I'm DRAWING A LINE, You Can't Critique my 7th month old's body!

Yes my blog is titled "FindTheSkinny", once you're at the blog you'll see "Here's the Skinny" of course this is a play on words being a fit blog and a blog that tells it straight like it is.  I don't hide much.  So, its not really about being "skinny" of course, because I'm a size 12/14.  Would I like to be a smaller size? yes!, Do I need to shed additional pounds? YES YES!, but ultimately what you'll find on my blog are my thoughts as I strive for a HEALTHY lifestyle. You'll find the ups and downs and all arounds.

With that said... I have ZERO intention of discussing any of my own body image struggles with my little girl.  She doesn't need to know when I "feel fat" in an outfit or what I don't like about my body.  What she does need to know and what I pray I can equip her with is how to eat healthy, fuel her body to be active and strong, and love herself.

So, I think that this is something I'm going to have to watch out for in the upcoming few months as she begins to understand my words.  I think that soon enough we will begin teaching her the positive bits of knowledge listed above.  I think one day society will turn this into a bit of a battle when society tells her different and its our job to teach her well.

THEN.....

"you need to feed her more, she's too skinny", "you need to not let her eat so much, she's getting a belly"



I assure you these people don't know how it feels to have your husband drive you, crying, with your baby girl to the lactation consultant because you're worried she's not drinking enough. Then see you smile when they weight her before and after a feeding and the little princess eats like 4-6 oz in 10 minutes! They also aren't there when her little precious heart can't seem to dirty a diaper for a few days and it hurts her tummy. (thats the other side of those comments that they don't get)

These are words spoken to me and my husband by people holding her. So those words hit her little innocent ears before they hit ours.  I was so mad both times.  Who is someone else to question our child's nutrition to us??? I'm breastfeeding, I'm not sure there's any better way to ensure that she gets the right amount of the right things.  We introduced a bottle of formula a few times a week when I returned to work (5 months old), but I'm ok with that too! When we introduced puree foods at 4 months I was super careful about how we introduced in order to help her acquire a great liking for a variety of veggies and fruits.  So far she only dislikes green beans and peaches.  I feel SO good about my child's nutrition.

So when I tell you she drinks approx  5-6 oz of breastmilk each feeding, don't suggest 8 oz! (unless you're my lactation consultant or pediatrician) and when you hear or see her LOVE her pureed fruits and veggies don't make comments about that either.



Can we let this innocent, beautiful, perfect baby girl live a little before she starts begin judged? Can we? !

I shared with my husband how this was an ah-ha moment for me... according to others she's "too skinny", she's "getting a belly". Guess what we think??? She's "Beautiful and perfect and thriving and 7 MONTHS OLD!" I told my husband that I realized in these moments that body image issues begin for little girls during infancy. How sick is that? really? My husband had a response of support for what I was saying. He hadn't really thought of it either, but now that it's our little girl being judged and critiqued on her body that's not even developed enough to sit up strong or quite crawl, He and I agree its unacceptable.

Can our 7 month old comprehend what these comments mean right now? No. When will she comprehend them? We don't know.  For some reason people feel that its ok to make comments about her body. When will that stop? Will it stop the day before she comprehends? Doubt it! She will begin to comprehend it before anyone loses their comfort in making the comments. So basically what happens is people think its okay because they are "just a baby" but then they don't stop soon enough and if affects a little girl.

It is unacceptable to comment on my little infant baby girls body and how you think its "too this" or "too that" or "getting this".

Does anyone agree with me?

Now, before anyone thinks I'm crazy. I get that my little girl is a petite little bundle and there will be appropriate comments along the way that go along with that. She's 1 percentile in length and 7 percentile (up from 1) in weight.  I do NOT get offended when I get asked frequently if she's a preemie, or when people say "oh, she's the tiniest little thing", or "she's so little and cute". I don't. Those comments are very different from "You need to feed her more because she's too skinny" or "You need to feed her less because she's getting a belly" WAY different. So I'm not saying no one can comment on her at all. But there appears to be no line where people stop, so this mom is going to draw the line for those people.

I told my husband that in order to protect her from these comments people seem to think are ok I am prepared to be vulnerable and put myself out there by immediately correcting people when they make these comments. For example: If someone makes one of those "across the line" comments I will simply say: "I appreciate your concern, but she's an infant, she's thriving well, and we choose not to make negative comments about her body in front of her, please respect our wishes"

I'm sure that will get some looks, but I'm DRAWING A LINE! My little girl will not get judged about her body while I can stop it.

Hometown Cravings and Whole30

Hometown Cravings!

