Hi TSC readers! I’m Carly of The Preggers Pantry. Lauryn & I have been friends for over 10 years so when she asked me to come on & share my typical day with you, I said “of course!”
Today we’re going to get into how I start my day, shopping lists of my favorite things to have on hand, supplements & how I unwind. First, I’d love to tell you a little about myself.
You could say my wellness journey started when I was a kid. I grew up in Indiana in a rural farm town. When you’re small you don’t really make the association between food & animals until you’re older & when I was about 10, I can remember realizing that bacon came from a pig, and steak from a cow. This was the start of intuitive eating for me. In my mind, I didn’t want to be eating animals or cute little cows. I gradually stopped eating meat & over the years I became a pescatarian. Today I occasionally eat eggs, grass fed dairy/bone broth & fish – I try to listen to my body & eat what my body craves. I don’t classify myself as being vegan or any certain type of ‘eater’ & I don’t feel guilty about food choices. I just do what I feel my body needs. Over time intuitive eating and understanding your body becomes more natural.
Lauryn & I met when she was bartending at a little restaurant in my neighborhood. My husband ( then boyfriend ) & I would have date nights every Friday there & we just loved Lauryn. She told me all about this blog she was going to start & all her ideas – I thought they were all great! The Skinny Confidential was ramping up when I just got pregnant, & I decided that I wanted to start a blog or a resource too. I was finding it really hard to find info on healthy pregnancies in 2013 & was doing a ton of research on my own. I really wanted to share what I was doing & learning but I wasn’t sure about it. Thankfully, Lauryn told me to just go for it, so I did! She’s one of the reasons The Preggers Pantry is here today. At the time there weren’t a lot of mommy bloggers – now there are thousands!
Although I don’t exactly have a blog anymore, I like to share lots of recipes & tips on my Instagram & have recently been sharing lots of Reels. I’ve gotten some great feedback on the recipes I shared so I’ll be making more of those to share with you all. As well as sharing healthy tips, I’m also kind of transitioning into talking about homeschooling & learning as my kids get older. I also have an Etsy shop where I sell essential oils blends – Lauryn loves the OM Mama roller.
Motherhood & pregnancy is different for everyone so I always want to be very careful with my words & make it clear that I’m sharing my journey & things that I’ve learned and hopefully it could help someone. We are all different and I never want to sound like I’m telling anyone that I have the answers or what is “the right way”, because as we know with health/wellness there are so many schools of thought. What has helped me is really being mindful and listening to my body.
And one last thing before we get into ‘a day in the life’ – what I’m sharing is just a typical day. Usually I fast in the morning and break my fast around 11am, but there are exceptions and days where feel like I need to eat eggs & toast the second I wake up. This is where intuitive eating comes in. I think that eating intuitively takes time to learn, and often it just comes with practice. You learn to know your body & what it wants or needs. For example when I was living in LA in my 20s I was eating plant-based. So I would have soy cereal, with soy milk, then a soy veggie burger – it was just too much processed food. I started to get acne & was bloated all the time. So I think sometimes things seem healthy so you stick with it & you aren’t really listening to your body. Are you actually hungry or snacking because you’re bored? Ravenous as soon as you get out of bed? Eat! Feeling like your body needs a little detox/reset & you aren’t feeling hungry? Wait until you are.
Alright, let’s get into a typical day. ( And I’ve included a very streamlined shopping list & supplements list for you below ).
♡ Morning:
Usually I’ll wake up around 7 & before I let myself get out of bed I journal in The Daily Stoic Journal. It only takes a few minutes, with one prompt per day, but it’s so easy & beneficial. I also try to listen to The Daily Stoic while I’m getting ready to start my day. It just gives this great perspective that helps you think positively before you even get up to do anything. It’s like, in the grand scheme of things nothing is wrong & it helps you remind yourself that you can get through any obstacles that come your way that day.
Then I have lemon water. I know you’re probably like geez, everyone with their lemon water. LOL. But I actually really believe in this and drink about 8 ounces before I put anything else in my body. While I’m sipping on this I’ll have my green tea steeping ( I don’t like the way coffee makes me feel, but I like a little caffeine and love the antioxidants in green tea).
