Time for a Refresh!

If you haven’t heard yet, there’s a new 3 Day Refresh that came out.  It’s a 3 day cleanse with shakes and some whole foods.  I bought it, knowing that I would want to do it eventually and it came Friday!

I was trying to figure out when would be best to do the refresh, and Monday just kept talking to me.  I wrote out a grocery list and decided to start tomorrow!

So, I plan to share it all…ups and downs and all arounds.  I need to hit the food store for a few more things tomorrow, but I feel well prepped for this.  I’m excited to see how it goes.

A big thing in when I started this was that I was still nursing every so often.  Most people will say that breastfeeding and cleanses don’t mix.  But it’s been so sporadic (I’m talking days between sessions) that I decided to go for this.  I don’t know if anyone here will judge me for stopping (or for still nursing at almost 20 months) but that’s okay with me.  I’m okay with it.  Getting there took about a month of the sporadic nursing to accept that this time was ending.

And if you’re wondering, so far today was just a regular 21 Day Fix eating day.  I didn’t decide to overeat and go crazy pre-refresh!

So Crafty…

Or not. I have some basic ability to sew and otherwise create but I am not exactly creative. And I am not exactly great at sewing (please see my couch pillow covers which need constant seam fixes). On occasion though, I find some things I want to make and see what happens. As I’m sure you can guess, Pinterest fuels this sometimes. Doesn’t it for all?

First, the project that didn’t work. A nursing shawl that seemed simple enough with just one straight line to sew. But making it out of knit proved difficult and I can’t get it to look as lovely as it does in the picture. I plan to try this one again in the near future, depending on nap times as everything does these days.

Next the one that worked well enough to see the light of day. I had wanted baby leg warmers but didn’t want to spend a lot. I looked a bit on Etsy and saw both some items to order and a bunch of leg warmers made out of target socks that were on clearance. Back to pinterest I went and found this tutorial. The first set, I tried using the sewing machine. Not so easy on a sock! I then tried it by hand, which worked well but seemed like the thread might break. I picked up some elastic thread yesterday and now have made two pairs, which came out well enough to be worn on a baby. At least my baby. I wont be attempting to sell them to others or give them as gifts or anything.

Here are some pics of the process…

Socks to start

One sock cut

Using the foot – fold in like a tube (starts as right, goes to left)

Sock goes into tube

Pinned to keep proper layers together and help rolling

Done. One still folded up, the other unfolded

Different pair, same process!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Workout Tuesday – TurboFire Fire30 and Sculpt30
Workout today – TurboFire Fire30 and Tone30

Took a rest day Wednesday!

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.

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!

Back for now

I didn’t mean to disappear! So sorry. I have had at least one hand occupied at most times for the past 11 days, making typing a bit difficult. I have become a “liker” on Facebook because it’s easier. And I just update with photos.

We have a weight check doctor’s appointment today and I think my champion eater will be back to her birth weight easily. I went to a breastfeeding support group last Wednesday and it was super helpful, if not for technique, for confidence. It was also nice to speak to other mothers who can tell me that everything we are experiencing is normal.

And what are we experiencing? A lot of sleepless nights! When they say to sleep when the baby sleeps, no one mentions that the baby will only want to sleep on you. So she will sleep, but if I try to put her down she wakes up and cries. But we are learning what works and what doesn’t for us. And that’s all you can do!

Well, one of us needs to eat now so that’s all. Except for some pictures because who doesn’t want pictures!