My Fit Pregnancy Journey.. Second Time Around

Here comes baby #2..

I was really excited this time around!  I had worked really hard on my body and was at a place I was comfortable at getting pregnant again.  I was actually in the best shape I had ever been in.  Was I at my high school weight?  Not at all!  In fact I was 8 lbs above that but now with adding weight lifting, interval training, and clean eating… I was seeing the beginnings of a six pack and muscle definition.

This was a great place to be at to get pregnant but also going to be my toughest mentally.  There is nothing more challenging than watching your body transform after all your hard work.  Yes, I knew I could get it back and I knew it was worth it… but it was still hard to watch it change!  I had never been a scale watcher.  In fact, I wanted the scale to go up before pregnancy because that meant I was gaining muscle!  In the 1st trimester I gained 7 lbs!  I was still working out and eating pretty clean, but had the  addition of extra carbs and some cheats due to nausea.  Didn't help that when I went to a Dr. appt the nurse said I needed to slow down the weight gain.  I only needed to gain 20-25 lbs.  She said to make sure I drank lots of water, which I replied that I drank a gallon.  She then said to get some exercise in, which I replied I work out at least 5 days a week and I eat a pretty clean diet.

I definitely worked out longer and harder this pregnancy.  I had placenta previa with my daughter and it left me with doing just yoga and pilates and I worked out until about 7 months preggo.  This time I worked out until 39 weeks (had Ian on his due date) and weight trained with little cardio.  With both pregnancies I gained the same weight.  37 lbs!!  What I have learned is, your body knows what to do and what it wants.  I did much more this time around as far as exercise and diet and I still gained the same amount of weight.  It was out of my control!

As long as you eat clean and stay active.. your body will take care of what it needs!  Don't get caught up in the weight gain.  Concentrate on being healthy for you and the baby.  Your body will do what it needs to do!

 

 
As far as what I did with my workout routine, check out www.Busymomgetsfit.com .  She has a pregnancy workout routine for the gym and at home.  I got the gym version and followed that 3 days a week.  The other 2 days I did Beachbody programs alternating between Chalean Extreme and Combat. I stayed consistent with my clean eating with the help of my Challenge groups.  They helped me stay accountable throughout the whole pregnancy.  I also drank Shakeology every day!  On November 16, 2013 I gave birth to a healthy 8 lb 9 ounce 22.5 inches baby boy!! :)

 

Gingerbread and Fruitcakes

What comes to mind when I say "fruitcake"??

Im guessing probably.. gross, hard, disgusting, brick, and the list goes on!  Im here to change your mind about fruitcake!

 In our family we make a "fruitcake" recipe every year that was passed down from my great grandma.  Although Im pretty sure a good way to describe this cake is that of a "harvest cake" than fruitcake.  There are no real candied fruits like that of a fruitcake, except the maraschino cherries.  Instead it is filled with raisins, dates, cherries, and walnuts.  With the addition of cloves and cinnamon, the house smells amazing when it is baking.  Today was the first round of fruitcake baking, and I can finally say it smells like Christmas!

I took it upon myself this year to "clean up" the recipe.  Not that the original was horribly bad, but I could do a couple things to make it healthier.  Then I wouldn't feel so bad when I eat a whole loaf of it! :)

Now beware … this "fruitcake" is addicting!!

First, here is the original recipe..  and yes I asked permission to leak this to the public!  We even have the recipe framed on the wall in my great grandma's handwriting!

Amazing Fruitcake

1.5 c. Raisins
1.5 c. Dates, chopped
2 c.  Sugar
2 c. Water
5 Tb. Shortening
3 c. All purpose flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 tsp.  Cinnamon
2 tsp.  Cloves
1 tsp.  Salt
1 c.  chopped nuts
1 c. maraschino cherries, drained, cut in half

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees
1.  Combine raisins, dates, sugar, water, and shortening in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  Stir until sugar and shortening have melted and then turn off heat and remove saucepan.  Allow mixture to cool

2.  While fruit mixture is cooling combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl.  When the fruit mixture has cooled stir into flour mix.

3.  Pour into a greased loaf pan
4.  Bake for about 1 hour and 15 min, until knife comes out clean when stuck into the center

Pretty easy right??

