Methods to Relieve Sore Muscles

Whenever I am on my feet and more active, I start to get hip pain. Eventually it goes from my hip all the way down to my feet. My hips are almost always very tight and I would love some mid and lower back pain relief. It’s really uncomfortable and will even keep me up at night.

It seems that I am constantly popping ibuprofen and I don’t like to do that. I am interested in natural pain relief so I decided to take a look at a few options.

1. I have a foam body roller, like the Melt Method roller shown below, and it is very effective in relieving muscle pain. I found a lot of exercises on YouTube to help stretch my hip, butt and leg muscles. This is an invaluable tool.

2. I know that I need to stretch more in general. Yoga has been effective for me in the past and I used to enjoy doing it after a run when my hips and legs were sore and tight. I think that if I began a daily routine of stretching that I could improve my overall wellbeing because it would also be great for stress relief—and I definitely need help with that simply by nature!

3. I was really intrigued when I was introduced to the Melt Method, which offers a simple, proactive approach to maintaining a healthy, pain-free, active lifestyle. It is a natural self-treatment solution designed for anyone that wants to feel better, regardless of age, gender, or current activity level. Just 10 minutes, three times a week can help reduce stress on the body caused by daily living—I could handle that!

4. Last year for my first mother’s day, hubby told me to book a massage as part of my gift. Would you believe it has almost been a year and I still haven’t booked a massage? I can guarantee that a massage would definitely make my sore back muscles feel a lot better.

5. I also like to go to the chiropractor and it is effective, it’s just hard to be able to go multiple times a week and it does get expensive doing that. But maybe if I even went once a month it would make me feel better.

What are your favorite ways for to relieve sore and tight muscles?

Disclaimer: This post written in partnership with MeltMethod.com. All words are my own.

Torani Sugar Free Raspberry Cheesecake Dessert

Torani sent me a wonderful selection of their sugar free syrups to try out and create a recipe with. I received caramel, French vanilla, and raspberry syrups and I have used them in a variety of drinks.

 

I love to add the Torani sugar free syrups to my diet pop and of course to my coffee—whether iced or hot! I find that they’re easy to use on a daily basis and I love that the extra flavor doesn’t add any extra calories!

I created the most delicious recipe that’s perfect for spring & summer and I’m excited to share it with you!

Torani Sugar Free Raspberry Cheesecake Dessert

Serves: 5

Serving size: 1/2 cup

PointsPlus Per Serving: 5

Ingredients:

• 1- 8 oz. package Neufchatel cheese at room temperature (1/3 less fat than regular cream cheese)
• 1- 8 oz. container of lite whipped topping
• 1/3 cup Splenda
• 2 Tbs. Torani Sugar Free Raspberry Syrup
• 1 cup of fresh raspberries (optional)

Directions:

1. Using a mixer, blend together the Neufchatel cheese with the lite whipped topping until smooth
2. Add 1/3 cup of Splenda and mix well
3. Add 2 Tbs. of the Torani Sugar Free Raspberry syrup and mix until fully blended
4. Store in refrigerator until cooled and ready to serve
5. Serve topped with fresh raspberries

Food Highlights and Day in Review (with pictures)

What a gorgeous day it was! The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the grass was deep green, and spring flowers are everywhere to be seen. Not to mention it was in the 70s today.

I didn’t sleep well last night—I don’t know if I was too hot or if I drank the Starbucks Refresher a little too late in the day and the caffeine kept me awake. I woke up at 6:45 and I was tired and fell back asleep at about 7:15. The next thing I knew, I heard baby making noises in her room and it was 9:15! That never happens—I can’t believe she slept that long either, but she did refuse an afternoon nap yesterday.

I had a delicious egg sandwich and a side of fruit for breakfast. Yum, yum, yum.

This is how baby girl’s breakfast went.

Yep, she thinks it’s the best thing ever to throw her food on the floor. We try to tell her no and she just thinks it’s funny and keeps doing it. Oh boy!

