So if you haven't seen the past two "What I Ate" posts you can check out "March" here or "April" here. Or you can jump right in to my gluten-free, vegan food for the day...and since it's summer I figured I would share a little bit about what I do with my girls now that I'm home with them for my summer break from teaching. So this post is a combo of "what I ate" and "a day in the life." Let's get started!
Now, you would think I'd be sleeping in on my day's off, and in the past I have, but now that I have my girls I need all the time to myself that I can get because once they are awake, they take a lot of my attention. With this is mind, I still get up at my usual "work day time" of 4:45 AM. This allows me to get up, workout, get some computer work done, shower, and get ready all before my girls wake up...which is a glorious thing to me. I think it's mainly because that's how it is during the school year, that's my routine, so to get up at the same time as them (7:15-7:30) I feel WAY behind already.
So here I am 5:00 AM with my warm lemon water: 8 oz. warm water + juice of 1 lemon |
5:25 AM Pre-workout snack: Erewhon Brown Rice Cereal with Trader Joe's Rice Drink and Lakanto Sweetener |
Replying to comments while eating my pre-workout snack. |
Workout: 60 minutes Bethenny Frankel's Skinny Girl Yoga Workout. This is one of my favorite workouts to do to stretch and tone. As you'll see in the video, I love plan and come up with ideas for posts, videos, and even my finances (hence the planner I set down in front of my yoga mat). Something about exercise gives me the best ideas, so I'll stop a pose or wait for a break, jot something down, and then get right back into my workout. Can you tell I do a lot of thinking, planning, and writing in the morning? I seriously love my mornings to myself. The rest of my day gets so busy and crazy with kids, so I savor this early morning time to myself and use it to not only fuel my body, but also my mind.
I'm way happier with my girls once they get up too, since I know I've already had some time to myself to get my workout in, get some work done, get out all the thoughts and ideas I have floating around in my head, and take a shower. This way I feel refreshed and ready for them, not already behind and they are roaring and ready to go. Maybe it's just the little piece of "working mom" I still have left in me? To where even though I'm on summer break, I still like to have some routine/consistency/sense of productivity. Can anyone else relate?
Here's a preview of this DVD:
After my workout, I shower, get ready and then my girls usually start to wake up. |
- 1 1/2 scoops Sunwarrior Chocolate Warrior Blend
- 1 1/2 cups of Trader Joe's Rice Drink
- 1-2 cups organic spinach
- 4 frozen banana halves
- 5 frozen strawberries
Blend + serve.
7:30 AM: Breakfast smoothie. I make one smoothie and share a portion with Mila (as Avery is not a fan). |
Every morning Mila loves to push this Croods movie DVD case (not even the actual movie, just the case) around our kitchen counter in her stroller, it's hilarious. |
She then has a small portion of my smoothie in her smoothie cup. Right when she gets up I nurse her, so she's not too hungry when we're all eating our smoothies/breakfast snacks. |
8:00 Avery's breakfast: a KIND Bar (Strawberry and Peanut Butter) She usually eats half now, and an hour or two later, then she'll eat the other half. |
Finishing her KIND Bar on our way to Nana and Papa's house. |
On this day we headed over to my parent's house to hang out. They are both teachers like me, and also off on summer vacation so it's fun to have the chance to spend more time with them.
As you can see, Avery caught on to me taking pictures of everything in our morning so far, so she was all about taking pictures too of her food and in this case of her sister's "cute feet"! |
10:15 Morning Snack: "Quinoa Oatmeal" (actually no oats, just reminds me of oatmeal. I made this using rice milk, Lakanto Sweetener, and some Ancient Harvest Quinoa Hot Cereal Flakes. |
Avery had a little of my "oatmeal" to snack on as well. |
Lunch 12:15: Wildwood Sprouted Tofu Veggie Burger, organic roasted potato rounds, steamed peas. |
I like to dip mine in Organicville Ketchup and BBQ Sauce. |
The girls lunch was a mix of leftovers with Field Day Gluten-Free Pasta with spaghetti sauce, some of my leftover veggie burger, and a little frozen mango. They also ended up with some of my peas as well. |
Lunchtime with my girls. |
For their dessert (which I use sometimes to motivate them to try healthy foods or eat a little more), they got a Lucy's Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie. Avery got a full one and Mila got half of one. |
After lunch we head home and I put them down for a nap, which they take at the same time (thank you!). I then lay down and take a 15-20 minute nap to recharge a bit since I've been up since 4:45 AM. After I get up, I head downstairs to "work" and snack.
2:15 PM: Drink up time: Daily Chia Seed Drink: 2 cups water+ 3 Tbs. chia seeds + 1 packet of SweetLeaf Stevia + juice from 1 lemon. About 20 minutes later I'll have a Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar. |
Then I usually hear this little sleepyhead whispering at me from the stairs, "Mom...I'm awake!" So she comes on down in her over-sized t-shirt (her favorite PJ attire at the moment) and gets a snack. Usually it's vegan yogurt or today she had a MamaChia Chia Squeeze.
"I'm awake and I'm hungry...and why is this camera tripod out?" |
3:15 Avery's snack: MamaChia Chia Squeeze |
Shortly after that Mila wakes up and she likes to have a Trader Joe's Strawberry Fruit Squirter. |
About an hour later, the girls (aka snacking machines) are hungry again, so they have some Lentil Snaps together. |
4:45 PM Green Juice: 2-3 stalks of swiss chard, 1 gala apple, 1 knob of ginger 3 stalks of celery, 1/2 a lemon peeled, 1/2 a large cucumber *all organic |
After playing at the pool for an hour, I "bribed" them with some Trader Joe's Organic Fruit Wraps, and we headed home to get ready for dinner.
Bikini Mila snacking on a fruit wrap. |
Avery with my Dad. |
6:30 PM: Dinner was Veggie Burritos. For mine I had a Food for Life Gluten-Free tortilla shell with Dayia Cheddar Cheese, brown rice, organic fajita veggies (red pepper, green pepper, onion and spices), organic corn, salsa, and Trader Joe's guacamole...with a few organic corn chips on the side. |
For my girls I made cheesy quesadillas with Daiya Cheddar Cheese and Food for Life gluten-free tortillas, as well as salsa, guacamole, beans, rice, corn and a few veggies (they are not bell pepper fans). |
Family dinner time. |
For dessert the girls each had a Dandies Vegan Marshmallow. |
For my dessert: 1/8 cup of Lily's Sweets Baking Chips (stevia-sweetened) Sometimes I don't have the time or energy to cook a fancy dessert or even just a regular dessert, so I pour some chocolate chips into a measuring cup and eat those for my dessert. Quick, easy, and satisfies my sweet tooth. Anyone else like to eat just plain chocolate chips? ( : |