All posts in category Poop

Wanna be a “Skinny Bitch”?

Shocking title?  I know.  It is the exact same thing I thought when I went into Borders 5 years ago and purchased the book titled “Skinny Bitch”.  Do you thrive on tough love?  Do you like being called a Fat Cow?  Then this is the book for you!

I don’t know about you, but I tend to keep a healthier diet when I am reading books that promote a healthy lifestyle. I actually first read this book back when I first purchased it in 2007 and I had no idea what I was in for.  I will admit that the title totally got me (and the writers fully admit that is the reason why they titled the book the way it is).  So when I was looking for good books to read recently, I decided that I would read this book again and brush up on the lifestyle that I was too scared of back then.

The first chapters title is “Give it Up”, and then proceeds to list items in your diet that you should give up, and reasons why you should give them up.  Basically everything that was in my diet at the time. Dairy, meat, caffeine, candy, and anything else you can think of that makes your taste buds have a party in your mouth (at the time).  I was thinking that the diet they were promoting would be more South Beach, or Mediterranean, since those were the “hot” diets at the time.  I thought to myself, “I’ll get this book and just keep reading the same old, same old”, but I found very different information than what I was use to.

This book is written by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, both former models, and Kim holds a Master’s Degree in Holistic Nutrition.  I will say that they are straight forward with their tactics on how to get fit and healthy.  This works well for me, or at least I take it well, I should say.  I remember it was around 6 years ago when I went to an Endocrinologist because I wasn’t getting a period regularly.  The blunt Doctor told me I was too fat and that I needed to lose weight.  At the moment I was offended and kind of wanted to cry until I told myself “she’s right, and just because she didn’t use the best tactic doesn’t make it any less true, and she wasn’t saying it to be mean”.

Anyway, I like the book’s straightforwardness.  It also has an entire chapter dedicated to poop (my favorite subject), and how a plant-based diet helps you to move things along.

It gives you information on government agencies and the role they play with our food, and without getting too controversial, I will just say that the chapter is titled Have No Faith: Governmental Agencies Don’t Give a Shit About Your Health, and I have to admit, the proof is in the Pink Slime (if you have never heard of Pink Slime, click to link to a shocking demonstration of how 70% of America’s meat is containing this HORRIBLE concoction of meat and chemicals) .   I like the tagline in this chapter that states “Trust No One”.  It empowers you to get to know your food and the ingredients.

The one thing I found hard with this book is that I felt overwhelmed.  There were so many things that you feel like you have to cut out of your diet at once it seemed impossible and frustrating before you even started the method.  My advice for people who want to do a major overhaul in their diet is to make one small change at a time.  A big step for me this year has been the Vegan kick-start that I did in January, and now in April, but I also realize that my hub’s will never be a health guru and that I am going to have to compromise on a few things (like not completely cutting out meat products).  So on the weeks that I have not been doing the kick-start we have meat products at dinner every other night.  This is a big step considering we are used to eating meat multiple times a day.  Eventually I hope to get it down to 2-3 times a week, but like I said, small changes at a time.

Bottom line for this book:  It was entertaining, gave good information, and was definitely food for thought. I still think that meat in moderation is okay for you, but I do think that you need to research where you are getting your meat, and purchase the highest quality you can find.  An example that I just can’t get out of my head is the fact that my Grandma is 92 years old, in great health, and has eaten meat and dairy her entire life, in moderation.

Do I recommend this book?  Absolutely!  If for anything it will definitely make you laugh!

4 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 10, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, Book Review, Books, Diet, Nutrition, Plant Based Diet, Poop, Vegan

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 10, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/10/wanna-be-a-skinny-bitch/

Better Beginnings Part III

Better Beginnings is a series that I started last year that follows my daughter’s eating during her first few years.  I try to document some fun and different ways that I find to get healthy foods into her diet to set her up for a healthy life!  If you want to catch up here are the last two installments:

Disclaimer: This post talks about poop so if you don’t want to read it come back tomorrow!

