Nuts for Nutrition

Has been crazy to say the least!

We have a walking, talking sassy 1 year old now.

The way birthday cake should be eaten 🙂

Since I got 3 weeks off from school for Christmas, we were spending it in Seattle with our usual pit stop in Vegas on the way.

Christmas at Grandpa’s

The fantastic four back together

Cousin love

The best birthday dinner, this would definitely be my last meal if I had to pick one. My step mom’s melt in your mouth pot roast and buttery mashed potatoes with cheesy onion garlic bread are heaven in your mouth!

I just had to throw this in there, she wants to climb in and on top of everything!

I finished my first semester of my Dietetics degree and am now currently on my two week placement at Great Ormond Street pediatric hospital. It is soooo interesting and makes everything seem so much more real, and I think I’ve decided I don’t think I could handle working in pediatrics!

I start my second and last semester next week which is going to be even more intense than the first one and then it is just 6 months left of placements at 2 hospitals and then I’ll be a qualified dietitian!

I’ll be taking a year break and starting up again June 2019 though because We are having another girl! I found out a few days after running the Royal Parks Half Marathon, and 4 days after Amelia’s first birthday I was pregnant!

I’ll be 19 weeks tomorrow, I can’t believe how fast this pregnancy has gone so far, even though I’ve had ridiculous nausea every day for the past 15 weeks. Im hoping any day it will go away since I’m almost halfway there.

So life is going to be getting even more crazy very soon, but I wouldn’t have it any other way 🙂

Firstly my thoughts and prayers are with Houston. I have friends in Houston and family near by, it’s so scary to see what’s happening.

Love this post from the Texas Coast Facebook page.

My half marathon training plan had 8 miles scheduled for my long run.

We were driving to Wales early Sunday morning so Saturday was my day to get it done.

I’ve never been a morning exerciser, I have way more energy in the later afternoon/evenings and prefer running then but I was babysitting on Saturday till 6ish so starting my run then would clash with dinners and bedtime so my only option was to run early Saturday morning before I started babysitting around 9.

I needed to be running by 730ish to make sure I was back by 9. Amelia has been waking up between 6-630 I thought that would be a decent amount of time to get watered, coffeed and both of us fed.

Amelia woke up just after 6 so I took her to the spare room to feed her and hope she would snooze for a little bit longer but she didn’t so we got up and went downstairs around 645.

I don’t normally eat breakfast till 8ish so wasn’t ready for my normal egg and potato taco for breakfast so I just had a little bit of oatmeal. I started chugging water and had a cup of coffee for a caffeine boost, but probably wasn’t the best idea since it dehydrates me and couldn’t have been very hydrated from not having any water all night.

I made it out the door just after 730 and hit the pavement. This has been my hardest run so far. It normally takes me 2-3 miles to get in the groove but I felt I was struggling with every mile. Around mile 4 I really started struggling and kept getting cramps in my side and shoulder (what is this shoulder pain?!) I was carrying my phone and water bottle in my right hand so I’m guessing it’s coming from that. I need to find my arm band.

I was listening to the podcast 2 Dope Queens for the first half my run. They were definitely the hilarious entertainment I needed to occupy my mind!

I was 100% planning on stopping around mile 5 but my cramps finally stopped and I started to make my way back home around mile 6 so I didn’t want to give up if I could hold out. My left hamstring started feeling very tight with each mile which didn’t help. Luckily the run back is slightly downhill and music gave me the boost I needed to get to 8 miles.

Not sure how but this run was quicker than last week’s.

We were up early to watch the fight Sunday morning and off to Wales for the night since Monday was a holiday.

I was super sore when I woke up Sunday morning. I had more than a muscle soreness in my hamstring and IT band.

I looked up what causes IT band pain and some offenders that I’m guilty of were not warming up, and my shoes hurting my feet when running (luckily I snagged a great deal at the Nike outlets and have new ones now).

I’ve looked up some stretches and exercises to do to try and help ease the pain. I’m supposed to run 5 miles today but my hamstring still feels very tight so I’m not sure if I should skip it and just have my next run as my 9 mile long run this weekend to make sure I have plenty of time to recover.

