Mental energy monitoring during pregnancy
Busy weeks and weekends … not the ideal scenario during pregnancy
Seven weeks before giving birth to her first child, we had a talk with Lotte. She started monitoring with Mindstretch in the first months of her pregnancy because she is a very busy woman and wanted to take good care of her body and mind.
Lotte works with an architectural office where she runs many projects and works long hours. Besides her busy job, her week-ends are also often completely filled with activities.
Especially the fact that the daily “mental energy balance” is not available in other personal lifestyle apps makes Mindstretch unique.
Lotte – pregnant user of Mindstretch
Taking more “me” time
Being pregnant makes you feel more tired, as it is sometimes difficult to get a good night’s sleep. “I wake up several times a night to go to the toilet” she says. Her nights therefore do not give her the necessary recovery, which is visible in the ‘orange’ peaks on the Mindstretch app. Lotte’s job also takes a lot of energy as well as most of the side activities she does.
To recover, she normally goes outside for a walk, as long as her body allows her to do so. Walking is one of the only activities which changes the orange peaks into green ones.
Although she is aware of it, it is sometimes bizarre for her, as she said: “I knew that most of my activities are quite stressful, but I was still surprised to see it confirmed in the monitoring results. The app also made me realize how much energy goes into fun activities in the weekend and it helped me to take more rest and time for myself instead of going out with friends”.
Where does my energy go to?
Pregnant women have a higher heart rate since more blood circulates through their body, but this does not explain the higher orange peaks in Lotte’s results. As her baseline is higher, she has to spend more mental energy when performing a task. This is clearly visible in this graph where you see some high orange peaks.
Lotte finds the monthly overview and the daily mental graphs in the app very valuable. “Especially the fact that the “daily mental energy balance” is not available in other personal lifestyle apps makes Mindstretch unique” she explained. The monthly overview gives her a clear picture on how her energy use evolves over time. She keeps this overview in mind to adapt her lifestyle and even if she wouldn’t be pregnant, she would do so.
How to influence your graph to show more “green”
Next to these features, Lotte found the personalized advice in the app very important. It helped her to find new ways to improve her recovery levels. For example, she usually checked her emails in the evening before going to bed. This prevented her from falling asleep as her mind was still busy with the job. After she changed this habit by consciously not thinking about work anymore, she was able to fall asleep more quickly, helping her body and mind to start recovering earlier at night.
Happy moments also demand energy
Lotte continued to watch her energy balance, also after her baby girl was born, as she understood the importance of keeping mentally fit to be able to fully enjoy these unique but tiring first months of being a mother.
Interested in Mindstretch?
Are you interested in using the Mindstretch app within your company for health prevention? Do you wish to guide your employees on both a mental and a physical level?
