I am 8 months post partum and the sleep deprivation of the first months of L’s life is starting to wane. It’s amazing what a little sleep can do for your energy levels! Our routine is starting to develop and I feel that I can finally put some real focus and determination into my workouts, which I am loving!

All of my skinny pre-L, post-M clothes are starting to fit and I am gaining my confidence back. Having babies and the resulting weight gain/body changes can be difficult to digest. For me, the insecurity that I felt from being overweight most of my life started to creep into my mind again. The self-doubt can be extremely toxic and clouds my mind in really nasty ways. I thought that I was free of all of that garbage, but here I am 4+ years later dealing with it once again.

I sometimes find myself discrediting the progress that I have made so far (I’ve lost 35+ pounds and SO MANY inches in the last 8.5 months) in addition to creating doubt in my ability to fit back into my size 4/6 clothes (seriously, I’ve done this twice before, I know what I’m doing and how to best take care of my body… why doubt myself and the Lord?).

I have been working out since I was cleared by my midwives at 6 weeks post-partum, but have been fitting in workouts during naps, episodes of Sesame Street and my evening adult time with Allan. Honestly, making time for a workout was starting to rule my day and I hated it. I found myself resenting my kids when they would wake early from a nap and interrupt my workout, I was unhappily behind on my daily to-do list and purposely missing playdates and running errands in favor of trying to squeeze in a sweat session. All in the name of what? vanity? endorphins? a smaller jean size? It was seriously NOT worth it. I vowed to myself that once L was waking once per night (or less) I would make it a point to be in bed by 10 PM and up for the day by 5:30 or 6 AM to fit in my workout and get ready for the day prior to breakfast with my family.

L has been sleeping really well for the last few weeks. So, it was time to follow through with my promise to myself. It’s taken a little bit of work, but I am FINALLY following through.

So, what am I doing to motivate this night owl into becoming a morning person?

First of all, I bought some new Lululemons. I got my first ever pair of wunder unders (on sale!), a tank that doesn’t ride up while doing inversions and a pair of crops that are perfect for sweaty cardio sessions. Yes, they were expensive, but thankfully I was able to find some of it on sale. Quite honestly, I am going to wear these items over and over again. Plus, I feel hot in them, which helps to keep me motivated to wake up and workout. Sometimes I find myself hanging in my workout clothes all day long because I love them so much. P.S. nursing mamas, check out the Moving Comfort Rebound Racer Bra it gives fabulous support, plus the straps have velcro for easy access.

I am back on my mat. I bought a package at Blooma to use on Barre and Vinyasa classes. I loved Blooma’s prenatal classes when I was pregnant with L and was so excited to go back to enjoy the classes they offer for mamas that aren’t expecting. I recently stopped attending Barre classes, because I felt that they were aggravating an existing hip injury that I sustained while pregnant. However, once my hip heals up, I plan to try going back, because I loved the energy of the class. My favorite class, though, is the Thursday 6 AM vinyasa flow class taught by Nan. I’ve only been twice, but both times she has completely pushed me out of my comfort zone and empowered me in so many ways. The class is life changing. Plus, I learned how to do a headstand and a handstand!

I bought a new strength training book. I loved Rachel Cosgrove’s, The Female Body Breakthrough, when I read it and completed the strength training plan before getting pregnant with L. So, when I saw that Rachel was releasing a new book, Drop Two Sizes, I immediately pre-ordered it. This week I began the strength training program and it does not disappoint. I can already feel my body responding and changing!

I signed up for a Zumba class. My friend, Renea, teaches a Zumba class once per week through Community Ed and I jumped at the chance to, once again, shake my booty with a room full of women. We have such a great time and Renea is a wonderful instructor. I leave class dripping with sweat, confident, silly and free. It’s the perfect mid-week refresh and a serious calorie torcher.

This is what my weekly workout schedule looks like:

Monday: 6 AM Full body lifting session at home, per Drop Two Sizes

Tuesday: Evening Zumba class

Wednesday: 6 AM Full body lifting session at home, per Drop Two Sizes

Thursday: 6 AM Vinyasa or active rest

Friday: 6 AM Full body lifting session at home, per Drop Two Sizes

Saturday: Optional metabolic workout, per Drop Two Sizes or active rest with the family

Sunday: Active rest with the family (walks, bike rides, playing in the yard or gardening)

Namaste!