I have been afraid to feed her a lot of foods because of random things I have read here and there. I’m feeling a lot better about feeding her now that she’s about a year old. She hasn’t had peanut butter yet—so that will be a fun one to give her! I tried to feed her a clementine today, but you can see how that turned out. I just keep offering her the foods and letting her do her thing—eventually she’ll eat them!

I did some laundry while baby girl tried to eat the toilet paper, get in the garbage can, access the toilet plunger, and try to touch the toilet bowl cleaning brush. Ew. Time to find new homes for those—mission accomplished.

I have mentioned the toilet paper issue a couple of times. She likes to unroll the toilet paper and eat it… yes like a puppy dog. lol. I have tried telling her no and getting after her about it but she thinks it’s funny. So I decided to just ignore her when she does it—and you know what? It works! She doesn’t like eating toilet paper as much when I’m not paying attention to her, apparently. lol (Don’t worry, I was secretly keeping as eye on her—the trick was so that she didn’t know that I was)

Baby had a little bit of play time but it didn’t take long until she was ready for her nap. The mornings go SO quickly!

While she napped, I did my usual things—read my bible & prayed, checked up on blogging things, wrote an article, and did some preparing for lunch. I sipped on one of these and enjoyed it very much! We have to drink these up before Saturday! I haven’t had one for a long time. The smaller bottle (this one) is 5 PointsPlus which is about what I used for an iced coffee because I really like my coffee creamer—yep I’m back on it. I just can’t stop. I need flavored coffee creamer.

Speaking of Starbucks, did you see they sell a Smores Frappuccino out now? I definitely want to try that but I haven’t taken a peek at the calories yet. Maybe I don’t want to.

Since our schedule was way off, we had lunch at 2:00. I made a chicken burrito with leftovers for myself. I tried the new Yogurt 100 calorie Greek Whips! Strawberry Cheesecake flavor for dessert. Oh my goodness—this was SO good! Only 2 PointsPlus!

And Ash informed me there is a cupcake flavor. Be still my heart. I can’t wait to try that.

After lunch, we headed out for a walk for about 30 minutes. Whew—I was hot and sweaty by the time we got home. I swear, ever since I was pregnant I get SO hot all the time. I used to be cold all the time…I want that back! Maybe it’s all of my extra blubber.

Baby girl refused her afternoon nap again which is understandable since it was a lot later than usual. And she was a mess. Throwing tantrums and everything. I used my “ignore the behavior tactic” and it seemed to work again. Goodness knows I do not want her to think acting like that will get her attention. Parent in training. Whew.

I decided the best tactic would be going outside. We played in the grass and with her new big pink ball. I pushed her in the swing until she started “saying” all done.

I set up her new Summer Infant Pop ‘n’ Play to give it a try and so hubby could watch her while he grilled and I could get everything ready for supper inside.

Well played on my part because it worked fabulously and baby was happy—which is much better than a screaming baby pulling on your leg, hubby asking when supper is going to be done while supper burns on the stove. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Motherhood.

I made the above picture extra large so you can see how blue her eyes are! She gets lots of compliments on those beauties. I thought for sure she would have brown eyes because hubby does. I have a bluish grayish color eyes—I’m not really sure what color they are, but blue eyes run on my side of the family. One of hubby’s relatives said “now where in the world did she ever get blues eyes?” They all have brown. ha.

The highlight from supper was fresh asparagus from our garden. There wasn’t enough for all three of us, so I added broccoli and mushrooms. The broccoli was SO green. It was all delicious.

I have been loving Skinny Cow ice cream treats. Tonight, I had a caramel truffle bar. Divine.

I quickly cleaned up the kitchen and we headed out for a short walk as a family. I really needed more steps.

It was only 20 minutes long, but it was nice, windy, and cool and it was perfect for me—the human furnace.

