Ready to Run...

So...It's been a while. In the past year, I have: become pregnant, given birth, moved twice in the same town, moved across the country, and am about to send my husband off for close to a year while he does his Army thing. It's been a big year. I feel like as I sit here on my couch in our new living room, I'm finally at the place that I've been dreading/anticipating for this past year.  I recognize that it's finally happening, yet it's really not sinking in. Maybe because we have these last two weeks of his leave before he ships out, so we're together every day, playing with our kids...It's like we are on vacation. And I'm so grateful we have this time together...It will get us through our time apart.

Well, enough of that sad business. Remember how I talked about becoming pregnant and giving birth? Well. That was a big deal! I felt really great the entire pregnancy about my appearance. I gained about the same amount of weight as the first two pregnancies, but I knew that I was going to have more trouble losing it. Honestly, during the pregnancy, I didn't really care. I would go back and forth from intense desires to eat everything in sight, and had the wildest cravings, or else I would feel so guilty and would force myself to eat really well for a week or few days at a time. I also wasn't getting exercise or fresh air on a daily basis, and used all kinds of excuses. The heat. My two boys like to run away from me and I couldn't keep up with them at the park.  I was in pain (that was true, though- it hurt to stand up at the end)!

Well, my time for excuses has come to an end. When I see my husband after he is done with his deployment, I want to ROCK that bikini!

I'm going to start by taking advantage of this new beginning. Re-stocking my now empty kitchen with healthy choices. Planning my meals.  Keeping my kids happy during this separation will start with keeping them healthy. I am blessed that we now live close to family who can help me by taking the kids so that I can get some exercise, or who will join us while we go on long walks.

My sisters have all become motivated at the same time as me for many different reasons to start training for a half marathon this fall. I'm so hopeful that I will be able to get in shape enough to run it with them, and then take it to a new level after that.

I felt like writing it down would help me to stay motivated! I'll be switching up my blogging in the next few months. I have three blogs, because I used to think that I needed a separate outlet for different things that I was interested in, but it actually made it harder for me to focus. I am into many different things, but I'm still just the same me. So I am working on figuring out a way to streamline my interests, and making a space to just document it for myself!

But, I want to take some before pictures, and start keeping myself accountable for the weight I need to lose. I've never had to "lose" 25 pounds before! Even after my second baby,  by the time he was 6 months old, I had a flat tummy and could wear my pre pregnancy clothes with ease.  I don't want to compare myself now with who I was then, but it's hard not to.

I just want to be my best self, and knowing that I won't get to see my husband for many months, gives me kind of a good chunk of time to just focus on myself, and taking care of ME. So that when he gets home, I can take care of HIM. And maybe keep up with him on his crazy adventure races :)

How I plan on getting there:

Eating The Rabbit Food Diet. I love this!

 Exercising every day! Even just a stroll around the neighborhood with the kids.

Taking time for myself spiritually every day.  A moment of solitude will be necessary from being the
sole caregiver to three little ones!

Less time online and being sedentary- work hard and sleep hard! I'll need to be well rested to have the energy I need to do what I want to do- I struggle with that part- obviously- I'm blogging at 2am!

I'll keep you posted on how things are going!

Feeling Blah.

So yesterday, my husband left for the next 2 weeks. Maybe I shouldn’t write this down in case some stalker is reading this, but I highly doubt it. I’m about 34 weeks pregnant, and I have 2 very active little boys who don’t really get that “Mommy is tired,” or “Mommy can’t sit on the floor and play with you, or else I’ll never be able to get up again!”

Today, I had no choice but to go grocery shopping. I went to Wal Mart. I Hate that place. I hate going there without children. But, it was payday weekend, and I didn’t want to drive 30 minutes to the commissary to deal with more crowds. Anyway, we get there, and my kids were pure evil. I couldn’t find my list that I was sure was in my purse, and out of desperation to get the heck out of there, I was just grabbing things and zooming through. I really really hope I can make it two weeks without having to make that trip again.  I think if I run out of food towards the end of the second week, I’ll either hire a babysitter so I can go get groceries alone, or we’ll eat oatmeal for dinner every night, because I have vowed to never take them both grocery shopping again. But that won’t last. I’ll have no choice- my husband deploys overseas in July, and then, I’ll have 3 crazy little boys! I really miss Washington State and the grocery store Safeway- you could place online grocery orders and they’ll deliver! Sometimes for free, but sometimes for only $5! Oh well. I really do need to sign up for the program here that delivers local, fresh produce and farm raised foods to your door every Saturday. That would really help, if I could keep my pantry/freezer stocked, only make a trip for that every other month, and use them for my fresh produce. That would be perfect.

