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Sunday, January 6, 2013

Looking Forward

There's a lot coming up on the horizon! We scheduled Lucy's c-section date for January 18th. In 12 days, my baby girl will be here, and life as I know it is going to CHANGE. I'm so excited, but also incredibly intimidated. I've settled into a nice routine of having E here for a portion of the week, and then enjoying quiet couple time with the Champ the rest of the time. I've had flexibility in the last couple of years to work later hours on nights when E was at his dad's. I could work out when I wanted to, nap when I wanted to, shop when I wanted to. That's all about to change.

My world is about to revolve around late night feedings, packing diaper bags, and figuring out a whole new little person. I'm attempting new things this time around. I'm planning to commit to breastfeeding, which scares the hell out of me. It didn't go well with E, and I know each baby is different, but I'm expecting it to be HARD. For something to be so natural, it's one of the most unnatural experiences I've ever had.

Also, this time around, I'm planning to cloth diaper. As I write this I have 4 waterproof covers being shipped from an eBay seller, 18 prefold infant diapers coming from a Chinese cotton prefold distributor, and 12 Sunbaby cloth diapers coming from China. I've done A LOT of reading about cloth diapering at this point, and many friends have testified that, while it's overwhelming to read about, it's actually really simple to pull off. It should save us a good chunk of money, and it makes me feel a little "crunchy." In addition to friends who are supportive of the concept, I have a couple of friends that highly doubt this to be a positive experience. If anything, that only motivates me to succeed more.

We are also on week 2 of healthy eating. We prepped some more juicing veggies today, boiled more eggs, washed more grapes, cooked some carrots and mushrooms, made a healthy chicken tortilla soup, and I plan to make a chicken salad loaded with veggies along with lean burgers and sweet potatoes for tonight. The healthy eating worked last week. I managed to hold my same weight even after all of my Christmas eating, so I have faith that if we continue planning and prepping ahead of time, my baby weight will come off.

At any rate, in 12 days, I'll be losing a good chunk of it! Countdown is ON!


Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!

It's the time of year when everyone makes resolutions: eating better, working out every day, actually using their gym membership.

I didn't make any resolutions this year, but judging from my kitchen on this first day of 2013, it certainly doesn't look that way. The dishwasher is running, full of bowls and plates and measuring cups where I just attempted to make healthy waffles, chock full of wheat germ and flax seed meal. (The recipe needs tweaking, but they weren't terrible once you slathered a bit of peanut butter on top.) And my juicer is drying on a towel on the counter. It hasn't seen the light of day in about 10 months, when I finished my 40 day juice fast. (Ok, 36, but who's counting?)

From the looks of the kitchen, it appears that I made quite a few resolutions. But I refuse to acknowledge them as such. Yes, we are making calculated attempts to eat better. Yes, I plan to start juicing again. And yes, this is all happening the first week of the new year. But the timing has nothing to do with the fact that it's a new year, and everything to do with the fact that I'm nearing the end of my pregnancy. In 17 days at the most, our baby girl will join our family. This is exciting for reasons that warrant their very own post, but for me personally, it means that the number on the scale has a fighting chance of going back down. And the faster I can make that happen, the happier I will be!

I'm motivated to get myself back to feeling like me again, only better. I want to eat healthy and feel human again, and I want to get back into some sort of workout routine, which I abandoned in the first few months of my pregnancy. I would love to be able to run the half marathon again this year!

We are trying to establish a habit of weekly food prep to encourage healthier eating. So far it's worked really well. On Sunday, I went to the store and invested in TONS of produce. Then I came home, and spent a couple of hours on food prep.

Boiled 12 eggs
Boiled chicken breast
Made a pot of Weight Watchers Corn Chowder
Made light Chicken Salad
Put together 4 ready to eat salads with vinagerette dressing
Boiled Carrots
Sauteed veggies
Peeled and chopped veggies for juicing for the week
Washed grapes
Cut up fresh pineapple

My goal is to spend some time each weekend prepping my food for the week, so that I can just grab and go. And if I do this enough, maybe that number on the scale will move down and I'll feel like me again.

Happy New Year!