When you want to become pregnant, you know that your body should be in optimal condition. This means that you are healthy enough to carry a child, and that your risks of getting sick are at a minimum. Many women begin to exercise, go on diets, and prepare themselves so that when the pregnancy is official, their bodies will be ready to endure pregnancy. But before you go into all the exercising, diets, extra water intake . . . and all these things that are constantly tied to living a healthier lifestyle . . . tally what you know.
What does that mean? Tally what you know, means create a list of health indicators that are important you. Omega Family Global recommends that you include the following indicators; you can add more if you like, but these should be the ones to definitely incorporate into your Tally:
BMI – Body Mass Index
This is an indicator that relates the amount of body fat a person has in relation to height. The higher the BMI, the more prone a person is to encounter certain health risks such as high blood pressure or diabetes. A woman can still be overweight and meet the BMI requirements to become a Surrogate, and/or have a healthy pregnancy. The BMI required for an Omega Surrogate is 21 – 32.
To be able to calculate a healthy BMI for a woman, based on the average height of the American woman (5’4’’ according to the Center for Disease Control) her weight should range from 120 – 185 pounds. It now becomes clear that you may be overweight and still have a normal BMI. You can check your BMI at the CDC website. You can also look up your height and weight with a BMI chart.
If you are already in a BMI range that is good for you, Congratulations! It’s good to know that even if you feel you are too thin, or you are too big, you are still in a healthy BMI range. If you are not in the BMI range there are many things that you can do to lower it or increase it. Remember this is not about being fat or skinny, it’s about having a healthy relationship between your fat content and your height.
Physical Activity
How much physical activity is normal for you? Roughly keep tabs on how many times a day you go up and down stairs. How many stairs are there in your house? Do you walk to work or school? You may be doing a lot of commuting by foot that you have never noticed. Try substituting walking up stairs for elevator rides. If you have a desk job, challenge yourself to eat your lunch standing up; that way you give your feet and legs an opportunity to carry your weight. An easy thing that can be done at home (and it does not take much time―roughly 2 minutes) is to try to hold a plank pose. Lie on the floor, push your body up with your arms, keeping your back totally straight. Each time you will hold it longer, and this helps your arm muscles, leg muscles, and other areas of your body remain toned.
What do you eat?
Take a picture or take notes of what you eat during the day, starting when you wake up until you go to sleep. Remember, not every time you eat means that you are sitting down, or just eating; you can be doing many things at once.
The next day, look at the pictures and/or notes from day before: check if you ate your three meals, check if you skipped meals, are you eating snacks throughout the day and not eating lunch? Keep tabs on it. If you do realize certain patterns that you identify as not as healthy, you can take the appropriate corrective steps. Sometimes, by simply eating at the same of day and drinking enough water, you will help your body understand when it receives nourishment, so that it does not jump at any food you provide it and store it away as fat.
We know how to take care of ourselves, what we don’t do is keep tabs or tally what we do or do not do. There are times when we just feel that we are not doing what we should be doing to take care of ourselves. The way to solve that is to record what it is we do. In this technological age it is simple to take a picture, or download an app to record our activities. This way, when we see the results we know what actions to take.
Keep tabs on what your physical activity is, your water intake, and what you eat, and then review it with yourself or with a friend. With concrete results you will have an idea of what it is you need to do to get the body that you want, and in the process meet the requirements to become a Surrogate.
Omega Family Surrogates… Bringing Family Moments to life, in the healthiest environment possible.