today marks exactly two weeks of this whole PALEO PLAN taking over my life – so it seems as good a time as any to offer a little update.  here’s the rundown:

recently enjoyed: paleo trail mix, chef’s salad, paleo pumpkin muffins and tilapia with macadamia and avocado salsa and roasted beets

let’s go back in time about 3 weeks.  BUDDY aka MURK aka life coach aka…you get the idea…showed up to her usual babysit EBN gig (which is less babysitting and more preschool of one – i always come home to find a kid who knows WAY more than she did when i left in morning) with a funny looking lunch.  apparently, she was going to try a paleo challenge for the next 6 weeks and she had brought with her meals number 1 and 2.  for those of you who aren’t in the know (which means you don’t live in the bay area and you aren’t on pinterest) paleo is all about eating like a caveman caveperson.  there’s a lot of meat and seeds and nuts and veggies and fruits.  there’s no dairy  or grain or sugar or processed food.  if you know me at all, you’d know that typically i’d be all, uh, no.

but then we go back another week or so.  turns out a couple of ABN’s coworkers are into this whole paleo thing and one of them gave a presentation that i took part in, about the paleo lifestyle.  his dramatic weightloss got me thinking for sure, but so did the other benefits.  i’m a girl who has had constant tummy troubles since high school.  no question, it’s stress related.  but it’s triggered by food as well.  and i think it would be difficult to find someone who likes her carbs and sugary snacks and diet cokes as much as me.  it was time for a detox.

i’m a girl who takes direction pretty well so we’re following a specific plan.  i’m cooking a ton.  that’s an understatement.  i’m cooking 3 meals a day, plus preparing a snack.  cooking.  not pouring cereal into a bowl for breakfast.  it’s taking basically all my free time (which explains my lack of crochet progress) but the recipes have been delicious.  i’ve had lots of foods in my house that i never imagined i’d find myself slicing, dicing, roasting and grilling.  recent meals include: pork sausage stir fry, ginger beef and broccoli, egg with avocado and salsa, grilled chicken breast with sweet potato mash and sautéed kale.

after two weeks i can tell you – i’ve lost weight.  mostly, i think it’s due to the fact that i’m eating way less than i typically eat.  there’s no extraneous snacking; no shoving a handful of cheddar bunnies in my mouth as i set out EBN’s lunch, there’s basically no dessert.  but, even better, i’m feeling great.  not a tummy ache to be had (okay truth: i’ve cheated once.  my friend was visiting and she brought cheese and bread from CHEESE BOWL in berkeley and it was just too much to resist.  i had very little and yet, i paid for it dearly).  for the first few days i’d finish a meal and still feel hungry.  then i realized, it wasn’t hunger, i just wasn’t stuffed.   go figure.

so two weeks down, four more to go.  as of now, i’d like to keep it up after the challenge portion is over.  i mean, don’t get me wrong – i’m looking forward to a flex day in which we can order in sushi (yes, those date nights are on hold right now), or i can swing by a drive thru and pick up a fountain soda diet coke.  but for right now, i’m enjoying my paleo trail mix.

on a daily basis i work on eating healthier and for the most part – i pick and choose pretty well. sure, i often indulge but i think i’m making conscious decisions about what i’m putting in my body.

for every good choice though, there are obstacles. in no particular order, here i my current top ten:

1. my kid is terrified of the blender and cries 1000 rivers as soon as i hit liquefy. she’s game to help me put my fruit, spinach and greek yogurt in the blender but isn’t so into the racket that follows. i can’t make the GREEN MONSTER smoothie when she’s asleep because it’s sure to awake her from her very peaceful dreams. so basically i’m forced to choose between causing trauma to my little one and starting me day off the way i want

2. i like good wine and good wine is served best with good cheese and good cheese should really be served on good crackers…you get it

3. DR. PRAEGERS makes for a fantastic quick meal for the little miss – it also tastes delicious when i taste more than my fair share to make sure it is temperature appropriate

4. not so skinny girl margaritas have recently become my drink of choice when out to dinner

5. PINTEREST

6. the little one drinks plus or minus 20 oz of organic whole milk a day and i’ve found it just too easy to pour a tad into my morning coffee

7. have we discussed the crack that is the CHEDDAR BUNNY?

