Real Life, Real Food - Drink It Up

All moms worry about what their kids are eating and drinking.  As a mom of a child with CHI I worry about nutrition and carbs.  Adding the complication of anemia and I am basically a crazy person for labels.  With all of this in mind, I found an easy and yummy way to insure Zoe gets all the carbs and nutrition she needs.  Our answer is drinks.

After Zoe has her iron medicine, she can not have dairy for 2 hours to help with absorption.  So we had to find a new drink for her morning and night time bottles.  We could use juice, but both nutritional and carbs are lacking.  Finally we found Naked Juice.  Many of Naked Juices are dairy-free and all of them taste great.  Zoe's favorites are Green Machine and Peachy Almond.

Hope this helps you get nutrients (and carbs if your little one needs) into your little loves.  Do you have any tricks?  I would love to hear.  All help is great!

See you soon!

Love always

Soupy Sunday's Veggie Soup

Nothing warms me up on a cold autumn day than soup.  I love making a huge pot and eating it for the whole week.  It also freezes well.  Being super lazy, this helps me make healthier choices when I am hungry and in a hurry.  If you would like to try it, here is how I make my veggie soup.

Ingredients:
1 yellow onion
1 bag of small yellow potatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can northern beans
3 boxes vegetable broth
1 bag frozen green beans
1 bag frozen corn
1 bag Manishevitz Vegetable Soup
Mini pasta

The best part about this soup is how easy it is to change and add anything.  Instead of yellow potatoes you could add russet or sweet.  If you like other beans or veggies, throw those in.  Please make this your favorite veggie soup.

First sauté the onion in your soup pot.  After that add the rest of the ingredients except the mini pasta. I love mini pastas.  I think they are so cute!  Let the soup heat up and meld into yumminess.  After a bit, add the pasta to boiling soup.  After cooking for the amount of time to cook the noodles, enjoy!

I love mine with lots of pepper, so it actually looks like this. 

Would love to hear if you like try the soup.  If you also like soups, please let me know your favorite!  Always looking for new recipes to try!

See you soon!

Love always

Scheduling Motivation

With the start of a new week I have set myself a new goal.  No more excuses.  I have told myself this time and time again.  So I had to think "what is different this time?"  How can I make this stick?
Hopefully I have found a way around my excuses.  My new motivation is scheduling!  The rest of my life is crazy scheduled between my husband's work and band, Skyler's school, homework, and extra-curriculums, Zoe's doctor appointments and play dates, my parents, and life's errands and responsibilities.  I just need to start making working out and my health a responsibility as well.
This week is going to be my planning time.  I am going to figure out walking with some other moms I have been walking with, figuring out what group fitness classes I want to take and then I am going to schedule them into the family calendar.  I am going to make mommy unavailable for set times each week.  Fingers crossed!
Have you ever tried this?  I sort of feel anxious taking this time for myself.  Would love any encouragement you have!  Please leave a comment below.
See you soon!
Love always

Anemia

As I mentioned in a previous post, not only does Zoe have CHI, but she is currently overcoming Anemia.  While on this journey three things have really helped.
The first is to understand what Anemia is.  The type of Anemia Zoe has is iron-deficiency.  According to her doctors, Anemia (iron-deficiency) is on the rise for babies between 9-20 months.  Preemies and babies who drink more than 24oz of milk (at Zoe's age) are also at higher risk.  Preemies are born with less iron and milk actually blocks iron intake.  Milk also fills babies up so they have less room to eat potentially iron-rich foods. Zoe was preemie at 33.5 weeks and drank too much milk.
To add to Zoe's complications foods high in iron are not usually high in carbohydrates.  Thankfully the team working and helping Zoe is amazing.  Doctors call frequently to check up and one doctor actually stayed on the phone with me to brainstorm foods that Zoe would like that would support sugars and iron.  I hope everyone finds such a supportive team.
The second is to not blame myself.  As parents we want to protect our kids.  In this pursuit, we will stumble at times.  My stumble was focusing so hard on carbs that I overlooked other nutrients.  As a new mom with a CHI baby, I am learning that all foods are not created equally.  I have to remind myself that my intention was to protect Zoe from low sugars.  I can't carry around guilt for an accident.
Thirdly, drink water.  This goes for everyone.  I know this sounds so crazy, but it is important.  Keeping yourself hydrated will help keep you healthy and strong so your focus can remain on life.  I always try to keep water with me.  Especially my lemon water.  I also started giving Zoe water.  Everyone who heard she was taking iron warned me of two things: black poop and constipation.  And yes, the black poop is no joke.  When I was pregnant my doctor reminded me all the time, hydration helps with constipation.  I think giving her a little water throughout the day really helped combat the constipation.  Please consult your Pediatrician before offering your child water.
I hope maybe these insights into our Anemia journey help.   Did your child overcome or is overcoming Anemia?  Did anything really help you?  I would love to hear!

