All clear!

A of Friday, I’m cleared to exercise. They said to ease into it, and I don’t feel completely comfortable with some of the more ab-focused moves so that’s been okay. But I can now get a good sweat on, and good sweat I did! I have a picture to prove it. This is after Friday’s workout.

So I will start back with each day’s workouts to end my posts. I have two challenge groups that I will be running and participating in (sign up here for details on my challenges) and I’m so glad to have some friends joining me. It will make it much harder to decide to skip a workout because of a tough day learning with my baby. Accountability!

It seems that I will need to become a late evening exerciser though. This baby is not a napper so I will need to wait for bed most days. Even today with my husband home, I have had to ditch my workout twice. Only once was for the baby. So far, I’ve done 10 minutes of kickboxing and burned 140 calories, so better than nothing!

Workout Friday – Turbo Kick round 45
Workout Saturday – TurboFire Sculpt30

All the recipes I need

At least when it comes to lactation cookies, I’m good. I made a third recipe and I think I have all I need.

The last one I made was the one recommended by most of my friends. I first saw the list of ingredients and was extremely overwhelmed. With a one month old! All these things to gather? And I would have to make changes to make the recipe dairy free. But I made them on a day when my husband was home and able to take over once the cookies were ready for the oven and the baby was ready to be fed. It wasn’t a difficult recipe with the hardest part being avoidable – I should have started with at least partially melted coconut oil.

This recipe with my adjustments to make dairy free and use what I had on hand came in at just over 80 calories a cookie. Not bad at all! But very tempting to just grab while in the kitchen.

Allison’s New Go To Lactation Cookie recipe (adapted from here)

Ingredients :

1 cup coconut oil (heated)
1 cup Splenda
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons flax seed meal
2 egg whites ( 2 egg equivalent)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup dairy free chocolate chips
4 tablespoons brewer’s yeast

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix the flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes. Beat coconut oil, Splenda, and brown sugar well. Add egg whites and mix well. Add flaxseed mix and vanilla, beat well.

Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to butter mix. Stir in oats and chips.

Scoop onto baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Let sit for a couple minutes then remove from baking sheet.

Tomorrow!!

My 6 week checkup is tomorrow and I can not wait.  I hope for a good sweat by the time I go to bed tomorrow night.

Today, after our 4 am-ish feeding, I couldn’t get back to sleep.  By the time 5:30 rolled around I was thinking about how I would get out of bed for just about any workout other than Walk Away The Pounds and how annoying it was that it was all I could do until cleared one day later.  Seems so arbitrary, but I’m playing by the rules.

I’m not sure what workout I’ll do tomorrow but as long as my appointment goes well, it will be something.  I have RevAbs which I haven’t tried yet and a few TurboKick rounds I might want to try.  Or I could do an old favorite like Cardio Party 3 from TurboJam.  So many choices!!

I made another lactation cookie recipe, but I’ll share that tomorrow.  Good stuff, and I continue to be impressed when I can get something like making a recipe done!

Happy Christmas!

I’m on a roll!

Three recipe posts in a row! I made Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Lactation Cookies. Lactation cookies are really nothing more than cookies containing ingredients known to help supply. Anyone can eat them. I wanted to make a dessert for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and so far the only dairy free recipe I’ve made is for the Peanut Butter Lactation Cookies. So I adjusted the recipe to a) correct the error I made last time and b) add chocolate chips.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Lactation Cookies (dairy free)

Ingredients:

1 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp baking powder
egg white equivalent of 1 egg
1 1/2 cup oat flour
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 bag dairy free chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix ingredients together. Place spoonfuls on cookie sheet and use a fork to create the peanut butter cookie lines. Bake for 15 minutes. Makes about 20 cookies.

If I had more ground flax seeds, I would have used them in place of some of the oat flour. But I’m running low, so I’d rather have that for my oatmeal.

Off to get a few more things done. I’ve got challenge groups to plan and more holiday to dos! Also busy watching the Giants lose 😦 If you want more information about a beginning of year challenge, let me know!  I’m excited to join in a challenge with TurboFire!  I should be cleared to workout next week.

Recipe, Food tip, Picture…what else could you want?

Yesterday was a tough day. No need to get into it as infants are unpredictable and some days will be better than others. I got nothing done other than eating, showering and some one handed facebooking. And of course quality time with a little lady!

Today was more productive with an extra set of arms. I was able to both shower and get ready to an amount of normalcy I have missed. I wrapped any gifts that are ready to be wrapped. I finished up some laundry and tried a new recipe. I have a bunch left to do before Christmas Eve and Christmas, but I’m doing much better than yesterday! I also changed up the blog…how do you like it?

The new recipe was Shakeology based. I wanted to have it for dessert, so I figured I would find something more indulgent than a shake. It was delicious, and perfect for post-wrapping!

