However, about a year ago, I read about a little game called the 100 Item Toss.  The challenge – go through your closets and drawers and set aside 100 items to throw away or donate to charity.  I loved the idea for one reason: it was decluttering with a set end point.  Since participating in the 100 Item Toss, I’ve done other (naturally smaller) tosses every few months.  When you have a set number in mind, you get brutal.  You don’t really need to hang onto three pairs of worn out sneakers.

I recently did a 30 Item Toss and – man – it felt good to reduce my closet even further.  Most of the items I tossed and donated were pieces that I considered getting rid of in my last toss, and because I haven’t used them since, it was easy to sort them into the trash/Goodwill bags.

I got to 21 items and then I went on a crazy rampage, checking through storage bins and bookshelves to find 9 more items to get rid of.  And then, once I reached 30, I stopped – and felt oh-so-satisfied.

I also boxed up every single piece of clothing that no longer fits the baby bump.  I’ll store it in the attic until the baby is born and the weight comes off.  It was getting mighty annoying to have to dig through 15 pairs of regular pants just to locate my three pairs of maternity jeans/pants!

Ahhhhh, organization.  I love thee.

Beyond the fact that it was very easy to find something to wear today, it’s been a crazy and hectic day so far.  Thank goodness it’s Friday.

I had a mid-morning meeting with Molly at an awesome restaurant in Uptown Charlotte called The King’s Kitchen.  The King’s Kitchen donates 100% of profits from sales to feed the poor and homeless in Charlotte, the region, and the world. The restaurant also strives to provide employment opportunities to individuals who recently experienced homelessness, run-ins with the law, or rehab.  A wonderful business concept, right?

Plus, The King’s Kitchen has really, really good food.  All Southern fare!  We went to the restaurant because I had a serious pregnant hankering for deviled eggs. 

And I got the buttered beans and sweet potato mash.

So – tell me. What’s your secret for decluttering?

Best Reader Write-In: Reader Q&A: I Hate Exercise and Healthy Foods. This post answers the tough question of:  When you’ve got no balance in your life, how do you find your healthy and happy medium without 1) making excuses and 2) making yourself crazy?

Best Brunch Recipe:  Southern-Style Cornbread Quiche.   It’s cornbread on the bottom and yummy egg on the top.  We feasted on the leftovers for days.

Runner up: Channa Masala Mini Quiches

Best Bump: 20 Weeks.  Because all baby bumps look better in animal prints.  Rawr!

Runners-up:  My 17 weeks, 18 weeks, and 19 weeks bump updates.

Most Romantic: 3 Years, including What I Learned After 1,000 Days of Marriage and What the Husband Learned After 1,000 Days of Marriage. 

Money Well Spent:  Thrift.  I’m loving our plans to buy nearly all our baby clothes at thrift stores! Hunting for sex-neutral clothing has been challenging but fun.

Best iPhone App: I Heart GymPact.  Because if the fear of losing $5 doesn’t get me to go to the gym in the middle of winter, nothing will.

Easiest Recipe: Mexican Lasagna.  I can’t wait to make this again.  It’s so simple but it tastes SO good.

Comfort Food Winner: Twice Baked Goat Cheese Potatoes.  I actually made this recipe for our New Year’s Eve get-together.  It was a hit.

Best Metaphor for Life:  A Silverware Drawer Issue.  Look, if a messy silverware drawer is wrong, I just don’t want to be right.

Warmest:  Winter Running Gear.  Because I don’t care what you Yankees and Canadians say, 40 degrees is FREEZING when you live in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Lots of good advice from people in the comments section, too.

Best Series:  So You Wanna Do a Triathlon: Swimming, So You Wanna Do a Triathlon: Cycling, So You Wanna Do a Triathlon: Running, and So You Wanna Do a Triathlon: Transitions.  Coming up next:  Training! 

Best Response:  The Naked Face Project.  I’m really excited to discover where the next 60 days will take me.  I can’t wait to share the journey. 

For more best of the best:

• December 2011 Superlatives

• November 2011 Superlatives

• October 2011 Superlatives

• September 2011 Superlatives

• August 2011 Superlatives

• July 2011 Superlatives

What was your best moment of January 2012? Can you believe it’s 2012?  It’s the future!

Lately, I’ve been really great about prepping healthy lunch – boiling eggs for a salad the night before, slicing veggies when I get home from the grocery store.  But dinner – oh, dinner.  Dinner is another story.  One night this week, I had ice cream and French fries for dinner (it was awesome and fast but that’s about it).  So I felt mighty proud of myself for preparing this casserole in advance.

