11 Weeks

We are at 11 weeks today, and what an exciting week it has been!  Last Wednesday I had my 10 week check-up with my doctor, which included an ultrasound to make sure that the baby is developing as expected.  That's right, it was the first time that I got to see my baby!  When I had my very first ultrasound, my doctor's office sent me to an outside imaging center because the office didn't have any available appointments for another couple of weeks.  Imagine my disappointment when the imaging center didn't let me see the screen or give me any results on the spot!  The results had to be sent to my doctor so that she could interpret them and report to me.  Luckily, I received a call early the next morning indicating that the results were fine and that my baby had a heartbeat.  Still, I was very eager to see it for myself.  I needed EVIDENCE, dammit!  And I got that on Wednesday.

Baby, you are beautiful.  There are no words for how overwhelmed with happiness I was to see an actual baby on that screen.  A tiny one, with head, facial features, two arms, two legs, kicking and waving up a storm.  I was beaming with pride at how developed it was, at how far it's come with me already, and how it doesn't look like he/she will be giving up any time soon!  All this sickness I've been dealing with for the past several weeks?  Totally worth it.

Seeing my little one was certainly the highlight of my pregnancy so far.  Now, on to the photos.

Symptoms:  Nothing new here.  Same as last time.
Foods I can't stand:  Still got no love for coffee and brussel sprouts.  Not really feeling chocolate either, BUT, I actually ate a small piece this week and did not gag.  It was not particularly enjoyable, but I wanted to test myself to see what happens.  Was able to eat chocolate like a champ.
Cravings:  Zero.  I do get hungry, though.  I mean, I have to eat eventually even if it means forcing myself.  I am really enjoying smoothies and oatmeal, though.  I ate oatmeal with fresh strawberries all week for breakfast and it was my happiest meal of the day.
Other symptoms?:  Indigestion (heartburn) is a bitch.  Can't really eat a heavy meal without feeling like I'm about to belch it out.  So, been trying to eat a small meal every 2-4 hours or so.  It doesn't always work.
Thankful for: MY BABY!  OMG, you're there.  You're alive!  Best.feeling.in.the.world.  I am so very thankful for you.
Current weight: 113.5 lbs.  Same as last week.  Still no real weight gain in the past four weeks or so.

On another note, I turned 30 years old this week!  This, obviously, paled in comparison to the other exciting things that happened last week.  But my birthday was fun.  The husband took me out for a nice pizza dinner.  I felt sick when we first got to the restaurant, which worried me a bit.  But once the pizza was in front of me I devoured a good three slices!  Also had a salsa dancing night at El Floridita in Hollywood with a bunch of friends.  Live band, and cuban food (plantains!).  Was really good times!

10 weeks

We in da double digits, yo!  Aaand that's about the most exciting part about this update.  Yep, this week hasn't been much different from the previous three.  Still grossed out by food.  Still feeling shitty.  So shitty, in fact, that I spent the very first hours of 2014 in front of my toilet.  Shortly after midnight, I threw up my entire dinner.  The puke persisted throughout the night, waking me up every 2 hours or so.  You know, just in case there was anything left in my stomach (there wasn't.)  Happy New Years to you too, baby.

I've been taking it day by day.  Feeding myself is such a chore nowadays, and I'm sure I piss off my husband every night when he asks "what do you want to eat?"  and I respond with the usual "Nothing. bleh."  New Years dinner was actually the first meal that I cooked in over two weeks.  And we all know what happened to that meal.  I just don't like my own food anymore.  So I'm still not cooking.  :(

Symptoms: I feel like shit.
Foods I can't stand:  Same as last week
Cravings:  None.  But when I do eat, I'm really liking carbs.  Potatoes, pasta, bread.  A huge departure from my non-prego diet, but I must eat.  And with this lack of appetite, I'll take whatever I can stomach.
Thankful for: my sickness.  Weird, right?  But I haven't had a check up for three weeks and have no idea what's going on inside my body right now.  Feeling sick is the only sign that things are a-okay.  So yeah, I'm thankful for that.
Current weight: 113.5 lbs.  I dropped down to 111 after my barf episode.  The weight has gradually risen throughout the week.

Knocked Down

Who came up with the term "knocked up?"  I'm guessing it was a man. A man who had never been pregnant. Cuz if you asked me how I'm feeling right now it would be more like KnockedDaFuqDOWN. Three times over. By a giant wrecking ball.

This has been my state of being for the past three weeks. I just hit the 9 week mark and these feelings of crappiness seem to have no end in sight. Don't get me wrong. I am extremely happy and feel so very fortunate to be going through this experience. Blood work results pointing towards a healthy start to this pregnancy was such a relief. Getting the results of that first ultrasound telling me that I was exactly 7 weeks, 3 days with a positive heartbeat was like the best effing news I had ever received in my entire life!  

