Health – Sannipanni

11 Things I Wish I Had Known About Breastfeeding

November 19, 2016 No Comments

What I wish I had known about breastfeeding before I had my baby

Now that we’re four months into our breastfeeding journey I feel like things have fallen into a nice routine for baby Leo and me. He’s got the concept down and when he’s hungry he happily chomps away at the milk bar. I love glancing down at him and knowing my body actually makes all that he needs to grow. The whole concept is still mind-boggling and just amazing to me.

However, breastfeeding wasn’t all roses and butterflies from the get-go for us, though, and in hindsight there were a few things I wish I would have known beforehand. Our nursing story starts a little different than most families’ but keep reading as these tips should be super useful for any new mom.

Family, Health, Me, Myself & I, USA

You’ll Never Forget How to Ride A Bike

July 10, 2014 1 Comment

Part of my wonderful birthday surprise from dear fiancé was the awesome gift of a new bicycle! He had given me a region free DVD player (so now I can watch all my German DVDs (that are all in Germany,… minor detail)!!) and a massage gift certificate earlier in the evening and taken me to a restaurant I had been meaning to try forever so quite frankly, I thought my birthday was awesome and done with. Oh no. We came back home after dinner and he called me down into the den where he was waiting with a beautiful, super fancy hybrid bike. Swoon!

Blue bike birthday surprise! Whoop whoop!

My first thought was “Oh sweeeet! Now I don’t have to research bikes to buy one!” Hehe. I had been wanting to get one this summer but had been dreading doing the research what with all the wedding prep. Mind you this is the first time I’ve had a bike in forever! I don’t even think I had one in college but perhaps I had one in Hamburg for a very short period of time. And all those bike’s I had had were completely functioning right outside the box. Apparently that’s not the case with fancy bikes. The babe was busy over the next couple of days to mount a kickstand and lights and a lock (don’t think we’ve figured out how to mount that one just yet. YOU’D THINK!!).

But finally everything was put together and I had gloves and a helmet (Don’t ride without one peeps! Don’t want your noggin to be smashed!). So off we went! I was sooooo nervous (and giddy – hello 32 year old child). Shifting gears?! I’ve never had a bike with more than 8 gears and I’d always been able to break by trying to pedal backwards. But, thankfully, that wasn’t hard and it really is like the saying – you never forget how to ride a bike! This one translates beautifully into German, too, although we never “unlearn” how to ride a bike. No training wheels needed!

So we’re excited to go on bike rides in our neighborhood, to visit our friends who just moved a mile and a half away from us, and to drive up to the bar that’s a mile and a half in the other direction. We’ve mapped out parks and the Virginia Kreeper Trail and look forward to being active outdoors together. What a great gift!

Goals, Health

Half Way to 2014

July 12, 2013 5 Comments

And just like that in what seemed like a blink of the eye half of 2013 has already gone by. Time to check-in on my self-imposed goals for the year!

Looking into my awesome purple New Year’s resolutions book, it seems that I’m doing really well with some resolutions but I’m really slacking with others, too (hello total lack of crafting so far!). Let’s take a look at the health related ones:

Working out at least once a week: 17/26. Ehhhhh. Not too bad considering all the bad colds and the completely messed up neck I had but in honesty, LOTS OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. I think once we move I’ll be able to make more room for that AND I won’t have to worry about upsetting downstairs neighbors for doing jumping jacks etc. Am actually considering joining the gym again as we’ll live really close to not one, Peeps, but two! I do miss my pilates classes and treadmills just make for better cardio workouts on hot or rainy days. Good outlook for the second half I’d say!

Speaking of, Car-Di-Oh! I’ve had running a 5k on my bucket list for the longest time and there is really no good excuse as to why I haven’t done it yet. Other than it being too hot, too rainy, too thunderstormy (I mean who wants to be struck by lightning?!). Again, join-gym idea might be the key here.So I am hoping 2013 will be the year. I’m up to running 4km, which knowing what a non-runner I am, that is HUGE! Next up, sign up for a race and manage to run 5km. It’d be soooo embarrassing to walk across the finish line!
I do have a cool running app on the iPhone that tells me time and distance and tracks my runs via GPS. Who doesn’t love seeing progress?!

Scrap the crap lunches!
That was my third health related resolution and I am absolutely rocking this one! I used to eat a “Barely-There Cuisine” frozen lunch almost every day at the office. It was convenient, cheaper than eating out and fast with a good variety of meal choices. But that nagging feeling that maybe chicken with rice and vegetables should really only have something along the lines of these ingredients: Chicken, Rice, Carrots, Peas, Oil, Spices and not a 10 line long list of sodium loaded non-pronouncable foods and chemicals drove me to set this goal: Only eat one frozen lunch a week.

And honestly, I’ve gotten so disgusted by the idea of eating all that processed crap that I’ve eaten a total of six (6!!!!) frozen lunches this entire first half of the year! Yessssss! When I do, it’s usually a Kashi vegan one that only consists of pronounceable ingredients. Super proud of this one and it should be fairly easy to continue the healthy lunches! *Fist pump*

Still have a few more resolutions for the year but all in all they are going well and I really enjoy checking off my check boxes and pat my own shoulder. Teeeheee. How about yours? Hope you haven’t given them all up just yet 🙂

Health, Photo-A-Day