We stayed in Cardiff for the night and drove to Barry Island on Monday to hang out at the beach for a few hours. The water was freeeezing so I wasn’t even going to attempt to stick Amelia’s toes in this time.

We went for ice cream instead.

Cheers to the freakin weekend.

We are celebrating our 3 year wedding anniversary today!

I think our last anniversary could have been one of the last times we went out to dinner by ourselves when I was 32 weeks pregnant.

Greg’s parents are kindly watching Amelia so we can go out to dinner and celebrate.   Since we got the sleep training  cracked and she’s amazingly sleeping 11 hours straight now there shouldn’t be any issues once she’s down for the night.

We went to a local Argentinian Steak restaurant that was amazing, but I had heard very good things about their banoffee pie so I think I was more excited for dessert!

I think I ran just under a mile outside when Amelia was a few months old but that was the extent of my outdoor running.  My last proper run was when me and my brother ran/walked the Seattle Rock n Roll 8K.

I have a 7 mile run on the books this weekend that I’m looking forward to.  All of my runs for this half marathon training have been at home on our treadmill so far.  I needed to start getting some runs in outside so I did my 4 miler scheduled on Tuesday right when I got home from work.  Greg’s mom watches Amelia on Tuesday’s so it was the best opportunity to get outside.

I fueled up with a Starbucks Doubleshot Espresso about half an hour before my run.  I’m a big believer in caffeine and it’s benefits in exercise performance.  I learned all about it during my sports science class and it was one of my exam essay questions that I had to write pages about! Very interesting stuff!

I planned out an out and back run.  I didn’t realize the first half had an incline most of the way, but I loved it on the way back because I definitely needed it then.   I listed to This American Life’s ‘This Call May Be Recorded…To Save Your Life’ episode for the first 2 miles.  It was a very interesting story, but kind of disturbing so when it was time to turn back I was ready for some upbeat pumping music to get me going, and that it did as you can see from the difference in my mile times!

My training plan has 3 scheduled runs a week.  I was supposed to run 5 miles yesterday but I was so sore from Tuesday there was no way I would have been able to run 5 miles and be fresh enough to do 7 tomorrow.

I’m going to do the same route for my 7 miles tomorrow.  I ran to a lake that has a 1.8 mile loop around it so I think that will help keep me occupied.  I didn’t take any water with me because I hate carrying stuff but I’ll need some for my 7 miles because I was struggling without it.  I am too used having a bottle within reach running on a treadmill! Greg kindly offered to take Amelia out to walk around the lake so I could have some water when I pass them so that will be a big help, wish me luck!

My baby was 10 months old yesterday !

We have been struggling with Amelia’s sleep since we have moved her into her own room a few weeks ago.  She seems to wake up every 2 hours at night and I have just been feeding her and end up keeping her in bed with me so that we both sleep.

I don’t sleep well when I’m holding her at night since I’m conscious she is there.  She normally has a good dinner and we are giving her a bottle just before bed too so there’s no reason she should be hungry in the middle of the night and I shouldn’t be feeding her either.

After another week of broken sleep, and 5am wake up today, we decided we are just going to have to take turns and we are going to have to leave her in her bed and not pick her up and feed her in the middle of the night.  We will just have to keep going back in and comforting her till I guess she eventually falls asleep from exhausting, it breaks my heart just thinking about having to do it.  If anyone has any helpful tips, please let me know!

My alarm was set for 540am and Amelia woke up at 510.  I brought her in bed hoping to get us back to sleep but she just sat up and saying and waving hi.  Too cute to be mad at! There was no getting her back to sleep so I got her up with me to get ready for work.

I keep her strapped in her Bumbo while I’m taking a shower and she likes to pull everything out under the sink every time!

After my shower, I change her diaper and clothes and am hoping to let her play on her mat while I get my breakfast, lunch and her milk ready for the day.

