Monday, October 31, 2011

November Goals

Last October I wrote down a few goals that I wanted to work on during the month and I found that to be helpful, especially after giving those written goals a once over during the middle of the month to see how I was doing. This month I like to do the same thing so here they go:

Goals for November
1. Run 3X a week
2. Meditate one or more times each week.
3. Finish reading George RR Martin's "A Dance with Dragons"
4. Read to my son every day (and not Martin's book).
5. Turn in quality papers for the two classes that I have papers due in.
6. Declare November "no meat month"
7. Get Rocket sleeping REGULARLY in his crib rather the bed with Lee and I.
8. Wash dishes the night before rather than the morning (gross I know).


I am sure that there are more things I would like to work on but I think that for now those are the most important to me.

Happy month of November :-)

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Luck of a Beginner

Today I talked to a dear friend who said she had started a blog http://nathalies-kaleidoscope-of-life.blogspot.com/ and then suggested to me to start my own blog. I immediately thought I have no time to start/maintain a blog and I said the same to my husband Lee. He responded back that I could start off with a weekly post and see what comes of it. ((Cringe)) as I knew he was right. And now that brings us here to me typing my first post. Setting up a blog is MUCH easier then it has any right to be, hence the "beginner's luck themed" title as it seems that all the stars are aligned for me to begin my blog.

A brief introduction if you will: My name is Alexandria. I am 23 and currently residing in Fayetteville, NC. For all purposes I am an Army Wife. Once I was in the National Guard; Lee and I met while in Advance Individual Training (AIT) for paralegals. My husband's name as you may have inferred is Lee and we have a tremedously wonderful and self-possessed baby boy that we nicked-named Rocket. Rocket is going on 10 months and is also a Lee, but both of us detests the nomer Junior.

Now for a break down of my blog's name. I am a flexitarian who is transitioning into eating a complete plant based diet; some would identitfy that as becoming vegan but I feel that the term "vegan" is not just a dietary change but a socio-political identification and I am just not there yet. After giving birth back in January of 2011, I started researching (i.e. internet trolling) ways to the drop the 70lbs I had gained. I was not looking for the quickest way to do this but the healthiest way and I stumbled on (and not the StumbleUpon.com) PeerTrainer peertrainer.com which lead me to Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live and the rest they say is history. I knew that I would breastfeed and I wanted to make sure that my son was getting all vital nurtients he could from me naturally; therefore all of what I read in Fuhrman's book "Eat to Live" made complete sense to me. I have not done his 6 week Eat to Live plan because I am breastfeeding still and need to still to eat many healthy fats (avocado, raw nuts, coconut oils if cooking) and that plan calls for a restriction on those fats but I have lost all 70lbs I gained and then some in the 10 months post birth. The surplus of engery that I have when I eat a nutritarian diet: this means eating LOTs of green veggies, colorful veggies, fruits, whole grains, beans, and raw nuts is so incredible that all the coffee in the world (a slight exaggeration I am sure) could not replicate this. I can go weeks without eating animal by product but occassional I give in and so I like to say that I am transitioning rather then having had fully arrived at eliminating meat and diar
y from my diet. They say what is good for the goose is good enough for the gander and I have applied that little expression with how I feed my son as well. I make all my son's food and while I was pureeing his food he had lots of vegetables, fruits, and avocado wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com. Now he is on to finger foods I am doing the same but that is a new experiment for me as well. I have NOT introduced meat or diary into his diet and probably will not ever (a mother can hope can't she). That ends the bit about Veggie Mama, and now for Runs for Cheers part: I love running and am finally back to running at my pre-pregnancy frequency and intensity. I have just started my current running plan so I am excited to share that as well on this blog. My November goals (I will be making a separate post for this soon) include to run 3 times a week; in October I ran 2-3 times a week. If you are my friend on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/alexandria.f.lewis and see that I am about to start a run please by all means cheer me on!! I need it trust me :)

And that concludes my first blog post.