Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Take two $0.75 balloons, blow up and add two rambunctious cousins. What do you get? Utter joy. At least, that is, until one of the balloons pops.

Balloons and Strawberry Smoothies

Without fail, every time Nick sees a balloon, he gets incredibly excited. "Boon!" he exclaims loudly, pointing at his favorite object in the whole world. He does this for every single balloon, even if we're in the grocery store and there are upwards of 20 balloons. A few times I've even bought him one, figuring that it was cheaper than my latte, and probably gave him just as much pleasure. I do believe Nick gets more enjoyment out of one balloon that I do from anything (even cheesecake).

These particular balloons are from my mother-in-law's retirement party. We went to see her at work last week, so she could show Nick off to all of her co-workers. It was an exciting visit for all of the co-workers, who stood outside their offices laughing at Nick's squeaky shoes and watching him chase a ball down the hallway. Nick loved the attention--he wasn't a bit shy about being the center of attention.

Grandma Toni gave Nick the blue balloon to take home, and man, was he pleased with it. It's been nearly a week, and every time he comes downstairs or into the house, he sees that balloon and shouts "Boon!" as if he's never seen it before. He drags it around the living room, shrieking with joy as it follows him around.

I'm adjusting pretty well to my summer routine so far. I forget every year how nice it is to be off for the summer. Then June comes along, and I'm always shocked at how wonderful it is. Nick, I think, misses his friends at the babysitter's house. He gets very animated when he sees another child, and I can tell he wishes he had someone to play with other than just me and Greg. I need to take him to the library for storytime next week, so he can get some playtime with other little boys and girls. Although he's satisfied enough just going to the grocery store or out to lunch--Nick just isn't into hanging around the house.

One of the things I love about summer, besides all of the time off, is all the fresh fruit. My strawberry patch is still producing tons of fruit, and I've been using all the berries. In the summers I like to make frozen smoothies, and the picture below is of my favorite blend--Strawberry-Pineapple. Smoothies are wonderful because they taste like dessert but they're good for you. (At least the way I make them, they are.) I don't always measure precisely, but here's my recipe.

Strawberry-Pineapple Smoothie

First, add in:
1 cup of either light activia vanilla yogurt or greek yogurt (any flavor)
2 T ground flaxseed
1t cinnamon
2 scoops of whey protein powder (you can add more, too)

Then, add in the fruit until the blender is around 3/4 of the way full. I used frozen pineapples and fresh strawberries from my garden. Sometimes I add a banana, too. I add in 2/3 of a cup of skim milk and then add more if necessary, using the ice crush option on my blender until it's all mixed. If it doesn't taste sweet enough, I've used either honey or a couple of packets of Splenda, although usually the fruit is plenty sweet enough. One of my tricks is to take fruit that is very ripe and freeze it, that way I don't have to throw any out. This is especially good for bananas.

I always top smoothies with real whipped cream. If I have them, I add either sprinkles or dark chocolate chips. For me, balancing a healthy breakfast with decadent things like whipped cream and chocolate chips makes it that much more enjoyable.

Motivation

As a relatively new mother, motivation has sometimes been elusive. Motivation for what? Well, for exercising, eating healthy, finishing my work, hanging up and putting away the giant mountain of clothes in the bedroom, etc. But you can, in fact, bribe yourself into doing what you know is difficult. My husband (a clinical therapist) has talked about how important positive self-talk is, as in cognitive therapy and such. I'm not sure if this is what he meant, but it's sure working for me. For example, this week I've been out after work later. Yesterday it was the grocery store and the chiropractor, and today I started teaching an after school program. Reward? A daily afternoon latte. Nick's reward for being good? I gave him a sample of a chocolate cream puff at the Costco. Check out Nick being motivated by his leftover birthday balloons. :) I bought an elliptical trainer, and in order to make sure that it doesn't become a coat hanger, I need to bribe myself into a healthier lifestyle. Last night I was craving a slice of my freshly baked homemade wheat bread (I'll have to post my latest recipe--it's very good.), but I knew if I sat down to eat it, my day would be all over and I'd never get on the torture machine. So I promised myself that if I worked out for 1/2 hour, I could have a slice of warm bread. 30 minutes, 189 calories, and 1.6 miles later, I was happily sitting on the couch, bread in hand. I even kept my heart rate between 125 and 135 for the whole time, which is my goal. Here's the aforementioned torture machine; I can't remember if I posted its picture before. Elliptical trainers are amazing in the way they can elicit sweat in less than 2 minutes.

Today, I was really craving those tortilla chips. I love the authentic mexican ones that are really hard. mmmmm. So I had a conversation with myself. "Melissa," I said, because sometimes I am a dork and I talk to myself in the second person, "if you do a pilates bodyband workout for 30 minutes, you can have some tortilla chips." Of course, halfway through the pilates DVD I was whimpering and thinking, "No chips are worth this!"


Eating healthy is another challenge for me. I like healthy food, but in the winter my motivation disappears and I just want to eat simple, carb-heavy food like tortilla chips with american cheese (bad, I know). So I negotiate with myself. I have this cherry vinaigrette dressing that I love from http://www.sixlugs.com/, and I just bought a case (at no small expense) because it's the only way I can bring myself to eat salad lately. But if adding goat cheese and fancy dressing gets me to eat a healthy, filling salad, it is worth the cost.

Here's Nick showing me that he has my car keys and he's not giving them back. He's stashed them somewhere at least three or four times and I've had to go on a mad hunt before I leave the house. Check out our Christmas tree and the repurposed baby cage. We got motivated to decorate this Sunday. The tree was very easy for Greg to set up. . . we never took it down from last year, just took off the ornaments and put it in the basement. But the baby cage actually had to be anchored around the tree, because Nick would love to try to climb the tree and knock it over. This cage may not hold Nick anymore, but it holds the tree and protects it from the wrath of one persistant toddler. (Oh, and one cat who likes to chew on the plastic branches, for some odd reason.)

My wish is that my motivation will continue, at least for the immediate future. My goal for December is to work out at least 20 days, maybe more, and to eat fewer Christmas cookies than I usually do. If I manage to lose even two pounds, I think I'll treat myself to a full manicure and pedicure. Perhaps that will motivate me.