Let it snow!

It’s been snowing! It doesn’t happen every year and it doesn’t very often leave such a blanket! Yay, it makes me absolutely giddy!

Let’s back track a little. Last Sunday I made DH take some belly pics. Note the difference between holding in and allowing it all to hang out.

Holding it in

Letting it hang out!

So there you are, first belly pics @ nine weeks, 2 days.

On Sunday it was wonderfully cold and clear, so we went to the beach for a sunset walk.

Gotta love the beach!

We also set up our Christmas tree.

Yay loads of colours!

Yesterday I also took a couple of pics on my way to work – snow in Amsterdam!

Today we’re off to the Winter Efteling, a theme park in Holland. It’s all about fairy tails and magical worlds and they have a winter edition/opening with an ice rink and fire stands selling hot chocolate, gluhwein and green pea soup. They decorate the park all Christmassy, and as it’s more southern, the snow should be a little thicker and won’t be melting today!

I’ll be back with pics!

A hangover without the booze!

Haha, that’s how I feel (and sound) today, although it’s not that bad at all. The combination of spending time in a loud & smokey bar, getting to bed around 4 am and getting up at 9 am, already having a cold and the slight nausea from the pregnancy make me feel like I’m hungover! I didn’t have a drop to drink, just endless sodas (blegh). 

Yes, the nausea is subsiding! Thank goodness, I feel much more human now. We got our Christmas decos up and bought a huge tree that blocks the door. Haha. Those are the best kind, imo. Tree decorating will commence this evening, with the sound of my Christmas playlist in the background (maybe the foreground – you need to belt those puppies out).

Boundaries

When you’re pregnant you are told it’s fine to exercise and your body will tell you when to slow down or stop. I somehow thought this would involve a phone call from my body to my brain, stating I needed to slow down. Alas, this is not how it works. Last two Zumba classes I felt really tired and nauseous towards the end. My thinking?

Man am I weak. Seriously, I’ve only had 45 minutes of this class and already I’m tired? No way! I’m overreacting. I’m sure the next fifteen minutes will fly by and the nausea will go away.

So I keep going and going until I’m sure I’m gonna throw up in class, and it’s only five minutes later. Haha. Cue me running to the locker room to sit and nibble at a bread roll, surprisingly reminding me of my eating disordered days, eating boring food in a corner. 

My point is though, that yes, you’re body will tell you. But you do also have to read the cues. AND if you’re a complete perfectionist and work-out maniac (the kind that always has to be the most bouncy and energetic and hardcore person in the class) like me, you’ll have a little soul searching to do! I’m learning, I promise I am. But it is very strange! I’m so used to the “lazy thoughts” and battling myself to workout or not or when to stop, to push myself hard. 

Weight 

As for weight gain and body issues, I have to admit I’ve already gained 5 lbs. This not baby. This is food and bloatage. Maybe a little boob, and some extra blood. So I am more flabby, less strong and have a much lower level of fitness. With the nausea food is not a real turn-on, I’m just glad to think of stuff I fancy. 

I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard at times: I’d love to hit the gym, start a new regime and get running again. Cooking healthy meals, making healthy snacks. Seeing the weight go down and muscles tone up. But on the other hand, I also feel great at times. It’s okay to gain weight! It’s such a fun idea to buy cute pregnancy clothes and I want to start seeing the bump. It’s wonderful to be completely out of the “I have to look attractive” game. I want to look good, but in a feminine, relaxed and warm way. Curves are good and it’s wonderful to just be able to let it all hang loose and feel the strength of carrying another person inside of you.

Let me introduce my new friends!

Sorry for going AWOL! The reason: morning sickness. In my case, all day sickness. I don’t have to throw up, but I just feel really sick all day long. Staring at a computer screen makes it worse, so after my 8 hour workday and/or weekends spent doing homework behind the computer I just can’t fathom spending even more time behind one!

The sickness also effects my food, so I have had really crappy food choices or just really boring, AND as I have to eat to stop the nausea, the last thing I feel like doing is taking a picture of the food I prepared, because I have to consume it right now! Case in point:

I almost didn’t take a picture of this green monster, as I was downing it just minutes ago. Haha.