Despite these moments of joy, I just don't feel like myself recently.  I'm tired all the time, have little motivation to go to the gym, and I.hate.food.  Who am I?!!  Ugh.  It's really frustrating because I truly want to enjoy every moment of this pregnancy.  I keep reminding myself how lucky I am.  But when you're feeling like a sick slug for three weeks straight, it's really hard.  I just want to feel well again.

I figured I'd start taking weekly pictures.  There's no bump yet, but my body has definitely been going through some changes.  I've gained a couple pounds in the past 2 months.  I do feel softer around the edges and bloated.  When we broke the news to my mom, she said that she knew something was up because when I was sitting down at the dinner table, I had rolls.  Thanks, Mom, for calling out my fatness.  My pre-preggo pants still fit, but they are tighter.  One thing that I'm actually okay with are the bigger boobs (woop woop!)  I have a couple of new bras that I bought a year ago.  Then I leaned out a bit shortly after buying them, and the boobage shrank in the process.  :(  Now I can finally wear those bras again!

Symptoms: Super tired.  Moody.  Nauseous at times.  No appetite.
Foods that I used to love, but can't stand anymore: Coffee.  Chocolate.  Brussel Sprouts.
Cravings: Nothing.  More sleep?
Thankful for: My husband.  He is my angel.  I don't know how he has put up with me and my moodiness/crappiness, but he is handling it so well.  I am so, so thankful to have him by my side right now.
Also, Crossfit.  I mentioned that I have little motivation to go to the gym.  But I know that it is good for me and the baby to continue exercising.  All I have to do is show up and the coach takes care of the rest.  I have scaled down my intensity by a lot, and am taking plenty of breaks during the workouts.  If it weren't for my gym I probably would have gained a shit ton more of weight and my energy would be much less than it already is.
Current weight: 114 lbs

So I've Been Blogging...

After a very long hiatus, I started blogging again.  I always enjoyed blogging, but didn't enjoy the feeling that I had to blog X amount of times per week or month.  It wasn't like I made some binding commitment to blog a certain amount of times per month.  It was just like this personal standard that I held myself to and it made me sad that I wasn't meeting it.  Not sure why.  I'm weird like that.  I obviously forgot about that standard over time and, well, fell off the blogging wagon.

But anyway, I'm back.  And I've been blogging for several weeks.  You just haven't seen these posts because I never published them.  They were top secret material.  Until now.

The secret is out: the husband and I are expecting our first child.  A baby.  Us, parents.  I know, right?

So far this experience has been both exciting and scary.  Exciting for obvious reasons: we get to welcome a mini-us into our lives!  Scary cuz this is an entirely new experience and it caught us just a little off-guard.  We started off as very clueless about what to expect, but we have been adapting well.  Overall, it has been fun and keeps getting better with every passing week.  It has also given me inspiration to write again and document this very exciting chapter.

I am about 22 weeks along now, so I'll be hitting that publish button on quite a few backlogged posts.  Here goes nothing!

30 is the new 20?

I recently watched a TED talk where the presenter argued against the phrase 30 is the new 20.  Her stance was basically something like "your 20s are your 20s and you can never get those years back."  I agree with her on that sentiment, but as far as the youthfulness and quality of life associated with one's 20's I think that saying 30 is the new 20 can be valid.

I'm only saying that because just a couple months ago I turned 30, and guess what?  I feel as youthful and happy as I did when I turned 20.  In fact, I feel better!  For one, my future isn't looming in the distance taunting me like a giant question mark.  I kinda, sorta have shit figured out.  I may not be exactly where I want to be yet, but I know how to get there.  Goals seem much more tangible now.  Not easy, but attainable.

So that is reassuring.  And as a result, I feel much happier and content with life.  I still have my youth and there's a lot of living left to do!

Not to say that my 20s were bad or unhappy.  They weren't at all!  I've had many experiences that I am so grateful for.  Actually, I kind of feel like I ended my 20s with a bang.  Some highlights from year 29 included:

Finally, after years of working and going to school at the same time: I received my Masters Degree.  Done.  FINALLY.

Visited the Dominican Republic for the first time.  A purely R&R vacation, which is rare for us.

Visited Colombia for the 2nd time.  This country holds a very special place in my heart.  I can't wait to return.

Visited Peru for the first time.  Hiked the classic Inka Trail for 4 days to arrive to Machu Picchu.  A challenging, magical, and unforgettable experience.

Celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary.  Marriage is a wonderful, beautiful thing.  I'm so lucky to have experienced the majority of my 20s with this man.

Yeah, I have A LOT to be thankful for.  Also - A LOT to look forward to.  Here's to 30 being the new 20!

