On arriving back from holiday I was full of the vigour of someone who had over indulged and was ready for a bit of a detox, hence this post which had my list of dos and don'ts (pregnancy health and diet wise) going forward.

Things are going well so far (although I'm about to have some cheese cake!) and I've been getting back into my pregnancy exercises.

Today I wanted to talk about pregnancy nutrition. There are 9 essential vitamins needed during pregnancy and I've discussed the merits of Vitamin K in a post a few weeks ago. Next up is the Vitamin D pregnancy diet.

Vitamin D is essential in pregnancy for the healthy development of both us and our babies. It maintains (and develops in shorty) strong bones and teeth, and it's needed by muscles, nerves and the immune system. It is also linked to calcium in that it helps with the absorption of it

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I had a conversation with Mike yesterday which went something along the lines of:

me: 'thankfully I only put on 4lbs on holiday and since I have to put on weight anyway, that's fine'

Mike: 'You don't have to put on weight it's just that women tend to as a result of being pregnant'

Let me clear this up for you ladies...yes we do have to put on weight because our babies need us to... If you don't put on enough weight, it can have an adverse effect on you and shorty! Follow the top 2 links in resources below for a good explanation as to why you should put on weight (oh and while you're at it, why it's bad to put on too much - it's a bleeding minefield!!)

Courtesy of precisionnutrition.com and babycenter, these are the weight gain guidelines to follow:

If you were underweight before conception, you should aim to put on

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We're back! I had such a lovely time relaxing and reading in the sun - it's amazing how you can fill your time doing relatively little (except eat, relax and get into strange positions in order to get an even tan). I'm sure I've put on quite a bit of weight and baby seems to have popped as I am definitely looking pregnant now. I'm wearing mama jeans (topshop's Baxter jeans bought for £10 in the sale), that didn't fit 10 days ago, as we speak.

 Just quickly, here are the things I forgot and recommend you don't:

Bring your pregnancy tablets, I forgot mine and I've had to make do with one from the airport that I'm not keen on.

If you suffer from heat rash bring something for it

Bring something for heartburn - with all this luscious food and drink, Mike started to suffer. I didn't have any trouble but it's

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So far during my pregnancy, I've not had any illnesses. Even after both Mike and Gabriella were poorly for over a week with various flu/chest infections, I still managed to sail on through, like a nurse from the second-world war, unharmed. Thankfully. I put it down to no longer drinking (and therefore battering my poor immune system, which is stripped every time you drink too much) and generally trying to eat more healthily.

Well, I've now woken up with a sore throat and I certainly can't put it down to stress, because I can't say I'm under any! To keep the impending cold at bay, I've been trying to find as many natural, safe cold remedies during pregnancy as possible that will soothe the soreness and fill me with a bug fighting army. Someone told me it could be hay fever but either way it annoying so here's a few fixes

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Happy 21 weeks pregnant to me! And all those aches and pains people were talking about that I didn't think would happen to me? They've started to happen.

I've noticed in the last week or so that I'm hurting a bit more. For example, whatever I do in gym hurts more the next day now (and I've been doing more or less the same thing throughout my pregnancy), and the other night, while watching telly, I could not get comfortable for the life of me - I tried lying on the floor, sitting up, lying on one side, then the other. Especially sitting up with my legs crossed, a firm favourite of mine, is no longer comfy. And, unless we get a bigger sofa, there is no more snuggling on the sofa with Mike to be had (so he's commandeered the best watching telly spot for himself - Don't worry, I'll

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Holiday Special, part 2...

Well, I've left it far too late to get anything done professionally (aside from my wax, which I've literally just had - yowch! But still not as bad as the FIRST TIME) to get my skin all primed and ready for holidays and sunshine, pregnant or not! I would have liked to get an exfoliating treatment so my tan will last longer but instead, I've been having a snoop for some DIY holiday skin fixes and while I'm at it I've found stuff not just for the body but for the face, feet and belly (to protect your skin from the inside out!) - plus it saves me some money to spend in the duty free!

I've mentioned previously that I've been suffering from a bit of pregnancy spots...well, that has cleared up and been replaced by the driest skin known to man, my forehead (fortunately covered by

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I'm on a one woman mission to eat everything I see. My pregnancy diet today has consisted of a Chinese for lunch and pizza for dinner, so my mission to plan and eat healthy meals seems to have already gone out of the window after only 2 days at work!! So, I need to make sure that I only see healthy food or I'm going to get fat. Soon.

To get me back on the straight and narrow I've been reminding myself of these snacks so I'm at least not running down the hallway to the chocolate machine during my afternoon lull.

Nuts - sounds kind of boring and obvious but nuts are handy, it doesn't require much of them to take the hunger edge off, they keep you full for longer and are great for you...Almonds protect you from the sun and help burn belly fat, hazelnuts are good for your foetus

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Here's your all request Friday, Polly - albeit - on Monday. Sorry love, apparently headaches are common in pregnancy and you are meant to keep track of what you've eaten so you can avoid it in the future. My head Achilles, if you will, seems to be bra shopping - every time I go I have a shitty time and come back with a headache and no nice bra. And, it's still lingering now. BUT excuses aside, because it's green, it invariably looks like pond water and it's really good for you... let's talk juice!

My pal, Polly, asked me last week about the Juice Master (you know the guy who laughs at pineapples?) and to recommend the best book, so I thought I'd do a book review (in order of preference) of the ones I have so you can make your own choice, love! As some of you many know,

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I've been following my own advice from the Sunday Symptoms (besides yesterday's sweetie overload!) in an attempt to banish these spots (the main offender in my pregnancy symptoms) and - what do you know? - it seems to be working! So I thought I'd do a quick morning blog about what I've been using and eating.

Firstly, I've been washing my face with something that's been in my cupboard for a while now but I never bothered using and it's great. It's by the fabulous Soap and Glory (I love ALL their stuff!) and it's called Clean Mary. Because it's like a milk it seems to moisturise while it cleanses, which is good because my skin is not only spotty but also dry!

The other thing I'm using is the only oil-free moisturiser I could find in ASDA, and it was pretty cheap, amazingly. I was

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As a gal who goes to bed in her makeup and then just goes over the same makeup again in the morning, I've been discovering, the hard and spotty way, that this is a beauty regime of the past. My chin has become a heaven for spotty little blighters and when one goes, 2 more come to the funeral.

I've been checking this out and of course, it's one of those common early pregnancy symptoms. It's caused by a serge of hormones that in turn causes an increase in sebum, an oil in your skin that keeps it supple. Too much and our pores become more blocked than a spotty teenager.

Needless to say that means there's probably not much to do about it but in my quest to make my life and hopefully yours a bit less spotty, I've been researching how to have beautifully clear skin and here are my

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