From starring on TOWIE to co-founding her online fitness platform Results With Lucy, Lucy Mecklenburgh's busy and active lifestyle has got a whole lot more exciting with a baby on the way.
Lucy spoke to Mother&Baby about her pregnancy journey so far, the highs and lows of social media for mums-to-be, and the benefits of exercising for mum and baby while pregnant.
How are you finding pregnancy so far, was it what you expected?
I found the first trimester quite difficult. As a person that is super active with a busy lifestyle, I found it hard to accept I couldn’t work out and that I needed to rest a lot more.
I was extremely tired and sick 24/7. For me, it really did feel like a three-month hangover from hell stage without the fun night before!
The second trimester has been amazing! I’m back to working out for 30 mins, 3-5 times a week.
My diet is back to normal; I had to keep it quite beige and bland in the first three months because they were the only foods that didn’t make me feel sick.
Now I’m back eating a variety of foods. Thankfully my sickness heightened the sense of smell and tiredness has eased off massively.
It’s great to feel like myself again with the added bonus of my lovely little bump.
What kind of mum do you think you’ll be?
I honestly haven’t even thought about anything like this yet. I’m taking it one day at a time right now.
Have you experienced any trolling since announcing the news, what has the response been like on Instagram?
99.9 percent of people on social media are supportive and super excited for me but there have been few people that have commented negative things about me exercising.
I don’t blame them because there are mixed messages on this topic online and from midwives and I genuinely think they mean well.
I’m loving spreading the word that exercise is not only safe but extremely beneficial for mum and baby.
I’m using my platform to hopefully take away the stigma that exercising is dangerous during pregnancy and on resultswithlucy.com we are creating blogs to educate women that want to learn more about exercising while pregnant.
Social media is such a powerful tool that we are lucky enough to have so long as it is used correctly to educate, inspire, support and motivate each other.
You’ve been really relatable on Instagram with your morning sickness post and skinny jeans hack. Why is it important for you to be honest about your journey?
I think it’s important to show all sides to my pregnancy. Yes, it’s wonderful but there are some really difficult and unglamorous sides to pregnancy. Morning sickness, anxiety, tiredness, stretch marks, accepting your ever-changing ever-expanding body.
If we all talk a little bit more about the ‘not so nice’ parts I think a lot of women would feel less self-conscious or alone if they are experiencing any of these.
Have you had any pregnancy cravings?
Cereal! I never ate cereal before but I’m obsessed now. I sometimes wake up at 4am starving for a bowl of cereal.
Has it been difficult sticking to your healthy lifestyle since becoming pregnant (What’s your tips to mums-to-be who may find this difficult?)
In the first trimester, I ate only beige, bland food. I couldn’t work out and needed an afternoon nap whenever possible.
I found this so hard to accept and kept trying to fight it. I would say acceptance is very important.
Also, to listen to your body and to not pressure yourself to do the same things and feel the same way as you did before pregnancy.
This won’t be forever and if you can’t eat veggies or workout don’t stress, go with it and hopefully like me, it will stop at around 12 weeks.
If you worked out before, feel up to it and haven’t been advised by a medical professional not to work out, exercisinghas so many benefits for mum and baby.
Please do your research though. We have lots of blogs and prenatal safe workouts on resultswithlucy.com.
I’ve enjoyed working out for 30 minutes most days or an hour stroll since I passed the 12-week mark. I’ve adapted my workouts to be much lower impact; no crunches or burpees (woohoo!) and I take a lot more breaks and drink more water.
Diet-wise I’m much hungrier than normal so I’m trying to prep healthy snacks when I can.
Results with Lucy is an online fitness, nutrition, and health platform. For more information and for pre and post-natal blogs and workouts, please visit https://www.resultswithlucy.com/
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