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

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.

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.

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

Daily Menu for Sunday, December 30

Daily Menu

Breakfast
Shredded wheat
2 c. Milk
2 Clementines (YUMMM!)

Lunch
Black bean soup
2 T shredded cheese (1.5 Pts)
1 oz. dried persimmons (.5 Pts)

Dinner
Ham (from TLC Ranch)
Baked potato with 2 t. olive oi, fat free yogurt, and onions
Baked squash (from Full Belly Farm)
Broccoli and 1 t. lemon olive oil (broccoli from Full Belly Farm, oil from St. Helena Olive Oil Company)

Snack
1 slice Vital Vittles Persimmon bread with butter (4 Pts)
1 c. Milk

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 6
WPA points available: 31
Activity points today: 2 (1 mile Walk Away the Pounds)
Activity points this week: 2

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies, 5-9 servings a day - yes
2. Whole grains - yes (Shredded wheat, kamut, barley)
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

Resolutions

School is over, the holidays have passed, and it's time for me to get back on track with both my locavore and Core resolutions. I haven't done as poorly as I expected over the holidays, but I certainly haven't been as on track as I need to be. So here is my New Year's resolution for this and every year: I'm going to eat the 8 healthy guidelines every day. I'm going to support local agriculture by buying as much of my food locally grown as possible. And I'm going to blog regularly to keep me accountable!

I have even more important reasons than weight loss to be healthy these days: I'm pregnant! If all goes well, I'm expecting a new addition to our family this summer. My doctor has approved my Core eating plan while I'm pregnant with just two adjustments. I need 3 teaspoons of healthy oil and 3 servings of lowfat, not fat free, dairy per day. Core is such a sensible and healthy guide for eating that my doctor felt it was perfectly safe to continue, and I can lose weight while pregnant so long as everything progresses normally. I cannot continue to Weight Watchers meetings while pregnant (they don't allow it), so it will be me and your comments of encouragement to keep me on track.

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

If you're pregnant, please consult your doctor before considering any weight loss program.

The storm before the storm

This week is really, really busy with school winding down, a visiting 3 year old through Sunday, family drama, and Christmas preparations, and I am hopeful that once things get back to normal (ha!) I'll have more time for posting. Finals are next week, and after that I assure myself that I'll have a chance to breathe and eat more than a peanut-butter sandwich on the go (not Core, of course!)

The other night, I made a pork stew with sweet potatoes and leftover buckskin beans. It was okay but not fantastic so I won't share the recipe. Tonight we're having pasta with marinara sauce, orange slices, and hard boiled eggs - in no way a particularly exciting meal, but one that is fast, easy, and kid friendly for my nephew. We'll return to regularly scheduled blog fun in a few weeks.