I need about 600 more steps to meet my 10,000 step goal so I’ll be doing some walking in place tonight but I will definitely meet my goal! Two days in a row! I’m loving my Fitbit and it certainly helps me be more active.

There is still time to join the A Journey to Thin online book club!

I also wanted to tell you that some days I will have a couple of posts per day, especially if I have a post like my zulily one today with sale information. I like to have mostly personal posts but I also want to have the ad kind here and there. On those days, you’ll probably see both posts—so be on the watch for both. So if you’re not an email subscriber or you don’t follow my blog via the feed, make sure to scroll down and check to make sure there isn’t another post for the day! Better yet, just subscribe and you’ll be good to go.

zulily Private Event - Up to 70% off Kids Spring/Summer Shoes

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This is a private zulily event that can ONLY be accessed through the shopping links below:

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Make sure to head on over to zulily right away and take advantage of the amazing savings... because this sale ends on 4/30 at 6AM PST. Take a look at some of the featured items on sale:

Pink Metallic Flower Sandal $33.00 $14.99	Light Pink & Green Polka Dot Boat Shoe $20.00 $6.99

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Camo Green Marble Clog $10.00 $5.99	Black & Gray Double-Strap Sandal $20.00 $11.99

 

 

This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Monday in Review

This past weekend went quickly, as they always do. Highlights of the weekend were overspending on baby girl’s first birthday supplies (I mean seriously, I need to return some things because it was ridiculous lol) and sitting in the porch with hubby and reading while sipping a fruit smoothie. What were the highlights of your weekend?

By Saturday, I was finally feeling like myself again. It practically took all week to get there and that’s so frustrating to me and I wonder how long these postpartum depression symptom relapses will last. But I’m always so relieved when I do feel like myself again because I have a ton more energy and much more optimism about pretty much everything. I have to remind myself that I am about 5000% better than I was a month ago even!

We all stayed home on Sunday because baby girl still has her cold (getting better) and hubby caught a bit of a cold. We try to be respectful to other people in our church meeting when it comes to germs—nobody wants to get sick! Plus, we have a woman with cancer and it’s very important that she doesn’t get sicknesses. But yeh, staying home avoided that extra anxiety for me—but I need to get a few “good” times keeping my anxiety under control so I can start building some confidence in that respect again.

This morning began like all of the others—spending a little time in the nursery with baby girl before heading down and starting our morning. I decided to pull out a box of shoes my sister gave us to see if any other shoes fit—and some did! I thought she looked too cute in these rain boots.

I still had a little bit more shopping I wanted to do on the party supplies front, so I decided to get that out of the way today so I can focus on cleaning the house for the rest of the week (oh joy). Don’t get me wrong, I was trying to see if I could find better deals, haha. Anyways, we headed out after baby girl’s nap and after eating lunch.

I didn’t know how it was going to go because she was super fussy and clingy before we left. But she calmed down in the car and seemed to enjoy herself quite a bit while we were out! Whew—what a relief. It always makes me laugh how she just makes herself comfy in the shopping cart.

Shortly after we arrived in town, hubby called to say he was on his way through town and wanted to know if I’d pick up Starbucks and meet him with it. I grabbed a Starbucks Refreshers Very Berry tea for myself—only 1 PointsPlus. It was refreshing, but I’m definitely more of a coffee fan. It was fun to try something different though.

I was able to find almost everything that I needed for the party supplies except for Frappuccinos that I wanted the bottles for. For some reason I couldn’t find them at Walmart…weird. But I asked hubby to pick some up on the way home, so that’s accomplished!

Baby girl didn’t nap on the way home, so she was horrendously fussy when we got home. I put her down for a nap and then the neighbor started up their Harley and we said goodbye to that nap and hello to a very fussy baby again! But it wasn’t long before hubby arrived home and she is always excited to see him.

I made fish tacos for supper. They were super yummy!

