Sorry for the lack of updates……we had a baby!
Ellenore Marjorie joined our family on 12/17/11 @ 1:48am weighing in a 6# 2 oz and 18.5 inches long. She arrived 4 weeks early so we have been getting adjusted around here!
She just celebrated her 1 month birthday and here she is to say hi!
Last year sometime, the Libby convinced my mom, Granny the Great, to buy her The Hunger Games.
This was the first time I had ever heard of the book.
A few months later, Zack asked me to grab him Mocking Jay while I was at Barnes & Noble one day because he desperately needed to read this third and final book in the trilogy and the waiting list at school was a mile long.
Upon hearing about these books, the Alex picked up The Hunger Games and read it and then got on my case to order Catching Fire so he could read the trilogy as well and it was the only book we were missing…..so, I ordered it.
I had zero…absolutely NO desire to read any of these books.
All I have heard for the last few months out of my husbands mouth is Anne, I really think you would like the books, you should read them…..blah blah blah…
Then over the weekend I had Zack get The Hunger Games off the shelf for me.
I decided the time had come to check it out. It seemed like everyone I knew in real life and on the interwebs was reading these books.
Personally, I blame it on Brittany and her Facebook posts, the tears she shed and the fact she read the book in 12 hours!
So it began….
Sunday night as I lay in bed I started reading it.
Less than 24 hours later…..I finished the damn book.
Yes, I was sucked in.
Instead of doing housework, responding to emails, blogging etc…..I read.
I read while I was nursing Ellie.
I read while I ate my lunch.
I read while Ellie and Alexander napped.
I read while Alexander watched the Power Rangers.
I just read and read until I finished the book.
I loved it.
Except for that one part when that really bad thing happens and I cried.
That part did not make me happy.
I slammed the book on my desk and told the Alex I was pissed and didn’t want to read anymore.
10 minutes later, I picked the book back up and continued.
Now I am reading Catching Fire. I am only about 50 pages in but I can already feel it sucking me in.
Oh and I finally caved and watched the trailer for The Hunger Games movie and now I am dying to see it.
So, if you are looking for me here, on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest etc. and can’t find me it is because I am off reading!
As we all know, eating whole grains is important to our diets. In our house we have been working hard to introduce the kids to more whole grains, you know, whole grains that taste good to them and they have absolutely NO CLUE that what they are eating is filled with whole grains!
General Mills has pumped Cheerios®, Lucky Charms®, Cinnamon Toast Crunch®, Honey Nut Cheerios® and Total® with whole grains and my kids don’t even realize that what they are eating is good for them!
General Mills has also made it so whole grain is listed as the first ingredient when you look at the side of the box indicating that whole grain is the first and most prevalent ingredient.
To help with choosing products with whole grain, General Mills developed “Fast Lane for Whole Grain,” an online educational game. Consumers can navigate virtual grocery store aisles and identify products that have whole grain as the first ingredient, with the option to enter a sweepstakes to win one of each of the 50 cereals with the white check. Make a commitment to add more whole grain to your diet by simply pouring a bowl of cereal with the white check including Cheerios®, Lucky Charms®, Cinnamon Toast Crunch®, Honey Nut Cheerios® and Total®. For more information on the importance of whole grain and a chance to enter the “Fast Lane for Whole Grain” sweepstakes, visit www.WholeGrainNation.com.
According to Dr. Travis Stork, emergency room physician and host of “The Doctors,” identifying whole grain products can be challenging. Shoppers can look for nutritional cues on the front of the box, but they need to read the ingredient list to know if they are getting enough whole grain. Ingredient lists detail ingredients in order of prevalence, and if the words “whole grain” are followed by a grain like wheat or oats, it means the food contains more whole grain than any other single ingredient. Here´s how to determine if your cereals have whole grain as a first ingredient:
With all the health messages facing grocery store shoppers, it can be confusing to translate what appears on food labels into nutritional needs, and hard to determine which foods have a meaningful amount of whole grain. Dr. Stork has some additional recommendations to help you include whole grain easily into your diet. They include:
Start Early! The Dietary Guidelines recommend people get at least 48 grams of whole grain in their daily diets. Get a jump-start on the day´s nutrition by incorporating whole grain into your morning routine. For instance, when choosing cereal make sure whole grain is listed as the first ingredient. One easy choice is cereal with the white check, which have more whole grain than any other single ingredient.
Make Simple Swaps. Choose whole grain versions of the foods you love. Great options include whole wheat pasta and whole wheat bread or even whole grain crackers. Also, try different types of whole grain. Use brown rice instead of white rice as a side dish at dinner or popcorn, which is a whole grain, for a snack.
Don´t Judge a Food by Its Cover. The front of food packages provide good nutritional cues, but don´t forget to read the ingredients and check the nutrition label and side labels for additional health information. Cereals with the white check even include the amount of whole grain per serving on packaging.
Before I became pregnant with Ellie, I was headed in the right direction with my weight loss. I kicked off 2011 with the plan of taking back control of my life and losing weight and getting healthy. I was doing great, I had lost almost 30 pounds and then boom……we found out I was pregnant with Ellie. Needless to say that was the end of my weight loss for the next 36 weeks.
Goodbye weight loss journey.
Hello healthy pregnancy weight gain.
Yes, this pregnancy I managed to keep my weight gain to a minimum and only gained 17 pounds.
Yay me!
This time around I was more cautious about what I was eating and how much of it I was consuming. I didn’t want to end another pregnancy down and depressed and struggling to lose weight once again.
This time, I did it right.
I gained 17 pounds in the 36 weeks I was pregnant.
In the past month since Ellie was born, I have lost 42.
I don’t know how I have done it, but I did.
Well, I know that 6 pounds 2 ounces was Ellie, approximately 2 pounds was the placenta, another 2 pounds each for the amniotic fluid, uterus and maternal breast tissue. There is also the approximate 4 pounds of maternal blood and another 4 pounds of fluids in the maternal tissue plus another 7 pounds of maternal fat and nutrient stores. All of that adds up to 29.2 pounds and then there is the added benefit that I am exclusively breastfeeding Ellie.
So yeah, I’ve lost 42 pounds in 1 month.
I couldn’t be happier.
Now I just need to lose at least 130 more and then I will be happy!
I can do it.
I am on the right track.
Now I just need to wait until my check up in a week and a half so I get the okay to start exercising on a regular basis again!
Here’s hoping I can stay on the right path this year!
(P.S. Did I mention that on December 24th, 2011 I celebrated 1 year of being smoke free???!!!)
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Hard to believe our little Ellie is already 1 Month Old. She’s is getting bigger and stronger every day and we can definitely see the difference!
