The “Different” Things I Did to Support My Pregnancy

[00:00:00] Emily Field: Welcome back to the Macros Made Easy podcast. I’m your host, Emily Field, registered dietician, personal trainer, and someone who spends a lot of time thinking about physiology, behavior, and what actually supports long-term health in real life. Today’s episode is personal. I’m gonna walk you through several things I’ve done during this pregnancy that some people might consider a little non-conventional.

[00:00:23] Emily Field: I monitored my own blood sugars. Instead of doing the standard glucose drink, I hired a doula. I continued lifting and attending CrossFit style classes. I tracked just protein instead of all my macros. I intentionally did not focus on total weight gained. I committed to acupuncture three times per month, and perhaps most importantly, I continued deep body image work.

[00:00:47] Emily Field: Now, before you assume anything, let me say this clearly. This episode is not about rebellion. It’s not about rejecting medicine. It’s not about thinking I know better than my doctor, and it is absolutely not about creating a formula for a perfect pregnancy outcome. It is about intentional decision making in a season that is often filled with rules, fear and shoulds.

[00:01:11] Emily Field: But before I get into specific choices I made, I need to add a little bit of context. ’cause context matters. I am a white, middle class college educated woman in a health profession. This is a planned pregnancy. I have access to excellent medical care. I have an active and supportive partner. I have flexibility in my schedule.

[00:01:30] Emily Field: I have the ability to pay for things like a doula and acupuncture, and I understand research and feel comfortable reading studies and asking questions. That is privilege, and I want to say that out loud. Not everyone has the same access to care. Not everyone has the same flexibility or financial resources.

[00:01:48] Emily Field: Not everyone feels empowered to ask questions or request alternatives. Not everyone enters pregnancy from a place of stability or support. So when I shared the decisions I made, I’m not presenting them as a universal recommendation. I’m sharing what made sense for me within the context of the resources and support that I have.

[00:02:07] Emily Field: And here’s another important layer here as well. I am an older first time mom, which does place me in a higher risk category for certain complications. None of my decisions were casual. None of them were about ignoring medical advice. I would never knowingly do something that increased risk to myself or my baby.

[00:02:26] Emily Field: If my doctor strongly advised against something, I would defer to her clinical judgment. Full stop. Autonomy to me does not mean disregarding expertise. It means asking thoughtful questions within a collaborative relationship. And one more thing. I am recording this episode before I know my birth outcomes.

[00:02:46] Emily Field: I do not know how labor will go. I do not know what postpartum will look like. I don’t not know whether any of these decisions will influence anything in a measurable way. It is entirely possible that none of these choices will change my birth experience at all, and I’m totally okay with that because this episode is not about outcomes.

[00:03:05] Emily Field: It’s about the process. Pregnancy is full of shoulds. You should do this. You shouldn’t do that. This is standard. This is protocol. This is what everyone does. And sometimes those standards are absolutely appropriate, but sometimes it’s also appropriate to pause and ask what makes sense for me? That is the lens I approach this pregnancy through, not rebellion, not fear, not control, but alignment.

[00:03:33] Emily Field: Alignment with physiology, alignment with my nervous system, alignment with the season I’m in. So here is where we’re gonna go today. First, I’m gonna walk you through the specific practices I chose and the research behind why they made sense physiologically. We’ll talk about blood sugar monitoring, resistance training, protein intake, stress physiology, and nervous system regulation.

[00:03:56] Emily Field: Then we’re gonna zoom out because when I look at all these decisions together, I realize something. This was not about being unconventional, it was about autonomy. It was about choosing curiosity over compliance information over fear physiology over dogma. And finally we’re gonna talk about the piece that most people overlook, body image, because pregnancy is the ultimate stress test for identity.

[00:04:21] Emily Field: And the work I did long before this pregnancy is what allowed me to stay steady through it. This episode is about much more than pregnancy. It’s about how you move through seasons of change without tightening control, spiraling into fear, or losing yourself in the process. Okay, let’s start with the first choice I made monitoring my blood sugar instead of drinking the glucose drink and why?

[00:04:44] Emily Field: That decision actually aligns perfectly with what I teach inside my services. One of the different things I chose to do during pregnancy was monitor my blood sugar instead of doing the standard glucose drink screening in a traditional way. And I wanna be really clear upfront, this was not me trying to avoid information.

[00:05:03] Emily Field: It actually. Did the opposite. I wanted information that felt more useful to me, more contextual and more reflective of how I actually eat and live. Gestational diabetes screening exists for a very good reason. Blood sugar dysregulation during pregnancy matters because when it goes undetected or unsupported, it can increase the risk of things like excessive fetal growth, preterm labor, cesarean delivery, and a greater likelihood of maternal insulin resistance later on in life.

[00:05:32] Emily Field: So the goal here is not to dismiss screening. The goal is to take glucose regulation seriously. The traditional screening method is the oral glucose tolerance test where the pregnant woman consumes a large isolated glucose load in a short period of time. Depending on the test. That can be anywhere from 50 to a hundred grams of glucose, often without buffering effects of protein, fat, fiber, or movement.

[00:05:57] Emily Field: It’s designed to stress the system and reveal whether the body is managing glucose appropriately. That test absolutely has clinical utility, but it is also by design, somewhat artificial. It is not how most people eat in real life. On the other hand, structured blood sugar monitoring gives you data from normal meals, normal routines, and normal physiology.

