My Vegan Mondays

I did it! For the first time in about six months, I pulled off a Vegan Monday.

It was very intentional. It’s been on my mind for awhile. That and getting back to the gym. The gym will come. For now, I’ll savor the triumph of a day without meat and dairy.

Morning

Coffee with almond milk (and I have to say, after six months of using cream in my coffee, the almond milk combo no longer tastes so good, nor does regular milk. I’m ruined.)

Avocado toast

Afternoon

Arugula salad with walnuts and veg

Cliff Bar

Kind Bar

Scharffenberger dark chocolate

Evening

Crackers and hummus

I’m back in the swing of work (though it still stresses me out). Getting out for dates with friends again (I went to a performance tonight with a friend; thus the cracker dinner). Andrew and I have even gotten out, just the two of us, a handful of times and we’re starting to travel with Parker. I’m finally about halfway through the book that I started right before Parker was born and has since sat on my nightstand untouched. They’re all small things that make me feel good and “normal" again.

And meanwhile, there’s this little one…

Has ever a better movie been made?

Well, if I had to pick my all-time favorite, I might have to go with Sixteen Candles. But The Breakfast Club is pretty close to perfect. And in celebration of its 30th anniversary, the John Hughes masterpiece is being re-released this weekend at a theater near you.

The working world

It’s been four weeks now that I’ve been back in the working world. The adult world. The land of normalcy. It has not been easy. The pressure and stress of getting to work on time, home on time, doing good work at the office, leaving Parker at home, the balance and rhythm of it all—no, not easy.

But as my mantra has been since Parker was born: one day at a time.

And with that, it is getting easier. Parker is doing wonderfully with our nanny. They clearly love each other and it’s so reassuring knowing that Parker is having a good day, every day, while I’m at the office.

She’s starting to notice everything. Her feet and Milo are her current obsessions.

She’s nearly sleeping through the night. I’m going to give up the “dream feed”—when I wake her to nurse at 11:30pm, the idea being that it will sate her until dawn—and in a few weeks when she reaches six months, I’ll hopefully also stop pumping in the middle of the night. When she and I are both going to bed and waking up at normal hours, without any middle-of-the-night sessions, it will be a whole new ballgame.

And then I can take up with some of my old habits. Namely, exercising and writing.

I’ve been at my pre-pregnancy weight for months now. Which is great, but somewhat meaningless. Your body just changes when you have a baby. My belly is droopy and crepey and unless I invest in pilates or barre classes to tighten that shit up, which I don’t see myself doing, it might just stay like that. Forever. I’m trying to wean myself from my truck driver diet, but I’m also trying to enjoy it while I’m still breastfeeding and can get away with such gluttony. But I figure if I can get back to the gym and yoga in the meantime, so I can start feeling strong again, I will be halfway there.

And I want to write about all of these experiences! NY Mag is doing some great writing about pregnancy and parenthood these days. I have a book proposal that I started a year ago and needs a shot of love or risks withering on the vine. But I have yet to find any substantial chunk of time to focus on it. In time, in time…right??

I’m also excited to date my husband again. He has been my rock these past few months and I am in awe of how my love for him keeps growing. Like, how did he happen to me? How was he not taken already? He’s a dreamboat. He makes me feel reassured, normal, optimistic, safe and comforted about everything. I love just being with him, and it’s been fun watching The Wire, Mad Men and House of Cards during these long, cold winter months. But I’m hoping to get out on the town with him a little more—dinners, drinks and romantic times, oh yes.

It’s feeling a bit like a new dawn. Other parents say we're entering a golden period with Parker. From 5-12 months, or 6-8, depending who you ask. But the promise of even more fun and sweetness sounds pretty great. 

My Vegan Mondays

They’re coming back. Soon. Really.

When Parker was born, all semblance of days and diet went out the window. For nearly five months now, I’ve been eating like a truck driver. It’s been blissful and shameful and, at the end of the day, entirely unsustainable.

But hey, other than when you’re breastfeeding, when else are you told to consume an extra 500 calories a day? But knowing that in the coming months Parker herself will move onto solids, I need to return to a more reasonable diet.

No more quarter-pound cookies.

Or double orders at the diner.

No more boxes of chocolate. Demolished in a day. Or big, doughy doughnuts…

 

…lots and lots of doughnuts.

With my impressive diet, Parker has been plumping out quite nicely. She’s suddenly about the heft of a six-month-old, one week shy of her fifth-month birthday. 

I think I’m going to trade in the cookies and cakes so I can nibble on her legs and belly.