Saturday, May 6th, 2006

Health Group- Year 2, week 47

Good morning. Well, for as lovely as it was earlier in the week, it sure is dark, cold, and sullen outside today. Just like last Saturday. It puts the kids in a mood. Fortunately, they’re out with Nate right now raiding the comic book stores for Free Comic Book Day.

There’s a “day” for everything, isn’t there?

So I have music playing, and have lit candles around the house. It’s very mellow and quiet. Clark has recently decided that anywhere that isn’t “being held by mom” is unacceptable, so he’s in the sling again.

image

I love this thing.

On to Health Group-

I’m fluctuating on the scale between 220 and 223. So I think that’s as low as I’m going to go from delivering the baby. No complaints.

I did my physical therapy exercises and stretches last Friday, Saturday, Sunday, this Monday, and Friday. The only time I remembered them on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, I was busy feeding Clark, or hauling laundry around, or something. So I wish I could say I’d done more, but I’m happy to have started anyway. And I’m already increasing reps on a few things, and adding new exercises and stretches. Nothing too vigorous.

Water consumption is going well.

But what I REALLY want to talk about are the breakfast shakes we discussed last week. They so rock. I appreciate your comments and suggestions so much! We’re still really liking the frozen bananas. I like the fact that I can use a few slices, and don’t have to stick a whole banana in. I don’t like too much banana in my shakes.

Nate likes to make complicated shakes with lots of ingredients. I prefer to keep mine simple. So far, I have 2 favorites. The first is 3/4 cup of soy milk, a handful of frozen strawberries, a scoop each of unflavored/unsweetened protein powder and vitamin powder, and this is the best part, a small handful of pecans.

YUM YUM YUM!!! I can’t stand how yummy that is!

The other one is similar, just instead of the strawberries and pecans, I add 1/2 to 2/3 of a frozen banana and a handful of walnuts. I will add Wheat Germ in the future, but I continue to forget.

These shakes are quite satisfying. I’m craving them at various times throughout the day, but so as not to burn out, I resist.

And now, let me first say that I’m not looking to start a war, but I want to discuss soy milk a little bit. A friend of mine emailed me after reading Monday’s post and said that she used to drink a lot of soy, but has switched off of it because of hormone problems. So I looked on line and found all sorts of conflicting info on soy products, (along with the all-too-common conspiracy theories, of course), however it was confirmed that they do contain a relatively high concentration of plant estrogen. My OB said that it isn’t enough to be a problem, and that women in countries that consume a lot of soy products tend to have less women-specific health problems, but they have higher occurrences of other things. (I think he mentioned stomach cancer, but I don’t remember for sure).

We’ve used soy milk for years, but not a lot. Just for cereal and in baking. We don’t drink it by the glass. We don’t do tofu, or soy cheese, or any of that. Abigail is lactose intolerant, so we can’t do cow milk. Plus, I don’t think it’s healthy to drink in quantity. So our soy intake isn’t high, but it was about to increase with the shakes, which is why I was looking into buying a soy milk maker.

I’m kind of bugged. I want whatever the base of my shake is to be healthy, not just fill the role of liquid. I’ve looked at some recipes for rice milk and almond milk. I tried the almond milk this morning, and while the flavor was fine, I couldn’t strain enough of the pulp out. It was gritty and gross, and made a mediocre shake. I could try it again with cheesecloth or coffee filters or something. I don’t mind buying rice milk already made, but I don’t think of rice milk as being particularly healthy.

I’m not attacking soy milk, or telling you not to drink it. I’m saying that the conflicting information is frustrating to me, and I can’t readily think of another, unquestioningly safe option that sounds appealing.

Even if I decide to continue using soy milk myself, what about my growing girls? They’re my biggest concern, to be honest.

Any thoughts?