When I was young I had some serious bowel issues.  So much that I was scared when the time came to go to the bathroom, and I would hold it until my stomach started to hurt.  My mom tried everything to get me to go to the bathroom more often.  I even remember a time when she made me eat bran cereal (the stuff that looks like tiny twigs from a tree) and when I wouldn’t eat the whole bowl, she put it in the fridge for later.  Ever had cereal after it’s been sitting in the fridge for a few hours?  I’m sure you can imagine.  Luckily, I think she was using it more as a “don’t waste food” tactic because I don’t remember actually having to eat the soggy bowl of bran.

These bowel issues followed me into my adult life and when I was about 21 I decided that I needed to do something about it.  The problem was that I had gone so long with these GI issues that it was hard to get my colon back on track.  I tried eating a LOT of fiber, and then I started taking Metamucil 3 times a day (to this day I still take a glassful of Metamucil at night).  I started seeing a little improvement, but mostly I started to get an obsession with the topic of poop (my family will tell you that a conversation always comes to poop with me).

When I was 25 I decided that I was going to try getting A colonic (click here for more information, if you really want to know what it is).  The colonic specialist I went to suggested that if you are having bowel issues you should get 4 colonics in 1 year, and you will see a major improvement in your GI tract, and strengthen your colon because it is forced to expel the water, which is like a workout for your colon.

Let me just say that the story of the colonic is one of my Dad’s favorite stories to tell people about me.  My family laughs ever time I mention it just because it was a HORRIBLE experience!  The reason it was horrible is because I should have done some prep work before I had it done, and when I went into it I had no idea what was going to take place. (if you want to hear the story, or if you have questions about the process you can email me at shrinkingcarriewww at gmail dot com).  But I will say that my colon had a 180 difference and I would do it again in a heart beat.

What this whole post has to do with Better Beginnings for my daughter

I am bound and determined to not let my daughter have these same issues.  They were painful, and pretty traumatizing for me as a child.  I go as far as to cheer a little when she poops, and make sure to not make a big deal of changing poopy diapers.  I don’t want her to think pooping is negative or secret.  EVERYBODY POOPS!!!

One thing that I have noticed is when my daughter has dairy products she gets constipated.  When I started to do the 21-day Vegan Kickstart I decided that I would have Hanna follow along as much as she could (although, she still LOVES yogurt and it is the only dairy product she is really eating right now).  I switched her over to Soy milk (she was never a fan of whole milk anyway, and she actually LIKES the soy milk), and she eats almost everything that I eat.  The only problem is that I have to keep it interesting for her.  She is not like her mama and she can’t eat the same thing for most meals, she craves variety.  Especially at breakfast time.

This morning I decided that I was going to find an egg-free, dairy-free french toast recipe and I found a good one!  I found it on the website Must Follow Recipes.  She doesn’t blog on there anymore, but she has left up the website so that you can still make her recipes.

I assembled my ingredients. Great Harvest Cracked Wheat bread, flour, canola oil, vanilla soy milk, unsweetened applesauce, and cinnamon.

This mixture turned out VERY thick so you need to be careful when you dip the bread that you don’t overcoat it.  You can also scrape some of it off the bread before you put it in the skillet.

Finished product.  I don’t know if it’s because my stove sucks or if it’s just the recipe, but they need to cook for quite some time.  I cooked them on Low (learned that anything higher will burn them) and had to cook them for almost 10 minutes on each side.  Which is why I made an entire batch today and then froze them for future breakfasts.  It made 5 slices.

The result:

Happy baby that poops at least twice a day!

2 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 5, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, Better Beginnings, Diet, Good Food, Parenting, Plant Based Diet, Poop

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 5, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/05/better-beginnings-part-iii/

A Loss and a Gain

‎”Things don’t go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.”

Thank you again Livestrong.com for another inspiring Facebook status!  I sure needed it after the past week.

In the wee hours of the early morning on Wednesday, Dustin, Hanna, and I set off for Las Vegas after getting news that Dustin’s Grandmother had a stroke. My husband has been truly blessed in his life, and although I do not feel it is my place to give out information about his past, I have to say that his family is amazing.  In high school the Larsen/Beighley clan started feeding my husband, and ended up not being able to get rid of him.  I call his family Dustin’s “surrogate” family, but to Dustin they are thicker than blood.  So when his granny went to the hospital from pneumonia this past week, it was not a hard decision that we needed to be with the family.

