Vita Coco coconut water review

The lovely folks at Vita Coco did not kindly send me some of their coconut water to review, nope...I actually forked over some moolah at Whole Foods for some of this the other day. I had read a few reviews here and there and they were all favorable so I decided to give it a try. Being pregnant has really cut down on my choices of beverages since I'm not drinking much caffeine or artificial sweeteners and of course alcohol is out, so....what's a girl to drink?? I've been drinking water, some juice and the occasional gatorade or iced tea but I'm always open to new things.

How was the coconut water? Great, I really liked it. Don't confuse it with the thick and creamy coconut milk that goes in pina coladas, coconut water is clear and thin just like water with a mild coconut taste.

Nutrition info: 8.5 ounces for 45 calories and 11g sugar and no protein. It is a potassium powerhouse with 515mg (15% rda) per serving. I know some people are using this as hydration for runs, but for me I don't think it would provide enough electrolytes on a long, hot run since the sodium content is low at 30mg/serving.

I will definitely be buying this again, and trying out some other brands to see what my fav is.

Quick and Dirty Thusday

• Before I knew I was pregnant, I agreed to work back to back 16 hour shifts 2 days this week. What this means is that yesterday I worked from 7am-11pm, drove home, slept, got up at 5 and am back at work for another 7am-11pm today. Then I have to be back at 7am again tomorrow but thankfully get off at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. Can you say tired and cranky?!?
• I am planning on running another 5K Saturday morning but if I'm still wiped out from the workweek, I may sleep in.
• I'm hopefully going to be enrolled in a fetal development study through the hospital where I work. This means I get 6 free ultrasounds throught my pregnancy. Insurance normally just covers 2, so that's 4 extra times I get to see my baby!
• I'm now 8.5 weeks pregnant and still no puking, so I think I'm almost out of the woods and will NOT be one of those poor women who are super sick.
• I'm ready for lunch...I'm thinking grilled cheese and soup.
• Happy Thursday everyone!

Get ready...the blog is blowing up today!

I'm 8weeks pregnant now and we had our first ultrasound and doctor's appointment yesterday. I mean, isn't that just the most adorable little gray blob you've ever seen?:) Yeah, it's totally a blob but in the actual ultrasound you could see the little heart beat flickering. It was so cool! The heartrate was 167bpm which my mom says is a girl so we'll see. I actually have a feeling like it's a girl, but I will be equally happy with either pink or blue. We were just so happy that it measured the right size and had a good strong heartbeat....and that there was only one.

So now I can actually get back to normal blogging and not lame-o blogging. It's no fun to blog when the thing you're most excited about, you can't talk about. So back in September I started composing posts and just saving them to publish later. Lucky ya'll...you get multiple posts from me today. Enjoy!

September 24, Thursday...I'm Pregnant!!!

That's right, see it says so right here on one of the countless...literally, I lost count but am sure it is around 10...pregnancy tests tests that I've taken since this time last week.


This is gonna be a long one, so kick back and enjoy. We're keeping this under wraps for another month or so, but I want my blog posts about it all to be fresh so I'm writing them now and just saving them to post later. That way ya'll get the story in the now and not in hindsight.

Back Story: Rich and I started officially trying for a baby back in June, and I got pregnant on our 4th cycle trying. Since I don't do anything halfway (except for the marathon, since I've only done halves), I dove into Operation Baby Morris headfirst. I bought the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor, started drinking green tea and organic red raspberry leaf tea daily (both rumored to increase fertility), and put both Rich and I on fertility-boosting vitamins. I know. I am crazy. I accept that. The fertility monitor is actually great, you basically pee on a stick a few days a month and it tells you the days you are most likely to conceive. I'm sure we would have gotten pregnant just fine, and probably just as soon, without any of these measures but being passive is not my style and doing all these things made me feel a bit more in control of the situation. Remember this post where I announced that per doctor's orders I was cutting way back on running and officially stopping marathon training? A few of you cried baby then, but I was most definitely not pregnant at that time. My hormones were a little bit wacky and I found some studies that showed that running long distances could cause problems getting pregnant, my doctor agreed with me unfortunately, and I got pregnant the first month after decreasing the running. Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe not, I guess there's really no way to know. I know that runners who run much harder and longer than I did get pregnant every day, but for me something wasn't working so I decided to do whatever I needed to do to increase my chances.