Would you believe that baby girl loves fish? I gave her some and she said “mmmmmm”, which she does when she really likes something. She ate quite a bit of it! The girl will eat practically anything, although she doesn’t like most fruit—but she loves veggies.

After supper, hubby watched baby girl so I could clean up the kitchen and throw in some laundry and then he went out to mow the lawn while I took fussy baby outside. She immediately cheered up. She loves to swing. The neighbor brought out their little dogs and baby girl thinks they’re so funny and she just giggled and chattered. She’s pretty cute.

We sat in the grass and played a bit too.

And that’s about it! I am about 1,000 steps short of 10,000 so I am going to get those steps in before bedtime!

Don’t forget to check out the details for the Online Book Club!

Online Book Club—Change in Date

So far there are just two of us in the online book club and so we’re going to add another week to give you time to order the book and read the first section!

Seriously everyone, this will be more than just a book club but a place to give and receive support from other people in the journey. I’m excited about it!

In case you missed it, we are reading What You Can When You Can: Healthy Living on Your Terms.

I’ve read the first section and it’s a great book with down to earth and a practical approach. It doesn’t matter what diet or fitness plan you’re following—it’s about learning how to consistently maintain a healthy lifestyle that’s not obsessive or a failure prone way.

Please see my original post for all of the details!

Also, if you want to join—once I add you to the Hangout, you will know you’re good to go. If I haven’t added you and you want to join—please let me know!

 

This post contains an affiliate link. If you click on the link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission which keeps A Journey to Thin running.

Weigh in Friday #WeightWatchers

I was pretty excited to step on the scale this morning knowing that I was on track with my Points all week—I wasn’t nearly as active this week, so I wasn’t sure how it would all play out.

I lost 1.2 lbs. this week for a total loss of 6.9 lbs. in 3 weeks!

I would love to see the weight fall off really fast, I mean who wouldn’t? But I know that losing almost 7 lbs. in 3 weeks is really great progress and I should be happy with that. The important thing is that I could eat this way for the rest of my life and be completely happy. I don’t feel deprived, I just have to practice a little bit of self control. My body is so much happier eating this way—I feel a lot better.

Here are my Weight Watchers healthy checks for the week:

All good, except for the lack of exercise this week—which I’ve explained in previous posts. I’m feeling better and better every day though—I’m happy to be feeling “happy” again and to have my energy back.

Stats for the week:

• Weekly Points Used: 48/49
• Active Points Earned: 7
• Total steps: 34,263
• Weight Loss this Week: –1.2 lbs.
• Total Weight Loss to Date: –6.9 lbs.

Oofta! I did not get much activity at all—as in I got almost 30,000 less steps this week. That’s what napping pretty much all day will do to you, which is another reason why I hate feeling so down and drained.

I will be interested to see how my level of activity makes a difference with my weight loss. Last week, I was a lot more active and lost slightly less than this week. I think it goes to show that your “diet” is what makes the biggest difference in terms of weight loss.

I am super duper happy today because hubby has been gone since Wednesday morning and he will be back home today. I survived taking care of a sick baby for almost 3 days all by myself. Whew! She’s getting better.

Baby girl’s 1st birthday is one week away. I can hardly believe it. It really is true that “the days are long by the years are short”. It is amazing to think how different life was one year ago—and I’m still getting used to it! haha

Speaking of her birthday, we’re having a very small party with grandparents. If any of my siblings want to come, you’re all invited. I need to get prepared! Since I’m Mrs. Anxiety lately, I’m just going to make it easy on myself and order cupcakes from my favorite Cupcakery instead of baking a cake and stressing over that. I’m not totally sure what I’m going to do about supper—maybe grill out or something.

I need to find the decorations I want—I have one more place I want to look and if they don’t have something better, I found some I like at Target. They will be pink, OF COURSE.