 

OK, I’m just rambling. Why am I rambling on my food blog? Because when I’m stressed, lonely, and sad, I keep eating. And today, it was the worst I’ve eaten in months. I didn’t even feel bad while I was eating it, because I was about to have a nervous breakdown. And now, I have heartburn. I’m slightly worried how I’ll handle myself when my husband is gone for months at a time, instead of a couple measly weeks, but I hope that I’ll use the time apart to my advantage to lose all my baby weight so he’ll come home to a hottie, but  we’ll see!

But, tomorrow is going to be a good day, and I’m about to go to bed early (for me) and tomorrow, I’ll have a green smoothie in the morning with my kids, and then we’ll make some delicious juice after naps- the boys now want cucumbers, apples, and carrots in theirs, just like me- and I’ll make myself a huge salad for dinner. So this baby in my belly will be a happy camper tomorrow.  And I’ll feel much better physically and emotionally, I’m sure.

It just gets lonely, is all- until I go lay down and all I can think is how I’m not alone with this little gymnast bouncing and kicking inside me, I fall asleep happy. So I have much to be thankful for.

I love this picture from Thanksgiving of my two year old giving baby loves…. My belly has doubled in size since then!

Yummy!

So, I haven’t been juicing for the past few weeks, because a little part on the juicer broke off and was stuck up inside another part, and with the Holidays and traveling and just all around craziness, I never sat down to look at the thing to see if I could fix it. But tonight, I finally looked at it, and determined that it just needed a little glue! Unfortunately, all I had was hot glue, but it worked! So after dinner (which didn’t turn out as good as I was hoping) I still felt like we needed a little bit more nourishment- so out came the juicer!

I also had just made a batch of muffins, which I found a good recipe for some pear apple muffins- and I just veganized it very easily, and next time, I plan to make it even more healthful. I just really needed to use up those overly ripened pears.

So along with the muffins, the little boys gulped down their freshly juiced apples, and I added carrots and pears to mine and my husband’s glass. I also like adding cucumbers, spinach and lemons, but husband hates that, so I kept it simple : )….

The kids ate theirs, and then went insane running all over the house, but they wore themselves out for bedtime, so it was a good energy rush, and not a sugar crash from it, so I’ll take it!

Anyway, I plan to finish out the last 9 + weeks of this pregnancy with as much juicing and whole foods as I can accomplish, and try to make up for the first two trimesters of horrible-ness! I keep measuring 3 weeks ahead of where I’m “supposed” to measure, but my midwife isn’t worried, and I highly doubt I’ll go earlier than my due date. I actually don’t even care about my due date- I’m usually a few days to a week after it, anyway. I could be measuring bigger because I {used to be} kind of slender, or I could have extra fluid, or the position of the baby, or he could just be a big guy! Which, I’m hoping he will be, I’ve never had a chubby baby! My two so far were completely different- the first, and 8 lb, but not chubby at all, and then a little tiny 6 lb skinny guy. So we’ll see what we get. Maybe he’ll plump up from the whole foods I plan on consuming! I’ve got to detox from my holiday food!

Sorry for the rambling! I’m going to take some pictures of my juices and smoothies so I can document what I’m eating! Also, good news for me- I’ve been clean from Coca Cola for over 3 weeks, and actually stopped even craving it after the first few days! I have had a glass or two of like a really good Root Beer when I’ve been at a couple of restaurants, but I’m picky about even Root Beer, and hate pretty much all other sodas, so it hasn’t been a real issue. I’m so thankful it wasn’t hard. I wish I had never  been drinking it in the first place, but I’m glad to be done with it, now. Just thought I’d share!

Food Ramblings From a Guilty Pregnant Woman…

 

Here is my 4 year old, right before he wolfed down two plates of food on Thanksgiving!

Well, I can’t believe it’s really December. In 13 more weeks, I’ll be having a baby. That sounds really soon!

I’ve been kind of down on myself lately that with this pregnancy, I feel the unhealthiest I’ve ever been, and I have a lot more knowledge this time around, too- so it’s even worse. I didn’t do better, even though I knew better. Does that make sense?

