22 and 23 Weeks

How I feel about pregnancy now?

Well, I am very thankful that I feel good. Usually, in the mornings I feel like I am out of breath, but it passes just before noon. I have experienced this with all of my pregnancies, maybe it has something to do with the baby pushing against my lungs, who knows? 

I still have breakfast in bed before I get up. This past week my breakfast choices have not been very admirable, however, I will pick up from where I dropped the ball.

 

 (22weeks)

I have not worked out for two weeks :( I admit it, I've been lazy. No worries, I'm still keen to, I just need a good kick in the butt to get moving! My diet has been -in all honesty- not so raw, lately. I know for a fact that one juice a day, keeps the crap away. At least for me! Now that my garden is blooming, I have no excuses not to juice or enjoy yummy salads.

I'm very excited to meet this little angel inside of me. I feel her/him move and even though this is my 4th pregnancy, it never gets old, the mystery never dies... it's hard to believe that there is someone inside of me, being knit together in my womb, with a purpose, personality, and above all, given to us to care for and to love on. I cannot wait to meet you! I love you so much already! At times (daily) I am so overwhelmed by the blessings we have, our children.

What have I been doing?

Gardening, homeschooling, camping, being lazy, writing, studying, being lazy again...

I've been to see a physio, who specializes in women's pelvic floor (pre and postnatal). I have homework I need to do daily to strengthen/maintain my pelvic floor during the rapid growth of the baby, help in birth and fast healing post birth. But mostly, I am doing them so I stop peeing myself every time a sneeze or have a coughing fit! I know, too much info, but I know -you know what I mean!

Daily kegels workout:

30 x 5+sec squeezes with 10sec break in between. This takes about 8 minutes to do. 

30 x quick squeezes with 10sec break in between.

I've been trying to remember to do this everyday for two weeks, and so far I have already seen felt an improvement. I have got two more weeks to do these exercises until my next appointment.

Moving on...

My vice: iced coffee... and flavoured too! Ugh, I will stop...soon.

 (23 weeks)

Strike a Pose!!!

Here is my garden so far! Looks a lot different to the dirt pile I posted not so long ago, hey?!

Loving Salads: Crisp, fresh, nourishing and energizing salads! YUMMM!!!

• lettuce
• grated carrots
• diced cucumber
• olives
• walnuts
• tomatoes
• seeds
• blueberries

 Excited about this book again, again and again!

This book changed my approach and feelings towards the birth experience in all ways! I read this book with my hubby at bed time for my 2nd, 3rd and now 4th pregnancy and birth. I've lent this book out many times and unfortunately I never got it back the last time, so i had to reorder it through bookdepository. Nevertheless, I am excited to read it again!

 

This is an eye opening book for me, again and again. It's motivating, reassuring, provides  knowledge and all in all, a great base.

I highly recommend it to every pregnant woman on this planet! Bookdepository has free shipping around the world!!! So worth it!

Raspberries from my garden, gone is seconds, devoured by my 2 year old!

More on my pregnancy HERE!

More on Life, Motherhood, Homeschooling, Nutrition etc. HERE!

Green Life Juice

 Ingredients:

• lemon, thick slice
• 1/3rd cored fennel
• 1/2 sour green apple
• 1 head of romaine lettuce
• 3 stalks of celery
• 2/3 cucumber
• 3 handfuls of spinach
• 1" ginger
• 1/4 ts vitamin C powder

The taste is amazing and I'm not just saying that! Try it for yourself!!

 such richness!

 Green Delight, super power juice! Oh you'll feel the difference!!!

 enzymes!

Do you have a recipe for your favourite juice? Please share it with us!

More recipes on Live/Raw foods HERE

Week 16

How do I feel? I've had two off days, when I've felt quite back. I had to increase my Diclectin dosage for those days. At first I thought maybe it had something to do with my switching my vitamins to a different brand and form, but that surely that wasn't the case. I had a good look at what I was eating and I'm 99% sure that, that was the cause! It wasn't hard to figure out what I was doing wrong.