On Friday our playdate was cancelled due to pink eye, so we accompanied my parents to the MN Landscape Arboretum, which was free for the day. It was such a beautiful place and we will definitely be back as a family to roam the gardens and pick up tips for our own yard. Their toddler play area inspired me to create a special space in our back yard especially for the kids to experience and play with nature.

Luke was unimpressed.

These are apple trees that were trained to grow along this fence. Here is a description of the method used to train the apple trees. I would love to do this with a row of honeycrisp apple trees!

Daffodils in full bloom!

On Saturday we went to opening day of the Mill City Farmer’s Market with my parents.

Rollin’ deep in front of the Spoonriver crepe tent!

Before we switched to a gluten-free diet, we loved to stop by the Spoonriver crepe stand while at the market. So, we were so excited to see that Spoonriver now makes gluten free (and dairy free!) crepes.

M and I split a honey and cinnamon crepe – it was amazing! I was only able to talk M into sharing a small piece with me.

While at the market I met the inspiring, Beth Dooley, who signed my copy of her new book, Minnesota’s Bounty: The Farmers Market Cookbook. I am so pumped to start cooking from this book!

The flower that M planted for me for Mother’s Day.

On Sunday we spent the day as a family brunching at my favorite restaurant, French Meadow, then we had everyone over to our house for dessert.

1. Lots of restful, bliss-filled naps.

2. Interest in crawling.

3. Freshly sun dried diapers.

4. Sun-filled trips to the Zoo.

5. Picnics in our front yard.

6. Nature walks along the creek.

7. Local playgrounds.

8. Swinging.

9. A one-on-one date to tots yoga at Blooma and out for fresh juice and muffins at Tao Natural Foods.

10. Blueberry-Zucchini Snack Muffins.

I posted this picture last week and got lots of requests for the recipe, so I thought I would pop in while the kids finish up their naps to share this very simple recipe that has become one of my go-to snacks.

I love to top my Quinoa Protein Cereal with either fresh berries, banana or Rhubarb Strawberry Sauce. Also, be on the lookout for a new twist on Rhubarb Sauce this spring.

This recipe is inspired by Gina’s Cookie Dough Cereal, which is another wonderful breakfast and/or snack option.

Now, don’t get me wrong, M is an amazing eater. He loves most fruits and vegetables and will usually try just about anything I put in front of him. Plus, if you indulge him in some entertaining literature (aka The Bearenstain Bears, Dr. Seuss or Little Critter) during dinnertime he will devour just about anything.

With the guidance of our pediatrician, chiropractor and my own research I started M on a few supplements to round out his already healthy diet. I get a lot of questions about the “pills” that I give M and thought that I would share with you what works for us.

Since we started supplementing M’s diet and omitting all gluten and most dairy we have seen a marketed improvement in his elimination. As a young toddler, M would oftentimes get bouts of toddler diarrhea, that I feel was inhibiting his ability to confidently potty train. Since we made this change in his diet he has been symptom-free and is now going potty on his potty chair like a champ.

Please note that I am not a doctor, I am simply a well-informed Mom. The following are products that we actually use and like. I was not compensated in any way for this post and used my own money to purchase these products. This is not meant to be a replacement for medical advice. Please check with your pediatrician before adding any supplements and/or vitamins to your child’s diet.

Every day M takes the following dairy-free and gluten-free supplements, which we purchase on Amazon,Vitacost or iHerb (use code TIV632 for $10 off your first iHerb order!), depending upon current sales and available coupon codes.

• Garden of Life Vitamin Code Children’s Multi Vitamin – 1 chewable bear per day
• Nordic Naturals Children’s DHA – 3 chewable balls per day for a total 189 mg of DHA
• Jarrow Formulas Yum-Yum Dophilus probiotic – 3 chewable pills per day for a total of 1.5 Billion CFU
• Natural Factors Children’s Vitamin D3 – 2 chewable pills per day for a total of 800 IU (he gets an additional 200 IU in his Multi Vitamin)

This might look like a long list of supplements and vitamins resulting in a mountain of pills… and it is. We used to get out every pill every morning during breakfast, which was cumbersome and oftentimes I would simply skip giving M (or myself) some of the supplements out of laziness. Then I developed a better system. Once a week I sit down with our basket of vitamins and supplements and three weekly pill boxes, one for each of us, and I put all of the supplements into our boxes. The pill boxes then go into the fridge. Each morning while making breakfast, Allan takes out the boxes and sets them on the table to be taken after breakfast. This is a serious time saver, as the weekly sorting only takes me a couple moments longer than the daily sorting.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting the blog, as I receive a very small percentage of sales. You can always google the supplements on your own if you would like to opt-out.

