Starting Keto!

Monday, March 26, 2018

Unless you've been living under a rock, I'm sure you've heard of the Keto craze that's going on right now - it's a low carb, high fat way of eating that works to pull energy from ketones instead of glucose.  You can Google it and read all about the ins and outs of it, but I'm choosing to begin Keto mostly because I feel like it's a sustainable, easy way for me to try to lose my baby weight.

BACKGROUND

Before I became pregnant with Harper my weight was pretty consistently between 150-155 (up about five pounds from before I got pregnant with Hadley #tears).  During both of my pregnancies I gained about 50-60 pounds.  RIDICULOUS.  After I delivered with Harper my natural weight fell to 180, and then over the fall I dropped down to the upper 160's, and I've currently been fluctuating between 166-169.
One of my "issues" is breastfeeding - I am one of the unfortunate few who doesn't lose any weight while breastfeeding, and even more important, my milk supply really drops when I actively try to lose weight.  My goal with breastfeeding all along was to just make it another month, especially after our struggle in the beginning, and so the fact that we've made it nearly 10 months is something I'm really proud of.  But at this point, I have a good stash of breastmilk from my sister in law, and I feel like I'm ready to start REALLY losing weight.  Harper is taking bottles finally, so I'm currently nursing her through the night (this is a huge problem, ugh) and nursing her before bedtime.  I'll breastfeed if she's fussy at nap time.  My plan is to keep nursing until the milk all dries up, which I expect will happen sooner than later.

ANYWHO.  Back to my weight.  I've been sitting at 168 for a while now and man, I'm just over it.  Up until now I've just sort of tried to deal with it, but now that I'm giving myself the freedom to jump in, I'm ready to JUMP IN!

My goal weight is around 145, so I have about 25lbs to lose.  It seems like a lot but I think if I'm strict with myself I could try to have it off by the end of the summer.  That would be about 5 lbs a month, which seems manageable!

STARTING KETO

So today I took some ungodly "before" pictures (those are seriously motivating...or seriously depressing, haha!), browsed through my new "Simply Keto" book by Suzanne Ryan, made a big grocery list and planned out my week.  Here's a basic list of what I'm eating:

B R E A K F A S T
eggs
bacon
protein shake
full fat yogurt with berries

L U N C H
lettuce wraps
salads topped with bacon or chicken
pickles wrapped in deli meat + cream cheese

D I N N E R
rotisserie chicken + mashed cauliflower
mexican soup
venison kebabs + zucchini/mushrooms

S N A C KS
lunch meat
macadamia nuts
cheese
pickles
beef sticks
veggies + ranch dressing

I find that most of the time I'm pretty filled up from a meal and don't need to snack, which is a nice change for me.  However, I really like making Keto "snack plates" and eating those as my meals instead!  The desserts are great too - I made Keto brownies tonight, and I've done some whipped cream sweetened with stevia.

My only concern with Keto is that I'll get bored with eating the same varieties of food, but it's honestly the only way of eating that I find sustainable right now.  So far it's been really easy to maintain and I haven't had one cheat all week.  I have my first weigh-in in two days and I'm curious to see if I'll have lost anything.  I'll update you on Tuesday!



My MONAT Thoughts (An Unbiased Review!!)

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

About a year ago I began hearing rumblings on Instagram of a new haircare company called Monat - it seemed like everybody was using it.  For the most part I am really unfussy about my hair and don't put a whole lot of thought/effort into it (which many days it looks just like that, ha) so I didn't think too much about trying it.

However, this past Christmas we were home in Illinois and discovered that a family member was selling it.  I was in a bit of a funk with my hair so I decided to give it a try.  I went with their VIP membership, which has an up front cost of $19.99 and requires 3 "flex ship" orders (these are auto ship orders of at least $84).  After looking over their various systems and hair products I ended up choosing the Renew Shampoo and the Smoothing Conditioner, as well as the Blow Out Cream.  I also received the Air Dry Cream as a promotional gift.




I began following their regimen of washing twice and following with the conditioner, and my immediate thoughts were that my hair felt really nice when washing.  The first wash it wouldn't lather/expand much (which is normal for their shampoo) but the second wash the shampoo would really get in there and thicken up, which was nice since I prefer a lather (even though I know they're bad!)  The conditioner worked really well on my tangle-prone hair; as soon as I started working it through it would smooth right out.  I also saw this happen with my 5 year old's fine, curly (also tangle-prone) hair.  A quarter size amount of conditioner would take all of her kinks out.

The Blow Out Cream was my favorite product - my hair would look shiny and smooth after using it, which was about twice a week.  I feel like a lot of blow dry creams can have a sticky, yucky texture, but I really didn't mind the texture of the Monat Blow Out Cream.  It was light and spread through my hair very easily.

I'm not sure what to think of the Air Dry Cream - I used it one day following a shower and I felt like my hair looked really pretty and shiny and had a lot of body.  The next time I used it was after a shower at night, and the following morning my hair looked terrible.  I used it on Hadley's hair once as well and it didn't do her any favors.

THOUGHTS AFTER 3 MONTHS OF USE?

I've been using Monat now for three months and I mostly feel pretty "meh" about it.  My hair doesn't look $84-worth-of-shampoo better, not by a long shot.  It mostly looks just like it did when I started using it.  Judge for yourself:

BEFORE (JAN 8, 2018) + AFTER (MARCH 19TH, 2018)


I think I kept expecting to suddenly have this amazingly full, shiny hair, and in my opinion that never happened.  I did experience hair loss, but that could be blamed on postpartum hormones so I will give Monat the benefit of the doubt.

