All posts by Shrinking Carrie

WIAW: Whole Foods Plant Based Diet

I stated on Monday that I was going back to a plant-based diet and I am now on day 4 and going strong.  I am already feeling lighter with more energy, and lets just say that last night was a whopper, yet I am not feeling tired at all (we’ll see how I feel come this afternoon!).  On a side note, I can’t wait until we get our third room finished for our new daughter.  She is the NOISIEST sleeper ever!  She grunts and makes all sorts of weird noises and when I get up to check on her she is totally asleep!  The first 3 months are the hardest, right?

Anyway, onto my Tuesday eats!  Thank you to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting this blogger get together every Wednesday!

Breakfast was eaten before I could snap a picture, but it was Oatmeal with ground flax-seed, vanilla soy milk, and frozen berries.  Not anything too exciting.

Lunch was leftovers from the night before and they were delicious:

IMG_0443Homemade veggie burgers dipped in BBQ sauce and a salad with mixed greens, cucumbers, avocado, and spicy hummus.  The recipe I used for the veggie burgers came from Oh She Glows and it is her Spicy BBQ Chickpea Burgers

I love the crunch that the sunflower seeds added, although, these would have been better on a bun (I forgot to get some from the store).  But I mus say they held together really well and it was a lot better than buying sketchy frozen veggie patties from the store with an ingredient list a mile long!

In the afternoon I saw that I had a banana and a zucchini that was on their last legs so I decided to make Chocolate Zucchini Muffins from Happy Herbivore. I love this recipe because my daughter calls them “cupcakes” and she will polish off 2 before I can blink my eyes.  She has no idea that is she is getting some fruits and veggies in each muffin.  My second pregnancy caused my first daughter to become a picky eater.  Too much eating out will do that to someone, so now I’m trying to get her back on the healthy eating band wagon a little at a time.

IMG_0445I added in some mixed fresh berries and it was a filling snack that held me over til dinner.

Dinner was something unexpected.  This week I meal planned and told myself that no matter what, I was going to stick to it.  Well, last night I realized that I didn’t have a couple of the ingredients I needed for at least two of the meals I was planning so I went in search of a recipe for something that I had the ingredients on hand for.

After a quick check of my Google Reader I found a recipe that looked easy and delicious: Coconut Ginger Curry Rice Bowl From PB Fingers.  Who doesn’t love a one pot meal?  The only problem is that I had run out of brown rice and had to sub with white.  The great thing was that it was done and on the table in less than 30 minutes.

IMG_0447I wish that I had fresh broccoli instead of frozen, but it works in a pinch.  I will be having leftovers of this for lunch.

After getting back on the plant-based bandwagon I am feeling great.  My cravings are going away and the scale even gave me some motivation this morning by showing me a lighter number.  My only concern is that I feel like my breast milk supply has gone down a bit.  I can’t tell if I am just being paranoid or if my little babe is eating more than normal.  I’m monitoring it for the next few days and it is probably in my head.  Other than that I’m feeling great, and only T-4 days until I can start exercising again (hopefully I will get the clear at my 6 week postpartum appointment next Monday).

Have a happy Wednesday!

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by Shrinking Carrie on May 15, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Goals, Recipes, Health, Good Food, WIAW, Meal Planning, Weight Watchers, Challenges, Diet, Health Benefits, Energy, Plant Based Diet, Commitment, Link Love, Making It Happen, Postpartum, Breast Feeding

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on May 15, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/05/15/wiaw-whole-foods-plant-based-diet/

Happy Mother’s Day to Me!

After having an absolutely horrendous week of eating whatever I could think of I decided to give myself a Mother’s Day present:  I’m going back to eating a plant-based diet.

The life of a mom with a newborn is taxing and I can feel it wearing on me daily.  The nights are a little rough and the days can get long and demanding.  With 2 kids and a husband I often feel like I get pulled in three directions constantly.  What better gift to give myself than the gift of health?

I had a wonderful talk with my husband about a week ago and it involved excuses.  I was going on about how when I get to six weeks postpartum it will get easier because I can exercise.  He totally called me out on my crap and said “you always say it will be easier when…”  fill in the blank.  I know that I have thought about these excuses before and light bulbs constantly go off in my head and I have plenty of AHA moments.  The problem is keeping myself motivated.

