Nesting and Post-Partum Paleo

From what I've been told nesting is a common occurrence near the end of pregnancy. I assume for most women this means cleaning their homes from top to bottom.  While I have definitely succumb to the cleaning part of nesting I have also taken another spin on it.  I am determined to eat paleo/primal after the baby comes and from what I've been told by a friend (who had a similar desire and had her baby in February) a huge part of that is making sure you have some paleo meals prepared and ready to go in the freezer. So, in between scrubbing the floor and organizing boxes I have been cooking like a mad woman.

So far I have managed to make variations of the following:

Paleo Chili

Paleo Sausage Pumpkin Soup

Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

Thai Green Curry

For each of the dishes I froze some in a larger container to take out weekly for lunches and I also portioned some into paper cups which I then froze and popped out and put into a Ziploc bag so that if I'm ever in a pinch I can grab one and defrost it.  I plan on making a few more dishes as time allows before the arrival of 'little boy blue.'

On Kim's suggestion(my previously referenced paleo mama) I pre-mixed some of my favorite spice combinations into little baggies so that Michael will be able to easily find them when he does the cooking(by cooking I mean BBQing some sort of meat).  I also plan on hard-boiling eggs once a week when the baby comes so that I will always have a source of protein on hand.  Lastly, I bought some Lara Bars(which I normally try and avoid), dried fruit and nuts and stashed them all over the house so that I have something easy to grab if I get hungry.

I will make sure to keep everyone updated post-baby on how the meal planning works out.

Goals Post-Pregnancy

I've posted in the past about the importance of setting goals.  Well, many of my goals had to be delayed after I found out I was pregnant - but I have not given up on them.  There are a few things I plan on working towards after the whole labour and delivery thing.  Many of my goals are CrossFit related but there are a few other things thrown in the mix as well.  So, here is my list:

• Compete, and do well, at CFW's FrostFit 2013 in January. I will be about 4 months post-baby at this point(depending on when my little man decides to make his grand entrance into the world).
• Be more diligent about what foods I am putting in my body after the baby.  Since finding out about my bundle of joy I haven't been as strict as I normally am.  I probably eat about 90% paleo/primal right now and I would like to get that back up to 100%.  I don't have big cheats because sugar hangovers are much worse while pregnant than they normally are but I still would like to cut them out completely. 
• I don't want to make a post-baby weight-loss goal because before getting pregnant I had decided that the number on the scale no longer mattered.  So, instead my goal is to be able to see my ab muscles again by the end of December.
• Save money.  I have promised myself to not go overboard spending money on useless baby items.  We are saving up right now to buy a house when we get to our next posting so I also plan on learning to budget better (something I have never been great at).
• By far my scariest and biggest goal is to compete in the CrossFit Open and to finish in the top 60 females in Canada West.  I know that I have my work cut out for me but I am up to the challenge.

There are a few smaller goals that I have written down in terms of my training(numbers I want to hit on my lifts and times I want to hit on my workouts) but the list above contains my big goals for right now.

I feel inclined to point out, because of recent conversations, that my number one goal is to raise a happy and healthy baby(but I think that should go without needing to be said).  I know that recovering from having a baby takes time and that sometimes not everything goes according to plan but I don't think that should keep me from having goals to work towards.

Since you are already reading I might as well give a quick pregnancy update.  I am at 36 weeks and so far I have gained about 21-22 pounds.  Today I did my own variation of the 'filthy fifty' that I decided to call the 'filthy 36'.  Essentially it was 36 reps of everything insetad of 50 and I had to scale the box jumps to step-ups, knees-to-elbows to hanging leg raises, and I had to use a contraption built out of bumper plates for the burpees to make room for my belly.  I am feeling fantastic at this point but sleeping has become pretty uncomfortable.  I have been needing to take a nap during the day, which is unusual for me (those of you that know me well know that I hate naps), but I am trying to listen to my body. I cannot believe how little time is left before I get to meet little boy blue!

Plus One

I've been away for a while, and a lot has changed in that time.  After my last post I was ramping up my training and feeling confident about my abilities to do well in the Open and possibly making it to Regionals.  However, life threw me a curveball(the best possible kind) and my plans changed.

When discussing our lives one of the constants that Michael and I always agreed upon was that we both wanted a big family.  In fact, a few months after getting married we had a baby on our radar.  So, we decided to "stop trying not to have a baby" and I went off the pill- oddly enough it was the same month I started CrossFit.

For about a year following that I fell more and more in love with CrossFit and the fact that I wasn't pregnant yet didn't seem like a big of a deal.  In an odd twist of events I actually started to think that maybe we should hold off because being competitive at CrossFit was becoming more important to me and I didn't want to 'throw it all away' by getting pregnant. I also didn't tell many people about wanting to have a baby as it was something personal between Michael and I(I am sure he is thrilled that I am now sharing this with everyone over the internet).

However, after competing on the CFW Team last year at CrossFit Regionals and seeing how many athletes had their kids cheering them on I realized that I could still compete and have a baby.  I began to tell more people about my desire to have children and then a scary thought hit me. What if I can't have children? So, I went to see a doctor and I consulted the owner of our gym.  All the while I had a nagging voice in the back of my mind: Maybe my body fat was too low? Maybe eating Paleo was making my body lack something? Maybe being on birth control for 5 years had wrecked my body?

The doctor was useless but Tania, a Biosignature Practitioner, had a lot of great insights.  To make a long story short we tried a lot of different things and then eventually I tried Charles Poloquin's Estrogenomics Cleanse(more to come on this at another time).  It worked and 4 months after doing the cleanse I was pregnant! The moment I saw the positive sign it hit me that I was finally going to be a mom-my absolute dream job-and I was overjoyed!

I am now 8 months along and despite an initial 3 month reprieve from CrossFit due to morning sickness I have been getting to the gym regularly.  In all honesty I have been enjoying working out while pregnant and I have come to realize that being pregnant doesn't mean you need to put your life on hold or change your goals completely.  I plan on blogging for the last few weeks of pregnancy to share my thoughts on working out while pregnant(and pregnancy in general).  After that I will be using it as a way to document my progress post-baby.  I have set myself a few goals that I will share in my next post and I am hoping to use the blog as a way of keeping myself honest in attaining those goals.