Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Welcome to the 2nd Trimester!

I am 13 weeks now, so officially the second trimester! This is crazy! If the second and third trimesters fly by as fast the first one did then I'm not sure where I'm going to find the time to get the house ready for this baby! There's so much that needs to be done, and between sleeping, eating and training I don't have a lot of extra time but it seems like all of it needs to be put toward getting the house ready. 
Fetal Development Week 13The baby is starting to grow hair, specifically eyebrows and some on on the scalp. Supposedly there's lots of movement but I can't feel it which is even weirder to think about. 
Well we finally announced the pregnancy to the world! Telling the family at Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, I'm glad we waited until then!  I took the sonograms in a large envelope and told people it was a "formal night" picture from our cruise. It was fun watching as they pulled out the picture and waiting for them to figure out what it really was and then getting the reaction. We also posted a sonogram pic on Facebook so now everybody knows!
Michael and I had a visit with the OB yesterday, she didn't do an ultrasound this time but she checked the heart beat so we got to hear that. I really wanted to see the baby but it's okay I guess, there will be more. 

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Smoked Salmon and Mushroom Noodle Skillet

Today, I did a lot of running! I ran 3 miles with my friend Monica D. It was great! I hadn't run that far in a while and it felt good! Then I took one of my clients out for almost a two mile run. And then I ran a little over a mile with Michael. Lots of running spread out across the day, so my body was in need of refueling with some healthy carbs and protein.  That's why for dinner I made one of my favorite pasta dishes! This is one I can say I made up, using inspiration from two other pasta recipes I had used in the past. 

I start this dish by heating about a Tbsp of butter and some olive oil in a large skillet to saute the mushrooms, I like to use cremini (baby portabello) mushrooms in my dishes. The butter is not necessary, it's just to add flavor, really the olive oil is all you need. 
As the mushrooms start to soften, which does not take long, a couple minutes, I add either some white cooking wine or sherry cooking wine, this deglazes the pan and adds flavor. 
Now it's time to add the garlic, I always use fresh garlic and use a garlic press directly over the dish. You don't want to put garlic in too early because it becomes bitter if overcooked, however if undercooked it can cause GI irritation so it's important to let it cook at least a couple of minutes. 
This time I added diced tomatoes, and parsley to this dish, that's not something I normally do, but the tomatoes were good so I'll continue to do that, the parsley was just OK so I won't add that again.  We all know Tomatoes contain Lycopene which is an antioxidant. The Lycopene is more easily absorbed/utilized by our bodies if tomatoes are cooked a little prior to eating. 
Once the garlic has had a short time to cook add the Salmon, I use smoked salmon and I just buy the largest size possible from HEB and throw it all in the dish. Sometimes I bake the salmon on a Pampered Chef stone prior to adding it to this dish, that actually really brings out the flavor much better, tonight I just forgot to do that.

Break the salmon into smaller pieces as it cooks


For the noodles I like King Soba brand Pumpkin, Ginger, and Rice Noodles. 

These noodles cook fast, about 4 minutes once the water is boiling, so what I do is get the water heating at the start of the cooking process but don't add the noodles until the salmon goes in the dish. This way once the noodles are cooked you can drain them and then immediately put them into the skillet. If the noodles sit in the strainer too long they stick together and it's just harder to work with them. 
After the noodles go in, I like to add either Heavy Whipping Cream or Fat Free milk, to make the dish more creamy. Obviously the milk should be fewer calories and fat, but I think the whipping cream really gives it a more delicious, full flavor! I only add about two tablespoons of the whipping cream so it's not much and if you eat like I do most of the time, it's the most fat you're getting all day so it's not a big deal. Tonight I didn't have heavy whipping cream so I used milk. I like lots of cracked pepper on this dish. 
And here is the final product!

I hope you give this delicious, quick and easy recipe a try! Change it up, experiment with ingredients, make it your own! And I hope you love it as much as I do!

Dinner is served!


Tuesday, November 15, 2011

They Grow up so Fast

Today I am 11 weeks and 2 days pregnant. The baby is already about 2 and a half inches long! Crazy because some days I wonder if I'm even pregnant considering I'm barely showing and my only symptom is being a little extra tired, okay and maybe a little moody. I wish I could have a sonogram once a week just so I can see the baby, I want to see it move!  I bet the baby changes in appearance almost every day! It seems like the concept of kids growing up way too fast starts at conception. 
Fetal Development Week 12The baby has more than doubled in size during the past three weeks! Most of it's organ systems are complete, and the digestive system should start to practice contraction movements. The pituitary gland has started producing hormones and the bone marrow is making white blood cells. The ears are formed but the baby can't hear yet because for that the happen the inner ear must be fully formed and that has not happened yet. But once it does it's going to get to know my voice very well considered it's stuck with me for at least the next six months!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

