Day 2 of Pregnancy Blog

Today was ok. We had to get up early to take my 14 yr. old to football practice and I grabbed 2 apples as we headed out the door. Since gas is so expensive and football was so far away, we ended up going to the park so the other kids could play.

They got hungry, so we went to the convenience mart for a snack. Not good, but not terrible. I had a small bag of Baked Lay's potato chips.

Lunch was the same salad as last night's dinner and dinner was brown rice with a huge pile of broccoli.

I was doing great when my kids asked me to make chocolate chip cookies. They're vegan, but they are cookies. I used a recipe in Vegan Family Favorites.

The dough was very moist, so I added a bit more flour and cooked them. Here's what the first batch looked like (these aren't the best pictures because it's almost 11PM and I'm tired...):



A little flat...lol. They tasted way too buttery, so I added a bunch more flour and here's what the 2nd batch looked like:



Sorry to entice you all with pictures of warm, chocolate chip cookies. Me, I had 4......ok, maybe 5 of them.

Jodi

It's sinking in

Well, I think it has sunk in that I'm pregnant. It was a crazy week! I had a little bit of spotting yesterday, so went in for another blood test and my hcg levels had more than quadrupled in 3 days (they look for them to double in 48 hours), so things look good so far. All the more reason to keep eating healthy, E2L foods!

I'm not really having any symptoms except that I'm tired in the afternoons. I "rested my eyes" today and the kids kept waving their hand over my face to see if I was asleep. They wanted me to fall asleep because I told them that when I get really tired or sick with this pregnancy, I'll pay them to watch their little brother so that I can sleep. They can't wait until I get sick. LOL.

Now for my daily food intake....

I started the day off with.........(ugh, I hate confessing this stuff!)Cheez Its. There, I said it!

That's pretty much all I had for lunch (didn't have breakfast because I didn't have time to cut up the pineapple).

For dinner, I made the Beans and Rice Bowl from Dr. McDougall's Quick and Easy cookbook. I omitted the rice for myself, but added it for my toddler and Paul. The older kids wouldn't eat it (I have no idea why because they do like that kind of meal...I make it often....maybe a little too often??), so made themselves salads....and then popcorn for a snack while they watched Narnia.

So, here is a picture of my dinner:



I've noticed that most of my salads look the same because I usually use the same vegetables. I'm a little picky, I guess. The meal is basically pinto beans (I seasoned them with Mexican spices, even though the recipe doesn't call for any seasoning.), green pepper, tomatoes, lettuce and cilantro all mixed together. Add rice if you want a starch and onion if you like raw onion, which I don't. I remember my dad used to eat them right out of his garden. He'd sprinkle a little salt on them and chomp away. Blech!

Well, I have to go make a sandwich for my 9 yr. old who has been reading over my shoulder and is talking about how picky I am. I told him I'm not as picky as he is and he said that he only likes American food and not "every country's food." (That's not true!)

So much for losing the baby fat...

I've been eating ok, with a few slip ups, but nothing major. I'm down to 8 lbs. above my prepregnancy weight.

BUT.....I won't be dieting to lose weight anymore! I got these a couple of days ago:




I'll have to make this blog an E2L pregnancy blog, now! I did want to lose all of my baby fat before getting pregnant again, but 8 lbs. isn't too bad and maybe I'll get lucky and lose a few more before I start gaining. I can dream, right?

The past 3 days....

Well, I had my birthday dinner and then ended up eating junk for the rest of the evening. UGH! Lesson learned....don't let myself get sucked into eating junk food because I can't handle it! I'm going to try and do Dr. Fuhrman's 5 day detox to get myself out of this mess. Today was OK, but I did let myself have some Cheez Its......yes, Cheez Its!!

I won't even post my menus for the past 3 days because I wouldn't want to cause someone else to stumble. Let's just say it wasn't pretty. Back to business tomorrow!

Oh, here I am at my birthday dinner. I'm 38 years young. :)



I had a total E2L dinner, but had chips and salsa and the little ice cream that you see in front of me. I wasn't going to eat it, then decided to have one bite, which led to another and then another and before I knew it, it was gone! That soda in front of me is my husband's. I did not get a soda and neither did my toddler...even though it looks like he has one in front of him. I haven't had soda since I weaned myself off of Diet Coke (the poisonous stuff!) just before I got pregnant.

Day 13

Well, I lost a half a pound today. It's not much, but I'll take it! I didn't work out this morning because we had to get to my son's baseball game. It's so nice that Paul has been home with us all week and I'm sad that it'll end on Monday.

I did OK today, but couldn't stay away from that darned bread. Oh well. It could be worse. Here is my menu for the day.