8. anxiety – there are people who get anxious and stop eating. i am anxious and eat pizza and sour candy

9. PACIFICAKES – i won a gift certificate for a dozen cupcakes while at a school auction last week and decided my mama crochet night was the perfect opportunity to share. unfortunately the leftovers have been staring at me over the last few days, while ABN has been away, which means i have slowly made my way through the bunch. damn those tasty suckers (for those interested – the carrot were by far my favorite!)

10. being alone just really isn’t good for me – body or soul. for better or worse we live by a schedule and when that schedule gets interrupted, for whatever reason, it throws us all into a tailspin. skipped meals followed by impulsive burrito adventures are not the norm around here but when ABN is away…things happen. another reason it’s good he’s home.

on saturday night MBN came over for a pajama party and we cooked this fabulous – and healthy meal (i’ll share the recipe next week) – a vegetable rice bowl with mis dressing and a fried egg on top.

we followed it with STEP UP – if that’s not a healthy night, i don’t know what is!

we’re baaaaaaaaaaack!  it was truly a FANTASTIC long weekend get away - which i will share more about at some point later this week.  for now know there was a LOT of food, a LOT of booze, a LOT of cute baby and not very much sleep.  you know it’s a great vacation when you need time to recover from said vacation and let me tell you – we need time.

alas, time is not something that we have a lot of these days.  EBN’s first birthday party is this sunday and i have planned the party of the century (well, the party of the century by one year-old standards…i hope), and so my to-do list is endless.  thinking about it, makes me a little stressy.  rather than get overwhelmed by things i need to do now – i’m thinking about all things i’ll be doing once we blow out the candle on the birthday (cup)cake:

• clean and organize my closet – it’s in a not good state
• exercise – let’s be honest, this is not going to happen before sunday but goals are important
• get started on our photo wall – i have an entire pinterest board devoted to the cause
• start chanukah shopping – are we really doing 8 nights of gifts?  does a box of diapers count?  i sorta think so
• schedule dentist and eye doctor appointments before the end of the year
• follow-up with that whole joining a synagogue thing
• catch up on my dvr – it’s scary
• host playgroup(s)
• clean out my google reader
• organize the pantry – it’s even more of a disaster than my closet
• update that damn baby book
• plan a trip to LA

i follow a lot mama bloggers.  i like reading their stories.  hearing about their ups and downs.  learning from their experiences.  they make me laugh as often as they make me cry.  they inspire me.  i feel like following these women makes me a better mama.

and a better dresser?

many of the women that i follow happen to not only be mama bloggers but fashion bloggers as well.  they thrift and remix and wear animal print!  until EBN started napping on a fairly regular schedule (shit, now that i wrote that we all know she will never.nap.again) my early mornings, after EBN was done with her morning suckfest, would be spent feverishly getting as much work done as humanly (or inhumanly) possible before ABN and EBN returned home from their morning hike.  now, i sit in my office and after checking to make sure there isn’t a work emergency that needs my attention pronto, i open my google reader to see what my ladies have been wearing.

so i figure it’s time for me to step up to the style plate.  ever since quitting my office job some 20ish months ago (see, it really was before i was pregnant), i haven’t had the need to put outfits together (there wasn’t so much the need then either, i worked at a community center after all) but i always feel better about life in general when i’m dressed to kill – or at least, look like i didn’t just roll out of bed, because let’s be honest, i’ve been up for hours.  i’m working on setting attainable goals (working) and so rather than being disappointed with myself when i don’t dress-up all fancy, or when i choose to sit and fast-forward through my favorite soap rather than dig through bins of clothes at a thrift shop (it’s about balance people) i’m going to make these two commitments here and now:

1. i pledge to do everything in my power to limit my wearing of elastic waisted pants to once a week (most likely mondays – the beginning of the week is always rough)

and

2. i pledge to utilize what is already in my closet – to remix – if you will.  as i’m on this last little bit of a weight loss journey there is no point in investing in any new items now.  so, until those last 10-15 pounds are dropped, i’m sticking with what i’ve got (ABN, have you fallen off your chair yet?).  [it should be noted that this was written before i realized that, at long last, ZARA, has finally opened their on-line store... the world can be so HARSH]

i’m going to make an effort (read: this is not one of my commitments) to post a photo or two a week of some of the highlights – i’ve got to be held accountable for something and proof is in the pudding…right?

