The Healthy Hostess

For the last 10 weeks of my pregnancy, I thought I would give a weekly update on things.  People have been asking about how I have been feeling, growing and handling things, so here it is!

Body: Overall I feel great!  I have been able to work out 5-6 days a week still and I still have enough energy to make it through the day (my day usually goes from 5:15am-9pm – then I need bed!)  By about 8pm my back starts to get sore and  hurt until I lay down.  Other than that, I have small things that are annoying going on: sometimes I just can’t breathe or catch my breath, the baby will get stuck up by my ribs (which hurts) and really that is about it.  I can’t complain…at this point.

Eating: I have not had too much change with my eating. I take a big prenatal vitamin, calcium and folic acid pill each day.  I also eat more than I did before – but not a lot more.  The difference is that if I miss my snack or meal time – I am dying of hunger.  I am more loose about eating dessert or something I am in the mood for.  I haven’t really had any cravings lately (since the green bean casserole phase), but many times nothing sounds good to eat.  I am obsessed with fruit – maybe more than before! My eating schedule is usually:

7:45 am breakfast on the way to school – oatmeal with AB and fruit or toast with pb and fruit

11:15 am lunch at school – lentil soup and fruit with sourdough pretzels or leftovers

3pm snack at school while my kids are in specials – Luna or Cliff bar with fruit

7ish pm dinner.  – I usually post this!

dessert is often hot chocolate and usually chocolate chips

Workouts: I usually workout before school in the morning (I try for 4 days a week).  My workouts have been lasting for about 45 minutes of cardio – my lighter than I used to do.  Sometimes I will go to spinning, sometimes elliptical, sometimes stair mill and sometimes hill walking on the treadmill.  I like to change it up.  This week I went to cardio dance for a workout one morning.  Right now though (and through much of my pregnancy) I have enjoyed spinning.  You don’t have to stand up or bounce around, which means you don’t have to pee the whole time!

Home/House: We didn’t do much in the baby room this week. We have the dresser in and the room painted – but no other furniture yet.  We worked on a lot of home organization projects last weekend and we have more this weekend!

Work: School has been going well.  My classroom is upstairs so I usually come up the stairs out of breath in the morning with my school bag, my huge lunch/snack bag and my 2 liters of water. My day goes pretty quickly each day because my kids keep me busy!  I had a kid with fifths disease in my class this week so I had to get my blood drawn to check for immunity- luckily I have already been exposed to the disease and have antibodies to fight it!

Random:

I don’t know how I am going to make it for 9 more weeks of getting dressed.  I miss my real clothes!! I have quite a few clothes (maternity clothes) but I am sick of them!  I just bought like 3 more pair of pants and a few shirts last weekend to get me through – I love Gap and Old Navy maternity.

That seems to sum it up for the week!

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Last night I had such a great time hanging out with my girlfriends from college.  We went to dinner at Northstar and I got the usual (veggie burger- made with beets, brown rice and beans and a side salad).  We spent almost 3 hours chatting and eating and catching up on life before we scheduled our next date and hugged goodbyes.  Kelly was staying over since she is in the process of moving to Boston and is currently living in Cin.  So after we left dinner, we went on a mission for frozen yogurt!

It was quite the hunt!  We went to UDF across the street for some fat free fro yo, but were sad to see that the machine was broken.  After having words with the poor worker at the store, we set off to find another UDF.  All of a sudden it dawned on me – there was a new Red Mango yogurt store that just opened on OSU’s campus.  Kelly did a quick search on her phone for the address and we were off.

After turning around twice, almost running a red light, driving the wrong way down a one-way, parking in a non-existent spot and passing two other UDF’s…we made it.  We got our delicious original yogurts topped with fruit – and headed home.  It was well worth the hunt!

I have had a few requests to see pictures of my belly at 30 weeks!  It’s getting pretty big!  Slightly hard to breath at times – when I am doing nothing but sitting.  I am going to put together a final 10 weeks of pregnancy, but until then… Here it is!  Sorry for the weird face.

Back to dinners tomorrow! We didn’t eat anything exciting tonight because Brady went to the OSU b-ball game with his dad.  I made him a pizza sub and wrapped it in foil for him to eat in the car on the way.

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Simple Slow Cooker Soups

By Kathy Hester

Soup is a great way to get in some extra veggies and fill you up so you won’t overeat at dinner. Like salad, it’s a great way to add some nutrient dense food to your day. If you keep track of what you eat, you can actually see how much difference it makes. I use sparkpeople.com to track all of my food. You can add whatever vitamin you want to track and it will let you know how close you came for the day. My blood pressure is a little high so I’m trying to get enough potassium. It’s amazing when you find the foods that actually help you reach your goal.

You probably think you don’t have time to make a soup from scratch, but the secret to easy homemade soups is your slow cooker. I keep a few bags of frozen veggies just to make last minute soups, but of course fresh is always great. Fresh vegetables are usually considered the best, but frozen have more nutrients than fresh vegetables that are, well, not so fresh anymore. So remember, there is no shame in using frozen vegetables.

You can cut up some onion, minced garlic, and prepare the veggies you want to use the night before, or just do it when you get up in the morning. You can use filtered water or a rich stock as your soup base. If you use stock, make sure you taste the soup before adding any addition of salt to the pot. Throw everything into the slow cooker before you leave for work. Cook it all day and re-season before you serve it. Slow cooking often dulls the flavors of herbs, so either add fresh ones at the end or extra dried ones.

I like to mix and match my dinnerware to show off my soup creations. Sengware is perfect for that since it comes in so many cool colors. Try serving some spicy sweet potato black bean chili served in Sengware Pomello. The strong yellow really makes the chili pop.

You just need to mix and match your veggies, aromatics, stock and herbs to create a new soup every night. My favorite soup style is faux cream of ‘your ingredient here’. Throw a potato or white beans into the mix when you add in your veggies. Once you get home, puree the whole lot together and it will be silky. Everyone will think it has cream in it!

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