A Year of Quasi-Vegetarianism and Working Out

It has been a year since we began a new, real effort to eat better, eat less meat (only on special occasions), become more fit, and model a healthy lifestyle for our son.  I have mentioned throughout that I haven't really been trying to lose weight, but Chris has.  And he has done an amazing job!

When I first met Chris eight years ago, he was super skinny.  Like 120 pounds and 5'11" skinny.  He had always been a runner and then had mono, so he was quite light.  Then he wasn't running as much (you know, mono and all) and finally got his appetite back.  It was no longer painful to eat!  So he ate like he did in high school.  And started putting on some weight.  It was a good thing for a while, but then he gained more than he wanted to.

Ever since, we'd try to exercise together and diet, but he just didn't see the results he wanted.  He would lose weight, but then it would come back.  He developed problems with his shins, making it incredibly difficult to get his mileage up--he used to run cross country with almost a full-ride to a private college before he got mono.  For a while, we would run together, go to the gym, and try to eat well, but we just weren't getting anywhere.  And then we'd quit.

We started trying to eat better a year ago.  Then in December 2011, Chris decided to really give it his all as far as exercising goes.  His highest weight was 209.  Now his weight sits at 175.  That is more than a 30-pound loss.  His goal was 25 pounds, and I think the only reason that the number isn't lower is because he has gained a lot of muscle.

In addition to weight loss and eating well, Christopher hit another goal:  running a half marathon.  Not just any half marathon--the Rock'n'Roll Half at Virginia Beach when it is hot and horrible.  He ran 13.1 miles in two hours and nine minutes.  He placed 2,444 out of over 10,000 people.  For someone who struggled to maintain a running routine due to shin problems for years, that is great!  I was so proud of him.

Here is Chris in October 2011.

And before his race this September

I have always thought Chris was quite handsome, but he really is looking great!  Plus, little nagging health issues have been slowly alleviated.  For example, Chris used to get heartburn frequently; now he never does unless he has pepperonis. 

I'm no nutritionist, so this might not work for you, but here's how we did it.  When it comes to weight loss and getting in shape, it has to be a lifestyle change.  Chris runs every other day and goes to the gym on the days he doesn't run.  He lifts weights and does P90X.  He has a protein drink or green smoothie for breakfast.  For lunch, he was mostly eating Greek yogurt for a while.  For snacks, eat nuts and fruits or maybe pita chips and humus.  Cut out your calories in your drinks (for us, this meant no sodas).  Instead, Chris drinks water or unsweetened iced tea.  I don't drink anyway, but cut back on alcohol.  We don't eat a lot of meat, but focus on getting protein through beans--this isn't necessarily a weight-loss approach but instead for overall health.  For dinner, lower your carb in-take and focus more on vegetables and lean proteins.  If you must have dessert, maybe make a smoothie, have chocolate milk, or keep something small around but limit yourself, like one chocolate or one cookie.  There are all kinds of interesting substitutions you can make for "bad" foods, like Greek yogurt in place of sour cream (it tastes so close!).  More than anything, develop a plan, take one day at a time, and stick with it.  For us, we wanted to be more healthy for our son and that is what finally made the difference for us.

Merry Christmas Eve!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas Eve.  To me, Christmas Eve always felt like the more important, celebrated day because we spent it with our extended family.  Christmas Day was just with my sister and parents as we tinkered with our new toys.

This year has been so much more special with Eliot around.  I know he doesn't understand what is going on, but I think that he has a sense that something important is happening.  It has been great to establish new traditions with him.  Everything is more fun with a baby.

Today we got up and went for a bike ride at the park!  Chris ran while I biked and pulled Eliot in his new trailer.  It was a lot of fun and he didn't fuss one bit.  He might have even had fun.

After showers and a baby nap, we went to Wal Mart to pick up a few things to prepare for Chris's family coming in Christmas evening.  Then we played with Eliot followed by another baby nap.  By then, it was time to get ready for Christmas Eve dinner with Christopher's aunt, uncle, cousins, grandma, and Aunt Susan's parents.  I really love having family around to spend the holidays with--and we are going to my aunt and uncle's tomorrow.  Eliot loved exploring their house and chasing their cats.  Then something really cool happened.  Chris's cousin (Austin) is on the autism spectrum and he hasn't paid much attention to Eliot.  Eliot was playing with a ball on the floor after dinner when Austin started to roll the ball with him.  Then Austin announced that he wanted to hold Eliot and just picked him up.  It was so cute!  Later, they watched some of the movie Cars together and Austin wanted to hold him again.  Austin really has such a beautiful heart.

