mean it.
Brent, thank you for supporting this whole business idea, knowing what to do, and helping me find my way.
Mom S., thanks for the hours you spent taking care of both Rylan and Taylor and for the encouragement you always gave me. Your support and confidence never wavered; thank you.
Dad S., thanks for your wonderful illustrations and editing skills. Next time well have to put your illustrations in the contract! Your humor and intelligence has been an incredible help not only in forming my business projects, but in molding me into the mom I want to be.
Dad, Ive always been a daddys girl! Your love and support has never stopped, and the confidence you have in me is what I hope to carry through. For all the time that you give to make it all happen, I love you.
Mom, it all began after Taylor was born. Youll never know how much I appreciate the time you took out of your own life to support this project, from the hours she spent in the Baby Bjrn to the hours you spent catering to me. I want to be just like you.
David, Im still not sure how you put up with me sometimes! I really, truly know none of this would have happened without you. No matter what wacky idea I have, you are there to support it and be my number one fan. Im not sure what more a wife could ask for. So thank you for not only supporting me and loving me, but for putting up with me!
Rylan and Taylor, Im sorry for all the days I did not spend time with you. But writing this book and being a working mother makes me a better mother; I promise. I love you both.
INTRODUCTION
We often refer to a childs birth as a blessed event. Theres a reason for that. For many women, having a child is the ultimate experience of their adult life. Sure, theres no more important duty your body will be asked to perform than to bear a child. But you are asked to put on anywhere from fifteen to thirty-five pounds within nine months. This would be hard for anyone to lose. But the good news is a majority of that weight will go when the baby is born. The rest is up to you and how you take care of yourself now... meaning dont gain too much too fast.
Whether you think of it as expressing her reproductive destiny, getting knocked up, an oops, or as her fulfilling her maternal instinct to nurture and protect, having a baby is one of the defining moments of a womans life. From the moment she hears the news from a doctor or sees the two red lines on a home pregnancy kit, her life is going to be changed forever. Or if youre like me you cried when your husband told you that you were pregnant after the nurse called with HCG numbers, and were shocked to be carrying twins. Some women are scared out of their minds and optimistic but pessimistic about how its all going to turn out. I hope for you and your family its a time of joy and optimism, but if its notyou are not alone in being scared. I was Nervous Nelly, even knowing all I know about pregnancy.
Not only is your life going to change, but your body is going to undergo a series of changessome wonderful, some wacky, some initially frighteningthat could potentially leave you looking like a different person than you were before your pregnancy.
I think you either have it easy or you have it hard. You enjoy it or you dont. But either way the goal is to get to forty weeks. If youre like me the glow is green to gills, tired is insomnia instead, and loving every minute of it is I am ready to jump out of my skin.
Lets face it, if you picked up this book, you did so because, as thrilled as you are about the life-changing events surrounding the birth of your child(ren), the one thing you want to see undone or to be able to go back to is your best pre-pregnancy bodyor even better. Yes, it can be done, and you can look better than you did in high school! You want to be that hot mom! You know, the one everyone comments on: You cant be serious! You just had a baby six months ago? Look at you! I thought you were the babys nanny, not her mother! Vain? Maybe, but I know I wanted to be that mom.
I also know that many of you are interested in staying fit during pregnancy. Whether its because of your own personal experience or because you saw a friend or family member struggle with losing the weight gained during pregnancy, you want to do whatever you can to stay healthy and fit during your pregnancy. Or, like many of my good friends, you gained sixty pounds with your first child and realized how un-fun it was getting that weight off. Or you could still be carrying weight from the first one and dont want to be extra-overweight by the time this one pops out. Or you do it because you know you have to or its your only way to de-stress with three other kids at home. Or you work out on occasion and have decided now is the time to really take care of yourself (like the 4 percent of women who are more active during pregnancy than non-pregnancy), or the doctor said you have to! Either way, we just know that working out now will help you get your body back fasterstudies show 40 percent faster.