Warning: this is a completely random post induced by my sneezy/stuffy state of being.

Happy Earth Day!

We celebrated by reading one of our favorite books.

We are hunkering down for yet another snow storm that is forecast to hit tonight. We could get up to 10″ of snow! When will Spring finally arrive? Well, it looks like it could get into the mid 70′s by the weekend!

Truly I tell you that the weather here in MN can change on a dime. As many of us forecast, the weather will go from Winter to Summer without a hint of Spring in between.

In honor of Earth Day, I had planned to plant our new herbs from Gardens of Eagan that we picked up last week, but, alas it was too cold, wet and rainy this morning to venture outside with the boys. We were really excited to plant them in their new bamboo homes that we picked up at EGG|PLANT Urban Farm Supply over the weekend. Maybe tomorrow we will lay down plastic in the living room and plant the beauties inside. What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day?

I am thinking forward to our garden and have requested that Allan build a few raised beds for my Mother’s Day present. I still have to decide where to put the beds and what size we would like. When doing my research I stumbled upon Earth Easy’s lovely site where they sell FSC certified raised beds in all sorts of configurations. Oh how I would love one of these beds along with a few salad tables and tomato towers. If only money and time were unlimited! Are you planning a garden this year?

image source

Some very wise words from Dr. Seuss this morning:

Like, I always tell my boys: YOU can make a difference!

Looking to be inspired to create positive eco-friendly changes in your life? Check out a few of my other green minded posts:

- Composting 101 Post + Video

- Zero Waste :: Eliminating Paper Towels

- Green Party Planning

- Notes from my Conversation with an Eco-Friendly Expert

- Wise Acre Eatery :: Yummy Eco-Friendly Dinning

Things have turned a delightful corner. I almost didn’t want to blog about life with a seventh month old and 2 (going on 3) year old because I didn’t want to jinx it! However, keeping with my promise to be honest with you, my beloved friends, coupled with the fear that I may have talked several of your out of every procreating, I felt that it was necessary to write about how lovely life has been lately.

Let me just start out with a big fat sigh of relief. I am back on my mat and enjoying every single minute that I have connecting breath to movement. Luke and I even enjoyed our very first BYOB class. He adored it and flirted with anyone who would make eye contact. So cute! I also broke out my treadmill for an intense walking workout.

Meal sized salads featuring this wonderful dressing are a daily affair! I am ready for spring weather and am celebrating its hopeful return by pretending it’s 60 degrees outside, even when it’s snowing.

Luke loves food! We have been giving him small tastes of table food for a little over a month now and he gobbles up everything he can get his hands on. We decided to do Baby Led Weaning this time around, because Luke now has EIGHT teeth. Also the purees that I did make for Matthew were mixed into soups and baked goods rather than actually fed to the baby. He much preferred table food over purees.

In an attempt to encourage Luke to sleep we kept swaddling him until last week. I was doing research on swaddling and read that it can potentially keep babies from learning to roll over, which Luke is not comfortable doing. He loves to sit unassisted and play with toys, jump in the jumperoo and pivot side to side while on his back, but rolling over stomach to back and back to stomach are not part of his repertoire. Also, he was a pro at breaking out of his swaddle and would wake himself up after escaping.

The swaddle weaning process was a little rocky at first, but now that Luke has adjusted to his freedom he is only waking 1-2 times per night to eat. We started by unswaddling one arm for 3 night and then unswaddled both arms from then on. The first couple nights were rough, but everything is better now and he is actually putting himself back to sleep when he wakes up and fusses in the middle of the night!

We made a rocket ship. Also, work on the playroom in the basement is in full swing. We are so excited to put together the finishing touched this weekend!

My inalwas are back home from Alabama, which means that I have been enjoying some very necessary me time on the regular. Which is also why you have been hearing from me on a consistent basis. Hooray!