[00:06:20] Emily Field: It lets you see how your body responds to breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, movement, stress, sleep, and meal composition. Instead of measuring your response to an isolated sugar load, it measures your response to real life. And when you zoom out, the research around glucose control supports a lot of the same principles I teach all the time anyway.

[00:06:43] Emily Field: Meals that include protein, fat, and carbohydrate tend to create a steadier blood sugar response than carbs eaten in isolation. Resistance training improves insulin sensitivity. Frequent moderate movement supports glycemic control, stable routines, balanced meals, and muscle mass, all matter. And that is part of why this route made sense to me.

[00:07:07] Emily Field: It gave me more than a yes or no answer. It gave me a. A pattern. So for me, this choice came down to wanting context instead of just a single stress test. I was not interested in passing something and just moving on. I was interested in understanding how my body was responding across days and meals. I wanted to see what happened after breakfast.

[00:07:28] Emily Field: I wanted to know whether a balanced lunch kept things stable. I wanted to observe whether stress, sleep, or activity shifted my numbers. That kind of information feels much more actionable to me than one big glucose hit in isolation. And again, this was not about fear of carbs and it was not about trying to outsmart the medical system.

[00:07:49] Emily Field: I did not avoid carbohydrates during pregnancy, and I did not avoid testing. I simply chose a form of testing that felt much more aligned with how I think about physiology. Because if I’m going to gather data, I want that data to come from conditions that resemble my actual life. That is very similar to how I think about nutrition in general.

[00:08:10] Emily Field: I do not care whether someone can white knuckle their way through one perfect day of eating. I care about what their body is telling us across the week. I care about patterns. I care about repeatability. I care about whether the data we collect actually helps us make. Better decisions, that mindset absolutely carried into pregnancy.

[00:08:31] Emily Field: And this choice felt incredibly aligned with how I teach nutrition because at its core, macros made easy is about learning how your body responds in real life. It’s not about blindly following rules, it’s not about chasing perfect compliance. It’s not about doing things because they’re standard if they’re not actually giving you the most meaningful information.

[00:08:51] Emily Field: Macro’s made easy. Teaches that data is helpful when it creates clarity, not when it creates fear. Macro tracking, when done well is not obsessive because of the numbers. It is informative because it helps you observe patterns in your real routine. You start to see what happens when protein is too low, when meals are carb heavy without balance.

[00:09:11] Emily Field: When you undereat all day and feel out of control at night or when you’re feeling well and your energy recovery and hunger cues improve. That is exactly how I viewed blood sugar monitoring in pregnancy. I was not looking for a gold star. I was not looking to do pregnancy perfectly. I was looking for feedback, and that feedback came from real meals with mixed macronutrients.

[00:09:33] Emily Field: It came from how my body handled carbohydrates in the presence of protein and fat. It came from observing how movement supported blood sugar. I came from seeing physiology play out in context instead of in a vacuum. To me, that is such a strong reflection of the larger message I try to teach women. Your body is not random and it is not broken.

[00:09:54] Emily Field: It responds to inputs. If you gather the right information, you can make better decisions with a lot less fear. So this choice really represented three things I value deeply in my work. Curiosity over compliance information over fear and physiology over dogma. That is the same lens I bring to macro tracking.

[00:10:15] Emily Field: That is the same lens I bring to midlife nutrition, and that is the same lens I brought into pregnancy. The bigger point here is not that everyone should do what I did. The bigger point is that I approach pregnancy the same way I approach nutrition coaching. I want to understand what is happening in my body in a way that reflected real life.

[00:10:35] Emily Field: I wanted useful data, not just standard data. I wanted insight I could actually apply. I think that is an important distinction. Because there is a big difference between rejecting care and personalizing care. There is a big difference between avoidance and thoughtful decision making, and there’s a big difference between following a norm because it’s common and choosing an approach because it gives you the kind of information that helps you take better care of yourself.

[00:11:04] Emily Field: And that’s why this felt like such a meaningful choice for me during pregnancy. Another different decision I made during pregnancy was hiring a doula, and this one honestly feels less controversial to me and more like a no-brainer. Once I understood the full picture. There’s actually very strong research behind continuous labor support.

[00:11:26] Emily Field: Large systematic reviews, including data from the Cochrane Collaboration, consistently show that having continuous support during labor, like from a doula, is associated with lower rates of cesarean delivery, reduced need for pain medication, shorter labor duration, higher birth satisfaction, and lower risk for postpartum depression.

[00:11:47] Emily Field: Those are meaningful outcomes, and when you understand the physiology, it makes a lot of sense why this happens. Labor is not just mechanical, it’s hormonal. Oxytocin is the primary hormone driving labor progression, but oxytocin is very sensitive to environment, stress, and perceived safety. When stress levels rise, catecholamines like adrenaline increase, and those stress hormones can actually inhibit oxytocin.

[00:12:14] Emily Field: So when you think about it like this, when the body feels unsafe, it slows labor. When the body feels supported and safe, it allows labor to progress. Continuous support helps regulate that environment. It lowers perceived stress, supports emotional safety, and allows the hormonal cascade of labor to function more effectively.

[00:12:37] Emily Field: So while it might look like an extra nice, it is actually deeply tied to physiology. For me, this decision was both physiological and personal. From a physiological standpoint, it made complete sense. If environment and stress influence labor, then investing in support is not optional. It is strategic. But on a personal level, this decision was really about knowing myself and knowing my dynamic with my partner.