After many twists and turns throughout this week Granny decided it was her time to go this morning.  She (along with every. single. member of the Larsen/ Beighley Family) was one of the most selfless people I was blessed to know.  She gave service to anyone who needed it and always put others before herself.  I celebrate the life that she lived, and also the work in the after life that she will be doing.  I am so blessed to know that there is a heaven above and a Heavenly Father waiting with open arms.  I will miss you Granny, and I can’t wait until the time that we will meet again!

And in regards to the “gain” portion that I mentioned in the title….

In stressful times I eat.  You can tell how stressed I am by the amount of food that I eat.  This week started out great, and by Tuesday  I was down 3 pounds ready to win this weeks weigh in for Monica’s Birthday Challenge, and then the week started to go South quickly.  As soon as I knew we were going to be traveling I started to crave food.  Spending time in a hospital made me crave food.  Being in a place that had thousands of options to choose from made me crave food.

So what did I do?  I ate.  I ate my feelings.  I ate my sadness.  I ate my frustrations with eating too much by eating more.

And then I had a little break down, and a pity party for myself.

Then I put on my big girl panties and I weighed myself. If you do the crime, you do the time, and I needed to see the number that was going to show up:

That my friends is a 13 pound gain since the beginning of February.  Wait.  Wasn’t my goal to lose 5 pounds a month?  Hmmm.  I seem to be going the opposite direction.

I tried to tell myself it’s because I have only pooped twice in the last 5 days (going out of town in hard on my digestive track), or that I have a lot of water retention and salt hanging around in my system.  While all of these things are true, and the weight loss will come quickly with those first few pounds once I get back on a healthy track, it is still a gain.  It is still a step backward, and it is still frustrating.  My first thought is that I have to come up with a plan of action, but the plan is simple and needs no long thought process. Track food.  Exercise.  Drink Water.  Sleep 7-8 hours.  Repeat.

 

 

4 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on March 4, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Challenges, Commitment, Distractions, Dustin, Family, Food Binge, Frustration, Indulgence, Poop, Weigh in

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on March 4, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/03/04/a-loss-and-a-gain/

Things I’ve Learned From Blogging, The Gym, & Eating Healthier (so far)…

Through this little journey of mine I’ve learned a LOT of things so far about different facets that I have added into my life and I thought I would share a few:

Eating Healthier:

