Fit Fig

If not, head on over there and read her post (and watch her vid) about Operation Beautiful.  Inspiring.

I’m starting by feeling beautiful myself–not always easy as the belly grows big (and I mean BIG) with baby.  Then later I’m going to write some of my own Operation Beautiful notes and stick them places next time the boys and I go out.  Even though I have sons and not daughters I still want to teach them to see the beauty in themselves and other people.  I also want them to grow up to be the kind of men who look past the superficial and respect women as people rather than objects.

I am exhausted today after a tough weekend.  I won’t go into all the details here, but basically we have sewer water backing up through a hole in our basement floor.  Yeah, kind of sucks.  So dealing with that today and I don’t know how long it will take.  Right now I’d really like to nap but waiting for the sewer/drain guys to come back (they were here last night but couldn’t start until today).

Anyway, still decided to have a plan.

Monday………….Walk–gotta get out of this house some today
Tuesday………….Yoga
Wednesday……..Walk
Thursday………..Yoga
Friday…………….Walk
Saturday…………Yoga or cardio
Sunday……………Rest

How about you–what do you have planned this week?   Feel free to share in the comments.

Well, perhaps no news is good news.  I went to the lab for the gestational diabetes screening last week but haven’t heard anything about it yet, so wondering if it came back normal like in previous pregnancies.  Regardless, this is something I’ll bring up at my next OB/GYN appointment (next Thursday) to see what they suggest and if I should seek the help of a nutritionist.  So far I’ve just tried to cut back on sugar intake and re-focus on healthy eating  (which has been rather hit or miss in this pregnancy).

I know my blog has been rather neglected of late and I’ve even contemplated taking an official hiatus from blogging, but I don’t think I want to do that just yet.  I like having the option to come here and express myself or deal with health and fitness issues.  I hope my readers will come back and check every once in a while to see if I’m still posting and not just delete me off their bookmarks or Google Readers. (Have I mentioned how much I like Google Reader?  It’s how I follow my favorite blogs.)

Just a note regarding the last post–went to the lab today for the Glucose Screening Test so now I just wait and see what my results are for this pregnancy.  I’m still going to eat carefully even if my results are negative for gestational diabetes.

Monday………….Walk
Tuesday………….Yoga
Wednesday……..Cardio
Thursday………..Yoga
Friday…………….Cardio
Saturday…………Yoga
Sunday……………Rest

How about you–what do you have planned this week?   Feel free to share in the comments.

I went to the OB/GYN yesterday.  I actually have to see a different one almost every time because it’s one of those group practices where you don’t know who will be on call when you go into labor.  That makes sense and I’m sure it’s better for their work life balance, but it can get a bit confusing and inconsistent for the patient.  Anyway, yesterday I finally saw Dr. Q, whom I’d been trying to see for a couple months already.  Every time I had an appointment with her I would wait for ages and then end up seeing someone else.  So I finally met her and she wanted to ask about my previous babies.  They were a bit on the big side (Isaac was 8lb 14oz and Ewan as 9lb 11oz) but she noted I had never been diagnosed as having gestational diabetes (which is often a link to gestational diabetes).  I told her, “No, those tests always came out negative.”  Then I also told her I had excess amniotic fluid both times, which she said was another common sign of diabetes.  Huh.  Then she asked about family history and of course we’ve got more than our fair share of diabetes on my mom’s side of the family.  And lots of fat people, to be honest.  As far as this pregnancy goes, I haven’t had my screening yet (will be doing it next week) so I don’t know yet what that will say, obviously.  However, she told me that with my previous pregnancies I may have had something “very like” gestational diabetes but just not caught by the testing (not quite strong enough or something, I guess).  So she thinks I may want to follow a sort of diabetic diet even if the tests are again negative.  I’m willing and eager to do so if it could give me a chance of having a baby smaller than Ewan.  Lord knows if it’s any bigger I won’t be able to deliver in the usual way (not that I’ve ever delivered in a very usual way – never had anything remotely like an easy birth).

So why am I talking about this on Fit Fig?  Well of course it means I will have a new focus on fitness during my pregnancy.  So far with this pregnancy I’ve seemed to do well with just intuitive eating.  I haven’t gained as much weight as with my previous pregnancies (so far) and I haven’t felt the need to pig out.  I’ve been eating when hungry and finishing when full.  My nutrition has been hit or miss, however, especially on busy days.  It seems I should pay more consistent attention to what I’m eating and also be a little more consistent with my walking (or other cardio, but mainly it’s been walking lately).  This may be another subject I’ll be getting into here on the blog.  I’d like to use a nutritionist if I can fit it in – not so easy to go to appointments as the boys will be out of school later this month.  So, wish me luck.

Anyone had experience with this out there?  Or anyone else ever hear something like “yeah, the tests have been negative but you may have so-and-so anyway?”

OK, little late this week.  I confess I’ve been spending a good deal of my free time on sewing (some of which is on my new Etsy shop at http://lainiefig.etsy.com).

Monday………….Walk
Tuesday………….Nothing (oops–2nd lazy Tuesday in a row!)
Wednesday……..Walk
Thursday………..Yoga
Friday…………….Cardio
Saturday…………Not sure yet–maybe yoga
Sunday……………Rest

What do you have planned this week?   Feel free to share in the comments.

