WIAW: Salad and Cookies!

Another week down! I, for one, am SO happy the week is half over. It's been a LONG week and I am so ready for the weekend.

Ok... without any more chit-chat, let's get to WIAW. Below are the eats from Tuesday, 7/30.

Breakfast:

The usual-- Greek yogurt, cereal, and water. Never gets old.

 

 

Lunch: 

Salad (cucumbers, cheese, and tortilla strips w/ dressing on the side), low-fat string cheese, apple, and carrots with water to drink. Look at me being all healthy. Remember that in about 2 seconds...

 

 

Snack:

COOKIE!!! Ok, ok-- cookieS is more accurate. 3 cookies, to be exact. Sorry I'm not sorry.

 

 

Dinner:

The Hubs and I made pasta Sunday night and it was DELICIOUS. Cook pancetta in some EVOO with garlic and red pepper flakes. Add to cooked pasta with a little chicken broth. YUUUUM. And, yes. Yes I did eat ALL of that. Every last bite. Delicious.

 

 

Dessert:

Nothing better than ending the night with several spoonfuls of ice cream. :)



Baby T: Week 18 & 19

I'm ALMOST half way there!!! Sooooo crazy!!!

Week 19... there's a tiny bump-- FINALLY!!! Ok, ok... so I've ALWAYS had a bump when I wear this empire-waist dress, but hey-- there's a bump there nonetheless!

Size of Baby: Dude. Every week I continue to be AMAZED at how big the lil' bean is growing. The idea that he/she legit grew from NOTHING to now, at 19 weeks, the size of a large heirloom tomato is BEYOND mind boggling to me. I honestly cannot wrap my head around it. The baby now weights about 8-9 ounces.

Milestone/Anything Exciting: At 19W1D, the first person (who already knew I was pregnant) told me I finally LOOKED pregnant. It was the same day I snapped the above pic. The next day the same person told me I didn't look pregnant anymore. Win some, lose some. I can definitely FINALLY see a bump. It's just it just came outta nowhere all the sudden. I still have that "did you gain 5 pounds or are you preggo??" kinda look, but I'm sure in a few weeks it'll be a full on "WOAH! Look at that preggo belly!" look. Kinda excited for it. :)

Symptoms: Lack of sleep. Still. Again. Still. Bleah. Seriously. It was decent for a week and then went right down the drain again. On average I'm getting about 6 hours a night, waking up at least 10 times throughout the night to re-arrange, use the bathroom, or just because. Way over it.

Weight Gain: Last I weighed myself at the gym I was up 4 pounds. We'll see what the next doctor's appointment says as the official weigh in.

Workouts: Still no running... stupid knee. But, still rocking the elliptical, walks, and 8-minute arms/other strength sessions.  

Food Aversions: None really. Salad still doesn't sound super appealing, but not too terrible.

Food Cravings: Nothing super specific or so strong that I have to have it RIGHT NOW.

Stretch Marks: None... new, that is. I already have stretch marks, thank you very much... so, I'm sure I'll get more at some point. I'm OK with it.

Movement: Still haven't felt the peanut. I'm sure it'll happen anytime now.

Waiting For...: First movements and finding out gender!! We find out soon!!

Weekly Workout Recap

(source)

Monday, July 22: 8-Minute Arms, 30 minute elliptical
Tuesday, July 23: 45 minute elliptical
Wednesday, July 24: 8-Minute Arms, 45 minute elliptical
Thursday, July 25: 45 minute elliptical
Friday, July 26: Rest Day
Saturday, July 27: 6.2 mile run and 3 mile walk
Sunday, July 28: 45 minuets elliptical and 6 mile walk



It was a pretty decent week, all things considered. The elliptical and I have become BFF's... even though I kinda hate it still. Luckily, it's easy to read or watch netflix while on it.

I did get a run in on Saturday-- with minimal knee pain, even! WOOWOO! I'll take that as a win. It was slow and ugly, but a run nonetheless! I'm going to try for another run sometime mid-week this week and see how it goes again. Here's hoping I can get back to running a few times a week. Nothing crazy... but, it'd be nice to average 10-15 miles/week.

That Time I Tried To Run Again

Remember how I used to talk all about running? Miles and miles, day after day. Those were the good ol' days.