I guess I should also mention that we pretty much have a walker on our hands.  When do you officially say that a baby is walking?  Well, he stands great completely on his own and walks about five steps unassisted until he reaches what he wants--usually a person.  He took his first steps over a month ago, but he has been walking now in a new, more sturdy way.

We got home right before 9:00 pm and I called my parents to wish them a merry Christmas Eve.  Then we took these photos of Eliot.  I knowww everyone thinks their kid is the cutest in the world, but, dang, that baby boy is darling!

We let Eliot open one present, but mostly because he was already digging into a new sweater during our photo session.  Christopher and I exchanged gifts also.  I got him two graphic novels (and also The Tree of Life and Midnight in Paris).  Chris got me two absolutely beautiful dresses that I can't wait to wear.  The photos don't do them justice.  Ah.  Dress love.

Tomorrow is Christmas and I can't wait to take my pajama-ed boy downstairs and let him rip some gifts open!

Thanksgiving 2011!

Eliot has really gotten down feeding himself just in time for Thanksgiving.  Also, I've been concentrating on feeding him more solids while reducing his formula in-take, so he has been very excited to eat anything and everything.

Here is Eliot eating a Morningstar fake corndog nugget.  I had torn half of it up into little bites, which he wasn't interested in picking up.  However, he grabbed the other half and chewed on it.  It is becoming more and more apparent that I have been babying him and have been too cautious with his food.  He wasn't interested in nibbles--he wanted to take bites himself!

We have been pigsitting the neighbor pig for the holiday.  Can you believe this pig can walk down the stairs?  That's Boone for ya!

Christopher's parents and sister came in around noon.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at his uncle Scott's.

Granddad Robinson

Eliot had a little bit of everything.  Turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, mac'n'cheese, and a lottt of cranberry sauce.

This morning, Christopher and I went for a run.  Have I mentioned that we have been running on schedule for a whole month now?  Later, Chris and his dad cleaned up the yard (so many leaves from the neighbors!) and then we put up some Christmas lights.  It is the first year we have them on the house itself.  Each year, we add a little more, and it looks darn good so far if you ask me.  I'll post a photo when it is finally finished.

Cold Mountain in November

I think that we are all finally feeling mostly better.  Eliot did not cough one time last night, so I think he has officially beaten croup!  This all lasted for almost two whole weeks.  Goodness!  And I thought I felt cooped up last Sunday!

Everything has been piling up in the process of trying to get better.  I completed all of my school work ahead of schedule so I knew I wouldn't be frying my brain at the last minute, but the constant stream of emails became overwhelming.  I have a system for student emails.  Answer it right away.  If I can't because it is complex, mark it unread and do it within the hour.  Instead, I found myself shifting through to find "easy" ones that I could get to immediately, but saving the harder ones for when, you know, the room wasn't spinning and Eliot wasn't being needy and I wasn't simply starving.  Those moments were hard to come by.  I get a lot of work done at night when Eliot is asleep.  In this case with croup, he needed a lot of help during the night, so that was impossible.  I think everything is completely sorted out and caught up, though, and no one went 24 hours without a response.  I just try to usually keep the responding process more immediate even though I actually am permitted 48 hours.

All that to say that I have been kind of stressed (ha) and that today we did something fun.  The weather was trying to trick us out of November, so we grabbed sandwiches for lunch at Magnolia and headed to the mountains.  Cold Mountain!  Chris mentioned doing McAfee's Knob, but I reminded him that it would be eight miles total out and back with about 25 pounds on his back (baby and carrier).  He conceded and Cold Mountain it was.

I don't know how some people can live without mountains.  There is something about them that takes away the worries.

The last time we were there, I was fifteen weeks pregnant with Eliot.  It was fun to sit on the same rock with my boy trying to climb away and explore.  I joke that my trail name is Weak Ankles.  We called our dog (Abed-nego) Sure Foot because he takes care in deciding where he steps.  I need Eliot to earn such a name before I let him go scooting down a giant boulder!  And the ability to walk might be helpful too.  However, when we set him on the ground to let him crawl and explore, he took off for that rock and proceeded to attempt to climb up it.  You can't pose photos like this one (below) with a now ten-month-old.  He is too good!  I love how adventurous he is.  He is such a boy.

