Done with week one!

I have to say, I have had a busy but successful week back on the paleo wagon. First of all, I am going to do a weigh in on Fridays because that is the day that I started and will try to update the blog over the weekend and post on Monday. We all know we get off a little on the weekends but nothing that will kill our  momentum. 

We have had some great meals and Cap hasn't complained about any of the eating. He had a PT test for the army and a weigh in and had lost about 5 lbs. At first I thought he was going to quit right after that and go back to eating what he wanted but he told me he will eat whatever I make him and will tell me if he cheats. 

I weighed in on Friday and was at 231.4 so I lost 8.5 lbs in a week. As of this morning I am at 229.4 even with semi good eating and drinking habits over the weekend. We had some mandatory fun with the army at an Oktoberfest event Friday night. It was super cold for the baby's first late night outing but he was happy. I ended up eating a brat with no bun and a piece of schnitzel and one hefeweizen beer. John had two brats with my buns and the big piece of schnitzel with two beers that night. Over the weekend we went to a pumpkin patch, carved our pumpkins, the flea market, and watched a lot of football but I was also able to get in my exercising as well. He drank a ton of beer this weekend while I kept to my Mich Ultra Apple Gluten free cider. It's super light and I had two each day. I didn't gain anything because I kept my eating right. Here is some of what I made this week:

 Cap asked for banana bread, so I used this pin from pinterest for the recipe. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/106327241176050970/ but it obviously does not look like what I made. I added sliced almonds, cherries, and cranberries to bulk it up. It said to cook for 50 minutes but 40 in it was already this brown. Doesn't taste burnt but not as good as the cookies were last week (which are all gone btw).

 It looked much nicer before I put it in the oven!

 Baby C decided that pumpkins are delicious and awesome for teething.

 Dressed as warmly as possible for Oktoberfest! Not a bad looking family.

 Here is a recipe I made up because I didn't want to defrost anything from my freezer and didn't think about dinner until that afternoon. I call it Spicy Ranch Bacon Shrimp.

 Ingredients:

Irregular cut bacon that makes piecing it for recipes so super easy. About 6 slices

30-40 medium shrimp, frozen shelled, deveined, uncooked

Fajita mix of frozen peppers and onions

2-4 table spoons of spicy ranch dressing (we used hidden valley)

Romaine Lettuce leaves (about 8)

1. Cook bacon in a skillet to desired level of crispness. Leave bacon in pan with bacon fat and add peppers and onions.

2. Cook until nice and browned and caramelized. 

3. Add shrimp and ranch dressing. Cook only til shrimp turn pink and start to curl up. It is very easy to overcook shrimp.

4. Serve on washed lettuce leaves. Tastes awesome!

 Having cute babies in the kitchen also help add flavor and love to the mix.

Mexican stuffed peppers. I used ground turkey, fajita mix of onions and peppers, and a can of diced tomatoes with green chili. I also added a tiny bit of red paper flake and cumin. After the peppers were stuff, I cooked them for 45 minutes in a greased pan, then added fiesta cheese mix on top for another 15 minutes. AWESOME easy meal. So green and healthy!

This week I am in charge of a zombie run at the battalion so I will be out and about a lot. I am bringing lots of KIND bars with me along with protein shakes that are low carb and almonds. I haven't had to go shopping again yet but I will after Wednesday. Halloween is going to be hard! We are going to visit family and friends and will have to let myself have some wiggle room. As long as I am active and don't over indulge, this should be a safe trip. I am not going to beat myself up. I already met and exceeded my 10 lb goal before I left on the trip, so if i lose more before then gain back up to that 10 lb goal, I will be ok with it. Next goal will be 25 lbs down before Thanksgiving. I have 29 days from now to lose 14.5 lbs. I think I can average a 2-3 lb loss a week now that the big loss is out of the way. I can do it! Already on my way! This is going to be slower going than before, but its the healthiest way for us and to get ready for another baby.

Please leave feedback about your journey or your own blog or story. I would love to share with you my new friends!

Back on the wagon!

Hello old friends and new!

Boy has a lot changed since I last logged on. I vowed to myself that as soon as I got back on the health wagon, I would log back in and keep up with telling our tale. Well I got a little (or a lot) off track in the last six months after having our wonderful SON but I have so much to look forward to now that I had to share. 

First of all, we have been in Georgia for over a year and welcomed our little boy to the world in April. He was just shy of a week overdue and I was induced. The labor was awful, my epidural(s) did not work, and he came in to the world like superman, aka, arm in the air by his head like he was already able to fly. Long story short, there were some complications with a fever and tearing, a little hemorrhaging, but nothing a longer stay and some antibiotics couldn't fix. 

