day 6

some good news and some "bad" news. Good news is I've been keeping up with green smoothies for breakfast and I did eat a raw salad for lunch monday through thursday. Bad news is I guess I've been eating either "bad" food for dinner/snacks or eating too big of portions because as of today I haven't lost any weight. I also haven't gained any weight which is good. Another key to this though is working out and I haven't had the opportunity to do that yet. Even though my parents are here staying with us I guess we've just been too busy getting used to two families living in one place .... oh, what am I saying? honestly, I just haven't gone to the gym. If I really wanted to I would have right? Either way... I already discussed with my mother that we have to figure out a routine so that my husband and I can get to the gym at least 4 nights a week. Problem is my husband gets home rather late from work and my mother and father want to eat dinner then.. ah, we will work it out. Next week I am going to try to see if I can get to the gym during the day while my father stays home with the baby. I can only do this next week because my husband will be out of town for work ... (usually my husband and I like to work out together). Oh.. ps.. we are going to a spanish restaurant tomorrow night for dinner to celebrate my parent's anniversary. I HAVE to try paella and maybe the mofongo! I will watch my portion size though! Onward and upward (or downward should I say?)

day 2

breakfast: green smoothie with spinach, frozen banana, frozen peaches, agave syrup, and flax seeds. lunch: asian salad that I found here: http://www.rawfreedomcommunity.info/forum/showthread.php?t=5497 It wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be unfortunately.. but I have some left over so I'll eat it for lunch tomorrow as well. I don't know why it didn't come out too tasty. snacks: one banana, one orange. I did have a fiber one snack bar today too. For dinner my mom is making chicken pot pie so I'll have a little of that. Like I said, I'm doing raw for breakfast and lunch. btw, yesterday Tim and I went to a health food expo and saw a raw food chef give a demonstration. His name is Paul Nison and I had heard of him previously.. he was okay but it was funny how he was so strict with certain things.. like saying that agave syrup is basically like corn syrup and he didn't think anyone should eat chocolate or coffee. I mean, most people going to a raw diet is extremely hard, and then to take away certain things on top of it is really difficult. Anyway.. it was interesting and nice to see raw food getting more press.

day 1

weighed myself today for the first time in many weeks: 224.4. That's my starting weight. diet/exercise plan: eat green smoothies for breakfast, salads or raw food for lunch, snack on fruit, and eat a light SAD (standard american diet - but "healthy) for dinner. Exercise at least 5 days week in some form for at least 30 minutes, but shoot for more like an hour. today is day 1! I'll be weighing in every Sunday morning. Wish me luck folks!

When did spring get here?

In the hustle of all the new baby stuff, somewhere along the way spring has arrived... although you might not know it with the 20 and 30 degree temperatures we've been having lately. So here it is, almost April, and I haven't blogged since February 1st! Life has been busy to say the least.. what with the new baby and we are also in the middle of a move to a new apartment (and possible some other move related stuff in the future, but I won't talk about that now so as not to jinx anything). I currently weigh 20 pounds MORE than what I did when I started out with my pregnancy and I haven't been able to get to the gym even once since having baby B. My husband comes home from work, cooks dinner, then there is usually some laundry to do (since I can't do it during the day when I'm home alone) or I grab a shower at night and before we know it, the evening is gone and it's time for bed. Pshew. I knew having kids was work but I guess I never realized exactly HOW much work. When I was younger I used to work with children from ages 3-6 and so I guess I thought that a newborn would be no problem for me.. lol. Honestly, there were days in the beginning when I thought "what have I gotten myself into?". Well, good news is my parents are coming to visit and stay with my husband and myself for quite a while... around 7 months actually... which I'm so excited about. You see, they live in Texas and we are in New York... and of course being first time grand parents, they want to be around their grandson as much as possible. They were going to come up for the summer anyway and rent an apartment but we figured why not let them move in with us, we can split the price, they get to be close to their grandson 24/7 and we get some much needed help! Everyone wins! Now abuelo and abuela (grandpa and grandma in spanish) can watch baby in the evenings while husband and I go to the gym! Someone can watch baby while I do laundry during the day... more hands for cooking, feedings, changings, and just all around baby helping! I'm so excited! At first I felt bad.. like, maybe I'm not a good mom if I can't handle my own son on my own.. but I realized this: I CAN handle my son on my own... but it's just NICE to have extra help so I can handle MYSELF too... so I can get some self care in like having time to work out or time to get my haircut (I haven't had a hair cut in at least 6 months, if not longer!), etc...etc. Cause not only do I need to take care of baby.. but to be a good, healthy, happy mama.. I've got to take care of myself! So I would tell any soon to be mom out there this word of wisdom: DO NOT FEEL BAD FOR GETTING HELP WHEN YOU CAN! As a side note: I'm also going to start trying to eat healthier (raw) when my parents get here. I've pretty much been at the mercy of eating whatever my husband cooks for dinner and eating whatever I could grab quickly during the day.... it's hard to cook and prepare food with a baby on your hip or crying. I'm so excited to get back on the healthy track! Look for updates to be coming more frequently!! yay!

