The Diary of a Pregnant Crossfitter: Part Three - I'm Not Handicapped!!

I wasn't working out when I was pregnant with Harlee.  That makes this pregnancy quite different from the first one.  I gained weight like crazy, I couldn't seem to keep a good grip on my appetite, towards the end my blood pressure was looking kinda dangerous...  And I openly told anyone how much I detested being pregnant. Some people just love being pregnant, and I don't get it.  Now I'm pregnant again and yeah, I still don't really like it, but since I've stuck with CrossFit it's been different.  I've gotten past the horrible morning sickness phase and I feel good, and working out has been sooooo rewarding, and super empowering.  It comes with its own set of challenges, of course - like leaving off with a 205lb dead lift personal record and not being able to try to beat that until AFTER the baby is born, but watching everyone else working out alongside me breaking record after record and advancing forward, lifting 205 pounds, then 215 pounds, then 225pounds, while I have to back off on weight instead.  I want to break my records, too! But I can't risk straining important muscles that I need for carrying this kiddo.  The first time I backed off and felt good about it, rather than defeated, was a nice change, though.  I had been lifting 185lbs instead of 205 and finally one day I just stopped at 165.  I figured, and knew, I could probably do more, but that felt heavy enough.  And I wasn't upset about having to quit there.  I just reminded myself that I'll be back in action again and I can pick up where I left off when that day comes.  But for now, I've got bigger fish to fry than breaking personal records.  And 165lbs is still more than my own body weight, so I should be proud of that, added to the fact that I'm pregnant yet still here, working out.  Go me!

I love the feeling of empowerment there at Flex Strength and Fitness.  I love that nobody gives me a hard time, too.  Derek has been awesome, as well - learning the goods and bads and pros and cons and ins and outs to the tricky subject of what's safe during pregnancy, and helping me stay in those boundaries while not making me feel limited or restricted.  And the others that work out alongside me have never uttered a word or given me a look saying, "Are you sure you should be doing that?" It's been great.  And I think that was my least favorite thing about being pregnant last time - I couldn't just be freakin normal, I was being badgered around every corner with unsolicited advice as to what I should and shouldn't be doing.  I don't want to be limited or restricted or held back in any way.  I want to keep doing what I've been doing and enjoy it.  And I know I have to modify things, so please don't constantly remind me of limitations, people!

This time has been different though.  When I'm at Flex, I don't feel restricted or limited.  I feel, well, normal, regardless of the fact that I've backed off on my dead lift weight and I have to do step-ups rather than box jumps.  I still get treated normal, and that makes a world of difference.  And for a moment, I was actually starting to think, "yeah, I take it back, this pregnancy thing really isn't so bad after all, I suppose I was just overreacting last time..."

Then I run into people who just go and blow it for me.

At this point it's pretty hard to hide the fact that I'm pregnant - I definitely have a bump.  So I've been openly announcing it to people who put me in the place to announce it, like when they ask, "So, when are you thinking about another one?" Which is a horribly nosy, prying, personal question anyway, but one that just gets thrown around loosely at the same time, so whatever.  So I got asked that a little over a month ago, and my response was, "Well.... Actually.... We've got one coming in July!" To which the response was, "I was wondering, I thought I saw a bump there!!" I just so happened to be holding my 30lb bag of massage sheets that I picked up from the laundromat.  Take a moment to compare that number to the one mentioned in the first paragraph.  Got it? Ok.  Yeah those sheets are kinda nothing.  And then comes the flood of warnings and fears - "Do you want help with that? Maybe I should carry that for you.  You really shouldn't be lifting that, it's heavy!"  To which I kindly said, "It's okay, I've actually been working out three times a week so this is nothing, really."  But I'm sure she thought that meant walking the treadmill or curling 5lb dumbells.  "But the umbilical cord could get tangled if you lift things too much!" 

Sigh.

***She means well, she means well, she means well*** I kept telling myself.  But the angry hormonal prego in me wanted to shout, "I just lifted 165 pounds of weight this morning for FUN, bitch, I think I can handle the damn sheets!"

