Author Archives: theresac

Jumping on a bandwagon is awesome. And flatulence free.

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The good news is that cutting grains out of my diet has cured my digestive ills. Coworkers, I owe an apology to anyone who got stuck in an elevator with me my first two months in Freetown.

The bad news is that it is really hard to go out to eat in Freetown and avoid grains and potatoes. As I learned when I had to start avoiding dairy and soy for Jasmine, the only way to really avoid eating something you don’t want to is to avoid processed foods all together.

Jasmine appears to be more and more OK with small amounts of dairy. A chocolate here or a piece of cow’s milk cheese there don’t seem to have major effects on her system. That said, a chocolate binge + a wine and cheese party yesterday = a gassy Jasmine last night and a big breakout today. Oops.

At this point, no grains + no dairy + no soy = basically a paleo diet. The only things left to cut out were sugar and beans. 7 lbs later, the experiment has been a resounding success.

All natural, all the time has also forced me to spend a fair amount of time cooking. This week’s lunch prep:

  • 1 roast chicken
  • 1/2c baba ganoush
  • 4 salmon patties
  • 1 dozen hard boiled eggs
  • 6 carrots, sliced
  • 2 green peppers, sliced
  • 4 plum tomatoes, sliced

Bertrand’s all like, WTF? The kitchen was spotless just a few hours ago!

So it goes.

Egg in an avocado

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_DSC0353Perhaps you’ve seen the gorgeous egg-in-avocado recipe that’s been floating around Pinterest. My version was also beautiful. Unfortunately, beautiful != delicious.

I always forget how bland avocados are when baked. The texture was luxurious, but combined with the egg, the dish needed more than just a bit of salt, pepper, and olive oil.

I’m sure there’s a good way to do this. Bertrand suggested mashing up the avocado with garlic, scallions, salt, and pepper first, but that would ruin the aesthetic of dumping an egg into the center of the avocado.

Any suggestions?

Freetown bound. No wait, we’re already here.

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We have indeed arrived in Freetown. I have walked 10k+ steps every work day since I’ve arrived. I’ve also lost five pounds, which is pretty incredible considering that I eat DELICIOUS CARBS AND OIL for lunch every day. And dinner. And snacks. Mmmmmm.

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Our kitchen is awesome. We can actually fit all of our tupperware and dry foodstuffs and dishes and pots and pans INSIDE the cabinets for the first time since Bertrand and I started dating.

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Pretty magical.

So. Food. Fitness. Family. Foreign Service. I’m not going to announce any plans on here, because, as loyal readers know, I’m not actually capable of commiting to anything whatsoever in my personal life. It’s so strange that I’m so good at project management in the professional sphere, but so bad at it at home. To this day, I wake up surprised not that Bertrand and Jasmine are in my life, but that I actually managed to commit to marriage and parenthood.

Foreign servicewise, I am livin’ the dream.

Familywise, Jasmine is the cutest cute cute that ever did cute. Bertrand is as solid as a rock. And we are damn happy to be back in the West African heat.

Fitnesswise, I’m no longer training for a half marathon. Not that I ever was. Next week, I’m going to get into the office even earlier so that I can leave on time. I don’t mind not being home when Bertrand and Jasmine are sleeping, but every moment I stay late in the evening is a moment with my daughter that I’m going to regret not having when she’s older.

So no gym. We’re back to workout DVDs, my friends. 30-day shred, here I come.

Foodwise, I’m going to be ordering a lot off of Amazon (and drugstore.com <3 <3 <3), and making a lot from scratch. And eating a lot of fruit.

Good-bye, January, hello February!

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We’ve narrowed down Jasmine’s food allergies. She’s allergic to dairy and soy, two things that are really hard to avoid here in the States, but will not be at all hard to avoid in Freetown. Everything has a way of working out.

I’ve also figured out a blogging schedule. That is, I’ve figured out where I’m going to find time to blog, and it is getting up ass early in the morning, feeding the baby twice while I get ready for work, then heading into FSI two hours before class starts so that I can get a few minutes at a computer to check stuff off my TODO list.

Awesome.

Food and fitness wise, nothing extraordinary is going on. That changes today! It is the first day of a new month, and I’m determined to do a better job of moving towards my 2012 goals in February than I did in January.

This month’s goals:

  • One SVO post per week
  • Write something (anything!) here on HMNTI every weekday that I’m not travelling
  • Track my food on all days that I’m not travelling
  • Walk 10k steps per day. Especially on the days that I’m travelling.

Happy February, everyone!

WIAW: sleep deprivation edition

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Yesterday was rough. Fun, but rough. Also, avoiding everything on the list of stuff Jasmine may or may not be sensative to has been less than fun.

Lucky for everyone, I am pretty damn creative.

Turkey sausage and sweet potato

For breakfast, I crumbled turkey sausage on top of half of a leftover sweet potato, then drizzled delicious fake maple syrup over it.

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Lunch was ham, fake mashed potatoes made w/ olive oil and water instead of butter and milk, and a vegetable medley.

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Dinner was a ginormous salad. Not pictured: gross Wolfgang Puck canned soup that I also ate because I was starving.

Also not pictured: honey graham sticks that I noshed on throughout the day. Turns out, I am too damn lazy to take pictures of snacks.