[00:13:03] Emily Field: I trust my partner deeply. He has been through birth before, which is valuable, but that experience was over 20 years ago, and this is not something we actively live in or practice. We are a great team, but we are not experts in labor. And I think there’s a tendency to assume that love and support are enough and they matter a lot, but they are not the same as expertise.

[00:13:26] Emily Field: I also know something about myself. I thrive when I can trust the people around me. I am very good at making decisions, but I’m also very comfortable passing decision making to someone I trust when they’re more experienced in a specific area. That’s actually a strength for me and labor felt like one of those situations where I do not know who I am going to be.

[00:13:48] Emily Field: I do not know how I will respond physically or emotionally. I do not know what I will need in the moment. And I also do not know how my partner will respond if I am not at my best, because the truth is when one person is dysregulated, it can impact the other. So bringing in a doula felt like adding a steady, experienced presence into a situation that is inherently unpredictable.

[00:14:12] Emily Field: Someone who is not emotionally entangled in the moment. Someone who can guide ground and support both of us. Someone who has seen this many times before and knows how to navigate it, and that felt incredibly valuable. This decision is very aligned with how I approach everything in my work. I do not believe in winging it and hoping for the best.

[00:14:32] Emily Field: I believe in building systems that support better outcomes In macros made easy. We don’t rely on motivation alone. We build structure in E two lean. We do not expect you to figure everything out by yourself. We coach you through it with a custom macro calculation. We do not guess. We use data and experience to guide decisions.

[00:14:52] Emily Field: This is the same concept just applied to a different phase of life. I did not want to rely solely on willpower, emotion, or instinct in a high stakes, high stress environment. I wanted support. I wanted guidance. I wanted someone in the room whose role was to help regulate the environment because environment matters.

[00:15:11] Emily Field: We talk about that all the time with your nutrition. Your environment influences your behavior, your environment influences your decisions, your environment influences your outcomes. And labor is no different. Hiring a doula was me intentionally shaping my environment to support the physiological and emotional outcome that I wanted.

[00:15:31] Emily Field: So again, this is not about saying everyone needs a doula. The takeaway is that support changes outcomes, and not just emotional outcomes, but physiological ones too. We often think of strength as doing things all on our own, but in reality, one of the most effective things you can do is build the right support system around you.

[00:15:51] Emily Field: That is true in nutrition. That’s true in fitness, and it’s absolutely true in pregnancy and birth. For me, hiring a doula was not an extra, it was an investment in environment regulation and support, and that is something I will almost always prioritize. Another thing I chose to continue during my pregnancy was strength training and specifically going to CrossFit style classes at my gym.

[00:16:16] Emily Field: Now, this is one of those areas where people think it’s controversial, but when you actually look at the research, it’s really not, it’s. Guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are very clear. Resistance training is not only safe during uncomplicated pregnancy. It’s recommended the benefits are significant, reduced risk for gestational diabetes, less back pain, improved mood and mental health, lower likelihood of excessive gestational weight gain, better postpartum recovery, preservation of lean muscle mass.

[00:16:47] Emily Field: And when you zoom in on what strength training is doing physiologically. It becomes even more compelling. It helps maintain insulin sensitivity, which is a huge factor during pregnancy. It preserves neuromuscular coordination and strength, which matters as your body is literally changing week to week. It supports pelvic stability and joint integrity, and it helps maintain metabolic rate through the preservation of muscle mass.

[00:17:13] Emily Field: What the research does not say is that you need to stop exercising. It says that you need to modify appropriately as pregnancy progresses, adjusting the intensity movement and expectations to match as your body can safely tolerate. So again, the theme here is not restriction, it’s adaptation. For me, continuing to lift was both a physical and a psychological decision.

[00:17:38] Emily Field: Physically, it made complete sense. Muscle is protective, strength is protective, metabolic health is protective, and all of those things matter, not just during pregnancy, but in recovery afterward. But the part that felt just as important, if not more important, was the mental and emotional side. Movement is a huge part of my mental health.

[00:17:59] Emily Field: It is part of my routine. It is part of how I regulate stress. It is part of how I feel like myself, and I knew that even if things had to change, removing that entirely would definitely not serve me. That said, I had to modify much earlier than I expected. I dealt with carpal tunnel and swelling in my wrist pretty early on, which meant that certain movements just weren’t available to me the way that they used to be.

[00:18:24] Emily Field: That was an adjustment because even as someone who teaches flexibility and adaptation, it is still an identity shift when your body doesn’t respond the way it used to. But I kept coming back to this idea. Just because it looks different doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. Some days that meant lifting lighter.

[00:18:43] Emily Field: Some days that meant changing movements entirely. Some days that meant slowing things down or scaling back more than I ever would have chosen before. But I kept going because going to the gym, seeing my friends, and moving my body, even in a modified way, was still a net positive. It might not have looked like my old training.

[00:19:02] Emily Field: It might not have felt as strong or fast, but it still mattered. This decision is very aligned with how I coach women through transitional seasons and macros made easy and eat to lean. We do not abandon habits just because life changes. We adjust them, we scale them. We redefine what success looks like in that season because consistency is not about doing things perfectly.