Do or do not, there is no try.

I thought I would take a little advice from Yoda and not put the word TRY into this post.  I almost wrote that I was going to TRY and get back to a plant-based lifestyle, but then I got taken back to my retail management days and I would get so annoyed when people said they would TRY to do the thing I was asking them to do.  It basically meant that they had an easy out clause with the word TRY.

This week will be all about getting myself back on track with eating (it is 70% of weight loss).  I’ve given myself permission to eat as much as I want to this week, but the only stipulations are that it has to have vitamins and nutrients of some sort, not be to grain heavy, and cannot come from an animal.  I’ve meal planned and I told the hub’s I don’t care if it doesn’t sound good the night I’m suppose to make it, that’s what we are eating.  He is surprisingly on board (I will mention that after this last pregnancy he is the heaviest he has ever been, and is motivated to lose some pounds).

I’m hoping that I will see great results like the last time I practiced this diet.  I lost weight, started sleeping better, was in a better mood, and I just felt great!  I’ve already had a great first day (which was Sunday, Mother’s Day mind you) and I am excited to get through this first week.

And because a post is always better with a picture, here are my two girls hanging out in our 80 degree house in their diapers (Air conditioner gets serviced on the 16th and it can’t happen soon enough!):

944667_4808877061090_1537861817_nHappy Monday!

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by Shrinking Carrie on May 13, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Challenges, Commitment, Daily Struggles, Diet, Goals, Health, Making It Happen, Meal Planning, Mindless Eating, Motivation, New Mind-set, Nutrition, Plant Based Diet, Postpartum

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on May 13, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/05/13/happy-mothers-day-to-me/

WIAW: What Nursing Mom’s Eat

One of the major things I notice when I start nursing is that it seems like I am STARVING all.  the.  time.  It doesn’t help that my little one is kind of a little piggie and I feel like she is taking most of my calories.

So like I said last week, I joined Weight Watchers Online  and my daily allotted points are 55.  It seems crazy high to me, but I will try it out for a few weeks and see what kind of results I get.  My real strategy is to eat as many 0 point foods as possible throughout the day and hopefully that will make all the difference!

Thanks to Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for helping me to stay accountable for my eats every Tuesday.  Dustin says that I need to document my weekend eats and that I always eat perfect on Tuesdays because I will have to blog about it.  Maybe next week.

I am happy to say that I stuck very closely to my plan yesterday and I didn’t end up being hungry at all throughout the day.  Small victories people.

Breakfast:

  • IMG_04222 eggs, plus 2 egg whites
  • 1/4 an Avocado
  • Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat Bread
  • 1 Tbs. Justin’s Almond Butter
  • Blackberries and Strawberries

Here is what my WW tracker looked like:

Picture 1Lunch:

IMG_0424

  • Low Carb Whole Wheat Tortilla
  • Grain Mustard
  • 6 oz. Peppered Deli Turkey
  • 1/2 Avocado
  • Brocco Sprouts
  • Baby Carrots
  • Cantaloupe

I really didn’t think that my lunch was going to last me all day and so I added in a Chobani Pineapple Greek yogurt for a little sustaining power, and it seemed to do the trick.  Here is how lunch tracked:

Picture 2Dinner:

IMG_0426The blurry pic is because it was STEAMING hot.  This Red Curry soup has been a stand by in my kitchen the last few weeks.  It is incredibly easy to make and you can always use different ingredients of whatever you have on hand.

  • Red Curry Paste
  • Chicken Broth
  • Coconut Milk
  • Carrots
  • Onions
  • Red Pepper
  • Red Potato
  • 6 oz. Chicken
  • 1 Cup Brown Rice

This meal was a little high in points, but I think it’s because I over estimated to make sure I wasn’t cheating myself.  Here is how it turned out:

Picture 3

Even after over estimating I still have 7 points left at the end of the day.  I think they will be spent on a Chobani with berries.  That leaves me with 3 points left.  Not bad.

Eaten anything memorable lately?

