Pics and Passing the Torch

This morning for breakfast I had a huge piece of bacon, which tasted especially amazing today. It must be a really good batch. I also had 2 pastured eggs with sauteed greens, red onion, fresh dill and some smoked salmon. Delicious! I can't believe that I can eat the salmon and not be turned-off by it. It used to be a little too much for me at times.

It looks like a ton of food, but it's really on a salad plate with a smaller fork next to a small glass. Funny coincidence.

Pics
I am lucky enough to have amazingly talented artist friends, one of whom is a photographer that enjoys playing with different ideas as much as I do. This guy took our wedding photos, my boudoir photos (for a book I made for my husband as a wedding gift), and now some maternity photos. I had this idea about a pulp-inspired shoot and he had some ideas of his own. Together, I think we made a little magic. For a sample of his portfolio, check out Gordon Dooley.

This last photo is from our boudoir shoot. It doesn't hurt that he lives very close to an amazing outdoor location in Newport Beach, California.
I am also adding some quick iphone shots into the belly pics page.

Passing the Torch
I am coming up on my due date pretty quickly. At that point, I will continue to post as a new parent, but no longer be "primal and pregnant." I am putting the word out there to anyone who IS pregnant and following a primal lifestyle. Consider this an invitation to contribute your experiences along your journey. Send me your stories to post and share with other curious soon-to-be-moms. We would like to hear what you are thinking about, how you are coping with the everyday changes a pregnant woman goes through as well as how you stay primal and fit. Email me if you are interested and tell me a little bit about yourself.

Working Out and Great Food

This morning I had my usual chocolate smoothie with banana, almond butter, coconut water, cocoa powder, stevia and Amazing Grass chocolate greens. This link is to what I find to be a great deal. It is totally worth buying in large amounts, however it also comes in smaller sizes. I highly recommend this product for any pregnant woman or otherwise. It is delicious when mixed in a smoothie and a huge dose of your daily nutritional needs, especially greens. It is expensive but if you can pay to be more healthy, why not?
I went to the gym as a spontaneous decision and had my eggs, bacon and wilted spinach for lunch. I'm really glad I worked out today and hope that I can start getting back into my every-other-day routine.

Working Out
Today's WOD:

Push Press

3-3-3-3   (I did 55-65-75-85lbs.)
__________

25 Handstand push-ups  (I modified by doing them on a box)

50 Toes-to-bar  (I counted my no-reps too- about 20)

800 meter Run  (I ran 400/rowed 400)

75 Push press  (I Rx'd these)

150 Double-under  (I did 150 single-unders)

***For Time***

Rx: 75/55

I ended at about 34 minutes. I can do double unders but didn't feel like it would be a wise decision to take the workout too much further after passing the 30 minute mark. I was also a little wary about jumping that much knowing it probably would've taken me through another 300 or so singles to get all my doubles. I struggled quite a bit with the toes-to-bar after the first 20. At first it came so easily but I tired quickly. I also slammed the bar into my nose pretty hard around rep 68 of the push presses. Ouch.

Other than that, I felt it was a very good workout.

I feel great today. No issues lately. I am longing to hear the baby's heartbeat again soon. We see the midwife for our first official patient-midwife meeting. Hopefully she's got some equipment to satisfy that longing. I will go over the visit and all of the questions from a list I compiled for our meeting.

I started reading a book I got for my husband called The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin. So far there is not much I don't already know, but I am only just at the beginning and hopefully it will be helpful for him and a possible family-member turned doula. No reason not to get some extra education!

The other day for lunch I made myself an amazing tuna cobb salad (above). I used canned tuna (which they say a pregnant woman should not eat, but I allow myself only 1 can a week or less), chopped heirloom tomato, crisped bacon, hard-boiled egg, avocado, red onion and hearts of palm on a spring mix. I made a balsamic ranch dressing to go on top and it was delicious! Yes, it took a little extra time to make, but I sat down and enjoyed it along with one of my tv shows. 

Another great recipe we've been making is squid salad. We enjoyed this in Croatia on our honeymoon and were able to get calamari for such a great price at costco, that I decided we could certainly replicate it at home. 

To make: clean the calamari thoroughly and cut into rings, parboil the pieces in hot water for about a minute, chop veggies to add such as: red onion, red pepper and a green (parsley, spinach, arugula)

To dress the salad mix in a food processor or bullet: balsamic and apple cider vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, a squirt of mustard of any kind and a dash of some sort of hot sauce (I used my favorite Cholula). Keep playing with it and tasting until you like it. Pour it over the calamari and veggies and chill it or eat it warm. The taste only gets better as it sits in the dressing and fridge.