I also want to get her a cute outfit to wear, but I’m kind of waiting until I decide on decorations because I want to get her a little outfit to match. Am I silly? lol. I would love to get her a little outfit that says “1” on it. I especially love this one on Amazon, but I’m afraid it will be too small since she’s wearing 18 mo. clothes.

I found something kind of similar at Wal-Mart for a lot cheaper—so I might go that route. Or I will find her a pretty dress or something and some cute hairbows because I’m pretty sure I will be able to have her wear her hair in a pigtail for the first time! Fun mommy stuff.

Anyways, enough rambling. Have a great weekend! Don’t forget to let me know if you want to join the Online Book Club!

Five Tips to Ward Off Hunger on those Hungry Days

You know those days when you are hungry, hungry, hungry and can’t seem to get enough to eat but you also want to stay on your diet plan so that you can meet your goals? Those are hard days, but with a little mindfulness you can survive it and still stay on track.

Here are a few ideas that I’ve used:

1. Drink Water: There are endless benefits to drinking more H2O, including warding off snacking. According to this Livestrong article, your body will sometimes send hunger signals when you are actually just dehydrated. Instead of snacking, try drinking a big glass of water first.
2. Eat a Protein Bar: It can be difficult to find a protein bar that’s lower in calories and carbs, not made of all kinds of crazy ingredients, but loaded with protein and satisfying. I have found Quest Bars to be my favorite because they meet all of these requirements. My husband loves these too because they are chewy and they take longer to eat. You can buy Quest Bars online through Supps R Us.

3. Eat Fruits/Veggies: When talking with my counselor about emotional eating, she told me that one of the first steps I could take is to grab something healthy instead of say, chocolate, and to let myself eat however much of it I wanted. Her examples were baby carrots, celery, or apples—it’s really hard to eat a lot of baby carrots or apples because they are filling, but they also aren’t super high in calories and they are loaded with nutrients. While this advice was for emotional eating, it also applies well to those hungry days.
4. Chew Gum: There are a lot of delicious flavors of sugar-free gum out there these days. Keep a few packs on hand and enjoy the flavors. It might keep you distracted from your hunger for a while and even satisfy a sweets craving.
5. Drink a Cup of Coffee or Tea: As long as you don’t add sugar and a lot of cream, a hot cup of coffee (or iced) or a herbal tea can be a delicious treat! A hot drink especially can be very satisfying and filling.

What are your tips to ward of hunger on those hungry days?

 

This post sponsored by Supps R Us. Content is my own.

I’m still here

Hello everyone!

It has been beautifully sunny outside but very windy and cold. I’m missing those warm days and being outside.

I have had kind of a rough week, but it’s starting to look up. I had a lot of anxiety on Sunday and of course that left me drained and for some reason I just couldn’t shake it. I felt exhausted and depressed Monday and Tuesday and I slept a lot—when baby took her naps, I napped too. Wednesday, I felt better in the morning but got tired very quickly by the afternoon and had to take a nap. I’m feeling a bit more energy today—so I’m hopeful I’ll feel like myself again soon.

Needless to say, when you nap all day you don’t get very many steps. But rest is what my body needs, so I’m listening and it really does help. It has meant not bingeing on chocolate instead, not getting super irritable and cranky, and less anxiety. They say there will be relapses to this PPD, so maybe that’s what has happened.

I am on track with my Weight Watchers points which makes me very happy. Tomorrow is weigh in day, so I’m anxious to see what the scale says! Either way, I am feeling smaller.

Baby girl caught a cold, so she hasn’t been feeling very well. It doesn’t stop her though—she’s still her energetic and playful self, but she just gets fussy pretty quickly. Not to mention, she’s starting to walk! This morning she took quite a few steps in a row…oh boy!

Meanwhile, she loves to unroll the toilet paper when I’m not looking. Someday she will learn to cover her tracks. Ha!

Never mind the torn up carpet, we had some issues with our old wash machine and had to tear it out and we’re planning on putting in new flooring—hubby just hasn’t had a chance to get to it! It looks horrible right now. Eek.