My Eleventh Week

Okay so I am going to blog about yesterday because I meant to blog yesterday and never got a chance. Yesterday I was 10 weeks and 1 day, every Monday is a new week for me, so yesterday was Tuesday. Try not to get confused. 
Fetal Development Week 11My baby is starting to look like a baby! It's officially a fetus now, I think I mentioned that a few entries ago.  I think it's about two inches long maybe longer, and should be moving a lot although I cannot feel that yet. It's hair and finger nails are beginning to develop and so are it's gender specific organs, but we won't know the gender for a while yet. We will be finding out as soon as wee can and we do have names picked out but I'm not telling : )!
Yesterday I got up early and ate a yummy Kashi brand cereal before heading to my first personal training session. After the session I worked out, let's see what did I do? I did "thrusters" which is a barbell front squat and then you stand and press the bar over head. I did some pull ups, some "toes to bar" (hang on the bar and touch your toes to it) hey I gotta do these crazy exercises before I'm too big. I also did bench press, so basically a lot of lifting and abs. KEEP IN MIND: I was doing these before I got pregnant, which is why I encourage women to make exercise a habit before they get pregnant this will hopefully allow them to do more while they are pregnant. After my workout I had worked up a big appetite so I went home and made an Omelet and turkey sausage. My Omelet had spinach, tomatoes and Goat cheese in it, sooooo yummy!
Goat cheese works great in Omelets, very rich and creamy!


So that's that, I've still been running some but I don't push myself, I haven't even ran three miles yet. On Monday I ran on the tread mill a little over two miles and it took almost thirty minutes, so that's pretty slow compared to where I used to be. This afternoon Michael and I are supposed to run together, he's really not a long distance runner like me, he's a sprinter, but I challenged him to train for a 5k so hopefully this will be the first of many more training runs for him : )

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Giving up Running?

If you're not a runner I'm sure it's hard to fully understand the struggle that I'm having right now. On the one hand I want to and have always wanted to continue running during my pregnancy, I've seen other women do it, and there's lots of research confirming that it's a good thing. On the other hand those women may not have had a close call early in their pregnancy like I did.... If only I could know the exact cause of that close call, there's plenty to speculate about. 
I guess simply to be on the "safe side" I will quit running for the next seven months, wow that was easy to write but actually imagining doing that, or not doing that I should say, it's mind boggling. If I'm going to quit running simply because of possible sheering motions well then there are other things I have to give up too. Step is out because well that's too much bouncing and impact, Cardio Kickboxing has to at least be modified, no more jumping around. Basically anything that involves jumping and landing on my feet with extra impact is not OK. Things that are OK: I can still lift weights, I can do crossfit, I can walk, cycle and do the elliptical.  


The truth is, I could quit running and still have problems with my pregnancy.  However if I run and have problems, running will be blamed NO MATTER WHAT.  Do I feel like I have something to prove? Sure, I guess maybe a part of me wants to prove that I can do this. To prove that pregnancy is not some abnormal condition where everything I do is risky for the baby. But No, I chose to live a healthy lifestyle prior to becoming pregnant knowing that my decisions and my lifestyle would be good enough to continue during pregnancy. I didn't have to give up beer and cigarettes, I gave up coffee, Woah watch out! 
Okay all jokes and sarcasm aside, when I clear my mind and let go of that need to prove something, when it's no longer about what will other people think of me and my decisions then all that I'm left with is a simple desire to continue doing something I love, RUN.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Feeling Conflicted

Yesterday Michael and I went to our first Doctor's visit together! My main concern was seeing the baby on the ultrasound and being cleared to exercise again. We got to see the baby, who has grown so much since my last visit, and it moved! It turned it's whole body towards us while we were looking at it! From the side it looks like a little teddy bear with it's nubs for arms and legs, super cute! The Doctor said I could start exercise again as I have not had any more problems, however I'm not gonna lie, she wasn't sure that running was going to be a good idea. I wanted to leave that part out of my blog but in the real world you can't just edit out the parts of your life that you don't like so I'm including it because it is what the Doctor said and it does bother me. I'm going to run anyway, she didn't say not to, she simply explained her concern with it while also admitting that being a personal trainer makes me a special case. I feel that her concern is unfounded. There's research about pregnancy and running and what she said never came up in the research that I've looked at. There are plenty of women before me who have continued running through pregnancy and they didn't have the problem that this Doctor suggested. It isn't as if I am a new runner, I've been running since middle school and I just spent the last three years road racing competitively. My 5k PR is a respectable time and I see no reason for me to lose that when my pregnancy is not considered high risk. I know now that I was pushing myself too hard early in pregnancy and I won't do that anymore. I went for a jog today only a mile and a half and I walked for a few minutes at every half mile. Despite the slow pace it felt great to get back to it, I will slowly work my way back up to at least three miles, keeping in mind that it's not about speed anymore. After the run I did some squats, push ups, leg raises, and a couple kipping pull ups.  Here is an article written by a woman's personal account of running while pregnant that gave me some hope today: Running While Pregnant