Unfortunately she yells at me from across the living room and isn’t happy to sit and play so I stick her in her highchair to snack on some Cheerios while I carry on.

I hook myself to my pump to get some more milk for her bottles for the day and realize I actually have to leave in 4 minutes so there is no time for that!

I get my stuff ready to go and am out the door to the train station.  It’s about 15 minute walk to get there.

I like to start my day listening to the ‘Word for the Day’ to try and focus my thoughts and life for the day in the quiet of the morning.

It’s a beautiful morning in Westminster!

The person that was covering for me while I was on maternity is still working here, so there are 2 people currently doing 1 job, and since I’m leaving in a few months it makes sense for her to stay anyway.  But with that, there’s not a lot to keep me busy.  I finished everything I had to do by 11ish and have been painfully bored the rest of the day! Being ridiculously bored and tired is the worst combination!

My morning pick me up, these are SO good.

I went for a walk outside for my lunch break, catching up on my podcasts.

Third cup of coffee….

Power walk back to the train station to go get mah baby!

I have 3 miles on the books for my half marathon training plan, but I haven’t run since last Friday after getting some stomach bug/food poisoning Sunday night I’ve only just started feeling normal again.  I was supposed to run 4 miles last Sunday and 5 miles this Sunday so I’m not sure how realistic that will be now.  I only managed a 1 mile run so am hoping I’ll be able to do at least do 4 on Sunday.

She hangs out with Baby Einstein while I run 🙂

Steak. It’s what’s for dinner.

She has ventured out and on her way to the kitchen!

And this is how our night ended.  Trying to let her settle herself back to sleep, but we couldn’t leave her crying for very long because she kept pulling herself up and was standing up.  We didn’t want her to fall over so we had to keep going her back in and lying her back down which she did not like at all!

Any tips for baby helping baby self settle?!

When I was in the Air Force, I knew I wanted to go to college after my 4 years of service, but I had no idea what I wanted to do.  I started taking entry level classes in business, Accounting 101 etc while I was still in, but soon found out business was not what I wanted to do at all.

(Check out this adorable Air Force jacket we got for Amelia in Seattle)

Despite our 3 day a week morning workouts with our squadron, I had some weight gain start creeping in.  These were also the days where I never touched a diet soda and normal Dr Pepper was all I drank.  I blame it being on the state drink of Texas!

I wanted to start working out more, eating healthier + a new love interest (Greg! ha), so I started reading up a lot about healthy eating and exercise.  This is when I knew this is the field I wanted to be in and that once I was out of the Air Force, I wanted to get my Bachelor’s to be a Nutritionist.

Fast forward to the end of 2011 and I had a degree and was a nutritionist! Unfortunately at the end of our degree we were just sort of pushed out into the real world with no guidance on what the next steps were or how to find a job or anything.

After a few years of trying I realized jobs as a nutritionist were few and far between and if I wanted to get anywhere in the field I needed to be a dietitian, which has a protected title so personal trainers etc couldn’t just called themselves a dietitian.  My options were another 3 year degree or 1.5-2 years post grad or masters.

Since it was impossible to find anything nutrition related I started working as an admin assistant with the National Health Service.  I was able to make contacts with people and got opportunities to volunteer and started getting nutrition related experience.  I got to help out with a healthy day at a work stand and talk to people, and I was also asked to give a healthy eating talk to members of a group that had brain injuries.

I then started applying for jobs as a dietetic assistant to get experience that would help with my application for the post grad/masters.  After many interviews and no jobs most of the time due to my lack of experience, I finally got my first job as a part time dietetic assistant.

I loved my job, I had my own caseload of patients that I spent most of the working day visiting. Since it was mainly elderly patients, I loved talking to them and hearing about their life stories.  It was the first job that I’ve had that I felt so happy and loved what I was doing.   It definitely confirmed that being a dietitian was exactly what I wanted to do.

My experience as a dietetic assistant enabled me to get another part time job as a dietetic assistant at a different hospital so I could finally quit the admin job I had been stuck in.  Unfortunately these jobs weren’t permanent = no job benefits, and I applied for my current full time, permanent job that I got!

