30 Days to Better

Hiatus

I'm in Florida for the week with Noah helping my mother-in-law recover from her recent knee replacement.  All is well. I'm eating healthy foods, getting plenty of fresh (also:gross) humid warm air, and my exercise consists of my spontaneous leaps in heart rate as I lurch to rescue Noah from yet another horizontal surface like a table or unsteady chair.

I will return soon with a new topic for August!  

To see some images from our days ... click here!

Reflection: Balance

Back in January I tackled the concept of Balance.  I noticed that I mostly complained about not feeling as those I was able to balance parenting, running a house and finding time for myself, specifically, time for exercise.   I found that BALANCE, as a notion, concept and faraway pipe dream was a tougher thing to achieve than I had originally thought.  I think it is something that you have to face each and every day and just do the best you can, make the best decisions you can, in each moment to maximize what matters most to you any given point in life.

Six months after this posting, I am no longer searching for exercise time.  Now, three months pregnant, I walk one and a half to three miles about 3 or 4 times a week.  I always push Noah in the stroller and sometimes even take the dog along for added stress and difficulty.   For the most part, I, personally, feel a moderate amount of balance in my life right now and I attribute this feeling to the simple fact that I have simplified my life drastically, mainly to conquer the first trimester *issues* like morning sickness, massive food aversions, super-nose, extreme fatigue, and general gestational moodiness.

As I reflect on how I'm achieving positive balance in my life, for now, I have to give myself a serious pat on the back and a PASS.  I feel a good balance right now, mostly.  I'm taking care of myself first and foremost because if I feel sick and gross, I cannot care for Noah, and then we have real trouble.  Making sure I'm rested and eating well are my top priorities and so far this is serving us all fairly well.

Who is this pregnant lady and where is Stacy?

I just have to tell you what I ate yesterday and if you can find the real pregnant lady please stand up because I have no idea where the whipped cream eating, diet soda chugging girl went.

Breakfast:

Omelet with tomatoes and feta cheese
Whole Wheat toast with butter

Lunch:

Bowl of Strawberries and Blueberries
Yogurt
Crackers w/cheese

Dinner:

Lightly fried Catfish w/ mixed veggies and noodles

I'm sure I had a few snacks in there too, in fact, I know I had at least two Rice Krispy treats, but seriously, the meals are well planned and BALANCED.

In terms of reflection, I can honestly say I didn't eat this well until much later in my first pregnancy.  I didn't exactly feel like eating this soon, although, to be fair, I didn't have the early morning sickness that I did with this baby.  I have spent a few solid weeks living on animal crackers, white bread, water and juice.   For the sake of keeping on topic (Whoa! Me?), I am doing better than before and I'm sticking to plan and goal.  I want to make healthy choices each day, and that doesn't mean depriving myself of a frozen dessert treat a few times a week.  I mean, a pregnant lady only has a few real treats in this world, besides the ability to have multiple orgasms.   Also, exercise, I have done a three mile walk four times in less than two weeks.  My goal is to walk three times a week for 30-45 minutes and I have walked three times this week alone! 

Let's see how long I can keep this us. 

Reflection: Modifying exercise for pregnancy

I was thinking recently about much more active I am with this pregnancy, particularly this early on.   there are definitely days when I succeed at keeping the couch warm and Noah exists on crackers and water. 

But!  Several times a week I am getting out for a walk, a real walk.  Today was over 3 miles and clocked in somewhere between 45 and 50 minutes.   I was exhausted all afternoon but I know the exercise is good for me and the baby and that number on the scale which is definitely NOT inching up nearly as fast as it did last time and for that I'm super grateful. 

July: 30 Days of Reflection

The year is half over, or perhaps I should say, we still have half of 2009 left!! 

I'm taking this month to reflect back on the year so far and consider how I want to spend the rest of it.  Personally, I have had ups and downs, backs and forwards.  It has definitely been a year of evolution and continues to be so.

So far this year I have focused this website on the more physical and eating-health related topics but I think it is time to look inward.  Since I am recently pregnant, I will no longer be looking to achieve new goals on the physical horizon, at least for the next year or so, unless you count measuring my growing waistline.  Therefore, I'm looking at the pieces you can't see on the outside, thoughts, beliefs, faith, and beginning with July, reflection on the past and how to move forward with only the best goals and intentions. 

Join me?

Eating Pregnant

With my recent pregnancy news you can only imagine that eating has become a minor challenge. 

What is that smell?

Oh ... yogurt, yum. Oh, nevermind.

Cantelope. Yes, that's what I want. Well, wait ....

All day long I think about food because, lets face it, I'm hungry but I'm also not so much.  It's confusing and tiring.   I have figured out that if I eat very frequently, as in, put an animal cracker in my mouth about every five minutes I usually feel okay.  Heh.  I feel even better when I alternate with Hershey Kisses.

