Health Archives - Audrey JoAnn | Content and Copy Writer

10 Things Being Pregnant in a Pandemic Has Taught Me

December 4, 2020

Apparently I have a lot to say about this year—which is odd because doesn’t it simultaneously feel like NOTHING and SO MUCH has happened these past 11 months? Anyone else?

I think 2020 has transformed most of us in some way. I’m constantly torn between wondering who the person is growing inside me, and who the person is that I’m growing into. Along the way, I’ve learned quite a few lessons—some still in transit, some a re-learning, some pushing their way in no matter how hard I’ve pushed back.

Overall, I do think this year has been a beautiful reminder of the most important things: our priorities, our health, our families, our time. Here are 10 of the biggest things being pregnant in a pandemic has taught me:

01. To freakin’ slow down.

Ooooh, buddy. I wish I could say it didn’t take a global pandemic and pregnancy to be okay with occasionally letting myself work from bed or the couch—or *GASP* take a catnap in the middle of the day—or *DOUBLE GASP* take a day off from working out—but here we are.

I’ve worked for myself, from home, for nearly 3 years and couldn’t fathom doing that before unless I was sick or something had happened. Now I’m like: give me my bed and my pregnancy pillow and my laptop by 3:30 pm, or give me death. Evolution, y’all. It’s real.

SNOOZING IS EVIL & HERE’S WHY

September 27, 2018

One of my worst bad habits is snoozing my alarm when it goes off every morning. John and I both do it, and usually our alarms aren’t synced, so his goes off, then a few minutes later mine goes off, and then his again a couple minutes later, then mine, then his, etc., etc. If I weren’t so busy trying to squeeze in a few more minutes of sleep, I’d probably be annoyed by the influx of interruptions every morning.

Instead, we take turns tapping the Snooze button on each of our iPhones and rolling over for just a few more minutes of shuteye. And then a few more. And then a few more. It is such a part of my wakeup routine that I really don’t think twice about it most days.

But earlier this week, after hitting Snooze for the first time Tuesday morning (I usually partake in 3 to 4 snoozes a day), a thought came to me. Is snoozing for a half hour or more every day affecting my health? The question was enough to pique my interest, but alas, as the true snoozer I am, I fell back asleep regardless of my curiosity.

WHY I QUIT TRAINING FOR A MARATHON

August 16, 2018

I tend to have this cycle where I get really excited about something, decide to pursue it all out, invest a lot of time in it (and, sometimes, a lot of money), but then I eventually get discouraged by not being the best or as good as others or as fully committed as I once was — and then my interest slowly diminishes until I finally drop it. Whether it’s launching a new blog (this site is probably my 10th rendition of some form of blog in the past eight years), trying a new style of workout class, starting to write a book (yeah, I bet I’ve started close to 10 of these, too). Have you been guilty of falling into this cycle ever?

This has happened so many times in my life that I’m now aware of myself entering the cycle of love-pursue-dwindle when I become obsessed with a new big plan or idea, and I get fearful of when, not if, I’ll get over it. I suppose it can be a good thing to dream up interesting and novel pursuits for myself, but the fizzling out part, over and over, is the problem.

It always reminds me of the quote, “Learn to rest, not quit,” which is a good cue to whisper when I’m feeling the itch to get out of things I really do want. But, recently, I had to quit training for a marathon I planned on running in September for reasons other than I wasn’t doing good enough or I got bored with it. It was none of that. Sure, it was freaking hard and I was never a natural at it, but that’s not why I ended up stopping.

4 THINGS I’VE LEARNED FROM TRAINING FOR A MARATHON

June 28, 2018

I texted my sister a couple months ago to ask if she would train for a marathon with me. She is the best runner I know, so I had a feeling she would be in for this nutty plan. To my delight, she didn’t hesitate at all before saying yes and started asking which half I wanted to do and when. We’ve trained for a few halfs together, so she automatically assumed that’s what I meant, but I quickly let her know that, no, it wasn’t a half marathon. I wanted to do a full marathon. Clearly, she isn’t a Real Housewives of New York watcher.

Carole Radziwill (from the show), a 50-something-year-old woman who often talks about how she’s practically allergic to gyms and sports bras, trained for and ran the New York Marathon last year. I promise this isn’t sarcasm: The way she talked about it in the first episode this season was poetic, about how lonely the multi-hours-long race felt, even though she was surrounded by people on the same pursuit. It was shear self-control and power of the mind to keep moving toward the finish line, and once she crossed it, embraced by the family and friends out supporting her, she said the precise opposite feelings from loneliness overwhelmed her.

I was having a glass of wine while I watched her describe this experience (perhaps that’s why it was so moving?), and I decided I wanted to feel that. I wanted to see if I had the will and strength to run a marathon. If a middle-aged, out-of-shape Bravo-lebrity could do it, couldn’t I?

01. To freakin’ slow down.

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