What did I eat? I am emberrassed to admit this but, I had ice coffee from Mc Cafe two days in a row and twice!! Also, I did something even more stupid. I purchased and Arizona iced tea (we all know that's full of sugar!!!!) and I did that two days in a row as well. On top of this, since I thought I was feeling a lot better, and I was craving for a decaf hazelnut flavoured coffee... oh you guessed it! I am so dumb.

Well no wonder my body went a bit loopy and was like "hey!! what's going on?!" I felt so awful, I could hardly get out of bed.

There is something I didn't do for a few days, which was juicing. I guess, having S away for a few days put me on survival mode for a second, and honestly I just forgot to. Howeverm I put it to the test, and juiced today and I INSTANTLY felt my nausea had subside and, I have not even taken Diclectin today! I am now, again, a true believer in juicing my vegetables. If you cannot consume them in large quantities, then juice them!!! 

I am back to "normal" :)

Here are my top #5 snack ideas for in between meals

• Greek Yogurt with berries, nuts and stevia. I sometimes substitute almonds to a handful of oats or 1T hemp hearts.
• Protein smoothie. Basicall any kind of vegetable and fruit, yogurt based smoothie with a scoop of hemp protein or whey protein.
• Hummus and Peppers. I love red pepper boats filled with hummus. It's pretty much the only way I eat red peppers.
• Apples and nut butter. I love organic peanut butter. I know almond butter is better for you, but peanut butter tastes best!
• Cheese and grapes.

What are your favourite snacks?

Cucumber - Carrot Delight Juice

1 large cucumber
2 small carrots
3 celery stalks
Slice of lemon
1" ginger
1/3 fennel
1/2 sour green apple
1/3 red pepper

Energy Juice

Juice:
2 carrots
1/2 red pepper
1" ginger
Slice of lemon
1/3 large fennel
2 celery stalks
2 handfuls of tightly squeezed kale
1/2 sour green apple

Serve over ice,  drink immediately :)!  Yum!

Enough Protein?

For snack time,  I enjoy eating Greek Yogurt. I haven't always liked it,  but gradually I've built quite the taste for it. I go for good quality Greek Yogurt and most of the time 0% ones. It's also good for balanced gut flora.

My Daily Juice

My Daily juice different from day to day. But one thing is consistent, I have it. Sometimes I lean towards a more green juice,  and other days more towards a berry juice. I still add in several handfuls of spinach/kale /combination of both.

Week 14

Unfortunately, I don't have much to blog about this week. We took the RV and drove hours upon hours sightseeing this beautiful British Columbia. I took my Juicer and my Nutri bullet with me! We ate out most of the time, so I made the best choices I could, just making sure I was getting enough nutrients. Sometimes I bought ready made green smoothies and other types of smoothies. I haven't mastered being enough "raw" on the road yet. I'm hoping we'll go on another road trip soon, and then I'll plan it better.

How am I feeling? -Good, I could feel better. Looking forward to week 15, back to a rhythm.

Baby is the size of a small avocado. Sweet baby!

Pregnancy Week 13

I'm feeling a lot better now that my diet has been altered. I had an appointment with the midwife yesterday and she also happens to be a Naturopath. We went through my 5 day food log, to see if there was a reason for my drastic "up and downs". It seems that my body behaves like a diabetic (even though I am not) while pregnant, so we're trying out a new regime. So far so good. Low Glysemic is the new word this week.

This weeks key word: JUICING

I have been juicing most of my vegetables this week, since I haven't had the appetite to chew them. The juices have been so yummy!

This week I have taken away: SUGAR in almost every form. 

I'm eating less dried fruit and high fructose fruits just to see how my body reacts to it.

I'm feeling: BETTER. I am cutting out the Diclectin nausea meds slowly. Let's hope the nausea stays away.

I'm adding: EXERCISE and HEMP PROTEIN.

Since I'm not feeling that nauseous, dumbells are on the horizon. Soon. Because of my meat aversions, I will add the hemp protein to my smoothies.

Recipe of the week: 

PICK-ME-UPPER POWER JUICE

In a juicer, juice:

• 1/3 large fennel
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 small sour green apple
• 1" ginger
• handful of spinach/kale, washed and rolled up tightly
• slice of lemon
• 1 carrot 

serve with ice!