6 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on May 1, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Breast Feeding, Challenges, Daily Stats, Diet, Good Food, Link Love, Meal Planning, Nutrition, Weight Watchers, WIAW

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on May 1, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/05/01/wiaw-what-nursing-moms-eat/

Imagine My Surprise

One of the things I promised myself after I had Lucy was that I wouldn’t step foot on the scale until I was at least 3 weeks postpartum.  When I had Hanna (my first child, for any new readers) I had lost all the baby weight and then some when I went in for my 6 week appointment.  I tipped the scales at 296 at 40 weeks, and weighed 266 post-birth.  I could not have been more ecstatic.

I don’t know about any of you other mom’s out there, but it was really hard for me to not get on a scale right after I had Lucy (my saving grace was that my scale broke the week before I had my c-section, which was quite disheartening at the time, if you can imagine).  The last time I weighed myself I weighed 294 and still had two more weeks until my due date.

I really thought that I had gotten lucky my first pregnancy and was going to have to get use to some lingering poundage this time around.

Imagine my surprise when I got on the scale today and it read 263.6!  My weight when I started this pregnancy was 264 and I’m pretty sure that at the end my weight would have come in somewhere around 296 just like last time.

The only issue I had with my first postpartum was that I gained about 18 pounds from breast-feeding.  I was so stressed about whether Hanna was getting enough to eat I just started taking in calories to see if it would help me get my milk supply up.  Little did I know that Hanna was just a small baby and didn’t like to eat that much (she is still that way).  This go around I am not stressing out and I am mostly using my breast pump so I know how much Lucy is eating, and I don’t get so frustrated like last time (Lucy is a hungry little thing, and will out weigh Hanna in no time).

One thing I did do this time is lots of research on how to keep my supply up without taking in empty calories.  I found out some great information and it turns out the more fruits, vegetables, and lean protein you eat the better your milk comes in.  I can attest to that since my eating the last couple of days has been less than stellar.  I have been tracking all of my food through my Weight Watchers account but plants have been seriously lacking.  Pumping today was lower than it has been this past week when I had been getting in plenty of F&V’s.

My goal is to not gain any weight (obviously) and stick to my Weight Watchers goal of  54 points per day.  BTW, nursing mom’s get a crap-ton of points which makes it easy to stay on track.  I almost fear for when I’m not nursing and it drops significantly.

The hardest part is that I am not in the habit of tracking my food anymore and it is going to take me a while to make it a daily thing.  Also, my weight may only be up 11 pounds from my lowest recorded weight, but I am jelly everywhere (that’s what no weight lifting for 10 months will do to you).  None of my clothes fit, and my stomach is crazy stretched out.

But that’s what having a baby does to you.   And I am only 3 weeks out from my c-section, could be worse.

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by Shrinking Carrie on April 29, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Body Image, Breast Feeding, Family, Goals, Nutrition, Parenting, Postpartum, Pregnancy, Weight Watchers

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 29, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/04/29/imagine-my-surprise/

Here I Go Again…

Let me start off by saying that this c-section recovery has been about a million times better than the first one I had with Hanna.  I know I haven’t really gone into detail about Lucy’s birth, and what can I say but having an infant is a total time suck (in the best way possible).

This birth story is pretty cut and dry.  I tried to hold out and do a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean), but after I got to a week and a day over my due date I was getting restless and uncomfortable (to say the least).  I just wanted to be DONE with this pregnancy!  I grappled back and forth with my decision and decided that if I was waiting to do the VBAC I was doing it for the wrong reasons (i.e., not wanting to disappoint people like my wonderful midwife).  It turns out I was stressed out over nothing and my midwife told me that I had to do what I felt was right.

I scheduled the c-section for the next morning.

Everything went routine.  The only thing I could have done without is when my anesthesiologist hit a nerve when doing the spinal tap and made me see shooting stars and bright rainbows with the shooting nerve pain down my leg.  He got it corrected and everything was honky dory from then on.