Baby mine.

Wow! What a crazy last 2 weeks I've had. Today the baby is two weeks old and the time has really flown by! It feels like just yesterday my mom, husband, and I were pulling up to the hospital at 5 am to check in for my c-section and now my baby is home with me and getting bigger by the day. Everything went well, my c-section is healing nicely, and we are getting into a routine with the baby at home. It still is a bit surreal that I'm a mom! So when I was weighed in at the hospital for the pre-admission, I weighed 246 pounds.... BUT I was wearing boots, a teeshirt, a sweater over that, and jeans. I weighed myself at home after that with just some light clothing like yoga pants and a tee and I weighed 241 at home, so I'm considering that my starting baby weight. As of last night I now weigh 226. I believe immediately after having the baby I lost something like 12 or 13 pounds. My mom kept telling me I would lose 20 pounds immediately, lol, which of course I didn't do. So my grand total weight loss so far (and I haven't been really watching what I eat) is 16 pounds.

I'll be honest with you as well, after the baby was born my mom stayed with us for another week and a half and we were eating whatever she cooked. Now, she wasn't making unhealthy food, but I was probably eating bigger portions than normal and we also ordered out for food and occasionally had a dessert here or there. This week I am home with my husband (who has the week off of work) and we are also doing a bit more cooking at home than usual. I'm still trying to get in a groove as far as eating goes but it's just taking longer than I expected, there is so much to do in a day with the baby and I'm still getting into the swing of everything.. diapers, changing, feedings, naps, etc., etc.! I figure by the first or second week when I am home alone with just the baby and I my food routine will start to fall into place.

So unfortunately I can't report on any weight loss, raw or vegan food recipes, or anything else health right now like working out ... all I can report is that my wonderful husband and I are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy and we couldn't be happier!

getting closer!!

wow! I have less than 2 days till our baby boy is coming into this world.. it's really surreal to think about it and I'm trying to just keep my mind off of it as the time gets closer. My mother is in town visiting and helping out with the baby and will be here for another 2 weeks so that is great, she's been such a big help already. We've gotten the baby stuff organized in the apartment and are just getting ready as much as we can, but I think that no matter how "ready" you are... you're never really ready. Having a baby is a day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute type thing.. you deal with it as it comes!

I'm already thinking ahead about what I'll be eating as I breastfeed/recover... and of course I get advice from everyone.. my husband just read online that supposedly a new study says you can start feeding babies whole foods at 4 months now instead of 6 months.. and that moms aren't getting enough iron in their diets like they should... so now I'm of course thinking where can I get iron from that's raw/vegan .. I don't want to have to become some giant meat eating carnivore! I did have some turkey over the weekend and ate a thanksgiving type meal that my mother-in-law made for us and some family.. and while my mom is here I've kinda been eating things like regular cereal, meals she makes, etc.... I dunno.. I'm just going to have to take it day by day (like I mentioned before) and once I get into a groove with the baby and get on a regular schedule it will all work out.

anyway.. this will probably be my last post here until after the baby is born and I'm home and recovered a bit... so see ya blogger peeps!

raw foods!