Since the Sunburst Half marathon, my knee's being being a bitch. We've talked about this. In fact, since the half, I've hardly run. At all. There was the Firecracker 5-Miler on July 4 and... well, that's it. If you're keeping track, that was 20 days ago. Unacceptable.

Ok, that's not entirely true. Last weekend (7/13), I tried to run again. TRIED being the operative word.

I had such high hopes going into the run. I had all these "my-knee-will-be-magically-fixed-and-this-is-going-to-be-amazing" thoughts going into it. I woke up that morning and was legit EXCITED. The sun was shinning, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I was ready. I laced up and was out the door in minutes. With a huge, goofy grin.

Yeah.

That last about 3 minutes.

I told myself I wouldn't look at my Garmin at ALL. I had no pace predictions or expectations. Honest. I didn't really even have distance expectations. Somewhere between 3-6 miles was what I told the Hubs. (Side note: Remember when I used to tell the Hubs somewhere between 10-13 and ended up doing 15?? Those were the days... ooooh, memories...)

Less than a half mile into the run, my knee started to ACHE. Not a mild ache either. A full blown THIS HURTS PLEASE STOP NOW ache. Don't worry-- I didn't listen. ;)

I kinda knew it was going to hurt. I was OK with it hurting a little. It hurt more than a little. And, it hurt the entire rest of the run. And, the rest of the day. It didn't hurt any more than usual the rest of the day, so I suppose that's good news. But, still... it hurt. In a nagging, this-isn't-good kinda way.

I stayed slow and steady. I stopped once to pee and didn't even look to see my pace thus far or distance. I was PROUD of that. I honestly did NOT care how fast or slow I was going. Spoiler: it was far, faaaar from fast. Even with the pain, I was happy to be out there.

 

I finished the run with 5.5 miles in just over an hour. Yeah, remember when that used to take me under 50 minutes? Woah. How times have changed. It's OK. That whole sun-shinning-no-clouds thing kinda back fired and it got HOT out and I knew I needed to go slower. I ALWAYS have slowed down in the heat. Maybe not THIS much, but I'm cool with it. I also walked part of the last half mile because I felt myself getting warmer and warmer and didn't want to over heat.

Honestly, I am 100% OK with the pace. I don't even remotely care. I'm growing a freaking baby inside my belly. However slow I need to go, I'm cool with.

I am not even close to 100% OK with the pain level I felt during the run. I probably should have stopped. Stubborn, Meagan. <Rest assured, it was JUST my knee that hurt... nothing baby related, I promise!!>

So, I haven't run since. Rest, rest, and more rest.

Sadly, I haven't been foam rolling, though. The way I have to foam roll, with my ever-growing belly, just doesn't feel right. My foam rolling days for the next 21 weeks are over.

Luckily my knee HAS started feeling a little better lately. I've noticed less random spurts of pain (even just when sitting... stupid knee). It's feeling less stiff after long stretches of inactivity. It doesn't ache at all anymore from the elliptical. All good signs. 

All good enough signs to make me want to try again. Soon. This weekend soon. So, try again I will. Again, I won't have ANY ideas about pace or distance. I'll walk if needed. And, I'll even REALLY try to stop if it hurts the same that it did last weekend.

Let's hope Knee-Stop-Being-A-Whiny-A-Hole Operation, Round 2 goes better...  

WIAW... a week late

Am I the only one that thinks this Wednesday feels MUCH more like it should be a Friday? Why is this week moving sooooo slowly??? Rough life, I know.

 

Anyway-- it's WEDNESDAY! That means we've made it half way through the week! It also means it's What I Ate Wednesday...

 

 

I took all the pics LAST week and then just never got around to actually typing up the post. So, this is kinda a WIA(last)W. Whoops! Better a week late than never, right?? :) Let's get to it...

Breakfast: 8:30am
It's a little earlier than usual. This whole growing a baby thing has made me hungrier than usual-- I know, I didn't think it was possible either! I'm trying to eat by 8:30 or so to avoid total hangry melt down level.

The usual. And, pictureless at that. I mean-- you know what a Greek yogurt, a few handfuls of knock-off (no shame!) Special K cereal, and water look like. Excellent.

Moving on...


Snack 1: 11am
Again... to avoid a hangry situation, I've been trying to eat a little more regularly, even if I don't feel that OMG-I'm-starving level of hunger. So far, it's been working pretty well!