But I did have a wake up call the other day at my midwife appointment. She asked if I wanted to take the test where you drink the nasty orange drink to find out if you have Gestational Diabetes.  And while it’s really tempting to be so happy that I can choose not to take it,  I actually feel like I should take it, since I can think back and remember how horribly I’ve been eating! Mostly sweets, sugar, desserts, soda- those are the things I craved the first two trimesters…. But, once I was able to have a little wake up call and think : How can I be pregnant for the 3rd time, and forget so easily that everything I put  into my body doesn’t just affect me?! …. I’ve stopped any soda (especially my evil drink of choice, Coke).  I truly don’t want to put junk in my body any more.  I know it will taste good, but I just don’t want to risk hurting my baby, and once he’s born, it will just hurt me. I feel  a little stupid because how many times will I “relapse” with my old junk food habits? 

So last night, I prepped lots of veggies/ fruits for smoothies and juices, and made a delicious Vegan Split Pea Soup for dinner that was a big hit with everyone- except the 2 year old… But I really have this desire again to make healthful choices.

Some teensy excuses I have, while I was blessed to move into a house where I love the kitchen- I really wasn’t using it from the pain I was experiencing.  If I stood in the kitchen for an hour, I could hardly walk the rest of the day. But I ordered some Crocs to wear in the house, and just found a good chiropractor that already helped me 90% in just one adjustment! Also, I’ve realized that I had a really negative outlook at cooking lately. The entire pregnancy, my husband maybe gets home in time for dinner once a week, if that. Usually he isn’t home in time to even see the kids before they go to sleep.  I wasn’t used to him working that much, and starting at the beginning of my pregnancy, it just set the tone for myself  to think that since he wasn’t home, I didn’t have to cook. I would just feed the kids easy kid food, or we would go out to eat.

Now, I’ll just make that big pot of soup, and hubby can take leftovers for lunch, and I won’t have to make lunch the next day, since we’ll be eating the leftovers, too. So that’s a great thing. Standing in the kitchen for basically 2 hours last night wasn’t even so bad, because I was happy to be making yummy stuff, and happy that I wasn’t in pain while doing it!

I did, though, just have my first Southern Thanksgiving food this year. It was Awesome! I was worried that I would hate it and be longing for Grandma’s good old food, but it was so different, yet delicious in it’s own way, I was so happy! I only ate one plate for dinner and had just a sampling of the things, and a few more leftovers for lunch next day. My 4 year old ate more than I did!

For Christmas, we’ll be on our own, so I have freedom to make whatever I want. I’ll probably have semi- traditional meal on Christmas day, but very toned down, and only one dessert, I’ve promised myself! 

I hope everyone has a great Christmas!

Juice!

 

A few weeks ago, I watched the documentary, “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead” on Netflix. It was so good. I pretty much didn’t think it was weird at all to go on a juice fast. Because I love my smoothies already, but it made me want to start juicing in addition to my Green Smoothies- especially for like an afternoon snack or something during my pregnancy. It’s all going straight to the baby, so why not a green juice, too?

Well, I didn’t have a juicer, and I told my Mom about the documentary, because she does have a juicer. She watched it, but then she called me and told me she was sending me her juicer to use so that I can make those healthy drinks for me, the boys, and the little babe.  Aren’t Moms the Best?!

So yesterday, I had my two little helpers assist me in opening the box and assembling the juicer.  When I opened the box up, a letter my Mom put on top came out. She wrote us a poem, and I just have to share. She is so funny, and it is geared toward my 4 and 2 year old : ))

 

“I drink my juice in the morning, it makes me feel so fine.

It makes me want to sing and dance- I don’t even remember to whine!

My name is Milo ____, I drink my juice straight up.

Whether it is green or purple, I chug to the bottom of the cup.

And I am Oliver ____, I drink as much as my brother.

I love to feel big and strong, so just give me more, please, Mother.

You can’t even see me yet, But I’m waiting and growing each day.

Whenever I kick you in the naval, Mom, it means send more juice my way! “

Isn’t that the cutest!?  Well, I’ve been extremely bad at blogging, lately. Especially about food.  I’m so excited, though, I just found out that some friends of ours recently switched to a vegan diet for health reasons, and so far, they love it! So  I am going to have them over this weekend, and have lots of yummy food and talk about that with people that won’t think I’m nuts! haha

But really, I’m not beating myself up with my diet, because of how I’ve been feeling. I feel a lot better, but it’s just a struggle for me to plan ahead right now and make healthy meals, especially when I’m just cooking for the kids and me- hubby works late and is gone a lot. 

