National Clean Eating Day - Oct. 1

If you have visited other blogs, or wondered onto The Gracious Pantry, then you have seen her request to Congress to establish National Clean Eating Day.  I heard about this on Monday and have started doing some research on this topic.  I actually have The Eat-Clean Diet book that I got a while ago when I saw I could get it for $5.00 and free shipping.  I pulled it out and started going through it, as well as searching on the internet (it's such a great thing).  I don't think the U.S. is quite ready for a National Clean Eating Day because it's such a gray area IMO at least.  Some sites say no cheese, milk, and pasta.  Some say lowfat cheese, skim milk, and whole wheat or whole grain pasta.  With all this conflicting information, what is clean eating???  How can you say 93% fat free ground beef is clean and 80% fat free ground beef isn't?  They are both natural.  I mean I know you want to eat less fat, but how does that go into clean eating?

Well on Friday, I will be eating clean to support the day.  I typically eat clean, but since being pregnant, my hormones sometime want Baked Cheetos (hey, I got the baked ones).  But I will be eating clean according to my definition of clean eating.  Mine definition includes:

Cheeses that are naturally lower in fat like parmesan cheese
Skim or lowfat milk or unsweetened soy or almond milk
Plain lowfat yogurt
Lowfat cottage cheese (no salt added)
Fruits
Vegetables
Tofu
Soy protein powder
Nuts and natural nut butters
Whole grains like quinoa, couscous and brown rice
Olive and canola oil
Sprouted grain bread
Brown rice cakes
Beans and Legumes (drained and rinsed if canned)
Rolled oats
Ground flaxseed
Hummus with minimal ingredients
Larabars
Eggs and egg whites (the book says only the whites because the yolks contain fat, but other nutritionists show how beneficial the yolks are)
Air popped popcorn

For those meat eaters,
Naturally lean chicken, turkey, beef, and fish.

My plan is to document my meal on Friday and post it for you to see how I did.  Like I said, I typically eat pretty clean, but being pregnant is making it harder (like ice cream). 

If you plan to eat clean on Friday, let me know. 

Some Meal Planning

Well, since I am pregnant, sometimes I am in the mood for meals, and sometimes I am not, so I am not doing the traditional menu planning, but I will buy enough foods for 4 meals and then depending on my mood, I will make whatever I am thinking. Here are some of the meals I am hoping to make in the next week or so.

Moroccan Lentil Stew
(recipe from the October Vegetarian Times magazine, link not yet available)

Spaghetti Pie
(old recipe I have had for a while, if you are interested in the recipe, post a comment and I will post the recipe, fyi - it's a vegetarian recipe)

Greek Couscous with Shrimp

Spinach Tomato Frittata
(recipe from Shape, link not yet available)

P.S.  I already made the stew and it was pretty good.  I added a side salad with arugula, tomatoes, green peppers, and feta cheese and a slice of cibatta bread.  Yummy!!!

Avocado Dip

I have been making this for a while but it just dawned on me that I hadn't posted about it. Since Hope was younger (10 months or so), we have been buying avocados for her to eat. Adam doesn't like avocados so I didn't buy them much before Hope was around because I couldn't get a whole one before it turned brown. But now with Hope, we can share it! So I make this for us for lunch once a week. It only has 3 ingredients and is soooo good.

Avocado Dip Recipe
Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 Hass Avocado
1/3 cup lowfat no salt added cottage cheese
Kosher salt to taste
Now why would I use no salt added cottage cheese and then add salt??? Well I have experimented with this a lot and I found that if you use the regular cottage cheese, you still need to add salt, so you might as well get the no salt added and then add in your own.


Directions:
I cut up the avocado and add in the cottage cheese and mix with a fork. If you want it smoother, then you can combine it in the food processor, but I like mine chunky.

Taste and then add the salt you need. Sometimes I need more depending on the ripeness of the avocado. I am not a huge fan of salt, and don't add it to a lot of dishes, but this is one where it really brings out the flavor of the avocado.