What’s new with you? I would love to hear about your blessings!

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I very recently became acquainted with the amazingness that is Indian food. It all started last summer when Allan and I decided to take the plunge and try Namaste Cafe in Uptown. It was the heat of the summer Spring and I was pretty far along into my pregnancy with Luke. We had recently found out that he was a boy and we were still contemplating names. Allan and I spent a romantic evening on the front porch of the cafe’s renovated house sipping chai lattes pouring over baby names, our future and the sweet little bundle of joy we would be welcoming in a few months. That night I decided to join Blooma and our road to homebirth began. I will always remember that night.

After this culinary awakening I finally decided to try my hand at cooking Indian food at home. With the help of a very special premixed Vindaloo Curry Powder, the following dish is one that is super easy to throw together. If you’ve ever made homemade curry you know that simple and quick are abnormal adjectives to use in reference to curry-making, which usually involves mixing several spices to achieve the perfect blend. But trust me, you can throw all of the ingredients into the slow cooker in a matter of minutes, set it to low and be about your business the rest of the afternoon!

We served our curry on a bed of sweet brown rice, which I soaked in water and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar for several hours prior to dinner. We love sweet brown rice because the texture is closer to that of sticky, sushi rice making it easier for Matthew to scoop.

In addition, I strive to always soak the grains that we consume (all oats, rice, quinoa, millet, etc.). The following are a few of the benefits of soaking your grains:

• First, you will significantly reduce the cook time of the rice from 45 minutes (unsoaked) to 20-30 minutes for well soaked rice.
• Second, soaking rice reduces the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors in rice, in essence pre-digeting it, so that our bodies can actually benefit from the nutrition they contain. For more information on soaking grains and the reason that you should soak all grains, check out this article.
• Third, your rice will be softer and fluffier – closer resembling white rice in texture.

Yep. That’s a bunch of snow. God has quite a sense of humor, doesn’t he? The last time MN had snow in April was 2002, the year I graduated from high school. Prior to that, you have to go back to the 1980′s.  Hmmm… something just isn’t right.

This is what it looks like inside.

Much better!

Since we returned from vacation I have felt off in my eating. I am eager for Spring to arrive and feel like my eating habits are in limbo. The MN weather is schizophrenic this time of year. It’s cold one day and warm the next; raining today, snowing tomorrow. Couple that with the fact that organic berries are beginning to show their pretty little faces next to the winter squash at the market and I don’t know if how to eat. It makes me want to buy a can of pumpkin and bake something delicious one moment and consider going high raw the next.

Yesterday I made up my mind that even though it is snowing outside, the calendar says that it’s Spring! So I grabbed every fresh veggie we had in the fridge and threw together this beautiful salad featuring one of my favorite seasonal dressings. It’s been almost a year since I’ve whipped up this dressing that is inspired by the oh so talented Ashley.

On a side note, have you preordered Ashley’s gluten free cookbook, Baked Doughnuts For Everyone? If not, rush over to Amazon right now. Better yet, open the link in a new tab, finish reading this post and then buy her book. I’m impatient and don’t feel like waiting while you check out. But, trust me, her book is not going to disappoint!

So, back to the salad.

Honestly, this recipe can easily be adapted to the ingredients that you like and/or have on hand. Don’t have green onions? That’s ok, sub in red onion or a sweet onion. No mango? No problem! Unsweetened dried cranberries or cherries are amazing in this recipe.

Strawberries too spendy in your neck of the woods? No worries – add an apple, pear or orange. Have a can of garbanzo beans laying around? Throw them in instead of butter beans! See what I mean? Completely adaptable!

Prefer baby lettuce, spring mix or spinach over kale? Perfect! Just wait to dress the salad until you are ready to eat. Or better yet make cute salads in a jar and vacuum seal them to keep them fresh for your lunch pail all week long.

This really is a very simple recipe the hardest and most time consuming part of chopping all of the veggies. Aside from that the dressing and salad come together in 10 minutes flat.

For the base of this salad I used lacinato (aka dino) kale, which is a softer variety of kale that lends itself to raw applications. Like I said earlier, you can easily substitute any other green in this salad. To prep the kale i simply torn the leaves off of the thick stem into bite sized pieces and washed/dried it in my salad spinner.

