A year ago at this time, I was a swollen beach ball with a belly monster inside. I could eat whatever I wanted, work a full time job, take uninterrupted baths, and go to the movies. It was awesome, in a pregnant awesome kind of way. (of course, due to the amnesia of post pregnancy, I already forgot what it felt like, so I guess I'll just have to do it over again!)
One year later, our lil cracken is a crazy crawling loving bald baby. I can still eat whatever I want (yes, breastfeeding!) but I quit my job, cannot take uninterrupted baths, go to the movies or have a moment of silence to myself. My mama job is 24/7/365, with no vacations, no breaks, and no alone time. And it is the best paying job in the world!
It is the happiest I have ever been in my entire life. I am so thankful for my healthy family, my loving husband, and my crazy child. I wasn't quite sure about the whole mom thing when I was pregnant, but now that I am a full time mom, I wouldn't trade it in for the world. Thanks to my awesome husband for working so hard so that I can be a full time Domestic Engineer!
And here is to the future of many more kiddos running around!
One of my favorite experiments this year was taking my vitamins and analyzing them, mommy style. Sounds wierd, right? Read on.
See, I was taking prenatals because I had a baby and am nursing. I also believed even before I was pregnant that supplementing was the way to go to keep me and my family healthy. But I had a friend who told me that I probably was not getting all the nutrients that the supplement I was taking was supposed to be giving me. Wait- WHAT I said?! You are joking. Right?
She encouraged me to take my current prenatal vitamin (or any vitamin around the house) and put it in apple cider vinegar to mimic the acid in my stomach and see how long it would take to dissolve. Sadly, my prenatal vitamin was still whole after one hour. That meant that my body was not getting the nutrients it fully needed! Not only that, since I was nursing, neither was my daughter! Total-bummer! I asked her how long Shaklee supplements took too dissolve, these apparently AMAZING (and they are!) supplements she was telling me about, and they took only 15 minutes!
How could my body absorb the nutrients in the vitamins I had if it can't even break down in apple cider? One reason Shaklee differs from other vitamins is their bio-availibility. (ability for your body to absorb the nutrients it needs when and where it needs) I was clueless that my body was not getting all the nutrients my former vitamins were claiming to be giving me.
Now, I get this alot:
"I dont need to supplement, I'm a healthy eater.."
or
"Shouldn't we get all the nutrients we need already from the food we eat?"
In a perfect world my friends because....
Only 2% of the population gets the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables in our diet.
Most foods are not grown locally or organically, thus losing a lot of the important nutrients our bodies need.
There is a 38% decline in nutrient value in produce, and even the soil is not as rich as it once was.
Countless studies show the health benefits of nutritional supplementation. With proper nutrition AND supplementation you can prevent 80% of all heart disease in women, 90% of all type II diabetes and 60% of all cancer related deaths. Even Shaklee users of over 20 years have only .6 different perscriptions compared to the average american that has 12.2 throughout the year (UC Berkley). That is pretty outstanding!
Why Shaklee?
Shaklee spends over $100 million in clinical research at some of the more respected universities in the country (Harvard, Yale, MIT, Georgetown, University of Texas, Stanford..etc) There are countless number of studies that show Shaklee supplements improve the health and wellness of people. 80,000 quality tests are performed on the nutritional products alone and their ingredients every year. This is particularly important in producing herbal products. The proper plant genus and species must be used and grown with no pesticides or herbicides. The active ingredients in each herb are measured to be sure the herb is fresh and properly harvested, dried and prepared to insure its safety and effectivness.
Many store bought vitamins are synthetic vitamins. Synthetic vitamins are part vitamins part CHEMICALS. SCARY! There are four reasons to stay away from synthetic vitamins:
1. Nature intened you to consume vitamins, nutrients, and enzymes in the WHOLE FOOD form.
2. Your body can only absorb a small amount of synthetic vitamins.
3. Many synthetic vitamins give you too much of inexpensive nutrients and not enough of the important ones.
4. Side effects come from synthetic vitamins
Shaklee is a company that has been around for over 50 years and the average Shaklee user uses their products for over 17 years. The landmark study alone showed that people who tok Shaklee supplements had overall BETTER HEALTH than those who took another supplement or no supplement at all.
Shaklee products are always safe. There are 350 tests on every single ingredient to screen for heavy metals, pesticides, or any of hundreds of other harmful contaminants.
Shaklee products always work. Over 90 publushed clinical peer reviewed studies prove their effectiveness, including Landmark Study at Berkely proving that poeple who took Shaklee supplements had markedly better nutrient levels in their blood and far less incidence of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other serious illnesses (Landmark Study, Published 2007).
And of course, they are always green. Shaklee was the first company in the world to offset all its greenhouse emissions, the maker of first biodegradeble cleaner Basic H, and the popular non toxic environmentally safe cleaning products called Get Clean. The company partners with Nobel Laurete Wangari Maathal planting 1 million trees in Kenya and the U.S. Shaklee continues to join forces with people all over the world who care about the planet enough to create moevements of change. Committed to making truly sustainable natural products that respect the earth.
Now for the GIVEAWAY.....
I will be giving away a one month supply of Shaklee's Vitalizer to ONE winner. This is definitely one of my favorite products. My husband and I noticed a change in our overall wellness, including: our energy levels, improvement in digestion and keeping us healthy when everyone around us is sick.