Finding out: For the months we tried unsuccesfully, I still took several pregnancy tests and just got so bummed seeing each negative one. It seemed like I would test, then start my period later that day. Waste of money and emotion. This month I vowed I WOULD NOT test until my period was late to avoid the letdown of seeing that empty space where a line should be. FAIL! 10 days after ovulating (just about the earliest a test would show up postive), 5am I am up to pee and can't resist the lure of the First Response test calling my name from the cabinet. I rub my blurry sleepy eyes, only see the control line, mutter a curse word or two and toss the test in the trash. We sleep a few more hours, run some errands, go to Body Pump and come home. As I'm about to get in the shower, on a whim I pull the test out of the trash and....there was a very very faint 2nd line!! I run into the other room and shove the stick in Richard's face and ask "How many lines do you see? How many lines do you see?" He's like "Uh, I have never seen one of these before I have no idea what I'm even looking at." After giving him Pregnancy Test 101, we both agreed that yes, there is in fact a 2nd line, but since it was about 7 hours old at this time we couldn't rely on it as a true positive. Of course, I had just gone to the bathroom again so I had to wait several more hours before testing again. I think I used 2 old fashioned tests that came up with faint lines again, and Rich was still a bit skeptical since he didn't believe me that the positive line didn't have to be as dark as the control line. But then I used a digital and it popped up with the word "Pregnant" and he teared up. I on the other hand, did not cry. I cried every month when I wasn't pregnant, but the one month I actually was I was suprisingly unemotional.

One week later: So that all went down last Thursday, and I think I have taken a test just about every day since then. I am not going to be able to send this kid to college because I spent it's college fund on pregnancy tests! I am officially (according to my calculations and the help of some online pregnancy calculator sites) 4 weeks and 3 days pregnant today. The next few weeks are critical and I'm really nervous. I know of way too many women who found out they were pregnant, but unfortunately did not wind up having babies for one reason or another. We have told our immediate families and a tiny handful of friends, but other than that we are keeping this quiet until at least 8 weeks. I have my first ob appointment on Oct. 19 and I'll be 8 weeks then. If all goes well, and we see a heartbeat and things are looking good, then you'll know because this post will be up:)

There is SO much that is going to change in our lives in the next year, and it's incredibly overwhelming to think about. Right now I'm just taking things one day at a time, and focusing on taking the best possible care of myself and our little jelly belly.

One neat thing for those of you who made it this far: I had a good feeling about this month for superstitious reasons. About a week before I found out, I had a ladybug land on my shirt. I looked down at it, and thought...hmm..this means good luck, I'm going to be pregnant this month. We all know how superstitious runners can be, and women trying to get pregnant are right up there as well, so I definitely saw it as a good omen at the time, and it turned out to be true. I'll have to find a little ladybug something to put in the baby's room so I'll always remember that day I saw the ladybug.

Here' s my first belly shot, taken at 3 weeks and 4 days pregnant. Goodbye abs.

I'm sorry for those of you who only like running posts, as this blog will likely be lots of pregnancy and baby posts for a while. I am running and working out almost every day, so it will still be somewhat a running blog.

September 25

I always heard people talk about how tired they were in their first trimester, how they fell asleep at 8pm every night and slept like a rock. My experience so far is a little different. Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely exhausted just about every second of the day but then when I get in bed at night I'm wired. It's like a switch flips and my body and brain go into overdrive. My mind races and I toss and turn until I finally fall asleep, then a few hours later I wake up to pee or because a dog needs out and I feel wide awake again when I lay back down. This leaves me feeling so sluggish during the day. It's that feeling of I need coffee now!!! only I can't have it. I know some people do continue to drink caffeine, and small amounts are probably fine but there is evidence linking caffeine to miscarraige so at this point it's a risk I'm not willing to take. I'll live with the overwhelming fatigue because I know it means my body is working hard making our little Baby Morris.



The other major thing I'm noticing is the sore tatas, I mean WOW...like really really sore. But again, nothing I can't live with for sure. I'm also not hungry. I don't feel sick really, maybe a vague feeling of nausea off and on (but I'm not sure this is pregnacy related as I've always tended to be a nauseaus person in general), but I just have no appetite. Nothing sounds good, I don't think about food, I take a few bites of something and don't want to finish it. If you know me, you know how unusual this is. I typically LOVE to eat!! I know that my body knows what it's doing at this point, so I'm just trusting it and eating what I feel like eating when I feel like eating it. I have no doubt that my appetite will return with a vengeance in no time!