So I would like to introduce you all to my new best friends!

Weetabix is my all-time new BFF. It’s there to greet me when I get up in the morning, but also for those times I wake up around 1-2 am and know I need to eat something or I will positively puke. Bland, fortified, crunchy and mushy, cold and with at least some fiber and healthy stuff in there, Weetabix and I have become inseparable.

My purple fleece. Chocolate soy milk. Consuming more protein during the day can help alleviate morning sickness, but the last thing I feel like having is fish or tofu or anything warm. *Blegh* even just thinking about that stuff. So my trusted protein friend has become chocolate soy milk. I’ll have a glass in the morning, a glass when I get home. It’s got calcium & b vitamins too. 

Frozen strawberries. They go in my green monster in the morning and make it deliciously cold! Something about the extreme cold makes my stomach settle. 

If you’ve been keeping track, then you’ll have noticed that yes, my breakfast consists of three components (and sometimes four, as for some reason a fried egg sandwich or boiled eggs are fine to eat as well). Once I’m set for the morning, I can go shower ;-P (ahhh the good old days when I could shower first & get dressed, and then go down for breakfast…).

During the day I have a couple of other friends with me at all times:

Ahhh the shame…. food bloggers please do not pelt me with your all-natural, high protein, organic Glow bars (or whatever): yes, I admit that here you see Snack-a-Jacks BBQ Flavor. No nutrients. High sodium. Fake flavorings. Bright orange color. These babies have saved me quite a few times as well. 

To redeem myself I also have these with me at all times, Nairn’s oat cakes. Bland, small and nibble-able. 

So there you have it, dear readers! s for dinners, I try to scrape together something half decent, but have been relying on the sort of pre-set up meals from a packet or anything that can just go in the oven. Fruit is okay, but veggies just aren’t grabbing me at all, unless in some kind of sauce. The only eating pattern I have has been to eat every 30-60 minutes. It doesn’t matter what. Just eat.

As a result my clothes no longer fit, which is in part due to bloatage, but not due to the baby, who is only the size of a kidney bean at this stage! Still, I think it’s amazing that I am 8 weeks pregnant. We’ve told our parents and they’re delighted. We’ve also finalized the buying a house deal, so should be getting the keys January 5th. At which time I should be feeling better.

Oh, and just one other little moaning point: running has gone down the drain. I miss it, but it’s just not doable at the moment. My girls are way too sore and when I climb the stairs or do anything similar, I start huffing and puffing like nobody’s business! I have been trying to swim once a week and am doing Zumba once a week as well, which has been awesome. 

This weekend I am going to clean up & decorate the house in Christmas atmosphere! I LOVE Christmas. It is my favorite time of the year, ever. Well, maybe that first real Spring day is a real contender as well. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Getting back on the blogging wagon

Yup, I am back! Well, almost – I ordered a new camera cable and my dad will be bringing it over next weekend, so in the meantime I’m afraid there will be no photos.

So what has been happening? I must warn you there will be pregnancy talk from now on, so my apologies if this bores you to tears. I still intend for this to be a healthy living blog. More about that in a mo’.

Sunday November 1st I took the first PG test. My boobs were sore and I was eating incredible amounts of food. If this wasn’t pregnancy, I would seriously have to think about calorie counting again, haha. Boooooh: negative! Hormones raged, tears flew, I moped.

Monday I got up and went to the bathroom, aggressively taking a test with me, muttering to myself “I’m jolly well going to test again, I can’t believe it’s not a positive” rarara. I peed. I waited. I thought I saw a line. “No, it can’t be, it will disappear.” Line got a little darker. OMG!!! Once again tears were flying, but now for joy! DH of course did not understand the concept of a line is a line. It as a Little Skinny Positive (LSP) and not a Big Fat Positive (BFP).

The rest of the week the morning were spent peeing on more sticks. (Told ya there’d be preggo talk!) Also lots of worrying because maybe it’s a chemical pregnancy and I tested too soon. Finally I took the digital (the photo from yesterday). No more lines, just the word telling me, yes, you’re pregnant! 

Today I’m 4 weeks & 3 days along, so still very early. But I can’t come back and blog and not talk about it. Plus, I figure the more positive vibes and thoughts from around the world, the better. 