Did you see my post about the first online book club meeting? Be sure to let me know if you want to join! You will know you’re good to go when I add you to the Google Hangout. I’ve had a couple of Google+ adds, but I’m not sure if that means you want to join the book club or not, so please send me a message if you do!

Have a great day!

First Online Book Club Meeting Information

Date: UPDATED to Tuesday, May 5th Tuesday, April 28th

Time: 8 P.M. Central

Location: Google Hangouts

Book: What You Can When You Can: Healthy Living on Your Terms

What to Read: Part 1: It’s all about mindset (pages 1-26)

 

Since many of you said you didn’t know much about Twitter, I decided to go with the Google Hangouts location instead. This way, anyone can join in as long as they have a Google+ account. It will also be private. We’ll give this a try for the first meeting and change it up for the second, if needed!

Bear with me because I am new to this! I believe I will need to invite anyone who wants to join—so if you are interested, it would be super handy if you could add me on Google+ and send me a message that you’re interested so I can add you to the Hangout that way.  Otherwise, please comment below, shoot me an email to AJourney2Thin@gmail.com , Facebook message me, or Tweet me…contact me one way or another and let me know!

We will just hangout and chat about the reading selection for about an hour. This will be a fantastic opportunity to connect with like-minded people on this weight loss/healthy living journey. The goal is to learn something new, support each other, celebrate successes, motivate the discouraged, and make new friends, all while learning from the book.

Any questions? Comments?

I hope to see you there!

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission that helps keep A Journey to Thin running.

Reebok Disney Footwear Collection Sale

From 4-20 through 4/23, all Disney footwear is $29.99 when you use:

PROMO CODE: DISNEY

Check out the wide selection of shoes for both girls and boys that your kids will surely love!

These shoes were inspired by Cinderella:

These shoes were inspired by the movie Cars:

Disclaimer: I am a Reebok affiliate and if you click a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission that helps keep A Journey to Thin running.

Weigh in Day: Week 2

I decided not to weigh myself all week, which is something new for me because I have always weighed daily. This seems to be working for me right now and helps me not obsess about the scale.

This morning I lost .9 lbs. for a total loss of 5.7 lbs. in two weeks. At first I felt disappointed—but then when I thought about having lost almost 6 lbs. in only two weeks, I felt pretty good about it.

Here are my Weight Watchers healthy checks for the week:

Please note that Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday were days I was experiencing exhaustion due to PPD and Wednesday I was also feeling sick. I count exercise as days that I get at least 10,000 steps in.

Stats for the week:

• Weekly Points Used: 48/49
• Active Points Earned: 40
• Total steps: 62,022
• Weight Loss this Week: –.9 lbs.
• Total Weight Loss to Date: –5.7 lbs.

This week I’m going to try not to use so many Weekly Points—I used most of them on Sunday when we were eating at hubby’s parents and that was just a really tough day for me emotionally. Overall, I am happy with my week--Ya did good, Alissa!

I did want to update you on my steps for yesterday:

Yep, that’s how it’s done! I love the days when I am feeling like myself. It makes me happy to accomplish goals.

Alright, so here’s the low down on the step challenge I had going on with a couple of ladies. The other two are related and apparently super duper competitive to the point they were walking all day almost non-stop. lol. Literally, I am currently over 20,000 steps behind these two and I’ve only had one day that I didn’t meet or exceed my step goal (M-F)—hello over 14,000 steps on Monday. So for the sake of their physical and emotional health, and because they have families to take care of and cannot be walking all day, we are changing up the challenge.

Starting Monday, each of us will have a personal goal to reach 60,000 steps from Monday through Friday—that averages 12,000 steps her day. If one person doesn’t meet that goal, that person loses and has to buy the other two a $5 gift card. If everyone meets the goal, we go for another week with the same challenge until someone does lose. Should be fun!