Seriously, I was doing so good without cravings as Day 15 crept up.  We headed to my hometown for a visit and that when I realized a few things…. That coupon for my favorite side at my favorite tex mex chain FREE would have to sit in my wallet a while longer, I could not get my favorite local BBQ OR Butterscotch milkshake while at home.  Those milkshakes are for real! When I was 39 weeks pregnant my dad was headed to join my mom at our house for a visit and went to get me one, requested it made a bit thick and put it in a cooler and brought it to me, it was perfect when it arrived (2 hours away). On Thursday nights my aunts and uncles and parents all eat dinner at my Meemaw’s house. I asked mom if she would host and cook compliant food and she graciously did so.  Dinner was AMAZING and I’m thankful my mom has been through Whole30 and knows the rules.  There are many more treats here I’d love to have and its funny how they seem stronger than my usual cravings. I think its because I don’t get them very often.

Mom did fix an awesome side with some serrano steaks last night that was amazing. It was Mango Slaw. Yes. Super summery and super good. 

It's a mango sliced thinly and cut into "match sticks" (I find it easier to cut when the slices are cold), 1/2 red onion thinly sliced, half a lime zested, a lime

Juiced, a little bit of cilantro stems chopped, 1/2 (or less) of a serrano pepper minced without the seeds. Mix it all in a bowl! Yum! 

(You can look up the recipe at HelloFresh website.... Serrano Steak w Mango Slaw - we left out the rice)

Mom also made her awesome roasted broccoli and cauliflower. She cuts it up tosses with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and baked. Yum!!!

I requested both of these sides again for family dinner tonight. Meemaw loved the Mango slaw. Our family has south Florida history and loves mango! My dad is the master mango cutter! Haha. 

Here's tonight dinner. Above was last nights. 

Love my avocado on my meat. Pepper and onions on the grill!

So. For now I'm fighting the hometown cravings with new favorites at Mom and Dads house! 

My minute steak recipe has been requested as well. It's easy peasy. Mix salt and pepper into almond meal

In a bowl. Spray olive oil onto cube steak on both sides, press both sides into almond meal and cook on medium on stove top in a non stick skillet until crispy and juice runs clear. Picture below. 

I'm not done kicking your booty Mr. Diabetes!

Are you kidding me? 99!!!? That's what I was happy with on my group counseling grad school final, not my fasting glucose! 

If you've been following me since I've been pregnant and had our baby girl you know that I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes in December 2014. I was crushed. I cried. How me? I'm so careful with nutrition and trying to maintain good health. I ran three 5K races while pregnant. I ran until the cartilage pain wouldn't allow anymore at 25 weeks. How me?

Well, I learned something. Gestational Diabetes cannot be prevented as many think it can. It wasn't my fault. The placenta produces hormones that can lead to higher levels of sugar in ones blood. It's a matter of how your body handles that change. 

So, I could write a book on how amazing my doctor is and how thankful I am that he takes GD seriously. But I'll skip those details and say that I had a carb range for each meal and snack during my day. I checked my glucose level 4 times a day at specific times in regards to my meal times. I had ranges that it was supposed to be in at each reading.  I knew what to do when it was high, when it was low, and when it was in range. I took this diagnosis very seriously and quite frankly. I kicked diabetes booty. I took my readings in to each OB appointment. I was so well in range my doctor allowed me to not just go to 40 weeks but 40 weeks 5 days and our baby girl was healthy as could be and only 6 lbs 5 oz at birth. My doctor and I were both proud of the accomplishment. It was a team effort I do believe.  (When I was diagnosed I actually lost 5 lbs eating with diabetic restrictions. Then gained a few more in those last 15 weeks or so)

I was so excited when she was born. With the placenta goes the diabetes in text book cases. The rest of labor was better than text book for us so I had good faith!  That night I ordered cereal during her 2 am feeding. I hadn't had corn flakes in 20+ years and they were awesome. THEN. Morning came and my blood sugar was almost 200. Twenty points higher than my highest reading during pregnancy. My doctor told me not to worry. It was just hormones probably. My husband and the nurse also encouraged me to realize frosted flakes weren't "quite" as good for me as the healthier whole grain cereals I had been eating. Oops. 

Past that things began to go back to normal. I lost 21 of my 29 pounds gained during pregnancy within the first three weeks. Woohoo. Then the last 8 became a nuisance. 

Six weeks came and went and it was time for my 2 hour glucose test. My doctors office knows me well and was excited to call and tell me I passed! Yay! I passed!

Go six more weeks down the road.... Still can't get that last 8 pounds off...