  • Planning is key.  Failure to plan is a plan for failure
  • Tracking is the absolute most important part of me losing weight.
  • Plan cheat days, or meals or whatever.  When I have a cheat day it helps me to plan what I am going to eat ahead of time.  It helps me to not go too crazy, but eat the things that I know I crave regularly.
  • Cravings start to go away after not eating processed, or sugary foods in about 2 days, for me.  The more fruits and veggies I consume the quicker the cravings cease.
  • Always put the “good for you food” in your eye-line.  Put the “bad for you” food in a deep dark hole where you forget it exists.  I had a bag of Starbursts for over a month because of this strategy, and for anyone who knows me, they know that this a BIG DEAL.
  • Don’t be too extreme.  If you want to cut out certain foods try one food at a time.  Don’t become a vegan when your diet consisted of mostly dairy and meat.  You are just setting yourself up for failure.
  • Treat yourself.  Even Weight Watchers says that you should give yourself things like you like every now and then.
  • Stay away from “trigger” foods.  I love oatmeal, but if I start my day out with it, I want to eat all day long.  Same with bread.  I just have to stay away.
  • Know which foods affect you which ways.  Don’t eat vegetable soup full of cabbage when you know you have to be in public in a couple of hours.  Also goat cheese is possibly the only food that affects my stomach in a MAJOR BAD WAY.
The Gym
  • Make a schedule and keep to it. The only time the gym works for me is before 9 AM.  If I wait any longer, it won’t happen.  Sometimes I have to ditch plans if I know it will interrupt my gym time.  The gym is a priority to me and some things have to come second.
  • Keep the schedule up for at least 3 weeks.  I am a big believer in 21 days makes a habit, and when I have gone to the gym consistently for 3 weeks it gets easier.
  • Follow an exercise routine.  You can find all sorts of great workouts on the internet, or in exercise magazines.  Keeping your workout interesting, keeps you wanting to do it.  When you have a plan you are following you will be less likely into cutting your workout short.
  • No matter who I do cardio by, whether they are old, young, fat, or skinny, they all want to race.  Seriously.  I keep tempo with the music that I am listening to, and I can tell a difference when I am working out to the fast songs.  The people next to me suddenly start looking over at my machine to see what level I am and start going faster.  I liken it to having your car on cruise control.  If your car isn’t on cruise control, but mine is, there is going to be some playing of leap-frog.
  • Most meatheads don’t care if you are in the free weights section.  I was extremely self-conscious when I started doing NROLFW because it mostly uses free weights, or what I formerly referred to as the “Men’s Area”, but now I realize that my insecurities were all in my own head (as most usually are).
  • Be friendly.  We’re all in this together people!  If I see an over weight person that I’ve never seen, I try to give them a smile and a friendly look.  You never know how hard it was for them to take the step to come to the gym.  I am no better than anybody in that gym.
Blogging
  • No matter how many times I type it I will never be able to properly spell the words definitly, or myslef.  I am leaving the misspellings so that you know how I spell them EVERY TIME I type them.
  • People love to hear about periods and poop.  If they didn’t, those posts wouldn’t be some of my top read posts.
  • Keep your heart in your posts.  If you are trying to type a canned blog post, your readers will know.  Inspiration does not strike everyday, and if you need a day off then take it.
  • Connect with other bloggers.  I had no idea the blogging world was even out there until a few months ago, and since then I have made some solid friendships with people who are supportive and relate to what you’re going through.
  • Comment on other bloggers post.  One of the biggest compliments you can give a blogger is a comment.  You don’t have to go crazy and comment on every post, just something that says I enjoyed your post today!  I think we put a lot of thought into the content of our blogs and it is nice to have people recognize that.
Is there anything you have learned from Blogging, The Gym, or Eating Healthier?

 

12 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on October 18, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in About Me, Blogging, Goals, Health, Indulgence, Inspiration, Motivation, Poop, The New Rules of Lifting for Women, Vegetables, Weight Watchers, Working Out

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 18, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/18/things-ive-learned-from-blogging-the-gym-eating-healthier-so-far/

Perfection Challenge: Day 5 Stat’s

It sure is easy to eat, when you have no appetite.  As you can see be my earlier posts, I have not been feeling well all day.  I sucked it up and did a short workout, and watched what I ate all day.  I have a feeling that I have been eating too much protein and not enough fiber, as you will see by what I had for dinner.

Here is how the day ended:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Healthy Checks

Wow, that actually looks a lot better than I remember.  Hopefully, whatever is going on with my body will be over by tomorrow.  I already feel less nauseated, so that is a plus.  Now I am off to drink a tall glass of Metamucil before I head off to bed!

Hope you are all having a lovely Tuesday night.

Is anybody else super disappointed in BIggest Loser Season 12?  I might actually find something else to watch this season.

1 Comment
by Shrinking Carrie on September 27, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Challenges, Daily Stats, Poop, Sick

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on September 27, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/09/27/perfection-challenge-day-6-stats/

Suck It Up Buttercup

Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 45 minutes (Low intensity)

Let me start out by saying that I am not planning on keeping this post-3-times-a-day thing going, but I had to share a little update on how the day is going since I have received some great comments on the blog and on FaceBook.

I sucked it up and went to the gym.  It took a little motivational speech in the mirror for me to go, but I just got dressed and went before I could talk myself out of it. Great comment on FB from a friend “Id say do what u can but listen to ur body, I think itd be harder to stop and restart than to do a less intense workout for the days u r not quite urself”.  Since I know what I have is not catching I went to the gym.  I was hoping that a little bouncing around would break up the situation if you know what I mean.  I still feel like crap (literally), but at least I know that I moved my body a little bit today and that really matters to me.

Feeling gross also gives me time to look through all of the funny Natalie Dee comics and find one that pertains to my situation.  I thought the above comic was funny, and goes along with my day. And I have no appetite.  I’ve been trying to keep my food intake up, that way if I am feeling better tomorrow I won’t be to weak for my weights workout, but nothing sounds good.