6 Weeks-October 5, Monday

I'm now 6 weeks pregnant! I'm feeling pretty good so far and am so glad. I'm still tired, but I've found that exercise helps give me energy to get through the day. I have had a few bouts of mild nausea here and there but definitely nothing terrible.



It is still 2 weeks until my first appointment and it cannot get here fast enough!



Two weekends ago I flew to Arkansas for one of my best friend's baby showers and there were 7 of us at the shower that were pregnant. Just watching her open all her gifts and seeing all that sweet baby gear got me so excited!



This past weekend we flew to Michigan for Richard's brothers wedding. Let me tell you, being the sober one gets old. Really fast. I tried to play it off by drinking cranberry and soda and telling people it was cranberry and vodka, but by the end of the 5 day trip I think most of the people there knew I was pregnant.



Well, I guess that's all for now. I can't wait to see that heartbeat 2 weeks from today!!

7 Weeks-Friday Oct 16

I have now known I was pregant for an entire month, and I'm only 7weeks (almost 8!) along...it's gonna be a long year. I have my first doctor's appointment on Monday and I cannot wait to get my ultrasound. I think seeing and/or hearing that heartbeat will finally make everything seem real.
I am still feeling ok, not great by any means but not terrible either. I have had no vomiting, just food aversions and some nausea here and there. For instance, all I seem to want to eat are carbs. The thought of ground turkey, grilled chicken, vegetables and salad all makes me want to hurl. Donuts and potato chips on the other hand go down just fine. Ugh!! I've been eating a lot of fruit, and a lot of junk unfortunately. I'm hoping in a couple weeks these feelings will go away and I can start eating more lean meat and veggies again. My beloved mexican food is also repulsive to me right now. We've been to Los Arcos a few times in the last month and I just nibble on some chips and salsa and drink water. The queso and pretty much everything else on the menu that I normally can't get enough of just makes me feel sick. Oh, and I am craving sushi rolls which I can't have :(

Odd cravings so far:
jelly beans-Rich went out and got me jelly bellys and I didn't have the heart to tell him that those weren't the kind I was craving. I wanted the big, old school Easter candy kind of jelly beans. Thankfully this one only lasted a day.
barbecue potato chips dipped in french onion dip-random, but delicious
fast food-I normally am not a big fast food eater, because even though I think it tastes great, I know it's unhealthy and makes me feel yucky afterward. I have been simultaneously wanting fast food and being disgusted by it, if that makes any sense.

Go away junk food cravings, come back love of salad!

I still have NO energy, which is getting really old. I basically am a zombie all day, then my mind races at night. Plus I'm up a few times a night to go to the bathroom so that doesn't help. I just don't feel like myself. I'm tired of feeling like doing nothing but laying on the couch. It's like when you take a sick day, then by the end of the day you are so antsy from laying around. I'm antsy but don't feel like doing anything. We are running a 5K tomorrow, so I'm excited about that....but not excited about the super-pokey time I'm sure I'll have. I'm shooting for 35 minutes, I think I could go faster but I'm hesitant to push myself and on my easy runs I'm clocking around 11:30 min miles.

But all these things mean my little June-bug is still growing away in there, so I am thankful for it all! By now she (I'm convinced it's a girl) has a brain, arms and legs, a pancreas and appendix, and even some pigmentation in her eyes....crazy how fast things form. Here's my 7.5 week belly, I really don't feel like it should be growing yet but it is.....uh oh!

7 weeks 5 days--Saturday Oct 17

So this morning was Race for the Cure and if you guys read my original post about it here you may have noticed how I was totally unconcerned about the slow time and lack of a PR. Well that's because of the pregnacy, but since you guys don't know about it yet, I had to avoid the issue. I was very nauseaus at the start, and vowed not to puke during the race. Luckily once I started running, the nausea subsided and the only pressing issue was the need to pee. I was a frequent pee-er to start with, so add in some hcg to the mix (that's the pregnancy hormone for those of you who didn't know) and I basically have to pee all the time. I know that's only going to get worse as the months go by. So anyway, I just took the miles easy and really enjoyed the race atmosphere. True, it was a little disappointing to log my slowest ever 5k time but hey...it's baby's first race so that's a PR for her right:) I just can't get my pace up to where it used to be. Every run feels like you ran a long run and got a bad night's sleep the day before. The legs never seem to feel light and fresh. But since it will probably be quite a while before I describe myself as light and fresh, so I better get used to it.

