Traveling this Holiday Season? Healthy Tips on Huff Po CA

If you're like my family you are on a traveling frenzy through the holiday season. It's a time for celebrating and loving with friends and family, typically around festive food and drink.

It can be both easy to indulge as well as easy to obsess over overindulging.

There are ways to celebrate the season both feeling good physically and enjoying yourself. 

Read my interview with the Huffington Post for ways to travel this season and not get bogged down by bad nutrition decisions.

Cheers to you and yours

Kim

Low Sugar Lactation Cookies

There are 3 key ingredients that make these lactation- friendly: ground flax, brewers yeast & oats. 

While these 3 ingredients have been shown to increase supply, what really ensures your milk continues to flow are calories and FAT! Lots of healthy fats from nuts and seeds, coconut and avocado should be incorporated into all of your meals. 

Lactation cookies were a real life-savor during my first year with my babe. I kept a stash in the freezer because all current mama's know when you need food you need it fast, and these tasted amazing frozen or thawed. I also knew they were filling me with healthy fats and whole grains and satisfied my raging hunger / sweet tooth.

A note on that raging sweet tooth... I'm confident we crave all-the-sugar and all-the-bad-things when nursing because our body is screaming for calories and we're exhausted - a perfect storm for making bad eating choices. I purposely focused on sugar type and amount in these because I wanted something that did satisfy that sweet craving but also made me feel good about what I was putting in my (and inevitably my babes) body.  

Low Sugar Lactation Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 2 c oat flour, spelt flour or whole wheat flour
• 4 Tbs ground flax combined w 1/4 c water
• 1/3 c coconut oil, liquid & room temperature
• 1/2 c coconut sugar* (or sugar of your choice)
• 3 Tbs Brewers Yeast 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/3 c rolled oats
• optional stir-ins equaling 1 1/2 cups: semi-sweet chocolate chips, chopped nuts, raisins or chopped dates, unsweetened coconut flakes

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. In a large bowl combine flax & water mixture, coconut oil, sugar,  brewer's yeast, vanilla, baking soda, and salt, and stir again until well combined.
3. Gradually stir in the oat flour until a dough is formed, then fold in the rolled oats and other optional add-ins
4. Drop the dough by heaping tablespoons onto the lined baking sheet. You can leave them like this or flatten them (they will not flatten when baked)
5. Bake for ~10 minutes, until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges.
6. Allow  to cool on the baking sheet initially and then transfer to a wire rack 

These will stay very soft at room temperature (may crumble) or store in refrigerator or freezer for a firmer cookie.

*i like coconut sugar because it is unrefined and low glycemic.

Overtrained?

Signs You're Over-Trained

Running, Crossfit-ting or just dedicated gym-going, here are a few of the signs that your body may be telling you to take a step back for a few days:

• Mild to moderate lingering muscle soreness, general aches and pains
• Fatigue
• Drop in performance & drop in desire to perform
• Anxiousness, sleeplessness
• Elevated resting heart rate
• Grumpiness!
• Feeling like everyday tasks (grocery shopping, prepping the kids dinners, etc.) feel like huge feats

Finding The Other Side

Cut back - For a week or 2 acknowledge the way your body and mind are feeling and allow yourself to cut back. Build in more ‘easy’ run days and add an additional rest day and give yourself a short break from high intensity workouts and long runs.

Sleep More - Whenever you can, choose sleep. Opt to sleep more and fit your run into a time later in the day or evening, go to bed (or just get in bed) earlier.

Relax - Beyond trying to get more shut eye try and just give yourself more downtime. Lay in bed earlier with a good book, log a few more couch minutes in the evening, take a restorative yoga class or a good steamy bubble bath.

Nourish - Eating the right foods at the right time can increase the speed of your recovery. Work to eat both protein and carbohydrates within 30 minutes of finishing your run (can be a small snack) to stop your body from breaking down muscle and to start the repair process.

This post first appeared on PostBabyBod - read the full story there

My Morning Coffee

About a month ago I updated my morning cup of coffee and now I can't go back.

In my coffee every morning goes the following: 

1. 4 oz cold brew concentrate (i love Chameleon) + 4 oz. boiling water
2. 1 scoop / packet of Within Us Tru Marine Collagen Powder 
3. 1/2 tsp organic unrefined coconut oil
4. cinnamon or Califia Creamer if I have it or want it

I'll write another post about why i'm addicted to this collagen, but trust me when I say I LOVE it and I 100% notice when I stop drinking it for a few days. In the meantime, do this!