Breastfeeding

This morning I started off my breakfast with a chocolate, banana, almond butter and coconut shake. Not too shabby, right? This is something I have found gets my digestive system moving a little bit (helps me poop) before I put some solid food in it. I will hopefully be getting some more of the powdered greens (chocolate flavored this time) to add to the mix to make it more effective. A little while after this I had my usual breakfast with eggs, a wilted green, a piece of the best batch of bacon we've gotten from Herondale Farm and a couple of tomatoes because they are sweet and delicious on top of giving me extra vitamin C and other benefits. I have also stopped taking probiotics in the morning to curb the nausea that they seem to cause.

Breastfeeding
I certainly don't want to pass judgement on anyone about their personal choices but I happened to be a pretty opinionated person and this is an attempt at a warning that my following comments may offend those who choose not to breastfeed.
The only two reasons I can come up with that are acceptable for not breast-feeding your child are: 1. if you physically cannot do it (be it a health problem, impossibility to latch, being a male/male couple, etc...) and 2. complete ignorance about it, which is barely acceptable.
Why when you choose to be a mother (hopefully it is a conscious decision) would you not want to give your baby the best start in life that is available to them? First of all, let's just take a look at the difference between breastmilk and formula under a microscope.

Here is another example of how much breastmilk contains in comparison with formula and cow's milk.
What are the benefits of breastfeeding you ask?

Benefits of breastfeeding for the baby
1. A 50% less cases of ear infections for infants EBF (exclusively breastfed) at least 3 - 6 months
2. A 42% less chance of eczema for infants EBF at least 3 months
3. Babies have 64% less vomiting and diarrhea with any breastfeeding vs. none
4. A 72% less rate of lower respiratory tract infections/like pneumonia, bronchiolitis and
    hospitalization with EBF at least 4 months
5. Asthma is less 40% for children who were breastfed at least 3months
6. Obesity is less 4-24%
7. Type 1 Diabetes is less 19-27% for infants breastfed at least 3months
8. Type 2 Diabetes is less 39% with any breastfeeding vs. none
9. Cancer: ALL less 19% with breastfeeding at least 6 months; AML less 15% with breastfeeding
    at least 6 months (these are two kinds of leukemia’s that affect children)
10. SIDS less 36% with any breastfeeding vs. none

Benefits of breastfeeding for the mother
1. Type 2 Diabetes is less 4-12% for each year of breastfeeding for women without a
    history of gestational Diabetes
2. Pre-menopausal breast cancer less 4.3-28% for each year of breastfeeding
3. Ovarian cancer less 21% for any vs. no breastfeeding and evidence for dose response (i.e.
    greater protection with more breastfeeding)
4. Post-partum depression occurs less for short breastfeeding moms vs. no breastfeeding

Those are just the more scientific facts. Let's talk about all the other things:

-A woman's body will return to pre-pregnancy shape much faster than a non-breastfeeding mother because a feeding mother burns a ton of extra calories as well as she is producing a hormone while doing it that causes her uterus to shrink back to normal size much faster.

-It's free! How can you argue with that? It costs nothing but what you feed yourself and it's always there. You never have to mix up formula, warm a bottle and test it before feeding your baby at 3 am. Plus you will have less bottles to clean.

-Breastfeeding provides your baby with the perfect balance of fat, protein, vitamins and provides preparation of the digestive system for future feeding. You cannot simulate this mix with anything else because it is alive with white protective bloodcells.

-You will have better bonding with your baby and more time to do it. This is preventative of postpartum depression.

-Your baby will be smarter! Not just because of the nutrients you are providing but also because of the time you are spending with your newborn.
-Your baby will most likely sleep better at night as your milk supplies him/her with melatonin during those evening feeding sessions.

Here are two great sources of in depth information on the subject from Web MD and the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Here is a very important read about why a mother may have trouble with breastfeeding because of her baby's tongue. This is an unfortunate situation to find yourself in and thankfully this very smart mother did all of the research for us. You can bet that my husband got his tongue checked by me after reading this and my baby can expect the same thing when it comes out.

For lunch I ate leftover lamb meatballs with homemade baba ghanouj, horseradish mustard, red onion and pickles on top of arugula. Sounds like a weird combo, but it was delicious!

For dinner, we met some friends at Joe's Crab Shack. My sister-in-law told me about their buckets of shrimp and crab and I'd been thinking about it ever since. How could I not try that? Well, the place is a little hokey but the food was good and it was a fun experience. I think that the specific bucket I ordered didn't have enough seasoning on it, as I was trying to be super-primal. Also, the lobster wasn't as worth the work as the crab. Next time I will order differently, but I would do it again.