A lifestyle change

If you are friends with me on Facebook, than you might have seen that K and I are trying to make some pretty significant lifestyle changes. I want to start altering the types of foods we buy. I'm still trying to sift through how far I want to take this and my own personal feelings on the matter. Lucky for you, you get to read my thought process!

I've always thought eating organically was for the hippies (haha). I know, I'm an anomaly in the blogging world. (Don't even get me started on all the oils and stuff that people are putting on their new born babies.) My SIL asked the other day what got me started thinking about making the change and I couldn't put my finger on one specific incident. As I was reflecting on it more today I started to realize that this had been a long time coming, little tid bits I'd hear from different places all began to build up in my psyche. Then, a few days ago, I was watching one of my guilty pleasure reality TV shows. This girl was talking about infertility and how it seems like so many more women are dealing with infertility now days than ever before. She mentioned how she wondered if it had something to do with the food we eat and all of the chemicals and hormones that are injected into them. That really stuck with me. I've never had to deal with infertility, but from what I know about it...it just sucks! There's no other way to put it.  Who knows, maybe we hear more about infertility issues now because most people are starting to have children later on in life or because we are just a lot more open in our society to talk about feelings and deeper subjects now. Either way, you can't help but wonder if it does play some minor role in these types of cases.

As a Health teacher, I know what I should be eating. I would say, compared to the average American, we do a fine job. We eat red meat sparingly, we have a vegetable or fruit with every meal, we don't drink a ton of soda, when we have beef or bacon it is always turkey alternatives, we try to drink a lot of water each day, we eat low fat dairy products (except J who still drinks whole milk) and I don't buy a ton of candy or anything like that (sometimes your health benefits from being cheap). I even stopped buying chicken breasts awhile ago when I took a look at the chicken breasts we bought and realized I'd never seen a chicken that big in my life! We still eat a lot of chicken, but I like to stick to the tenderloins because it just seems more natural? That isn't scientific based in any way, but I felt better about it. It's certainly a lot less fatty than the breast we had been buying before.

As a Health teacher, I know the importance of quality selections from each food group. I'm not interested in any fad diets or trends. We aren't trying to lose weight, we are trying to make healthy, long-lasting, lifestyle changes. Several of my friends recommended the Paleo diet. I've only researched it a little bit because, from what I've seen, it just isn't practical for our family. There's no way I could cut out all dairy or wheat or beans. I could if we needed to, but I don't want to. There are many health benefits from dairy, wheat, and beans--as long as you're eating the right kinds. It's a great option for many people, but just doesn't meet all of our needs.

My SIL gave me some great advice about not trying to change everything right at once. It really is just so overwhelming! So we are going to start this week by buying organic fruits and vegetables. We've talked about getting a juicer, but I read they can be a pain to clean. Also, we still live in an apartment, I'm not sure we could fit another appliance in this joint! Right now we've just been buying the Naked smoothies and I really like them so far! I think our next step will be to find farm fed meat. I have no idea how expensive that is (Does anyone know?) or if you can even buy that in a local grocery store (Anyone? Anyone?), but I'll find out next week! I also want to start collecting healthier recipeces. I was noticing at the store this week that many of our recipes call for cheese---like, we eat a ton of cheese! I think there is a place for cheese, but not in almost every dinner--that seems a bit much!

Does anyone have any great sites, blogs, books, thoughts, or opinions on any of this? I really would like to stick to research based information because there is just too much propaganda and hoopla mixed in with this subject. Bahaha, hoopla, never thought I'd type that word out.

Portland (through mostly pictures)

Portland is a cool city! I had been there once as a teenager for a soccer trip, but that doesn't really count because all we really did on soccer trips was sleep at some dorms (not even sure which college...I think University of Portland, but I could be wrong), eat at restaurants within walking distance of the dorms, play soccer, and possible went to a mall. I really liked all of the little parks they had within their downtown. I also loved all the restaurant possibilities! Sister #1 and I left on Saturday morning to make the 3 hour (or less depending on how much you pay attention to the speedometer :)) drive down. Along the way I saw something that BLEW. MY. MIND. 

THAT my friends, would be a completely random GIANT gold statue of Jesus...next to the Alaskan (whoop whoop) flag...that lay beneath one of those wind compass thingys...that lay below an American flag (whoop whoop). Haha, I made sure to get a picture of it on the drive back. If anybody knows the significance of this, I would LOVE to hear all about it!