Paleo Nachos

Something really eff'd up happens when you begin to restrict certain elements from your diet: you start craving crap that you never even cared for before.  Does this happen to anyone else?  Is it just me?

You tell yourself "no sugar, no dairy, no grains, no fake carbs? NO PROB."  Then out of nowhere your mind flips its shit, turns on this evil food switch, and you automatically crave those items that are completely off-limits.  For me, it was nachos.  Nachos!?  No idea why.  Perhaps it's the fact that it is currently baseball season. I had this mental image of me sitting at Dodger Stadium holding a giant basket of stale nacho chips smothered with that creepy artificially colored cheese-wannabe stuff.  My brain convinced me that it tasted delicious.  I needed that experience.  Had to stuff my face with junk food.

Now that you think I'm a glutton, I'll go ahead and share how I solved this problem.  Allow me to redeem myself?

Step 1: Pork Carnitas

Throw the following into your slow cooker:

- 1.5 to 2 lbs pork shoulder, seasoned generously (we use a Latin dry rub)

- 2 sliced onions

- 2 sliced tomatoes

- a couple crushed garlic cloves

- handful of chopped cilantro

Set it & forget it.  

We usually leave our slow cooker running overnight for a good 7 hours.  You can't really go wrong with slow cooker pork.  The fat just melts off and cooks everything in the pot with it.  Sometimes we'll throw in any old veggies we find inside of our fridge with the pork.  Anything goes.

Step 2: Plantain Chips

Make sure to use plantains that are not super ripe.  The greener, the move savory they will be.  The brown, ripe plantains will be sweet.  We used a mandoline to get nice, thin slices.

Fill the bottom of your pot with about an inch of olive oil.  Once the olive oil gets hot, start throwing in the plantain slices.  Try to not let the chips overlap much inside of the oil.  Fry them for about 3 minutes per side, or until they are toasted to your liking.  

Work in batches.  Keeping an eye on the chips to make sure they don't burn is probably the most labor-intensive part of this dish.  When they are finished frying, throw them into a colander to dry out.

The chips can be made ahead by 1 or 2 days.  We made a ton of these and were eating them for two days straight.  Just keep them in the fridge.

Step 3: Assemble!

Gather your plantain chips.  Toss them with a pinch of salt.  

Place the chips on your plate.  Smother them with the carnitas.  If you get a lot of carnitas juice over the chips, they may become a bit soggy.  But they will still be goooood.

We made this guacamole to use as the creamy element.  Trust me, we didn't miss the cheese one bit.

Whole Life Challenge

One of my favorite aspects of my gym is the community.  Together we suffer through workouts, we learn new skills, we watch each other get stronger.  In the end, we encourage each other to be healthier humans.  A huge part of that, of course, is diet.  A large number of our gym events focus on food: potlucks, BBQs, lectures.  One of our most recent events is the Whole Life Challenge.

If you know me, you know I'm always up for a challenge.  In this 8 week program, we are challenged to improve the way we eat and make changes that will improve our lifestyles.  The fun part is that a lot of fellow gym-goers signed up, so we are all in this together.  It's also a friendly competition, providing that much more incentive for us to stay on track.

For the most part, Felipe and I make an effort to maintain a clean diet.  Cutting out processed foods as part of the challenge was not too big of a change for us.  The real kickers are:

1. Eliminating sugar.  This includes honey, agave, maple.  All of which I tend to indulge in when craving sweets.  
2. No cheating!  As much as I sincerely enjoy clean eating, I allow myself an indulgence every so often.  Friday night cocktails, a croissant with my coffee, dark chocolate after dinner.  For the duration of the challenge, though, any nutrition cheat will cost us points.  :(

So far, we're two weeks into the challenge.  I'm happy to report that it's going pretty great!  Well, with one exception: three days in Seattle last weekend.  It was too difficult to resist a night of cocktails and delicious dinners with friends that we hadn't seen in years.  SO, we definitely lost all of our nutrition points for those 3 days.  The positive thing is that we came back motivated and determined to stay on track until November.

I wanted to use this blog as a way to document some of my favorite meals during my challenge, and maybe share a recipe or two.  Here goes nothing!

A couple of some quick dishes that we made early on in the challenge:

Apple Salad with Walnuts + Lime

This plate was inspired by Bon Appetit.  We made the recipe "whole life challenge" friendly by removing the dairy and replacing breadcrumbs with toasted coconut shreds.
Shredded coconut >> breadcrumbs, btw.  Coconut wins.  Always.

Carrot and Beet Slaw

An excellent slaw also inspired by Bon Appetit.  The shredding feature of my food processor made this dish SO easy.  Shred a few raw carrots, julienne some roasted beets.  Add herbs, seasoning, raisins, pistachio.  Toss with vinegar.  Couldn't stop eating this.