:-)

But that would be mean.  And she really does mean well.  She's just falsely informed and lacking knowledge on the subject.  And doesn't realize that those comments can actually be kinda rude and degrading.

I remember now why I dislike being pregnant so much.  This won't be the last time I run into those kinds of people with those kinds of comments.  Pregnancy is not a handicap.  It's a moment in life that you do have to take better care of yourself than usual, but that doesn't mean stop everything you were doing before and put your life completely on hold.

And let me follow behind that comment with an interesting thought.  Most people are so worried about my lifting or exerting too much energy or effort for normal daily activities, yet in the same breath they'll laugh at my healthy eating habits and say things like, "Oh, honey, you're pregnant! Enjoy it! This is a time you get to spoil yourself, eat all the chocolate you want!"  Um, I did that last time (only it was macaroni and cheese) and had blood pressure issues and over 50 extra pounds of weight (that did NOT include my kid) that I had to lose because of it.  Not to mention hormonal imbalances that were way beyond what I would consider to be normal.  No thanks.  I'm sticking with Paleo because it works for me and makes me feel good.  I'm carrying life.  Sitting on my ass and eating crap the entire time, in my opinion, is just bad parenting.  This child is completely dependent on me for his start in life.  Everything I eat, he eats.  Why would I stuff my face with garbage knowing full well he's relying on me 100% for his nutrition?  All because I feel self-righteous and think that because I'm pregnant I deserve that ice cream?  No.  That's not a good idea.

A healthy baby needs a healthy mom.  And a strong baby needs a strong mom.  That's what I'm doing for myself and this child, and for the family I already have established.  And I'll continue to carry my 30lb bag of sheets up and down my stairs to and from my office for as long as I can, thank you very much.

Getting ready to overhead squat 55lbs at 19ish weeks (which isn't that much weight... ;-)! )

Part One
Part Two

The Diary of a Pregnant Crossfitter: Part Two - Overcoming Obstacles

By "obstacles" in this post I mean the very first obstacle - morning sickness.  Fortunately I'm over that part, but it felt like an eternity when I was in the midst of it.

Morning sickness is different for everyone.  For me, it would be worse if I had to wake up to an alarm.  If I didn't let my body get enough sleep that I could wake up on my own, look out.  I'd be chucking in the bathroom at least three or four times before being able to get out the door.  The room would be spinning, my body would feel lethargic and weak, and my stomach would be turning.  If I did wake up on my own, I wouldn't feel as lethargic, the room wouldn't spin much, and my stomach would be turning but not enough to make me throw up - unless I tried to exert too much energy.  This was daily, starting at about 6 or 7 weeks and not really letting up until about 17 or 18 weeks.  For which I am grateful - I know a lot of people experience this throughout their entire pregnancy.  My deepest sympathies to you - there's no way I'd be pregnant again, ever, if that were how my pregnancy with Harlee went.  Although I did find that my prescription prenatal vitamin that I got from the pharmacy prescribed by a conventional doctor made me SUPER sick.  Once I quit taking it the severity of my morning sickness was nearly cut in half.  Makes me wonder how many women suffer by pharmaceutically-induced morning sickness...  Please know what you're putting in your body - choose your vitamins wisely, making sure that they come from clean, whole food sources and not from a laboratory.  Synthetic vitamins can wind up causing way worse side effects than morning sickness...

Anyway, during those ten or so weeks of morning sickness, I really couldn't do anything.  My routine had always been going to Flex on Wednesday and Friday mornings at 8, which would require me to get up early enough to shower, change into my workout clothes, pack clean clothes, get Harlee packed and dressed, and then out of the house to drop him off at the babysitter in time for me to get to the 8am class.  This would also require me setting an alarm.  When morning sickness kicked in, I realized this was not going to work.  The first week of morning sickness, I woke up to an alarm both days and proceeded immediately to the bathroom where I'd wretch and hurl until I had myself talked into crawling back into bed to die instead of forcing myself to go work out.  Thank goodness Harlee isn't a morning person and he'll sleep until 10 if you let him.  So I skipped.  And I felt terrible and guilty about it.