Shakeology Peppermint Sorbet
2 scoops Chocolate Shakeology (I used vegan)
1 cup skim milk (I used almond)
4 to 5 drops peppermint extract
6 to 8 ice cubes
PREPARATION: Mix in blender until it’s really thick. Pour into container and freeze for 1 hour. (Makes 2 servings.)

I halved the recipe because it was just me and I knew I would eat the whole thing if I made two servings. It’s all about portion control and pre-portioning so you know you won’t over indulge! If this was something I could make and eat tomorrow (it would be too frozen then), I would have split it into two dishes to freeze. Putting it in one is just setting up for failure. A tip from me to you.

Here are our wrapped gifts beneath the tree. Also, our only holiday decorating this year. Next year, we will rock it.

Found my way to the kitchen!

It took two rounds of cooking while Zoe slept but I made two recipes today! I was highly motivated to make lactation cookies after I didn’t get as much out of the pump as usual and I figured I may as well put together some Shakeology balls while in there.

First, a little about the lactation cookies. Anyone can eat them, even dudes. They just happen to have ingredients that are said to promote milk production. I used the recipe here modified for what I had in the kitchen and for a mistake. Because that’s how I roll in the kitchen. Happy accidents, or at least ones that don’t make the cookie crumble.

Dairy Free Peanut Butter Lactation Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp baking powder
egg white equivalent of 1 egg
1 1/2 cup oat flour
1 cup ground flaxseeds
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp nutritional yeast

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix ingredients together. Place spoonfuls on cookie sheet and use a fork to create the peanut butter cookie lines. Bake for 10 minutes. Makes about 20 cookies.

This was the easiest recipe I saw and also had the least ingredients…and ones I knew I had or could switch out. The cookies are tasty also! Next time I will lower the oat flour/flaxseed mixture to a total of 1.5 cups.

Shakeology Balls (recipe seen all over)

Ingredients:

8 tbsp PB2
3 tbsp natural peanut butter
½ cup Shakeology Protein Powder
3 tbsp Honey
½ cup oats (I used regular, most would prefer it with quick oats)

Directions:

Mix PB2 with water (I usually use the same amount of water as pb2). Mix all ingredients (may take some time) adding water or Shakeology if necessary. Roll mixture into small individual balls and place on wax paper. Put in freezer until firm. Makes about 12 balls.

These both took little time to make and are great to grab quickly, which is what I need right now! Enjoy!

I guess this is a new mom thing?

I am continually amazed with what I can accomplish with a little baby free time!  A few days ago, I had about an hour solid of my husband holding the baby.  I checked so many things off of my to do list that day.  Today, Zoe actually went to sleep off of both of us at about 8:30. I have accomplished so much that I have an abundance of energy.  Must relax soon!  She will probably wake up shortly to eat which always makes me sleepy.

We had her one month check up today and she is thriving.  The doctor was very happy with her (only fueled by breastmilk) weight gain.  I’m so happy that it has gone well.  We have started to give her a middle of the night bottle of breastmilk.  We are hoping that this will make it easier to get her back to sleep and reduce the total awake time.  I have to pump then, but it still should make it a little less sleep disturbing.

Now I will take this still-sleeping-baby time to update my to do list like  should daily.  Items to add include Christmas wrapping and learning how to install a car seat so I can transfer it to my Christmas day ride.  Exciting stuff over here!  Actually, the exciting things are already on my lists (yes, I have several).  All smiles over at our house!

How I’m tracking

With breastfeeding, most sources say that you need 500 extra calories per day. My Fitness Pal does not have a setting for breastfeeding like some other tracking sites/apps, but I didn’t want to switch what I was using.

MFP does allow you to manually change your calorie goal in their settings. Another way to do this would be to add 500 calories of exercise.

What not to do would be to ignore your extra calorie needs while breastfeeding! Many people say that breastfeeding helped them to lose weight, but not all. Trying to lose can hurt your supply.

I have been focusing on hearty foods and adding flax seeds and nutritional yeast where I can. I also drink Mother’s Milk tea which seems to have upped my supply. So far it’s going very well!

Zoe goes for her one month appointment tomorrow. I still can’t believe it’s been a month!

One month!

Our baby is one month old today! I don’t know if we’re doing everything “right” but I know we are doing all we can for this cutie and getting better, or at least more confident, every day!

Today was Zoe’s first 5k. Not bad for a month old! She and I walked it with some friends and didn’t come in last. It was our first time using our jogging stroller (though no jogging with stroller has occurred) and I was happy with how easy a ride it was.

I am starting some challenge groups for accountability in the new year…both to help others and to keep me accountable in my own plan. I have spots available, so contact me for details! I’m so excited to start my TurboFire!