On another note, I hope to have the Online Book Club details for you on Monday. What do you think about using Google Hangouts? Do Thursday evenings work for you? I’m thinking 8 p.m. central time? Let me know your thoughts!

In case you missed it, we will be reading What You Can When You Can: Healthy Living on Your Terms. I received my copy yesterday and it will be a short and easy read—so don’t be scared away! I will make sure to keep the reading short so that we all have time to read it and then we can discuss it in more detail.

 

Have a great weekend!

Out and About

I didn’t feel well yesterday and I was super tired, so I rested. I didn’t meet my step goal, but that’s ok. The resting was worth it because when I woke up this morning, I didn’t feel exhausted anymore—I just have that slight feeling like I’m getting a cold, but nothing major so far!

It always makes me so happy when I’m not completely exhausted and can’t find the energy to do anything. It’s good to feel like “myself” and I miss it when I have those days that I don’t. It makes me frustrated when I’m motivated and doing great and then that happens and I have to lay low for a bit—I’m afraid it’s slowing me down!

Anyways, I was back at it this morning.

Hubby has been taking a course all week at a community college, so we decided we would meet for lunch one day this week. Let me tell you, it is quite the job to get yourself and a baby ready to go and out the door all by yourself. Seriously, how in the world do moms of multiples do it? But I got it done…whew!

Of course the day we chose to meet, the teacher decided he’d cut their lunch down to a half hour instead of an hour. We went to Panchero’s and I got chicken tacos. The place was super busy and loud. That’s a situation that just causes me a lot of anxiety and so I enjoyed the food, but I felt like I wasn’t there “mentally” to enjoy the time with hubby. Hard to explain. But people kept stopping at our table to swoon over baby girl and you know me, social interaction just makes me nervous. I didn’t use to be anxious to this extent! Whew.

Baby girl sure loved all of the commotion and attention though. She was sitting in the high chair loving the rock-type music and bopping along to the beat on certain songs. I think she is going to be pretty sociable, so I need to get out there so that she can be more! I never really thought about the fact that my children may not be like me—so I want to make sure I can help her be herself in whatever way I can and to support her strengths, etc. I’m thinking about going to some sort of mommy group—there’s one not far from here every month and then there’s a Mops group—but I’m not sure what to expect and also I don’t think I’m ready for that. I don’t want to have to leave early crying like I did on Sunday! ha.

After that, I headed over to Target to do some walking and browsing. First stop was Starbucks, of course…I really needed some caffeine because I didn’t have time for my coffee this morning! I got a non-fat caramel macchiato—so yummy! Target really knows mamas pretty well—Starbucks in the store and they even supply these nice little cup holders for the cart.

Baby started to get fussy, so I showed her a bunch of different toys. Right now, her favorite things to play with are the car seat toys that have all kinds of different things dangling from them with different textures and sounds. They’re actually perfect because they always have the hooks to put them on a car seat, so when we go shopping I hook them onto the stroller or cart cover and that helps keep her entertained. I ended up buying her another one…anything to keep her from fussing!!

So then the goal was to go to the mall and do some walking and browsing. But then I decided to check out a new store in town called The Fresh Market. There were a few other stores in the same section, so I thought I would just walk around with baby in the stroller.

As soon as I went inside the store I realized that it was a place that hubby and I went to when we were in Kansas City one time. It was kind of fancy and expensive. But they had lots of fun products that I’d love to try. I will definitely go there again. I didn’t buy anything.

Next up, I went to Home Goods. I don’t think I’ve been in this store before but oh my goodness—next time I’m making over a room I’m going there! Didn’t buy anything there either! Baby was getting pretty fussy so I was getting nervous.

Hobby Lobby was next—I saw an idea on another blog of a toy I could make for baby girl, but I couldn’t find the supplies I needed and baby was starting to get out of control—so I headed out.