There are only a few things that I had to change up.  I changed the flour to whole wheat flour ( used a combo of whole wheat and AP so that it would not be too dense.  If you have whole wheat pastry flour you can use that instead of the combo)  and for the sugar I used a combo of honey and coconut sugar.  My next feat will be trying to do it with almond flour.  I chose to leave out nuts (not a huge fan of nuts in my sweet things) and the cherries since that are not that clean of a food.  I did use shortening but I used an organic kind of palm oil shortening.

"Cleaned Up" Fruitcake 

1.5 c. Raisins
1.5 c.  Mejdool Dates, chopped
1 c. Honey
1 c. Coconut sugar
2 c. Water
5 Tb.  Organic Palm oil Shortening
1.5 c.  Whole wheat flour
1.5 c.  All purpose flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 tsp. Cinnamon
2 tsp. Cloves
1 tsp. Salt
1 c.  Chopped walnuts

Same instructions as above!

 As I speak it is being devoured!! Must be a hit :)

Of course while it is baking it gives you time to do some gingerbread house making.  I have to say this is the first time we got it to stand up!  lol  Usually it ends up falling down at some
point!

 

Toddler Lunches

Do you have a picky toddler or just running out of ideas of what to feed your toddler?  This post is for you!! 

Ham and Cheese roll up, homemade larabar, whole grain gold fish,
and grapes

Feeding a toddler can make you want to scream, especially if it is a picky toddler!  Here are some ideas that might help you with your next lunch time.

* Make it visually appealing.  Lots of colors and shapes will usually catch their attention

* Bento Box style.  This gives them many options in small portion sizes!

* Introduce 1 new thing at a time.  I usually will have many of my daughters favorites and then 1 new item that she has not had before or maybe she acted like she didn't like it before.

* Dips!  Kids love to dip and a lot of times this will help them to eat their veggies and fruits

PB & J Smoothie Popsicle!

In my daughters lunch box I like to try and include one of each of the following to make it a well rounded meal: 

* Fruit
    ~ try a variety, don't get stuck on one fruit
    ~ Use this area to try out a new fruit with your child!

* Veggie
    ~ Use vegetable cutters to make cute shapes and don't forget the dip! :)
    ~ Carrots, cucumbers, celery, or bell peppers are great starters

* Protein
   ~ This can come in array of foods; yogurt, cottage cheese, hardboiled eggs, meat, hummus, or cheese

* Carb
   ~ Homemade muffins, bread on sandwiches, whole wheat waffles, or crackers

Mandarin oranges with blueberries, ham and cheese roll ups,  carrots and
cucumbers with onion and chive greek yogurt dip

Here are some of my daughters favorite combos! 

* Celery with peanut butter and raisins (ants on a log)

* Waffle sandwiches with cream cheese and all fruit spread 

*  Ham and cheese roll ups 

* Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches 

* yogurt or cottage cheese with granola, raisins, and a little maple syrup 

* homemade lunchable: cheese, crackers, and ham  

* homemade lunchable: whole wheat pita with pizza sauce and cheese 

* Yogurt popsicles 

Peaches, Coconut Rough, and whole wheat pizza

Recipes my daughter loves! 

Coconut Rough ~ So Good!!

Onion and Chive Seasoning for Greek Yogurt Dip

Smoothie Pop molds and recipes

Homemade Larabars

Crockpot Freezer Meals

Everyone has time for Freezer Meals!!! 

This week I knocked out some freezer meals to have ready for when my son decides to make an appearance!! Nothing like having meals ready to go when the last thing you want to think about is cooking, especially with having a newborn and a toddler! 

It really takes no time at all, especially when you're doing them clean!  Meat, veggies, spices, sauces.. and viola its ready to go!  I chose to do crockpot variations this time because lets face it… there is nothing easier than waking up, putting food in the crockpot, and 8 hours later dinner is done!  Not to mention the house smells amazing too!! 

Here are the meals I chose to do.  There are many MANY different freezer meals on the web, but these are the ones that looked yummy to me.  Feel free to search freezer meals on Pinterest you will find TONS of ideas! 