We closed the clinic at nearly 8 PM, and it was wonderful to come home to a meal that was delicious, filling, and… you know… not comprised primarily of sugar.

Casseroles lovers everywhere, rejoice!  It was tasty enough that I went back for seconds.

Cheesy Casserole (based on my Santa Fe Casserole, which is also a winner)

Ingredients:

• 1 can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup canned sweet corn, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 and 1/2 cup brown rice, cooked
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 and 1/2 cup cheese, shredded (I used a Mexican blend because that’s all I had, however, I think this would actually taste even better with a Italian blend of white cheeses)
• 1/4 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon pepper

Preparation:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees and spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the ingredients.  Pour mixture into casserole dish.
• Bake casserole for 25 minutes or until center is firm.
• Let cool 5 minutes and serve.
• Enjoy!

I snuck a quick pool session into my day, too.  I have to say that the Gympact iPhone app has been WONDERFUL in motivating me to go to the gym.  I wanted to blow off my swim, but the knowledge that I had $5 at stake made me go (here’s how Gympact works).  I was in and out of the aquatic center in 35 minutes (I swam 1,000 yards).

Side note:  I am really sore after last night’s prenatal yoga (pregnancy misconception #234 – prenatal yoga is ‘easy’).  The back and front of my legs were burning this morning.  Am I the only one who ends up stretching herself out after yoga class?  Am I doing something wrong? (This used to happen to me back in the pre-baby days, too.)  Am I just trying too hard?  I’m naturally flexible and sometimes end up pushing myself farther than I should go, given the fact that I rarely practice.  Yogis, please show me the light.

My grand plans for tonight include watching Grey’s Anatomy and eating popcorn. In a horizontal position, of course.

One thing I really want to clarify is that I’m not trying to make larger generalizations or buy into stereotypes about how other women (and men) view or should view their own Beauty Habits.  This Project was never about that.  Everyone views life through the lens of their experiences, and that’s really all that I can write from – my perspective.  The Project itself was designed to reflect what it would be like for Molly Barker and I give up our own habits; if you were to do a similar Project, it may look completely different.  Thus, these posts will really just reflect my thoughts about my experiences with giving up my old Beauty Habits (and I’d like to reiterate that I don’t think these Habits are inherently bad or evil – I’m more concerned with why I do certain things).  I hope that, through this immersion, I can come to a deeper understanding of the intention behind my choices.  I wish that the comments section can be a place of conversation for other people to share their opinion and thoughts on their experiences, too. 

I’m two days in to no makeup, no shaving, and no primping, and I must say… It’s pretty nice. I’m one of those people who’d like to be a minimalist but always end up with so much damn stuff.  And now, I’ve cut my ‘beauty regimen’ from this…

… To this! 

It’s freeing. So much more time in the mornings.

Many of you have asked what the weekly The Naked Face Project posts will look like.  I think there was a concern that it would be a bunch of pictures of my hairy legs and pits, but never fear – it’s not.  I’d really like to format it similar to my pregnancy post updates, in which I discuss a certain topic every week.

One thing I noticed in reading through the hundreds of amazing comments on the initial The Naked Face Project post is that people of you said things like…

All of these remarks about how location and upbringing influences Beauty Habits really got me thinking about how my own childhood, as well as how my birth city, profoundly impacted the way I think about ‘what women like me should do.’ 

Before I started to blog, I generally hung out with one type of person.  But because of blogging, I’ve had the opportunity to meet (or read about) a lot of really cool people with vastly different religious, political, and social views.  In my own life, I’ve observed that what I think is ‘normal’ is largely influenced by what my family or peers think is acceptable.  I made vast generalizations about how most people must view premarital sex and drinking because everyone in my social circle held the same view.  When I started to get to know more people who actually waited until marriage or had never gotten drunk, I realized – WHOA!  There are many ways to approach life, and not everyone has the same social norms that I do!  I think our social norms about Beauty Habits work in a similar way – sure, there are overarching ‘American’ views and powerful media influences, but a lot of why we act the way we act (or don’t act) comes from our social circle.

MomHTP is the best mom in the entire world.  Truly, she’s my best friend, and we talk every other day. 

My mom was born and raised in tiny Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  Her mom (my grandma) was widely regarded as one of the most beautiful women in town (she was an actual beauty queen).  She was smart and sassy, too.  Unfortunately, I never got to meet her because she died of cancer when my mother was my age.