Another motivation, look what came in the mail for me today:

I LOVE to get things like this.  It reminds me of when I worked for Nordstroms and I sent out Thank You Cards to my clients.  I think this is just good business.  And this is just another reason why I love the Weight Watchers in my area. After staring at this on my counter, I just had to go to the gym, stomach problems or not.  Don’t get me wrong if i had a cold or anything that could have been germ spreading I would stayed home, but for some stomach problems?  I just couldn’t justify not going.

Thanks For all the well wishes!

Do you like getting kudo’s from strangers?

1 Comment
by Shrinking Carrie on September 27, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Motivation, Poop, Sick

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on September 27, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/09/27/suck-it-up-buttercup/

Ugh, I Feel Sick.

I’m sitting here in debate with myself, to decide on whether or not to go to the gym this morning.  I feel sick, but not in the I-have-a-cold kind of way. I was up most of the night tossing and turning feeling nauseated, and I have no idea why (and I’m not pregnant).  I ate really good yesterday, I checked my blood sugar levels before I went to bed because I thought it may be out of whack, but it was 96 which is basically perfect.  I did have broccoli and apples, which could be doing a number on my GI.

And you make my stomach hurt something fierce.

I’ve eaten a banana and a  pineapple Cobani yogurt to see if this will help me feel better and then maybe I will try to go after Hanna’s morning nap.  I sure hope I feel better, I get paranoid about missing a gym session 2 days before a weigh in.

This morning (feeling sick), I got Hanna up and went to turn on the tv so I could just lay down and not throw up everywhere, and was happy to see that all of the cable channels were at a stand still (sarcasm at its finest).  The only channels that worked  are the channels with the news on them.  Normally, I would have gotten up started some laundry, or just go to the gym earlier than expected, but again I don’t feel well so I watched the news for about 45 minutes and tried not to get too depressed.

That made me really want to go to the gym, so that I could get out of the house.  I started feeling a little better, but then after walking around a bit I felt the waves of nausea and decided that I should probably sit down for a bit.  Argh!  I hate this feeling!

I don’t like surprises.  I mentioned this in the past, but I am a COMPLETE creature of  habit.  If my day does not follow my routine, I feel weird and like something is wrong.  I know this relates to my weight loss and I can’t let days like this get to me.  So why not make some sick day goals?  First off, I really will go to the gym if I start feeling better, I’m hoping that this is just a bathroom issue and will be taken care of before the morning is over.

Continue to drink copious amounts of water.  I’m sure this can only help the situation. And of course, continue to track.  This could also be because I just started taking my thyroid medication after not having it for a week and a half.  I really need to get better at that.

So send some positive vibes to my stomach, in hopes that I will be able to make it to the gym, and hopefully I will be back later with a more motivational post!

Do you have days like this?  How Often?

I NEVER get sick so it makes it that much more frustrating when it happens!

7 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on September 27, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Health, Motivation, Odd Day, Poop, Sick

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on September 27, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/09/27/ugh-i-feel-sick/

Better Beginnings

Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 50 Minutes
Spin Class 45 Minutes

Weigh in day, yay!  Actually it was weigh in night, last night.  My workout regimen is a pretty strict schedule, with classes at certain times and meeting people for weightlifting I have to be at the gym at a certain time in the morning.  My normal weigh in time would be either Wednesday or Thursday at 9:00, but this conflicts with the gym and lets face it, the gym is more important than the weigh in.  I’m trying to find a time that works and I am thinking that Wednesday night at 6:00 may be the keeper and then I will post the results on Thursday morning.  Anyway, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.  Today’s weight is……..263.8!  That is a 1.6 pound loss which means I am 1.1 pounds away from reaching 20 pounds!  I am so excited to do measurements next week!  That will be huge.  Just so ya know, I feel a difference in my body since killing myself at the gym every morning.  I feel muscles in my legs that haven’t been around in a while.  And I feel like my stomach is getting a little smaller.