I stayed in the hospital for 2 1/2 days and then I was ready to go home.  I was able to get out of bed myself and walk around with ease, VERY different from c-section number one.  I was expecting to have to sleep in our recliner for the first 3 nights like the last surgery, but I felt amazing!  I slept in my bed the first night and Lucy slept for 6 hours straight!  For the first few days I had to wake her to feed her (which is very unlike my first child).  I have decided that Hanna has my personality (high-maintenance), and Lucy has her dad’s personality (low-maintenance).  Hanna was an extremely needy baby, and I couldn’t put her down.  I would cry daily for the first 3 weeks because I just couldn’t handle not having any time to myself.  Lucy sleeps for a few hours at a time, will sit in her crib and hang out in the boppy if needed.

I don’t know if I’m having a different experience because I had an idea what I was in for or what, but life has been pretty great.

Last week I had a couple of days where I had the postpartum blues, but my friend brought me over this drink called GoChi and I have felt great ever since.  it has been a lifesaver!

IMG_0411

I’ll get to my point since this post is getting long enough.  I broke down and joined Weight Watchers Online yesterday.  I told myself I wouldn’t go back to WW, but it is one of the only plans that has a plan for nursing women.  I figure it is a starting point for me.  I haven’t been able to weigh myself because our scale broke.  And I promised myself that I wouldn’t weigh myself until at least 3 weeks after Lucy’s birth (this Sunday).  I will say that I finally have my slim ankles back, and it’s hard to not stare at my feet all day.  They were getting so swollen by the end of my pregnancy I forgot what my real feet looked like.

For right now I feel fantastic, and I have to keep myself from exercising because of Dr.s orders.  I’m hoping to blog at least a couple of times a week.  I’m ready to get back into the swing of things and with summer just around the corner it would be nice to buy a few new pieces of clothing that aren’t maternity!

Last, but not least a picture of what life as we know it is like from now on:

IMG_0407

Everybody wants a piece of dad.

8 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 24, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Postpartum, Weight Watchers

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 24, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/04/24/here-i-go-again/

She’s Here…. Finally!!!

I’m just stopping in for a quick post to introduce the new addition to our growing family:

524586_4665838925226_1210454041_n

Lucy Violetta Seals!  Born on Sunday April 7th by c-section (she was taking forever at a week and 1 day overdue so I decided to just do another cesarean) she weighed in at 8lbs 7oz (so cute and chubby!), and is 19 inches long.

There are no words for the joy and happiness that I feel in my life right now, and I am on a total baby high (or Percocet, not sure).  I am truly blessed for this sweet spirit that has been given to me to care for and love.

I have so much to blog about, but you can probably guess that I have my hands full right now!  I’m hoping to get back into the blogging world within the next month or two!  Rest assured that I am keeping up tabs on all my blogging buddies even if I don’t have time to do a lot of commenting.

Gotta go!  Hungry baby calls!

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by Shrinking Carrie on April 8, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 8, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/04/08/shes-here-finally/

Weekend Highlights

I love weekends where you feel totally productive and spend NO money.  I failed to mention that I have a 3rd goal for 2013: To finally get rid of the monkey on my back, a.k.a., credit card debt.  Normally, Dustin and I head to the big city of Grand Junction and go window shopping.  Yet, it seems we always return with things that we just can live without.  Weird.

We’ve decided that instead of going out so much, we would make  more of an effort to finish up home projects and cook food at home (although, its been a while since we’ve been eating out regularly).  Few of the things that we asked for from everybody who had our names for Christmas was all the components to make sushi.  A rice cooker (a GOOD rice cooker and not those $20 crap kind), sushi rolling mats, and some fun sushi plates for the finished product.

I am a sushi addict.  Before you get all huffy puffy, I know I’m not suppose to eat raw fish while I’m pregnant so the sushi selection is a little boring for the time being (that, and we’re land locked so it may be a while until I attempt raw on my own).  For now we are making California rolls with crab salad, cooked spicy salmon, and last Friday we attempted to make our own shrimp tempura (which turned out awesome):

1540_4183107457241_743226152_n

And here is some of the finished product (this is last weeks picture, but you get the point):

295289_4132795799481_987939736_n

We even had enough left over that we rolled a few rolls for lunch on Saturday.  SO GOOD.

On Saturday, we felt ambitious and decided to do some painting in out kitchen.  I am a slow painter.  I don’t like getting burned out on a project because I try to get it all done in one weekend.  The hub’s and I decided to take our kitchen one wall at a time.  It helps us to be productive on a weekend, but not completely take up our whole weekend with one project.  We are a good team.  Dustin washes the walls and tapes everything and I paint.  It works.

