PANCAKES vs. pancakes

For the last month or so Bryan and I have fallen into a little bit of a bad habit each Sunday morning. We have been enjoying homemade buttermilk pancakes instead of our typical eggs and oatmeal. On these "cheat day" Sunday mornings I'd always make eggs to go along with the pancakes in an attempt to be slightly healthier, but could rarely get Bryan to eat any of them. He would take full advantage of a very yummy yet full on bad for you breakfast...Aunt Jemima and all!! I'd end up eating all of the eggs and a pancake or two with watered down pure maple syrup yet still feel horribly guilty.

This past Sunday I just couldn't eat the buttermilk pancakes again. I'm trying so hard to get the rest of this baby weight off and I knew that meal certainly would not help! Instead I opted for some healthy pancakes that I'd forgotten I had a recipe for. I even somehow managed to get Bryan to try a bite, though that's all he would have. He wasn't a fan. He's always said that if he's going to eat pancakes, he's going to eat the real deal. Ahh well, it was worth a shot. I personally like to stick to a healthy diet filled with variety. With these pancakes I never feel sluggish or guilty after eating them. I even top them with raw organic butter and watered down pure maple syrup. Sometimes I'll slice a few bananas or strawberries on top for a bit of a change. They are delicious, especially for being healthy!

Below is my recipe for the healthy pancakes. 

OATMEAL PANCAKES

1/2 cup oal fashioned oatmeal

1/4 cup low fat cottage cheese

4 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Process the oatmeal, cottage cheese, egg whites, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a blender or food processor until smooth. 

Spray a nonstick skillet with cooking spray. (I use organic coconut oil.)  Add the batter and cook over medium heat until both sides are lightly browned.  

Serves 1 - Nutritional Facts Per Serving

288 calories

28 g protein

32 g carbs

4 g fat

5 g fiber

20/10 Tabatas

While I've been home taking care of our little Aubrey, Bryan has been at the gym getting spoiled by Tyron's workouts. I have been extremely jealous! Bryan has quickly grown to love Tyron's challenging workouts just as much as I have over the last few years. He comes home in the evening raving about everything Tyron has taught him and how efficient and extremely effective the workouts are. Besides Bryan gaining strength and energy, the fact that his body is changing drastically before his eyes is proof that the workouts are excellent. We're both enjoying all the changes.




Now for me, I've got to get this baby weight off my tummy! Ugh, it's just awful!! My goal with Tyron is to work out with him 3 days a week and 3 on my own. I'm currently 130 pounds consisting of way too much fat and not enough muscle. My goal weight is roughly 124 pounds. This is definintely the hardest part! Tyron and I have been able to meet twice a week for a couple weeks. This coming week we are going to try very hard to keep our goal of meeting 3 times. Let's keep our fingers crossed!


Last week my wonderful mom took care of Aubrey for a couple of hours so I could slip away and work out with both Bryan and Tyron. Tyron actually played photographer while he instructed us on what to do. We all had the best time! The name of the work out was 20/10 Tabatas. It consisted of 4 supersetted exercises repeated 8 times with 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. It sounds confusing, but it is so simple to remember. You basically work out hard for a solid 30 minutes and that's your work out! Tyron's workouts are very efficient and so much fun!


Below are a bunch of pictures of our workout. We all laughed the whole way through so the photos are far from serious. In my future posts I'll be listing specific workouts. Today is just a bunch of fun photos. Hope you enjoy!

Napless Wednesday...

Oh what a day yesterday! Bryan and I were up from 4-6am with our precious girl. Thank goodness once we finally got her down Bryan convinced me to try and get at least 30 more minutes of sleep. We both slept a little more than an hour when Aubrey cried out that she was hungry again. Bryan was leaving for a quick overnight trip to Greensboro in about an hour. We wanted to have breakfast together so while I fed Aubrey he showered and packed. Bryan played with Aubrey while I made the two of us eggs and oatmeal, our typical morning breakfast. I'm still in shock Bryan is putting up with it, but it's obviously paying off for him. He's sees a little more definition in his body everyday and is loving it. Now if I could just get the hard boiled eggs and veggie snacks in him 2-3 times a day...


Aubrey has been eating every two hours lately and sleeping 30-40 minutes in between...sometimes a little longer if I'm lucky. Well on this particular day I had a completely napless baby!!!!!! All day! Everytime she would get sleepy enough to take a nap it would be time to eat, burp, and change her diaper...we had that cycle on repeat all day! Finally around 5pm, when I had completed absolutely nothing all day and Aubrey was still awake in my arms, mom came to the rescue. She was determined to get our exhausted little girl some much needed rest. It took a little time and a lot of loving to finally convince her to sleep. Once she was down she was out cold. I filled two hours with a much needed shower, dinner, and tons of laundry. I had so many things that needed to be done that I couldn't relax. Aubrey woke up just as I crawled into bed. I think the little stinker knows when we're attempting to eat or sleep. She always wants to be a part of everything. Deep down Bryan and I love it though. I was pretty optomistic with Aubrey's timing on wanting to be fed. It was 10pm so I figured once I got her down she'd be out until maybe 5am. CSI NY kept Aubrey and I company while she ate. She's been eating for 40-50 minutes lately. Once she finished I burped her and changed her diaper. I sat her in her vibrating bouncy seat so she could watch me fold laundry. We giggled and chatted until she started to whimper and rub her eyes. I carried her in my arms into the nursery and rocked her to sleep. She was such a sweetie about going to bed. I again thought she's be out cold for most of the night!