After today’s trip to DC was canceled, Bertrand and I made some decisions about Jasmine’s (read: my) diet. It’s time to start adding potential allergens back in, so that we can figure out what it is that’s actually bothering her digestive system.

Before bed, I downed a glass of milk and a handful of cheddar cheese cubes. So far, no problems! Hurray! Dairy, I missed you so much!

2012 goals: Keep it simple, stupid!

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Happy New Year! I have been utterly consumed by friends and family over the last few days. It has been wonderful! Also wonderful, I finally got a chance to sit down and answer emails yesterday. If Baby J sleeps for a few more hours this morning, I’ll do the same today.

Yes, it’s a major accomplishment for me to get caught up on email. Don’t hate.

I’m also getting started on my New Year’s resolutions (or goals). I don’t even remember what my resolutions were last year. I wrote weekly goal posts on HMNIT, but they quickly went by the wayside as life got busy.

This year, I’m keeping it simple.

Fitness: Run a half marathon.
Finances: Save $10,000.
Life: Forgive more easily. Perform one deliberate act of kindness each day.

I’ll be be checking back in once a month to see how I’m doing. Indeed.

On (not calorie) restricted eating, for a good cause

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I’m only going to talk about the baby on Thursdays. One day a week. That’s my New Year’s Blogging Resolution, and I’m sticking to it.

Except that having a baby has affected every part of my life, and sometimes it’s damn hard to talk about anything else without talking about her.

Like food.

Baby J* has a food intolerence, an intolerence that gives her crazy-ass gas and sometimes diarrhea. Brand new baby has diarhea on the day after Christmas? Guess who spent December 26 in the ER. :-P We don’t know what it is. Her doctor doesn’t know what it is. But everyone’s universally agreed that something I eat messes up her immature digestive system and that I should cut it out.

The Internets are full of lists of food to avoid while breastfeeding. Thanks, Internets, for giving me more Mom guilt, as if I don’t have enough already. I’m on a strict elimination diet, and guess what! It works! Baby J no longer has gas or diarrhea or gastrointestinally provoked colic. Of course, Mama T is hungry and cranky, but that’s actually not as important as actually being able to sleep at night.

Things I can’t eat:

  • Broccoli and related vegetables
  • Tomatoes
  • Onions and garlic
  • Citrus
  • Beans
  • Chocolate
  • Caffeine the doctor said to go ahead and have a cup of coffee in the morning if it didn’t appear to upset Jasmine. THANK YOU LORD I CAN CONTINUE TO LIVE.
  • Peanuts
  • Beans
  • Eggs
  • Dairy
  • Beef
  • Soy

The biggies are foods that are hard to digest (veggies, beans), foods that irritate the digestive system (caffeine), and common allergens, including cow proteins. Do you know how freaking hard it is to find processed foods without soy in them? EVERYTHING HAS SOY. Soybean oil. Soy litchen. MSG. Soy is in breads, crackers, cookies, and even frozen veggies.

So whatever. I eat a lot of sausage (pork and turkey), fruits (apples, grapes, bananas), chicken, innocuous vegetables (mushrooms, carrots, green beans), and carbs (oatmeal, brown rice, sweet potatoes).

Breakfast was delicious: crumbled sausage on a sweet potato with maple syrup, and coffee with vanilla almond milk. I didn’t take a picture because I had already eaten everything by the time I’d finished reheating my coffee in the microwave. Yeah, I microwaved my coffee this morning. Don’t hate.

Needless to say, it makes watching what I eat an excercise in frustration. Avoiding anything with soy or dairy in it is hard enough, not to mention the raw veggies I have to avoid. I’m just not interested in freaking out about POUNDS and the SCALE and OMG FITNESS, when it’s all I can do to get enough calories to breastfeed Jasmine every day.

*Not a blog pseudonym; we call her “J” around the house. Bertrand’s “B” (prounounced “bey”, as in the French letter B), and I’m “T”.

Happy one week birthday, Jasmine!

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Bertrand and Jasmine

Jasmine’s a week old today! After a rough start, she’s now thriving.

Briefly, after a week of irregular, painful contractions that weren’t bringing me any closer to active labor, I asked my doctor if we could induce. Once the pitocin was introduced, my doctor discovered complications that meant that a vaginal birth would be very bad for the baby, and WAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM, an hour later, the cesarean was done, and Jasmine was born.

I’ve made jokes on Facebook about having Grandma down the hall, but moving in with my parents for my maternity leave is the best thing that Bertrand and I could have done for ourselves. Sure, it means that we have to actually get dressed, shower, and keep up with housework, all struggles for parents of newborns, but it also means that Mom and Dad (now Grandma and Grandpa!) are around as resources, babysitters, and shoulders to cry on.

So what now?

1) I’m back to blogging. There are 11 days to Christmas, and I’m going to blog every single one of them.

2) This isn’t going to become a Mommy Blog. Sorry. Baby-J is certainly the cutest baby in the WHOLE WORLD, but she deserves her privacy just as much as anyone else.

3) Food and health are back on the (writing) table! My doctor put me on a (non calorie restricted) low sodium (thanks, postpartum and post-operation swelling), high fiber (thanks, post-operation digestive … issues), high protein (postpartum weight control), diet.

I’m exhausted. Bertrad’s exhausted. Jasmine’s the sweetest cutest thing on the planet.

We’re happy as can be.