Also, if you noticed me posing drinking beer in my pj's after the race, never fear, I only had a small sip for the photo and then Rich glady polished off the rest. I'm not gonna lie though...I miss the booze!!

Race for the Cure and Tasty Beer

This morning was our local Race for the Cure 5K and since Rich and I are both off work today we jumped at the chance to run this race. It is pretty cool out today, probably around 50 at the start, which was great for running. My stomach was feeling a little iffy so I took it easy and had a nice slow 3.1 with a time around 32:15 and Rich went ahead of me and finished in 27:16, which was not a PR for either of us. It was our first race in 2 months, and it felt fabulous to be out running, and for such a good cause. Thankfully nobody that I'm close to has had breast cancer, and I'm always so touched at all the survivors at the race and at all the runners wearing bibs "in memory of _____" or "in celebration of _____." It really makes you thankful for your health, and grateful to be able to do such a small thing to help raise money for research.

After the race we stopped by the grocery store and picked up some things for lunch. Rich is cooking chili for us for lunch....yum! A few weeks ago I came home to find a package, it was my winnings from MCM Mama. Yay, beer!!! She kindly sent me 2 beers and 2 pint glasses, how sweet is that?? This one is Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, and it is tasty. We can't get this kind down here in Charleston so it is great to be able to enjoy it. Nothing like drinking beer in your PJs:)

What happened to fall and What do you wanna know?

I was pumped for a 3 miler this morning, but after taking one step out the front door I knew it wasn't happening. It is H.O.T. today!! We ended up taking the dogs for a quick walk but they were just panting and ready to go home after a couple minutes. The temp said 91 with a heat index of 105. It made me reeeeaaaaallly wish I could skip work and make today a beach day.

But, enough boring weather talk. With the lack of formal training in my life right now, I feel like I don't have that much exciting stuff to post about. So I'm going to take the route that some other bloggers have taken (like Shannon) and open up the blog for questions. So..if there' s anything you've wondered about, now's the time to ask. That way I can take the easy way out and use your questions as inspirations for blog posts and you guys get to learn all you never wanted to know about me:)

Happy Friday, hope ya'll have a great weekend!

A Bloggy Award

Yay, the lovelyBrandi at Brandi's Blurbs gave me a Kreativ Blogger award. Intentional misspellings (ie. Kwik Mart, Kountry Kitchen, etc) are a pet peeve of mine, so I'm renaming it the appropriately spelled Creative Blogger award. Thanks Brandi!!

If you get this award, you're supposed to tell 7 random or unusual things about yourself and nominate 7 other bloggers, and leave them comments on their blogs so they know they won, so here goes:

1. I'm terrible at sports, like really terrible. I've tried and sucked at the following: tennis (maybe my best sport but that's not saying much), softball, volleyball, and soccer. I'm tall (5'10") and never attempted basketball because I can't make a basket to save my life. I'm very uncoordinated and me playing sports is a very ugly sight, which is why I think I like running. Nobody else depends on my perfomance and aside from staying upright (which I don't always manage), there's not a whole lot of skilled maneuvers involved.

2. I love scary movies. They are my favorite, and I love that this time of year you can often catch them on TV. The Shining is my all-time favorite.

3. I am missing 2 teeth. They're not in the front so they're not that noticeable unless I'm laughing or smiling really big. I need to get dental implants but will have to have a couple of fairly painful surgeries first to repair/graft some bone, and so far I haven't wanted to commit the time or money to it yet.

4. I am a pharmacist, but I'm still not sure what I want to be when I grow up. I always thought I wanted to be a physician, but then changed my mind in college and decided I wanted to be a dentist (I think I just wanted Friday's off). I took the admittance test, did great on it and started applying for dental schools. I also started working part-time for a dentist and HATED it. I am not good with my hands and get frustrated trying to do things in small spaces, what was I thinking?? Luckily one of my best friends was in pharmacy school and she suggested I try that. I did, and it's a pretty good job to have. I still don't feel like I've found my true calling though. I would like to love my job, but I guess most people don't so I don't feel to abnormal about not loving it. It pays the bills, but it's definitely just a job not a life-calling, if that makes sense.