However, I am very excited… We are moving soon, I hope to this new place that I am in love with the kitchen.  When we looked at the place on Friday, I didn’t want to leave the kitchen, it was so pretty, and was already making me dream about what I would cook in it! It has triple the storage of our current kitchen, and is just a lot more functional, so I really really hope they pick our application! We should find out today… But, with moving on the horizon, it has kind of sapped my desire to continue cooking at this house, seeing as I want to start packing (we could be moving in less than 2 weeks), and we have a mouse that is proving to be quite annoying, and it grosses me out to even be in the kitchen.

So I guess in my mind, all my delicious foods that I could be making hinge on moving into this new house. Oh I am so nervous! I will be pretty sad if we don’t get it.  There were a lot of applicants. Either way, we will be moving somewhere in the near future, if not to this place, we’ll just have to keep looking!

Catching up!

Well, I’m sad to say during my NYC trip, I didn’t even make it to one.single.vegan restaurant. I was an epic fail. But I did have fun and indulge in many other foods! I’m glad that is out of my system.

I have been feeling a little restless lately. I actually feel like I just woke up out of a 2 month coma. Because I kind of did. You see, 2 months ago, I found out I was expecting our 3rd child, and the reason I found out was because I was SO SICK! I’ve never been this sick with my other pregnancies, so I’m thinking it must be a girl!

But what I mean about the coma, is that my poor boys have been watching cartoons and eating junk food for two months because I’ve been so sick and tired. To top it off, we moved into a house that is temporary (moved before I found out about the new baby), and the kitchen here is not my favorite kitchen to cook in. We have had pest issues, and when I was so sick, washing stinky dishes was the last thing I wanted to do, but to avoid bugs, I had to keep them clean- so I tried not to make dirty dishes. Thus, my kids ate a lot of crap, and when I felt like eating, if something sounded good, that’s what I had to have. So it was mostly fast food or eating out that I wanted. Probably because I didn’t have to smell anything while cooking!

But, alas, I have reached 12 weeks, and I feel alive again. And I’ve had a couple of wake up calls in regards to my children’s health that I wanted to write down…

My oldest son, is almost 4. He is a generally very happy, silly boy. He likes to drink almost as big a green smoothie in the morning as I do. His baby finger food was black beans and avocados.  He mainly started liking the junk food like goldfish and candy because I got lazy. Otherwise, he usually eats whatever I make, even if it is kind of weird.  I’m so lucky he is a good eater.

My two year old is another story. He is a string bean, and hates sitting still to eat. He mostly throws or smashes his food. He has texture issues. He will not touch anything slimy or mushy- like bananas or avocados.  Getting him to drink his green smoothie every morning is a half hour or more long battle.  His big brother chugs his in less than two minutes.  The baby would love to eat jelly beans all day long. He will, however, eat a plate full of hummus and carrot sticks but he prefers pretzels.  He refused lunch and dinner yesterday, and before he fell asleep, I felt so bad because I knew he was hungry, so I offered him a banana, and he said yes, but as soon as I opened it, he threw it! He ended up going to bed hungry, so I thought he would be so happy to drink his smoothie this morning, but boy, was I wrong. After 3 time outs to his room, and finally bribing him with his vitamins, he drank most of it! I just worry that he doesn’t get enough to eat most days.

My oldest just gave me a scare last week. He was running around the gym at church, playing really hard, when he told us his chest hurt. I was worried that he just hadn’t been getting enough exercise, or else what if he had asthma? He has always had croup and respiratory issues every winter/ spring…So I took him to the doctors, and I won’t even get into how much I hate the military hospital where we are stationed, but the doctor did nothing to answer my questions, or test to find out why his chest was hurting. I’m working on finding a different pediatrician this week…

So, I started researching, and a lot of asthma can be helped with diet. So I think I am going to start treating him like he does have it, and change his diet. He already is mostly vegetarian, with very little dairy, but there is much room for me to improve his diet.

Then, I’ve been reading about chemicals/food dyes, and how it affects children, and I was sickened. I woke up this morning, threw away the surprising stack of candy we had accumulated, and I am going to stop buying crap with food dye in it. I’m hoping that by getting rid of nasty chemicals it will improve my two year olds attitude. I know the “terrible twos” but he really has been out of control lately. I worry that with his picky eating, and mostly getting goldfish crackers and other colored things, he has become a little more malnourished. But then, I’ll make beans for dinner, and he’ll wolf down a whole plate and totally surprise me.

