Your next step is to learn more about how you should take care of your body while you're pregnant. Let's begin with your pregnancy diet.

Although a nutritious diet and regular exercise are always important, they take on even more importance during pregnancy. Your baby is depending on you to take particularly good care of yourself! Eating well can be easy and inexpensive. If changing your diet seems like a challenge, ask your provider to recommend a dietitian to review your eating habits and help you plan healthy meals. These changes can be the start of a lifetime of healthy eating for you and your family.

Your provider may recommend that you take prenatal vitamins. These will help you make sure that your baby is getting all of the nutrients he needs! These vitamins will help supplement your healthy pregnancy diet.

Actually, "diet" is a misleading term because you do NOT want to DIET while you’re pregnant. In fact, you need to increase your calorie intake by 300 calories a day, in order to gain the proper amount of weight over the coming months. In general, you should take in at least 2100 - 2400 calories a day.

A healthy weight gain for an average-sized woman during pregnancy is 25-35 pounds. You'll usually gain 5-7 pounds during the first thirteen weeks, 10-14 pounds the second thirteen weeks, and 10-14 pounds the last 13-14 weeks. If you are not gaining enough weight, your provider will help you decide how many extra calories you should add to your diet.

Let's find out more about food groups.
 

Here are a few tips to help you plan your meals. First, let's talk about protein. Protein helps build the muscles and organs in your baby. Protein rich foods include meat, fish, eggs, beans, and other dairy products.

Carbohydrates give you energy, and are usually your biggest source of calories. Most of what we eat are carbohydrates, like bread, potatoes, cereals, and lots of fruits and vegetables. Stay away from candy, cake, and donuts. They do contain carbohydrates, but they're also high in fat and not very nutritious. Instead, eat whole grain bread and cereals, baked potatoes, and beans. These will supply you with vitamins, and fiber, to keep you regular.

Calcium helps to build strong bones and teeth, plus muscles and other organs. Dairy foods aren't your only calcium source, but they are a good one. Stay with two-percent milk and low-fat dairy products since they don't have as much fat. Greens vegetables like broccoli are another good source of calcium. And you can also find it in almonds, peanuts, dried fruit and baked goods with sesame seeds.

Your body does not require much fat, even during pregnancy. If you follow a healthy and well-balanced diet, you'll be getting enough fat automatically. Remember to trim excess fat from foods, eat lean meats that are broiled or baked, and use olive or canola oil instead of vegetable oils.

Let's discuss the importance of drinking water.

One important tip is that you should drink plenty of water! Aim for six to eight 8-oz glasses of water every day. This will help reduce constipation, moisten your skin, and make you feel better.

• Chill a gallon of water (64 oz) each day and try to drink it all by the end of the day.
• Carry a quart size sports bottle with you and drink from it throughout the day.
• Have a glass of water with every meal.
• Substitute water for coffee, tea, or soda.

A good diet is only part of your recipe for a healthy pregnancy. Exercise is equally important because it can keep you from gaining too much weight and can help make sure that you and your baby get plenty of oxygen. It’s even possible that your labor may be shorter if you exercise regularly during your pregnancy.

With your provider’s approval, you can probably keep up a regular program during most of your pregnancy. You should, however, avoid “high impact” workouts that jostle the baby too harshly. It’s important that you don't try and push yourself to your pre-pregnancy limits – if you’re tired – take a break! Be sure to begin and end each work-out with a warm-up and cool-down period of at least five minutes. And remember, you should always drink plenty of water while exercising.

• Pick a specific time to exercise daily.
• Wear comfortable clothing.
• Don't exercise right after you eat.
• Do all of your exercises on the floor.
• Start out slowly - start with a few repetitions and work your way up.
• Take a deep cleansing breath at the beginning of each exercise.
• Remember to warm up and cool down for at least five minutes when you exercise!

You know, walking is good for you when you're pregnant. If you can, try and walk briskly for at least 10 minutes every day.

It’s important that you understand some of the things that you need to stay away from during your pregnancy. Nurturing your developing baby really is like taking care of a garden. It's so important that you keep toxic substances away from your baby, even if that means making some changes in your lifestyle. First let's discuss smoking.

Smoking
You probably already know that smoking is bad for you, and it's even harder on your baby. The deadly effects of smoking are passed directly to your baby through your placenta. Smoking increases your risk of miscarriage, having a premature baby, and having a low-birth weight baby. Studies have shown that smoking may also cause vision and hearing defects, slow your baby's mental development, and decrease your breast milk production.

Also, children who grow up in homes where adults smoke are more likely to develop ear infections and breathing problems. So, if you’re a smoker, please stop as soon as possible. Your provider or nurse can refer you to a smoking cessation class or a support group.

Alcohol
Using alcohol during pregnancy is a major cause of mental retardation. Even having just a few drinks per week can cause fetal alcohol effects like hyperactivity and learning disabilities for your child. Any alcohol that you drink will be passed directly to your baby through your bloodstream. Developing babies cannot break down alcohol as efficiently as adults do. Therefore, alcohol creates longer lasting and more severe effects in babies. Don't panic if you did have a few drinks before you found out that you were pregnant -- your baby is probably just fine. But, the safest thing to do from this point on is to stay completely away from alcohol.

Drugs
Drugs stay in a person's system long after they’ve been used, and so your baby can be exposed to their effects for a long time. Drugs that are smoked, like marijuana, also put carbon monoxide into the mother's body, which crosses the placenta into the baby's bloodstream, reducing their oxygen levels. If you have a problem with drugs, or are addicted to prescription medications, PLEASE, talk with your provider to get help. Why take chances with your baby’s life?

Over the Counter Remedies
Over the counter medications or remedies that are perfectly safe when you’re not pregnant may be harmful to your unborn baby. It’s wise to check with your caregiver before taking any type of medication, herbal pill, or remedy.

Sometimes being pregnant may feel like a lot of work. Not only are the symptoms tough to deal with, but we also have to eat right, exercise and make certain that our lifestyle is particularly responsible. The good news is that we have an excellent reason to take care of ourselves - - we're taking care of someone else, too!