Here are some pics of some raw food I made late last week. The top picture is an almond butter and avocado fudge with walnuts on top. It's pretty much 100% raw except the walnuts weren't raw.. then the bottom pic is a salad that I found a recipe for online.. you can check it out here: http://www.rawfreedomcommunity.info/forum/showthread.php?t=67

the dessert was yummy of course.. and I am a big fan of avocado fudge.. basically what you do is take an avocado and since they are creamy and fatty and don't have much of a flavor of their own, you can flavor it anyway you choose.. I use raw cacao powder and honey and mix it together until I get the sweetness/consistency I like.. then put it in the freezer to harden it up or you can eat it as is like a pudding. All I did then was add a layer of almond butter to it and walnuts on top! Yum!

Now for the salad.. if you're like me, you're not a big salad eater.. but the thing is this.. there are SO many great salads and wonderful things to put on a salad.. you just have to get creative. This salad was really good.. I just substituted apple for the pear and added in cranberries (which weren't raw) to add some sweetness. Also, instead of onions I used shallots.. it turned out great and Tim loved it as well. So when it comes to salads, think beyond just carrots and mushrooms on plain lettuce!

Today I'm working on making some raw burgers from the following recipe: http://www.rawfreedomcommunity.info/forum/showthread.php?t=3467 they won't be 100% raw but close to it and they look good! I'll blog later to let you know how they turned out.

As I'm getting closer and closer to having my baby I'm realizing though that for the first few weeks things are going to be a little crazy.. getting used to a new baby at home, having my mom and sister here (who are trying to lose weight also but they are both on Weight Watchers and cook specific Weight Watchers recipes)... so I'm probably not going to be able to eat as much raw food as I would like during this time. I am, however, going to push green smoothies and make sure I at least have some of those for breakfast during these first few weeks. I was reading in a book (not a book about raw either) that said that smoothies with greens or green powders and fruit in them are great to have after a C section anyway because they keep everything moving so you don't get constipated plus they are nutritional power houses. This book also said I should eat a lot of oatmeal to promote milk production.. hmm, anyone heard of that one before?

Ok, that's it for today..... just one week until baby is here! This time next week I'll be a mommy!

Is it really worth it?

My husband and I live right next door to a BBQ place... THE bbq place for this city actually. It's always crowded, it got voted best BBQ on one of those morning news shows (like the Today Show, but it might have been a different one), and it was featured on Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel. Even though we live next door though we hardly eat there, but I do have to say in the mornings when we go out to the car it smells pretty darn good. They have to start preparing the meat in the mornings in order to sell it that afternoon/evening because they slow cook everything.

So last night my hubby was hungry and wanted to order some take out from there. I justified eating some red meat because I read somewhere online that before you have a C section you need to make sure you get a lot of iron in you since you might lose a lot of blood during the procedure. Yes, I know I can get iron from beans and other foods besides red meat, but I guess I was using this as an excuse to eat some meat and also my brain has probably been hardwired over the last 34 years to believe that iron from beans isn't as good as iron from meat. Either way, point is, I got myself a brisket sandwich with two sides.

I bit into the sandwich and while it was "ok", it wasn't great, and the brisket meat had quite a bit of fat on it. I personally DO NOT eat that and will pull it off. I ended up eating maybe only half of the sandwich, pulled a good portion of fat off the meat, and was done with it. In all honesty, it just wasn't that good and after I had finished eating it my hands smelled gross, like bbq. It was sort of disgusting to me. I did eat the sides which was mac and cheese and chili and while they tasted good in the moment, afterwards I felt heavy and sluggish and sorta wished I didn't eat any of it.

The good news is I think my taste buds are definitely changing already since I'm doing more green smoothies and raw foods. I may not be eating raw 100% of the time but I can tell that I'm leaning more towards lighter foods in general, which by the way, is amazing considering it's winter and snowing out, a time when people tend to want to eat heavy, hot meals.

So this is just something for me and you to consider next time you're eating something. Is it really worth it? That donut you're going to eat, is it really THAT good and will it really satisfy you or are you just eating it because a) it's a habit b) you think you want it c) you aren't consciously eating d) you're bored, etc? If you want something sweet, maybe try eating some fresh fruit first and see if that satisfies your craving. If it doesn't and you REALLY want to eat that donut, then allow yourself to. I'm going to really try to start thinking in these terms. Is that dessert one of my favorites? then maybe I will allow myself to have it.. but if I'm eating it just because my husband is eating something sweet and I don't want to be left out, then I should reconsider it.