How I’m feeling? Pretty good! The bathroom has become my best friend, as I have to pee every minute it would seem. My boobs are still sore & swollen (hello overfilled bras), but otherwise no real symptoms. Hmm, the odd hormonal outburst, but we’ll ignore them, haha.

How hubby is feeling? Very excited and also very protective. Which is very sweet. We’re going to tell our parents around the 6 week mark. 

I still need to do homework, go to work… everything is the same, but it’s all different! So awesome… I can’t wait for the first ultrasound, which I hope will be before Christmas, or else I will scream.

As for the healthy living blog: I signed up with Babyfit.com, because I want to at least for a couple of weeks get my food in order: I keep craving carbs but I know I need more protein, and I don’t really want to gain 70 lbs if possible. I’m not being very strict, but I want to prevent this becoming a no holds barred, everything goes, free for all food fest. I also need to figure out working out in this new condition: run/walking, swimming and yoga me thinks. So the blog should help with all that as well! 

Have a great Sunday everyone and thanks for the support & congrats! Means a lot to me (and the bean )

Update :-D

And in case you don’t know what “Zwanger” means…

… anyone know what kind of test this is?

I promise I’ll get the blog up and running again. I just need to order a new cable for my camera AND feel safe posting about this AWESOME news when my parents don’t know yet.

EDD: July 15th, 2010

OMG!!!

Skimming & Being Nice & Chia Eggs?

I’ve lost my camera cable! So I am afraid this will be a photoless post!

I just got a call from my bank that they’ve blocked my card, as they found that that there had been some skimming practices going on at Ikea when I was there a couple of weeks ago! Luckily no money was taken, but it’s been blocked. What a scare! I am usually very good at blocking the view of my PIN, but I do know there are certain places I’m not as vigilant – especially when the terminal is in an awkward position (like too high up). No more and I can recommend to anyone to really shield their PIN! 

Being Nice

I was reading an article on the way we (often women) feel we should always be nice and always be thought of as nice by other people. This will often mean we’ll say ‘yes’ when we really want to say ‘no’ and will have a hard time setting our boundaries. I still do this sometimes, but I have learned to not be nice 100% of the time. Especially to people you don’t need to be nice to. For example, it  quite often happens that if I’ve been out on the town at night and I’m cycling back home, some drunk guy(s) will come and cycle next to me. In their drunken state they feel that they still have one last chance to get some ass. Cue the “so did you have a good time tonight” cliches. I used to feel like I had to be nice to these people, even though they were making me feel uncomfortable and I wished they’d go away. 

Nowadays, I turn to them and tell them to just leave NOW. If they don’t (which they usually don’t) I’ll probably just stop my bike and tell them to piss off. This usually gets the point across and they’ll drunkenly cycle off, swearing. Haha. They are often surprised a girl wasn’t nice to them, at least that’s the sense I get. 

I’ve also come to understand that you can be nice AND keep your boundaries. If you say ‘no’ to someone asking you to do something (like maybe running an errand you really don’t have time for or doing a job) it doesn’t mean you’re being un-nice. Think about it: do you think less of someone if they tell you politely they can’t do something for you? Of course there are situations where you might do, but generally you’ll hardy think about it. Unless you’ve very often said ‘yes’ to that person, even when you couldn’t really afford to do so and you feel like they ‘owe’ you this. In that case, it is still your own responsibility: you said yes when you really meant no and the other person generally has no real way of determining this yes from a ‘not really’. 

So tell me, are YOU overly nice? What have learned about being polite and being nice? Do you have trouble saying no?

Chia Eggs 

And now on to something completely different! My crap free week went so-so: I got my exercise in and watched my consumption of junk after dinner. I still found myself eating out of boredom or eating more than I needed, leading me to feel overly full. I realized it would have been a good idea to also add things to my meals instead of just taking stuff away. By which I mean, bringing more creative and entertaining lunches and snacks and cooking some more dinners from scratch. The first because it helps with the boredom and the second because I find that when I cook from scratch, as I am around the food for a longer time, I get more satisfaction from the meal. 