Breakfast: Watermelon

Snack at the game: 2 bites of my son's soft pretzel (no salt)

Lunch: Salad with lettuce, organic spring mix, shredded organic carrots, shredded beets, a few dried cranberries and fat free Italian dressing. I also had a slice and a half of bread.

Dinner: Vegetarian Chili, but I didn't take a picture. I was just too .tired. I threw it together with 1 red onion, 3 c. kidney beans, 3 c. pinto beans, 3 c. great northern beans, 2 cans crushed tomatoes, 1 can tomato paste, 3 cloves garlic, 4 tbsp. chili powder, 1 tsp. onion powder, 1 tsp. cumin, 2 tsp. oregano, 1 tbsp. chipotle seasoning...oh, and 2 red peppers and 2 small diced zucchini.

Snack: 3 c. watermelon (even though I was up at 4AM last night having to go to the bathroom and I'm sure it's from the watermelon before bed!!)

It's my birthday tomorrow, so I'm planning an off-plan dinner. I think we'll go to Chevy's and I'm going to eat the chips and salsa! I'll probably have my standard bean and veggie tostada (I don't eat the shell, though) minus the cheese and sour cream and with salsa for dressing. Yum!

I'll leave you with some cute pictures of my 9 yr. old and 20 mo. old.

Day 12

Still no weight loss. I did get a full workout in again today. Here's what I ate:

Breakfast: Nothing

Lunch: Lettuce and spring mix with lentil taco mix on top and 1/2 of an avocado

Snack: Piece of homemade wheat bread....sigh...

Dinner: Bowl and a half of minestrone and 2 pieces of bread

Evening Snack: Watermelon

Total calories for the day around 1100

Day 11

Still no weight loss today....very frustrating. I think that maybe I'm not eating enough calories. I'm still nursing my 20 mo. old and I've been eating around 1000-1100 calories per day. I know that I should be eating around 1400 calories.

I did have a lot of bread again today, but stayed at around 1200 calories. I fully intended on having a big salad at lunchtime, but I got busy and didn't have time to eat it. I didn't eat very well today.

I made Dr. Fuhrman's Date Nut Pop'em's today, but sort of threw it together. Here's what I did:

About 2 cups of nuts--blanched almonds (skin removed), cashews and sunflower nuts
10-12 dates
1 tsp. cinnamon
coconut to roll them in

I put the nuts in my grinder until they were chopped very fine. Then, I threw them into the food processor with the dates and cinnamon and processed until mushy. I rolled them into balls and then rolled them in a plate of unsweetened coconut. All of the kids loved them (including Paul!), but my 14 yr. old wouldn't even taste them because there were "gross" dates in them. His loss!



Here's my menu for the day:

Breakfast: 2 c. pineapple and half of the toddler's piece of toast with white bean paste

Lunch: 6 organic wheat thin crackers, piece of bread (I was on the go and grabbed what I could.)

Dinner: Big Mo Minestrone modified from Feeding the Young Athlete. I doubled the recipe to have leftovers. I served this with homemade bread and had 1 slice.

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, diced
2 medium carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 t. dried oregano
4 c. vegetable broth (I used water with vegetable bouillon.)
1 c. fresh or frozen corn
1 c. green beans, cut into 1 1/2" pieces
1 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed (or add 1 1/2 c. home-cooked)
black pepper
1/2 c. chopped fresh basil (optional)

In a large soup pot over medium heat, add garlic and onion. Saute' with water until onion is soft. Add carrots, celery, potato and saute' about 5 minutes more. Add tomatoes, oregano, and veggie broth. Bring heat up to simmer. Cover and cook 1/2 hour. Add corn, green beans kidney beans and simmer for another 5 minutes or until green beans are tender. Stier in fresh basil and black pepper to taste.

Prep time: 45 mins.
Makes 6-8 servings



Evening snack: 1 c. grapes

Total calories for the day: 1154

Day 10

Today was a lazy day. Here is what I ate:

Breakfast: Nothing

Lunch: Romaine and spring mix with the lentil taco topping and 1/2 of an avocado.

Dinner: Pacesetter Salad from Feeding the Young Athlete. I modified the recipe to omit the blue cheese and oil. Basically, it was just romaine (the recipe called for red leaf lettuce, but I didn't have any, nor did I have the arugula that it called for, so I used the spring mix) and spring mix with chopped spinach, halved grapes, dried cranberries and an orange vinaigrette dressing. It also called for toasted walnuts, which I put on the side for the family and Paul and the older boys also had grilled chicken on theirs.

Here's the salad dressing recipe:

1 tsp. orange zest
1/4 c. orange juice
2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
3 T. olive oil (I used water in place of the oil.)
salt and pepper to taste (I omitted the salt.)

It was very good.



Evening snack: 1.5 c. pineapple and some rice crisps

Total calories for the day was about 1000.

