Bake a Cake

Towards the end of my pregnancy I decided to take a cake decorating class at Michael's. I'm so glad that I did! I want to take the 2nd and 3rd level classes eventually. I learned how to make butter cream icing, how to do basic techniques, and got some practice at baking. Now I love it and will bake a cake for any reason!! I am experimenting now with recipes and combinations. I have always made an Oreo cake, but now I have made french vanilla cake with strawberry filling, chocolate with chocolate icing and chocolate chips (for my pregnant sister!), and the most recent hit was a Reece's cake! My next one will be an orange and blue cake (maybe orange flavored cake with blueberry filling). And while my decorating isn't perfection, the cakes taste amazing and I'm having a blast! Any flavor combinations I should try??

Baby Food

At Macy's six month checkup, we were told we could start giving her baby food. We are to begin with sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash. We can then switch to either fruit or green veggies. So far, we have given her sweet potatoes and she loves them! I would really like to make her food myself...something I will probably begin on Friday. I will probably get organic sweet potatoes first and use my grandmother's food processor to make them into baby food. Let me know if you have any suggestions! I am super excited to get my daughter in the habit of eating healthy!

The Evolution of Romance

Today marks mine and my husband's third wedding anniversary. I am reflecting today on how this whole thing started! We have a daughter now, and our whole world revolves around her, but it was once just all about us. Once upon a time, there were two carefree twenty-somethings who fell madly in love and never looked back! Now we have something to show for our once-in-a-lifetime love...the most incredible child. Although the times of martini nights and romantic vacations are put on hold for a while and our candlelight anniversary dinner will probably be decorated with spit-up, whimpers, and teething rings being thrown on the floor, I wouldn't have it any other way. What could be more romantic than loving each other so much that you want and make a child together? She's a perfect combination of us! This is what it's all about!

Make the Switch: A Little Bit Goes A Long Way

I've been making little changes in my diet to help with the "diet" side of my post-pregnancy weight loss. These are just healthier choices. Some things I've been doing for a while and some are new. Try doing this yourself, if you are not already!

Drink skim milk instead of whole or 2% milk. You will acquire a taste for it, I promise! I was raised on whole milk (a Southern thing) and refused to drink skim milk. My husband actually started buying skim milk. However, it wasn't until I was taking one of my health classes at UF that I learned that skim milk has all of the nutrients that whole milk has, it just doesn't have the fat! Win-win!!

My favorite breakfast right now is non-fat vanilla yogurt with low fat granola, strawberries, and blueberries. You can freeze the blueberries (I put them in the yogurt frozen) and use them when you need them. Frozen fruit has all the good stuff of fresh fruit too!

Get rid of your white bread! Switch to whole wheat or whole grain. Again, you will acquire a taste for it! I discovered that white bread actually has no taste and I prefer whole wheat bread now. I really like Arnold Honey Wheat Bread, which is often buy one get one free at Publix. It has an identical nutrition label to the regular wheat bread and it tastes awesome! When making sandwiches, I don't use mayonnaise anymore...I use fat-free Italian dressing. It's so good!!

I eat salads pretty much every day. Get rid of iceberg lettuce and switch to romaine, or better yet, spinach! I used to eat ONLY iceberg lettuce and now I only eat baby spinach in my salads! Load up your salads with vegetables: carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, corn (my favorite), etc. I sometimes add some lean sliced turkey, tuna (without anything added to it), or rotisserie chicken to it. Top off with some fat free dressing and some slivered almonds or fat-free croutons and you've got a yummy, nutritious salad!

Love pizza? Get some whole grain pitas, organic tomato sauce, turkey pepperoni, and fat free cheese...yummy pizza without all of the fat! It is so satisfying and has about 2.75 grams of fat, 38 grams of carbs, and 265 calories. Success!

Lastly, drink a ton of water, eat your veggies and fruits (just load up on them!), and let yourself have ice cream every once in a while. It's all about moderation and good choices. :)

Calorie Counter

So I have a new application on my phone that is AMAZING. I have the Droid Eris and downloaded the application for free. It's called "Calorie Counter." It's great because it calculated my Recommended Daily Intake (calories) for my weight, age, gender, and how much weight I am trying to lose. I can separate meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks) and see how many calories, fat grams, carbs, etc. are in each meal and in each day! The greatest feature is the "Barcode Scanner" which allows me to use my phone to scan barcodes of the food I am eating. It's crazy! I can scan Publix yogurt, bread, milk, or whatever else has a barcode. It then fills in all of the nutritional information for me. So easy!

Baby Weight: It's been fun, but you gotta go!

Losing weight after a baby is hard--you can't take a magic pill or get on a miracle diet like NutriSystem if you are breastfeeding. Time to exercise is scarce. Also, you just spent 9 months getting your body this way!

I gained A LOT of weight while pregnant! I'm not going to discuss the numbers (too soon, too soon!) but let's just say it was more than is recommended and much more than I expected! I am a runner and have always had that on my side. Before pregnancy, if I felt a few extra pounds, it wasn't anything a few days of running couldn't fix. I had NO idea that pregnancy would limit my physical activity so much! During the first trimester, I was extremely exhausted. Extremely. I jogged a little bit, but not much since I was both tired and concerned about the possibility of losing my child. I started to put on weight right away. The nurse at my OB/GYN's office even put me on the scale and said "Wow, I hope you don't do that every time" (referencing my recent weight gain). The nerve!! During the second trimester, I exercised a good amount. By the third trimester, I was again exhausted! I can't even really explain it. Not one person ever told me that I would be tired! Looking back now, I don't even remember it that well.

