What I ate Wednesday (WIAW)

This week,  I'm joining in the 'What I ate Wednesday' blog posts. This all started by Jenn at Peas and Crayons, so you can jump over to her page to see what it's all about. Basically, she started it as a weekly food diary to reflect on her eating habits and patterns, but it quickly turned into a social event. There's no right or wrong way to eat, but this is a fun way to give everyone a peek into what others eat and also, new meal/snack ideas. And, just a note, I don't necessarily eat like this everyday, but it's just a random sample of what I did eat today.

Although I love breakfast foods, I'm not a breakfast person at all. In fact, I rarely eat in the mornings. But, I always have a cup or two... or three (if it was a reallll rough night) of coffee. This morning Dan and I treated ourselves to Americanos from the Daily Grind. I put some almond milk in mine.

Mid-morning I had a handful of trail mix.

I've been trying to eat with Finley at lunch time. I had a Gala apple sliced up with cinnamon and peanut butter, and eziekel flax toast with almond butter, a wedge of laughing cow cheese, and sea salt.  I know, I know, I've been told so many times how weird this combination is, but I truly love it. I also had a cup of Earl Grey tea and a big glass of water. Annnnnnd, I may have had a spoonful of peanut butter while I was waiting for my toast.

Meanwhile, Finley chowed down on a mix of broccoli, apple, and pear.... and he had puzzle pieces for dessert ;)

Before heading to a class at Fundamentals, I had a white cheddar rice cake topped with Jalapeño Greek Yogurt dip and pepper. Relish!

For supper, we had sweet potato and lentil curry (this is a recycled photo... this time I added some raisins to the slow cooker) over brown rice (x 2).

I always, always have a snack or two in the evenings. I'm definitely a night-time snacker, but it's when my appetite picks up, so ahhhh well. Tonight, I had some Nature Valley GF Sunrise cereal mixed with GF rolled oats, topped with shredded coconut, crushed walnuts, and cranberries.

THEN, I added blueberries, sliced banana, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk!! SO good. I was pretty hungry after the 'Daily Grind' class!

Annnnd, two of these

How to get through a running injury...

Whomp. Whomp. On Saturday morning, I set out for a 12 mile run. It started off fine, but at around mile 9, I felt a strain in the arch of my foot. I thought it might have just been a weird cramp, so I kept on trucking. Unfortunately, the pain in my foot worsened throughout the rest of the run to the point that I ended up hobbling home for the last mile.

Since Saturday, my foot has been really tender. I have literally been limping around the house. We tried to go for a little walk to the mail on Monday but I didn't make it very far before I turned around to go home. Thank goodness, Dan is a physiotherapist and can give me advice on what to do. I've been resting my foot (avoiding running), icing it, rolling it out and massaging it with a lacrosse ball, stretching it, etc. It is finally starting to feel better when I'm walking around, especially if I'm wearing shoes that have some support.

I think this running injury happened for two reasons: 1) I was 'overdoing it' with my running mileage (I had been running 50-60 miles per week for probably 12 weeks now), and 2) my sneakers needed to be replaced. Did you know that you're suppose to replace your sneakers after 300-500 miles? Over time, the support in sneakers wear down —this happens at different rates depending on each individual's stride while running (article here). I've definitely put on over 500 miles since I got these sneakers in January, so to avoid another injury, I bought myself a new pair (Brooks PureFlow 4). Yay for new kicks!!

Once my foot is feeling 100% better and I'm okay to run again, I'm going to be more careful with my miles. Rather than running everyday, I'm going to try to limit myself to three-four runs max per week (a couple short ones, a medium one, and a long one). 

Anyways, I'm obviously kind of bummed (and kind of grumpy) that I can't run for a little while, but I know it's for the best. This injury is my body's way of telling me that I needed a break from running. 

Here are a few things that are helping me get through this injury:

- Being positive. It's okay to be bummed for a while, but there's no point to stay hung up on it. 

- Appreciating what I can do, rather than the one thing that I can't do. I've been going on the bike or elliptical at the gym to keep up some cardio endurance, and doing weights and lots of core work. I really don't enjoy going on cardio machines at the gym, but if I put on a good podcast, it's not so bad. Fun fact: The elliptical mimics the motion of running without the impact, so it's a good running substitute during injuries. I did a little over 9 miles on the elliptical this morning. There are a bunch of elliptical workouts online, so I just followed on of those. 

- This kind of goes hand in hand with the point above: Seeking out other forms of activity. There's a fitness studio called Fundamentals in Grand Falls-Windsor, and they put on a bunch of strength and cardio-conditioning classes, so I'm going to try out one called the 'Daily Grind' tonight. Apparently, it's mostly biking with some other cardio mixed in. I'm really looking forward to it!

- Resting, stretching, foam rolling, icing (great stretches for runners)

- Eating a bit more clean, which is never a bad thing. My eating habits are pretty good, so this basically just means cutting out those nightly ice creams haha Running or not, I do not need to eat ice cream every night (as much as I love it)

- Keeping busy doing other things like preparing for the Farmer's Market this coming Saturday or playing all afternoon with Finley or spending some extra time hanging out with Dan

- Learning from my body. Next time that I feel 'off' during a run, I'll stop rather than pushing through it. Also, I'll tone down the weekly mileage.

