One week commitment to healthy eating

Justin and I went to the Happy Mexican last night. I LOVE going out for Mexican, but I hate the way I feel the next day. After a couple (small) margaritas and most of the basket of chips, plus cheese dip and fajitas, my body hates me today. Couple that with the fact that I gained back 3 pounds that I recently shed and it's time to do something. I don't really struggle with my weight, and this isn't about that, but I do struggle with eating healthy. I want to view food as fuel to support my active lifestyle, rather than as something to turn to when I'm bored! Also, I've always thought that if I'd get in the habit of eating right, my tastes would learn to appreciate it - the sweetness of fruit rather than sugar, for example.

I've been inspired by the 100 Days of Real Food blog, but cannot commit to 100 days of real food. I don't want it badly enough! They had to go to an extreme in order to be interesting enough to make a full-time job out of the blog. But I am going to commit to ONE WEEK of following some rules that they inspired:

1. No sugar or artificial sweeteners. I'm allowing small amounts of "real" sweetener like honey or maple syrup, but not much. This will be tough on Halloween! Really tough!
2. Only "real" drinks, mostly water. Coffee or tea without sweetener is ok. Milk and juice are ok. Gallons of Crystal Light - not ok. Coffee with Splenda and loads of Vanilla Caramel Creamer - not ok.
3. Eat at least two fruits or vegetables at every meal. I tried this for a few days and it was tough. That reminds me - I need to add a fruit to my breakfast that I just finished. Better grab an apple! Hopefully this rule will get me in the habit of eating more fruits and vegetables, and hopefully substituting them for less healthy options.
4. No fried foods. This doesn't need an explanation but it could be hard, depending on what fried food opportunities I have this week. I better avoid eating Mexican...

For the record, I don't believe our eating habits should be all or nothing - NO sugar or NO white flour. I think everything is ok in moderation. However, the fact that I polished off a bag of candy corn last night after our Mexican dinner proves that I don't do moderation well, so I'm taking a one week all or nothing approach as a kick in the butt!

To make this blog post more interesting, here are a couple recent pictures of Katelyn! :)

Another Pinterest Project... Another Holiday Onesie

Hopefully soon I'll attempt a interest project that isn't a holiday onesie, but there are so many cute ideas and Katelyn NEEDS cute onesies, right? :)

Here's a Pinterest inspired (ok, it wasn't so much inspired as directly copied) onesie that I finished over the weekend. I love how it turned out and can't wait until it is time for her to wear it!

Another recent project that was inspired by all the insanely organized people on Pinterest was an overhaul of my spice cabinet. I've been cooking a lot more while on maternity leave, and I've been frustrated by how much time I spend looking for spices. I didn't take a "before" picture, unfortunately, but here is the "after". Everything is in matching jars where I can see the labels.  I made shelves out of scrap wood, then bought the jars at Dollar Tree and printed the labels on the computer. It's so much nicer to be able to see everything! 

Pinterest Project - Turkey Onesie

This is the first of (hopefully) many Pinterest projects that I want to try during the remainder of my maternity leave (only 5 more weeks). I repin all kinds of great ideas that I never try, so now I want to try them, and I'll even try to remember to blog about them. 

I made this onesie for Katelyn and I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out. I'm actually thrilled with everything except that it is crooked! I had trouble appliqueing on the cotton part - I think I'm supposed to use some sort of paper to make it more firm. It kept pulling the jersey material into the machine and I think that's how it ended up crooked. I'll figure that out before I try another applique onesie, but I definitely think it is do-able and plan to make more. I see cute Christmas onesies in my future... It does make me want an embroidery machine, because wouldn't it be cute with her name under the turkey? Hmm...

Look forward to more Pinterest Projects to come! :) 

Pumpkin Patch

We took Katelyn to the "pumpkin patch" this afternoon! I fully understand that a 5 week old baby cannot appreciate a pumpkin patch, but hopefully one day she'll appreciate the pictures. I also know that this isn't really a pumpkin patch, but I'm a city girl and it's close enough!

 This is the first time we've seen Katelyn suck her thumb. It's not exactly the traditional way of thumb-sucking, but it works!

Clearly she is excited about this outing. 

Big yawn. Maybe if it was a REAL pumpkin patch she'd be more interested :) 

Katelyn and Justin with the pumpkin that we chose

Katelyn may not be old enough to appreciate Fall fun, but Justin and I do and we had a good time taking pictures and picking out the "perfect" pumpkin!