Seperate into 2 bowls and serve. Here is Hope's bowl.

I usually pair my dip with some Kashi Originial Whole Grain crackers, but you could use baby carrots, green pepper strips, or any other veggie.

Here is the nutritional breakdown per serving.

Makes for a great quick yummy lunch or snack.

Overnight Oats

So I haven't tried overnight oats yet. I don't know why; I guess I just thought I would mess them up and then the family wouldn't have any breakfast to eat. Well I did some research for recipes and found what I thought it would work. So Sunday night, I wiped up some overnight oats for everyone. I used 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, and 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt for Adam, 1/3 cups for me, and 1/4 cups for Hope. Adam had half a scoop of chocolate protein powder, and Hope and I had 1/2 banana each and 1/4 cup blueberries in ours.

Here is a picture of all 3 before I placed them in the fridge.

A close up of mine before I put it in the refrigerator.

The next morning - Adam's, I added 1 T natural peanut butter to his.

The finished product (Adam's). I also added a little swirl of agave nectar to Adam's. He likes his sugar. Hope and I don't do added sugar.

Mine - right before I was going to dig in.

So I already like oatmeal, but this was really good too. I wish I had tried this early this summer. You can eat it cold or room temperature, and this would have been great to eat after a morning run. My only complaint was it did have a little too much tang (from the nonfat yogurt) and a little too soupy for me. I also wish I had added almonds to mine, but the possibilities are endless as far as mix-ins.

Jaime's Overnight Oats Recipe

Ingredients:

1/3 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup plain yogurt

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and mix. Add any mix-in you might want (except for ones that you want to stay crunchy like almonds or cereal).

Place in the refrigerator overnight.

Enjoy!

What, no races???

So that last race I ran was on July 4th (Peachtree Road Race). So what do I have in store for next??? Well, there are no races in my future because I am 3 months pregnant! We found out a couple of weeks after I ran the Peachtree, and while I know a lot of people who run while pregnant (myself included, I ran the Peachtree almost 6 months pregnant), Adam and I have decided to restrict my running while pregnant. Not only was it difficult to get pregnant with Hope, but at 26 weeks Hope was diagnosed with IUGR. At that point, I was put on modified bed rest the rest of the pregnancy and if Hope showed distress at any point (I was seen twice a week at that point), they would deliver her. Very scary for a new mom to think she might have a child delivered at 29 weeks. Needless to say, I stopped working out. I had been very active up until then. Well Hope was delivered at 38 weeks, 6 days, via induction because she wasn't growing anymore on the inside. She was a healthy 6lb. baby, but it was determined that I had a small placenta and Hope was not able to get enough nutrients. So at 26 weeks, Adam started making me milkshakes every night (that part was pretty awesome) and feeding my constantly (not so awesome). I ended up gaining more weight than I had hoped (luckily it all came off though). So that is the long version as to why no races in my near future. Of course, if there is a 5K, I could probably swing that, but nothing over that.

I am feeling ok. The first trimester was rough. I was nauseous and extremely tired. Actually I am still very tired; I could sleep all day and all night if someone would let me. The nausea was subsided. In the first trimester I also had that whole nothing sounds good feeling, so I started my day off with Green Monsters a lot (plus a way to get some veggies in my diet).

This pregnancy has been very similar to my first, which is nice because I know what to expect. This time though I am limiting myself in the exercise category in hopes that I will be able to continue exercising throughout the entire pregnancy. I limit myself to just 15 miles a week (about 4 days) and 2 days of cross training (right now it's tennis). Some of my running includes pushing Hope in her baby jogger, so while it may only be 4 miles, it certainly feels like more. I am trying to fit some yoga in there too, but it's hard with a toddler. :)

Any tips on second pregnancies? Any books on getting the first baby ready for the second? I think Hope will be fine. She is very loving with her dolls, but I guess you never know.

Pre and Post-meals for workouts?

