Gwyn's World: The Big One!

Wow! Big ole #bloggerfail in getting this post done in any kind of timely fashion. Oh well, sometimes life just gets in the way, and that isn't a bad thing. But I promised to photo bomb you from G's birthday celebration (to call it a party would be taking it a bit far), so here you go. Don't say you weren't warned of the cuteness to follow!!

Personally, I spent the ENTIRE morning of the party decorating a cake that G wasn't even going to eat. This was after the first cake got stuck in the pan...it still got eaten, don't you worry about that! It just wasn't pretty!

From this position I barked orders to the rest of the crew (my mom, dad, and the hubs). There were seriously only 6 other people, all family, coming over-but I'm just that way. I made a few appetizers (didn't take pictures!), had a picture from each month of G's first year printed and put up on the wall, sent the hubs for a few balloons-he came back with more than would fit through the door-and generally tried to spruce the place up. All with the little one hanging out.

Everything turned out great, and at 1-does she care...or remember? No, but we got some good pics so we can tell the story repeatedly when she's old enough to want to know.

And how do you summarize in words a year of growing, learning, adapting and a complete upside down-ness to your life?

From a tiny little thing that I didn't have a clue what to do with...

To this...

Just one word. Blessed. She's amazing. She amazes me everyday.

With her smile.

Her sense of humor.

Her love of life.

Oh yes, and her love of food :-)

She literally destroyed the cupcake I made just for her.

She dances when she eats, and at first taste, she busted a move...and when we went to help her with the wrapper I thought someone was going to lose a finger! She did not want anyone near her food!

I guess I'll take that as a compliment that the cupcake was tasty ;-) I even made a 'clean' one using honey as the sweetener in an effort to try to avoid a crazy sugar rush. That did not work. But she enjoyed it, we all enjoyed watching and heck-you're allowed a sugar rush on your birthday, right?

We have grown together this past year. We've learned a WHOLE lot. And I know there is never an end to that learning. But I think I'm ready to give up the "new mom" title and just be a mom. Gone are the days of total freak outs, replaced by some sense that I know what to do when she fusses, cries, falls down, coughs, has a blow out, puts something disgusting in her mouth! I'm a mom. And she'll always be my baby.

Here's to many more frustratingly long birthday party days for mom where the end result is SO worth it...

The Golden Rule

If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all...

Isn't that what we're taught when we're young? This is actually more of a case where If you don't have anything worthwhile to say, don't say anything at all. I don't blog for the sake of blogging, I don't have a schedule to keep, if there is something I want to convey-I do. Otherwise I keep my mouth (actually my hands!) quiet and read what other people have to say. Obviously not much has been going on worth sharing these past few weeks.

Not that nothing has been going on, I just haven't wanted to share. I was stressing myself out (unnecessarily) over G's first Birthday, not doing very well with training or October unprocessed so I just wanted to hide out a bit.

Remember when I said that October Unprocessed was a lesson in awareness? It definitely is that. And when you don't do very well, you are even more aware! But I will say that I have made some conscious decisions so far that I may not have made had I not been 'participating'. And I'm reading/learning more things every day that are pushing what used to be decisions toward being habits. I think that's progress. The hubs is a hard one to please when it comes to food and I am a sucker for certain things (hello, ice cream!) but where I fail in one area I've worked to make up for it in others.

More and more I'm seeing the link between what I put in my mouth and how my body feels. Not just to fuel workouts, which used to be the main reason I tried to eat well, but for general everyday health. How I sleep, my mood, my energy levels, my uh-um, digestive issues. These are not things I didn't know were related, I'm just paying more attention and you learn a lot when you do that. Novel concept, I know!!! From what I've learned so far I am going to be forced to get real serious, at least on a short term, so this is only the beginning of that journey.

As for G's Birthday...it went well, despite my complete underestimation of the time it would take to decorate her cake and just getting out of the shower when guests arrived. *deep breath* I'll do a post just on the party if for no other reason than to overload you with pics of this crazy kid who literally devoured the cupcake we gave her. Thank goodness I found a clean recipe so although she acted a little sugar drunk after, it was not nearly what it could have been! And me without a video camera :( Thank goodness for smart phones!! She is an absolute riot and cannot believe how blessed I am to be her momma.

October Unprocessed

Happy October-it's officially my favorite time of year!

I've been trying to eat cleaner. I was doing really well. Then the wagon hit a bump. I fell off. Hard. I think I may have hit my head. Because I know better. I feel slower, sluggish, cranky and just plain guilty. My workouts suffered. And so did my mood.

So when I saw this challenge I knew it was a great way to jump back on and a great way to keep myself motivated and accountable to talk about my experiences here. Check out the Eating Rules page for the full deets, its full of great info in general, but basically you vow to go 'unprocessed' for the month of October.

Of course that sounds like a simple concept until you go through your normal diet for a day. And my list generally sounds 'healthy': whole wheat waffles with natural p.b. and banana for breakfast, snacks of yogurt, wheat thins and protein bars, huge lunch salads and meat and veggies for dinner. But you start reading ingredients and realize the waffles are out, as are the yogurt, wheat thins, salad dressing and probably even the cheese. If the veggies are the frozen bagged kind that I'm often guilty of using they're out too since they generally have some sort of sauce on them.

To go all out for this Challenge would be tough, but it is encouraged to make your own rules, things you can stick to. The point is to make an effort and to realize just how much of our every day (even 'healthy') food isn't really food at all. It's a lesson in awareness. I know, sometimes ignorance is bliss, but in this case, it's actually killing you/me/us. Literally.

The main guideline in the challenge is to ask yourself-"Can this be made in the kitchen?" Not that you would, or that you have to, just can it be done. If the answer is yes, eat it, or something made with it. If not, you'll need to make some decisions. The eating rules site has lots of straight forward answers to some of the most common things you might be questioning so save yourself some research time and visit there first.

So here are some of MY rules:

1-Protein powder is ok: I use this to make my own snack/protein bars to stay away from those oh so convenient, long ingredient list, packaged ones. This is a good trade IMO.

2-Artificial sweetener is 'sort of' ok: This one is tough for me, but I'm working on it. I'm going to use the Challenge to try to kick it for good, but not going to beat myself up over a packet or two.

3-If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it: There are a million ingredients out there and I have no idea what most really are, but if it sounds like it was made in a lab (it has numbers in front of it!) it probably was.

4-5-ish ingredient rule: This goes along with that, when checking food labels if it has more than 5 ingredients it may be tough to reproduce at home. I may let a few things slide by if it is one of only a few ingredients.

5-Game day doesn't count: Ok, I'm hoping for the few hours surrounding the game and not the entire day, but tailgating makes the crowds and some of the other hassles worth it. I'm not toting around my own food too. When at home I'll make the effort to create something fun (and clean!) for the family.

Ok-Maybe this is what makes Game Day worth it :)

6-G's b-day also does not count: I am going to make clean cupcakes/frosting since I don't really want her diving in to a full sugar cake anyway so maybe this one won't be so hard.

The "practice" cake shoved me off the clean eating wagon!!

7-Perfection is not the point: Just a famous Note To Self. So I don't crash and burn after a few days and give the whole thing up!

I hope to write more about each of these as the month goes on and chronicle (aren't I self-important!) my thoughts and how I'm feeling over the course of the challenge. Maybe I'll even find some new great recipes and share what I've been surviving on. Half marathon training is amping up so this girl's gotta eat, and eat well. Let's ring-in 'eating season' with a healthy bang, are ya with me?!