My mood was beginning to swing again, I was starting to revisit some of the emotions and feelings and thoughts from my days of postpartum depression, and I was just an unpleasant person to be around.  I was angry with the world, angry with the higher powers that put me in this mess, and angry at myself for agreeing to let this happen, AGAIN.  For allowing myself to forget about how miserable this was the first time around.  I missed being able to work out.  And worse, I couldn't even do anything to try to stay healthy at home, either, like eating right.  Eating would be the one thing that helped stave off morning sickness.  If I had something in my stomach, it wouldn't turn as much (which is very counter-intuitive to any illness I've ever experienced in the past - usually eating would make me even more sick).  Only problem was I could only choke down certain foods.  Fruits and vegetables?  Barf.  Nuts and seeds?  Barf.  Any foods made with the above ingredients?  Don't even think about it.  Every now and then bacon and eggs sounded good, which has always been my breakfast go-to, but even that wasn't very often.  No, it was saltine crackers, Cheerios, chicken noodle soup, or Spaghetti-Os for me.  Which meant I had to go out and buy that stuff because those things don't exist in our house and haven't for over a year.  And those kinds of foods create addictions in the body and slow the immune system, so I was then battling colds, sinus drainage, coughs, and all kinds of fun things like that, all while feeling fatigued and, not to mention depressed.  And I just kept craving more.

It was not a happy time!!

It took awhile to get myself away from the heavy carbs and processed food addiction I had created for myself, even after morning sickness had subsided.  But I'm finally back, and my moods have balanced themselves back out too.

For the record, let me recommend oat straw tea to any pregnant momma experiencing unpleasant mood swings.  If I remembered to drink that on a daily basis, my moods weren't NEARLY as awful as they could be.  It was kind of a miracle.  The only trick was remembering to drink it every day, and I'm not very good at stuff like that.  But when I did, ah, there was a light at the end of the tunnel and my hope and faith were restored.

So, I missed the last part of November and the entire month of December at Flex.  Then it kept snowing.  And snowing.  And freezing.  And snowing.  My work schedule got all messed up from cancellations, and I never made it back in to Flex.  One snow day in early January Derek posted a WOD for everyone to do at home since it was too dangerous to try getting to the gym, and I DID IT.  It was brutal, but I did it.  And I'm actually kind of grateful for it, because it eased me back in instead of throwing me back in.  I found I hadn't lost EVERYthing I had achieved from the last seven months of working out, like I was afraid of - in fact I did a lot better than I expected considering how drained and weak and sick I had been feeling for the last month and a half.  And then I started going back to classes when I could.  I went in the evenings instead of the mornings, as mornings still made me a bit nervous and if I got up too early and felt sick from it, it would kind of mess up my whole day, and I slowly got back into the swing of things.  I built my stamina back up and successfully ran 5.4 miles in Arizona (which was SUCH an amazing feeling!) and at that point, I knew I was back.  I made it over the mountain and I was ready to conquer the next obstacle, whatever it may be.

I changed my work schedule at the beginning of February, and I've been able to attend Flex three days a week (Tuesday and Thursday mornings and Friday afternoons), plus add in yoga on Tuesday nights.

One obstacle I ran into recently was running.  So I ran that mini marathon, which was great and only made me have to pee a couple times as things were starting to get a little heavy on my bladder down there.  Then I ran the 6k across the Stan Musial bridge in St. Louis on February 8th, which was also great but I was definitely quite a bit slower than before but I still completed it without stopping.  Then the weather was disgusting up until recently, and we were blessed with a glorious spring-like Wednesday and I had a break in my afternoon.  I changed into some running clothes and headed out to the park where I planned to do at least two, maybe three laps around the 3/4 mile trail.  I got about halfway through the trail and felt like I had to pee.  I kept pressing on and as I did I felt an even stronger pressure.  As I neared the end of the lap I was in pain and couldn't decide if I had to pee or if I had brought on some Braxton-hicks contractions.  And of course the bathrooms were locked because, well, technically it's still winter.  I sat in my car trying to decide what to do, which led to feeling sorry for myself.  It was a very strong reminder of how unpredictable pregnancy is, and how out of control you really are.  A reminder that, while I want to keep exercising throughout this pregnancy, I may not actually get to.  Any health issue could arise that I have no control over, that may force me into bed rest or something terrible.  And here I was, not even half way through the pregnancy, and I was experiencing pains that I realized were forcing me to stop activity and rest.  But I didn't want to.  The first nice day in what felt like forever, and I didn't get to enjoy it.  It's not fair!

