Trim Healthy Mama Tuesday, Week 12

February turned into a busy month in our home, so I'm a bit behind in the THM updates.

We had an out of town visit to family for a four day weekend that was tough for food. Party snacks just are not very Trim Healthy Mama friendly. Both Rob and I did well at skipping the crackers and just eating the cheese and nuts. And I was surprised when we got home that I had not gained any weight over that weekend.

So how are we doing?

We took Rob's blood pressure again last night and it is still on the way down. It is now back in his normal range, which is still higher than normal because of his history of kidney stones. But we are both pleased to see it going in the right direction.

I am almost 31 weeks into this pregnancy and remarkably I am still only at 9lbs total gain for the entire time. This makes me still 1 lb lighter than when I first started the plan 12 weeks ago. The belly is growing very nicely, and the baby is very active, probably my most active baby yet. I know that I am loosing as the baby is growing as my waist is reappearing, my bra size is continuing to travel downwards instead of upwards and I can see the bone structure on my face beginning to reappear. I will definitely be interested to see what my weight is once the baby arrives in May.

I will try to get the chocolates recipes posted this week too. It is certainly fun to take the Trim Healthy Mama principles and experiment in the kitchen with them.

Trim Healthy Mama Tuesday, Week 8

Its Tuesday again, and time for another weigh in and update. I've somehow managed to loose another pound of weight. I'm certainly eating plenty, and my belly keeps growing nicely, but the number on the scales has dropped. Given that I'm not actually trying to loose right now, just keep my pregnancy gain to a healthy minimum.

I'll also hit the third trimester on Friday, so I do fully expect to see the number on the scale go up a little over the next few weeks.

Finally, a bump picture. 26 weeks & 2 days.

I've also been experimenting in the kitchen again. Rob loves peanut butter cups, so I wanted to make some Trim Healthy Mama style for St. Valentine's Day. I'm so impressed that I want to work on a few other flavors for the cups, then I'll be taking some pictures and sharing the recipes with you all. Rob loves all my Trim Healthy Treats so much that he keeps wanting to take extras to work and share them around the office while telling everyone about this eating plan.

I'll have to keep this short today, as I can now hear that nap time is over. I promise as soon as I've got the other flavors done I'll be back with the recipes.

Trim Healthy Mama Tuesday, Week 7

This weeks sees me completing 7 full weeks and Rob has completed his first full week.

I am holding at 197lbs. Still only 8lbs up from my prepregnancy weight.

Rob has lost 3 1/2 lbs of the 9lbs he felt he needed to loose.

I have really enjoyed having Rob along on this journey with me. After the boys go to bed I clean up the kitchen and then put together Rob's lunch for the next day. I write a note of what items are S, E or FP, so that he knows what things he needs time between, and then I get to write a line or two of a love note at the bottom of the paper.

Now that I'm making lunches (and snacks) for Rob to take to work I'm definitely having to be more organized ahead of time. No more just opening the fridge and seeing what I can make. Rob like to graze, and he leaves for work at 5-5:30am most days, so he eats breakfast while the rest of the world is still fast asleep. This means at least 4 snacks and a lunch every single day. It is a great challenge for me, because I like to make sure he has plenty of variety available.

This led to some experimenting in the bakery department of our kitchen this weekend. The result is Cinnamon Roll Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

I used the Special Agent Brownie Cake (pg382) as my base for the Cinnamon Cake.
Instead of black beans I used great northern beans (since that is what we had in the pantry)
Instead of 4 tablespoons of cocoa I used 2 heaped tablespoons of cinnamon
I then reduced the stevia a little since it didn't have to cut through the bitterness of the cocoa.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting
4oz of cream cheese
3 heaped tablespoons of coconut oil
few dashes of lemon juice
5 tablespoons of truvia, ground into a powder
I put all the frosting ingredients into my stand mixer and used the beater paddle to mix until it was nice and fluffy.

Rob got to taste test (as he usually does when I am baking) and remarked that it tasted "just like cinnamon rolls, but without the guilt." When I shared it on the facebook group it got labelled Cinnamon Roll Cake.

And here are a few pictures to go with the recipe.

Cinnamon Roll Cake, newly sliced

Cinnamon Roll Cake with the Cream Cheese Frosting

Trim Healthy Mama Tuesday, Week 6

When I started the Trim Healthy Mama posts I had hoped to do a weekly update. However the reality of life with a 2 year old and a 1 year old to run after and a home to keep from the verge of disaster has given me less time to blog than I would like.

This last two weeks have had some high points and one low one.