After a Landmark Study, Shaklee developed Vitalizer- a vitamin strip packed with 80 nutrients. Vitalizer not only comes packed to the brim with highly tested raw materials, it has a patent-pending, cutting edge delivery system designed to improve absorption of key nutrients. I guarantee you will feel better in 30 days! I know I did.
Here is how to enter for the giveaway:
REQUIRED: Leave a comment on my blog about why you would like to try the Vitalizer or how you think Vitalizer will help you.
OPTIONAL: To enter your name in the drawing for a SECOND time, share this post on your facebook page.
I will pick the winner by Saturday, Dec 22 at 9 pm central using a random drawing system.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions about Vitalizer, or any Shaklee products in general. If you want to shop, click on my Shop Shaklee link.
Jeans are a great invention, one of my favorites even- you can wear them with a shirt, sneakers and a ponytail or dress them up with high heels and still feel beautiful. Three cheers to Mr. Levi Strauss.
Since I have become a mommy, jeans have taken a bit of a backseat in the closet. Why you ask? YOGA PANTS.
Yoga pants are the new jeans. No, I can't really dress them up with high heels at all but....
-I can get spit up out of them very easily.
-I know that when I bend over to to change my child's diaper, no crazy cracks will show (you all know what I am talking about.....).
-They will not restrain me when I need to run after my child.
-I go to sleep in yoga pants, I wake up in yoga pants and oh, yeah, I don't have any time to change....
-One word: COMFY.
-They will still fit when I get pregnant again.
-Because of the awesome "adjustable fold over panel" I can hide any kind of wobbly bits I may have .
-Last, but not least, they are cheap. At target the other day I found two pairs of yoga pants for 20 dollars. It used to be that my jeans were at least $120 for a pair. So, if you are reading this late at night, and you are really tired, that means essentially I could get 12 pair of yoga pants vs 1 pair of jeans. That my friend, is a bargain.
So moms everywhere, don't be embarrassed about those totally tubular yoga digs you got going, throw in some downward facing dog, strut your stuff and be proud, 'cause you are a mom on a mission.
As each month goes by and Hayden gets a little older, I notice how drastic the changes are. One moment your baby can't sit up on their own and FLASH they are doing it without you. I suppose this is how the rest of my parenthood goes, right?!
And so drastic has the diaper change been. Gone are the days of the sweet moments on the changing table where your child calmly lays while you change them with a sweet smile. Gone are the days at the restaurant bathroom changer where you only need one hand to multitask and even if your child pees in the middle of the change, you can still fix everything with that one hand.
Hayden has become an official contestant in the diaper gymnastics. If you don't know what the diaper gymnastics are, your child has not become a contestant yet.
Individual Competitive Events
The Layout: You lay your smelly child to be changed and you look away for one second only to find your child has already turned over and is looking at you tummy time style.
The Twister: While attempting to unsnap the diaper your child twists and turns to reach for the nearest shiny object.
The Foot in the Poop: As you have the dirty diaper open and are trying to clean your child up they squirm and kick and BAM! There goes the foot, smack dab in that poop....
The Runaway: Your child is finally all cleaned up and you are ready to put the clean diaper on and FASTER THAN LIGHTENING your naked baby is crawling away....
Some prime examples of Hayden competing:
While the diaper gymnastics have mostly been challenging, they always make me laugh and my favorite part of all is when my husband is with me...
Me (changing the diaper): Could you hand me a wipe please?
Ok, heres the deal: Babies come in all shapes and sizes. Whether is be long, wide, narrow, short, big, chunky or lean, every baby is amazingly and awesomely different. I absolutely love that babies are different, that no baby is the same and they grow, talk, crawl and walk at different rates, but I never thought I would run into issues with having a "banana baby."
Banana baby is the term used for a baby that is long and lean. When I had Hayden, I expected a lil roly poly baby, bc when she was born at 8 lb 5 oz, I didn't expect anything else. But alas, I have the kiddo in the fifth percentile. And I am totally awesome with it because after all, you can't put a baby on a chart....
I totally just put this pic in because I thought it was cute...true story.
But the PROBLEM with having a skinny baby (which there shouldn't be...), is everyone else, and everything else.
The Doctors: Your baby is SO petite. I bet you aren't producing enough milk, supplement this chid with formula! (I was a big ol milk factory producing way enough...)
The people: Awwww, your baby is SO precious. How old is she?
Me: 9 months
The people (eyes bulging like I am a horrible parent) Really?!?! She is WAY too small to be 9 months...
The clothes: Yes, my child is constantly drowning in the whatever brand clothes out there and you have to constantly search for a better fit that is always more expensive. Shoes? Try finding a pair of shoes for a 9 month old with newborn feet....
These are both 9 month sleepers, one is a common brand and the other is not....you can guess which one Hayden actually wears...
The diapers: Once again, even cloth diapers are made for the average baby. Had to have mine special made....
But the true moral of the story is this: We are fearfully and wonderfully made. There is a reason we are all made different. So whether your baby is small medium or large...who cares?! After all you are the mother with the instinct. You are the mother who KNOWS what your child needs. And don't let the Drs beat you down. Mommy knows best.
So on this day, skinny babies unite! (and all babies for that matter....)