[00:19:26] Emily Field: It’s about maintaining continuity, even when the version of that behavior changes and strength training is a perfect example of this. I did not continue training because I was chasing performance or trying to prove something. I continued because it supports my physiology and protects my identity, and that identity piece matters more than people realize.

[00:19:46] Emily Field: When you completely disconnect from habits that make you feel like yourself, whether that is training, eating well, or having some structure in your day, you create a bigger gap to bridge later. But when you maintain even a modified version of those habits, you stay connected, and that makes it so much easier to transition into the next phase, whether that’s postpartum fat loss or rebuilding strength.

[00:20:11] Emily Field: The takeaway here is not that you need to do CrossFit style workouts during pregnancy. The takeaway is that you do not have to abandon strength just because you’re in a new season. You can modify, you can adjust, you can scale, and in many ways, that is a more advanced skill. Because it requires you to let go of what things used to look like while still showing up in a way that serves you.

[00:20:33] Emily Field: Now, for me, continuing to lift even in a very different form was one of the most grounding and supportive choices I made. It supported my metabolism, it supported my mental health, and it helped me stay connected to myself during a time when a lot was changing, and that is something I would prioritize again and again.

[00:20:55] Emily Field: Another different thing I did to support my pregnancy was tracking just protein instead of all of my macros. It’s probably one of the most on-brand decisions I made if you followed my work for any amount of time. You know that I talk a lot about flexibility, about skill building, about using data in a way that actually supports your life, not overwhelms it.

[00:21:16] Emily Field: And during pregnancy, tracking just protein on most days was what felt realistic, supportive, and sustainable. Because the truth is my appetite has been all over the place. Some days I wake up with very specific cravings that feel non-negotiable. Other days, I’m eating more out of structure, like I know I should get something in.

[00:21:36] Emily Field: And then there are days where I feel like I could eat everything in sight. That variability is normal during pregnancy, but it also means that trying to perfectly track calories, carbs, and fats every single day just didn’t match the reality of what I had. The bandwidth for protein, though, that felt like an anchor.

[00:21:55] Emily Field: When you look at the research, protein becomes even more important during pregnancy, especially as you move into the second and third trimesters. Protein requirements increase to support fetal tissue development, placental growth, and the expansion of maternal blood volume. It also plays a critical role in preserving maternal lean mass, which is something I care deeply about, not just for pregnancy itself, but for postpartum recovery and long-term metabolic health.

[00:22:22] Emily Field: Now if you look at standard recommendations, research often cite intake around 1.1 to 1.3 grams per kilogram of body weight in later pregnancy. But it’s important to understand that this is likely a baseline, not an optimal target. Okay, dietician, Lily Nichols, who in my opinion, really owns the pregnancy nutrition space, has been very clear that those recommendations are probably the bare minimum needed to prevent deficiency, not necessarily to optimize outcomes, and I agree with that.

[00:22:54] Emily Field: Personally, I’ve been aiming for closer to about one gram per pound of body weight. So for me, pre-pregnancy weight that’s around 1 40, 1 50 grams or more per day. Not because I’m trying to be rigid, but because I understand how supportive that level of intake can be. Beyond the structural demands of pregnancy, protein plays several functional roles that really matter in this season.

[00:23:18] Emily Field: It supports satiety, which is incredibly helpful when appetite is unpredictable. It helps stabilize blood sugar, especially when meals include carbohydrates, which to be clear, I was absolutely and am absolutely still eating. It supports tissue repair and recovery as your body is constantly adapting. It also helps buffer some of the glucose variability that can come from more carbohydrate driven meals, which I crave.

[00:23:44] Emily Field: And that ties back to overall metabolic health during pregnancy. So when you zoom out, protein is not just important. It’s one of the most protective and stabilizing nutrients you can focus on. And that’s exactly why when I simplified my tracking, this is where I anchored. For me, this decision came down to capacity and priorities.

[00:24:06] Emily Field: I did not want to disengage from nutrition altogether, but I also didn’t want to create unnecessary stress by trying to track everything perfectly in a season where my body and my appetite were not predictable. Tracking just protein gave me a middle ground. It allowed me to stay connected to my intake without feeling rigid.

[00:24:26] Emily Field: It gave me a clear, actionable target on days where I felt structured and enough flexibility on days when I didn’t. There were plenty of meals where I was driven by cravings and I let that happen. There were days when I was eating more intuitively and days when I leaned more on structure, but across all of that, protein became a consistent through line.

[00:24:48] Emily Field: It was one of the things I could return to regardless of how the day was going, and that felt supportive, not restrictive. This approach is actually a direct reflection of how I teach Macro tracking inside of macros made easy. We often talk about using protein and calories as anchors, especially for women who are overwhelmed or in a busy or transitional season, because while full macro tracking can be incredibly useful, it’s not always necessary or appropriate for every phase of life.

[00:25:18] Emily Field: This is what I mean when I say macros are a tool, not a rule. The goal is not perfect. Compliance. The goal is to use the tool in a way that supports your physiology and your life. From a behavior standpoint, simplification increases adherence. When something is easier to execute, you’re more likely to actually do it consistently.

[00:25:38] Emily Field: And from a metabolic standpoint, prioritizing protein helps protect lean mass, supports recovery and contributes to overall metabolic health. So in a lot of ways this wasn’t a step back from macro tracking. It was just an evolution of it. I moved from control to collaboration, and that’s a more advanced skill.

