Monthly Goals - February 2011

A new month.  Sounds like it's going to start out with a bang...the weather that is.  10-16" of snow today/tomorrow.  Oh goody :P  Hopefully this is the only major storm of the season.  February...lots to do.  Lots of exciting goals to work on.

FOOD

I'll start with food as usual.  I have a few new items this month that I want to work on.  First I'll be entering the 3rd trimester this month...yikes!  So I need to adapt my diet a bit for that.  Also, I want to keep working on my digestive healing/functioning.  So I have some food goals related to that.  It is getting increasingly difficult to make much progress since the baby is head down and almost always feels like it's wedged into/pinching off my intestines/punching my bowels.  So not pleasant.  But I'm doing my best to make do.  It's definitely forcing me to be as diligent as possible about eating the way I should be.  Finally, I want to do what I originally started this monthly food post for - a "type" of food for the month.

1. Eating for pregnancy, specifically the 3rd trimester.

Essential nutrients throughout pregnancy:

B Vitamins - meat, poultry, lentils, whole grains or Brewer's yeast
Vitamin C - fruit and vegetables or raw juice
Vitamin E - olive oil and nuts or vit. E supplement (Dr. Ron's)

Essential nutrients during 3T (brain development):

omega-3 fats - fish or fish oil

2. Reduce grains - try to make almost all breakfasts and lunches grain free.

3. I've been working for many years to try to figure out what does/doesn't work for my gut.  And I've been in denial for a long time since some of the foods I love the most and eat all the time are really some of the worst offenders.  So I'm finally going to be honest with myself.  And for this month try to avoid some of the foods I know my gut does not handle well.  It will be very tough, but I think it will help.  There is more than what I will list here, but I'll start with these since they are some of the worst.  The funny thing is that if I look at the list it really makes sense.  Not sure why I didn't think of it a lot sooner.  Most of these are foods you eat to combat diarrhea/slow things down.  Not the effect I'm going for :P

potatoes
oats
raw apples
bananas
raw carrots
raw spinach

4. New recipes - make at least one new recipe from one of my Robin Miller cookbooks.

5. Cooking/baking:
I want to get back into some of the habits I had before getting bad morning sickness.  When I was sick I didn't have the energy for much and couldn't tolerate a lot of things.  It's taken me a while to get the energry (and appetite) back to start making as much gut-friendly healthy food as I used to.

*cake/frosting/deco - family party and nephew's birthday party
*homemade bread - try making hamburger buns
*roast chicken and make/freeze broth - eat broth weekly?
*fermented food - bean paste (made on Sunday...try to eat it often), ketchup, mayo - eat fermented food daily
*sprout and grind flour more regularly (just ground a big batch yesterday)

 6. For this month I am going to make every Sunday evening fun/finger food night (works well for Super Bowl).  And every Friday evening will be breakfast for dinner.  Lots of food we love.  And it will make meal planning easier :)  Can't wait to try some new recipes to fit into these categories.  And I was so excited about the Sunday night foods that I started this week already (taco dip and milkshakes)...even though it technically wasn't February :P

HEALTH

1. Healthy lifestyle series - soy/flax seed, Cooking Light Review, milk

2. EFT - continue to do it at least 3x a week.

3. Get up 30 min. later on Saturdays, plus eat breakfast sometime after 6:30 am.

4. Kegels - I already have a very week/overactive bladder. And pregnancy doesn't really help :P I need to get into the habit of doing kegels regularly.  I'm going to try to do them once a day.

5. This month I want to add rational thoughts to my goals.  I did that when I was working with my psychologist on my OCD.  And I think it is a great help.  So I want to get my journal out and start doing it again.  Then read them every day.  This will help reinforce good thoughts and get rid of the OCD thoughts.

FAMILY/PERSONAL

1. Sewing - start working on a nursing cover, cloth wipes, and/or diaper bag.  I just bought the fabric for all three.  I think I'm going to start with the nursing cover.

2. Be creative - 2 birthday cakes

3. Activities and Outings

a. Kindermusik
b. nursery cmt (meeting Feb.. 21, nursery duty Feb. 20)
c. MOPS (meeting Feb. 4, playdate Feb. 18)
d. Gymnastics
e. Calvin basketball game - Feb. 12, out for dinner with family afterwards to celebrate birthdays
f. OB appt. - Feb. 16
g. Psychologist appt. - Feb. 3
h. Dinner with a friend - Feb. 7
i. Nephew's birthday party - Feb. 19

4. Rebecca - some things to do with Rebecca this month:

a. Keep working on potty training.
b. Keep working on letters, numbers, spelling/sounds, counting, math, etc.
c. Teach her a little more about babies.
d. Keep working on her new room - organize toys, clean closet, move clothes to new dresser and closet.

5. Organize: living room (toys), Rebecca's new room (set up dresser, clean closet, organize toys, hang posts, use new bedding), basement storage room

6. Decide on/shop for nursery deco.

7. Memorize scripture - Phillipians 4: 4-7 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."