I didn't lose any weight today, so that's 3 days with no loss and one day with a 1 lb. gain. I did work out again and got in the entire video. Yea!

Day 9....Happy 4th!

I'm posting a little early today because I'm a little discouraged. I got on the scale this morning and I've gone UP a pound. :( I'm hoping it's just a fluctuation that I'm going through before losing a few more. Maybe just the smell of homemade bread made me gain the weight? LOL. I'll try not to dwell on it.....

I'll post more tonight. Have a great 4th of July!!

Update: We had a nice day today with just the family. Our neighbor always buys a huge arsenal of fireworks, so we set up in our driveway and light ours along with him. It's always a pretty good show for a home show. The kids would rather stay home and light fireworks than go watch them somewhere. I got in another full workout this morning. Woohoo! Hopefully, I'll be able to continue once Paul goes back to work.

We had a yummy picnic before we had our fireworks show. I made Dr. Fuhrman's Bean Burgers for me and my toddler, turkey burgers for Paul and the older boys, homemade hamburger buns, grilled corn on the cob and Dr. Fuhrman's Patriotic Salad.

Here are the bean burgers going into the oven.



These were OK. I think Susan's Black Bean Burgers are much tastier, though.

Here is a picture of our meal.



Here is a picture of my plate....YUM!



I have to say that Dr. F's Patriotic Salad was delicious!! Hope you all had a great 4th!

Day 8

I worked out today! I had said that I was going to start working out on Monday and Paul (hubby) was on the treadmill when I said to him that I was going to work out on Monday. It suddenly hit me that it was Monday! For a second, I considered not doing it. I had to get the kids' school stuff written up so that they could get started, I had to get them something to eat, I had to shower so that I could get on with my day, my toddler was awake and
fussy.....excuses, excuses, but I finally decided that I had to just DO it!

I was able to finish the entire video tape! I was interrupted a few times and I told the kids what they could eat for breakfast, so they could make it themselves. It felt so good to get it done. It made me want to eat well for the rest of the day (that doesn't mean I didn't have any cravings...I made homemade bread and hamburger buns for the family and had to try really hard not to eat any).



Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: Nothing...it was late when I started working out, so I just had water.

Lunch: Smoothie consisting of--
1 orange
3 packed cups of organic baby spinach
1 c. wild blueberries
1/2 c. organic raspberries

It was very good, but didn't look very pretty.



I got hungry about an hour later, so made myself a salad with romaine and organic spring mix, shredded beets, shredded organic carrots, tomatoes and a few dried cranberries. I topped it with fat free Italian dressing. It was SO yummy! Next time, I'll omit the tomatoes because they didn't taste right in this sweet salad. It would have been perfect topped with some raw pecans or walnuts, but I'm not eating nuts right now. I had a little help eating it, too...heehee!



So, who do those chubby little fingers belong to?



Dinner: Lentil Taco Salad with avocado and tomatoes using this recipe:

Lentil Tacos (Dick Allgire)
1 cup diced onion
1/2 CUP diced celery
1 clove garlic
1 cup lentils 1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
2 cups veggie broth 2 tbsp raisins
1 cup salsa (see below)*
8 corn tortillas
lettuce, tomato garnish

Saute onions, garlic and celery in water (or broth or white wine) for five minutes, adding liquid as needed so it doesn't burn. Stir in the lentils, chili, cumin, oregano. Add a dash more liquid. Stir fry 1 minute. Add broth and raisins, cover, cook 20 minutes. Remove lid, add salsa, and cook 10 minutes. Heat tortillas and serve with lentils and garnish.

*For salsa:
2 cups tomato, chopped
1/2 cup freshcilantro
1/4 cup lime juice
1 red onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp hot sauce
salt to taste

I used prepared salsa because I spent enough time in the kitchen today as it is.
The kids had lentil tacos on sprouted corn tortillas, except my toddler who had lentils and rice mixed with avocadoes. Of course, he only ate about 2 bites and played with the rest.

Delicious!



Evening snack: 1 1/2 c. grapes and 1 c. of oil-popped popcorn

I had 1178 calories today according to Fitwatch....not bad. Since I'm still nursing, I should have a few more, though. I'm shooting for at least 1200, but preferably around 1400.

My weight stayed the same today, but that's fine with me. I'm happy with my progress so far. I have to get my 20 mo. old to sleep now and go to the store for more lettuce and pineapple. We just went shopping on Friday and there's hardly any lettuce left!

Day 7...End of Week 1

I made it one week and it really doesn't feel like it's been that long! I'm down another pound this morning, so I've lost 6 lbs. altogether and have 9 more to go. I'll probably want to lose a few more lbs. once I get to my goal, but I definitely need to firm up.