But I knew it was best to stop, and so I did.  I went back to my office, nearly wanting to cry, and tried to think of ways to pick myself up.  I reached out to a couple of people whom I find motivational, who might be able to offer me comfort or encouragement during this state of such disappointment and let-down.  But no response.  So, I was forced inward to reflect on this alone.  I tried so hard to applaud myself on trying, for at least making it 3/4 of a mile, for sticking with crossfit like I have for the past several weeks.  But nothing was making me feel better.  The shocking reminder that I have no control over this was too overpowering.

Fortunately I did bounce back - I got back to crossfit without any trouble, and met with a friend of mine to run that Friday afternoon (who was, fortunately, a complete beginner with running so we were perfect for each other's pace and it felt great).  But I'm staying even more focused on the present.  Trying to enjoy each workout as it comes, not knowing if I'll be coming back for more the next time or not.  It's a scary thought, but I guess everything about this journey is scary if you think about it.  Everything is unpredictable.  The best I can do is be prepared for that unpredictability, and take it in stride.

St. Patrick's Day: Ryeless Reubens

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Growing up, my family tradition was always to have reuben sandwiches on this holiday every year.  I continued that tradition when Justin and I started dating, as one of his favorite sandwiches is the reuben and it's definitely one of mine as well, so there was no argument there!  Then our household switched over to a more Paleo way of eating, cutting out all processed food and heavy carbs.  So there goes our rye bread and thousand island dressing.

Well, today I created a dish packed with flavor that is just as satisfying and messy as I always knew the reuben sandwich to be, and I didn't even miss the bread!  I have Pinterest to thank for this one, but the idea of combining the different recipes was ultimately my idea.  There are a lot of elements to reaching the finished product, so it might be a bit intimidating, but it's really not bad at all.  I chose to make my own thousand island dressing, which tasted amazingly just like the conventional kind, yay!  that part took some time, but you can easily make that in advance.  I got quite a bit of dressing out of one recipe, so we'll have plenty of salads to make with it!

In the process of creating this thousand island dressing I discovered a much easier way to make Paleo mayonnaise than the method I've posted before. So long as you have the right tool.  I have the Cuisinart Smart Stick, and I LOVE that thing.  So much easier to use than a regular blender, and cleanup is way easier too.  I use it at least 3-4 times a week, whether it be to throw a smoothie together for breakfast or to assist with recipes like this one.

So for this mayo, you basically use the same ingredients as the original recipe:

1 egg

2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon yellow mustard

3/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Only here's the way easier part - put it all together in the blender cup.  Let it sit a bit so that the oil is all separated and sitting on top of everything else, then carefully put your handheld blender into the cup.  Keep the stick upright and flat on the bottom of the cup, and start the blender.  It'll turn into mayo instantly!  Once the majority of it has thickened, you can begin slowly lifting and tilting the blender stick up and around to incorporate the remaining oil until all is combined.  Ta-da!  Done!  This was adapted from the recipe on The Meanest Momma blog.

Okay so now that you've got mayo, you get to turn it into thousand island dressing!

Here's what you'll need for that:

1/3 cup diced (dill or sweet) pickle
4 tablespoons pickle juice
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon stone ground mustard
1 teaspoon raw honey
1/2 teaspoon garlic
Salt and pepper

Mix everything except the diced pickle together in a bowl.  Harlee helped me with this part while I blended the mayo, wish I had gotten a picture of that!  He's finally at an age where his "helping" is actually helpful, and not just me humoring him :).  I just put everything in a bowl and handed him a spoon, and by the time the mayo was done his ingredients were all mixed together too!  Then all you have to do is add the mayo and the pickle chunks, mix it all together, and voila, thousand island dressing!  This recipe is from Silly Little Cavegirl - I didn't change anything, so all the credit goes to her!