So here's our Conrad: 8 lbs 13 oz, 21.25 inches long! Big guy like his daddy!

And now he's six months old! I can't even believe how big he's gotten! This guy is already blowing through his nine month clothes and mostly wearing twelve month. The plan had been to breastfeed for a year, it is awesome for the baby and helps you get back in shape better. Well he had really bad reflux and at his two month doctor visit, he was only in the 30%. I know that's fine but I was worried. He was put on medication but the feedings were still really hard to get through, with the baby screaming at me when I tried to get him to latch, especially in the evenings. When he was three months old we went on a trip home and to the beach and I decided to feed him in the mornings and evenings and pump the rest of his feedings. Well, it only lasted a few weeks. With his feeding so frequently before and then it really slacking off, I dried up really quickly and by the time he was four months old, I could only produce enough for one feeding no matter what I did, so we switched him to formula and he's been doing great! It's also helped his relationship with daddy, getting to leave them alone more often and not having to stop to pump wherever I went. I'm still proud of the fact that he was exclusively breastfed for three months though! We do what we can. 

The problem that came up though was that with the breastfeeding I was hungry all the time and it didn't seem to matter what I ate, I wasn't gaining anything. So after I stopped, I had become addicted to sugar and grains again, I was able to drink again, which I very much overindulged in, and the weight came back on with spades. I also got back on birth control after I stopped breastfeeding so we wouldn't have another one so quickly. The birth control added to the weight gain and last week I was up to just three pounds under my weight on the day I gave birth. I was devastated. 

Now, even though I'd been eating horribly, I had joined a gym with a daycare for the baby. I even started couch to 5k again and am now on week 5 where the real distance running begins. But I'm bigger than I've ever been and the running is excruciating. The baby has also gotten sick about every other week being in a daycare type environment. We had to take off for a week for him to get over his first ear infection not long ago. So I have been exercising, but if you're eating badly, it doesn't matter the exercising you're doing, nothing will come off. 

I looked at myself in the mirror on Friday and decided it was the day things were going to change. I gave myself a short term goal of losing ten pounds before leaving on a trip down south for a bridal shower and a baby shower. Overall I need to get down fifty pounds before I want to have another baby, but I also want that to happen very soon. Cap and I had talked about trying again at the new year, but we decided that the hormones in my pills were too much for my body so I got off of it this weekend as well. When the doctor put me on the pills, he did blood work on me for my hormone and glucose levels. It turns out that pregnancy has pretty much cured me of PCOS and I'm no longer close to being diabetic. All my levels were normal and that was even at an elevated weight. But I still know that the only way I can get in shape and lose weight is eating a healthy whole foods diet. 

This time though, Cap is joining me in eating exclusively paleo diet ways. I spent way too much at the grocery store getting the necessities like coconut oil, almond meal, almond milk, many nut butters, dried fruit, fresh produce and meat, but I know that's just how the first shopping trip goes. His lunches for the week will consist of low carb wraps with turkey cheese and tomato, peaches, cucumber slices, string cheese and protein shakes.

This morning, the fourth morning of my decision to change my ways, I am down six pounds! I've been gorging on apple slices, bananas, grilled chicken, salads, and my newest obsession: paleo breakfast cookies. I got the recipe here: http://butterinmycoffee.blogspot.com/2013/01/breakfast-cookies.html

In my recipe I added dried cranberries, dark chocolate morsels, and almond slices and I quadrupled the recipe and got about five dozen cookies. I froze four of them for later. They are AMAZING! 

So here we go again. I am admitting defeat! I am now a warrior for healthy ways and getting back in shape to be the best mom to my little boy I can be and for any future miracles God gives me. 

Tonight we are grilling up some NY strip steaks that have been dry rubbed and sitting all afternoon with some baked sweet potatoes. YUMMY!

So here we are now:

We are all human, we all get lost, but there is never a time where you've gone too far away, you can always get back to where you were. This is my mantra. Be healthy, be there for your loved ones. 

So, the numbers. At the birth of my son I was 243. I gained 52 lbs during my pregnancy. After the first month I was down to 212 lbs. Friday morning I was 240. I am now 234. First goal is 230. Goal for my 32nd birthday: 200 lbs (3 months from now). Goal before getting pregnant again 190 lbs. Happy place goal: 170 lbs. Extremely happy goal 150 lbs. Hey, anything is possible!

Oh and I'm running in a 5k in remembrance of my grandmother on Thanksgiving with my family and I hope to PR at that race and get under 36 minutes. Right now I'm at a 40 min 5k. Here's to running!

On a little slipnslide!