And just for fun, here I am back in July 2010 with Eliot-boy on the inside and then today.

More photos from today

Training for Nothing and Pumpkin Curry Soup

Yesterday, Christopher and I decided to try to start the day off right by going for a run/walk!  We are following the couch to 5k plan because Chris gets shin splints easily and I am horrible at running.  Last time we did this faithfully, I got up to 30 minutes of running!

Eliot all bundled up!  I came to this realization that Eliot has grown sooo much when I notice how much room of the jogger he was taking up.

After our run/walk cycle, we walked some more for about 50 minutes of exercise.  I'm not exactly training for anything, but Chris was pretty much made to run and I feel bad that all he has to run with is wimpy, ol' me.  Can I be a total loser and admit that I am sore?

When we got back, Eliot and I split an organic sorbet popsicle, which he loved after he realized that you can lick it instead biting into it.  His face was full of red yumminess and I thought of tricking Chris (who was on the phone with a student) into thinking Eliot was bleeding.  Instead, I just showed him with popsicle in hand and Eliot smiled so big.  Eliot never could have pulled off the hurt face--he was too happy.

We never did carve our pumpkin for Halloween.  Instead, I carved one last night in a way.  I carved it for dinner and made it into pumpkin curry soup!  I wrote about it and gave the recipe here on my food tumblr.  We had Stephanie and Bernard over for dinner, and everyone liked it, so the whole pot of soup got eaten!  Yaay!  No left-overs!

And that was yesterday.

Ivy Creek Park, Nursery Drop-offs, and That Pirate Ship

This weekend, Christopher, Eliot, Elizabeth, and I went to Ivy Creek Park!  We're late on the park bandwagon, but finally made it there.  The trees around Lynchburg really have been changing.  It seems that fall is going to happen again this year.  Oh well.  The weather has been beautiful, though!

The park has a nice little loop around the pond, so we're hoping to go running there sometime soon.  Just not tomorrow because Eliot has his nine month check up in the morning.

This weekend Eliot went to the church nursery for the first time.  I didn't want to send him back because I wasn't sure how he'd react.  I knew he'd be fine, but I didn't want him to give anyone a hard time, especially with his teething fussiness and the fact that he had only drank two ounces that morning--he usually chugs ten ounces within a couple of hours of being awake.  Chris and I both work from home, so he is hardly ever away from us.  However, the ladies said he didn't cry at all.

Eliot has decided that his pirate ship makes an excellent walker.  He has been using everything as a walker these days, but few things are as frightening as this unsturdy boat.  I mean, it is good for what it is meant to be used for, but it is no walker.  Not at all.  Eliot hardly needs any support, though, and hasn't fallen once with it.  I hold my breath and hover around him for a good while whenever he starts to push it around the house, but it works out.  Somehow.

The New Pack

This is probably going to be picture overload, but that is how you know I've had a good day.  Speaking of good days, it started out right with a rather promising hair day.  This, of course, called for an instagram shot.

Eliot also slept in until 9:00 am.  While this is rather typical of him lately, I am always so thankful for consistency in that area.  Chris went to get the oil changed in the Jeep, and then we got ready to play with our new toy:  a baby carrier backpack from the REI outlet!  We thought about going to Otter Creek, but then just decided to go to Blackwater Creek.  It had been a while and it is much closer.

I love how easy it is to get baby in.  And Eliot just looked like such a pro, like he had been sitting in it his whole life.  He looked all around at the trees and other people walking by.  I look forward to many more walks and hikes with Eliot this fall.  Maybe one day I can actually snag a photo of him smiling in it.  Ha!

They're kind of making the same face.

Eliot looks so not into it.  And I am so out of focus.  Ha!  But I like us anyway.

Thirsty :)

We came home and I edited photos while Eliot played with blocks on the floor and Chris made curry for dinner.  Eliot had fun, but I think he was glad to get out and crawl around some.  The boy has serious energy.  Eliot had spinach and potatoes for dinner followed by a mum-mum for dessert.  As if I hadn't already posted enough photos, I couldn't help but take a few of him all covered with food.  Can you see his two teeth?  He is cutting another one on the bottom, so he has been extra chew-y.