Ran across my glucose monitor on Monday morning looking for some ibuprofen. Decided Id take a look....99! What?! That's higher than any fasting read I had the entire pregnancy. My range was 70-90 for fasting reads. I continued to monitor each morning this week. 99,98,99,93... Midweek I changed back to my diabetic carb restrictions from pregnancy and the lowest I got was 93 by Thursday. I had also taken a few daytime reads and they were higher than I wished as well. Not bad. 116, 124 but higher than I wished. My goal max number during pregnancy for after meals was 120. I rarely broke that. 

So I called the OB. He was out but his office referred me to an endocrinologist. That office got me in by 2:00 that afternoon (yesterday). I explained my numbers to him. He reviewed all of my tests and did an exam. 

Here's the sum up of what all he told me. 

-Pregnancy limits are more strict so my numbers were too high for then but not for now. Non pregnancy fasting limit is about 100. So I was close.  (Too close for me)

-I'm five time more likely to develop diabetes in my future because I had GD (5 times...FIVE times)

-since I have PCOS I'm also more likely to develop issues. One of which is struggling to lose weight (I knew this) which can in turn increase glucose levels. 

-since I have hypothyroidism ... (See PCOS statement) 

So what he and I decided was my plan is the following:

-eat in the ranges my OB gave me for GD

-check my sugar often but not four times a day unless it's off

-call if my fasting gets to 105 or above and I will have to take Metformin. (Not at ALL what I want to do- praying diet and exercise work)

-lose weight (glad my doctor agrees with me. Haha)

-keep breastfeeding it can not hurt baby unless my sugar gets above 400. Can't imagine it would do that. 

-see him in a year. 

So, basically. Live as though I'm diabetic so that I won't be diabetic. I don't mind doing this at all but I have to say I felt cheated yesterday. I worked so hard and it's lingering. 

It could be worse though so I'm not complaining. I'm healthy, my baby is healthy, we are blessed. 

I've always said I'm glad God allows my body to communicate with me so well. I'd rather have a few extra pounds and be healthy on the inside than "naturally skinny" and have no idea I was unhealthy inside. Make sense?

So heres to a new journey!!!

I'm on day 4 of the diabetic restrictions and I've lost 3 pounds. (Makes sense when I think about having lost 5 pounds while pregnant on those restrictions)

I plan to blog more now that life as a mom is beginning to settle. Thanks for reading! 

 

Finding The Skinny on Pause

So pregnancy.... Yeah it's an unusual topic for my blog and I didn't quite embrace blogging about it. Quite frankly I was crazy busy throughout the whole pregnancy and blogging outside of health/fitness and weightloss just wasn't something I was ready to take on. 

My pregnancy has been amazing. I'm very blessed. I was nauseous at first but didn't have bad sickness, my blood pressure has been just perfect the entire time (usually around 110/70 or less), I haven't swollen much, and haven't gained too much weight. I can NOT complain. 

We traveled a bit during pregnancy which was nice. 

SkyDeck in Chicago

Home Alone House visit

More

Sky Deck

We nested!

Painted our kitchen 

Got new living room furniture

Worked with my parents' help to create Elsie's nursery. 

I only had one setback. That was gestational diabetes. The day I found out I had it I cried. I felt like "how me?" "Why me?" "I am too particular with my health for this to happen". 

Well I learned that GD really has little to do with what you do. It's all about the placenta and hormones. Not a lot that you can control to prevent it. So I took my restrictions from my doctor very seriously and decided to kick butt at controlling the GD. I have been VERY successful at controlling it. My glucose readings are super. I found a few trends in how my body reacts. Ice cream doesn't spike my sugar, thank the Lord!, but white flour and anything made from white flour spikes my sugar quickly. This isn't a huge surprise after learning how sensitive I was to gluten and wheat last spring. So I've avoided the white flour a lot. I've had a handful of high readings (that really aren't that high) and I usually know exactly what I ate to cause them. My fingers are bruised and I'm pretty well over sticking my fingers but it was totally a blessing in disguise. I lost 5 lbs when I was diagnosed and adjusted my diet to carb ranges and haven't gained much since then. So having GD hasn't been fun but likely helped me control my weight better than if I didn't have it. 

Now here I am at 40 weeks and 3 days. I'm blessed beyond measure that I made it to 40 weeks. I'm also blessed with a great doctor who allowed me to do so. If my GD had been out of control there's no way he would have let me go to 40weeks. 

I ran three 5Ks while pregnant and ran all the way until I was 25 weeks. At which point I had too much pain to continue. 

I've gained 29.2 lbs. I'm hoping that I lose approx 12 in labor and will leave me with a very manageable about of lbs to lose (17) to get to my pre pregnancy weight which is officially 201lbs. 

So my blog will most definitely pick back up in that baby-weight weight-loss process. 

So for now. We wait on our baby girl.