Organically Growing

The offical blog of HappyGreenBaby.com

My Anti-Nesting Phenomenon November 12, 2008

Filed under: Organic Food & Cooking, Pregnancy Nutrition — happygreenbaby @ 4:42 pm
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Forget making Martha Stewart-inspired cookies or putting together an office organization plan from Real Simple … right now I can barely motivate to wipe the crumbs off the toaster. Typically I’m a house-cleaning, clutter-clearing, gourmet dinner-making fiend! Pre-pregnancy, every night Marc and I would sit down to some delicous plate of grilled salmon and fresh vegetables, followed up by a delightful baked dessert of some sort. Not so anymore.

Despite my best intentions to be the best baby host I can be … my eating has really gone downhill. Instead of preparing our gourmet meals, I find myself picking through the fridge to make a salad for dinner or a bowl of canned soup at lunch. Yogurt and Apples with Peanut Butter have become our after dinner “treats” … and while insanely good for me, I’m a bit appalled at my lack of enthusiasm when it comes to cooking.

And it’s not just cooking, either. The thought of crouching around in the bathroom the scrub the shower or mopping the kitchen floor seems like a colossal waste of time. Maybe it’s because we’re in the process of making a cross-country move and we’re incredibly busy with other things. Maybe when we get to Seattle the foodie in me will reappear, and as we get settled I can start back on my insane dusting habits.

Then again … maybe Anti-Nesting isn’t so bad afterall.

 

Who Thought Eating Could Be So Much Work? October 30, 2008

Filed under: Fitness, Organic Food & Cooking, Pregnancy Nutrition, organic pregnancy — happygreenbaby @ 11:09 am
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I think every pregnant woman imagines she’ll spend 9 months gorging herself on anything her heart desires without a care in the world: ice cream, big fat burgers, jars of pickles (like my sister in law did). Fortunately for me, my cravings have been leaning toward the healthy realm and have had me chomping on pineapple, strawberries, Honeycrisp apples and yogurt of every flavor and variety. 

My problem thus far with this whole pregnancy nutrition thing isn’t trying to keep my hand out of the cookie jar, but in fitting in all my calories and nutrients every day! The pregnancy books say you only need an extra 300 calories a day for baby. Figure in that I used to have about 1400 to maintain my weight + 300 calories for baby = 1700 daily intake. Factor in those days when I go for walks or lift weights and I need to add in at least another 300 calories to make up for the burn factor. That’s 1900 calories on the typical day!

I’m a grazer. I don’t eat huge meals – but snack throughout the day with a bowl of oatmeal here, salad there, apple with peanut butter … so it’s been hard to keep track of what I’m eating.

Enter the really cool website www.BabyFit.com. On BabyFit, you can create your unique user profile with your goals, etc. but all the nutrtion is geared toward pregnant women. You can either follow their daily meal plans (there’s not a vegetarian option, so it didn’t work for me) or add your own foods each day. I’ve been adding my meals as I eat them and it gives you a running total of your calories, fat, carbs, protein, iron, folate, calcium and how you’re doing at reaching your goals. It’s been great for me because there are some days when I feel like I’ve eaten so much, but the handy charting will show me where I’m falling short – so I know to have a yogurt for a snack or to stock up broccoli for dinner.

 

To the Core of the Matter September 11, 2008

Filed under: Fitness — happygreenbaby @ 10:22 am
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A couple years ago I met with a trainer at my gym to get a weight workout put together. About half of said workout consisted of core exercises. I rarely did them. It took too much time!

Recently, I started going to a 30 minute Core class at the gym and was feeling pretty rock solid. Then, we decided to get on this baby-making train and I figured the one exercise I could slack on without guilt would be abs. I mean, they’re going to get all stretched out and huge anyway, right?

You can imagine how crushed I felt when I came across a certain paragraph in The Organic Pregnancy that touted the benefits of strong abdomen muscles in supporting the baby and helping in a comfortable delivery.

Damn. I guess it’s back to the 11:15 core class on MWF.

 

Pre-Baby Weight September 9, 2008

Filed under: Fitness — happygreenbaby @ 9:16 am
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I’m a big fan of celebrity news. Whether or not I can get my hands on the latest issue of US Weekly, In Touch or OK! at the gym will dictate how long I stay planted on a stationary bike. Along with all the baby bump chatter and crazy celeb baby names, there is invariably an article about some starlet’s breezy track back to their pre-baby weight in a matter of months. Even my friends like to talk about being back at their “pre-baby weight” not long after their little bundle of joy arrives.

In fact, just this morning I was sweating it out on the elliptical at the gym (in an attempt to assuage my guilt from pizza and the Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pie I couldn’t resist while babysitting the neices last night) and the cover story on Health magazine was all about getting back in shape after pregnancy.

But it gets me to thinking … what about those of us who aren’t at a pre-baby weight we want to get back to? Will there be a day when I’m psyched to be 140 lbs. (like I am now)? While I’m definitely not too concerned about losing an extra 5lbs. before I get pregnant (I might never get there!), I am absolutely focused on staying active and fit.

Everything I read says being in good shape BEFORE getting pregnant (in addition to staying active during pregnancy) will help me to have a happier, more comfortable pregnancy (and birth) – I’m all for that!  I also know that once I get preggo, I won’t be running any more half marathons or sweating it out in spin class … so I’m getting my burn in now. And maybe I’ll be at a pre-pregnancy fitness level I can aspire to instead.