[00:25:57] Emily Field: The takeaway here is not that you should only ever track protein, the takeaways that you can adjust your level of precision based on your season of life without losing effectiveness, there is a big difference between doing nothing and doing the most important thing consistently. For me, that meant anchoring to protein, allowing everything else to have more flexibility, and what that created was a sense of steadiness.

[00:26:23] Emily Field: Even when my appetite changed, even when my days looked different, even when I didn’t have the bandwidth for full tracking, I still had something I could come back to. And I think that’s an important message, especially for women in midlife pregnancy, postpartum, or any season where life feels less predictable.

[00:26:40] Emily Field: You do not need to do everything perfectly to support your body. Sometimes doing one thing really well and doing it consistently is more than enough. That’s not a step down. That’s actually mastery. One of the more different things I’ve done during pregnancy is I haven’t really tracked my weight in the way most people expect, and that probably sounds surprising coming from someone who teaches data tracking and awareness for a living.

[00:27:08] Emily Field: But this is where nuance matters. Gestational weight gain guidelines do exist, and they’re meant to give a general framework for what is expected across pregnancy. But even within those guidelines, there are a few important realities. Weight gain during pregnancy is not linear. Fluid retention can vary dramatically.

[00:27:28] Emily Field: Blood volume increases significantly, and when you factor in a baby placenta, an amniotic fluid, that alone accounts for several pounds. So what the scale reflects is not just body fat or even tissue gain, it’s a mix of multiple physiological changes happening at once. Research also shows that being overly focused on weight during pregnancy can increase stress and reduce body satisfaction without necessarily improving any outcomes.

[00:27:55] Emily Field: And maybe most importantly, the scale cannot tell you what is changing. It cannot distinguish between lean, mass fat, mass fluid retention, or the very normal increases in blood volume and pregnancy related tissues. So while weight can be one data point, it is a very incomplete one. I took a much more zoomed out approach at my appointments.

[00:28:18] Emily Field: I usually ask my doctor how much I’ve gained since the last visit, and that’s it. I am much more curious about the rate and pace of change over time than I am about a single number. I actually don’t know my exact current weight right now. I’ll probably get a final number at delivery, or maybe I won’t, and honestly, I’m okay with that.

[00:28:39] Emily Field: After I deliver, I will wanna know, because at that point I’ll be making decisions about fueling, especially if I’m breastfeeding and I want my intake to match my needs. But during pregnancy, I’ve been really comfortable letting that be a little bit of a black box, and here’s where things get interesting.

[00:28:56] Emily Field: I’m recording this at 33 weeks pregnant, and between about 20 weeks and now I haven’t gained much weight at all between my 24, 28 and 32 week appointments. I’ve gained about one pound total, and that could sound alarming if you’re looking at it in isolation, but no one is concerned because my total weight gain is appropriate.

[00:29:18] Emily Field: My baby looks good, I’m measuring on track. Everything is progressing exactly as it should. Which tells you something really important, the timing and distribution of weight gain can vary a lot. For me, it seems like I gained most of my weight in the first and second trimesters, and that’s where I’ve really started to question how much stock we put into those standard charts.

[00:29:40] Emily Field: Because even though there are guidelines for how much weight should increase across trimesters. My experience both as a coach and now personally, is that there is a lot you simply cannot control. You cannot fully control how much weight you gain. You cannot control exactly when it shows up. You cannot control the pace in a perfectly linear way, but what you can do is look at the bigger picture.

[00:30:04] Emily Field: Are things trending in a reasonable direction overall? Is your doctor comfortable with what’s happening? Is the baby developing well, that matters much more than trying to micromanage a number that is influenced by so many variables. This approach is actually very consistent with how I coach fat loss in macros made easy and eat to lean.

[00:30:24] Emily Field: We talk all the time about trends over daily data patterns, over single data points, behaviors over obsession with outcomes, and pregnancy felt like a place where that philosophy mattered even more. Because if I were to zoom in on every pound, every fluctuation, every expectation of what should be happening week to week, I would create unnecessary stress about something that is largely outta my control.

[00:30:51] Emily Field: Instead, I focused on what I can control. Am I eating enough? Am I getting protein? Am I moving my body? Am I sleeping and managing stress as best I can? Those are controllable behaviors. And just like in fat loss, when the behaviors are in place, the outcomes tend to take care of themselves. Not perfectly, not always predictably, but appropriately.

[00:31:16] Emily Field: The takeaway here is not that weight doesn’t matter at all, it’s that how you relate to the data matters. You can either zoom in and try to control every fluctuation, or you can zoom out and look at trends in context. For me, choosing not to fixate on total weight gain reduced unnecessary stress, helped me stay focused on behaviors and allowed me to trust the process a little bit more.

[00:31:38] Emily Field: And honestly, that’s the same skill I try to teach women in every phase of life because whether it’s fat loss, maintenance, or pregnancy, your body is not a machine that responds in a perfectly linear, predictable way, but it does respond to consistent inputs over time. And when you learn to trust that you don’t need to micromanage every number to know you’re on the right track.

[00:32:02] Emily Field: Okay, so this is probably the most different thing I’ve done during pregnancy and also maybe the most on brand in a very unexpected way. I’ve been going to acupuncture about three times per month, and I need to set the scene because this is not just like a sterile clinical experience. My acupuncturist is probably the most Eastern medicine person I have ever hired in my life.

