Sunday Surf: Food, Sleep, Cloth Diaper Covers, and Games for Kids

I've decided to go on the South Beach Diet. I always told myself those diets were silly, because diet should be about nutrition, calories, and portion control, but I'm having trouble with those three things. I got a craving for sweets with my first pregnancy, and it never went away. Now I'm addicted to sugar, and I have belly fat (which I never had before), dandruff, and other stomach woes. I really need to make a change. I have been exercising, but I need some more motivation because the scale isn't budging.

That's right--I nurse all day and night, chase a toddler, wear a baby 50% of the time, and I still weigh 170 pounds. That might be ok for some people, but it's not for me. I feel fat. I don't fit into my clothes and I look like I'm six months pregnant.

So I've been doing a lot of research about food and nutrition these days. It's funny how most diet advice is the same, though: cut back on sugar, non-nutritional grains (like wheat, corn, white flour, etc).

I've also been researching baby sleep for an upcoming blog post I'm doing, and I've found some great links. And then there's just the crafty stuff and the good information about activities you can do with your toddler. This is what I've come across this week:

Go Vegan: Create rather than Re-Create
We so often remember the comfort food of our childhood and feel like, "If only I could still eat {mac and cheese, bagels, lasagna} my diet would be successful." Then we try to recreate it, whether we try to make it vegan, fat free, or whatever. And it's nasty. And we are all disappointed, unsatisfied, and craving something unhealthy. If we try to work with fresh ingredients and stay away from processed food (even soy crumbles and veggie cheese), we'll end up making tastier, more satisfying meals.

Five South Beach Diet Phase One Breakfast Recipes
These are great breakfast recipes, even if you're not on a diet. Starting the day off with savory meals filled with protein and vegetables can really stave off cravings for carbs all day long.

Coconutty Paleo Fudge Recipe
The paleo diet is similar to South Beach: It's all about fresh food and limiting sugar and grains. I found this recipe, which looks amazing. I can't wait to try it in a couple of weeks (when I can add some sugar to my diet).

My Date with Dr. Ferber
We've all been awake in the middle of the night, nursing or rocking our babies to sleep, wondering if we're doing the right thing. We read the advice: don't soothe your baby to sleep. But how can you not? This article describes a woman at her wit's end with the whole sleep thing, who made an appointment with Dr. Ferber because she thought sleep training was her only option. And then time went on, and things naturally progressed, and she realized she didn't need sleep training: her kids were developing their own healthy sleep habits, and she realized they didn't need to be forced into them. It's refreshing to hear sleep stories from parents who are confident that they are doing the right thing by not letting their kids scream their heads off in the wee hours of the morning. Because there is so much information out there that makes you feel like a bad parent for soothing your baby when he or she wakes up.

Cloth Diaper Cover Tutorial with Gussets
I have a bunch of PUL and two kids who are in between sizes. I am either squeezing Little M into small diaper covers, which make him get heat rash, or putting him in the next size up, which means he pees all over his clothes. I need some better fitting diaper covers. Nothing fancy--I use prefolds, so I just want something waterproof to put over them. Sometimes I use wool, but I like waterproof PUL covers too. So I'm going to make them. According to this cloth diaper cover tutorial, it can't be that hard.

23 Gross Motor Games and Activities for Preschoolers
Dionna from Code Name: Mama put together a great article about games you can play with your preschooler that exercise their gross motor skills. Baby T loves games like these. He usually cracks up the whole time we play them. We play Ring around the Rosie already, and just yesterday, we started playing Red Light, Green Light (he loves to tell me when the light is green at stoplights anyway. Probably because I do too much texting at red lights.). Try some of these games with your kid. I'll bet you'll get some amazing toddler belly laughs.