it's about 75 degrees out today, i pledged to get dressed, not to dress appropriately

the deets:

sweater – vintage; jeans – sevens (it was a big day in the BN house when i could zip these over my post-baby-bump; long sleeve henley – ancient GAP; shoes – converse (comfort is key); hair – no-heat curls (god’s gift to mama’s with no time).

there you have it – my first attempt at some mama style.  check back next week to see if i’ve kept up my pledge.

chubby babies are cute.  i should know.  i have one.

chubby mama’s are not so cute.  i should know.  i sorta am one.

once ABN and i decided it was time to start a family i immediately stopped going to my thrice weekly spin classes.  while some mamas-to-be vow to stay in the best shape of their lives, i took my impending pregnancy (and by impending i mean, before we even started trying) as an opportunity to take 9 (10) long months off.  i skipped the frozen yogurt and went straight for the full fat ice cream.  i traded subway veggie delites for blt’s from my local deli and poo-pooed the stairs in favor of the elevator WHENEVER possible.  i still took daily walks up and down the rolling hills of san francisco but that had more to do with the fact that being in a car made me hurl, than with the desire to get any form of exercise.

at each of my monthly, bi-weekly and weekly OB appointments i’d squeeze my eyes closed as i stepped on the scale.  i just didn’t want to know.  i was sure i weighed as much as a house – i sure felt like i did.  but with each visit the nurse reassured me that i was doing fine and that i should just keep doing whatever i was doing – and so i’d go home and order pizza.  at the end of the whole thing i gained exactly what my doctor considered “a healthy amount” (okay, i was within in 1 pound of the “healthy” range, but i was still in the zone).  i was shocked, but grateful and i vowed that with the arrival of EBN, i would start to make better choices (just one scoop).

but then i started breast-feeding.  OH.MY.GOD.  my friends had told me that in addition to all the wonderful benefits of breast-feeding, it would also aid in my weight loss.  it seemed counter intuitive to me – after all, my knockers were rock-hard-swollen-to-the-brim with excess liquid.  how could they possibly help me LOOSE weight?  but with each suck that little EBN took, i watched the numbers on the scale slowly go down.

i’ve been a few pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight for months now.  at first i applauded myself for reaching such a milestone so quickly (just to be clear, apart from breast-feeding, i basically did nothing).  but lately, now that the scale seems to have settled, i realize that if i don’t kick things into high gear soon, and loose the 10-15 pounds i’d still like to shed, things are going to get a lot harder.

friends – i fear that my breast-feeding days (read: weight loss magic trick) are numbered.  it’s not that i want to stop.  now that EBN is only nursing 3-4 times a day i could keep going forever if it wasn’t for one little thing (okay, 6 little things): TEETH.  every time my little bug latches i tense up, concerned for my most sensitive appendages.  she doesn’t mean to (at least i hope she doesn’t) but when she gets tired, or bored, the pooper bites.  hard.  and emphatically.

i’ve already transitioned her to a bottle of pumped milk at bed time because that seems to be the most dangerous feeding.  but just this afternoon, as she was drifting off while keeping one eye on monday’s episode of general hospital (that was another bad habit i picked up while pregnant) she chomped down hard and i let out a shriek.  there went the rest of the nursing session and her (my) nap.

ideally i’d like to keep my nipples AND keep nursing all while shedding just a bit more of me.  but, because i realize it’s now or (possibly) never, i can’t rely on my lactation glandes to get me through it.  we’re kicking weight loss into high gear people.  so while i’m not going to start doing 1000 crunches a day (i never had a flat tummy before – why should i start now?) i am going to actively count points and push myself just a bit further on those beach walks with EBN.

as a reward to myself, once those pounds are purged, and the milk has dried up, there’s some INK i’m contemplating.  as an ink-less mama this is pretty serious business.  check back here later this week for more on what and where.