I thought I would ask the blog world what they do because this is something I have struggled with for a long time. I workout to stay healthy, relieve stress, and keep my weight in check. I do like to compete, so I do following some training plans when I have big races coming up. My question is what do you eat before and after training runs? Of course it's going to vary depending on the workout and length of the workout. I don't mean the ones that are 10+ miles. I am thinking of the ones that you do during the week that are in the 6 mile range. I have read a lot on this and I know "experts" recommend chocolate milk after a workout. Well that's great and all for muscle growth and repair, but I am not sure I want to waste 200 calories with some chocolate milk. Now when I workout in the morning, I usually don't eat anything before hand, run, and then come home and eat whatever breakfast I plan on (oatmeal, smoothie, cereal, english muffin, etc.) I don't think about protein vs. carbs for my meal. I mostly eat what I am feeling like. Now I do eat pretty healthy; I try to limit processed foods as much as possible and leave sugar for my ice cream habit, so I don't go home and eat crap. I am wondering if this hurts my training though.

When I workout later in the day, I usually time it with my meals so I am not starving when I workout and then afterwards I have my afternoon snack which right now is usually either greek yogurt with Kashi GoLean mixed in or homemade trail mix (cashews, walnuts, and dried cranberries). Again, I go with what I feel like and not what are the nutritional breakdowns.

So, does this affect my training? Should I be sacrificing the calories and drinking chocolate milk after a workout? What do you do???

My First Blog Award

Well I was happy to see when I was checking my favorite blogs today, I was awarded with the Cherry on Top Award from my fellow runner and blogger, Runblondie. I have to say, it made my day. She has a great blog with running, healthy cooking and a sweet little too. :)

Thanks Runblondie!

Now I have to answer some questions and pick 6 other recipients for the award.

Question 1: If you could change one thing in your life, would you, and what would it be?

Not that I could have changed it, but I wish my mom was around when I was pregnant with Hope and could have been around when she was born. My mom passed away in Feb. 2007 and Hope was born in Oct. 2008. We had been trying to get pregnant, but unfortunately getting pregnant ended up being a little more complicated for me. She passed away before I got pregnant and obviously wasn't around when I was pregnant, wasn't around when I had all those scary scans and news of IUGR, and then for her birth. I know my mom wanted to be a grandmother and she would have been the best! I am very sad Hope will never know her grandmother.

Question 2: Pick 6 new recipents for the award, and let them know they are winners.

Elizabeth @ Life with the Lyngs

Michelle @ The Ballard Family

Natalie @ Lil Runner

Kate @ Clean Eating Machine

Katie @ Vegetarian Lunchbox

Stacy @ He will carry me

Question 3: Thank the person who gave you the award.

VACA 2010

Finally!!! Vacation time! We couldn't wait! We usually go in July but we had my brother-in-law's wedding, so we pushed our vacation back until mid August. I can say it was worth the wait! We went last year when Hope was 9 months old. We had a good time, but Hope was still napping twice a day and wasn't walking or anything. This year was very different. I thought we had fun last year; this year was so much fun! It was so much fun to see Hope enjoying the beach. We had toys for her to play with on the beach, toys for the baby pool, etc. She was so much fun and we tired her out, so she took some great naps and even slept in until 8am (that's huge for us).

On the exercise front, I was able to run twice, went on 2 bike rides, and played some tennis. I was hoping to run 3 times (and at least once on the beach which didn't happen) but I wasn't planning on both of the bike rides.

Here Hope is trying calamari for the first time. She loved it along with fried shrimp.

My baby girl playing in the sand. We did good - she never got burnt. Props to us.

Ready for lunch and a nap it looks like. She played very hard.

Getting ready for the bike ride. We rented a bike with a seat on the back for Hope. She enjoyed it so much that we are thinking of getting her a seat to go on the back of Adam's bike at home. Any recommendations???

A sweaty mommy after tennis holding her sweet angel baby.

Hope helping Daddy build a sand castle.

Diva!

A sunset on one of last nights on vacation.