At 3:15 my body woke up telling me it was time to feed Aubrey...yet she wasn't awake. I made a bottle and crawled back in bed. Not 5 mins later, haha, Aubrey cries out for food. She ate 8.5 ounces! She was obviously very hungry. I crawled back in bed a little after 5am and sent Bryan a text. All I said was, "Oh you so owe me!" No response so the stinker was obviously out cold. Lucky!


Aubrey slept almost two more hours before crying out. I stared at her on the video monitor hoping she'd go back to sleep. She did! :-) I curled back up for a second and then realized it was time to make another bottle. Ugh...I was so incredibly tired at this moment. I made Aubrey's bottle and then decided to eat breakfast since she wasn't quite awake. Again I filled my tummy with eggs and oatmeal while folding more laundry from the night before. Aubrey woke up just before 8am with only one thing on her mind...food! She again ate 8.5 ounces and hardly spit up a thing. Our little girl is growing up! She went down for her nap around 9:15 and is just now starting to stir. It's time to eat again!


My day yesterday is basically why I have not yet posted my workout with Tyron and Bryan from Tuesday with all the photos. Bryan comes home today and I train again with Tyron today so I'm hoping to get them up sometime this evening. Attached below are some photos of how I found Aubrey when she was waking up from her first nap of the day yesterday. I saw the whole thing happen on the video monitor and couldn't help but take a few photos before addressing Aubrey's little situation. Each of her little stretches kept making it worse. Look closely and you'll see her little fingers and the top of her head. Enjoy!!

Explosions!!

Bryan and I both have our responsibilities that we perform each time Aubrey first wakes up. First, Bryan attends to Aubrey by changing her diaper and showering her with kisses. I then take over and nurse her while he goes back to bed for a little extra rest. Of course certain situations cause us to sometimes stray from our typical routine. Tuesday morning was one of those mornings. Bryan walked into the room with a sleepy yet happy girl. We had been up with her just two hours earlier so we were going to wait to change her diaper until after I fed her. When Bryan started to hand her to me I quickly threw my hands up and caught my breath. Oh Bryan was in for quite a fun surprise!


Before Aubrey arrived, Bryan and I had decided on using cloth diapers. It has been quite the learning experience, but we are very happy with our decision. Right now we are using organic cotton inserts during the day and microfiber inserts at night. The microfiber keeps Aubrey dry much longer than the cotton, but if worn too consistantly it irritates her skin. On this particular Tuesday morning, we'd already been up with Aubrey around 5. It was already so close to the time we would normally get up that we decided to start using the organic cotton inserts for the day. Aubrey was still a little sleepy and went back down for a couple hours.


So back to the part where Bryan was about to hand Aubrey off to me...I was about to take her from his arms when I saw that her yellow diaper cover wasn't quite so yellow anymore. I laughed and suggested that he turn and look in the mirror. We both started dying laughing. Poor Aubrey probably had no idea why we were laughing. Our sweet little angel was probably so uncomfortable. Bryan quickly changed her diaper and then finally handed her off to me. At least we started our morning off with a little chuckle thanks entirely to our sweet little girl. Enjoy the photos!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Mother's Day this year was such a special day for me. This was my very first Mother's Day! The night before Bryan told this story about how Aubrey was begging him to give me my gift early. He, in detail, relayed the story to me. It was actually pretty cute. Bryan held strong for once and did not give in. The gift was saved for Mother's Day.


Little did I know, Bryan woke up in the middle of the night to put my gift out in the nursery. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I'd heard Aubrey cry and got up to feed her. Bryan was very sneaky and coaxed me back into bed until we were sure she was awake. I think I must have been half asleep because I didn't even think to look at our video monitor, which has been an amazing life saver by the way. So back to sleep I went. A couple hour later Aubrey let out a few cries signaling mommy that it was time to eat. As I walked into the nursery I saw a huge card propped up on the glider. I smiled and couldn't wait to get my hands on it, but wanted to wait until Bryan and Aubrey gave it to me. I went ahead and started feeding Aubrey as Bryan picked up the card and brought it to me. It was such an adorable card. It was very dimly lit in the nursery when I asked Bryan where he'd gotten it. He chuckled and said that he and Aubrey had made it. I was quite impressed. Inside was a much needed gift as well...an hour long massage with Denise, the most amazing massage therapist ever! I have been aching for a massage for so long. Since I can now lay on my tummy, I am going to thoroughly enjoy this wonderful gift.


Bryan, Aubrey, and I spent the entire day together. We made pancakes and eggs, enjoyed a couple movies, and took a family walk. It's a shame Mother's Day only happens once a year. I loved spending the entire day with my family, without interruptions. Thank you to my wonderful husband and beautiful daughter for making my day such a special one. I love you!