Monday, January 21, 2008

Daily Menu for January 21

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It's also the meal I'm having the hardest time eating these days because of morning sickness. Most mornings, toast or crackers are the only thing that I'm finding appealing, and it's hard to get enough calories throughout the day because of the nausea. So I'm trying to bulk up breakfast to get a solid start to the day and get enough calories throughout the day, but I'm not following Core to do it. Peanut butter sandwiches are working to get in the calories and keep nausea at bay, so I'm eating them and appreciating that they make my tummy happy.

I'm also finding exercise difficult, since I'm tired all the time and still have a lingering cough. I need to just push myself to do at least 20 minutes a day of walking to keep myself from becoming a complete couch potato, so I'm going to do the Walk Away the Pounds 1 mile video this afternoon. Then I'm going to take a nap!



Tonight, I'm making bean soup for dinner using Dessert Pebble Beans from Phipps Country Store. They're all from the same plant, but a variety of colors from creamy white to speckled tan to dark chocolate brown. I'm hopeful that they'll retain their pretty colors after cooking!
Daily Menu
Breakfast
Natural peanut butter sandwich on sprouted wheat bread from Alvarado Bakery
Homemade applesauce
2 c. soy milk
2 clementines
Lunch
Hard boiled egg
Steamed broccoli and cauliflower with 1 oz. lowfat cheese
Brown rice with olive oil
Dinner
Desert Pebble beans
Polenta
Turnip greens sauteed in olive oil
Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies, 5-9 servings a day - yes
2. Whole grains - yes (whole grain bread, brown rice, polenta)
3. Milk, 3 servings a day - yes
4. Healthy oil, 3 teaspoons a day - yes
5. Protein - yes
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+ cups
8. (Prenatal) Multivitamin - yes

Saturday, January 12, 2008

The veggies are back! The veggies are back!

Full Belly Farm has been on hiatus for the past three weeks, and while they certainly deserve a rest after providing such amazing produce week after week, all year long to over 1000 CSA members, I've been certainly missing my veggie box! I was so excited to pick up our veggies this morning that I squealed a bit when I saw the week's yummy variety, which included:

Cauliflower
Carrots
Salad mix
Leeks
Mandarin oranges
Rutabagas
Tokyo turnips
Butternut squash

It's like Christmas with root vegetables. The Palo Alto Farmer's Market is closed for the winter, so I'm picking up the box at Flea Street Cafe, and there is just a miniature booth of Full Belly goodies - broccoli, kale, root veggies galore, wheat berries, almond butter, dried herbs. So much good stuff! I picked up a bunch of dill and a bunch of cilantro for $2, happy to see the fresh bundles of yummy herbs. ($2 is my current spending for the week. Last week, I spent less than $50 on food, mostly for chicken soup and orange juice!)

***

I weighed myself this morning and was 281 lb., for a total of 30.6 lb. lost. I'm updating my goals and current weight loss for the first time in months. I had a bit of a gain, and a set back in my weight loss, and was embarassed to update with higher numbers. I have to get over that and update whether the scale moves up or down, and being pregnant, I anticipate it moving up in the coming months at a reasonable pace. I'm going to keep track, though, so I don't allow myself to get out of control.

I'm also adjusting my goals. I'm expecting to gain weight during my pregnancy, but my doctor has said that it's okay for me to lose as long as I'm eating enough for the baby to grow at a healthy rate. I would like to end my pregnancy no more than 15 lb. from where I started it. I gained 31 lb. with my first pregnancy, when I ate whatever I cared to eat and made no attempts to exercise, so I think that 15 is reasonable while I'm being careful about what I'm eating and am continuing to exercise.

***

Jax is feeling much better and is bouncing off the walls while I'm recouperating from my chest cold. I'm still sick, but I'm not feeling quite as much like an elephant is sitting on my chest, and I can breathe through my nose again, so things are improving.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Sickness affects my plan

Our household is full of sick people. Jax has pneumonia and an ear infection - he's being treated with antibiotics and woke up this morning (at a glorious 9 am!!) with no fever for the first time this week, so he's on the road to recovery. I have a Nyquil cold - coughing, sore throat, headache, aches, fever, runny nose, sneezing - but being pregnant, I can't take Nyquil... or anything, really. Mr.M has a persistent cough, but otherwise seems unscathed, and unfortunately has been drafted as the gofer and care taker for a whiny, snotty, hacky household. Hopefully soon, we'll all be as good as new and I'll be posting recipes and menus again, but for now, I'm pretty much living on chicken soup, oranges, and oatmeal, and yogurt, which is not especially exciting.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Happy New Year! And a Daily Menu for January 3

I've been struggling with morning sickness, making it difficult to eat all that I'm supposed to right now. So I'll post my daily menu and make adjustments at the end of the day based on what I could actually eat! I'm doing my best to have a variety of foods and so far, I've not had a problem keeping down the prenatal vitamin. Hopefully this will soon pass!

Daily Menu

Breakfast
Tea
2 Saltine crackers (counted at lunch)
2 clementines
A bowl of oatmeal made with milk, applesauce, and flaxseed oil

Lunch
Tomato soup
Yogurt smoothie with plain fat free yogurt, frozen peaches and berries, and flaxseed oil
4 More Saltine crackers (2 Points for 6 crackers)
Carrots

Dinner
Brown rice and lentils cooked with olive oil
Steamed Broccoli and cauliflower
Milk


Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies, 5-9 servings a day - yes
2. Whole grains - yes (Oatmeal, brown rice)
3. Milk, 3 servings a day - yes
4. Healthy oil, 3 teaspoons a day - yes
5. Protein - yes
6. Limit sugar and alcohol
7. Water - 8+ cups
8. (Prenatal) Multivitamin - yes