Okay so onto the grand finale - the rye-less reuben recipe!  I discovered the roasted cabbage recipe on Pinterest - it's originally a Martha Stewart recipe - and I adapted it to fit what I was going for with this ultimate dish.

Here's what I came up with:

3-4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 medium head of green cabbage, cut into 3/4" thick slices or rounds

Salt and pepper to taste 

1 tsp caraway seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush olive oil on both sides of the cabbage slices. Place the cabbage rounds in a single layer on the sheet and season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with caraway. Roast for about 20 minutes.

Then to make the "reuben" part, remove cabbage from oven and top each round with about a tbsp of the thousand island dressing, 3-4 slices of corned beef, and a slice of Swiss cheese.  Place back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes, until toppings are heated through and melted.

Serve and enjoy!

The Diary of a Pregnant Crossfitter: Part One - Opening Up

I am so nervous to post this... This will be the first time I will be saying anything about this on cyber space (aside from private emails).  I'm not sure what I'm nervous about, really... maybe the fact that I'm surrendering my privacy?  I don't know.  But one thing I realized is that I've learned a LOT and haven't shared a bit of it with any of you.

For those of you who know me in person and have interacted with me in real-life, you probably already know.  For those of you who only have Facebook or blog interaction with me, well...  I've been keeping a little secret from you.

Yep, I'm pregnant!  About 21 weeks along, too, so it's already halfway over, whoa!  I've got a bump and everything, with a kicking baby BOY inside!

Baby Elliot, patting his head and sucking his thumb at the same time!  So coordinated already...

We can expect his debut sometime around the end of July, right around his brother's birthday - how's that for timing?  Unless he wants to be just like his big brother, in which case we can expect him sometime in early August.  I'm going to try to be okay with the idea of going late.  I remember how grueling and miserable those last few weeks of pregnancy are, how they feel like they last forever and you get to a point where you feel like pregnancy is just going to be a way of life now - the kid will NEVER come out.  Or at least that's how I felt.  But this time I want to practice patience, practice presence, and practice acceptance and surrender.  It's going to be what it's going to be.  He'll come when he's ready.

Speaking of practicing presence, which is something I got to work on in Arizona, I'm really trying to keep myself busy and active (which isn't too hard) so that I can continue to be present throughout this pregnancy.  With Harlee, it seemed like all I ever did was focus on the birth and how EXACTLY I wanted it to go.  Well, thanks to Harlee, I learned that birth is way too unpredictable, no matter how prepared you are, so there's really no way to set it up to go "perfectly".  Well, I gained the education I needed about birth during that pregnancy - how a woman's body works when it goes into labor, what's going on with the baby during labor, how to speed up labor, how inducing labor can usually lead to complications because if baby isn't ready to come out then baby's not coming out, how medical interventions can slow down progress or create complications, and how the cesarean rate is on the rise because women just get herded into the hospital like sheep and don't question things or follow their own inner guidance and medical personnel end up pushing interventions on them or induced them and then boom, problems arise.  I wasn't going to be a sheep, dammit!  But, unfortunately, I did end up becoming a statistic.  Harlee decided to get stuck, which I guess can happen to the most mindless of sheep and the most educated of women.  And, unfortunately, I did not prepare myself for that sort of thing because, well, I thought I was preparing myself for that NOT to happen - regular chiropractor adjustments, yoga, watching my posture, etc.  So when his heart rate dropped dramatically at every contraction, I had no education on what to do about it.  And I became a sheep, herded into the OR, and had a long, LONG road of recovery ahead of me - physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  I went from severe postpartum depression and PTSD (the kind most moms don't want to admit they have, myself included - it took me awhile to open up to my therapist about some of it) where I had violent thoughts about myself and my child, and I harbored so much anger and resentment towards Justin for "putting me in this mess" that I swear to this day if we hadn't gone to couple's therapy it would have broken our marriage.  I was haunted by nightmares, I couldn't even cut vegetables in the kitchen for fear of an intruding vision coming into my head... it was bad.

