Whole Foods

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"

                                                                  It's true people!

One of my weaknesses is not just chocolate...lets be honest...it's food in general! I love food and I love to cook from scratch which usually includes a whole lot of fat. I also like to cook healthy meals as well but some (okay a lot) are a total flop and it can be a lot more expensive and time consuming then sticking that pot of mac and cheese on the stove.

Eating healthy does take more effort. But keep it simple. Remember the food pyramid we learned in school and how complicated it was? Now they have come out with "my plate".

It gives you a nice visual. Instead of trying to count and figure out how much you should eat of each food group you can just picture this. Notice the protein is not the main meal here, it's the vegetables! (I need to work on that myself)

I have found that Pinterest has been a great way to find healthy recipes. There are lots of good blogs out there. One of my favorite websites for healthy recipes, that actually taste good, is

http://www.skinnytaste.com/

This week work on eating whole foods....not processed! That is a tough one!
What is your favorite healthy recipe and where do you find these recipes? Comment below.

Week 1- Let's Get Physical

We all have heard the statistic that more then 1/3 of US adults are obese! 

In school one year, I took a communicable and noncommunicable diseases class and my teacher showed us this slideshow on the obesity trend in the US from 1985-2010. I found it to be rather scary!

US Obesity Trend

I don't know about you but that was motivation enough to not be apart of those statistics! Of course I'm not prefect because that motivation faded and I have cookie dough waiting for me on the counter. But whether your motivation is to live a healthy and happy life, to fit into those skinny jeans,  or to walk up those stairs without sounding like you just ran a marathon....you HAVE to get physical! 

(I added the live version so you don't have to uncomfortably watch men in their 80's undies working out with Olivia....yes we are on a first name basis)

New research has shown that 30 minutes of exercise a day may be just as good as 60 minutes of exercise. And 30 minutes has shown to improve health! That is just one episode of Modern Family.

Comment below what your exercise routine will be for the 4 week challenge...but remember it's a lifestyle change :) 

Miss Ruby Charlotte Dennis

On Monday morning I went with my good friend Ashley to go plum picking in town. I was 39 weeks at this point. There was a lot of uncomfortable stretching and bending since we were both pregnant. Ashley dropped me off back at home and said something about do me a favor and go into labor soon! I had felt a little crampy but nothing too exciting. I was suppose to have an appointment the next day and I was planning on them checking me to see if I had made any progress.

Eric had decided to come home from school because he felt "sick" (I swear men become little boys when they are sick...and only later did he admit he just wanted to come home). I was laying on the couch when I felt this gush. I jumped up thinking either I wet my pants or my water broke. I ran to the bathroom and just kept thinking my water broke now what?! I was so nervous. I didn't know whether I should go to the hospital or call my midwives first. I decided to call and of course it was Columbus day...which meant they were out of the office. I called the main office and they said I could come in and be checked but that the doctors wouldn't be in until 2pm. It was around 1:20pm. So I got ready and tried to calm my nerves down. Eric suggested we go get burgers because if I was having this baby soon I most likely wouldn't be able to eat at the hospital. I kept hugging Eric and I was trying not to cry. We waited in the doctors office what seemed forever (45 mins.) before I was checked by a doctor I am not so fond of. I had met him once before. He said I was dilated to a 3. Eric and I both said now what. He responded that I should have this baby in a week or so. You should have seen the look on my face! A week?!!!! He asked if I knew when to come into the hospital and I said if my contractions are 5 mins apart. And he said or if your water brakes and mentioned a few other things. I had to tell him thats why I was there was because I thought my water broke. He looked at his paper real closely and said, "No one told me that and you should go to the hospital right now"...good thing we asked some questions otherwise I would have been at home freaking out waiting for my contractions to be 5 mins apart and wondering if I was wetting my pants. I was a noob.

We headed up to the hospital which is literally 1 min away from the doctors office. We got all checked in around 4pm. I called my mom and sister who were waiting very impatiently for my call of whether or not I was going to be admitted to the hospital. I had told them I thought my water broke. Because it took me so long to get back to them they were thinking maybe I wet my pants and was too embarrassed to tell them my water hadn't broke! So they were very excited to hear that it had and that meant my mom didn't have to go back to work :)