[00:32:24] Emily Field: She’s probably a witch, and I’m fairly certain she has lived several lives before this one. And I say that with full trust and zero hesitation. She told me I was pregnant before I knew I was. She thinks she knows the sex of the baby and we haven’t confirmed it. At one appointment she suggested that we use gold needles because they ward off bad karma and help make the baby healthy, and I was immediately like, great, let’s do it, no questions asked.

[00:32:50] Emily Field: She has also placed needles for swelling. That didn’t seem to do much at first. But I still didn’t question it. At this point, I’ve fully settled into the dynamic of she does what she does and I receive it. And honestly, sometimes I’m just going there to take a nap because I didn’t sleep well the night before.

[00:33:08] Emily Field: But underneath all of that, there is actually a very intentional reason I chose to incorporate this into my pregnancy. When you look at the research, the evidence on acupuncture during pregnancy varies depending on what outcome you’re looking at, but there are some consistent themes. Studies suggests that it may help reduce nausea, improve pelvic pain, support better sleep, and lower perceived stress and anxiety.

[00:33:33] Emily Field: There’s also some evidence that acupuncture can influence the autonomic nervous system, which is where it gets especially interesting to me. If acupuncture helps shift the body even slightly toward parasympathetic dominance, more of that rest and digest. State, it can support lower cortisol levels, and cortisol touches a lot of systems that matter during pregnancy, including blood sugar regulation, sleep appetite, and inflammation.

[00:33:59] Emily Field: So even if the effects are modest or variable, there is a very real physiological pathway where this kind of practice could be supportive. That said, my decision to do acupuncture wasn’t rooted in chasing a specific outcome. It was rooted in creating space. Early in pregnancy, I made a pretty conscious decision that I wanted this to be a lower stress experience, and one thing I know about myself is that I don’t naturally create true downtime.

[00:34:29] Emily Field: I’m very good at being productive. I’m very good at staying busy. I’m not always great at being still. Acupuncture gave me a reason, an appointment on my calendar to stop, to lay down, to disconnect, to not be on my phone, not to be working, not be thinking about what’s next. Over time, it became less about needles and more about what that space allowed.

[00:34:54] Emily Field: Because when I’m there, it’s one of the only times when I’m completely quiet. It feels meditative in a way that I don’t often access In my normal routine and during pregnancy, that has felt really meaningful. It has felt like a way to connect with my body and with my baby in a very calm, grounded way. I don’t think I would’ve created that space on my own without this structure, and that alone has made it worth it.

[00:35:17] Emily Field: It. And when I zoom out, this actually aligns really closely with how I think about health and how I coach in macros made easy. And in my coaching, we don’t just talk about food and workouts, we talk about stress recovery and the nervous system. We talk about how you can be doing all the right things on paper, but if your body is constantly in a heightened stress state, it can work against you.

[00:35:40] Emily Field: Your body needs signals of safety in order to function well. And for me, acupuncture became one of those signals. Not because it’s magic and not because it replaces the fundamentals, but because it created an opportunity for my nervous system to downshift. And that’s something a lot of women are missing.

[00:35:58] Emily Field: We are constantly in go mode, constantly stimulated, constantly managing something. So intentionally building in something that forces you to slow down and be still. That’s actually very on brand for how I approach health. The takeaway here is not that everyone needs acupuncture. It’s that nervous system supports matter, and sometimes that doesn’t come from doing more.

[00:36:20] Emily Field: It comes from creating space to do less. For me, acupuncture became a scheduled pause. A way to regulate, a way to connect, and yes, sometimes just a really good nap. And whether or not every single needle placement did exactly what it was supposed to do. The overall effect of slowing down, being still and supporting my nervous system felt like a really smart investment because just like with nutrition and training, your body responds to the environment you create, and this is one way I chose to create a calmer one.

[00:36:54] Emily Field: The last different thing I did during this pregnancy, and honestly, maybe the most important was continue my body image work. This is something I don’t talk about as much. Inside of macros made easy because macros made easy is more focused on physiology, nutrition, literacy, and skill building, but inside of Elene body image is.

[00:37:14] Emily Field: Foundational. We have an entire module dedicated to it because the way you think about your body influences everything else, and pregnancy is in many ways the ultimate stress test for body image. Your body changes without your consent, without your control, without your permission. Your stomach grows, your clothes fit differently.

[00:37:33] Emily Field: Your workouts change. Your appetite changes. There is no opting out. And I can say this very honestly, if I had not done years of body image work before this pregnancy, this season could have completely destabilized me, but instead of spiraling, I feel steady, not perfect, steady. And that difference matters more than people realize.

[00:37:55] Emily Field: Okay. One of the core concepts we teach inside of Elene is the body image spectrum, and pregnancy has given me a very real, very personal opportunity to live inside of that work. On one end of the spectrum, you have body negativity, those sharp, critical thoughts. I hate this, or I can’t believe this is how I look.

[00:38:16] Emily Field: On the other end, you have complete body confidence. And in between there is a range of very normal, very human states, discomfort, neutrality, and appreciation. Pregnancy has not magically placed me at the far right end of that spectrum. I don’t wake up every day feeling completely confident and glowing and in love with my body.