58618_4186462661119_1966394052_n

Here is the before where every wall is practically stark white ^^^^^^^.

481205_4187718172506_1927040973_n

Here is the after with Eddie Bauer Woodsmoke from Lowe’s ^^^^^^.  Next week we may attempt the wall with the refrigerator :/

We had a pretty typical Sunday.  We went to church, I had a great Sunday School lesson with the 10/11-year-old kids, and then got to come home and relax.  It was fabulous.  For dinner I made a recipe I found on Pinterest: Orange chicken and Broccoli, and then I added some Quinoa.

150662_4192888621764_375393284_n

It was delicious and light.  Click Here for the recipe.  And for those of you who are new to the world of Quinoa I used this tutorial the first time I made it.

Now I have a confession to make.  Ever since I found out that I don’t have Gestational Diabetes I’ve been on a bit of a carb overload (and not the good kind).  One thing that helps me to get motivation and get back on track is watching food documentaries.  One of my favorites is Forks Over Knives.  In case anybody wants to watch this excellent film it is on Netflix with Instaplay.  One of the reason’s I love this film is that it focus’ purely on the health aspect of a plant-based diet.  It gives facts and figures from years of research and it is not argumentative (like some documentaries which are totally biased).  The information doesn’t feel in your face and the Dr’s seem genuinely concerned with their patients health.  If you haven’t had a chance to watch it I highly suggest it!

Now I feel rejuvenated to get back on track with healthy eating, and some other things that I will be blogging about this week!  I hope you all had as wonderful weekend as I did!

What is one of your weekend highlights? 

PS.  I got my Twitter account back up and running so if  you were a follower before jump to my sidebar and follow me again (my handle is shrinkingcarrie). Thanks!

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by Shrinking Carrie on January 14, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Budget, Energy, Gestational Diabetes, Goals, Indulgence, Plant Based Diet, Pregnancy

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on January 14, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/01/14/weekend-highlights/

The Not-So-Know-It-All

Some people would say that I am TOO in tune with my body.  I would say it’s because I’m always stressing about something that my body might be going through and I’ve learned to trust my instincts because I’m usually right.  I know what kinds of food affect my body in what ways, how my digestive track works, how long it takes for me to process certain foods, and so on.  I attribute a lot of this to my poop obsession (and before you click away this is not yet ANOTHER post on poop and my body).

So when I started feeling off a few weeks ago I assumed that Gestational Diabetes was the culprit.

I have never been so happy to be wrong about something in my life.

That’s right folks I DO NOT HAVE GESTATIONAL DIABETES!!!  (I will spare you the amount of exclamation points I really wanted to put on that sentence).

I had an appointment with my mid-wife on Wednesday, and after talking over the frustrations I was having with tracking my glucose and having it be all over the place we collectively decided that I should just take the 3 hour glucose test they make you take to actually diagnose you with GD.

Have you ever done the 3 hour test?  If not, let me give you a quick run-down.  You try to get to the hospital as early as possible because they need to start the test with a fasting glucose reading which means you can’t eat anything prior.  Then you drink the NASTIEST tasting drink in. the. world.  I really thought I was going to puke a little.  After that, you find something to do for an hour (with a toddler in tow, super fun), and go back to get your second poke.  On the third poke (one hour after the second poke) they take it out of your hand (if you’re me) because they are afraid that your ONE good vein might collapse (that, and they’ve already drawn from it twice).  The hand one hurts like b**** because it is the one part of your body that isn’t fleshy.  On the last poke (one more hour after the third poke) they try to take blood from the side of your arm because apparently they have used up all of your other useful veins, realize after six pokes and wiggling the needles around in my vein that the blood ain’t giving.  Go back to said first vein for the third time, and boom goes the dynamite.

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Let me just say that all of the lab technicians were fabulous, and the poor guy that had to draw from me twice felt so bad about having to poke me so many times, he was really nice and kind of stressed out about it.  I assured him that I was a tough cookie and could handle it.

