What's new

It's been a while since I last blogged so let me fill you in. There isn't really too much new going on, we just got back from a 10 day vacation in New York. We started out by visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Long Island and finished the trip at Jason's parent's house. We had a great time and Jude did really well. About a week after we got back, Jude and I headed to Florida for my sister's bachelorette party. We had a great time and got to spend a little time with the family too. Because we live so far away I have missed some of the wedding festivities and am very happy that I was able to participate in this one. I can't believe the wedding is just a couple months away! We had a great time on both trips but I must say we are happy to be home, there is nothing like your own bed!

In other news, Jude is doing GREAT! We just had a clinic visit last week and while he is still smaller than the doctors would like, he is doing just wonderfully. His weight was 14lbs and 11oz and he was 64.5 cm long. He is less than 3rd percentile in height and weight but he is growing on his own curve and proportional. The new challenge is trying to get solids in him three times a day. Giving solids makes me so thankful for how easy (and portable) breastmilk is! I have to say that even though they are pushing for more calories, the doctors and nutritionist have been very good about not pushing us in a nutritional direction that we are opposed to. They aren't pushing formula (but have mentioned that it is a good way to add weight to him) and they are happy with the organic food choices we have made for him. So far, so good! We were a little concerned because he has a little cough but I'm chalking it up to seasonal allergies. Also, I think he is getting teeth, we'll see. He has been drooling and cranky for a while now and he is nine months old, we should see a tooth soon =). Oh, and he is pulling up on everything!



I am really working on my sewing these days and am very excited about some of the things I've been making. I plan to open an etsy store soon (with a portion of the proceeds to go to the CF foundation). I just need to up my inventory first. Here is an example of some of my work. These are the pants I made for my niece Alyssa. I have to make a hat too and then I can send it to her!

The worrier

I have always been a worrier, in fact, that has been what has kept me as a pretty
"safe" person. I don't take a lot of risks. I worry about what others will think, I worry about the outcome of my actions, I worry about how my actions will affect others. I worry about everything. I didn't think it could get any worse. Enter Jude. Having a baby has brought about another whole bundle of worry. I think about him constantly and even when I get 10 minutes to myself, I can't help but worry about him. This has come to light recently because we are starting to transition him to his own bed (crib). Up until this point he has slept with us and I have loved every second of it. I know that it was the right decision, it helped him sleep, helped me sleep and really built the bond between he and I. It was also an excellent help with middle of the night breast-feeding. But Jason and I decided that it was time to transition him to his own bed. Jude is doing great, I'm the wreck. We began this on Monday night and he stayed in his crib until 3am. On Tuesday - Thursday night he made it until 4am. It's a little harder on me because of the middle of the night feedings, I can't just roll over any more but Jude is doing great, drinking his milk then falling right back to sleep. But I can't help but worry. I get up at least once a night to check if he is still breathing (despite having a very sensitive monitor). I have to admit that I really miss having him curled up right next to me, but he's fine, I'm the one who's a mess. When he was sleeping with us, he would sleep from 10 until 6 without waking but now that he's in his own bed, he wants a middle of the night nightcap! Hopefully he will start sleeping all the way through the night again soon, I'm tired!

Building my stash

For all you CDers out there (cloth diapering moms), you know what a stash is. Up until this point, we have been using a diaper service, which I must say is awesome! It recently occurred to me that one of the main reasons we decided to use cloth was to save money and by using a service we weren't really saving that much (other than the environment). I added up the cost of using the service until Jude is 3, plus the unknown number of months for any subsequent children and discovered that it was quite a large sum of money. This began my search for information about owning our own diaper stash. I began by sending out e-mails to some of the other crunchy mamas I know looking for used CDs (I know it sounds kinda gross but they really are clean). I got quite the response and began building up my collection. I have also been referred to a number of websites that sell used, new, and seconds. We are on our last week of the diaper service so I've been preparing my diapers for their debut next week. Yesterday I washed and dried all of the new dipes and here is a picture of my beginning stash!

Up until this point we have only been using prefolds with covers but I am so excited to try some other options. Because the prefolds are the most economical, we still have mostly these but we also bought a few fitteds, pockets, and all-in-ones. I'm excited to try them out to see which we like best. I'll keep you updated!

It's been a long time

I apologize for not writing sooner, it has been a little hectic around here but things are starting to slow down. I've decided to change the name of this blog because I want to write about a more expansive list of things in my life, not just about being healthy. Not to worry though, I'm still working on that one. I do find that I tend to stray from my healthy goals but I always find my way back, it's a never ending battle. I am doing great with the no HFCS goal, it is actually pretty easy to do. The more troubling goal is to cut down on my sugar intake. I'm doing pretty well but it's so easy to mess up, sugar is EVERYWHERE. So I'm starting with just trying to really cut back on sweets and added sugar. If I can get a handle on this, I'll start working toward the more hidden sugars. I'm trying to work on moderation, this is a hard one for me because I love to go at things with gusto but I think that's why I never completely win. Anyway, I wanted to change the title of this blog because I think my goals to become a more "crunchy" (for lack of a better word) mama more accurately describes my day to day life. I am currently working on getting my new cloth diaper stash ready to go, more on that later!