Just a reminder of all the handy stuff I keep on the Tools page of this blog. Today I added a couple links to rotations done by Cathe Friedrich and FitnessFreak (a member of Cathe’s forums who puts together some great Cathe rotations).  If you’re interested in the rotations, the links are in the sections near the bottom of the Tools page–a long list of Cathe rotations followed by a list of FitnessFreak rotations.

Today I give you an excellent guest post on feeding oneself without breaking the bank.  There’s some really great advice here (some of which I actually follow myself, though my hubby would be surprised to know that since he’s always shocked at the size of our grocery bill).

Hi, I’m Mara from What’s For Dinner? and I was thrilled when I was asked to do a guest post for FitFig.com! I immediately thought of a topic that’s all too familiar to me: budget eating.

My fiancé often jokes that “Only in America are the rich people thin and the poor people obese.” It’s quite a sad statement actually. In a world where $0.99 value menus rule, and an organic meal can run nearly 10 times that, what are those of us in between supposed to do? What about those of us that want to eat well and healthy, but don’t have tons of “edible” income to spend?

After years of “training” by my mom, who always fed us well no matter what our economic status, I think I have it down to a science now! On my blog, I pride myself on cooking healthful and delicious meals that don’t break the bank. I’ve compiled a list of hints and tips to help you cook well, and stay within your budget.

• Shop the “perimeter” of the store first. This is where, usually, the produce, meats, and dairy lay. The more expensive and processed foods are in the aisles, so shop there sparingly, and for only specific items. I only go into the aisles for grains, bread, cereals, and the occasional treat.
• Plan ahead! Having a set menu for the week helps my shopping to be more specific, rather than having a bunch of random stuff.
• Shop the grocery store circular before setting a menu for the week. Sometimes, I have a recipe in my head that I think needs chicken. Upon shopping the circular, I may find that pork loin is on sale, and would work just as well!
• Consider buying generic whenever possible. Many times, the store brands are made of exactly the same ingredients as the brand names, just with slightly different labels. I actually found that my favorite whole wheat pasta is a generic brand for $0.99 per package, instead of the more expensive “designer” brand.
• Re-use your leftovers! Did you make pasta with red sauce last night? Re work the leftovers into a baked pasta dish with lots of vegetables and ricotta.
• Ask friends and family for favorite recipes. Often, I’ve found that some of my childhood favorites are, indeed, quite inexpensive to make!
• COOK AT HOME! Eating out is far more expensive than cooking at home. A dinner for 4 at a restaurant could run upwards of $50, whereas cooking a dinner for 4 at home may run $20.

I hope you’ve found my hints helpful, and will keep you away from the $0.99 value menu!

Great stuff, right?  Another pointer I have is about organic food.  I like to buy organic but sometimes it can get pricey.  If you don’t want to buy everything organic, here’s a handy site with a list of the most important things to buy organic.  I personally  would also add milk to the list, though it’s a bit pricey, because I’ve read in several places (here’s a specific link about it) that organic milk is much better for kids.  Also, Mara’s tip to buy generic works for this as well.  I usually shop at Stop and Shop which has an excellent store brand called “Nature’s Promise” for organic stuff.

So go forth and save money on your food!

Tomorrow we’ll have another guest post.  This time it’s from Mara from What’s For Dinner?, an excellent healthy cooking blog.  For today, be sure to go over and check out her blog (I warn you, the lovely food pictures may make you hungry).  Come back tomorrow (Friday) and check out her post for my blog!

I’ve found a couple of my prenatal yoga workouts to be extremely helpful and much more doable than some other workouts.  I’m not usually an ideal yoga student (tend to roll my eyes when an instructor gets too mystical for my taste) but I’m really digging it at this point in my pregnancy.  I still roll my eyes some (did she just tell me to do something “with great care and grace”–has she even seen a normal pregnant woman move before?) but overall it feels like a natural choice when you’re roughly the size of a small whale and exhausted all the time.

Today I did Yoga Journal & Lamaze Present: Yoga for Your Pregnancy.  This is probably my favorite prenatal yoga workout, partly because it has lots of short segments you can do separately or altogether.  The longest segment is the most challenging–Energizing Practice–have to confess i haven’t done that one as often.  My favorite is called Relaxing Practice (big surprise that I choose a workout that’s about relaxing).  I rock at the side-lying Savasana–you know, where you just lay there and relax.  I also have to chuckle when she says, “Feel yourself growing heavy.”  It makes me think, “Honey, that I definitely can do!”  One of the more amusing segments (for me, anyway) is the Pranayama (Breathing) Practice.  It was hard not to giggle as she had me hold one nostril shut while breathing out the other.  Still, I actually kind of like that one–figure it might be handy for labor to work on my conscious breathing.  I totally suck at the Guided Meditation.  I’ve never excelled at meditation.  My mind just keeps wandering on her own path as she talks in her soothing voice.  There are also a couple more segments–Birthing Room Yoga–looks like some good moves to someone who’s been in the birthing room a couple times already–and Postnatal Yoga.  I haven’t bothered looking at that last one yet–just got to get through this prenatal part first.

Anyway, overall it’s a great DVD and I don’t mind the parts that make me giggle–it’s not painfully full of giggles, at least.  My second favorite prenatal yoga workout is Crunch: Yoga Mama, so maybe I’ll review that one some time.