WOULD I USE AGAIN?

I am committed to using the products now since I signed up for the VIP membership, but truthfully I wish I hadn't signed up for that and had instead bought the products at full price.  I would've spent an extra 15% on the products...but now I'm tied into two more orders with them, and I'm not sure I loved their products enough to spend $180 on them.  My final verdict is that, maybe for some people's hair, it can really transform it - like if your hair was incredibly damaged.  But my hair wasn't, so I think for me it didn't "do" much.  Once I'm through these Monat products....back to my beloved Aveda!


My Breastfeeding Journey - Low Supply, Milk Blisters & Bottle Rejection

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

How's that for a subject line??  Haha.  I had to draw you in!  Anyway, I've wanted to share about my experience with breastfeeding Harper for some time now - obviously to share about what I've gone through in case it might help others - because I love looking back at how things were with Hadley, and am afraid that I'm dropping the ball in the record-keeping department with Harper.  #secondchildsyndrome

With Hadley, I wasn't able to breastfeed exclusively due to low supply, but I did supplementally nurse her for about three months.  Once I got pregnant with Harper, I was so dang determined to breastfeed her, and was certain that my low supply with Hadley was due to having a c-section.  I did all the reading about breastfeeding, bought all the supplies and was ready to put that baby to the boob the second she came out (after my successful VBAC!)

Well, it didn't work quite like that.  She came out weighing 8 lbs 2oz, but just two days after her birth she was down almost a whole pound (just like Hadley.)  To say I was devastated was an absolute understatement.  I remember sitting in the hospital with the sweetest lactation consultant after they had just gotten done weighing her, and hearing that the doctor wanted us to start supplementing with formula right away, and just crying and crying as the nurse prepared the bottle of formula for her.

So at a few days old, we started supplementing with formula.  It was an exhausting month - nursing her, then giving her a bottle of formula, then pumping, and starting it all over again like an hour later.  During all of this it did seem as though she wasn't satisfied with just the breast, and I was always so discouraged by how little I would pump (the most I would ever pump was maybe 5 ounces combined after a 3-4 hour stretch?)  The formula definitely helped chunk her up, though!


{For the record, I never minded giving her formula because I thought it was bad for her.  I just wanted to be able to feed her all on my own.  I mean, the stuff stinks to high heaven but I'm all about just feeding your baby.}

We spent the summer following this routine, and come early August we went to spend a weekend at Brad's family lake house.  Harper was just over 3 months old and for whatever reason, she was an absolute wreck that weekend.  I think there was so much commotion with so many people that she was on overload, so I spent a LOT of time in the bedroom nursing her.  Once the weekend was over, I realized that I had only given her a tiny bit of formula and that she had seemed pretty content.  I contacted the lactation consultant we had worked with and arranged to do some weight checks throughout the next few weeks and just see how she would gain if she was just on my milk.

Lo and behold, she continued to gain even as we pulled back on the formula.  I had tried taking supplements to increase my supply - I had done ALL THE THINGS, actually: supplements, oatmeal, gatorade, essential oils, breast massage....you name it, I tried it - and the only thing I found that made my milk more plentiful was drinking lots of water.

Within a month, and by 4 months old, Harper was exclusively being breastfed.  I was absolutely shocked and elated that for whatever reason, my milk had ended up being enough for her.  I have NO idea why my milk is so scant in the first month or so, but it is.  I also gave up the pumping/bottles because it was just more work than anything, plus I figured it was best for her to get as much milk from me as she could. This ended up being a bit of a mistake, ha.

So fast forward to today - she's 9 months old and is obsessed with nursing, which is both a good and bad thing.  I have dealt with milk blisters (which....OUCH - it's basically a blister on your nipple.  sorry for the #TMI), the low supply and still needing to supplement very, very occasionally (thanks to my sister in law, who is a milk making machine! We've been able to supplement with breast milk, which is a huge blessing) and now we're dealing with the fact that I'm about ready to be done but Harper is just not.  And the worst part is that she's really not a fan of bottles.  Honestly, if she would take a bottle easily, I would probably start the weaning process.

I think for me, the hardest part with breastfeeding is that I am not one of those fortunate women that loses tons of weight while nursing.  I think because I make just barely enough for her that my body holds onto literally every single calorie it gets.  This has been more than a little discouraging, because it turns into this internal battle of "what's more important - baby being fed by me or mama feeling good about herself?"  There's no easy answer as both of those things are so important....but for now I keep choosing to feed her.  But that's also because she won't take a bottle, lol.

But even with all of the hard parts - the low supply, blisters, constant attachment, and not losing weight - I wouldn't trade any of it for a second.  It has been so rewarding to me to know that I'm her food source, and that there's literally nothing more nutritious on earth than breastmilk.  I love that I can soothe her when she's hurt or upset, and that her physical connection with me is the last thing she experiences before she goes to sleep every night.


That said...if anyone has any tips on weaning a very attached baby - cause I have a feeling she'll be very attached even at a year old - please let me know, haha!  And if anyone reading this is struggling with any of these things, please feel free to reach out to me - I LOVE talking breastfeeding and am a completely open book!


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