What do I do now?

Being a mom and trying to add cardio to my life is so difficult when hurricanes decide to dump meters of rain for days on end.  As you know from one of my previous posts, I love taking walks with my kids.  They both love looking at nature and I think it is great for kids to be outside as much as possible.  But this weather is making excuses so easy!
For the past few days I have been relying on my Fitbit to keep me going.  I have the Flex and I love it.  Not only is it great that I can change the bracelet to match my outfit or day, but I can also keep track of how many steps I take each day.  I find that being able to look and see that I have only stepped 1,000 steps or less than a mile really motivates me to get up and move.  I try to find different ways to move whether it is cleaning, doing laundry, or playing a more active game with the kids.
I also really love the competitions on Fitbit!  I am a competitive person, so seeing my husband ahead of me in steps really makes me want to get up and move.  Thankfully he is layed back enough to not mind my victory dances.
The only thing I wish was available is a stroller option.  Fitbit figures out steps by movement, so pushing a stroller is not always picked up.  Maybe it could be another option with the hands.  A person could choose between dominant, non-dominant, and stroller.  I am sure there are other times in life that a person walks a bunch, but does not move his or her arm very much.

Do you have a fitness tracker?  Does it have a stroller option?  How do you like it? Please leave comments and let me know.

See you soon!
Love always

Challenging Myself

The other day I challenged myself to overcome one of my greatest fears.  For me, it is starting something new and venturing into the unknown.  Even when I was younger I had this fear.  As a swimmer, I was always the last person to jump into the pool for warm-up.  I knew that I was dry and warm on land and that jumping into the pool would make me cold and wet.  The hardest part of practice was just starting.
After talking about trying to get back into shape by walking and watching what I am eating, I decided to try a group fitness class at my gym.  The class I chose was a barre pilates class.  Not only have I never taken a group fitness class, unless you include swim practice, I have also never learned barre or pilates.  I have heard all about how amazing both exercises are and how they will help me get into shape by toning up and working on flexibility. 
Even after walking in and starting the class I was still nervous.  I felt very self-conscious.  What if I messed up or couldn't even do the moves?!  I think I was also the largest person in the class.
While watching myself for 45 minutes in a mirror didn't really help me feel better about my size, but I did feel better about me at the end of the class.  I didn't do all the positions correctly and I couldn't do all of the moves, but the instructor was so helpful and encouraging.  She always gave alternatives to the entire group as an option for everyone and would explain the movement again if I was having difficulties.
The ladies in the class were also wonderful.  After the class most of the ladies came up to me and gave very encouraging comments.  "That was a great first day!"  and "You did great!"  were a blessing to hear when I felt everything but great. 
So happy that I went to the group fitness class and learned some barre pilates.  I know I am going to feel the workout tomorrow.  Hopefully I will make this a weekly adventure.
Do you have any of these fears?  Have you tried to overcome them as well?  How did you feel during and afterwards?  If you also are doing barre, pilates, or both and want to share your experiences with me I would love to hear!  Also would you like to hear more about my journey to getting back into shape?  Would you like to join me?  Maybe every week we can check in and encourage each other? 

See you soon!

Love always

Quick waters

I love flavored water.  But as a mom, I have no time to cut fresh fruit and remove all of the seeds to add to my water.  I have come up with a couple of easy shortcuts to make flavored water easier and faster for a mom on the go whether it is to work or after kids.  

Lemon water is full of health benefits.  It helps with detoxing and cleansing our insides.  Lemons are also the hardest to prep for water.  One time I actually counted 17 seeds in 3 slices of lemon!  Thankfully I found Minute Maid 100% Pure Lemon Juice.  I really like that it is just lemon juice and water and the bottle is 7.5fl oz.  This size makes it last longer and is more cost effective than those little lemon juice bottles in the produce section.  Also, this juice comes frozen and lives in my fridge, so I think it stays fresher longer.

My next shortcut is for anyone who likes fruity waters.  We always keep frozen fruit in our freezer.  These double in use for waters and smoothies.  Skyler loves berries in his water.  He also loves really cold water, so the fruit doubles as ice cubes to keep the water extra cold for him.

On my Pinterest page I have a whole board on different combinations of fruit and herbs to help give inspiration to try new flavors.  Do you have a favorite combo I should try?  Please let me know!  I love trying new ones!  Also, if you use either of my shortcuts, please let me know.  Would love to hear if they help you too!

See you soon!

Love always