The good news is, I feel great. Everything seems to be going well with the baby, I have my 18 week dr's appt in two weeks and can schedule my 20 week sonogram by early next week. The bad news is, I seem to have fallen off the wagon. I am pretty sure I've gained about 3 lbs in the last two weeks and I have not been doing my walking or anything else. I'm also pretty sure cheese danish and cuban sandwiches are not very healthy for anyone, but that is what I ate yesterday. I'm trying to turn it around though! I brought apples and pb, a banana, and a kind bar to work for snacks though. I thought it was just a 4 hour shift, but it turned in to 6 when my boss was finally approved to give us more hours until we find a replacement for the full time girl who left. I am not knocking more work, it keeps me out of the house and mostly away from bad food, but it has been giving me more excuses not to exercise. 

I need to change up my routine and start walking at least after dinner when I'm home with the Cap, hoping he can start going with me now that his classes at work seem to be a little less daunting. I'm also going to try to go to the prenatal yoga class tomorrow at the army gym. I might actually try hitting up the gym a little more. It's a 20 minute drive to get there, but I think the elliptical might be just what I need at this point, and man the pool is gonna feel great (indoors) when this belly explodes. 

So you heard it here folks! I am gonna try to not gain any more weight before my appt in two weeks! I am not planning on losing anything, just keeping it in check. With the holidays coming up, there will be plenty of time for indulging and love through food. In fact, we just booked our hotel down by my family in Florida for the Thanksgiving and I cannot wait!

So here is the 15 week picture. No stripes! 

Week 14 update

Just wanted to show off my bump! Here is the week 14 picture! I must say, I love wearing stripes to work on Fridays!

I'm also in charge of the display this month at work, here is my "IT CAME FROM THE LIBRARY" zombie display! 

 Emily called me today to check up! She's recently gotten engaged and moved to be closer to her family so it was really great to check in with her! She was super proud of my work at staying fit this pregnancy! She's also going to try to start paleo and wanted some tips and websites so I sent her here to the blog.

Victory!

Well I had my 14 week OB appointment yesterday. Mainly this one and the next one are just check ups to see how I'm feeling and to let the doctor know if I have any concerns. I also got to hear the heartbeat, which was nice and strong in the 140s! Yay! At this point in the pregnancy its still hard to know you're pregnant every day, because I don't have a pronounced belly and I'm no longer feeling sick. Speaking of bumps, my uterus is apparently very low down and if you match that with my awesomely long (sarcasm) torso, I'm gonna carry real low and just look pudgy until maybe midway? Who knows!

I was very nervous to go to this appointment because I don't want to gain more weight than I should and I was afraid my scale at home would not match what was happening in the doctor's office. But I shouldn't be worried because most of the time I eat really well and I exercise as much as I can, its still always in the back of your mind. I love Miss Jessica Simpson but weight watchers is not going to give me a 3 million dollar deal anytime soon to lose my baby weight, so I just can't go overboard like she did. I am proud to say that victory was indeed mine and I only gained 2 lbs of the 20 my doctor thinks is healthy to gain. Not bad for getting through an entire trimester! If I can keep this up through the holidays and get through to the last one, I think I will be plenty healthy come baby time.

Also, today is my four year wedding anniversary! Cap and I do the traditional gifts to eachother every year and this year's is a doozy. Fruit and flowers? I guess the perfect gift would be an edible arrangement right? Fruit in the shape of flowers? But I always think those things are just walking talking colds on a stick. I haven't gotten him anything yet because I really wanted him to get a new wedding ring. Did I mention that he accidently sent it down the disposal without knowing and crushed it?? Yea I was wondering why those sounds were coming from our sink before we moved! I trust him completely, but what is hotter than a good looking military officer carrying an adorable baby while wearing no wedding band? Exactly! So I'm holding out. I do hope he thinks of me though.

We have a weekend of eating ahead of us. This morning went to Ihop with his class and their wives and this afternoon is a BBQ thrown by one of the couples. I broke down and made my favorite side dish every, corny cornbread casserole, which is pretty much cornbread with a stick of butter, sour cream, and cans of corn and creamed corn. Bake until succulent! Not very healthy but I since I won't be drinking, I figure there are extra calories for me to go around. We are also going to hit the farmer's market and maybe the Seafood festival uptown as well on Saturday.

Wishful thinking!

So now that I'm keeping up with this blog and becoming accountable again, I've managed to eat pretty sensibly and do my walking every day. The walking part is super easy to keep up with because the weather here has been pretty amazing the last few weeks. This weekend the high will be in the upper 70s so I definitely plan on getting Cap out there with me. We are going to try to hit up the farmer's market downtime tomorrow morning cause I'm really craving some kind of cobbler right now and they have THE best selection of fresh stuff. I also want to try to get out and meet new people. It's kind of lonely here due to the circumstances of this duty station, so I'm willing to try a bunch of new things to meet people.