Week two

The first week of our health makeover went really well. I was able to resist the urge and have now been soda free for one week! Woo hoo! Other than that, the HFCS was easy to give up, although hard to avoid, it is in EVERYTHING! As far as I know, I did not consume any last week, but that stuff is sneaky and may have slipped into something I ate. As far as the trans-fats, those are pretty easy to avoid because they are being taken out of most foods but you have to be careful because the package can say no trans-fats (and then in little letters say "per serving"). You have to read the ingredients and look for anything that says hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated (this means it has trans-fats in it). The manufacturers have just decreased the serving sizes so that they appear to have no trans-fats. Anyway, the burst training is going well too! I love being able to exercise for only 9 minutes three times a week. My chiropractor swears it works, I'm still a little skeptical but I'll try it. It sure beats hours of cardio. I'll keep you posted.

So, for this week, Jason and I decided that our goal would be to try to decrease significantly the amount of processed foods we eat. This is a little easier said than done but we began our week yesterday with a trip to Trader Joe's. We started to look for our usual foods, but healthier options. We were looking for things that had a minimal amount of ingredients and also less processed ingredients such as flours and sugars. We got some great sprouted Ezekiel bread, brown rice pasta, ingredients for a coconut milk oatmeal recipe a friend sent, and some other great things to try this week. I think it is almost impossible, and very time consuming, to completely take processed foods out of our diet but being conscious of it will help. Also, we have agreed to no longer eat fast food. This should be fairly easy as we don't really eat much fast food anyway. If we must get something quickly, we will opt for a healthier choice such as subs or something like that. I must say, I think I will miss burgers from Cook Out... but Jason makes burgers that are so much better. This part of our challenge really boils down to not being lazy, it sometimes is really much easier to drive through, but we can have much more control over what we eat if we cook it ourselves.

With one week down, I'm feeling pretty good and not really missing my soda all that much. A perk that I wasn't expecting is that by reducing the amount of junk I was drinking, I have increased my water intake! This makes me feel so much better, and has increased my milk supply (which makes Jude happy)! I'm looking forward to this week and my new sun butter, yum!

The First Step

So now that we've decided to really commit to a new healthier lifestyle we are going to start one step at a time. So for the next week Jason and I are going to eliminate all high fructose corn syrup and trans-fats from out diet. This should not be too difficult seeing as how we really stay away from this most of the time anyway, but one of my biggest vices in life contains large amounts of HFCS. My name is Kristy and I'm addicted to Mountain Dew! I had my farewell Mtn. Dew this afternoon and I have to say, it was delicious. I have known for a long time that this is a horrible thing I can put in my body but I have rationalized it by saying, "I don't really do anything else that's bad for me, I don't smoke, I don't drink excessively, I can allow myself this one thing...". Of course it's never really one thing, but this made me feel a little bit better about the dew. I must add that I have "given up" soda many times before but I always find my way back. Jason refers to my mountain dew as "crack" and "the gateway drug". This time, it's for real. I don't want Jude to drink soda and I must lead by example. The hard thing about the HFCS is going to be making sure I don't consume it hidden in products. Who knew that it was contained in almost all bread found in the grocery store. This is a great excuse to splurge for the fresh baked bread from our local bakery. Yum!

The other new goal for the upcoming week is to start our burst training. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is a form of exercise that focuses on short spurts of exercise combined with short periods of rest. This is a philosophy introduced by our maximized living chiropractor (a subject for a future post). This will be done three times a week and only takes about 12 minutes. I think I can handle that. So, that's the plan. I'll keep you posted. Off to bed!

The idea

I haven't done the blog thing yet so I thought I'd give it a try. It is an attempt to keep myself honest. The more people who know what I'm trying to do, the harder it will be to cheat. I know that I shouldn't need this, but it helps. One of my faults is trying to please other people and if I can make myself accountable to them, I have a better chance of doing right by myself. I have been inspired by a number of things lately and I have decided to culminate all of this inspiration into a new project. While I was trying to come up with the motivation, my chiropractor reminded me that motivation is fleeting and inspiration is forever, so I will attempt to remain inspired as a form of motivation. A friend of mine (Cream of Mommy Soup) started a blog a while ago about her attempts to create a healthier life and I've decided to follow suit. I have plenty of knowledge about leading a healthy life and I have dabbled in new things that will lead me in this direction but I have noticed that I have been choosing which things to follow and which to leave out. This is not the correct philosophy, it needs to be more of a commitment. Life is not always about what is easy and what tastes good but making good choices and sticking with them! I have been thinking a lot lately about my son and all of the things I plan for his life and how to make him as healthy as possible when it occurred to me that I cannot ask him to do something that I am unwilling to do myself. So, before he becomes old enough to see me as a hypocrite, I have decided to do something about my way of life. I also realized that I need to start viewing my life as just as important as his and do the right thing for myself as well. I'M WORTH IT!! I discussed this plan with Jason and he decided to join me in my journey. But every journey starts with one step right? So we will also begin with one step and hope to continue with many more steps to follow.