How did I live before kelp noodles???

For me the hardest thing about eating healthy and raw food is preparation. I usually end up buying too much produce and it goes to waste or don't buy enough and then don't want to bother running back to the grocery store so I'll just eat something that's not healthy/raw that's already in the house. So these next two weeks before the baby gets here and I "officially" start trying to be more healthy and lose weight, I'm trying to make a raw recipe here and there so I'll have a few "go to" meals under my belt.

Today I made some raw kelp noodles with lightly steamed broccoli and a homemade, raw spicy peanut sauce. Let's break this recipe down:

1. Kelp noodles. These noodles can be found in Asian markets and health food stores. They come in a package and are pretty cheap and a great substitution for pasta. Even if you aren't trying to go raw, you could eat them instead of spaghetti to get less carbs in your diet and they are very low in calories. They don't have much of a flavor so you can use different sauces to make different types of meals with them and all you have to do is soak them in water to soften them, no cooking! Here's the brand I use:

http://kelpnoodles.com/products_seatangle_noodles.html

Broccoli: I love broccoli so I lightly steamed some (not raw) and put that on top of my noodles. You could add anything you like though to this dish.. grated carrots, olives, nuts, raw corn, whatever sounds yummy to you.

The spicy peanut sauce: Honestly, when I've gone raw in the past, I always would look at the recipes for these raw sauces or marinades and think "man, that is TOO much work! I'll just buy a bottle of peanut sauce and be done with it, even if it's not raw". Well, I couldn't be more wrong. I made the following sauce from a recipe I found online and it was actually really fun making it and I was surprised at how good it came out:

4-5 tbsp almond butter

1/4 cup filtered water

3 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

1-2 jalapeno peppers, de-seeded

1 tbsp agave syrup

1 tbsp nama shoyu (a healthier version of soy sauce)

1/2-1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

I used honey instead of agave syrup so my dish wasn't vegan and I used a different type of pepper because my grocery store was out of jalapenos (I know! crazy, right?). The only thing I might have changed was to add some crushed red pepper flakes to it but it came out smooth with a little heat and a touch of sweetness as well on top of the almond butter flavor. I know a lot of these ingredients sound strange to people who don't eat raw foods or vegan but you can find everything at your local grocery store. Here's a pic of the final dish: (Ok, I still can't figure out how to put the picture in the bottom of the post, so it's at the top for now! sorry!)

This is definitely something that is easy to make, satisfying, and a meal I would eat a couple times a week and feel good with. Again, once the baby is here I'm going to try to have a green smoothie for breakfast every weekday, a raw meal for lunch every weekday, and then something healthy for dinner, preferably vegan or vegetarian. Weekends I'll just be trying to eat healthy in general.

Thanks for reading and if you decide to use some kelp noodles yourself let me know how you like them!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone.. I'm surprisingly really excited about the upcoming year. Usually New Years is just another day for me but this year I've got the baby boy coming and a healthy new outlook on life.. all is good.

So I mostly wanted to post about two things in pregnancy that no one ever told me about. I did the usual reading of pregnancy books, talking to friends and family, looking at websites, etc, but I don't remember reading anywhere about the following two issues:

1. Inner thigh/groin pain. I heard that your hips widen, your joints loosen, and your body just generally "opens up" as you get closer to giving birth.. but no one mentioned that this means pain in your inner thighs and groin area. It's not really "pain" to me actually, more like the feeling of when you pull a muscle and I only feel it when I get out of bed, off the couch, move too fast, etc. I think I started feeling this around the middle of my pregnancy... maybe at 20-22 weeks? I called one of my best girlfriends (who has a 1-1/2 month old as I type this) and she said she experienced this as well so that made me feel a bit better. And number two......

2. "numb" arm feeling. Probably around 31-32 weeks I started to notice that my left arm felt "numb" or asleep.. sort of like that pins and needles feeling. It freaked me out honestly at first.. I thought "oh my God, am I having a heart attack?". That along with being shorter of breath (which I knew happened in pregnancy) and feeling hot scared me a bit. So what did I do? Went to my handy friend Google and looked up "numb arm pregnancy". Up popped many websites and forums about women feeling something similar or even numb hands/wrists/or carpal tunnel syndrome type symptoms. Why doesn't anyone talk about this? Maybe it's a bit rare? Either way it lasted about a week or a week and a half and I've been fine ever since.