To amp up the nutritional value of this salad I added a secret ingredient: raw, lactofermented sauerkraut. Now, I know what you’re thinking… Sauerkraut is stinky, sour and funky tasting. But honestly, raw sauerkraut is none of those things. It’s lightly salty, kind of sweet and completely addicting. It also amps up the nutritional profile of the salad because it is literally swimming with probiotics and beautiful microorganisms that help to build your gut flora and keep you healthy.

I cannot wait to make my own raw sauerkraut this summer, but this winter I have been purchasing the Bubbies brand from Whole Foods. I also like to add a little local, raw Kimchi to my salad, but because Matthew is not a fan of spicy foods I left it out of this one.

Next up is the Strawberry Mango Basil dressing. This stuff is serious business. Even Matthew scarfes down salad coated in this super low fat, ultimately healthy, outrageously delicious dressing. Even if you don’t make the salad, you MUST make this dressing!

I like to keep my salad dressings low in fat so that I can opt to pile on avocado, hemp seeds or other delicious fats. However, I did add a bit of cold-pressed walnut oil to aid in emulsification and add a few extra Omega 3 healthy fats to the mix. Feel free to omit the oil completely, as it wont influence the flavor or sub any organic, cold pressed healthy oil of your choice (EVOO, pumpkinseed oil and hemp oil would work beautifully).

You will notice that I did not add a grain/starch to my salad, like I usually suggest that you should. As you know, due to Luke’s food allergies I am limiting my starches and grains, so instead I opt to top my salads with an additional protein source (chicken, hard boiled eggs, tempeh, marinated tofu, etc.) along with an additional fat source (1/3 of an avocado, additional hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, etc.) – you just have to do what works best for you. This salad would pair perfectly with 1 cup of cooked quinoa, millet or wheat berries.

We’ve been a little under the weather over here. Luke has been teething up a storm with SIX new teeth coming in. Two of them finally popped through last week, giving him some relief. But seriously, that boy wants to ensure that he has at least one tooth for every month he’s been alive. He has two more days until he is 7 months old and one of his bottom incisors is just about to make it’s appearance. It it does he will have seven teeth. Let’s see if he can keep up the pace! Also, he learned to clap yesterday. Here’s a short video of him randomly practicing this morning.

The highlight of our weekend was the Artcrank show opening party. Allan’s poster looked rad! It is always so much fun to catch up with friends and beam ear to ear with pride of my husband’s amazingness. We wont know how well his poster sold for a couple months, as the show is moving to One on One Bike Studios and Handsome Bicycle shop until early May. However, the early feedback seemed really positive. Missed the show? Want to check it out? Click here for the details.

Before the show, Matthew got a haircut! I am still shocked every time that I look at him and wonder if I made a mistake cutting off his beautiful curly hair. Although, now I need to decide if we should go shorter or let it grow out again. Opinions?

Before

After

I finally made it back on my mat! It has been 7 months since I have been to the studio for a class. On Friday I took my very first Blooma Barre class. I had a lot of fun, but didn’t necessarily click with the class at first. It’s a lot of low weight/high rep moves mixed with some yoga and wasn’t initially convinced. I do love my heavy weights! I noticed that (one of) my favorite prenatal yoga teachers, Corrine, was offering Barre class at 6 AM on Monday mornings and vowed to myself that I would check it out.

photo courtesy of Blooma

So, I crawled into bed by 10:00 PM last night and set my alarm for 5:30 AM. After a bit of a rocky night with Luke (2 wake-ups totaling 1.5 hours awake) my alarm went off and Luke started crying. Allan changed his diaper, I brushed my teeth and hair, fed him for 10 minutes and rushed out the door while Allan rocked him back to sleep.

So, was it worth all of the trouble? YES! Corrine rocked Barre and it was just what I needed. I was sweating and shaking and completely engaged. I loved the yoga warm up and the cardio intervals combined with holds and pulses and squats and lifts. I plan to make her class part of my regular workout rotation!

I would also love to check out Jesse’s class, but that would mean packing up the kids in the middle of Luke’s morning nap to make a 9:30 AM class… which seems like such a headache.

Luke is asleep and Matthew just conked out. So, I better hit the shower before it’s time to prep dinner!

Have an amazing afternoon!