1. Chicken Cacciatore
2. Hearty Beef Stew 
3. Maple Dijon Chicken
4. Pineapple Glazed Ham
5. Salsa Chicken
6. Garlic Ginger Beef
7. Ginger Cranberry Pork Roast 

Ready for the freezer!!

I found these recipes from several sources that I will list.  There are a couple things to change to make them "cleaner".  For any of the "cream of" soups I used the brand Pacific Foods.  They make those soups without any preservatives or additives and really minimal ingredients!  For the brown sugar in the Pineapple Glazed Ham I substituted coconut sugar.  Other than that I pretty much followed the recipes given! Super Easy!! 

The recipes come from: 

Six Sisters-Less than 90 minutes

Six Sisters - 8 freezer meals

Crockpot Garlic Ginger Beef

Cranberry Ginger Pork Roast

Hope this helps you all!!! I know its going to be a lifesaver for me when this baby comes!! 

Happy Cooking! :) 
~Amanda

All About Me!

All About Me... 

I can't believe I am really starting my blog!  This has been a goal of mine this year and I am finally doing it!  I figure I will start out with a little bit about my background and what type of things I will be posting on the blog.  

My name is Amanda, I am 29, and I grew up an army brat in the town of Fayetteville, NC.  My dad did 24 years in the military, mostly in the Special Operations so we stayed at Fort Bragg, NC for his entire career.  Crazy right?  A military family that never PCSd.  I was an active teenager, playing competitive volleyball through out high school.  Went on to college at UNC at Wilmington, did some volleyball coaching at a middle school and still working out some.  College wasn't too kind on my waist though.  In true college style I gained the Freshman.. um, well.. 25!  Even though I was still working out my diet was lacking.  I consumed mostly anything that was convenient and fast.

It was the end of my college years that I started to make a real change.  First off, I met my husband and we all know how that makes any girl want to lose weight and look good.  I knew I loved this man very early on!  The second factor that led to my diet change was a health scare.  Three days before I graduated college (2006) I found out I had thyroid cancer.  Scary right?  I was scared but through lots of research I knew that it was easily curable and it was "the cancer you want to have if you're going to have cancer".  Within a month of finding out it was cancer, I was flown to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas and had a total thyroidectomy.  Recovery was easy and painless.. in fact I was back to working out 2 weeks later.  I had several radioactive iodine therapies and am happy to say its been 6 years now and I am still cancer free!

My fairy tale wedding :)  

 Surprisingly the cancer didn't scare me.  I felt God had his hands around me at the time and I knew everything was going to be alright.  What bothered me was that everyone told me I was going to have to watch my weight.  That people with thyroid issues gain weight really easily.  I was bound to prove them all wrong.  I came upon The Clean Eating Diet by Tosca Reno and started to follow those guidelines along with working out with people who wouldn't take "I don't feel like it" for an answer.
I had my ups and downs.. I have been all spectrums of the TSH range and my weight has maintained.  When I was crazy hypo I did not let me stop working out or chow down on trash.

I got pregnant in 2009 with my daughter several years after my surgery and was also able to maintain a good pregnancy gain.  Now pregnant again with my son, I am doing even better!

Pregnant with my daughter (38 weeks) on left, with my son (38 weeks) on right

If anything, I want this blog to show you that YOU CAN DO IT!  The biggest challenge we face is ourselves.  I could have a million excuses of why I cant do it.. but I don't!  There are no excuses for me! Thats the deciding factor!

So fun facts about me that I might not have included in this intro:

* I am an army wife, 6 years now! Its challenging at times but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I am so proud of my hubby and what he does.  The sacrifices are worth it.
* I have the American Flag tattooed on my back, yup, Im that proud :)
*  Only food I loathe... corn dogs.. that is just disgusting! blah!
*  My daughter, Anna, is 3 years old and I have a son that should be coming out today! lol
*  We are PCSing to Hawaii this January!  This will be the biggest change of my life!  I have never been more than 4 hours away from my family and I have only missed 2 Thanksgiving/Christmases my whole life!

Deployments are rough but there is nothing like that feeling at homecoming!   Wouldn't trade that feeling for the world

With this blog I hope to be posting lots of clean (and sometimes not so clean) recipes that I love!  I also want to share with you my crazy Army life!