Stand with your feet hip distance apart. Slowly rise up on your toes, lifting your heels as high off the floor as you can, contracting your calves. Slowly lower. Before you touch the floor, lift off again. If you find it hard to balance, take the support of a chair or wall.

Round off every workout session with stretches. This will prevent stiffness and soreness of muscles and make your body flexible. About 10 minutes of stretching is a must.

The Good Food Guide

Eating a well-balanced diet of healthy foods ensures that only the right nutrition goes into your body and becomes a part of the genes your baby will inherit. Try cutting back on junk food, keeping in mind that it does nothing for you or your baby except add on unnecessarey weight.

Here's a sample meal plan:

Breakfast -- Cereal with skimmed milk and fruit
Egg white
Bread/ toast

Mid-morning -- Handful of nuts

Lunch -- Wholegrain sandwich stuffed with lots of veggies and fish/ chicken if you are a non-vegetarian
OR
Rotis, vegetable and dal

Evening -- Fruit of your choice, or fruit yoghurt

Dinner -- Fish/ chicken (prepared as you like, but not fried!) OR paneer/ lentils for vegetarians
Vegetables
A small serving of pasta/ rice/ bread/ roti

Drink plenty of water!

My pre-conception experience:

Being an aerobics instructor for 10 years I had a regular exercise schedule, but nothing out of the ordinary. A 60 minute high intensity aerobics workout thrice a week and a one-hour strength training session using different equipment (weights, tubing, ball, body resistance), also thrice a week. Both aerobics and strength training workouts ended with 10-15 minutes of stretching.

My husband has been the athletic sort playing soccer and going to the gym regularly.

I’ve always eaten a healthy diet but have indulged in desserts (!!!) taking full advantage of my high metabolic rate. When we decided we wanted a baby, my husband and I started including a lot of protein in our dinner and cut out anything that was low in nutritional value.

So throw out the junk food, put on your exercise gear and get moving! Do it for yourself and for your unborn baby!

Part II: A fitness routine for when you're pregnant!
Part III: Get back in shape after having a baby!