But lastly,  as I’ve come out of my first trimester “coma,” I’m feeling pretty guilty at all the crap I’ve consumed. I know more now with this pregnancy than the others, and I really have no excuse to eat these bad things and potentially hurt the baby. I have been thinking lately, that maybe my cravings were so intense because I already was addicted to sugar and bad food. I mean, it had gotten out of control. So I’m vowing today, here and now, to down my green smoothies every morning (which, luckily, I think was a tiny saving grace- even when I was really sick and tired, I would 5 out of 7 days force myself to make them, and I amazingly, always felt better for the next 3-4 hours after drinking), and switch back to homemade, whole foods vegan/vegetarian cooking.

I was realizing this morning, how much I used to love to cook- when I was a new mom, we were living in the Pacific Northwest- so, since it was always rainy and gloomy outside, I always wanted to be cozy and happy inside, and usually warmed us up by cooking. This was long before I made the switch to vegan, but I already was doing whole foods/ homemade everything for the most part. I have such fond memories cooking there…I think it was a combination of the cozy feeling I was going for, and the fact that I only had one child, who was really good at playing quietly while I cooked. Once the second one came, I could hardly look away long enough to peel a carrot before I had to go intervene or take care of somebody. So maybe when the new baby comes, I’ll be able to figure out a new way of getting things done, and be able to keep us healthy. I’m sure it will be chaotic, but the boys will be older, and I want them to start helping me more, anyway, when I cook, so that will keep them occupied!

I don’t even know if anyone cares/reads this, but sorry this is so long! I just needed to write this down for myself, mostly, and commit to myself to step it up. I love reading other vegan blogs, I subscribe to a few in my RSS reader, and they inspire me every day! Thanks for doing what you do!

Vegan Restaurants in NYC

In two weeks, I am going with my bestie {with no kids!} on a 3 night- 4 day trip to NYC! While I plan on taking the city all in with no distractions, and no obligations {sounds like heaven}, and seeing as much as will be possible for me to see in that amount of time, I also plan on doing one other thing: Eating at one Vegan restaurant a day while I’m there!!!

I absolutely am so excited, I can’t even tell you! I know that I am going to do some indulging {can you say Brooklyn Pizza?}, but I also want to balance that as much as I can by eating some really healthy, yummy food that I don’t have access to out here where I live. I think my problem will be choosing which restaurants to go to!

So far, I have a few picked out that look good on their websites, and the menus look phenomenal! I’m not sure yet what days I’ll eat where, because it will depend on what area of the city we’ll be in that day. But hey, I’ll be by myself, what’s a little subway ride to get to another part of the city, right?  {can you tell I have no idea what I’m talking about? I used to live about 35 minutes north of the city as a nanny for 10 brief months, but during that time, I didn’t do much exploring in the city, unfortunately. Just enough to leave me always wanting to go back!}

Restaurant #1:   Angelica Kitchen – can’t wait to try their Norimaki- 9piece vegetable rolled shushi with wasabi and lemon shoyu dipping sauce. Have no idea what shoyu is, but I can’t wait to find out!

Restaurant #2: Caravan of Dreams

This place looks like so much fun. With the gypsy- ish atmosphere, live music, and their world fusion menu, I just don’t know how I’ll be able to choose what to order. It looks totally fun…I hope I’ll be able to drag my friend here, with me. I might be dining alone at all the places by myself, but that’s ok- I’m sure I’ll meet lots of cool people!

Restaurant #3: Candle 79

This place is more pricey and you need reservations…I’m not sure if I’ll be brave enough to eat here alone. I’ll probably get lonely and miss my husband. But perhaps I can talk my friend into eating here with me for more of a “fancy, healthy” girls’ night out!

Restaurant #4: Blossom NYC

They have a few different locations, so this might be good to keep in mind and mark them all on the pop up map I plan on getting soon. Then I will be able to eat at one of their locations no matter where I am that day. This restaurant looks really hip and urban. I’ll probably stick out like a sore thumb!

Any suggestions would be great. I would also love to try a Raw eatery while I’m there, too- but I am not quite there yet!

Oh, I forgot, I also would love to eat here, because it’s so cute!

How cute is this place?!