Getting to 261 will be kind of a big deal to me.  The first time I lost weight when I was 21 that was the number that I started with.  Then over a course of about 6 years I managed to gain it all back, but as soon as I got to 261 again I held steady for about 3 years.  Then I hit 30 and it was like over night I gained 15 pounds and that is where I have been for the last couple of years.  So for some reason 261 sits in my head and once I pass that number it seems that everything will be real to me.  It’s weird how the mind works.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon making baby food and it led me to the topic for today’s post.  Where this all began.  Of course I have told you my driving force behind my weight loss, but one of the big things that got me to actually start the process was when my baby turned 6 months old and it was time to start solids.  everyone wants their children to not make their same mistakes.  Growing up my mom always had a vegetable with dinner, and we ate pretty healthy.  Still, I gravitated more towards junk food and soda than anything.  When I became an adult I realized the importance of fruits and vegetables, and even though I still enjoyed my junk food, I started to eat more varieties of F&V’s.  It got me thinking about Hanna and how I wanted her to have a diverse pallet, and love foods that are good for her body, no matter what lengths I had to go through.  When I first started to buy baby food I bought the organic jarred variety, but I couldn’t help but notice how unappetizing they looked.  When I would show Hanna how to eat the food, I would put the spoon in my own mouth and it made me want to gag. It was disgusting.  And expensive.

While lurking on Facebook one day, I had a friend that was starting to make her own baby food from a cookbook.  I immediately asked her what the book was called so that I could check it out.  I went to Barnes and Noble that same day to purchase the book “Cooking for Baby”.  

(I have no idea why this picture turned out so small)

This book has been life changing for me and Hanna and she will now eat ANYTHING I put in front of her.  Which for all you parents out there, you know this is no easy feat.  I fee like it has given her the reality of what fruits and vegetables taste like without any fillers or preservatives.

let me state that I am no super mom.  Making homemade baby food has been easy and stress free.  I even made it when I was on vacation for Fourth of July when I was in Utah for 2 weeks.  When we were on vacation I started with bottled food because I thought it would be inconvenient, but after Hanna didn’t poop for almost 3 days I figured out the tapioca that they use to thicken bottled baby food had BOUND HER UP.  She was miserable and her tummy was huge!  So I went to the store-bought a ton of fresh F&V’s and it took me two hours to make 6 different types of healthy options.  After about a day she finally started pooping again.  Nowadays she poops sometimes up to 6 TIMES A DAY!  That’s a healthy colon folks.

MY POINT: I was going out of my way to make sure that my little girl was starting out on the right track eating wise, but I wasn’t eating healthy myself.  How can I tell my daughter that she needs to eat healthy while mommy is shoving ice cream down her pie hole?

For anybody out there that may find this interesting I documented my process yesterday and wanted to share it with you!  First off let’s go over some of the benefits of making your own baby food:

  • You know exactly what is going into your baby’s body (no tapioca, and no constipation, nuff said)
  • It’s more economical than buying prepackaged foods.  Buy fruits and veggies that are in season and it stays cheap.
  • You can choose your own fruits, vegetables, and other foods for purees, instead of relying on the flavors chosen by manufacturers. You’re not going to find melons or avocados in the baby food section of the supermarket.
  • It gets the baby used to eating the same food as the rest of the family — just in puree form.

To make the purees you only need a few different kitchen tools:

  • Stove, to roast or bake
  • Steamer basket, steamer pot, or a steamer
  • A good quality blender, or food processor
  • Ice cube trays, to freeze the purees once they’ve cooled
  • Cookbook is optional.  The only real ingredients is fruits and vegetables!
Since peaches are in season right now (and super cheap), I decided that I would make about 3 pounds of peach baby food (I also made green beans and sweet peas which I will show you the finished product of further down).  I started by washing, pitting, and halving the peaches:
Then I gave a slice to Hanna because I have to give her a slice of fruit whenever I’m eating it.  She is becoming a really good beggar.
After you can clearly see that the water is boiling in the steamer, steam pot, or steam rack, put the peaches into steam.
Let them steam for about 5 minutes or until the fuzz starts to peel back from the peach.
Once you can pierce them easily with a fork they are ready to go into the blender.
I was blessed with an awesome boss that bought me a Vita-mix one year for Christmas after I sat in awe of the one his wife had.  Because this is a powerful blender, there is no need to remove the skin (extra vitamins and nutrients!).  With peaches you don’t need to add any extra water.  With most vegetables you do need to add a little water to get it going.  You can also add breast milk or formula to make it that much more nutritious (but you don’t have to).  Once the peaches were pureed (after about 2 minutes in the blender on high), they are ready to go into the ice cube trays.  Baby food will keep up to 3 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer. I prefer freezer, that way I can make huge batches about twice a month and have plenty of options.
This is enough to feed Hanna for 24 meals. If the consistency is too runny I add some oatmeal cereals from Happy Bellies to thicken it up!
I spent about $10 as opposed to about $30 I would be spending on bottled food.  I only make baby food about twice a month and it takes me about 3 hours all together.  And last of all the comparison:
Check out the difference in color of these frozen pureed green beans, and the store bought bottled green beans.  Ya, I wouldn’t want to eat those either.
This post is purely for something to think about.  It is my preference to make homemade food, but I have the time to make it.  I understand that there are working mommies out there that don’t have the time or the energy to make this stuff!  This is strictly my own opinion, and there is no judgement about what works for other mom’s.  The important thing is that our kids are getting the best nutrition we can offer them!
If you got through this whole post congrats!  I hope it was interesting for you!  If not, come back tomorrow for a different topic!
If you’re a mommy, have you done homemade baby food?  What did you think?
What else has influenced a change in your eating habits?
11 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on August 25, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Baby Food, Family, Finances, Good Food, Health, Motivation, Nutrition, Parenting, Poop

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on August 25, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/08/25/better-beginnings/

Weighing in on Weighing in.

Sweat it Out:
45 Minutes Elliptical

***Disclaimer*** This post talks about poop, if you don’t like it stop by tomorrow for a different post!

My workout is pretty monotonous right now.  Oh well.  At least I got to the gym and I’m still bucket sweating so I feel ok about it.  No weights because I’m giving myself a break before I start the weight lifting challenge extroidinare.  I’m almost done with the first part of the reading.  The author is hilarious so it keeps the facts and figures interesting.  I cheated a little and looked at the back of the book at some of the workouts.  Whoa.  They look pretty killer, considering I haven’t done any serious weight lifting in a LONG time.  This will be an adventure for sure!

So my topic of interest tonight is on how often you weigh yourself and why you do as often as you do (say that 5 times fast!).  As I’ve stated in the past, I weigh myself everyday.  I do this for a few reasons:
1.  It’s a habit.
2.  I went so many years without weighing myself and I think the ignorance helped me get to the weight I am today.
3.  It helps me know where I stand for the day.
But the main reason I weigh myself everyday is to stay in tune with my body.  I know that doesn’t sound like a reason, but there’s a lot you can read in your morning weight.

Things I have learned from Weighing Myself Everyday
-That fatty meal that I just ate, won’t show up until the day after tomorrow.  So that means if I eat something fatty again today I’m already set back two days.
-Holy crap Carrie, cut back on the salt.
-Whoa, you totally didn’t drink enough water yesterday.
-You didn’t eat enough yesterday.
-That number is a fluke, try again tomorrow.
-Wow, I ate a lot of cheese.
-Did I poop yesterday?
-Um I should probably poop sometime today.
-I’m pretty sure there is 2 pounds of poop in me.
-I need to cut back on the cheese so I can poop.

Ok, so a lot of what I learn from weighing in is that I need to poop, and eat less cheese.  But in all seriousness, have you ever weighed yourself  before and after a BM?  There is quite a difference.  This is very frustrating for me because it always falls on a weigh in day that I don’t BM until after my meeting and I lose another 2 pounds.

Aw, I feel so much better getting that off of my chest.  Sorry to get so graphic, but it has really been bothering me lately.  I guess I’ll start loading up on the Metamucil and get things back to regular.

Do you like the taste of Metamucil?
I LOVE it.  It’s like having a glass of juice or something.  It may be because I use to drink it so much I grew taste buds that really enjoyed it.

How often do you weigh yourself?

3 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on July 28, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Poop, Weigh in

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on July 28, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/07/28/weighing-in-on-weighing-in/

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