So to end this quick post I have a question for you readers.... I'll admit I'm a total newbie to blogging and blogger.com. I was trying to post some pictures but everytime I try the pictures pop up at the top of the blog entry instead of letting me type some text and then enter in the photo. What am I doing wrong? Can anyone out there in cyber-land give me some help on how to format my blogs better? I'll keep trying on my own too and hopefully I'll get some comments on how to perform this probably simple task.

thanks for reading everyone and Happy New Year to you and yours!!

a few notes on green smoothies and "pasta"

Yesterday I mentioned that I added seaweed to my green smoothie... yeah, not a good idea. I have some dehydrated seaweed that you put into water to rehydrate .. it's delicious and I love it, but not mixed into a sweet drink! I threw the dehydrated pieces in the smoothie and they plumped up, but the blender couldn't pulverize the seaweed completely so while drinking my smoothie I'd every so often encounter this salty, chewy piece of seaweed! LOL. Well, lesson learned. Seaweed = good for savory food, not sweet!

Now the zucchini pasta... yum! It's been literally months, maybe years, since I've made this dish and it's so simple and easy... but somewhere along the way I forgot how GOOD it is too! I slice the zucchini into about 1 inch pieces then run it through my "saladacco spiral slicer" and it makes the zucchini into thin "noodles". Here's a Youtube video I found that demonstrates this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTfTKJdjjUc

I then made a homemade tomato sauce with just some roma tomatoes, salt, italian seasonings, and a tiny bit of red pepper flakes. It's not like the tomato sauce you are used to from a jar.. it's more juicy and runny and not as thick but it's delicious when added to the dish. Then I just sliced up some kalamata olives that I had bought at the store (not raw) and had made earlier a cashew "sprinkle cheese" by grinding up raw cashews in my food processor with a tiny bit of lemon juice and salt. It really takes on the consistency of a sprinkle parm cheese.

I've got all the ingredients in the fridge and when I want some all I have to do is throw it together in a bowl.. the noodles, put some sauce on top, some olives, and some cheese and voila! You've got a raw zucchini spagetti! It's really delicious actually with lots of different flavors in there and tastes so fresh and clean and won't weigh you down.

Here's what I used:
1 zucchini (maybe what? 50 cents? 75 cents?)
2 roma tomatoes (maybe 1.00 or 1.50)
0.25 lbs of raw cashews ($1.75)
probably 0.25 lbs of olives (can't remember the price but I'm sure it was under two bucks)
and the rest of the spices, salt, etc I had at home already.

so what is that? about 5 dollars? and it's a TON of stuff once prepared.. It's actually enough for me to have two big servings. I have leftovers in the fridge right now and when I make my second serving tonight I'll take a picture and come back and add it to the bottom of this post.

I'm so excited that I'm getting back into raw food!

Holiday Hell!

Ok, so it's not really hell around the holidays but nutritionally speaking there is so much temptation! I don't have to tell you about this I'm sure. Most people not only have holiday parties and family gatherings to deal with but usually around the holidays there is always someone at work that is more than happy to bring in platters full of cookies, chocolates, and unhealthy snacks. This is one reason I am so happy I'm currently not working. At my old job everyone would bring in these treats and I had a hard time resisting them. If you really stop though and look at the people you work with, you might change your mind. More than likely the people that are bringing in these foods are overweight themselves with health problems. Now, I'm not trying to be a grinch or anything, I know the holidays are a special time of year and people like to splurge and celebrate but honestly, think about the calendar year and how MANY holidays and reasons to splurge there are! Maybe what I'll do is choose one holiday to be my splurge and only allow myself that time to enjoy the treats of the season.

So, the point of this post is that I've been over doing it with the chocolate and cookies of Christmas ... but the good thing is my body has had it and all I've been thinking about and wanting to eat today is healthy, fresh food to counter balance it. I'm drinking another green smoothie right now.. this one with spinach, fruit, agave, and I added some seaweed to it which really thickened it up and also some ground flax seeds. I'm going to make myself a raw "pasta" dish with zucchini noodles that are spiral sliced and then I'll make a home made tomato sauce to pour over it with some cashew "cheese" and some kalamata olives to add some flavor. The only thing in the dish that won't be raw is the olives, but I'm not going to be so picky about it as I have been in the past.