Firstly one night last week we cheated. We were having a bathroom repaired upstairs (which is also where most of the toys are) so I had to try and keep the boys downstairs and occupied for the whole afternoon. Rob came home a little earlier than usual to help out, but there was no way those boys were letting me into the kitchen to prepare dinner without trying to sneak upstairs. So we cheated. We got Chinese take out food for dinner. We hardly ever eat take out food. We both like to cook too much. The next day I could see very clearly the effects of that cheat meal. My feet were swollen and I gained over 1lb overnight. However all this did was increase my resolve to stick to the plan in the future. Cheating is so not worth the price my body gets to pay for it.

This past weekend Rob and I also had a long discussion about his health. He was discovered to have high blood pressure a few months ago when he went to give blood for the first time. When he went back last week to give blood again they refused to do it because his blood pressure was too high, even higher than before. So my wonderful husband has agreed to get fully on plan too. He takes all his snacks and lunch from home, so I just put it altogether before we go to bed. I'll make a note for him that lets him know if there is a change between S & E in what I have packed. All he has to do is put all the tubs of food in his cooler and its ready to go.

As for my progress 6 weeks in, my weight is holding steady within a 2lb fluctuation. I am really feeling the benefit in my energy levels now that I'm adding a few extra E meals and snacks to my week. I'm not bloating up like I normally do at this point in the pregnancy. My belly is growing, but the rest of me is slowly trimming down. I am really beginning to see the possibility of gaining less than 20lb for the entire pregnancy.

Also this past week I tried the Big Boy Smoothie for the first time. It was delicious. I normally take forever to drink just 1 glass of any milkshakes or smoothies. This one I downed the first glass and finished the rest in less than half an hour. I also tried the Special Agent Brownie Cake this past week. It is difficult to believe there is no flour in this one. It is so light and tasty. It is truly wonderful to have such a wonderful treat that can be enjoyed at any time without the guilt that usually comes from eating brownies.

I am loving the Trim Healthy Mama plan, and the best part is that the rest of the family can enjoy these amazing foods too.

Trim Healthy Mama Tuesday Week 4

Now that all the holidays are over we are getting settled back into a routine around here. So its time to get back to my Trim Healthy Tuesday posts.

I've now been following the Trim Healthy Mama S&E plan for 4 weeks. I've had more than a few Crossovers while Rob was home during the holidays. Despite that there has been very little change to my weight. At 22 weeks pregnant I've gained a whole 1 lb since starting this new plan. I am very happy with this, as it means the weight is all about the baby and not adding even more padding to my well padded figure.

Everyone in the family has been enjoying the incredibly tasty food, especially all the new treats I've been making. Choco Pudding is still the favorite with the boys. Rob has enjoyed the Chocolate Fudge so much that he has taken some to work in his packed lunches. I'm still more than a little addicted to Greek yogurt with vanilla & nustevia powder. The way I'm eating it keeps it in Fuel Pull territory, so I'm trying really hard not to enjoy it too frequently. Instead I remind myself that I can indulge in it every day after the baby gets here, and it will help strip all those extra pounds away.

Even though the scales are not changing much, my body certainly is. And those changes are not all pregnancy related. This past weekend I noticed that my bra was irritating me. When I looked closer I noticed that it wasn't fitting as well as it should. It was actually looking too big. Now I'll be brutally honest here. I've been very blessed in this department. In fact Rob and I have already had many chats about reduction surgery after we finally time out from having more children and I no longer have a child to breastfeed. In the past when there has been a change in my bra cup size it has always been an increase, and I've been wearing them for 30 years (since I was 10.) My cup size is so large that most people don't even know bras come in that kind of letter range. So seeing gaping fabric on the cup of both sides came as a total shock. The next day I tried on an older bra that was the same band size, but 3 cup sizes down. It fit me. I was again surprised, but very excited. I've never seen a pregnant woman go down in cup size while she is still growing a baby, but now I have.

Later that same day Rob commented that he could see that I've lost weight on my face too. We had a family portrait done at the beginning of November, and when he saw me standing next to it he could see a definite difference in my face.

The scales in the bathroom may not move much right now, but thanks to Trim Healthy Mama I am getting trimmer. The padding is decreasing at the same time as my baby is increasing. What more encouragement does a woman need than finally seeing the possibility of buying underwear in a regular store like everyone else, instead of having to get special orders made.

In light of this encouraging news I've been able to spread the Trim Healthy Mama message to 2 very important mamas in my life. After a few weeks of talking about it to my own mama when we have our weekly Skype chats, she asked if I could get her a copy of the book. So we're sending it to her as an early birthday present. I'm beyond excited to have my own mama join this journey to better health as well as a trimmer waistline.

Then last weekend my in-laws were visiting for a delayed Christmas celebration. We got to talking about the book, and still had a few of those chocolate truffles for them to try. My mother-in-law then asked if I could send her a link to purchase the book. She is eager to get started on this journey too. While she doesn't have weight to loose, she does have digestive and other health issues that will be greatly benefitted from learning to eat the Trim Healthy Mama way.