Well, here we are 4 1/2 months after my daughter's arrival. I have 10-15 more pounds to lose to be at my "perfect" weight. I'm pretty proud of the progress I've made so far, and if you knew the numbers, you would be too! :) Some of the weight loss is probably because of breastfeeding. I am still breastfeeding and plan on continuing to do so for at least a few more months. It has been said that breastfeeding burns approximately 500 calories per day (which is really not much at all in the whole scheme of things). I have also implemented a diet and exercise program. I found my diet here. This diet works well for me because it has tasty choices and variety. And it's easy! I don't feel like I'm dieting or missing out. Sometimes I can't stick to it 100% because of eating out or family gatherings, but it works well enough. A few days ago, I installed a calorie counter application on my phone. It's AMAZING! I can input (and even scan the barcode of) my foods, select my amounts of exercise, and it tells my my net calories for the day! It also tracks my weight. I'm obsessed with it! For exercise, I have been doing the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. This DVD is out of control! It's great though because it only cost me $10 at Target, and all I needed to have to do it was a mat and hand weights. It only takes about 25 minutes to do and it is a WORK OUT. I have also been jogging, although not as frequently as I would like (me+cold weather=staying inside).

The great thing is that I am making significant progress. I feel good and I think I can see my pre-pregnancy body under there! I recommend finding something simple that fits into your life and schedule. Going to the gym doesn't make sense for me because I have the baby at all times. But I can put her in the jogger, or take 25 minutes during her nap to complete my DVD workout. Eating right is a given: She needs it and that's the only reasoning I need!

My main motivation? I don't want to be that woman who says "Oh, I wish I had the body I had before I got pregnant" or "I just won't ever be able to lose that last 15 pounds." I want to be healthy. I want my husband and daughter to be proud of my appearance. And I want to be a hot mommy!!

The Secret to Happiness: Scheduling

We were in church this past Sunday when Macy started being loud. (We don't take her to the nursery yet... maybe I'll touch on that in another post!) I say she was being "loud" because she was not crying, just making all of her trying-to-talk noises. I took her to the breast-feeding room. My church is awesome--they have a room with a one-way mirror that is to be used to feed, comfort, and change your baby during service so mommies don't have to miss anything! So I was feeding Macy and began chatting with two other moms. It turns out that my four month old is a rarity because she sleeps through the night. These mothers LOOKED tired. One had a two month old and one had a nine month old. Both said that each of their children wake every 2-3 hours! They asked what my secret was and here it is: I have her on a sleeping schedule (I don't have her on a strict feeding schedule throughout the day since Macy happens to be more of a snacker). Now I know it's not exactly that simple, but that's most of it. Macy has her last feeding at 10PM every night and is then put to bed. This means that I do not feed her for a couple of hours leading up to bedtime. This way, she is hungry and then after I feed her, she is full, content, and either sleepy or sleeping. She wakes between 6AM and 8AM and before she can truly wake up, I feed her again. She then goes right back to sleep! I keep her up most of the day once she wakes up again. I make sure to play with her a lot. She plays on her back, on her tummy, in her walker, etc. I wear her out! She takes a nap around 2PM and sometimes takes 20 minute naps throughout the day. What does all of this mean? That I get HUBBY-time around 10PM (so we can watch our recordings of The Bachelor and other shows and just enjoy each other). I get ME-time around 2PM. And I get PLENTY of rest since I sleep a lot when Macy sleeps. I put her on a loose schedule early. And though it isn't foolproof with the onset of teething, immunizations, and other not-so-fun stuff, it works for the most part. And I don't look like death from lack of sleep!

Tips for getting your little one to sleep:
Make sure the crib is used for sleeping only and that it is associated with positive things (I don't put Macy in the crib and leave her there to cry (the Ferber Method)... for some reason, that's popular now and I don't like it!).

Put your child to sleep with a full belly.

Don't over-clothe your baby. Parents think babies should be loaded with blankets and clothes. I've found that my daughter's perfect temperature is in a thin body suit onesie (the ones with the feet built in so I don't have to worry about socks falling off) and a regular blanket (not super thin, not super thick). I've read that good rules are if their hands are slightly cold or just one layer more than our comfort level. Macy sleeps soundly when she isn't too hot.

Go for a walk or a drive.

Put your baby in a swing on a low setting with music.

Don't be afraid to let your baby sleep in the carrier (Macy spent MANY nights in her carrier in the first two months because it was where she was most comfortable. I think she felt like she was swaddled and safe.)

Get him/her on a schedule and don't freak out if it isn't at an exact time. You are just looking to instill consistency and a sense of time! Sometimes Macy is sleepy at 9:30 and sometimes she is too excited to fall asleep until 10:45. But she knows it is bedtime and that's the important thing. While I am a stay-at-home mom and realize that I have time luxuries that working moms do not have, getting your child on a schedule can only help a working mom! This way, Mommy, Daddy, and Baby are all happy!