Major Preggo Brain...

Hi everyone!! 

So this is long overdue, let's just say I have been suffering from major preggo brain!! Who knew? It's actually real!! LOL!! Well the last month has been crazy busy, most of it is a blur because I can barely remember what day it is. I do know we went to the Arnold Classic and had a blast! Here are some highlights:

We got to see Layne's parents while we were in Ohio. It was so great to see them and spend time with them. They loved seeing the bump!!

And then the Arnold weekend madness began!! I was exhausted by the end of it and my hubby was such a trooper! He worked his tooshie off! He worked at the bodybuilding.com booth all weekend and was one of the commentators for their web-cast coverage. Hearing his name being announced on the Arnold Stage was amazing!! So proud of him!! I helped cover the women's events for bodybuilding.com. Always a blast to be able to walk backstage and see all the action up close and personal. This year was especially exciting as three of our friends did awesome! Candice Keene won the women's figure, Tanji Johnson won the fitness and Ben Pakulski placed 2nd. How we celebrated you may ask? They were all going to parties and dinner and we went to bed! This preggo mama, needed to get the heels off and put my feet up.
Sunday was great! We spent all day at the expo and got the chance to meet and talk to some amazing people!

I also got the chance to speak and spend some time with the beautiful and also preggo Jaime Eason. She is such a sweetheart and so down to earth.And yes her hubby photobomed our pic!!

Here is a picture of the hubby and I at the expo on Friday:

Here is a photo of the beautiful, hot mama and dear friend Darielle Singerman at the women's finals on Friday night:

Here I am with my dear friend and also hot and preggo mama, Amanda Vasallo:

I also got the chance to meet two beautiful Oxygen models, Chelcea Gonzales and Brianna Mogg. Baby Robert is already hanging out with models, he's one lucky baby boy! :)

And here is one of my favorite photos of the whole weekend taken by Amanda, of the hubby and I after the men's finals:

As far as my pregnancy, everything is going great! I am so blessed and happy that everything is going well. We will be at the 24wk mark this upcoming Friday. I am still working out 4-5 times a week. Doing cardio and I just started doing pre-natal yoga. Oh and it needs to be mentioned, Layne has been experiencing sympathy preggo brain!! LOL!! Let's just say he left a suitcase in one city when we were in another, we had to drive back to get it and then travel another city from there! Uggh I wanted  to kill him! :)
I am excited to be going home next week to see my family! Can't wait to see their reactions when they see the bump! PR the Norton's are coming home! :)

I meant to post this video last month,but I forgot! LOL!! So here is a video of me squatting 135lbs at 5 months preggo. :)

Until next time!!

My journey of Pregancy & Fitness!

Welcome to my blog!

As most of you already know my hubby and I are expecting our first child this summer. We are both thrilled with the news that we are indeed expecting a baby boy!! We have decided that he will be named after Layne's late grandfather, whom he idolized and after my father..so his name is Robert James Norton. We can't wait to meet him!!

During this time (I am 20 wks preggo) I have managed to continue to exercise. I made sure to speak to my physician first to make sure that the baby & I were doing well before I continued. She cleared me and told me that I would have to modify my exercises to accommodate the growing belly. At first she told me that I should not lift more than 25lbs, which I asked "For what exercise, curls?" She sort of laughed and told me that the main thing was for me not to hold my breath and to try to maintain my heart rate under 140 bpm. So I have complied with the heart rate part, but I have continued to train a little heavier than that. A few months before we got pregnant I was squatting 230lbs and deadlifting 300lbs. So I knew there were no more training for one rep maxs but that I could train about 70%-80% of that I still be fine.

So during my first trimester, I was fortunate enough that I had no morning sickness or food aversions. I had a few incidents of heart burn, but nothing to complain about. What I did have was a major case of the sleepiness!! I felt like a zombie!! My poor hubby ended up driving most of the way to Illinois and back in early November. I felt horrible, I could barely keep my eyes open. So training during that period was tough, traveling and my zombie like state was not a great combination. But hey, it could of been worse. So I basically listened to my body and trained as much as I could and rested A LOT!
By the time we came back home after all of our traveling in November, and by a lot of traveling this is what I mean: FL to IL and back. Home for 24 hrs and off we were to Cancun for a week. Back home for two days and off to Delray Beach we went. It was nuts!! But we managed to get through it!! Once we were home in December and back to somewhat of a normal routine I was able to stay more consistent with my eating and training. I made it a point to go to the gym at leas 4 times a week. And for Christmas I asked Layne for a recumbent bike to be able to do cardio at home. By late December we entered our second trimester and we were able to finally share our joyous news with the world.

During the second trimester I have felt like I got a second wind! I've had a lot more energy and overall have just felt awesome! So far I have managed to get to the gym 4-5 a week and I do cardio at home the other days. Here are some of the exercises I've been doing to name a few:

• Squats-I started off around 185 lbs in my first trimester and I have dropped that weight to 135lbs to make sure my heart rate stays around 140 beats per minute. And yes it's been to parallel or below. :) I did widen my stance to accommodate the growing belly.
• Shoulder presses-I've used dumbbells or hammer strength shoulder press. I am still using the 35lbs dbs for 3 sets of 5. On the machine I used a 45lbs plate on each side.
• Curls-with 30lbs dbs or 50lbs pre-loaded barbell
• Tricepsextension-with 60-80 lbs on the cable press
• Lat-pull downs-using 100-120lbs 
• Leg extensions-starting with 80lbs
• Butt-blaster-with 40-65 lbs
• Standing leg curls-with 30-50lbs
• Leg press-dropped it down to 90lbs on each side and I don't bring it all the way down to my chest either.
• Anything related to calves! :)

There are a lot more exercises that I do, but I wanted to give you all some examples. The main thing I try to remember is to breath during every single rep. I make it a point to implement this technique: one breath per rep. It has helped me tremendously to maintain my heart rate down. So far I did cut out deadlifts and any exercise that would require me to lay on my tummy (duh!) because it creates a lot of pressure in the abdomen. So far so good, It's funny people in the gym are so cute and try to help me load and unload my weights. Powerhouse in north Tampa is awesome and it's like one big family! Love it! 

So this has been my routine so far, I alternate between lower body and upper body. As far as cardio I have been doing low intensity cardio on the bike anywhere from 20-35 mins. 

So this is it for now! I'll talk about my nutrition on the next one!It's just as important if not more important than my training. 
Thanks for reading!!