I had a doctors appointment yesterday and when I weighed in I was 243 pounds I believe. Ugh, I hate to think about that number really but I'm going to try my best to stay under the 250 mark. I think if I am careful with what I eat over the next 3 weeks I'll be ok.

Better late than never

We are 5 weeks away from the birth of our baby boy... and we finally got a scheduled C section date... January 18th, 2011 will be his birthday (as long as everything goes well and we don't need an emergency C section somewhere along the line). I'm so excited and ready for him to come.. my body and tummy feels so stretched out right now, I can't imagine growing any more than I have but I know I will over the next 5 weeks. At our baby care classes I always feel like the biggest mama there.. everyone else is so cute with their skinny legs and hips and little basketball bellies poking out.. and meanwhile I look like a watermelon. lol. I'm not upset about it though at all because I know I'm growing a healthy baby boy and I know when he gets here I know the keys to getting healthy again. I will admit though, that I haven't been eating as healthy as I could have been throughout this pregnancy. I have had the occasional McDonalds cheeseburger (horrible, I know!) and my husband and I have eaten our fair share of Ben and Jerry's, that's for sure! My husband has even gained some weight with me along the way, poor thing. I know he hates it too and is ready to get started on losing some of it. He, however, will continue to eat meat, bread, etc after the baby is born while I'm going to try to stick to more raw fruits and veggies.

So at last weigh in, which was yesterday, I'm 238 pounds. Creeping up to the 240, I can't believe it. It's the biggest I've ever been in my life, but there's a baby in there so it's okay. I have a feeling by the time Jan 18th rolls around I will definitely be pushing the 250 mark. Since I mentioned that I really didn't want to get over 230 (and already have) I've decided to go ahead and start trying to eat a little healthier right now, 5 weeks before the baby's birth. It can't hurt right? I'm actually drinking a green smoothie as I type this and it's delicious. For those that don't know, a green smoothie is a way to get in your leafy green vegetables for those of us who aren't huge salad eaters like me. You blend a liquid like water or coconut water with the greens of your choice (today I'm using collard greens but there is a whole world of greens to choose from!) then you typically add fruit and maybe even a little agave syrup or honey to sweeten it up if you so choose. I used a frozen fruit mix of strawberries, peaches, pineapple, and mango then I added a frozen banana as well and agave syrup. Mix it all up and drink. When I was doing green smoothies a few years ago my tastebuds could handle a more "grassier" type taste and I didn't have to use much sweetener, but it's been a while so I needed more agave syrup this time around. That's what's so cool about eating healthy/raw.. your taste buds really do change over time and you start to find things you used to eat too sweet/greasy/heavy. I can't wait for that change!

So I thought I'd do at least one green smoothie a day for a meal... it really does fill you up and tastes good and has a lot of great nutrients in it than a growing baby and mama needs. This is what I'm going to do over the next 5 weeks and maybe I'll throw in a raw meal/dessert/salad in there on occasion. Of course I'm going to try to eat more fish rather than red meat or chicken if given a choice and cut back on bread/dairy. Confession, I've been BAD about the bread/dairy lately.. but then again, I do need a lot of calcium at this point in the pregnancy.

Ok.. off to drink some more of my smoothie.. Will update later with more!

It's best to begin at the beginning.

I'm 32 weeks pregnant tomorrow and I'm definitely at the point where I'm ready to have this baby. This is my personal journal, mostly to hold myself accountable and to keep track and look back on where I've been. I'm a 34 year old, soon-to-be first time mom, who is looking to get healthy and lose some weight after I have my baby boy, who is due Jan 29th. Due to having placenta previa, I am having a planned C section which we are figuring will be happening around Jan 14th though, but we have yet to actually schedule the procedure date. I will be honest with you, when I first heard I had to have a C section I was quite bummed. I had this image in my mind that I would be this earth-mother, hippy pregnant woman who would have a natural birth and experience some sort of mystical birthing experience, but after coming to terms with the idea that a C section was in my future I have come to relax about it and just accept it. So far this pregnancy has been a fairly good one (besides the placenta previa) and I've only had small, normal complaints like hip pain, being gassy and bloated, waking up to pee every few hours as I sleep, not being able to get comfortable in most positions, getting out of breath easily, and just recently I'm getting some acid reflux. I'm realizing I need to eat smaller portions now to avoid that "food stuck in my throat" feeling since my stomach is probably all pushed up into my upper chest... but I am trying to look at this as learning/health tool. I'm hoping that over these last 6 weeks of pregnancy I will learn to eat smaller portions and it will become a habit that I stick with even after the baby is born, as it's probably just a healthier way to eat in general anyway. Maybe I can put this baby discomfort to some use huh?

