I have been pretty negative lately, so I think it's time for some positivity. Here are some of my favorite things as of late. Thanks to these lovely items I am able to deal with the last month of pregnancy uggo.

1. Lemon Zinger Tea or Yogi Tea in Lemon Ginger - yum
2. McDonalds Decaf coffee - I swear their coffee is better than any fancy coffee shop and don't worry I don't have it everyday and doc said decaf is a-okay\
3. Rachel's cottage cheese - if they carry this in your grocery you must try it, it is in little containers like yogurt, super yum to the tum. I especially like the cucumber dill flavor.
4. Arrested Development and How I Met Your Mother reruns - oooh DVR how I love thee (also taping Blind Date, Bringing Home Baby and Planet Earth!)
5. The glider in the nursery - I love that chair, love to sit in it and rock, can't wait to have the baby there with me
6. My nursery - I love love love the mural and owls my sister did and can't get enough of going in there and looking at it and just organizing the nursery in general, lots of fun baby items to go through
7. Mushi - spooning with him when feeling cruddy is pretty much the best thing
8. Baby 411- great book that is teaching me alll the stuff I need to know for once she is here
9. Making lists - oooh the lists I have going, names, things to do around house before baby gets here, numbers to call when labor starts, things to buy while we still have 2 paychecks and on and on
10. Walking - thank goodness for the dogs, it makes me go out and walk when I really don't want to
11. Gary of course - he makes me calm down when I get irrational and pissy which is a lot lately

I am soooooo ready to have this baby! 9 days until my due date. But I had a horrible weekend of false labor contractions off and on for days, but nada, nothing for at least a day now. The worst is really my back, it just hurts so badly, it feels like someone is stabbing my repeatedly. Good times. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed being pregnant, the first 8 months give or take a week. But these last few weeks just blow. But she will be here soon enough. One of the hardest things about the final countdown is being at work. It's really hard to be present when you know that any minute a baby is coming. It really is like a ticking bomb. I don't do well with surprises and anticipation.

I ordered a few DVDs offline to help me in my journey to get back in shape. Yes I still have 17 days to go until my due date. So, I could literally be pregnant for at least another 31 days (b/c you can go to 42 weeks before induction), but let’s hope that doesn’t happen! I got Jillian Michael’s Shredded DVD and Yoga for Runners. I am dreaming of working out, of sweating or getting back in shape. I can’t believe how far removed I feel from last July, when I was kind of an athlete. I wasn’t fast, but I was working out 8, 9, 10 hours a week and loving it. I am having nightmares of what it’s going to feel like belly deflated, baby out, but still 20-30 lbs overweight. My maternity clothes won’t fit and neither will my pre baby clothes. It is literally what I imagine hell to be like. I cleaned out my closet last night and make a small modest pile of pants I think I can attempt to try on when I get back from the hospital. It’s sweats and workout pants. I won’t attempt any of my jeans for at least a month! It will probably be coldish until mid may anyway, so I think I can make it with my lounge pants. The last thing I want to do is buy clothes for a weight I hope to never see again (until possible future babies).

So anyway, fast forward. Baby is here. I have a plan swirling in my head and look forward to implementing it.

Working out:
I am horribly tired but hopefully I will be able to quickly get back to an hour workout a day. I haven’t been working out much this last month, but I have been walking 2-4 miles at a time. I hope to run 5 days a week, just 2-3 miles a time as soon as possible. Hit the gym 2-3 times a week for weights or bootcamp or spinning class and when I can’t get away I’ll have DVDs lined up. Prior to baby I only ran 3-4 days a week, max mileage about 28-30 (I was biking and swimming too). I have it in my head that after baby I really want to get into 30ish miles a week, biking and swimming will be put on the backburner this year. I think some days this may make 2 short runs a day necessary depending on how the baby schedule works out. I am not quite sure how to start back up. I have not consistently run since the first week of Jan. I haven’t run period since the end of Feb. I imagine I will heal up for about 2 -3 weeks and then try to go out for a 3 mile run 5 days and walk when I need to until I can run the 3 miles. Then once I can do the 3 mile runs 5 days a week, start adding to 2 of those runs, get my long run back up to 6 and pretty much stay there and work on getting faster. There is a great 6 mile run at South Chagrin that involves scaling a horrible 1.5 mile uphill and then going back down, I’d like to do that run weekly. I figure I shouldn’t mess with any speedwork until I have been running 5 days a week for at least a month, don’t want to get injured. There is a 10K in June I want to do and a half marathon in Sept. I know though if I want to lose the weight I really need to focus on my diet and lifting weights. I figure a good goal is to be up to 30 miles a week by July. This will give me 2 solid months of just getting back to working out. I’ll do the half in Sept and likely a few more. I love halves. If the weight is off, I will then plan out a spring marathon. Hoorah. Maybe I will surprise myself and drop the weight quick enough to make a fall marathon seem doable. But I WILL NOT plan to do a marathon until I am back to my fighting weight of somewhere between 120-125, maybe 128 if clothes are fitting. I gain weight when I do the long long runs and I am not even going to mess with that until I am in a happy body place. This is my promise to myself. I get ahead of myself a lot of the time. There is no reason I need to do a fall marathon, next spring or even next fall is fine. Losing the weight and running strong is much more important to me. And I know it took 9 months to put on and will likely take 9 months if not longer to get off. I am not saying I want to weigh 125 by June, but it would be great if I can be back in the 130 by fall. A girl can dream.

Food:
I am really going to have to work on my diet. I have pretty much eaten whatever I want, whenever I want since I got pregnant. There are some foods that have become staples that I absolutely will not be able to eat in a few weeks. No more juice, no more cereal (no more candy!!!! Cookies!!!!! Cake!!!!!!). Why b/c I don’t have the proper portions of it, who eats the proper portion of cereal, I want to meet that person. I have a plan in my head that I think will help. I do very well on regimented plans, I don’t do well when I just calorie count and have whatever. So, what has worked for me in the past is to pretty much eat the same thing every day, slight variations, high protein/lower (not too low) carbs. I picture that breakfast will be oatmeal, I’ll change up the mixins, PB, berries, etc. Morning snack will be some sort of protein/veggie shake, lunch will be some sort of veggie or minestrone soup, cottage cheese and a turkey sandwich (on one piece of bread), afternoon snack will be something like hummus and all the cucumbers, carrots, etc that I want, dinner will be whatever I fix for us that day, after dinner will be another shake of some sort. Whenever I am hungry at other points in the day I can have some fruit, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, veggies or 100cal popcorn bags. Sugar (aside from fruit) will be almost 100% cut out. I know myself. When I eat sugar, I crave sugar and I go for it allll day long. So, I will just nip it in the bud and cut it out. The next piece of junk food I have will be at my 30th bday in June. Hopefully I will be back into the 130s by then.


Can you tell I am really sick of being in this body J I am so excited to meet my little girl. But I am up more than 40 lbs. My legs are so swollen that my thighs and ankles pretty much look the same. When I walk my thighs rub together so viciously that I could start a fire I think. My feet and knees ache from the added weight. So, believe me I am ready, ready, ready for baby to be in my arms instead of in my belly. But it’s a very odd feeling to be so so so terribly afraid of something and yet so eager for it to be here. I am not afraid of having the baby and taking care of it, I am afraid of giving birth. Sure lots of people do it, but who looks forward to the worst imaginable pain? To just know that its waiting around the corner is the oddest sensation. I can’t say I enjoy it. I was able to not really worry about it the first 8 months, but it’s always on my mind now. Is today going to be the day a watermelon explodes out of my hoohah? Stay tuned, that day will be here pretty soon.