This week has been pretty easy paleo wise for dinners. I've had to broaden my horizons with making crock pot meals or re heats because I now work a couple of nights for the new job. I tried my hand at a cube steak gravy concoction deal last night from pinterest that Cap put over instant mashed potatoes and I put over a mix of veggies which made a pretty tasty gravy but the meat was less than to be desired. I don't know how to marinate it before going in to the pot, because I always thought that that stuff was supposed to all happen in the pot. Oh well. I also made AMAZING stuffed tomatoes this week which I'll link to the recipe below. And tonight is Philly Cheesesteak over mixed greens.

My problem has not been dinner though, its during the day. I am going through the lumberjack/trucker appetite phase where I just cannot fill up. Or I'll fill up for about an hour and then get dizzy from low blood sugar and will have to eat again really soon after that, so the fruits and veggies go through me like water. It's hard to find the balance between cravings and what I should be eating as well. I just need to keep plugging away and finding what works for me.

http://www.paleoplan.com/2010/01-04/sausage-stuffed-tomatoes/
Super tasty and green with the large cut up peppers I used, and for some reason I couldn't find ground sausage this week, so I just baked then sauteed links all cut up. It was harder to stuff but still super delicious. I added a little parmesan to the mixture as well to bump up the flavor.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/philly-cheese-steak-salad-10000001885356/

This one is what I'm using for the Philly cheese steak tonight, but instead of American cheese, I'm going to use some swiss cheese shredded and melted over the salad. I prefer the taste over processed American. I'll take pictures and put them up this weekend.

Also, I think I'm finally showing! It only took 13 weeks and 3 days! My belly button still hasn't popped out but this belly is on its way! I love leggings and sweater dresses!

Our new life in Georgia!

It's been three blessed months since I've updated on this blog! We are happy to announce that not only did we have a great vacation and move from Texas to Georgia with the military, but the third round of clomid worked! I am 13 weeks pregnant today!!! We told family and friends last week as were are now safely out of the danger zone and I cannot believe I'm a week away from my second trimester!

While I should have secretly been writing down my thoughts every day and then releasing them all at once, I've been completely overwhelmed with the new place and unpacking, traveling to see family, and my new job at the library! I'll try to remember some details as I go, but promise to keep everyone up to date on what is going on from now.

The biggest regret I've had since getting pregnant is the amount of weight I've put back on since getting pregnant. On the trip to the beach I went from about 179 lbs to 184, from eating anything I wanted and drinking a lot! I didn't know I had a week old clump of cells in there, but everyone has assured me it will be ok. I lost the 5 lbs before the acutal move date, but found out I was pregnant the day the guys came to put all our stuff on the truck. Our plan of getting to the new place in one day failed after that, as the exhaustion from the week of packing and organizing, as well as the happy news, took its toll on me! So with the move, being homeless in a hotel, visiting family and friends, lets just say my eating has been less than perfect. In the first month we were here I put the 5 lbs back on plus 5 and at my first appt I weighed in at 191 lbs. My doctor knows my history and of course took me off the metphormin during the pregnancy. I try to get in 30 minutes a day of walking, but it was nothing like Emily had me doing. There are supposed to prenatal classes for yoga on post but none have shown up on the September schedule, so here's hoping for October. I have my 14 week doctor's visit a week from tomorrow and hope I haven't added another 5 lbs, but with a family trip this weekend including cheesecake and cinnamon rolls, I highly doubt it will be a great showing. The doctor would like me to stay within a 20 lb gain range and I just need to get in better habits.

Weeks 6-8 of the pregnancy were the hardest because of morning sickness and I all could eat were ginger snaps and crackers. Now I have to break out of the carb overload cravings. We do a paleo meal for dinner every night, but during the day I eat a lot of whole week and fruit and cheese. Of course I get the extra 300 cals a day from feeding the little monster, but that adds up quickly. Now that I am writing all this down, I better stick to it a whole lot better!

I have a major case of pregnancy brain so I will leave it up to these pictures to paint the full story!

Here is the lovely chart for July! As you can see, I got the positive pretty stinking early!

The day of the big move, we had this awesome news! I actually dreamed that I saw the word PREGNANT in big letters and had found this digital test under my sink while packing. I dreamed it come true!

Here is the little monster at 10 weeks and 3 days! Dr says the baby has a lot of personality and is a thumb sucker all ready!

Our awesome announcement we made for our friends on facebook! We went to a home football game a few weeks before and took the picture there!

And here I am this weekend making a fool out of myself at the maternity store trying on a fake belly! I'm absolutely not showing yet, although I swear I feel the fullness and sometimes a kick when I lay very still! So excited!