My grandma – and the atmosphere of the 1950s – heavily influenced my mother’s Beauty Habits.  Being ‘a lady’ was of the utmost importance.  Mom recently told me that grandma had her in a padded bra “as soon as it was appropriate.”  Grandma wore pretty, feminine clothes and makeup.  Even today, my mom is always well-dressed with a full face of makeup on. 

In turn, my mom influenced my Beauty Habits.  Every morning, I’d watch her do her makeup at the dining room table (better light in there!) before heading to work.  In many ways, I don’t think my mom thought she really had a choice on whether she could not wear makeup at work – she worked at a large corporation where ‘old people’ frequently got squeezed out by younger workers.  My mom felt a lot of pressure to appear younger and attractive (as a side note, a reader passed along an interesting New York Times article about how coworkers perceive a woman as more competent if she’s wearing makeup).  As a result, my mom was careful to maintain Beauty Habits like makeup, hair dying and styling, and fashionable clothing.  I, of course, idolized my mom, wanted to be just like her, and subsequently copied her behaviors.  Plus, I enjoyed bonding with my mom over shopping and salon trips (among the wide variety of other, non-beauty things we did, like bike riding and going to the movies).

My Beauty Habits were further cemented by my hometown.  I was born and raised in Miami, Florida.  I lived in the city until I was 18 and moved away for college.  There are strong stereotypes about Miami, and I have to say that I found most of them to be true – so many of the people that I grew up around in Miami were very focused on image, appearance, and wealth.  In my world, plastic surgery was normal – even for teens.  There was a lot of pressure to look ‘dolled up,’ very tan (especially hard when you’re a white girl), and show skin.  All of my friends bought into this lifestyle, so I did, too.  For the most part, I’ve subconsciously carried it with me ever since.  Speaking of the pressure to look tan, it was only six years ago that I stopped ‘fake ‘n bakin’ and learned to embrace my natural skin color (and slather on the sunscreen). 

I do have to say that growing up in Miami wasn’t entirely bad.  Miami taught me to be very accepting and open to people of different nationalities, races, and sexual orientations.  It made me much more politically conscious.  And it made me appreciate warm weather.   

My social circle’s Beauty Habit beliefs aren’t necessarily or completely wrong… it’s just the way we do things.  We wake up, we shower, we brush our teeth, and we ‘put on our faces.’  These Beauty Habits are in my history, my blood.  I don’t really understand the intention behind why I do certain things because, for me, it’s just automatic (so many of you have said you do this or that because ‘it’s fun’ – for me, it’s routine!).  But it’s interesting for me to step back, observe, and think about the history behind my choices.  Just considering my lineage and the influences behind my choices have been eye-opening.

Why do you do engage in certain Beauty Habits?  Are you mimicking people in your life or choosing to go against the status quo?

PS -  You can read Molly’s entry for Week 1 of The Naked Face Project here.

A couple of years ago, I woke up with this recipe in my head.  It was like I had dreamed it. 

Pancake wrapped around a melty banana?  Yum.  Yes, please.

Even though Pancake Truffles are, by far, my favorite recipe, I never make them!  The prep process is kind of messy because you’re rolling your hands around in pancake batter.  But it’s totally worth the effort.  Especially when you drizzle them in caramel sauce.

If this breakfast will not get me through my day, I don’t know what will.

In other news, I suck at morning workouts.  I had these grand plans to hit the pool first thing this morning, but my bed was so comfortable.  I’m better at getting out of bed for exercise when I know it’s my one and only shot that day, but if I have any sort of flexibility, I’ll remain glued to the sheets.  I should invent a bed with a comfortable and uncomfortable setting that you can switch on when your alarm goes off.  It would go from soft and squishy and warm to hard and itchy and cold.  Isn’t that genius!?  DIBS!  Don’t steal my idea.

Are you a master of morning workouts?

Here’s the thing:  well-cooked tofu isn’t hard to make (so there’s really no excuse for yucky tofu when you’re eating out).  My stand-by method of cooking tofu is to bake it, but I think I have a new favorite technique….

The cast-iron wok.

I recently purchased this cast-iron wok from Ikea, and I love it.  My motivation behind the wok purchase was that I recently tested low in iron (common in pregnancy, especially for vegetarians).  Side note: If you’re a vegetarian and want to learn more about the iron issue, I highly recommend this post on No Meat Athlete.  The upshot is that cooking foods in cast-iron skillets (especially with an acid) can increase the iron content of your food.  Oh, and I’m one of those Southerners who would never, ever put soap on her cast iron dishes, which is why my new wok already looks so well-loved.