I applied for the post grad/masters course for the second time last year and didn’t get a place again, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise since my due date was when class would have started.

I had to start thinking about other options of what I could possibly do if this didn’t work out, it was the last year I could apply at one of the schools since you can’t apply more than twice, and it was also the last year that it would be funded by the government.  There wasn’t anything else I was remotely interested in and I didn’t want to think it wasn’t going to be an option anymore.

Fast forward another year and grueling interview processes, I finally got a spot starting on Amelia’s first birthday unfortunately!

It’s taken me 6 long years to get here, and I’ve still got a hard year and a half ahead of me! But if there’s something you’ve got your heart set on, don’t let anything stop you till you get there.  I’ve had more downs than ups in this process, but they’ve all paid off and will be worth it when I can finally say that I’m a dietitian.

Thinking about all the work and studying I’ll have to be doing with an infant is very scary since I’m exhausted and feel like I have zero free time as it is so I definitely still have an uphill battle ahead of me, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and I’m so excited to start this journey.

We found out we were pregnant at the end of January. So after eating my way through all the holiday festivities, my pregnancy started out with me already being 10ish pounds over my normal weight.

Add in what felt like being nauseous for 9 months and eating being the only thing that made me feel better, once I had Amelia I had probably gained another 12 pounds throughout my pregnancy. (I had Haagen-Dazs salted caramel ice cream fully stocked in our freezer for my nightly cup with vanilla cupcake goldfish, such a good combo!)

My usual way of losing weight, normally before our summer vacation, was 1400 calorie low carb diet and working out 4-5 days a week.  I would always lose the weight I needed to, but this would without fail every single time lead to a starve-binge-repeat cycle.

The cycle got me to where I wanted to be

for my wedding, but it didn't last long.

Gross story: I ended up puking our wedding night because after our appetizers, main course, and dessert at our wedding, we went to the venue next door after the reception who gave us tons of food since the kitchen was closing, and then I ate some more of the leftovers that was given to us once we got back to our room, romantic!)

 
1400 calories and lower carb was clearly not enough for my body’s needs and after a week of restricting I'd binge on multiple bowls of cereal, cookies, doughnuts, pancake etc. All the sugary filled carbs I could get my hands on! I'd feel disgusting the next day, my stomach hated me too.  I'd normally restrict my calories even more and the process started all over again.

Once we were on vacation, I would go crazy after months of restricting myself (1000 calorie cheesecake slices after a huge dinner or fresh beignets plus snacking all day!) and easily gain 10 pounds in a 2 week vacation.  Clothes that I fit in when the vacation started no longer fit me at the end of it, extreme eating that added to the yo-yo cycle.
(Try the salted caramel cheesecake from Cheesecake factory, could be my all time favorite dessert!)

My monkey bread welcoming to Seattle!

When I was finally in the right frame of mind to get back on track after baby, I wanted to start cutting back on the processed junk, limit the nightly ice cream and eat more veggies which I know always help keep me filled up and my blood sugars level.

Since I was breastfeeding I knew I couldn't restrict calories or carbs too low because I didn't want to risk affecting my supply, this 100% helped me get into a healthier mind set because restricting too low was not an option.

Having a treadmill and weights at home has also helped make working out easier, but now that I'm back to work and Amelia is still waking up numerous times a night, most of the time I'm too exhausted to even think about exercise which is where a healthier diet becomes even more important.

I usually feed Amelia her dinner once ours is ready too, so I just about get through my salad by the time she is finished with her dinner which naturally has already started filling me up by the time I get to my meat and vegetables.  This has naturally been a big helper for me with mindfully eating and stopping once I feel full.

First Fruity Pebbles!

Even though it has taken me 9 months to get back to my pre pregnancy weight, having a baby has helped me come to the realization that this is the first time in years that I haven’t felt obsessed by what I am eating or restricting.  I snack on cereal at night if I feel like it and will still enjoy a cup of my salted caramel and cupcake goldfish.  I know in the grand scheme that a 300+ snack after dinner every now and then isn’t a big deal and much better than a 2000 calorie binge.