But I beat it.  When Harlee was a year old I was starting to get to a place where things were okay... but his first birthday was still super hard for me.  It was the anniversary of somewhat of a death for me.  The loss of a very big dream and with it the ground I once stood on.  I was determined to pull through though, and I was starting to recognize that out of this trauma, I was given a gift.  An opportunity to grow as a human and expand spiritually and mentally beyond anything I could have imagined before.  I am not the same person I was three years ago.  I have even more growth ahead of me, too, but at this moment, two years and nine months postpartum, I can sincerely say I am proud of myself and the hard work I've done to get here, and that I am grateful for the trauma that shattered my world two years and nine months ago.

Agreeing to get pregnant again was a very terrifying decision for me.  At first I didn't think I'd ever agree to it again.  But I knew I wanted more than one child, and I certainly knew I didn't want them too far apart in age... and, I also knew that I would probably feel a bit incomplete, that I'd be missing a piece of my puzzle of life, if I never stepped up and faced my fears.  After the growth I'd been through already, I felt strong enough to tackle it again.  Justin and I conceived shortly after Harlee's first birthday at the end of July, and I actually felt excited about that pregnancy.  Yet I wanted to keep it so private that not even our parents knew about it.  The only people who knew were those directly working with me on a healthcare level.  I was all gung-ho about working out through the pregnancy, staying strong and fit and "I am woman, hear me roar!" kind of thing, and then I got another reminder that life is unpredictable.  We lost the baby the day before our 3 year anniversary in early September.

It was humbling, and also a great opportunity for me to realize how far I've come.  Instead of succumbing to the grief, my heart went straight to drawing comfort in knowing everything happens for a reason, and that this is just one of those times that life is teaching us some sort of valuable lesson to help us grow as people, if we treat it as such.  So I did.  I learned from multiple sources that miscarriages that early on just, well, happen.  Usually because the body detects a defect and either the baby doesn't make it or the woman's body terminates it before it can progress into a bigger problem.  Whatever the reason was, my body took care of things smoothly and gracefully, and I made a quick recovery physically.  Instead of dwelling on the sadness of the loss, I instead took a step back and realized, wow, my body really DOES work.  After Harlee's birth I felt completely defective and broken - if I can't push a baby out then something must be wrong with me, right?  I found excuse after excuse to try to make myself feel better, but bottom line, I never could stop feeling like a failure.  I had a child, but I never actually gave birth, and that made me sad.  Somehow, the miscarriage helped change that a little bit for me.  I DO work, I'm NOT defective or broken.  I'm not saying I wasn't sad about the loss, of course we grieved, but even without the aid of therapy this time, all by myself I found a silver lining and pulled through.

I believe that miscarriage happened primarily to build my strength up for the pregnancy that I do see through to the end.  It helped ease a few more fears I had inside of me that needed to be lessened, and I'm realizing that now as I am pregnant for the third time.

But most importantly, I'm living in the present, whatever the present may be.  I have goals and ambitions, but they're all pregnancy-based - I want to continue to do crossfit throughout pregnancy.  I want to continue to run throughout pregnancy.  I want to listen to my body and learn to know it better throughout pregnancy.  After all, that is kind of an important element of birth.  Ultimately, deep down, I know that birth is at the end of this journey (and the beginning of a new one), and while I'm not focusing on it, I do think about it from time to time.  I have hopes and desires for how I want things to work out, but I also bear in mind that I have no control.

All I have control over is the present.