Anyway, this method of tofu preparation is fast, easy and – best of all – tastes deliciously crunchy.  Soggy tofu, be gone.

Here’s what I do for cast-iron tofu:

Step #1: Start with the right type of tofu.  You’ll want to use extra-firm tofu.  If you’re going to cook large chunks or stir-fry tofu in a sauce, you’ll want to press it, which is when you wrap the block in paper towels or clean dish towels and let it rest between two heavy plates.  This squeezes out the excess water.  However, I hate pressing tofu – such a time waster!  If you slice the tofu very thinly and then bake it, you don’t need to press.  Similarly, in this method, you cut the tofu into very small squares, so pressing isn’t required.

Step #2:  Slice the tofu into 1-inch squares.

Step #3:  Put the cast-iron wok on medium-high heat (I put mine on 8 out of 10).  Let it get hot, and then add a few tablespoons of Earth Balance (basically, a vegan butter).  You could also probably use olive oil or another type of oil/butter.  Not sure if you could do this with cooking spray, though.  You kind of want a little liquid in the pan – it makes the tofu crispy and delicious.

Step #4:  Add the tofu to the wok and let it cook on one side for a few minutes.  Don’t push it around or flip it until it’s nice and brown.  Then, carefully flip all the squares to the other side and repeat the process on each side.  The entire cooking process takes about 10 minutes.

Now, this plain version is quite tasty, especially on a yummy salad or in a wrap, but you can also add seasonings to the tofu as it cooks in the wok!

I like to add:

• A drizzle of honey;
• A splash of orange juice;
• Salt and pepper; or
• Chili powder

You could also soak the tofu in my very favorite Perfect Baked Tofu sauce and then put it in the wok. Yum!

Aaaand after eating such a delicious and perfect salad for lunch, I feel far too lazy to make a ‘real’ dinner, so it looks like canned soup and baked French fries are on the menu.  Which isn’t too bad.  Hah.

What’s your favorite way to do tofu?

There’s all sorts of Old Wives Tales about how you carry and the sex of the baby.  According to the legends, I’m having a boy… but I hear that bump shape is really just genetics and how your body is built. 

Thinking more and more about the sex of the little one!  We decided not to find out before birth, and I’d say I like our decision 90% of the time.  The other 10%, I regret not peeking during the ultrasound.  Too late to go back now, though. 

Here’s what BabyHTP is doing this week: “How big is your baby? About the size of a large banana — and speaking of bananas, if you eat one this week, there’s a good chance your baby will get a taste, too. That’s because he swallows a bit of amniotic fluid each day (for nutrition, hydration, and to practice digesting), so he eats whatever’s on your menu — and gets to put those developing taste buds to good use.”  Source

I continue to feel pretty good.  My only complaints is that it’s hard to sit up straight (losing ab muscles, I guess), and my lower back is usually throbbing by the end of the day.  Not too bad.  It’s definitely worth all the thumps, kicks, and rolls.

So – this week’s topic is…. feeling prepared.

I wrote about in last week’s update, I’m starting to feel unprepared because I can’t do anything for the nursery because we’ll be moving before the baby is born.  I don’t want to buy anything because we have no room to store it, and having stuff piled up in a corner drives me nuts, so I feel like I’m twiddling my thumbs until we move (end of March).  The other day, I realized that I’m 21 weeks and rapidly approaching viability (but please, baby, completely bake before you come out and greet the world).  When you think, “Oh, I have 19 weeks to go,” it seems far away, but it’s really not that far, especially considering that baby could come earlier… much earlier.

Anyway, so after wallowing around in my unpreparedness for a few days, I decided to tackle the one thing that I could do – childbirth classes.  The Husband and I have very little child care experience (I’ve never changed a diaper) and definitely want to learn as much as possible before the kiddo comes.

(I got a pretty good laugh out of the ‘maternity class’ photograph on my hospital’s website – if this is what their maternity classes are like, I will run screaming for the door.)

Yesterday, I bought a slew of baby books, and I signed up for:

• Infant CPR and Basic First Aid:  Although we are both CPR and first aid certified thanks to coaching at Girls on the Run, I didn’t pay too much attention during the infant CPR section (at the time, I thought, “When will I ever need to do CPR on a baby?” Duh!).  I definitely need a refresher.  The Husband feels more confident in his memory, but I still want us both to be retrained.

• Newborn Care Basics: This will cover all the baby basics, like sleeping, swaddling, pooping, breastfeeding, and whatnot.  I know the nurses give you a crash course in this at the hospital but, as mentioned, I feel like I have zero idea how to keep a baby alive, so….