They started me on pitocin which I was not too excited about! My midwives were both there, Karen and Helene. They were great. Karen stayed with me the entire time. They started me on a low dose and it did nothing for an hour. I just felt some cramps. They pushed the dose of pitocin up to a 3 and I got up and started to walk around the hospital with Eric. For those who don't know, Madison Memorial in Rexburg is TINY! So walking around the hospital was like walking around my living room in my apartment. But then I started to get some contractions. By this time it was around 5:30pm or 6pm. A new nurse came and wanted to ask me a few questions and while we did that she pushed my pitocin up to a 5. I walked around the hospital a couple of more times and felt the contractions coming pretty quickly. I went back to my room and Eric mentioned he thought the nurse maybe turned my pitocin down. He went to have a look and by the look on his face I knew she had pushed it up again. It was now at a 7. I felt a little panicked as it was getting a little intense. I decided I wanted an epidural and while I was waiting for it I would get in the tub. They filled the tub up and Karen checked me before I got in. I was dilated to a 6. Right after she checked me I had a BIG contraction. I am pretty sure I had a look on my face that said save me because Karen asked if I still wanted to get in the tub and I told her I didn't think I could move and I felt I needed to push. She looked shocked since she had just checked and I was only at a 6. Karen decided to check again and told me I was fully dilated and she didn't know how that happened in one contraction. She told me I had done the hard part already and that I didn't need an epidural or really have time for one but it's just time to push. She called Helene and told her I was pushing and I heard her say, "WHAT?!" No one expected it to happen so fast. She got there quickly. Eric was a great support and very encouraging. I used the squat bar...if I would have known I was going to be using that I would have worked out my legs more. I was pretty shaky. They guessed I pushed for less then 40 mins. and she was here! It was so overwhelming and I had so many emotions. I felt like I was crying but I may have been laughing. I just couldn't believe she was here. She was a healthy 6 pounds 6 ounces. Just a tiny little girl. We named her Ruby Charlotte. She came out with her hand up to her face and her elbow out which did some pretty good damage. I had to be stitched up for an hour! I should have known since during her ultrasounds she had her hand in that exact place. And she still likes to keep it there when she sleeps or is nursing.

I had Strep B but because I had Ruby before I was even fully treated (less then 4 hours) they wanted us to stay the full 48 hours at the hospital.

My mom showed up the next night and I was so grateful she was there. I would have been so overwhelmed without her! We are so happy to have this little girl. I still can't believe it.

We love all that hair! My brother Brody was hoping she would be a redhead. He has been calling her "Ginger" the whole pregnancy! It's getter lighter and there may be a slight tint of red in it :)

One eye Ruby...she likes to keep one closed

For how little this girl is she has giant fingers and toes!!!! Look at the size of that big toe! 

Home at last! 

Yo Ho The Trailer's Life for Me

Eric and I are learning lots about living in a trailer, especially in AZ

1) If it's an old trailer, getting into the shower that has cracks in the bottom may cause flooding in the next room on the floor. Secretly, this is a blessing because then you HAVE to take showers at the house which has hot water to last the shaving legs process.

2) The "black water tank" is what holds the poo....if a foul smell begins to emerge, don't panic! This is rather normal in most trailers. Just watch 2 hours of youtube videos to learn how to empty your black water tank. When you have done all the right things to empty the tank and then you don't see anything coming out of the already nasty, brownish pipe....panic!

3) Although this is AZ and there are scorpions that roam around at night, not everything that tickles your leg calls for panic. But this does call for obsessive checking of your shoes before you put them on, your clothes, and your sheets before you get into bed. You should also consider wearing your hair in a pony tail because this can also cause lots of distress when your hair tickles your neck and lots of laughter from your husband.

4) Again, if you are living in an older trailer, and you happen to have broken windows boarded up with plywood right above your bed, you may want to just sleep on the opposite side of the bed.

5) No matter how much you spray that "fresh berry" glade spray that is "rich with luscious berries and pomegranate" that is suppose to "bring a sophisticated sweetness to your favorite room" or trailer, the musty smell of wet carpet and dogs will not go away. But it will hide it for 30 mins.

6) And last but not least, remember this is actually rather fun and that maybe yo ho the trailer's life might be just for me ;)

Virtual Drinking

This morning has led to lots of stress in the Dennis Trailer. Not because of anything Eric or myself have done, but just to mere circumstances. On my drive home I was trying to remind myself of all the blessings Eric and I have and that everything will work out just fine. But I had the radio on and this song came on about drinking the  night away. As you know, we don't drink. And I was reminded of this video clip from our new favorite show, The Big Bang Theory: Although we are NOT having relationship issues, I find Sheldon's way of coping rather funny.

Showers

So most everyone knows that Eric and I are now living in Gilbert, Arizona (the little Zion, as it is called here). And I must say, this is a really big adventure for us. I went to Mozambique back in 2007 with a non-profit called Care For Life. I haven't done much with them since, except for their monthly newsletters. But it is a great organization, and I needed an internship to graduate. My major is public health and what CFL is doing and accomplishing, seemed to fit perfectly with public health. So voila! Now we are here. Linda Harper was my team leader when I went to MOZ and she now happens to be the president of CFL. So she and her family are kindly letting us stay in one of their camping trailers on their property while we are here for the next 3 months....yes a camp trailer. A very old camp trailer. They are only going to charge us a tiny amount to help with the utilities. It's fantastic. Linda was so worried what we would think or how we would feel living in a tiny trailer. But we just look at it as an adventure. It is much smaller then our tiny apartment back in Rexburg. The oven, stove-top, and heat are all run by propane. So lets just say that showers have not really been working for me. I think the longest shower I have taken has been 3-4 mins...which is better then the 2 min showers I was taking. For some reason, I can't get the water to stay hot. Eric on the other hand has not had a problem with this at all. He tried to teach me, which is why I had one shower that was 3-4 mins long. Yet, this is still not long enough to shave my Amazon lady hairy legs. So lets just say I have been sorta avoiding the shower. So I woke up this morning with my hair looking like this

Although I don't have the facial hair, the bangs are pretty dead on.