 

The Decaf Experiment September 2, 2008

Filed under: Pregnancy Nutrition — happygreenbaby @ 9:54 am
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Unbanieknownst to me, the groggy husband started his own decaf experiment over the weekend while I was away.

Last week, I picked up a bag of Decaf SWP Organic, Fair Trade beans from Sunflower Market and stashed them in the freezer, intending to put the beans in a jar on the counter, so the aforementioned spouse would be none the wiser.

The regular beans ran out over the weekend and Marc started dipping into the decaf beans … apparently without noticing. The decaf bag is clearly marked DECAF and is orange in color (the usual kind we buy comes in a green bag). Despite his non-noticing or complaining, I decided to play it safe and stash be rid of the bag and its blatant labeling.

So far so good. The coffee is tasty and I haven’t had to relinquish my coffee-making duty. Yet.

 

Coffee Conundrum August 30, 2008

Filed under: Pregnancy Nutrition — happygreenbaby @ 10:38 am
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I love to have a cup of coffee in the morning. I’ve even been known to indulge in a little Starbucks rendezvous on a rainy afternoon.

Of course, it’s not really earth-shattering news that pregnant women are supposed to cut back (or out) caffeine.  Research has found that a higher amount of caffeine is linked to miscarriage and low birth rate – so I figure as part of my three-part system to create a clean, mean baby-making machine, I should work on cutting back the bean consumption now. But what is a “higher amount of caffeine”?

An article in the NY Times says that “pregnant women who consume 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day — the amount in 10 ounces of coffee or 25 ounces of tea — may double their risk of miscarriage.”

The American Pregnancy website says that a pregnant woman should have no more than 300mg of caffeine (three 5oz. cups of coffee) a day.

Compound these conflicting numbers with the fact that the amount of caffeine in any given cup can vary by bean and brewing method. So, to play it safe I’m considering going decaf. It’s an easy enough option at the local coffee house, but since I share my morning pot o’ joe with a groggy husband I’m thinking I will have to take a bit sneakier here at home.

The decaf coffee experiement continues tomorrow.

 

Why I Choose Organic August 27, 2008

Filed under: Organic Food & Cooking, Pregnancy Nutrition — happygreenbaby @ 9:31 am
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Marc and I eat a mostly organic diet. We tend to stay away from packaged, processed foods as a general rule, and eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. But that’s not to say we’re perfect eaters. Just last night we gorged ourselves on MorningStar Farms veggie buffalo wings and fish sticks. Both highly processed and definitely not organic. But the point is – we try to eat organic as much as possible – particularly when it comes to meat, dairy and fruits and veggies.

So when I read in The Complete Organic Pregnancy, that pre-pregnancy is a good time to switch to organic foods, it wasn’t a real shock to the system.

Choosing to eat organic has all sorts of altruistic benefits – It’s good for the soil and water supply. It’s better for farmers, who aren’t exposed to toxic chemicals. But when you’re playing nutritional gatekeeper for your little peanut (or peanut to come), probably the most important aspect of choosing to eat organic is that it is better for your body to not nosh on toxic pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormones. While research is still pending on whether or not dangerous substances from conventional food can actually harm a developing fetus – I say why risk it? Pretty much anything I want to eat can be procured in an organic version, so why not go organic?

 

The Art of Entertaining, In Your Uterus August 24, 2008

Filed under: Fitness, Pregnancy Nutrition — happygreenbaby @ 10:05 am
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I love to entertain. We have friends over for BBQs, dinner and wine tastings of all sorts. I pride myself on giving our guests a top notch experience with comfortable seating, good music and fine foods. So you better believe I’m going to be one hell of a hostess to this little baby that will be partying in my womb for 9+ months.

One of the best parts of planning for a pregnancy is that you can actually get yourself in order before you host the little lima bean in your womb. By this I mean: I can get my body in a strong, healthy physical state – which will not only help me carry a happy healthy baby, but will (in theory) make the pregnancy and delivery more comfortable, too (or should I say, less uncomfortable?).

I think of this ready-ing as a 3 step approach:

1. Create a healthy body on the inside (diet)
2. Create a healthy body on the outside (exercise)
3. Create a healthy home

More on how I actually implement this to come …

 

Here’s a story August 16, 2008

Filed under: organic pregnancy — happygreenbaby @ 9:30 am
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I’m 30. My husband is 37. We have been married 2 years (together for 7). We have two golden retrievers. And two super cool nieces, 5 and 3 years old. It’s no secret that we’d like to have kids, and it seems the topic has been in our conversations more and more over the last year.

We are not “trying” to have a baby … mostly because I absolutely despise that turn of phrase. When people talk about “trying” to get pregnant, they are really just telling you that they are having lots and lots of sex. I really don’t want to announce the frequency of our sex life to anyone. Period. 

So, needless to say, while I will never in a million years say we are “trying” to have a baby – we sure would like to have one in the next year! So, here is the start of our very own baby story. But don’t for a minute think this is your average “pregnant woman blog” … oh no – there is a twist: We live green in this house and our pregnancy (and resulting baby) will be as organic as we can make it.

Here’s the story of my organic pregnancy. Before, During and After. Stay tuned …