• Bradley Method Classes:  Bradley Method classes are a 12-week program to prepare you for natural, non-medicated childbirth, which is my secondary goal (first goal: get the baby out).  I was really torn between Bradley classes and other childbirth classes, like Hypnobabies, but HTP Facebook friends helped me decide…

Our classes start this month, however, I’m going to miss the first four classes because of work events… I was told the initial classes go over pregnancy basics (nutrition, fitness), which would be nice to hear but not really what I’m taking the classes for.

Here are my Babble posts from this week:

• Baby Books for Dads

• Iron – Where You At?

• Setting Fitness Goals While Pregnant

• I Hate Sleeping on My Left

• The Naked Face Project and Motherhood

Here’s Week 21, neatly summarized!

• Total Weight Gained: 15 – 16 pounds. 
• Workouts:  Four! Wahoo!  Prenatal yoga, 30 minutes on the elliptical, 1000 yard swim, and a 2 mile walk
• Belly Button:  Flattening
• Cravings:  Potatoes.  As usual.
• Emotional Meltdowns:  One on Sunday.  I was feeling so congested, tired, and crabby, and I just sobbed and sobbed like my world was ending.  Hormones, clearly.
• Nicest Moment:  I caught the Husband learning the words to lullabies so he can sing to the baby.

Mommas or mommas-to-be:  What baby classes did you take?  Or did you wing it?

Power breakfast for a day that requires a great deal of energy and enthusiasm:

French toast

Vanilla Greek yogurt

Mixed berries

Almonds

I was pretty sleepy this morning and accidentally toasted the bread before dipping it in the egg mixture, and you know what? It was actually really good!  It gave the French toast an additional crunch.

Today kicks off The Naked Face Project!  My initial impressions?  Getting ready this morning was very, very easy (and fast).  Which was a good thing because I am running LATE.

Listen to This

This is my current power song… It’s also (my anxiety-ridden dog) Maggie’s theme song. I took her to an outside bar this weekend, and she was so miserable because there were too many people around (LOUD NOISES!), so I sang her the chorus.  “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!”  Hah.

Oh yeah.

Have a great day!  Hope Miami gets all the good recruits!

The other day, someone asked me how pregnancy has changed my workouts.  There were so many (mainly negative) ways that I could answer – “Pregnancy made me slower,” “I hardly ever run anymore,” “Pregnancy sapped my energy,” or “I haven’t been on a bike since September.”  But you know what I said?  I said, “Pregnancy has made my workouts much more varied,” and it’s true!

Since getting pregnant, I’ve stopped my old pattern of run-run-run-swim/yoga/bike and replaced it with a much more variable routine.  I work out depending on how I feel like exercising that day, given my mood, the weather, and what my buddy wants to do. Now, my workouts are usually a combination of running, walking, ellipticalling, yoga, or swimming.

Today, I went on a 2.0 mile walk with James.  I half-wish I was still running, but it just doesn’t feel right with my body anymore.  And walks are surprisingly hard.

I know I’ve sung the praises of my Blank Training Plan before, but I must do it again… This thing has really, really kept me on track.  The concept is simple:  Decide how many workouts you want to do a week (I aim for three but have been doing four lately) and fill them in as you go.  It hold me accountable – I can’t tell you how many Tuesdays I’ve thought, “Whoops, gotta get a workout in!” because my weeks roll over on Wednesdays.

I keep my plan on my fridge so it’s out there in the ‘public.’   Holds me accountable! 

I think I’ll continue my blank training plan after pregnancy. I really want to get back into triathlon shape as realistically as possible so I can do a race in October before the season ends… but I guess that really depends on how my labor goes and what the baby is like.  Fingers crossed.

Pre-walk lunch:

Have you tried grilled cheese with a sliced apple on the inside? So good.

And post-walk snack (times two on the juice and chips) – hummus, chips, and OJ.  And all my horse pills (AKA prenatal vitamins, Omega 3s, and Iron):

Do you get stuck in workout ruts or mix it up all the time?  As someone who has been on both sides of the fence, I have to say…. mixing it up is quite nice!

But who’s counting?  You know… besides me.

Good morning!

Just your basic bowl of stovetop oatmeal:

3/4 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup water

1 banana

Toppings: almonds, brown sugar, blueberries

You know how the oatmeal gets stuck to the side of the bowl?  I tried to lick it off while there was still a quarter cup of oats left and ended up pouring oatmeal all down my front.  I wonder about myself sometimes…

Thought of the Day:

“Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s OK to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing.”