Weekend Recap

Going bullet style for this one

Saturday Day

• Ran 3 miles with Rich and Lucy, felt great. No foot pain!
• went to Little Rock to the Earth Day Festival.
• saw baby goats, lambs, and some super cool looking chickens
• felt very normal amongst those much hippier than myself :)
• met some potential doulas when it comes time to think about baby #

Saturday Night

• went to Loca Luna with some friends, drank lots of wine and laughed more than I have in a long time
• Rich kept Lucy in the guest room and I got to sleep all night.
• unfortunately my body doesn't know HOW to sleep all night so I still woke up every couple of hours

Sunday

• put together Lucy's Easter basket, she loved the plastic eggs full of Puffs.
• put her in a cute dress and took pics in the yard
• went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant with some of our family.
• totally non-traditional Easter, but it was a great day

In other Lucy news- she tried to say cat and Dickson. Cat is "kuh" and Dickson is something like "ick or ig." No sign of "mama" however.

She got bunny ears, 2 books, a Curious George DVD, puffs, some hairbows and 2 stuffed animals for Easter.

In her pretty dress from CeCe.

What do you mean I can't have a margarita?

4 generations: Lucy, my mom, my Granny, me

Weekend Recap

We had a pretty low key weekend, which was nice. Saturday we went to the farmer's market and got fresh strawberries, kale and swiss chard. Then we went to Barnes and Noble and Target and to lunch at Casa Manana (who puts milk in their quacamole. Really? Is that necessary?). Then we took Lucy to the park to play, then to one of our friend's daughter's 2nd birthday party. Lucy had so much fun all day, and she was worn out by the time we got home. Sunday Rich golfed and Lucy and I just hung out around the house and did fun things like laundry.

I tried to fix the kale a couple different ways. I tried baking them to make Kale Chips, which I've read are wonderful. I must have cooked them too long or used too much heat, because they turned into a disintegrating burned mess. I like the idea of them though, so I'll try again next time. My 2nd kale fail was steamed kale using those steamer bags. Again, wound up with dried out greens. Finally, my 3rd attempt was a hit! I used a mixture of kale and swiss chard.

Bobby Flay's Sauteed Kale

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds young kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock or water
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored. Raise heat to high, add the stock and kale and toss to combine. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar.

I much prefer greens fixed this way instead of boiled and soggy. Plus, another great thing about sauteeing instead of boiling is that you don't lose those wonderful nutrients into the cooking water.

I also fixed Wild Rice and Broccoli as our main dish. It took about 15 minutes longer than the recipe stated to get the broccoli tender, but other than that this was an easy and good recipe.

Yesterday was Lucy's 11 month birthday. I say this every month, but I canNOT believe she's 11 months old. She's pulling up and cruising around getting into everything. She crawls with her right leg out sideways like a crab. Now when she holds onto our hands to walk, she can do it with only holding onto one hand instead of both. It's exciting, but I'm not ready for her to be a toddler. She still takes her naps wrapped on my back, and sleeps with us at night. Once we move into our own place (hopefully in the next couple of months!!!) we'll try to start getting her to sleep in her room at least some of the time. Her only "word" if you can call it that is Dada but I'm still not convinced she associates it with Rich. She also says "adah" all the time like she really is saying something important, but of course we have no clue what she's trying to tell us.

This is what she does when she doesn't want to go to bed, or is ready to get up in the mornings. She pulls up on the headboard and bangs on the wall.

Some of my favorite moments, her wrap-naps.

Dickson is the only dog that really seems to enjoy being around her at this point. He is also the most hyper and spastic one that licks her incessantly and knocks her over, but she doesn't seem to mind.

Thoughts on Dieting and the Diet Industry

Sorry, I'm on a roll today. Here's some more deepish thoughts. This post is not a judgement on people who take diet pills or go on fad diets because I've been there. I have gone on fad diets, taken diet pills and gone through various stages of binge eating and being very restrictive. I can't understand now why I did it, but I know that it wasn't coming from a place of healthy self image or thinking. -Why can't people see that diets/diet pills/fat loss girdles/etc. don't work? If they worked there would be no diet industry because everyone would be thin. -Why do people ignore the facts that exercise and a healthy diet (quite different from "a diet") are the keys to being a healthy weight? -Why do people think it's ok to take stimulant diet pills that increase your blood pressure and heart attack risks in order to lose a few pounds that they'll probably keep off for a month or two. -Why are we so lazy as a society that we scoff when doctors or other healthcare providers (your friendly pharmacist :)) suggest healthy eating or exercise. -Why will people shell out big bucks for prescriptions for chronic diseases or books on the latest fad diet, but complain that fresh produce is too expensive? -Why do people use the argument that "everything causes cancer" as an excuse to not cut out ANY possible carcinogens. If we know lots of things cause cancer, why not eliminate the ones you have the power to? -Why do people smoke? Pretty much dumbest idea ever. I'm sure I'll think of more, but I'll save them for another day.