So about me. I've been overweight my whole life.. from somewhat chubby to downright fat... you know that moment when you look at an old picture of yourself and you say "OMG, was I really THAT fat back then?!? Why didn't anyone say anything?!". Yeah, that's happened to me. The smallest I've been in recent years was about a year and a half ago when I managed to get my weight down to about 184 pounds... then I got pregnant in December 2009 and gained weight... figuring "hey, I'm pregnant!". Shortly after in February 2010 I had a miscarriage though which only led to more weight gain since I was feeling depressed and sorry for myself.. and I ballooned up to about 200 pounds. Well, my husband and I realized that if we did want to have kids, we didn't have time to waste so April 2010 we were back at trying to get pregnant and miraculously by May I had a bun in the oven. Which brings us to now.. I'm 32 weeks pregnant tomorrow and my weight is hovering at about 235. I know, scary. I can't believe I'm actually typing these numbers right now and am going to publish them for the world to see, but what good would it do me not to face reality? Besides, when I get to my goal weight I know I'm going to feel so good and will be able to laugh in the face of that number, muahahha! I'm hoping in the next 6 weeks that I only gain possibly 5-10 more pounds... I REALLY do not want to go over the 250 mark with this baby!

So... back to me.. geeze, how is it that everything always goes back to this baby? Um, yeah... so I've always been chubby but funny thing is I'm SERIOUSLY interested in all things health and nutrition. I have a theory though that most fat people already KNOW what is healthy, they just don't USE the information they have. That's at least how I am sometimes. So I feel I'm pretty well educated on how to eat healthy.... maybe even more so than your average dieter. Back in 2007 I started to really get into raw foods and eating a whole food/vegan diet. I researched a ton, bought a lot of raw food books, and tried to jump into the deep end and eat a 100% raw food diet. Guess what? It didn't work. I think I got maybe a week into eating 100% raw before my husband came home one day to me crying saying "I want to eat real food!" (he'll never let me forget that moment). Now I know that, as you've probably heard, "everything in moderation". Raw food IS good and healthy and wonderful for you but most people will not be able to transition from a normal diet to a 100% raw food one overnight like I was trying to do.

My game plan for after this baby is born is to attempt to eat at least a 50% raw diet.. which may be a fruit smoothie in the morning, a big salad for lunch, or maybe I'll make a gourmet raw meal now and then, and then the other 50% of my diet will be whole foods with possibly some fish thrown into the mix. I'm going to also attempt to limit my bread and cheese... ah cheese... let's not start on that, it's going to be really hard for me to give up the cheese, but give it up I will try! Let's just put it this way, growing up I used to eat all the cheese in the house (still do on occasion) and my dad was constantly telling me to stop eating the cheese. Over the years though I have learned about cheese's nasty little secret like how it's seriously, physically addictive and one of the biggest cancer promoting foods you can eat!

Ok, so limit the cheese and bread, eat 50% raw and 50% whole foods (whole grains, steamed veggies, etc) with some occasional fish and seafood thrown in.

sound good? it does to me!

Then of course you throw in exercise into the mix (Zumba which I love, walking, pilates, whatever else I can do) and hopefully this will be my formula for a lifetime of health.

I will be blogging over the next 6 weeks periodically about the rest of the pregnancy and then once the baby is here and I am healed from the C section it's time to put this plan into action! And I don't want to hear any complaining or whining from myself.. right now I can barely walk 1/4 of a mile without getting out of breath (because of my big baby belly) so I am really looking forward to the day I can get in a good, hot, sweaty, hard core work out! yay!

So... until then... I'll keep cookin' this little baby boy in mah belly!

Coming soon....

stay tuned!