It was a super nice and warm day! I may have enjoyed a custard cone…actually, I did. And I counted the points for it and it was absolutely delicious.

Baby girl slept the entire drive home—which was a relief to me! I enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Bright green grass, blue skies, children getting out of school, and farmers beginning their work for the spring.

I haven’t quite met my step goal yet but I plan on going for a walk tonight. Today was a good day—hope yours was too!

Falling Behind

I have most definitely fallen behind in the fitbit step challenge, but it’s not because I am not giving a good effort! I got more than 10,000 steps yesterday.

These ladies are just on fire! I am proud of them and all they are accomplishing and I feel a little bummed that I haven’t kept up!

I woke up yesterday with the headache that I got on Monday afternoon. Those are just debilitating. I rested up until I felt better in the afternoon. I have used something like this in the past an excuse not to get in any activity all day, but I didn’t do that this time. Once I felt better, I got on it and got it done—as my steps show. Could I have gotten more steps had I felt better? Probably. But I’m not going to kill myself to do that.

I started with a walk outside. We finally had a day without strong winds, so I hit up the path—which was so nice and smooth!

Our sidewalks around here are terrible—a lot of it from trees falling on them during a horrible wind storm a few years ago.

I ended up walking for just short of an hour. I think that’s my longest walk yet. Baby girl was getting fussy and it was about nap time. That accounts for 5,195 of my steps for the day.

After a rainy week last week, we are enjoying green grass and blooming spring flowers. It’s a beautiful time of year! Here are some of the blooms from my gardens.

We have SO many tulips now. I think I’m going to have to do a little work on rearranging them back into a line—they’re kind of taking over everywhere! I will have to research how to do that because I have no idea.

So pretty though! I especially love the ones that have seemed to cross colors.

I do look forward to working in my flower beds this year. Last year, I didn’t get anything done with them. Baby was born May 1st and, well, you know the rest of the story—so I think that’s understandable.

I need to find a way to keep baby safe outside when I’m working. I’m thinking of getting one of these things until we can afford to put up a nice fence someday.

This one is also kind of nice…but I’m not sure if I love that it has a floor or not? I think she would enjoy playing in the grass. But I love how this one folds up so compactly and we could bring it camping, etc.

Any suggestions? Do any of you mamas have something like this?

Alright, back to my day. Once again, it was just an average day and I did all of the usual things around the house and with baby.

I was seriously craving some beef stew from the moment I woke up. lol. I think it’s all of the extra activity making me want to eat some “real” food. We’re out of the beef roasts from hubby’s parents and I didn’t really want to go buy one, so I got creative.

Hubby’s parents give us canned meat—it’s their beef roasts that they’ve canned somehow. It’s absolutely tender and delicious, but I never know what to do with it. I usually use it for BBQ beef—it’s a quick and easy meal.

I decided to use it in my favorite beef stew recipe (also Hubby’s parents). The recipe calls for it to be baked in the oven, which is what I usually do, but I decided to throw it all in the crock pot. It turned out delicious! I have to say it wasn’t as good as the kind baked in the oven, but it was definitely a super easy way to make stew that was full of veggies. The whole family loved it and I’m always looking for foods to make that baby girl can easily eat—even better when it’s full of veggies!

I want to share this recipe with you all the next time I make it. I want to make sure I provide 100% accurate points values when I do so—I just estimated the serving size, etc. for myself.

After supper, we went for another walk as a family. It was a little over a half hour.

I am really tired and worn out today. I felt myself getting super irritable last night and that’s become a sign that I need to rest before it gets out of hand. Today I’m actually feeling the physical “anxiety” that has gone along with my postpartum depression.

One of my biggest triggers is not getting enough sleep and the baby girl hasn’t been sleeping through the night lately—I was up three times last night. So yeah, I’m tired and I think I’m getting sick so that doesn’t help.

I’m not sure if I will meet my step goal today or not, hopefully I start to feel better and I can get out there and get those steps!