I would love to eventually see a Trim Healthy Mama group started in my Church too. Every single family in our Church would greatly benefit from these principles. However I want to not only get better at the plan myself first, but also want to lead by example. I know that once the weight starts to vanish post baby I'll be getting lots of questions about what I'm doing. That will when I'll know its time to get a group started. When the results are tangible it will be so much easier for the other mamas at Church to see the benefit for their own lives.

This coming week my challenge to myself is going to be exercise. Right now there isn't much exercise happening. In the book Serene mentioned that pregnant mamas shouldn't do the SPEW routine. It looked like exactly what I needed to get myself started, so I was a little disappointed. That is until I read her post on the FaceBook group last week, where she recommended that pregnant mamas could do a modified version of the SPEW. So now I will be trying to incorporate it 3 times a week to start with, and try to build from there.

2013 is going to be a wonderful Trim Healthy Year. I can already see it happening.

Mysterious rash

About 2 and 1/2 weeks ago I developed a rash. It started just below my collar bone and spread very quickly over my neck, face, upper chest and arms. At first we were concerned that it was Chicken Pox, as the red marks were beginning to form tiny blisters and getting very painful and itchy. And since I don't have a regular doctor we went to our local Urgent Care center.

The doctor at Urgent Care was unable to confirm Chicken Pox, and was unsure what else it could be. So I was given a referral to a Dermatologist. I would have to wait 2 days for an appointment, but that would at least give the rash time to develop more and make confirmation of Chicken Pox easier. That night (2nd night with the rash) I started having quiet a bad fever. We never took my temperature, but it definitely got high enough to concern Rob. We were sure that whatever was causing the rash I was ill, and Rob stayed home from work to look after me and the boys.

After the 2 day wait it was finally time to see the Dermatologist. It was not Chicken Pox, and he didn't think it was anything contagious. However what else it could be was a mystery. He took 2 biopsies to send for testing and ordered a long list of blood tests. He seemed to think that the rash was a photosensitive reaction due to the rash only being present on skin that is normally sun exposed. I was prescribed an anti-viral and an antibiotic as a precaution and Prednisone for the actual rash. I was them instructed to keep my skin completely covered when outside in daylight. I live in South Florida. The sun shines almost all year here, and it rarely gets cold enough to wear more than a t-shirt. I owned 1 long sleeved maternity shirt, and yet I was supposed to stay covered up.

I started the medications, went shopping for a few extra tops and light-weight scarves and started trying to avoid the sun. After the weekend I went for the blood tests. The rest was a waiting game.

Last Monday I went back to the Dermatologist to have the stitches removed from the biopsies, and to find out my test results. The stitches were removed easily, but the test results were not. After being kept waiting for an hour and a half I finally saw the doctor. Other than showing the anemia that I already knew about (I've been anemic for over 10 years) none of the tests could show any cause for my rash. The doctor had asked the pathologist to carry out some more detailed studies on my biopsies, but that would take more time.

The one thing that the biopsy did show, as explained by the doctor, was that the type of dermatosis (medical term for the rash) I had was neutrophilic, although there was no sign of infection (or bacteria induced dermatosis.) This basically means that they do not know exactly what has caused the rash. It is probably not linked to my pregnancy, but they cannot be completely sure of that unless they can identify an actual cause.

So we continue to wait for the new detailed biopsy results, and meanwhile hope that the rash doesn't flare back up.

A Day of Trim Healthy Mama in Photos

Yesterday I decided to photograph everything I ate. It was an S day, but as you will see there was plenty of food and I never got hungry all day long.

Oopsie Rolls, fresh from the Oven (you'll see me use these for lunch)

Breakfast, Eggs scrambled in coconut oil with a fresh sliced tomato & sauteed onion, pepper & mushroom.

Oopsie Rolls filled with creamy Tuna Mayo & Cheese for a filling sandwich.

My favorite snack, Greek yogurt with a dash of vanilla, shake of Nustevia and a few chopped strawberries.

Dinner, Crockpot Chicken Alfredo (homemade sauce) with sauteed green beans & onions and a small spoon of Dreamfields Pasta. This was so much food that I actually couldn't eat the whole serving.

Chocolate Nut Slab, made as individual truffles with crushed Pecans instead of peanuts. Rob & I had a few of these with a cup of decaf after we had the boys safely tucked up in bed for the night.

As you can see there is no going without on this Trim Healthy Mama journey. I never felt hungry the whole day, and couldn't finish my dinner as it was so much food. Everything was wonderfully tasty, some of it even a little decadent, but all of it within plan.

I'll try to take photos again when we have an E day, as it was really fun to see just how wonderful all this lovely tasty food can be.