Mukumame and Rice Vinegar

Today marks six weeks since I birthed the most adorable human I've ever met. And I've been rewarding myself ever since so it's time to go to work on the extra "lbs." I am confessing this on my blog so I can hold myself to sticking to my goal....at least for 10 days. Haha ;)

I'll have you know that I don't believe in dieting. In fact, the last paper I wrote in college was a persuasive research paper against dieting....about how only 4-5% of diets are maintained and successful long term.  (Don't ask me to site a source on that; I shan't do the research again.) Anyway, diets are unsuccessful usually because they're too extreme.

So you'll forgive me if I tell you I started a diet yesterday.

But hear me out. I just need to kick start my transition away from sedentary-hood back to exercising-ness. Plus I totally need to eat better than I have been. You've heard Brian Regan's stand-up about "well I walked on the moon" as the ultimate one-upper in a conversation? Well, in a similar way I considered having a baby as a close second, so whenever in the past six weeks I tried to talk myself out of my third dessert of the day, I promptly reminded myself that I delivered a baby and continued dunking my Oreos.

A friend of mine is a BeachBody Instructor and invited me to do a free 10-day challenge with free access to work outs accompanied by set meal plans. I was going to just do the exercise part because remember-I'm anti-diet,but my wise husband helped me see that doing this could expose me to new delicious healthy snacks/foods/recipes that we could incorporate into our permanent lifestyle.

Lifestyle. Not diet....because no way am I going to pretend that I plan to keep up this rigid meal plan devoid of popcorn and ice cream.

So with that attitude in mind I will welcome the set workouts and take advantage of these healthy recipes...but I won't take it all too seriously. I'll introduce myself to new ingredients, meals and snacks, make appropriate substitutions or alterations to fit my personal palate and budget, cheat a little when necessary, and in 10 days I'll hopefully have a few recipes to add to my repertoire and a few pounds less to lug around. We'll see about the second one....I'm easing my way back into the healthy life.

Yesterday morning I did T-25-a short cardio workout-and it felt great to officially be working out again, but I DEFINITELY felt it this morning. This morning I did pilates and had to modify the MODIFIED MOVES for half the workout. But that's okay....slowly but surely.

This blog needs some pictures, so I took pics of my food. Don't judge them; this is not a cooking blog so I left out the checkered table cloth and decorative garnish.

I bought a few firsts: flaxseed, lentils, rice vinegar, etc. I know, all this talk of food is making you salivate.

Breakfast on day one: mostly egg whites, tomatoes, and fresh basil. I think I'd make it again even though this picture makes it look like mostly barf.

The fact that this snack is all green should indicate to you that it is a nasty snack. Shelled edamame (called mukumame) and fresh cilantro are delish on their own, but mix those with rice vinegar and sesame seeds and that equals a snack I will never make again. Plus, it is definitely not a practical snack to throw in my purse on my way out the door.

Lunch was delicious: chicken, green apples, red grapes, cashews, and raspberry vinaigrette. The recipe calls for walnuts, but walnuts are for old people. So I dug some cashews out of my trail mix I already had at home. I'm so resourceful.

Worst meal of my life. I'm sorry...trying to be open minded but I gagged this down. Not only that, but the presentation came out as a total flop That pile of quinoa, bell peppers, and flaxseed is supposed to be in a patty laid nicely across the wilted spinach. Gross, I don't want to talk about this meal anymore. Texture ew. Flavor ew. Lesson learned.

Haha, you were all hoping for cute pictures of baby Grace and I posted crummy pictures of health food.

One month of Grace

Grace is one month old!

Here are a few tidbits about baby girl:

• She gets cuter every day
• She loves to look at the lights and ceiling fans
• She is discovering her thumb and tongue
• She hates having her arms swaddled and always has them up by her face
• She can occasionally roll/tip herself over during tummy time
• She loves snuggling with mom every morning
• She loves water/baths/showers
• She has adorable fake sneezes, and her sneezing record is 9
• She loves to pee on the changing table
• She is a spitter
• She has a very determined cry
• She loves the car, her swing, and the baby carrier
• She has a very strong neck and legs
• She makes some pretty intense and impressive eye contact

Although it has been an exhausting first month, it has been wonderful and amazing. We are obsessed with Grace's perfect tininess and beauty and grateful to be her parents!