Ever since my peanut butter and jelly combo during my snack in yesterday’s 2147 calories (loving reading all your comments by the way!), I have had PBJ on the brain. it even inspired me to dollop some jelly on my regular bowl of oats alongside my big blob of peanut butter this morning.

If I felt like channeling Rachel Ray, I would say Yum-O! But, I don’t. She kind of annoys me. Then again, all Food Network chefs have something that annoys me slightly. Ironically, I miss Food Network most of all since giving up cable. I miss the EVOO/Yum-O comments, pounds of butter (Paula Dean), orgasming while food-tasting (Giada), crazy hair (Guy Fieri and “female Guy” Anne Burrelli), Mr. I’m-All-That (Bobby Flay), and I’m-a-Barbie-robot (Sandra Lee). And I really miss Chopped and Next Food Network Star!

Okay, that was a tangent. Where was I going with this post again? Oh, that’s right. Part two of WIAW – Baby' B’s version!

Monday afternoon we had Braedon’s six month check up at the doctor office. Our doctor showed a little concern about Braedon’s weight because the kiddo ranked in the 44th percentile for height/length and only the 4th percentile for weight. She drilled me on his eating habits, to which I assured her the kid eats. He eats until his belly looks like it would pop with a pin and I can hear the food sloshing around inside of him. He is my child after all and we all know I don’t fear food.

I know full well the kid eats plenty. I’m the one in the kitchen blending and mashing up food like its my job for the hungry little mouth. I don’t mind, though. Blending and mashing up food like its my job helps us save money and I like being able to feed him some of the same things we eat, just blended. Mmmmm….blended green beans…

It’s really not bad to do! All I do is simply cook whatever foods his body can process at this stage until soft and blend with my trusty immersion blender. Right now that involves green beans and sweet potato mostly. Coming soon = corn, peas, carrots, zucchini, peaches, and more! I add a little extra breast milk or distilled water, if needed, to get the right consistency and voila! Homemade baby food! Some things don’t even require cooking, but just mashing up with a fork – like banana and avocado.

That’s not to say I don’t buy anything pre-made. We do like to have a few baby food containers on hand for quick emergency options. I buy natural applesauce because its much cheaper than trying to make my own with a dozen apples. Canned pumpkin is another good option. If you’re ever looking into making your own baby food, I cannot recommend the site Wholesome Baby Food enough! It has tons of info!

I really believe in putting in the effort to make my children’s food. I want them to get used to eating the things we regularly eat as a family. To see that food comes from a kitchen with real ingredients and not from a package all the time. I believe the tastes a child prefers starts early and I want to expose my children to nutritious foods as much as possible.

Makenzie has grown up loving oatmeal, fruit, non-kiddy-super-sweetened yogurts and cereals, broccoli, zucchini, green smoothies, beans, and so much more. I will always allow my children to enjoy “kid food” like cupcakes or Goldfish, but I want them to appreciate food revolving around wholesome choices for the body. And you can never start too young! So I mash and immersion blend away. Now time to prep B’s half a banana, 1/3 cup mashed sweet potato, and eight ounces of mommy milk. And she says the kid doesn’t eat. HA!

• What were some of the foods and eating habits you remember from your childhood? Do you think what we expose children to at a young age has a big impact on their future eating habits?

After giving birth to Makenzie, I discovered one of the best things ever. Food is not the enemy! In fact, my body told me EAT if you want to get in the shape you hope to achieve. And as I grew deeper in my faith and recognized my body as something of value, I began to see the importance of respecting it and fueling it adequately. I finally chose to listen to my body after years of following crazy food rules and ended up in the best shape of my life. I took that same approach post-Braedon and, wouldn’t you know, I made the same sort of progress and feel pretty dang good if I do say so myself. Eat well. Have energy. Live well. Get a healthy, strong, FIT body. Don’t mind if I do!

It always saddens me when I hear about diet plans with recommended calorie intakes of 1200 calories. I truly believe its possible for a healthy individual with no metabolic issues to lose weight eating more than that. I hope to display that you can certainly eat enough food to fuel your body well, feel satiated, and still make progress.

I certainly don’t post all of my eats on a daily basis, so for today’s What I Ate Wednesday post I wanted to give a rundown of ALL my typical daily meals and how they add up. I even broke out the Eat Smart Precision food scale I received at the Fitbloggin conference to get accurate counts for you all. I ate as I normally do, but simply measured the portions I typically use. The scale made measuring for the day easy and accurate since I could choose to measure in grams. Note: If you measure things, always use grams. You get more food. Reason enough for me!

Oh, flashbacks to competition prep days! It’s been a long time since I’ve measured things besides the occasional check on portion sizes or for recipe purposes. And it’s certainly been forever since I have measured things like raisins! Nevertheless, I wanted to get an accurate depiction, so here we are. Besides - calories beware. You don’t scare me!

Pre-Workout:

Banana = ~ 110 calories

Breakfast:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats cooked in water
• 4 large strawberries diced
• handful of raisins (ended up at 26 grams)
• big blob of peanut butter (ended up at 29 grams)
• splash of unsweetened vanilla almond breeze to reach the right consistency + almond milk in my iced coffee (~ 1/2 cup)
• sprinkle of brown sugar for sweetener (~ 1 tsp?)

Grand Total = 467 calories

Lunch:

• flat out wrap
• sliced deli ham – 4 oz
• 1 garlic herb laughing cow wedge
• mustard
• handful of spinach
• thick slice of tomato
• 2/3 of a mango
• 2 large carrots chopped into sticks
• 2 tablespoons Sabra Roasted Pine Nut hummus

Grand Total = 432 calories

Afternoon Snack:

• whole wheat English muffin
• spread of peanut butter on each slice (equaled 14 grams)
• spread of “just fruit” strawberry jam on each slice (equaled 12 grams)
• 6 oz container vanilla Chobani yogurt
• handful Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal (equaled 22 grams)

Grand Total = 448 calories

Dinner:

• 3/4 cup cooked whole wheat penne pasta
• chopped cherry tomatoes
• diced zucchini
• diced mushrooms
• chopped artichoke hearts
• chopped black olives
• 1 oz feta cheese
• 1.5 tbsp Ken’s Northern Italian dressing

Grand Total (estimate on this one because I got so sick of measuring): 450 calories

Dessert:

• Private Collection cookie ice-cream sandwich while finishing up The Bachelorette

Total = 240 calories

In total, I ate 2147 calories on a typical day of meals. I haven’t changed my eating habits from when I made progress on my Body After Baby journey. I usually eat a good deal more than this on weekends as I consumer more “treats” and have a hunger monster at work every Saturday after my long runs. Sure, every body is different. However, I know in light of certain diets, it can appear that we need to eat less less less. From my personal experience, I find the opposite. My body will only reach the places it has when I give it what it needs. And I want to show the value in eating enough. Enough is different for each body…but why not push the limits to get the most quality fuel you can to it? Eating is fun. Enough with the starvation!

• Do you ever track your food at all?
• Because I’m curious – your thoughts on The Bachelorette if you watched!