[00:38:38] Emily Field: There are still moments where I catch myself thinking, wow, this feels unfamiliar, or This is not what I’m used to. But what has changed, what I’m honestly really proud of is my ability to locate myself on that spectrum and respond intentionally. Instead of getting pulled backward into a spiral, I can recognize, okay, I’m in a place of discomfort today, and then gently move myself forward one notch.

[00:39:04] Emily Field: Because sometimes that means getting to neutrality. Sometimes it means finding appreciation, and occasionally it does land in confidence, but that’s not necessarily the goal. The goal is stability. And I think that’s why this has felt like such a full circle moment for me because in a season that should be testing my body image, I’ve had multiple moments of thinking, damn, you’ve really done the work.

[00:39:28] Emily Field: Especially when I compare that to what so many women reflect back on. Pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, postpartum with so much shame, hating how they’ve looked, wanting to hide, feeling disconnected from themselves, feeling this urgency to get back to something. And I can genuinely say that I do not feel that way.

[00:39:47] Emily Field: I feel present, I feel aware, and honestly, I feel in awe. A big part of that stability comes from very practical tools. One of the most important being thought stopping this is the ability to catch an unhelpful thought in real time and interrupt it before it builds momentum. Because the thought itself isn’t the issue.

[00:40:07] Emily Field: We all have thoughts. The issue is when we let those thoughts stack and solidify into something we believe. So if I notice myself thinking, I cannot believe my body looks like this, there’s a pause. And in that pause I ask myself something that has become almost automatic. Would I say this to my five-year-old self?

[00:40:27] Emily Field: Would I say this to my daughter? And the answer is always no. That question doesn’t force me into fake positivity or make me pretend I feel amazing. It simply redirects me towards kindness. It softens the edge of the thought before it has a chance to become something heavier. I still have thoughts. I just don’t let them define the narrative.

[00:40:48] Emily Field: From there. The next layer is mindful reframing, which pregnancy has given me daily opportunities to practice. This is where we take a thought that may be technically true, but framed in a way that creates distress and we shift it into something that reflects both reality and respect. So instead of, I used to be able to complete this entire workout, the reframe becomes, my body is in a different season and it is still strong.

[00:41:14] Emily Field: Instead of my stomach looks so different, the reframe becomes my body is performing a function that requires change. And I’ll be honest, there are moments where I step back and think, this is actually unbelievable. My body knows exactly what to do. I am essentially 3D printing a baby, and I didn’t have to consciously direct any of it.

[00:41:35] Emily Field: My job is not to control the process. My job is to provide a healthy, supportive environment and let my body do its thing, let my body do what it already knows how to do. That reframe doesn’t erase discomfort, but it puts it into perspective. It replaces criticism with a sense of respect and oftentimes even awe.

[00:41:57] Emily Field: Another anchor for me has been focusing on what I can control, especially in a season where so much is. Inherently uncontrollable. I cannot control how quickly my body grows. I cannot control fluid retention, fat distribution, or the hormonal shifts that come with pregnancy. There is a lot that is simply not up for negotiation, but I can control how I show up.

[00:42:18] Emily Field: Within that, I can continue to lift in a way that is safe and appropriate. I can prioritize protein and adequate nutrition. I can manage stress. As best I can, I can speak to myself with respect and I can be intentional about what I expose myself to. That shift from trying to control outcomes to focusing on behaviors is something I teach in fat loss all the time, and pregnancy has only reinforced how important that skill really is.

[00:42:48] Emily Field: We talk a lot in Eat to Lean about auditing your inputs. And this is even more important during pregnancy because body image is not created in a vacuum. It is influenced by what you see, what you hear, what you’re surrounded by on a daily basis. So I became much more protective of that. I limited exposure to diet culture messaging.

[00:43:08] Emily Field: I avoided bounce back narratives. I distanced myself from content that framed pregnancy bodies as something to fix or minimize, and instead, I leaned into messaging around strength, functionality, neutrality, and real life experiences. This wasn’t accidental. That was a conscious adjustment to support how I wanted to feel in my body during this time.

[00:43:31] Emily Field: And I wanna be really clear about something. This does not mean I feel amazing in my body every single day. There are still moments of discomfort. There are still moments where I miss certain lifts or certain versions of my body. There are still days where things feel unfamiliar or a lot off, but those moments don’t derail me.

[00:43:51] Emily Field: I don’t interpret them as truth, and I don’t assign meaning to them beyond what they are. They are just thoughts they pass and I stay steady. And I think that’s the difference between doing body image work and not doing it. It’s not about eliminating negative thoughts, it’s about changing your relationship with them.

[00:44:10] Emily Field: If there’s one thing pregnancy has made very clear to me, it’s this, it didn’t force me to love my body. It revealed whether I had built the skill of supporting my body, and that is a very different thing. Because I know deeply that I will never be the same woman I was before I got pregnant, and I don’t wanna be, why would I wanna go back?

[00:44:32] Emily Field: Growing a baby and becoming a mom is a superpower. It’s an evolution. And just like in midlife, just like in every decade, we are given an opportunity to build forward, not shrink backward. I also know that this work will continue to serve me postpartum. Whatever changes come stretch marks, shifts in fat distribution, diastasis, pelvic floor challenges, I feel confident in my ability to ride those waves in stride.