After each reading I made the technicians tell me what my last reading was and all but my fasting was in the normal range.  Just in case you’re wondering what those numbers are:

Fasting: 70-95  (mine was 98 a titch elevated)
1st Hour: 70-180 (mine was 164)
2nd Hour: 70-155 (mine was 148)
3rd Hour: 70-130 (mine was 78)

I couldn’t believe that my last number was so low, and it totally explained why I was shaking when I went to go have lunch.  I guess not eating until 2 in the afternoon will do that to you.

What all this means

I have most definitely reached a goal.  When I got GD with my first pregnancy it was frustrating and hard to deal with.  I knew that it had everything to do with my lifestyle and the fact that I hadn’t been taking care of my body.  I didn’t want to bring another child into this world being the person I was over 2 years ago.

I am most definitely not even close to where I want to be weight and health wise, and after losing a little more than 30 pounds I was doubting that this pregnancy would be easier than the first.  It has its challenges, but by finding out this one diagnoses helps to motivate me and know that every little bit counts.  It has also helped me to not get down on myself for my previous efforts.

When I got pregnant so quickly one of the first thoughts that came in my head was that I didn’t do enough and that I hadn’t prepared myself like I had thought I would by this point in life (sorry for the run-on sentence).  I think I just have to accept the fact that my journey may take longer than I’d like.  I’m not going to drop 100 pounds in a year and it could take me a few years to get where I want to be.  But the upside is that I am making strides and this was a huge one for me.

Not gonna lie, this has been a pretty great day.

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by Shrinking Carrie on January 11, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Gestational Diabetes, Pregnancy

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on January 11, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/01/11/the-not-so-know-it-all/

My Two Goals for 2013

I totally ditched resolutions this year.  Being pregnant, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to make huge strides this year like in the years past.  I can’t really “work out harder” or “lose 60 pounds” (although, I would love to be one of those women who says that breast-feeding helped them lose all the baby weight, but if past experience has taught me anything it is likely not in the books).  Instead of making a lengthy list of resolutions I decided that I would work on two different goals this year, and they both require only the first 3 months of the year.  Who knows maybe I’ll get ambitious in April and make some more hard-core goals, but until then I’m focusing on what is in my control as of now.

1.  Stay as close as possible to my current weight while maintaining a healthy pregnancy.  When I was pregnant with my first, my midwife (who I have changed since) told me that if I wanted to I could actually lose weight while I was pregnant and still have a healthy baby.  When you are 250+ pounds you have all you need to keep that baby growing for 40 weeks.  I gained 20 pounds with Hanna and I tipped the scales at 296 pounds.  I was miserable.

Currently I weigh 271 pounds which is 19 pounds up from my lowest weight of 152 pounds.  I must admit that I am pretty pleased with the fact that I have seemed to keep my weight in check even though I feel like my eating has been out of control at times.  It was probably all of that walking I did in the first 4 months I was pregnant.  And if I want to get technical (and lets face it, it will make me feel better) I didn’t get pregnant until after the fourth of July and I started my pregnancy at about 260 pounds so I could say I have only gained 11 pounds since I got pregnant (wow, I feel so much better now).

With the temperatures being in the negatives in the mornings and not getting above 25 degrees during the day, I consider it child abuse to take my child out in a stroller for 45 minutes everyday.  That, and my entire street is covered in a sheet of ice that would have me practicing ice skating the second I stepped onto its glassy surface.

This takes me to the gym.  Normally,  (and by normally I mean when I lived 5 minutes away from my gym which had child care) I have no problem going to the gym.  Last year at this time I was going with no problems 6 days a week and working out for an hour a day.  Since moving, someone has been trying to test my gym going abilities by opening the gym at 8:00 (WTH?), and closing at 9:00.  This wouldn’t be a problem if my husband wasn’t out the door at eight and since his job has no set hours (oh wait, 24/7, on call always) I never can plan the times that I can get there.  This forces me to stand by the door in my gym clothes so I can pounce at the chance to get in a 30 minute walk or 40 minutes on the elliptical, if I have the energy still.

Excuses, excuses.