1 piece of whole wheat bread, toasted, with crunchy PB (and, no, not the all-natural kind. The JIFF knock-off-sooooo-good kind) with honey. Yum! Oh, and-- that coffee cup has been empty and on my desk for weeks. Whoops.


Lunch: 1:30pm

 

When I picked up the Hubs from Chicago like forever ago, I (of course) made a Trader Joe's stop. I love, love, LOVE this Egg White Salad from TJ's. SO good. And, the entire container is super low cal, but high protein. LOVE. So, I had 1/2 the container on a piece of whole wheat toast with grapes.


Snack 2: 4pm

Again in the spirit of eating smaller meals, more frequently I had another snack towards the end of the day. These lil mini Luna bars have been sitting in my desk forever, but work wonders for a quick, easy snack. Stats are pretty good too-- 70 calories and 4g of protein-- plus, they're yummy! 


Dinner: 6:30pm

I made a this ginormous lasagna forever ago and the Hubs and I slowly made our way through it for like a week solid. It was DAMN good, though. Lasagna makes the best left overs, too! We paired it with corn (straight from the can!) and a piece of homemade garlic bread (put piece of bread under broiler, when it's just the right level of toasted pull it out then rub a piece of garlic right on it... perfection). Yuuuuum.


Dessert: 8pm
Unpictured low-fat ice cream.

I mean... everyday should end with ice cream. Every. Day.

Baby T: Week 16 & 17

Week 16

Size of Baby: By Week 17, lil' girl/guy is the size of a large red onion, coming in at about 6 ounces! Crazy!!! Even crazier?? According to the What to Expect app, during week 17, the baby will grow to be the size of my open hand. That's HUGE!!!

My hand (obviously) shown next to my coffee cup for comparison. SO CRAZY!!

 

I mean... look at that! Something that big is IN MY BELLY. Seriously. The whole idea is just mind blowing to me.

Symptoms: More round ligament pain and headaches and lack of sleep. Nothing new and nothing worth complaining too much about.

Weight Gain: Haven't had another doc appointment, so not sure of official gain... but, I'd guess about 5 pounds. Maybe 6. Damn mac and cheese!

Workouts: Still going! Lots of walking, ellipticalling and even a few miles running! The knee is still being a pest, but I think the foam rolling is paying off. I'm trying to do 8-minute arms a few times a week too... gotta keep (aka: develop, since clearly now I have none) some muscles so I can carry the baby when it comes!

Food Aversions: Nothing really. Veggies haven't been appealing, but aren't vomit-inducing either. In fact, hot coffee has even made a reappearance in my life. MAYBE things are getting back to "normal"??

Food Cravings: More mac and cheese, I swear I could eat it by the bucket-full.

Stretch Marks: None yet!

Movement: Still haven't felt anything yet.... cannot wait though!!! Should be any day now.

(source)

This is kinda what I imagine he/she'll look like the first time I feel a nice, swift kick or jab to the belly... and, I CANNOT WAIT!!

Waiting For...: We're finding out the gender in just a few weeks. SO excited!!!! I REALLY don't plan or want to go PINK or BLUE everything. What I plan NOT to do:

(source)

 

 

But, turns out it's freaking HARD to plan without knowing! Seriously. I don't know how people don't find out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the bean is cooperating at our next doc appointment so we can find out!! 

Mini-Chicago Vacation

I'm baaaaaack!!!! Sorry for the unplanned hiatus. Turns out, growing a baby is hard work and by the end of the day I am EXHAUSTED. Add in that work's just been crazy busy and blogging just hasn't been happening. But, hey-- I'm back at least for today!! :)

So, let's chat about the weekend. For the Hub's birthday (which was back in early June), I gave him tickets to the Architecture River Tour of Chicago. When his parents found out that was going to my gift, they decided to stick with the Chicago theme and gave him a gift card to Ditka's, a super nice, swanky restaurant downtown owned by the famous former bears coach, Mike Ditka.

This weekend, we celebrated and actually used the tickets and gift card! We decided we'd make this a kinda mini-vacation, as we aren't going on a big vacation this year (not sure if you've heard, but having a baby is PRICEY so we're saving our pennies).

We started the day off the best way possible: munchkins and iced lattes.

Oh, Dunkin' Donuts... you're just too good.

Ok, ok-- I got the munchkins and the coffee. The Hubs did steal a few donuts though.