My plan was to anyway come up with some better lunches (like noodle salad, veggie curries, etc.) and some more varying snacks. Just when I needed it, SusanV from FatFree Vegan Kitchen posted a recipe in which she described how to make chia eggs! I don’t have a grinder here and they don’t sell ground flax, and I’ve always felt sacrilegious adding a real egg to vegan recipes, so I’ve often skipped lots of wonderful vegan baked stuff from my cook books. But now I DO have chia so I can use them in some new vegan baking adventures! The basic recipe is:

1 tbsp Chia seeds
9 tbsp water

Mix together and allow to stand for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 4 tbsp of the mixture = 1 egg and the rest will keep for 2 weeks in the fridge. How awesome is that??

So this week’s theme will be cooking vegan! Not all the time, but I always love challenging myself to aim for a vegan week, because I always learn new snacks, meals and tricks. It also gets me away from my cheese dependancy, *lol*.

How did your crap free week go? What did you learn?

House hunting, running, Zumba, crap-free week, oh my!

My goodness I am so sorry about my absence! I just can’t get motivated to write anything! I was going to, but then suddenly DH dropped the bombshell of thinking it’s a good idea to start looking for a place to buy. I was like *what??*. This is a guy who would happily rent for the rest of his life, except that he (both of us) would like to move to the country one day. But he was in no rush to buy. I handle the finances generally, but I was not willing to make the decision to buy unless we both supported the idea, as it’s such a responsibility.

In any case, he is right in that in current times the house prices have fallen quite drastically here and there really are a ton of houses for sale in our budget price. Yesterday it was an “open house” day, so we had a look at a couple of places. It’s all so exciting! We’ll probably make an appointment to meet with the bank this week, so we can here more exactly what we’d be able get as a mortgage. 

Hey, give me a project and I’m happy! But it does mean other things suffer, and the things that have been suffering are running/exercising and healthy eating. The half marathon was still too far away and with the dark weather it was really hard to get motivated to run! But, I’ve written my own plan now, which basically goes from a long run of 10 km to a long run of 20 km and then one taper week before the race. I’ll also be running one semi-long run from 7 km to 13 km on Tuesdays and a short run on Thursdays building slowly from 5 km to 7 km. 

A friend and I also want to join a Zumba class, so I’m going to research that and hopefully get moving!

As for eats, I think I’m just going to have to do a crap-free week. I at least need to stop eating junk after dinner, haha. 

In any case, here are some food pics from the past week. Hope you’re having a great weekend and forgive me for my absence, also in replying to your blogs – I promise I’ll do a monster comment effort on Tuesday at least!

Bread with hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) and butter. Very nutritious.

Autumn fruit! Pears, kiwis, apples.

Favorite take-away sammie: goat cheese!

Favorite take out dinner: roti!

For dessert: lots of chocolate, potato chips, the odd glass of wine. I think my body is getting ready for hibernation, *lol*. I am still free of coffee though! Yay me, going on a month now!

Who’s going to join in the crap free week? What will your parameters be?

Pink, Orange and Yellow are Neutrals, Right?

When I asked for decorating tips for the bedroom, I should have maybe mentioned the wallpaper… We like bright colors! This was the “before” state, unmade bed & mess on the floor included! I have no shame…

Nice!

The first step was to write a plan of action!

Including my drawn-to-scale sketches *lol*.

First buy: new bedside lights, and I cleared up as well.

What a difference additional lighting makes! I can really recommend changing or adding lighting to a room as a quick and cheap way to brighten things up (these lights were 5 euros a piece, including bulbs!).

Up next: shop number 1! I bought new curtains and curtain rails here, as well some material to adorn the bed.

Next on the list: Ikea!! Here’s Vera posing in one of the showroom bathrooms, taking a shower. Haha.

Half-way through the gigantic store we got hungry! So we downed some lovely Ikea food. Veeeeeery healthy indeed. I did have salad with my fries though!

After collecting all our items, we had to wait in line to pay.

When we got back we set to work on assembling the new chests of drawers, which took us until 10:30 pm! I assembled a light as well. So that was Friday!

Saturday I collected the items I needed to drill some holes in the wall & hung up my first ever shelf! It’s completely level!!! I was so impressed with myself. I also hung up the decorative material and put all the accessories in place.