In all seriousness I have discovered fresh, local, seasonal fruit and OHMYGOD it is delicious.  Vegetables don't sound too appetizing right now but fruit, oh my lordy-di-dee fruit is sent from the gods.  The past two days my lunch has been two white peaches, cantelope, blueberries and cucumber with vinegar on it. 

I'm going to try and maintain this site but there might be a few months that focus on womanly things and womanly health, you know, like pregnancy and all that crap because, well, I have good first hand knowlegde to dump on this here Internet.

Eating well while on-the-go with a toddler

Recently we've had some evening activities, me and the toddler boy and dinner just gets smashed into the time period between play and chores and bath and bedtime.  

It is really important to me to instill a healthy attitude about eating by creating nice mealtimes for the entire family.  This just isn't possible every day so at least a few times a week I try to make a nice dinner where we all sit down together, no television and just enjoy some nice food.

However, when that pipe-dream isn't plausible I reach for a bag of ready in ten-minutes-from-the-oven chicken nuggets, some applesauce, maybe a Yo-Baby yogurt, some cut up fruit for me and a bowl of steamed veggies on the side.  The boy gets the yogurt, applesauce and nuggets with ketchup of course and being what I am, I cannot see a chicken nugget, cut a chicken nugget and feed a chicken nugget without also enjoying some chicken nugget for myself.  So, to remain on a healthy caloric track I allow myself two or three nuggets on a plate full of steamed veggies and fruit. 

This is an easy meal that is ready in about ten or fifteen minutes for those nights when that is about all you can manage.  And, I'm not feeling all that guilty about it either! 

Eating well on the weekends

I swear it took me twice as long to lose my baby weight last year because my weekend diet was so vastly unhealthy and different from my weekday diet.   This isn'tmy fault either. Heh. I was forced to eat what I did.  Kidding.

See, we get together a lot with family on weekends because we live near each other and it's always casual gatherings and there is always food. 

Sometimes I can still do my morning breakfast of oatmeal with flax, brown sugar and berries.  But, occasionally my husband wakes up and declares that he needs a bagel to go on living and I end up eating half of a delicious just-baked Everything Bagel with cream cheese and maybe even a little butter too because, come on, a bagel isn't a bagel with jelly or crap like that.  It should be noted that this occasional bagel is consumed in addition to the oatmeal that I ate "to be healthy".   Lunch is usually snacks of chips (multigrain, pita, etc) with humus and spinach dip and olive tapenade.  Luckily we usually hang out outside so there is a chance to move around and burn a few calories.
Then comes dinner, cooked on the grill, sometimes hot dogs/burgers, BBQ chicken, steaks,  and some variety depending on the season of fresh corn, tomatoes, baked potatoes or stewed tomatoes.  Oh, yeah, there is usually a dessert too, descriptions of which I'm too ashamed to describe here.

Now that I have written that it is a wonder I managed to lose any baby weight at all.  I guess living on salads and lean protein during the week really did help.

I have trouble with the weekend social occasions.  How do you keep on track?  Is portion control my only option, and who can eat only one pita chip?

Eating Better, food diary, exercise, today's thoughts

Last night I made a rockin' dinner.  Fish, rubbed with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and grilled over a charcoal flame.  Steamed broccoli (in a Zip Lock Steam Bag) and baked potatoes.  I made two and the three of us split them.  It was super yummy and super healthy.  Also, it was like eighty-five-thousand degrees yesterday and all that cooking heat was made outside and my kitchen stayed cool. 

Today?

Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ flax, blueberries, strawberries and brown sugar, Coffee

Snack: Cheese Stick, (maybe 2)

Lunch:  Big salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, feta cheese, grilled chicken with low fat Ranch dressing

Dinner:  Bowl of Life cereal and popcorn (not so great, meh.)

I did some good exercise today too, I walked for 45 minutes with the dog and the stroller. Overall I'm feeling good and healthy.

I am really looking forward to getting some fresh local produce.  This time of year I love eating tons of fresh food grown in the dirt.  Farmers Markets? Here we come!

Food Diary

Breakfast:

Oatmeal with 2 tablespoons of ground flax, sprinkle of brown sugar, blueberries and strawberries
Coffee w/ sugar and coffeemate

Lunch:

Mixed green salad with tomatoes and feta cheese, Ken's Balsamic Spray Dressing, handful of BBQ Soy Chips

Snacks:

Cheese Stick, Yogurt, Wheat Crackers with Peanut Butter, half a Banana

Dinner:

Turkey burger with cheese (no bun), handful of mini carrots, handful of strawberries