Anyway, after a quick stop at the in-laws to drop Sadie off (A HUGE THANK YOU to them!!!!) and another quick hour down the highway and we were there! We got there around 10am CST, quickly and easily found a parking garage super close to Ditka's (which ended up only being $15/day because we got early bird rates!! WOOWOO!!) and started walking around downtown.

The tour left at 11am and was about a mile from where we parked, so we had a little time to kill.

Enter the perfect time killer = The Bean.

The Hubs and I have both seen this thing like a bazillion times, but it's still pretty cool. OK, I think it's pretty random, but the Hubs digs it. He can't get over how smooth it is. "Where are the seams??!?!" he kept asking. Such an engineering nerd. Love it.

 

Anyway, we made our way to the tour take-off dock (also RIGHT downtown) and then we were off for our 90-minute river excursion.

 

I took a lot more pics, but won't bore you with all of them. Basically, we went down the Chicago River right through downtown and the tour guide (a VOLUNTEER!!) told us all about the history of the area and buildings. It was an AWESOME tour and I'd HIGHLY suggest it to anyone. Lucky for us, the weather cooperated and it wasn't TOOOOO hot or humid, but still sunny and gorgeous.

 

We finished the tour around 12:30pm and then walked over to Navy Pier. As many times as both the Hubs and I have been to Chicago (which is a TON), neither of us had ever been to Navy Pier, so we decided our mini-vacation was the perfect opportunity.

 

Turns out, we weren't missing much. Basically, it's a HUGE tourist zone with WAY TOO MANY people. Plus, the whole pier is like 95% restaurants. Which is great... to eat. But, after that... what? Anyway, luckily I was STARVING when we got there, so we quickly found food: the famous Billy Goat Tavern. We kinda picked this place on a whim, but it ended up being perfect for us.

 

We wanted something on the cheaper side and the Hubs was dying for a hot dog/sausage of some sort. We went in not really knowing much about the place, except the Hubs knew it from the SNL skit (I had never seen it, but the Hubs did show it to me when we got home later that night and it is pretty funny... go check it out!). Most of the restaurants on the Pier had their menu's outside, but Billy Goat didn't. We lucked out though! It was an order-at-the-counter place and SUPER cheap. The Hubs got a polish sausage and I got an Italian Beef (I know! Neither of us got a Cheeeezeburger!!) and our bill (with 1 soda for the Hubs) was like $15ish. SCORE! The food was pretty standard greasy diner type food, which HIT THE SPOT!

 

After lunch, we walked up and down the pier twice and then stopped for popcorn!

 

The Hubs (or his parents, I learned later) had never heard of Garrett's Popcorn. How is that possible?!?!? I've heard of it, but never had it so I knew we had to try it. We got a small carmel corn and it was delicious (though not sure if it was worth the long line or the money, to be 100% honest).

 

We had 2 hours to kill before our dinner reservation and decided to just walk along the lake and around downtown.

 

Throughout the day, we ended up stopping at FIVE Starbucks for bathroom breaks and to get free glasses of ice water. Thank GOODNESS for Starbucks!!! It was toasty out there by mid-day and each Starbucks pit-stop was a GREAT A/C break, which was really important for me, as I did NOT want to overheat. I'm forever indebted to the Starbucks's of Chicago! 

 

Before we knew it, it was time for dinner! We made out way over to Ditka's and ATE. A TON of food. SUCH good food.

I didn't take any pics because I was too busy devouring the food, but MAN-- it is GOOD. The Hubs and I shared crab cakes for an appetizer (BEST I've ever had!), then he got the Meatloaf Stack and I got the Kobe Burger. Both SOOOO good and we had tons of left overs. They even brought out a cute little mini-chocolate lava cake with a candle for this birthday! It was a GREAT dinner. I'd definitely suggest the place to anyone looking for a nice, yet casual dinner. Pricey, but VERY good food and generous portions. 

 

And, with our bellies full, we headed out of the city, ending our mini-vacation. We picked up Sadie (who puked at the in-laws! What is with her?!?!? She doesn't do any of this stuff at our house!! Silly girl!!) and headed home. I was EXHAUSTED. I mapmyrun.com-ed our walk and we walked over 9 MILES throughout the day! No wonder I was beat!! Good thing I nixed the gym that morning. :)

 

It was a great, great day. Happy belated birthday, Hubs!!!