I’m sweet enough!

I’ve been slooowly trying to get my diet back to somewhere near pre-pregnancy.  Between wanting food that is quick and not being able to eat dairy, a lot of the times I’ve gone for the almond milk ice cream.  More times than I’d like to admit.  Last week I put a stop to that and just didn’t buy it.  Sure it’s easy and delicious.  But I need real food!  Not having it the house went well.  I’d make some chia pudding if I wanted something sweet, or have some fruit (easy! convenient!).

This week I decided on a little extra challenge.  I’m cutting out sugar Mon-Fri.  Other than finishing a dark chocolate bar from Trader Joe’s and a little stevia in Shakeology and my regular protein powder.  So far, it’s going well!  This extra challenge will really push me because I really can’t depend on any processed or packaged foods.  This was a big reason to do it.  Without cutting out something for a short time, it is easy to slide into a bad habit.  Now I’ll get used to cooking, and know that it has an end in sight.

I hope that after Friday, I will have pushed the thoughts that I don’t have time for cooking out of my head.  It hasn’t even been that much of a change yet, but not putting some stevia in my coffee was strange.  Still good though!  I’ll write about how it goes.  And about Les Mills Pump…I swear!

Big Gym, Little Gym

We have had some fun over here.  Some sarcastic, most not but all still good.  There have been hikes and walks and visits and naps.  Smiles aplenty.

We went to an Arbor Day festival where we saw Zoe’s first band (since being born, she “saw” a few in the womb), Peat Moss and the Fertilizers.  They were our wedding band and are a lot of fun.  Zoe was more into pulling up the grass.

There was also the night spent on the floor in the baby’s room.   And the back pain to show for it.   Luckily, that was so far just the one night.  And the smiles make it all okay.

Today, we checked out a class at The Little Gym.  It was free and on a weekend, so sign us up!  It is tough to find mommy and me type classes on the weekends, so that was even better.  Zoe was the youngest there, but held her own through some songs, parachute time and “climbing” around…really just touching some things while being held.  They don’t have a weekend class during the summer, but it is something I may revisit in fall.  Right now, our Sundays are pretty booked so I don’t think the rest of this session would work well.  But fun.  If they offer a free introductory class by you, take it.  They didn’t even try to sell me before I left.  And worked with me when I needed to reschedule.

The big gym is for our hike.  Using the world to workout.  We didn’t really plan where to go and ended up on a park trail that was much more hiking than walking.  Lots of hills, made even more fun holding a 13+ lb baby.  One of the downhills was a little too steep for my comfort but we made it still standing.  And I got a better workout than planned.  Nothing wrong with that.

I wish every day was the weekend!

Not a review…yet

I had all intentions of writing a review of Les Mills Pump this weekend but it hasn’t happened.  I could rush one out now just to do it, but I really like the program and want to tell why.  I want to write about each video and give it the focus it is worth.

But life got in the way, mostly in the way of a not sleeping baby.  She wakes up every 3 hours most nights, but last night was every two.  She’s taking longer to fall asleep.  A lot of the time I’m up is restful for her as I hold her until I think she’ll go down.  And she has taken a good nap both today and yesterday.  So tonight, instead of writing all about the workouts, I still had bottles to make, breastmilk to freeze, laundry to start/move to dryer…and a screaming baby.

So now, after a busy day of playing, hot yoga, a birthday party, and more playing, I’m going to sleep.  I will say that my first time back at hot yoga went better than expected.  I never felt the need to bolt out of the room and was able to do all of the postures in some form.  I’m so glad I finally made it to a class!

Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins

I went looking online for something new to make for an afternoon snack. I’m slowly (more slowly than I’d like!) trying to clean up my day to day foods. It’s hard. I want to make good choices, but I also need things quick. I always think I’ll have time to prepare something, but then work gets busy, the baby is home and I want to get some sleep (at different times of the day).

I focused on recipes for 1) single serving items that had 2) oats. Single serving so that I can grab it and oats so that I could boost supply a little more. I’m always looking for ways to get supply up! I thought I had a recipe for oatmeal muffins, but the one I found doesn’t seem like it’s the one I used to make often. So pinterest it was! I found a recipe, didn’t modify it too much, and just had one (though it put me over my calories for the day, but I was hungry today! ) and liked it. Plus, it had not only oats but also flaxseed. So I shall share!

Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins with dried cranberries

1 c. dry old fashioned oats
1 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 c. unsweetened almond milk
2 egg whites
2 Tbsp. ground flaxseed
2 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. coconut oil
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare muffin tin by lining with paper baking cups or cooking spray.

Combine oatmeal, applesauce, milk, eggs, flaxseed and oil in medium bowl. In another bowl combine all dry ingredients including fruit. Make a well in center of the dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients into it. Stir until all ingredients are just combined.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 15 – 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

They were out of the oven within a half hour of starting to cook them, so I call that a win. I think I liked my other ones better, so I’ll still look for that recipe but these are a good substitute!

Enjoy!

5 months old!

Dairy free update

I went dairy free back in December.  There are many things that possibly helped get us from there to here…dairy, probiotics, age…but now Zoe isn’t having the issues she was.  Even then, I was told that heated dairy would most likely be fine.  So 4 months later, I have now started adding back some heated milk and dairy cooked in foods.

So far, so good.  It’s only been since last week but there haven’t been any changes.  We all feel fine.  It’s very likely that the gas issues were just from being a newborn.  I am hoping that eventually I will start unheated dairy also.

Of course, last weekend when I started with heated dairy, we went to a pizza place with vegan options!  I went vegan anyway.  It was so good!  I had a whole wheat calzone with non-dairy cheese, tomatoes and basil.  I would definitely go back and still order off the vegan menu.  Our only issue was that there were no blinds.  My husband had sun streaming in his face (he did not order from the vegan menu, but we’ll keep him).  Even the mushroom “calamari” at the next table looked good and I don’t eat mushrooms.

So bring on the hot lattes!  Just in time for summer.

Hiya!

Things I have been up to:

Not blogging, but you new that
Not running – I hurt my ankle
Not sleeping – Lots of feeding
Lots of working
Les Mills Pump (review soon!)
Laundry
Walking
Washing bottles
Introducing heated dairy back (so far, so good)
and watching a 10K…

I’m sure there’s a lot of other things in there, but I’m really trying to keep up with my to dos. It’s amazing how time flies and how early I want to go to bed (see not sleeping).