Today I finished up by hanging up the curtains & mirror and putting the new sheets on the bed. 

Tada!

Can you believe the difference? I don’t think the pictures even do it justice! I am so proud of myself, I felt so cool handling the super sonic drill, haha. 

Sorry for the lack of posts, as you can see I was kind of busy!

What was your last home/room deco/makeover project?

Monday Blues

I was sooooo not ready for the week to start today! I think I’m getting cranky with not having run for more than a week. Tomorrow morning that should change! I’m starting day 1 week 1 of Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 Marathon Plan, 3 miles.

Saturday we went into town, but it was way to busy to buy any clothes for DH, so I made him buy my ice cream

Australian Raspberry Sorbet. Delicious! Nice and tangy and not irritating to my tum-tum, which tends to dislike cream ice-ream (much to the annoyance of my taste buds, who dearly love creamy ice cream…). When we got home I decided to make a huge batch of hummus. Like, a liter of the stuff!

Mmm garlicky-chickpea goodness! I took some with me to work today and my co-worker and I nibbled our way through two whole peppers with it!

Saturday’s dinner was Greek style salad…

and pan fried salmon & fried potatoes. The salmon was so good! Melt in your mouth tenderness. The key is not to bother the fillet too much while it’s in the pan: just cook on one side until more or less half way done (you can see the color changing) and then flip once. 

The pic doesn’t do it justice though, as daylight is becoming so much shorter!

Sunday I did my homework (which is going well! I’m really enjoying my studies!) and Dh had to work. Afterwards we went out to dinner to a fondue restaurant. I, of course, could not turn down a warm, bubbling pan full of melted cheese! No pics I’m afraid, but the place was very nice and fondueing is really nice to do together, as it takes more time and you can share things and stuff. I wish i had had some room left for the chocolate fondue afterwards! But alas, I had to skip it. Maybe I’ll make some myself soon.

Today was back to work for me, and like I said, I got the Monday Blues! I made myself a yummy dinner though:

Tomato & feta salad, veggie nuggets, pita bread and cauliflower and potato curry. Mmmm in mah belly! This brightened me up and I also thought of something fun to do this weekend, as DH is away and I’ll have the car. Our bedroom is still not quite finished and it looks a little hodge-podgy, with no proper lighting and curtains that don’t fit or match, and side dressers that are grey and plastic (boooooh). So I plan to sneakily turn it into a more romantic & calm setting whilst the man is away, and surprise him when he comes back!

Does anyone have any top tips for doing up the bedroom? Furnishings, ideas, lighting, romantic stuff? 

Have a great week everyone, and good luck if you’re feeling the blues as well – we’ll get through it!

ETA: oh my gosh, new addiction AND it’s good for something! Free Rice!

Autumnal changes in food & training

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a great week! I’ve been “recovering” from my race.

Recovering meaning many such things as….

Nibbits! And I also tried…

This wasn’t as good as the Tiramisu one.

So I have been experiencing a sort of post-race let down. I’m still incredibly proud of what I did, but it’s time to get moving forward. Changes in the weather have also got me turning towards comfort food & lots of TV. Also, the change of seasons in the produce aisle has thrown me a little: certain fruit I’ve bought have turned out to be duds – not ripe at first, but just turning to mush in a couple of days; no more fresh spinach; start of apple & pear season, but of course supermarkets then go and use up stock from last year, instead of the latest harvest. 

Still, I’ve had one week to recuperate and get my thoughts together, so now I am ready for the ramp up to Christmas! I love Christmas, in case you were wondering.

Autumnal Foods 

First change is that I am switching my breakfast from green smoothie + 1 Weetabix to Oatmeal + Oat bran. Check it out:

2/3 of a half cup rolled oats + 1/3 of a half cup oat bran

Place into pan and add 1,5 cups of water (or blend of water & some type of milk). Bring to boil and allow to simmer for about 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Chop half a banana into your bowl.

Pour oatmeal/bran mix into bowl and place a heaped teaspoon of almond butter and a heaped teaspoon of flax onto the mix. Allow the AB to melt a little, then start mixing the flax & AB into the porridge, finally getting to the bottom and mixing the banana slices in.