So, The Diary of a Pregnant Crossfitter is pretty much the story of my pregnancy journey - I'm not going to talk about the birth because, well, it hasn't happened yet.  Honestly I don't even want to talk about it - I almost feel burnt out from talking about Harlee's birth, even two and a half years later.  What's happening is my experience carrying Elliot right now, and so far this experience has been VERY empowering.  I've stuck with crossfit and continue to learn more and more each time I go to Flex, I try to run when I can and I've learned quite a bit with that too, and I'm doing my best to continue to eat clean (although I've cheated more than I like to admit... which has always resulted in more learning experiences!).  I've spoken with women wanting to start their own families but afraid of the changes that will inevitably happen to their bodies, and I realized that this blog is a great opportunity for me to ease some of those fears.  I'm finding that, yes, while your body changes, it doesn't have to be a BAD thing.  It was a bad thing when I carried Harlee, I'll admit.  I'll share some of those photos later to prove it...  But this time is different, which is even more amazing to me.  You always hear about how much harder that second child is, how your body changes so much more and so much faster than the first time around, and it's even harder, if not impossible, to get your former body back.  Not this time.  This second pregnancy is better than the first.  My body is handling the changes much more smoothly than it did the first time, and it's giving me a lot of hope that "bouncing back" once this child is in my arms is going to be a lot easier than a lot of people say it is.  I don't know that for sure, I'm not banking on it - I am keeping in mind the valuable lesson Harlee taught me in that life is unpredictable - but I can at least feel hopeful with good reason!

So anyway, I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences with you and hopefully educate and maybe inspire those wanting to become pregnant so that they can have a positive experience as well.  Hope you enjoy the series!

Easy Healthy Dinner Options

A lot of people ask me for ideas for healthy things to cook for dinner.  Since I've given up bad carbs, what does my family eat?  I always think this is a funny question.  There are SO many options!  Mostly because there are so many things you can do with meats and just as many things to do with vegetables.  It's super easy to be creative, and keep it easy at the same time.

Tonight I made a stir-fry.  That seems to always be my go-to when I need to come up with something quick and easy.  I've been a bit on overload lately, to put it mildly.  Justin on night shift, the house finally getting wrapped up so tons of decisions to be made there, and being way over-booked at work amidst it all... that's just a few of the big things.  Balancing this with Harlee and keeping up with the current household... whew.  It's exhausting.  But I want to still make dinner for my family - healthy options for myself and Harlee and enough for leftovers for Justin to bring to work the next night.  As I was throwing a bunch of random things together from my fridge, I thought about my blog, and it made me wonder how many people think to do this when it comes to being quick yet healthy.  So I decided to share my thoughts on the topic with you and give you a little inspiration for your own busy lifestyles!

Here's what I usually do:

Thaw out some chicken breasts (this usually requires the microwave since I never manage to plan ahead and have some already thawed out and ready to go)
Find veggies in the fridge
Throw them in a pan with some olive oil, spices, apple cider vinegar, and whatever else sounds good - sometimes honey, sometimes mustard, whatever.

There doesn't have to be a rhyme or reason.  It's pretty simple.

Tonight I thawed out three chicken breasts and then cut them into cubes.  I tossed them into my cast iron skillet (I love that thing) and cooked them up with some olive oil, a splash of apple cider vinegar, oregano, basil, and marjoram.   Meanwhile I cut up whatever I could find in the fridge that needed to be eaten.  This included brussels sprouts (trimmed and quartered), some mini sweet peppers, snow peas, mushrooms, and tomatoes.  (Local people may recognize some of things came out of the co-op! I highly recommend signing up for that, by the way - it's a SUPER easy way to keep a good supply of fruits and vegetables on hand for a very low price!).  I threw them in the skillet with everything else and cooked them up til everything was somewhat tender and cooked through.  I had cooked a spaghetti squash a few nights ago but never used the noodles, instead I bagged each squash half in freezer-safe bags and stored one in the fridge and froze the other one.  It freezes really well, by the way.  I took the thawed one and dumped the contents in with everything else, so it'd be a noodle stir-fry.  My skillet was a bit overloaded at this point, but it looked and smelled delicious!  I made sure everything was heated through (and at the last minute thought a little mustard sounded good to add some flavor so I squirted some in there and mixed it in), and then scooped some in a bowl.  Voila!  It was super yummy!  Maybe took a total of 15 minutes, too, which is always a good thing in my book.