I’ll be honest and say the best way possible I can keep this goal is to completely cut out sugar and decrease my carb intake.  Here is the carb count for a diabetic:

Breakfast: 30 grams
Lunch/Dinner: 45 grams
Snacks: 15 grams

For fibrous foods with over 3 grams of fiber you can subtract out the amount of fiber from the carbs.  Example:  An English Muffin that has 27 grams of carbohydrates and 6 grams of fiber would count as a total of 21 grams of carbohydrates.

Even still, that is not a lot of options.  Especially for someone who is trying to keep her meat and dairy intake on the low side.

Still this may sound like lot of complaining, but it could be the sugar detox talking and I’m sure by next week I will be okey dokey.  To sum up:

Exercise even if it is a pain to find the time, and cut out all processed sugars.  Totally doable.

2. Have a healthy labor and a healthy baby.  I know I only have so much control over this, but mind over matter, right?  With Hanna I ended up having to have a C-section, and this go around I am trying for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean).  This means that I cannot be induced and have to go into labor naturally.  I will do what I need to do to get the baby out safely, and keep myself safe so we’ll see how this works out, it may be Caesarean city for this girl, but I gotta try!

Did you make resolutions?  How are they coming along?

2 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on January 8, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Challenges, Commitment, Diet, Gestational Diabetes, Goals, Making It Happen, Pregnancy

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on January 8, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/01/08/my-two-goals-for-2013/

28 Weeks and Counting!

Is anybody out there?  Probably not since I’ve been neglecting my poor little blog for……OVER 3 MONTHS!?!?  Is that right?!  It must be, my computer is definitely smarter than me.  Especially since I have a major case of pregnancy brain and the children I birth are stealing my brain cells slowly as they grow (I’m talking about bun in the oven as well as my growing two-year old).  I’m sure of it.  Forgive me if I ramble and make nonsensical words up, since it takes me DAYS to remember the right word I want to say to describe something.  Ugh, I use to speak so eloquently.

Well the good news is that my time-with-child is progressing at a rapid pace.  I feel like it was just yesterday I took a pregnancy test and got the exciting news.  It seems like each midwife appointment gets closer and closer and I think to myself “wasn’t I just here last week?”.  No.  No you were not.  In fact, it’s been an entire month.

Here is my obligatory “baby bump shot”:

IMG_0359

Sunday is the only day these days that I put effort into getting ready for the day.  Otherwise I’m in sweats.  I also seem to be developing a little bit of a shelf-butt as well.  I guess I have things to work on after the baby gets born.  Please notice the freshly painted wall behind me.  I did that on Saturday at 7 months pregnant, I’m pretty proud.  I was also wondering why my shoulders and arms were sore today?  Duh.

Oh, and before I move on to the meat of this post,  this baby is a girl for those of you who didn’t know already.  I am so excited that Hanna is going to have a sister and that I have to buy minimal amounts of clothing since Hanna was a bit of a clothes horse for her first year.  Things just got a whole lot easier!

So why all the blogging motivation all of a sudden?   For those of you who haven’t read my “About” page, my first pregnancy I had Gestational Diabetes, and it was kind of a pain in my butt (as I’m sure it is for most women who have to experience this in their pregnancies).  I had a glucose test done at 12 weeks this go around and my levels were all good at a fabulous number of 114 (they like you to be below 130).  I went in for my second glucose screening this past week and my numbers were elevated at a 138.  Normally, I would think “I’ll take the 3 hour test they suggest and see if I am really diagnosed with GD”, but I have been feeling funny for the last 3 weeks.  Two weeks ago I started keeping track of my blood sugar and the results were not great.  I told my midwife that I would forgo putting myself through the 3 hour glucose test and to just assume I have GD since my blood sugar readings have been suggesting that it is indeed returning to my life.

I’ve been exercising periodically throughout my pregnancy, but my diet has been less than stellar (being pregnant during the holidays is HARD).  The accountability of blogging is something I really need right now, even if I am not currently losing weight.

I need to be doing some form of exercise daily, checking my blood sugar levels daily, and  counting carbs and sugar like it’s my job.  Knowing that I will be blogging about it helps me to stay on track, so I’m happy to say that I am back in blogging!

Which is fabulous because I really missed you guys!

7 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on January 7, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Pregnancy

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on January 7, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/01/07/28-weeks-and-counting/

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