- Seeking out advice or treatment. Rather than simply waiting for my foot to magically heal itself, I ask Dan his opinion about what I should do to help speed recovery. 

Finley Hugh: 7-months old

Painting his first picture with fruit.

Our baby is 7-months old TODAY!! Time has seriously went by really fast, especially when we reflect on the earlier days, weeks, and months with Finley. For example, last week, we sorted through some of his clothes, and couldn't believe how he ever fit into premie clothes —at one point, these clothes were actually loose on Finley. Nuts.

Around the 6-month mark (right after we moved to NFLD), Finley changed drastically. He became less clingy and more independent. This was a huge mental and physical relief for us because up until then, either Dan or I had been carrying Finley around on our chest for the majority of the day. If Finley wasn't on our chest in the Baby Bjorn, then he would get upset and cry if we weren't by his side. Obviously, this made for stressful days. Anyways, things are on the "up".

Nanny and Grumpy made a trip to NFLD to visit our little man last month!

Finley can do so many more things now. He can sit-up on his own unassisted (which he loves because he can better see his surroundings); he can stand while leaning against a chair or couch; he reaches for things all around him; he flips back-to-front and front-to-back all the time; he walks while holding our hands; he throws things; he holds his own bottle (he hasn't quite mastered feeding himself the bottle though); and so much more! Because Finley can do all of these things, it makes play time a lot more fun. We often sit with Finley on the floor or couch, give him a couple of toys, and he stays easily amused for a while. He loves when we tickle him, blow on his stomach and hair, sing rap-songs, and make funny sounds like "Rrrrrrrroar". I love hearing his precious little giggle. It melts my heart.

I've been taking Finley out for short stroller runs lately, and it seems like he really enjoys getting the fresh air and taking in all of the sights around him. We live on a subdivision, so there are lots of houses, people, dogs, and cars to look at as we're running. While running, I usually try to interact with him by grabbing his toes or fingers, or "chatting" with him. Usually Finley will babble and coo back when I talk to him. I love looking down and see his face light up and smile at me. It makes the run that much easier to get through.

We've been trying him with a bunch of pureed foods, but it seems like he might be a picky eater. Finley doesn't really like many fruits besides apples and pears, which I boiled with cinnamon and then puree. He likes a few vegetables like sweet potato, butternut squash, and corn, but his all-time favourite is avocados. It could easily down a half of an avocado. When he eats, he makes really cute "yummmmmm" noises and smacks his lips. Right now, apples and avocados are his favourite foods. Luckily, they're really easy to puree in the baby bullet. On top of the solid foods, Finley is obviously still drinking his bottle. He usually eats 5-6 times a day, but the amount of formula varies each time —sometimes he'll eat 6 oz but other times he'll only eat 2-3 oz. It's really unpredictable at this point. Oh yeah, Finley tried a little lick of ice cream the other night and loved it... just like his mom and dad. He was unimpressed by the photos we tried to take of him though ;)

 

We have this little popsicle thing that we put frozen fruit in and Finley had a blast with it this morning. Can you guess which fruit was in it?!

In terms of sleep, the past three weeks have been really rough. I'm not sure what was going on, but Finley was waking up multiple times each night —sometimes 5-6 times. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on teething, but who knows... it seems like everything gets blamed on teething. Anyways, the past few nights have been much better. We do our little bedtime routine (bath every other night, bottle, books), then Finley goes to sleep around 7:30 pm. Dan has been "dream-feeding" him a bottle before he turns in for the night (usually around 10:30-11:00 pm), and then I feed him around 2:30 am.  Finley tends to get up around 6:30-7:00 am, but this can certainly vary from day-to-day. Fingers crossed his sleep patterns continue to improve.

Nap time has been ah-mazing!! haha Finley has been having two 1.5-2 hour naps (early morning, early afternoon), and a short 30-40 minute nap before supper. This is so much better than 30-40 minute cat-naps here and there. For the past three weeks, we have been super consistent with putting Finley down in his crib for all of his naps. I think this consistency has helped get him into a good nap-time routine. It's really nice that he naps in his crib (as opposed to in the baby carrier) because it gives me more freedom to do things during nap-time.

What else? Well, over the past week, Finley has started being more 'vocal'... he yells and makes little noises. I'm pretty sure he's saying "moooooommm" and "mama" —although sometimes it sounds like yummmmmm, so who knows. I like to think he can say "mom".

Recently, Finley discovered that his hand is comprised of fingers, so he's starting to develop his fine motor skills. We took out a couple of wood puzzles that we received at our baby shower for Finley to play with. He seems to really like taking out the pieces, but mostly, he just chews on them.

Finley is sllllowly getting the hang of crawling I think. He can twist and turn himself around on his playmat and stretch out to reach things, but he can't really crawl yet. He does pick up his playmat and pull it around on his rug haha It's really quite cute.

Finley loves having 'no pants parties', especially at night time when he gets a bit fussy before bed. Once we take off his pants, he cheers right up! Weird, eh? He also loves to bust a move when we sing to him.

 

Anyways, there's a little update on our love bug. We love him so, so much, and can't wait to see what the summer brings :)