5. I love to cook, but never did it very often and am just now starting to commit to trying to cook several times a week. My other blog is actually all about my cooking adventures. I am definitely not one of the "health food bloggers" though, I cook all kinds of things both healthy and not so healthy.

6. I have a cat named Shitty Kitty. Her named started out Ghetto Kitty because she came from a shelter in a not-so-desirable part of town in Little Rock, AR. Several of my best girlfriends/roommates from pharmacy school and I all loaded up one afternoon during my 3rd year of school and we picked out this little male cat and named him GK. I took him to be neutered, and the vet called to tell me that it was actually a little girl kitty:) One day when she was still pretty young, she accidentally got locked in my roommate and best friend's room. When we figured it out and let her out, we could smell poo in the room. We searched high and low and could not find it anywhere. Then we look at the bed and notice a big stinky pile in the middle of her duvet. Nice. I had the duvet cleaned and I'm pretty sure she still uses it to this day. That's when Ghetto Kitty became Shitty Kitty. Her name at the vet is Miss Kitty though, and one time Rich had to take her to the vet by himself. He said there were all these people in there with their dogs and then they ask "Who is here with Miss Kitty" and he had to claim her.

7. I love almost all food except for mushrooms, celery and goat cheese. I'm a firm believer in acquired tastes, so I keep trying them but so far I just can't seem to like any of these.

I'm not going to call anyone out and nominate you...sorry, I'm being lazy... but please feel free to use this 7 things idea if you like. Nominate yourselves all you Creative Bloggers out there!

A great weekend in Michigan

We just got home from the airport and Rich is settled in watching football and I'm on the couch for some much needed computer time. Let me tell you about our long weekend in Michigan for Russ and Stacey's wedding festivities.

Wednesday: Off work, yay!! We had good intentions of getting up for a run, but instead ended up sleeping in until about 8:30 which was really nice. We dropped the dogs off at the Pet Resort and they were excited to be there and see their buddies who work there and take good care of them for us when we're gone. We got lucky and had a direct flight into Detroit, so by 3pm we were there and Russ (Rich's brother) and Stacey picked us up. Wednesday night about 14 of us went to dinner then to the Tigers/Twins game. The Tigers won and a good time was had by all.

Thursday: Rich and I got up and went for an easy 2 mile jog around the neighborhood. Then I went with Stacey to a hair salon for a test run of her wedding hair and makeup. Then Thursday night her parents hosted a cookout for family and out of town guests. The weather was beautiful and her grandma makes a mean apple crisp!

Friday: The weather is no longer beautiful, we woke up to a cold rain but I went out for another 2 miler anyway. It was actually really pleasant and I remembered how much I like running in the rain. Some of the girls went for mani-pedis then we all went and checked into the hotel where the wedding was held. The wedding was supposed to be outside, but the weather was very iffy with showers off and on. We went ahead with the rehearsal outside, then had a yummy rehearsal dinner there at the hotel. A lot of the wedding party stayed up and shut down the hotel bar, but I turned in early for a good night's sleep.

Saturday: Wedding Day! The weather was better than predicted: cloudy with a chance of showers instead of full out rain all day. Stacey committed to an outside ceremony and we all crossed our fingers and did a no-rain dance. It worked! The ceremony was short and sweet and perfect. One of their close friends became ordained on the internet and performed their ceremony. It was touching and funny, which we all loved. After the ceremony there was cocktail hour, then dinner (best filet I think I've ever had!) where Rich made his very sweet best man speech that had us all in tears. Then it was party time as the DJ got going and everyone moved to the dance floor. After several hours of dancing and celebrating, there as yet another round of food. Hot pretzels, chicken fingers and pizza so nobody would be sent away drunk with an empty stomach...smart thinking! Stacey's family definitely threw a great party, that's for sure.

Sunday: We slept in a little, packed our stuff and then Stacey's dad took us all to the airport. I may be extremely jealous that Russ and Stacey are leaving for Antigua in the morning. Yep, definitely jealous!!