New Month, New Beginning!

We are officially moved out of our last EVER basement apartment! HOORAY! On to bigger and brighter things....literally. This apartment is way bigger and full of giant windows. I am so excited about lots of natural sun light, more space, more storage, a dishwasher, our own washer & dryer, new decorating possibilities....all of it! A lot of work, but it will pay off because we intend on this being our last home before we purchase our first house. Thankfully the fur babies are adjusting well and seem to like their new home!

I have been really happy since Saturday. Obviously moving is a bit stressful, but overall...super happy. Hormones are a funny thing! October was really difficult for me emotionally and physically. I really don't know what happened to my neck, but all of October was agonizingly painful for me. The pain was constant and unwavering, and resulted in a lot of headaches and crying.

November is a new month! I am being positive, thankful and I am certain that good things will come my way. My honey and I are moved in to our new home where we'll be welcoming an awesome new addition in early January (please don't be early, little guy. Mommy and daddy need time to adjust in this new living space, get a lot of painting done and make it in to a cozy little home before you arrive!), which is scary and exciting all at once!

November is dedicated to cultivating happiness. I am doing my best to be healthy in every way. Emotionally, I need to be more positive, patient, optimistic and happy over all for both myself and my baby. Physically I need to be more active (there is only so much that I can do at 30 weeks pregnant, but walking and yoga are definitely great!) and fill my body with tons of nutrient rich foods and as much water as I can drink. While I am perfectly okay with treating myself occasionally, I need to stop treating myself to chips or sweets daily.

All of this is completely do-able. I have so much hope for myself and what's to come in the future. We're doing our first big grocery trip in several weeks in the morning, and I will load our fridge and freezer up with fruit, greens and all kinds of delicious foods. Cooking will be something that I must do daily, and I'll cook a lot so that we can take leftovers for lunch most days. The more often I cook, the less I'll spend on Subway (mm....I love Subway).

Great things coming!

An Introduction

How to begin?

My life currently: I'm 24 weeks 4 days pregnant with a baby boy. I've been with the love of my life (and best friend) for just over 3 years now and I'm excited to see what life will bring us this coming year! Currently I'm trying to focus on right now while also preparing for January 9 when our little guy is due to arrive. I'm a planner and an organizer, so I have faith that everything will be in place before he arrives. Granted, one can never really be prepared for a baby but I'm going to do my best!

The first few months of pregnancy were definitely challenging and I completely lost track of my health/fitness goals because I was so sick and exhausted. I started feeling like the old me a few weeks ago, and shortly thereafter I got my eating habits back on track...for the most part. It's been really difficult for me to adjust to how frequently I'm hungry and that tends to lead to snacking on junk food or food lack of much nutritional value. It's taken a couple of months to get my taste buds back to normal, so to speak.

My goal right now is being active and eating healthy for my baby. I want to improve my diet even more and really push myself to go on a walk at 3-4 days a week and get my body back in to a yoga routine. My yoga practice has suffered tremendously since becoming pregnant, and I miss it deeply. It's a tough thing being this motivated when my body is limited in what it is capable of, but it is so worth it. On a more superficial level, I also don't want to gain an excessive amount of weight that will be a huge challenge to take off after the baby is born. I'm perfectly okay with gaining as much as my body feels is necessary to grow a healthy baby while I am also active and eating healthy. My body knows what it needs and I need to honor that!

All this being said, here's my plan of action:

Physical Activity:

• Find any excuse to get up and walk around at work. Some days I need to sit with my feet up, and that is okay.
• Stretch my body throughout the day.
• Walk for 30 minutes 3-4 times per week.
• Attend 1 prenatal yoga class per week.

Nutrition:

• Begin each day with warm water & fresh lemon or a honey lemon tea. Great for digestion & tastes yummy!
• Always eat breakfast! Toast & almond butter followed by a green smoothie seems to work best at keeping my hunger at bay until lunch.
• Create a meal plan for every week. Having a general idea of which meals to cook will both help do groceries and ensure that Chris and I both have healthy dinners and lunch the following day.
• Set aside a few minutes on Sunday to prepare snacks for the work week. (Sliced cucumber, sliced pepper, pickles, strawberries, mixed nuts, etc.)
• Every evening before getting comfortable on the couch, blend up a smoothie! This is double duty because I always do up the dishes along with my Vitamix, which leaves for a tidy kitchen to wake up to; win, win!