Weekend Recap

We went to Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas, to watch the Arkansas vs. LSU baseball game series this past weekend. We had a great time! We got to visit with Rich's mom and stepdad, stepsister and stepnephew. Jackson is 6 months older than Lucy and it was fun to watch them together. She leaned over, grabbed his face and gave him a big kiss. I was a little concerned about how she would do since the game Saturday night was at 7:00pm and her bedtime is around 7:30 or 8:00. She had a great time watching people and being walked around (she holds your fingers and walks, her favorite pastime these days). About 8:00 I wrapped her up and she went to sleep. She even slept through the crowd cheering after a game-winning home run in the bottom of the 9th! She had her first baseball game, first hotel stay and first time in Oklahoma all that weekend because our hotel was right over the AR/OK line.

On the vegan front: I have been reading like crazy this past week trying to get as much comprehensive information on vegan/vegetarian diets, especially in infants and toddlers and lactating women....and lactating women who run :) Basically what I've learned is that Lucy and I need to take supplemental vitamin D, B12 and DHA. You can get away with only B12 if you're 100% certain your diet contains enough D and DHA but I'm going to supplement just to be on the safe side. We will be eating a ton of beans, coconut and almond milks, orange juice with added calcium and D, fortified cereals, walnuts, flax seeds, other nuts and nut butters, and of course fruits and veggies. I'm going to start making green smoothies for us. I'm hoping she continues to outgrow her soy intolerance so we can add in soy sources of protein like soymilk, soybeans, tofu, etc. With me breastfeeding and her being a baby, making sure our diet is balanced and supplying all that we need for growth and development is crucial. The book Becoming Vegan has been a great resource because it breaks down how you need to tweak things for various stages of life such as infants/toddlers/pregnancy/over or underweight/elderly. I also loved Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right. It addessed many health concerns of children, and of adults as a result of childhood dietary habits.

I'm making a trip to Whole Foods tomorrow and will hopefully make several things for us to have to eat this week. Some things I'm itching to try include: Fudgesicles (made with cashews, bananas and carob), Oat-Flax bars, Quinoa with peppers, Carrot Cream Soup, and a salad with Orange Cashew Dressing. I'll post pics, recipes and reviews of what I cook.

Vegetarian/Vegan

This post is mainly just for me to jot down some thoughts I'm having. I've toyed with the idea of vegetarianism for years, and actually went meatless for about a 6 month period a couple of years ago. Of course we all know that I love animals so that was always a huge motivating factor for me, but not motivating enough to overcome the ease and convenience, and deliciousness, of meat eating. Not motivating enough to take huge leap outside the box and label myself "vegetarian" or "vegan." Here in the south you might as well grow a 2nd head. I didn't want to deal with explaining myself to people over and over, or to inconvenience others who might be cooking for me.

Well now that I'm a mom, my interests have changed. Now the health of me and my family trumps all of the above. I am very, very seriously considering making the switch to veganism. Here are the things I have recently read and/or seen that are the catalysts for this giant overhaul.

The China Study is fascinating and infuriating. It is very science-y, but I challenge you to read it. It is basically saying that animal consumption increases risks of most chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimers just to name a few. It also explains in detail how these studies get covered up by the industries and government. I'm not one to jump on every conspiracy theory bandwagon that rolls by, but I'm a scientist by nature who needs explanations and this data is jaw dropping.

Whitewash- think cow's milk is good for you? Yeah, I did too. If you don't want to tackle The China Study yet, start with Whitewash. I have been dairy free since last summer and now I have no plans to go back to consuming cow's milk and I certainly won't be introducing any dairy to Lucy.

Earthlings and Food Inc both focus a lot on animals. Earthlings isn't just about food, but more about how we are all creatures of the Earth and on the exploitation of animals by humans. It is extremely graphic and hard to watch. But I forced myself because if I can eat it, then I should be able to watch it. Food Inc talks about animal issues some but it also exposes a lot of the government/lobbyist/industry issues of why our government issued food recommendations do not match up with what science says is healthy for us.

Ok, that's all pretty rambling but I needed to get it out of my head and into words a bit. I know this is very non-mainstream and that makes people defensive. For some reason, saying you are a vegetarian or vegan is threatening to a lot of people. I'm beyond the point in my life where I will make major decisions for myself and my family because they conform to societal norms. I'm hopping out of the mainstream because the mainstream is polluted, overweight and unhealthy.