Resolution

It's the New Year and after finally decompressing from the holidays (although it seems as though my body is still catching up) its time to start in on a new routine!

Karl and I have both been vegan previously, and it helped my health tremendously. From my skin (no break outs), to my mood (after getting over the sugar addiction hump), to my gut. But we have fallen off the proverbial wagon, and who can blame us? We have a demanding 7 month old after all.

But life is no excuse when it comes to health and happiness. From my approximately 6 months of vegan-ness that I experienced I can truly say that eating that way made me literaly happier. And what better time than the present to make a new resolution?

However, knowing that life throws you curveballs, I find the best way to set yourself up for success is to be realistic. Making a home-cooked vegan meal EVERY night is not a realistic staring point. So here are the rules of my new resolution:

1. Eat primarily vegan (avoid meat and dairy, although don't beat yourself up about the dash of honey)
2. Limit the amount of white flour and white sugar
3. Stick to whole foods
4. Don't count calories, but only eat when hungry (I'm looking at you fig newtons)
5. Eat breakfast every day (Starbucks doesn't count!!)
6. Bring lunch to work as often as possible using dinner from the night before (this works well as most recipes are written for 4)
7. Have 1 meat day a week (chicken or fish - lean protein)
8. Have 1 cheat (eating out) day a week.
9. And most important of all, MEAL PLAN. Go grocery shopping and stick to the planned meals, even if the days shift around a bit.

Personally, I see this as more of a lifestyle choice then a diet, and I know it will take some time (and grumpy-ness) to change the routine. But honestly, I see this plan as being more effective in the long run than any fad diet.

If A can do it so can we!

Mommy's milk is vegan right??

Now to convince the husband :)

xoxo

K

7 months.

Baby girl, you are 7 months old and full of personality. Bright blue eyes and light brown hair. We have to clip it to the side already to keep it out of your face! No teeth yet, but plenty of drool. You love to be scared and giggle, snort, and laugh. "Da" is your favorite thing to babble, "Dada" as Karl likes to remind me. You also know "Baba" and "Ts" and how to blow bubbles. You can sit assisted, a master of tummy time and rolling. Not crawling yet, but we are guessing that it will be any day now.

Eating is a daily activity and you get to try everything that we eat, from avocado to ravioli. You smack your lips when I'm cutting up your bananas and apple. However, a good portion seems to go off the table as a treat for the dog. The only bad thing about the food is the stinky poops that come out! It makes cloth diapering a bit more interesting. Good thing daddy installed the sprayer on the toilet downstairs.

You are growing so fast I can barely remember how small you were (although you weren't that small at almost 9 pounds). You love to make music or listen to jazz, dancing around the house with Daddy making big kicks. Every day you read books and you talk at the pictures, or yell, covering your face with them while wiggling or gnawing on the end of the page. The kitties are very exciting and you love to pet Oscar. You also like to bounce up and down in your jumper. It seems like you would do it for hours on end if we would let you.

We love you so Andy Wren.

xoxo

K

Ravioli Slumber

Last night A ate a whole ravioli. She is really getting the hang of this eating thing. Then, she slept until 5 AM!

In other news, I woke up at 4:30 AM to discover that my breasts had become filled with achy rocks and were porn star size.

You win some, you lose some.

Left out

Such is the life of a new mom.

It might my own pessimism that seems to have clouded my mind the last few weeks, but I feel more alone then ever when it comes to friends. Because I was the first one to have a baby in my group of friends, I feel like there is so much misunderstanding about what I am interested in, how much free time I have, how to even be my friend now. What a culture I live in where everyone wants to see the baby the first two weeks of their life (forget about how mom feels) and then disappears until the maybe special occasions. I wish I lived in a society that reached to new families and surrounded them with the support they need.

Before I gave birth, I will admit that I would tend to be the one to reach out to people. Despite struggling with having friendships that weren't necessarily reciprocal, I accepted that. If I didn't put myself out there, make the plans with people, I would have to live with the fact that I may not have friends. Always the instigator. And I did have close relationships. But after having A, I rarely have time to reach out more than an offhanded Facebook message. My needs are different now; I either need to go out after baby goes to sleep at 7 PM or get home before I have an overtired, fussy, screaming child. I would gladly welcome any invitation to escape for a few hours.

So not only do I have to lean on my husband for almost all of my physical and emotional support, all the friendships that I had seem like they are indefinitely on hold.

"I think everyone just assumed you'd be on baby duty."

I feel like no one reaches out to me. It's so isolating.

Buddhism fail

Well, that was major fail. We went to the 7 PM class and I mistakenly, naively, thought that A would sleep through the mediation and teachings. WRONG. I was trying to nurse her to sleep but the room and people were just way to interesting. During the mediation she stopped nursing to look around at all the others, Why are you guys so quiet? "DADADADADA". Needless to say, I had to remove myself and we ended up leaving early.

How embarrassing...

Havarti Dog Farts

My cloth diaper addiction continues…

In other news, Arctic (the bad dog) managed to feast upon hummus, a whole package of havarti cheese, tortillas and an undisclosed something in a plastic bag today. This dog drives me insane.

Time to eat delicious vegan pizza before heading out to Buddhist meditation with the bae's.

NW Flight - Admiring the beauty

Some pictures of my flight to Grand Coulee/Electric City on Tuesday. It was a beautiful day despite the stagnant air on the ground, in fact, it made it more beautiful.

Mt. Rainer

Mt. St. Helens

Downtown Portland through the haze

The views almost made up for the fact that I nearly had a panic attack before the flight upon realizing that I had not yet finished getting my travel approved. Thankfully the pilots let me on the plane.

K