The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

All of the feedback on my last post was so nice and super motivating to share some of the random things I do to find some balance with eating and working and running and mom'ing, so I thought I would share how I try and tackle the mornings. Running This is the cornerstone of my exercise routine and the only thing that I do in the mornings. I have tried to be one of those people that can get up and do yoga or strength training, but it just doesn't happen. As soon as I start moving the kids barge in, someone needs something from me, or the kids want to join and start rolling around on my foam roller like a drunken circus seal. Luckily, I have my lunch hour at the gym every day (more on that another day). I am also not an afternoon or evening runner - there is always so much to do in those hours after work and before bedtime and, really, I just love starting my day with a run to clear my head and feel accomplished before the rest of the world is awake. With morning running, I ...

Let's be clear that I am in no way the healthiest person I know (more miles = more beer) but there are some easy ways that I try to maintain some balance, which I thought I would share in case it sparks anything helpful in someone else. Meal Planning I am not talking about pretty bento boxes of veggies, perfectly weighed out to by macros and ketos and whatever else the popular bloggers are doing. I just mean I sit down (with Matt) every Friday night and look at our calendars, decide what we will have for dinners, and make a grocery list. We have a weekly cash budget to stick to (more on that in another post) so we check the circular for anything on sale that we can take advantage of, such as chicken breasts and produce, since those are staples. I also like to make things that we can generate leftovers for our weekday lunches, such as chicken to throw in rice bowls or  Thug Kitchen 's delicious roasted beet and quinoa salad that is amazing over a handful of spinach. A few m...

I became a mama on November 20th, 2011 and a mama of two on March 26, 2015. I can't remember my own phone number or what I had for lunch, but those days I can pull up in my mind and remember with every bone in my body. The fear (mostly mine), the tears (again, me), that newborn smell - it stays with you so viscerally while so much of the daily chaos is forgotten. Years of missed sleep and piles of diapers, when?! Motherhood is such a different experience for everyone, which seems like a no-brainer but definitely took me a few years of doing it myself to understand. For every one kid there seems to be a million ways to mother them, and no one way is the right way, except the way that works for you. I think of all of the things I said I would not do before I became a mom and how those are the very things that are the core of my mothering now. I know now that you have a survival period and a growing period and a smooth sailing period and they all ebb and flow and change as soon as y...