[00:45:01] Emily Field: I don’t have to love my body every second to be proud of it, and ultimately, this is what I want for my clients. Whether they’re navigating fat loss, midlife changes, pregnancy or postpartum, I want them to have this steadiness. This ability to stay present, this ability to support themselves through change instead of resisting it or trying to undo it.

[00:45:24] Emily Field: Because that’s what body image work really gives you. Not perfection, not constant confidence, but the ability to stay grounded in your body even as it changes. And that is one of the most powerful skills that you can build. As I’ve been moving through this pregnancy, one thing has become very clear to me.

[00:45:42] Emily Field: This is not just about pregnancy, it’s about what happens when your body changes in ways you didn’t plan for, didn’t consent to, and cannot control. Pregnancy is simply one version of that experience. Perimenopause is another. Menopause is another. Aging injury, stress, grief. These are all seasons of change that ask something similar of us.

[00:46:05] Emily Field: Your body will change. That is not optional. The real question is not whether your body changes. The real question is whether your identity can withstand that change. If your sense of worth is tied to staying small, staying lean, or staying capable in the exact same way forever, then every transition will feel like a loss.

[00:46:26] Emily Field: Every shift will feel like something is being taken from you. But if your worth is tied to how you care for your body, how you speak to yourself, how you honor your values, how you consistently show up for your habits, then change becomes something you can move through without losing yourself. Pregnancy has been a live rehearsal for that lesson.

[00:46:47] Emily Field: There are days when I feel strong and capable. There are days when I feel uncomfortable. There are days when I feel neutral. What has shifted is not the absence of those feelings, but my response to them. Instead of asking, how do I get back to the old version of me, I ask, how do I support the version of me that exists right now?

[00:47:07] Emily Field: That question changes everything. Because midlife women are asking the same thing whether they realize it or not. Their hormones shift, their body composition shifts, their energy shifts, their sleep shifts. And the instinct, especially in a culture steeped in diet messaging, is often to tighten control.

[00:47:28] Emily Field: More restriction, more cardio, more punishment, more criticism. But what if the stronger move is not tightening control? What if the stronger move is building the skill of staying steady, steady in habits, steady in protein intake, steady in lifting, steady in self-talk, steady in values. That is what body image work truly gives you.

[00:47:51] Emily Field: It does not guarantee constant confidence. It does not eliminate hard days. What it builds is resilience, though. And resilience is what allows you to move through change without unraveling. I cannot control every outcome in this pregnancy. I do not know what my birth story will be. I do not know what postpartum will look like.

[00:48:10] Emily Field: I do not know how quickly my body will change again. But I do know that I have the tools to stay steady and whatever comes next. And for me, that is enough. When I step back and I look at all these decisions together, monitoring my own blood sugar, hiring a doula, continuing to lift, simplifying my nutrition, not fixating on weight gain, doing acupuncture, I can see something very clearly.

[00:48:35] Emily Field: This was never about being unconventional. It wasn’t about trying to be different. It wasn’t about rejecting the system. It wasn’t about thinking I knew better than anyone else. It was about being intentional. Every decision I made came back to the same set of questions. What information is actually useful to me?

[00:48:53] Emily Field: What supports my physiology? What lowers stress instead of increasing it? What helps me stay steady and consistent in a season that is inherently unpredictable? And that’s a very different approach than just following rules because they’re standard or rejecting them just to be different because autonomy is not recklessness.

[00:49:12] Emily Field: Autonomy is informed decision making within a supportive, collaborative environment. I didn’t ignore guidance. I engaged with it. I asked better questions. I filtered through my understanding of physiology, behavior, and my own capacity, and then I chose what aligned. Pregnancy just made this lesson louder, but this isn’t really about pregnancy.

[00:49:34] Emily Field: This is about what happens when your body changes in ways you didn’t plan for, didn’t choose and can’t control. And that is not unique to pregnancy. It happens in midlife. It happens in perimenopause and menopause. It happens with injury, stress, aging, and life transitions. Your body will change. The question is not whether it changes.

[00:49:54] Emily Field: The question is whether you tighten control in response or whether you learn to stay steady inside that change. Because the instinct for a lot of women, especially women who have been in diet culture, is to grip tighter, more restriction, more rules, more pressure, more criticism. But what if the stronger move is not tightening control?

[00:50:17] Emily Field: What if the stronger move is building the ability to stay grounded, grounded in your habits, grounded in your values, grounded in how you speak to yourself, grounded in how you care for your body. That’s what actually holds up across seasons. I don’t know what my birth experience will be. I don’t know what postpartum will look like.

[00:50:37] Emily Field: I don’t know how my body will change next, but I do know this. I trust myself to move through it, not because I can control every outcome, but because I’ve built this skill of responding to change without unraveling. I’ve learned how to zoom out instead of spiraling, how to adjust instead of abandon, how to support instead of criticize, and that feels like the real win.

[00:51:00] Emily Field: If there’s one thing I want you to take from this episode, it’s this. You don’t need to approach every season of change by tightening control. You can approach it with intention. You can ask better questions. You can prioritize what actually matters. You can choose what supports you, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, and you can stay connected to yourself even as your body changes, because the goal is not to stay the same.

[00:51:25] Emily Field: The goal is to move forward without losing yourself in the process. As always, thank you so much for being here and spending this time with me. I do not take your attention lightly, and I hope something in this episode gave you a new way to think about your body, your choices, and the season you’re in.

[00:51:41] Emily Field: I’ll see you in the next episode.