Shrimp is a good option, too, and in that case I may have omitted the tomatoes and instead added a little lemon juice and black pepper and/or garlic.  If I were channeling my Catholic roots tonight I may have done that since it's Friday and all, but I tend to forget about that time in my life... :)

Beef or pork is also a good option, and you can toss in some cheese to go with it if you want to.  I forgot I had some Parmesan cheese on hand too or I would have thrown that in with it.  Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, whatever you've got in the fridge that needs to be used up!  It's such a simple option, and can be adapted in so many ways. 

Harlee's a bit picky sometimes, so I just picked out some pieces of chicken and gave him some carrots with it, and he was happy.

Hope this helped give you an idea for something for those busy nights!  I'm looking forward to the leftovers for lunch tomorrow too.  I certainly made us enough to get through a few more meals!

Veggie Egg-Drop Soup

I'm not exactly a fan of egg drop soup... so I'm not really sure what possessed me to even try making this... but OMG am I glad I did!  It's AMAZING!!  Seriously, it ranks up there with my Baked Faux-Tato Soup (which is pretty darn delicious).

And since we're in the midst of another snowpocolypse, soup sounded like a good idea to me.  Okay so our area isn't exactly in any sort of dooms day zone, I'm pretty sure we missed a lot of the really nasty stuff, but we did get a pretty decent sleet early this morning along with a bit of snow, and it's still dangerously icy out there, so I'm considering us "snowed in" - I don't want to get out in it whether I can or not!


So I found this recipe on Pintrest: Winter Greens and Egg Soup / Stracciatella (which apparently is Italian for egg soup), and I'll admit I'm a judge-a-book-by-its-cover kind of girl, and the picture of it made my mouth water even though I had no idea what was in it besides, well, winter greens and egg.  I pinned it before even reading it.  Then I thought, hmm, maybe I should read it now, maybe it's easy enough to make and I can whip it up for lunch since we're not going to be going anywhere for awhile...

Turns out it was pretty basic, except I didn't have the winter greens it called for.  I dug around in my fridge and found some stuff I figured wold work, then I sort of followed the recipe... then more and more I didn't... so now I think it's safe to call this my own, which is always fine by me! :)  Especially since this turned out SO GOOD.

I'm especially happy about the garlic broth.  The original recipe said to just use water, but I used chicken broth I had on hand.  But garlic has some great immune boosting qualities.  It's antibacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal, it has the potential to fight off bacteria that conventional drugs can't, plus it helps with heart health, reducing the risk of heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes, and can normalize blood pressure.  It's even strong enough to help protect you against cancer!  I just recently did a little more research on garlic.  I used to take garlic supplements in pill form, but turns out those might not be the most effective way to go - swallowing a clove of garlic or otherwise adding it to a homemade vegetable juice would be more effective.  Crushing or chopping it is what releases the compound allicin, which is the main ingredient that makes garlic so powerful in fighting off illness and infections.  Unfortunately, though, the allicin is destroyed within an hour after it's been released, which is why those pills could pretty much be useless.  Bummer, because they're so much easier to take than having to swallow a clove of garlic!  Powdered, dried, or jarred garlic is pretty much pointless too, in that case (unless all you really care about is flavor).  But, I know one thing, if I'm sick I'm usually willing to try anything, even if it means swallowing a clove of garlic!


So, about that soup.  Here's how to make it!

3 cups natural chicken broth
1/2 small head of garlic
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried parsley
1 bay leaf

1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
2 cups brussels sprouts, trimmed and quartered
2 cups spinach, stems removed
half a small yellow onion, diced
1 egg, room temperature
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
pinch of salt and pepper

Heat the broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan.  Using a garlic press (I got mine from a Pampered Chef party and I really like it), crush all the cloves of garlic into the pot.  Add the sage, parsley and bay leaf and stir to combine.  Let simmer for about 30 minutes.

Transfer the broth to a glass measuring cup and add enough water in to equal 4 cups total.  Pour into a pot and add the carrot and brussels sprouts, and let cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.  Add in the onion and spinach, and stir to combine.

Beat the egg with the grated cheese, salt, and pepper, and slowly pour it into the pot while whisking the soup at a steady pace.

Stir for two or three more minutes, then serve, let cool a bit, and enjoy!