I got a lot of quality time with Sister #1's baby. I'm going to miss her kids a lot when we move next month, so I made sure to get my fill of pictures.

 Like I said...lots of pictures.

For lunch we went to The Original Pancake House. I had never been! I am a pancake purist, so I stuck with the original pancakes, my sisters split a Dutch Baby (basically a super thick crepe) and a Cheese Omlet. I tried the Dutch Baby, I'm not a huge crepe fan (please don't hate me), so I was happy with my choice!

I'm serious, lots of pictures of this kid!

After lunch we headed to downtown Portland. We wanted to go to the famous doughnut shop, Voo Doo Doughnuts, but the line was OUT THE DOOR! Considering I had just ate my weight in pancakes, I decided I wasn't motivated enough to wait in line, so I passed...next time though!

We headed over to the biggest book store I think I have ever seen in my life! This place takes up a block x block x block x block! It's cor-azy!

I had to take this picture because when I think Portland, I think things like organic soap in random bathrooms :)

They also have extremely random statues all around Portland!

I had to take this to appease my Alaskan roots, I called these: Urban Totem Poles.

We ate dinner at the Deschutes Brewery. It was AWESOME! I would totally recommend going there if you are ever in the area. It's a really cool atmosphere and they brew their own root beer and ginger ale. I'll be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of their root beer, but I'm kind of a root beer snob. For some reason when I was pregnant with J, I was completely obsessed and had to have root beer all of the time really liked root beer. It was one of my "pregnancy things" and it is the only "pregnancy thing" that stayed around afterwards. But I love whenever places brew their own and I always have to try it! I split the Halibut fish and chips with my sister and it was the best decision of my day! I love fish and chips and those bad boys did not disappoint!

It was a really fun short trip. I came home to a straggly looking little girl who was more than happy to see me. That poor child was in a dress that was WAY too big for her and her hear was everywhere! I forget all of the little tricks I've learned since I've been staying home with her on how to get her to get dressed when she doesn't want to...sadly, I didn't even think to pass those on to Kody. Lets just say I was missed by all :)

How do you like your pancakes? Anyone ever had a Dutch Baby? Do you like them?

Yes or no to root beer?

Did you have any "pregnancy things"? If you've never been pregnant, what are some crazy ones you've heard of?

The ramblings of a hormone crazed woman

I don't know if you've read my other blog. But we're preggo. Like 14.5 weeks preggo. I've been sooooooo sick! I feel like I am the stereotype of all pregnant women. Nausea, vomiting, heartburn, cravings, fatigue. I've got it all! But I am sooooooooooo ready for our baby to get here...that is I THOUGHT I was ready, until 20 minutes ago.

I was reading one of my friends blogs that had a baby not too long ago, she posted her birthing story. She was awesome and went ALL natural (not for me, send me to the drugs and give me double), but I really do think it's amazing when people can do that. Anywho, as I read her eloquent writings of the good the bad and everything in between, I....started crying. Like literally, tears were just streaming down my face. Now this could be the hormones talking, but it was insane! I'm not sure if it was that I am scared, nervous, anxious, excited, or confused, but tears of something were streaming down my face! To be honest, I've been so focused on getting through the nausea and all of that, I haven't given too much thought to the fact that I'm going to squeeze a human being out of me.

Everyone always says it is so worth it and you forget the pain in no time, but I'm not there yet (and won't be for quite some time) and I think there was almost a sort of panic rushing through me! How on earth do you get through the pain? No honestly, send me the longest comments of your life and tell me how you got through the pain? Because while I joke (but not really because I'm totally serious) about getting the drugs, I've had a few friends who said their epidural wore off and they ended up feeling everything. So tell me my wise-already-given-birth-friends, what the heck did you do when you were actually pushing your baby out?!!

While I know I have time, I think I need to really get serious about this having a baby thing and start reading up on how you get through the delivery and everything. Anybody read any good books on that part of the process? I think I'm good with getting through the pregnancy (well not good, but I'll survive) and now I need to really start wrapping my brain around the delivery.

Thank you for reading this, if you're even still reading this, crazy pregnant woman over and out. :)