Add about 1/4-1/2 cup of whatever milk your using and mix in, sprinkle a little cinnamon on top. Tadaa! Yumminess.

Bon appetit!

I’ve also got some seasonal fruit in.

The pears were super cheap! I love Conference pears, they’re just so good! I never thought you could eat the skin of a pear, as my mum always pealed them for us. I’ve started eating the skin since about 2 years or so, when I saw everyone just biting into them as if it were an apple!

We went grocery shopping with a shorter list than normal, as we wanted to save a little and use up what we had.

Can you read Dutch, haha? Although it’s a mix, you can see my meal plan at the bottom has some English. This is how I always write the list: write down the days of the week, figure out who’ll be home when (basically when DH has evening shifts and I’ll be alone) and then plan the meals. We can always switch them around, but we do tend to stick to the plan. With the meals planned, I write down the shopping list. 

I also plan on replacing my after dinner snacks (chocolatepotatochipsfrenchtoastohmy!) with Green Monsters, made with kale. So a healthy start to the day and a healthy ending as well! Plus it’s also sweet, so should dim the cravings.

Hmm, not an attractive pic! Baked salmon and some buttered bread. The salmon sucked, as I think there was too much water in it, so it basically just boiled in the oven and turned out rock hard! I still ate it though.

I made North African Chickpea and Kale Soup from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, it was delish! I halved the quantity and kept the spices the same (but didn’t have any saffron). It was very yum indeed! Gotta love veggies in a bowl. Autumn is the start of soup season and I have a thermos which I can fill in the morning so I have a warm soup for lunch at work! Very yum indeed.

I’ve been reading this book The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It is soooo wonderful! I can awsomely recommend this, it is heart-warmng and also brings everything along the way so vividly to life. It’s not a fast story with lots and lots of happenings, but it’s not extremely slow either. It just gets your racing mind out of the busy-ness of everyday life and makes you smile, makes you sniffle a little. Read it! Plus it’s more than 500 pages, which I can always appreciate, to make it last longer!

Autumn Training 

So after I decided to register for the half marathon in January I looked up a half marathon training plan and figured that’s what I’d be doing. But I didn’t want to go out and run. Yesterday I finally figured out that it was because it wasn’t challenging enough. It started at a far lower mileage than I had gotten up to. So, I decided I am going to sort-of follow a marathon training plan, to help keep me on my toes. I also like the fact that it should make me even more prepared for the half marathon distance, as I’ll get up to a longer long run.

I plan on following the FIRST marathon training plan, with 3 runs a week. I’ll also be swimming every Friday afternoon, as a fun and healthy activity for DH and I to do together I also want to incorporate 1 yoga session per week and one strength training session as well. I’ll be setting up a plan each week again, because writing it down makes me do it!

I’m ready to get out there & prevent/delay the effects of less sunlight on my emotional well-being! 

Other goals for the next three months:

1. Spend less than 50 euros a month on meals/drinks outside the home (not counting a dinner date, but more the everyday stuff: a sandwich here, a tea there…)
2. Buy NOTHING. Haha. Um, I sort of mean I won’t be buying anything like clothes, books, magazines, shoes, etc. I will of course be purchasing Christmas gifts. I just need to quit over-spending.
3. Continue being coffee-free. If craving becomes bad, I’ll be choosing decaf instead!
4. Keep alcohol to maximum of 1 drink throughout the week, and maximum 1 weekend a month with more drinks.

So yeah, that’s it!

What are your Autumn Goals? Have a great weekend everyone!

Oh and I forgot to mention: Michelle from A Shade of Gray (who is sadly discontinuing here blog, due to time issues) and I (and I believe Lara from Thinspired as well) were thinking of setting up some sort of guest blog site. Different people could post different things and especially for those who are having to call it quits on blogging due to time concerns or other stress, they could post whenever THEY felt like it. That way we wouldn’t lose as many wonderful bloggers and they could also continue enjoying blogging, without the extreme sense of responsibility we often place on ourselves.

What do you think of this idea? Do you have any suggestions? Who to ask, how to set it up, etc.?