Smoothie Time!

As Different as my pregnancies have been my cravings have been pretty much the same this time as the last time around. It starts out with carbs in the first trimester and moves on to fruit in the second and third. I drank so many smoothies when I was pregnant with Echo and since the weather has been getting a bit warmer we have been getting back in to smoothies in a major way. The problem was that we had a pretty crummy blender that didn't handle ice well which made smoothie making very frustrating and time consuming. We knew we needed something better but didn't want to spend $500 on a vitamix so Eric did his online research thing (he's a whiz at that!) and came up with a much cheaper but still pretty decent option. We ended up going with a Ninja Master Prep Professional. It's awesome because it comes with three pitchers, one for blending, one for food processing and one for chopping. We use the big and medium pitchers both to make smoothies and have yet to use the little pitcher but so far we have been very happy with it's ability to handle ice and frozen fruit. I Usually have two smoothies a day now and Echo enjoys them too!

In the photos here we are having a banana, orange pineapple smoothie but my undisputed favorite is banana peanut butter and chocolate. I have it for breakfast pretty much every day. All you do is put in one banana, a heaping spoonful of peanut butter, a heaping spoonful of cocoa powder, a little milk and a handful of ice cubes. It's awesome because it satisfies my sweet tooth and keeps me full until lunch!

If you are ever in the market for a new blender but don't want to spend a fortune I recommend the ninja. If you are unsure about it you are always welcome to drop by our house and sample a smoothie :-D

Fitbit

I recently got a present that has renewed my interest in getting fit and it might not be too strong to say it has changed my life. At the very least it has changed my daily routine and made me more fitness conscious.

 Eric and I both got Fitbits from his sister for our Birthdays and it has been a game changer. A Fitbit is a fun little device that tracks your steps, calories burned, stairs climbed and even your sleep habits. You can clip it to your waistband, pocket, bra or wear it as a wrist band. It also synchs automatically with your computer and logs you stats to an online dashboard. You can friend others with Fitbits and compare your daily steps taken. This is great for me because I have a major competitive streak and trying to outdo my Fitbit friends is a great motivator ;-)

I've heard complaints about the Fitbit that it is hard to keep track of and easily lost but I've had no trouble in this area. I just keep it clipped to the inside of my pocket but I guess you could always wear the wrist band if you were really worried about it.

I haven't used the sleep tracker because it would just depress me. I already know that I'm getting terrible sleep thanks to my baby. I love the calorie counter and the step tracker though, it's really interesting to see how many steps I take in a normal day (usually around 4,000 if I'm just around the house). I also think it's great to see how many flights of stairs I climb in a day. I usually climb up 18 flights a day! That's just in my house going up and down from the loft and the basement. I felt pretty impressed by that but my next goal is 25 in a day.

I've definitely noticed a difference in my daily routine and my motivation to get moving but I haven't even had it a week yet so we'll see how long it lasts. It has also motivated me to keep track of the calories I eat again which is always a good thing. I found that bouncing on my exercise ball counts as steps but I don't do it because I think it's cheating. I do however put on some music when I clean and dance around the house which the Fitbit counts as "very active minutes" and logs as more calories burned :-)

If you are interested in checking them out here is the Fitbit website http://www.fitbit.com/home. Eric and I have "The One" but there are a few different options in the devices they offer. It's a little pricey but think this is a great little device to make you think about how much you move and encourage you to be more active.