5 Thoughts [weekend recap + pregnancy supplements]

1. Weekend

Last weekend was so relaxing! One of my friends recently had a baby boy so Nick and I brought them over dinner on Friday night. I made this herbed chicken stew which I’d 100% make again – so cozy and delicious – plus a spinach salad with Trader Joe’s candied pumpkin seeds (a dream!) + cranberries + goat cheese + honey balsamic vinaigrette. We ate baked brie + crackers and apple slices before dinner and then finished dinner with these epic baked apples I posted a couple weeks ago when I shared apple recipes I wanted to make. So easy and delicious and you should make them as soon as you possibly can. They’d also be awesome for breakfast with some full fat yogurt or on top of oatmeal or with ice cream. Yes, ice cream for breakfast…sounds good to me.

Saturday was one of those days where you get things done you’ve been procrastinating. We cleaned out and organized the apt, put together some furniture…meaning Nick put together furniture while I grocery shopped and then we spent Saturday night with just the two of us. We strolled around the neighborhood and ended up at Bar Lyon for dinner. If you’re in Boston and want a cozy spot for dinner with amazing food and good vibes, go here. We loved it and can’t wait to go back! I ordered the burger because that’s all I was craving. Nick went with the mussels. We split bacon + gruyere cheese puffs and a roasted carrot and beet salad to start – both were incredible.

Sunday was church, a long walk (it is the epitome of fall here and I can’t get enough) and then we had friends over for the Bears vs Patriots game. I’m not even going to pretend to be some avid football fan, I’m just not. But I do enjoy watching games with other people and socializing – so while the boys watched intensely, I ate charcuterie and chatted. Sunday evening I made this kale, butternut, sausage soup I found on Pinterest for lunch this week, did this 20 min stretchy yoga video, read, ate leftover baked apples + ice cream and was in bed by 9pm. It felt soooo good to have a slower, low key weekend.

2. Pregnancy Supplements

I have gotten several DMs about pregnancy supplements so thought I’d share a few of my thoughts here. I talked about this a little in my weekly newsletter a few weeks ago (you can sign up here if you’d like) so I’m going to expand upon that. I’m not a pregnancy supplement guru, rather I’m sharing some basic supplements that I would recommend based on personal experience and my knowledge of the research. If you have certain health conditions or other medical concerns, this might look different for you so check with your health care provider.

Prenatal Vitamin| Pregnant or not, I recommend any woman of childbearing age who is sexually active and has any chance of becoming pregnant to take a prenatal vitamin. After doing some research, I decided on this Garden of Life prenatal vitamin and strongly recommend it – it’s not the cheapest at $20/month, but it’s not the most expensive and it’s made of high quality, whole food ingredients. I like it because it has a good amount of Vitamin D3 (1400 IUs – the highest I’ve seen out of the prenatals I’ve looked into) and folic acid (800 mcg) in addition to a comprehensive blend of other vitamins/minerals (more than I saw in other brands) along with a digestive blend, fruit and veggie blend and probiotics. And they are pretty much tasteless and not horse pills! Now, will any prenatal vitamin do? YES. The most important thing is that you are taking something. This is just a brand I recommend because it sits well in my tummy and doesn’t make you want to vom when you take it. I have a friend who’s insurance covered her prenatal vitamins so she took the one recommended by her doc that was covered – I’d recommend checking in about that with your doctor, free prenatals sound good to me too.

Fish Oil | There’s research that shows omega 3’s (EPA and DHA) are beneficial for baby’s neurological development and breast milk production along with lowering the risk of developing various pregnancy complications. If you are pregnant and haven’t been taking fish oil, it is OKAY. My OB never recommended I take fish oil, it’s something I researched on my own so even if I wasn’t taking it, I’m going to healthily assume me + baby would still be plenty healthy. You could eat a lot of omega 3 rich foods to meet your needs, but I find that almost impossible with food aversions and especially since fish consumption is limited in pregnancy due to mercury toxicity. You’ll want to look for a high quality brand that has been purified so it doesn’t contain mercury. I love this brand because it’s wild caught, has been purified and works out to cost about $4/month. I recommend just taking 1 capsule which will give you roughly the recommend daily dosage for pregnancy (300mg DHA) but if you want to take 2, check with your health care provider.

Those are the ones I’m taking and “normal” healthy pregnancy, should be all you need. I also took a daily greens supplement during the first trimester when I couldn’t look at vegetables. Do you need to take a greens supplement for you and baby to be healthy and be getting the nutrients you need. No, not at all. I figured it couldn’t hurt and my OB gave the green light so I did.

3. Halloween plans

What you are doing for Halloween?? I haven’t lived in a place where trick or treaters come around in so long. In New York, I lived in buildings where there weren’t trick or treaters, so it’s been since like 2013 when I was living in Charlottesville. This year we will definitely have trick or treaters and I’m excited to sit on our stoop with our neighbors and pass out candy. Our neighborhood is supposedly “the place” to trick or treat in Boston, so I hear. Obviously that means I’m going to overbuy candy and make sure there are no pretzels, mounds, almond joys or the black and orange taffy because I remember hating those candies growing up and being bummed when the candy ran out. Anyone else?!  My mom will be in town this week too so that should fun and then later we’ll head over to a friend’s house for a low key Halloween get together – but there won’t be costumes which might sound lame, but in reality…the last thing I want to worry about right now is what I’ll be for Halloween. But I’d love to hear your plans!

4. this instagram post by Marci Evans

I had to share this instagram post by Marci because I feel like it’s such an important message. In a society that values and praises thinness and weight loss, it makes total sense that someone would desire weight loss. Actually, I’d argue it’s natural to desire weight loss in our culture. If anything, I expect clients who come to us to desire weight loss. I thought Marci worded this issue so beautifully.

5. The next book I’m reading

I just started Ann Voskamp’s, The Broken Way. I’ve started this book a few times, but never finished so now I’m committing myself to finishing sometimes in the hopefully near future. Her books are packed with so much good stuff and lots of thought provoking sentences that I can only read so much at a time because I need time to digest! So maybe I’ll get this finished by 2019? Here’s for some wishful thinking. I’ll report back when I finish.

This week is a full one with clients and wrapping up some projects, but my mom comes in tomorrow evening for a few days so that should be fun! What’s on tap for you this week?