When I don’t feel like I’m restricted and mindfully eating with treats included I feel no need for one bowl of cereal to lead to 3 plus everything else I can get my hands on in my treat cupboard! Funny how that works!

I’m still a work in progress, but I know I just need to keep consistent, and with time I’ll get to where I’d like to be.

I plan on running the beautiful Royal Parks half marathon at the beginning of October this year.  This year is the best opportunity for me to run it since I imagine all my free time will be towards studying for my dietetics degree!

I'm babysitting on the days at work and now that these babies have just started to learn how to crawl, they are definitely going to keep me busy, hopefully I'll still have some energy for training, wish me luck!

So I left off with my baby being born and now she is 8 months old! 

She is shocked too. 

I have to go back to work in 5 weeks, but it will only be for a short 3 months because, I’m going back to school in September to get my post grad to be a dietitian! It only took 3 years to get a spot, but I couldn’t be more excited for this chapter in my life.

Being a parent has definitely been the hardest thing I’ve ever done, I’ll blame most of that on sleep deprivation though!

Gotta sleep when the baby sleeps! 

We bought ourselves a treadmill for Christmas, so after taking pretty much a year off from working out, I’m finally getting back into the swing of working out again and getting back down to a few pounds below my pre pregnancy weight. 

We just got back from our first family vacation to Greece for Greg’s best friends wedding. Vacation is definitely a different experience with a baby but it was so nice and relaxing. 

We are flying back to Seattle on Saturday. We can’t wait for the rest of the family to meet Amelia. We can’t go to Seattle without a trip to Vegas either, so will be there for a week after Seattle. Wish us luck for a 10 hour flight with a baby! 

As all new parents seem to say, I can’t believe how fast this time has gone by. 

The first few weeks were definitely a blur, the days and nights all rolled into one and I now see why sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture! From someone who thought they couldn’t function on more than 6 hours of sleep it’s amazing how our bodies adjust, 4.5 hour stints during the night is a huge plus! 

Figuring out breastfeeding is always a challenge and was a little more stressful because she lost a bit too much weight at her 10 day check so I thought she might not be getting enough milk. I started expressing into a bottle to give her some extra milk so that did the trick! 

Love my little baby cuddles! 

 We only had a few trick or treaters this year, apparently not having your outside lights on isnt clear enough, you needed to have decorations out to let people know where to get the candy! We had a mini pumpkin so I put that outside, we didn’t have anyone come after about an hour and I went to check outside and the pumpkin was gone! Haha 

We had a newborn photographer come over and take some pictures, they are adorable! 

She was 6 weeks on Tuesday and we are starting to see some smiles! Can’t wait till it’s more of a regular occurrence! 

We are so blessed and loving every day with our sweet little baby girl. 



Amelia Grace was born on October 4th! Our life has been flipped upside down and we are loving every minute with her. 

According to my weeks by junk food size, baby is the size of a jumbo bag of chips!

Her measurements from our 36 week ultrasound estimate she is weighing in at 6lbs. It is exactly 3 weeks until my due date today so estimating a 7.5lb baby. I will take that and hopefully won’t be pushing anything too much bigger, yikes!

Weight gained:

 27 pounds, I’ve only gained about .6lb in the past few weeks.

 Workouts:

Non-existent other than my mile walks to and from the train station. I have been trying to get out during my half an hour lunch break to get some extra steps in. I found a cute little park right across from the hospital that has been nice to walk around.

 Next week is my last week at work so I’ll have a few weeks before my due date to get some gym time in.

 Any baby related/pregnancy purchases:

 After seeing lots of new moms using it and the good reviews we ordered the wubbanub! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Meyer-Wubbanub-Afrique-Elephant/dp/B017S9QNO2/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1473944352&sr=8-5&keywords=wubbanub 

I had a baby shower on Saturday and we received lots of sweet gifts for baby girl!

One more week at work with this view, gonna miss it!