Here's a picture of my fridge full of yummy fruits and veggies:



Breakfast: Pineapple




There sure is a lot of waste from cutting two pineapples! My compost heap will be happy, though.



Lunch: Taco salad with lots of romaine and organic spring mix, veggies from last night's dinner, organic pinto beans and hot salsa from Trader Joe's. This was very good, but next time I'll use more salsa.


Snack: A few of those rice crisps from yesterday...I can't wait until those are gone.

Dinner: I made Vegetable Jumble with Cornmeal Crust from The Garden of Vegan. I used organic pinto beans rather than the soy crumbles and I forgot to add the green chilies to the cornmeal batter. Oh well. It was still very good, but next time I won't use Tabasco as hot sauce. I've never really liked the flavor of Tabasco sauce. The kids didn't really like it much and had salad to fill them up.

Here it is straight from the oven (I made two of these....one to freeze for later.):




Here you can see the insides:



It's late and I'm exhausted!

Day 6

Today was a nice day. I got the fridge all cleaned out (and some of those old veggies were all mushy and watery and so gross!) and organized the new veggies in there. It looks so much nicer now with the clean shelves and I know what's in there and where everything is. I need to come up with a way to organize my veggies without having all of the plastic bags everywhere. I put them in neatly, but as everyone pulls things out and puts them back in, they get all messy looking. I'll have to think about that.

We went to Trader Joe's today to get the rest of our groceries and bought more than we had planned to. Who doesn't buy more than they plan to at Trader Joe's??? Especially with a 9 yr. old along! I bought some yummy, organic cherries to munch on. I ate ok today, but didn't eat enough of the right stuff. I get so busy that I don't have time to prepare a healthful meal, so I grab a couple of things that aren't so good. Here's what I had today:

Breakfast: Nothing...got busy in the morning and wasn't really hungry. I meant to cut up the pineapples, but didn't get to it.

Lunch: I made my kids Apple Breakfast Bars and had one myself because I was hungry. It was a small one, but not 100% fat free. They weren't too bad, though. Here's the recipe (my modifications are below):

BREAKFAST APPLE BARS

1/2 cup whole wheat flour {2 cups}
1/2 cup rolled oats {2 cups}
1/2 tsp baking soda {2 tsp}
1/4 tsp cinnamon {1-2 tsp}
1/4 cup oil {1 cup}
1/4 cup applesauce {1 cup}
3 tablespoon honey {1/2 cup}
1/2 teaspoon vanilla {1-2 tsp}
1/2 cup mixed dried fruit bits (I used chopped dried apples, sweet
cherries and chopped raisins)
1/4 chopped walnuts

I just mixed all the dry and wet ingredients together and stirred in
the fruit and nuts. No sense dirtying up another bowl. Spray a 10 x 6
pan with olive oil spray. Spread evenly and bake at 350 degrees for
15 to 20 minutes.

Trish's notes: I omit the fruit and nuts. Quadruple the other
ingredients (my measurements are in {}) and add some salt to fill a
16"x11"x2" pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until set and lightly
browned. These are very crumbly when hot, perfect for sprinkling
into a bowl of natural applesauce. They do set up some as they cool.

Jodi's notes: I omitted the fruit and nuts as well (my kids don't really like nuts cooked into breads or bars). I made Trish's quadruple batch, but I only used 1/2 c. of olive oil and upped the applesauce to 1 1/2 cups. Next time, I'll use WonderSlim instead of the olive oil. I just didn't have any today. I didn't add any salt. I crumbled them into a bowl of applesauce per Trish's suggestion and here's a pic:



Snack: I was hungry at Trader Joe's and had some rice crisps. They were really salty and had oil in them. I had about 2 servings worth...about 30 crisps. That's 260 calories. Ugh.


Dinner: I made Asian lettuce boats. Well, everyone had something different. I had the lettuce boats, which were julienned carrots, sliced celery, chopped broccoli and shredded cabbage mixed with tamari and San J Spicy Szechuan Sauce (I LOVE that stuff!) in a romaine lettuce leaf. After taking this picture, I added some of the white bean paste from the other night's salad. You could just add beans, too. This was messy, but very tasty.



My husband added shredded chicken to his. My 14 and 11 yr. olds, had the chicken with bbq sauce and had a salad on the side with the chopped veggies. My 9 yr. old had the raw veggies (minus the soy sauce and szechuan) and chicken with a little bit of ranch dressing, rolled in a romaine leaf. My 20 mo. old had the veggies (with sauces) in one bowl and some rice and white bean paste in another. Everyone sort of does their own thing with what I make around here. :)

Snack before bed: 2 Gala Apples

Oh, I'm down another 1/2 lb. today. My pants are getting loose again!