Top 3 Things To Consider If You Want To Get Pregnant

Prenatal care if you’re trying: things to think about to get you in the best place for pregnancy

Pregnancy It isn’t always something you can plan, but for those of you who are trying or thinking you’d like to try within the next year, there are a few things to think about in advance that can help your pregnancy go a lot smoother:

Your body composition right now & your blood sugar control (standard deviation, TIR (time in range), A1C)

These are two things that in my opinion, should be the top priority. I’m not a doctor, but my doctors have told me for the last 6 years that “I am in the perfect place should I decide to have kids”. And, I can thank my body composition, diet, and exercise for this which all give the outcome of great blood sugar control.

Why is blood sugar control even more important during pregnancy for women living with type 1 diabetes?

Quoted from the American Diabetes Association: “Because crucial development happens so early, talking to your health care provider at least a few months before you start trying to conceive is one of the most important things you can do to ensure a healthy pregnancy. The reason: If your AIC is 10 percent or higher, you have a higher chance of having a baby with a malformation such as a heart, kidney, brain or spinal cord defect. Get your blood glucose (also known as blood sugar) in target range before you conceive, however, and that changes. If your A1C is 6.5 percent or less, you’re no more likely to have a baby with a birth defect than a woman without diabetes.”

In addition, having prolonged high blood glucose during pregnancy can result in a much larger baby at birth. For Blood Sugar targets during pregnancy, check this post.

Thankfully, for those who plan ahead and make blood sugar control a priority, with the right diet and exercise regimen, it doesn’t have to be as daunting as it seems.

Body Composition

The leaner you are, and the more muscle you have, the more insulin sensitive you are. When you have lower body fat percentage it becomes a lot easier to control overall sugars in my experience. 

I’m not always my leanest, though. When it comes to my background in bodybuilding the cycle goes a little something like this: Increase caloric intake and volume at the gym (eat more, lift more, simply put), when I’m in this phase my blood sugars naturally increase, thus does my overall insulin quantity and it takes a little more to keep my sugars in range (for me), then, once you gain muscle mass you cut weight and get lean (lower caloric intake and overall volume at the gym + increase cardio). When I’m in this phase my blood sugars naturally are a lot lower, so I have to decrease my overall basal. Because I am eating less daily, my blood sugars are more predictable/easier to manage without thinking too much. Diet and exercise (exercise specifically for me) are my #1 when it comes to managing my overall sugars, because whether I am cutting or gaining weight lifting weights and walking keeps my sugars in check and my insulin sensitivity higher than if I am sedentary. So, if you have some weight to lose focusing on that aspect can make it a lot easier to keep your sugars in range pre-pregnancy and set a good foundation for BG management when you are pregnant. If you want guidance for weight loss you can check out my Fat Loss for Type 1’s program and follow exactly what I do here. Suppose you don’t have weight to lose. In that case, incorporating a solid weight lifting and cardio regimen will help increase insulin sensitivity and give you the best blood sugar management to get your body prepped and at its healthiest pre-pregnancy. 

Exercise

Even though both diet and exercise are crucial and go hand in hand, let’s start with exercise because I find that exercise is a core component to keeping my blood sugar in range with an A1C in the 5’s for over 6 years. Whatever you do for exercise, make sure that it’s something you enjoy. The most important aspect of any weight-lifting program is to focus on progressive overload. This means that you are increasing volume with every workout. Progressive overload is key. If you hit the gym without a proper plan and you’re just going through the motions, you’re not creating the change that’s needed to build muscle (and no, you will never look like a man no matter how heavy you lift because men and women have different hormones and unless you’re taking growth hormones you will never look like a man). Muscle is what’s needed to increase insulin sensitivity because the bigger muscle you have the bigger tank you have to store excess glucose. Progressive O/L is a must! If you want workout plans that focus on progressive O/L you can download them within my Thrive Community on the Honey Health App.

Diet

The things you eat regularly are extra important when it comes to keeping your glucose in range as much as possible. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to cut out certain foods or avoid eating certain things, it just means that you will need to learn to dose for these things accordingly to try and avoid a spike in glucose. And, you won’t always get it right, and that’s okay. When we’re talking about A1C, TIR, and standard deviation, we are looking at your targets over a longer time frame, not just a few days. So don’t beat yourself up if you have a few wonky days when the rest of the days are great. If I’m going out to a restaurant or eating something I don’t normally do, I like to use MyFitnessPal to help me get an estimate of the carb, fat, and protein so I can inject my doses more accurately for those foods. I generally follow an 80/20 rule. Eating 80% mindfully and 20% treats that I wouldn’t normally. What does it mean to eat more mindfully and keep sugars more stabilized? It means going to the grocery store and reading labels. Pick the carbs that contain a higher content of fiber, like choose bread that contains a higher content of fiber versus the one with less, because fiber has little to no effect on blood glucose and will increase it at a slower pace. Choose lean meats/proteins, and eat veggies and high-fiber fruits like frozen berries. Focus on getting in enough protein per day and stay hydrated!! Implementing these habits will help you because your diet will be similar during pregnancy. You’ll want to eat foods that raise blood sugar more slowly so you can avoid those sudden spikes, think high fiber, and pair your carbs with fat and protein. 

When you focus on these three components, you will automatically find your blood sugar becomes much easier to manage. And the beautiful thing is all of these components go hand in hand, meaning you cannot achieve one without achieving the other. You cannot eat lower calories and make mindful food choices without automatically lowering your body fat percentage, and when you decrease your body fat percentage, you increase insulin sensitivity. When you add progressive overload training to that, you burn more calories and build more muscle while dramatically increasing insulin sensitivity. Cardio is the icing on the cake: you can go for a brisk 10-20 min walk to lower blood glucose and burn extra calories, which doesn’t just help your weight loss efforts if that’s your goal, but it helps your body stay healthy as a whole. We can curse diabetes for making life more difficult, or we can find gratitude for forcing us to take care of our bodies in a way that most people don’t. And, when you prep your body for pregnancy and start your pregnancy off in a healthy way, your pregnancy as a person living with type 1 diabetes becomes no more high risk than anyone else’s. That’s my opinion. It doesn’t need to be overwhelming; start where you can and gradually increase what you’re doing until you reach your goal.