At the same time I’ll get a smoothie started for my family. This is a non-negotiable for my family. Everyone knows they’re getting a morning smoothie. In fact, one day I ran out of greens ( how does that even happen? ) & we didn’t have one & it totally threw my kids off. They were asking for it all morning. Anyway, I share lots of smoothie recipes on my Instagram but here are some tips:
+ Per person do 1-2 handfuls of greens, half a banana, half a cup of fruit. This makes it easy if you have to adjust for company or if you’re making a smoothie for only 1 or 2 people. ( If you’re just starting out with smoothies, go easy on the greens until you adjust to the taste ).
+ Frozen banana/pineapple/berries or coconut adds a bit of sweetness & can help cover up the taste of greens for kiddos.
+ Add ground flax, chia and/or hemp seeds. This makes the smoothie thicker, adds fiber, some protein & healthy fats which will help keep you full longer.
+ I’ll add protein powder sometimes. Orgain plant protein powder is super clean & organic so I’ll put that in my kids smoothie & sometimes mine if I think I need more protein that day. My kids don’t eat a lot of meat so I like to have this for them. Also the chocolate flavor switches things up for them. It’s gluten free, soy free, sugar free, non GMO & made from peas & rice. I’ve been adding OM mushroom powder and collagen protein to my smoothies.
Most days I’ll break my fast with my smoothie around 11am, but sometimes I have it right away. Or I’ll make some actual food. Like I said above I’ll have eggs & toast if I feel like it. But I do like to have the smoothie before anything else goes in my body most days.
♡ Lunch:
So if I’m having my smoothie around 11, I’ll usually have lunch around 1. I don’t have a specific thing that I eat but it’s always something light so I stay energized. Eating heavy meals makes me lethargic and tired.
Often lunch is a salad with protein, fish or avocado. Sometimes I’ll have avocado toast and I love to add Wild Brine sauerkraut to it or homemade pickles. Basically, I always make sure there’s a veggie, a healthy fat & some kind of protein.
For example, the other day I made one of my sons a turkey sandwich ( he loves turkey ) with cheese, pickles, sauerkraut, mustard with an apple, cucumber and hummus on the side. My other son had an avocado sandwich, so I had a salad with avocado, cucumber, sauerkraut, sesame seeds, sesame oil and soya sauce. So I kind of eat what they’re eating, but modified.
After lunch I always have an apple and if I’m feeling extra hungry that day I’ll eat it with nut butter. I just love apples and think of them as a dessert. They’re so juicy and crunchy. After lunch or dinner I like to have a chunk of dark chocolate, if I’m craving something sweet.
♡ Dinner:
Dinner is really anything and everything. I post a ton of dinners on my Instagram page, but the most important thing is that we do it together as a family, and eat together as a family.
I drink a lot of hibiscus tea, or there’s this brand called Mud Wtr, and I love them both. Sometimes I’ll have a mocktail with Kombucha, beet juice, lemon juice and 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar. I pour them all over ice and it’s so delicious. And if I’m out to dinner with friends or on a date night, a spicy margarita hits the spot!
♡ Wellness practices throughout the day:
On the days that my kids go to school I like to to a yoga class or a Pilates class, or play tennis or golf. On the days they’re home from school we’ll do something together like go swimming, hiking or for a bike ride ( which is how I prefer to get my exercise ).
As I said, I’ll go to yoga or Pilates class about once a week but it’s really not consistent. I do a lot of exercise at home. I do have my yoga certification to teach kids from ages 3-8 years old, so I like to just do my own flows instead of watching videos.
For skincare I have this facial steamer from Vanity Planet that’s amazing & such a game-changer. I’ve been using it a few times a week. You fill it with distilled water & any essential oils you like. Sure it’s great for skin, but what I love about it is that it forces you to just sit there, in stillness, with your eyes closed for 10 minutes. At first I was trying to find other things to multitask while I did it, like read my book, but you can’t. You just have to sit there and listen to a meditation or sit in silence. It forces you to chill. I love it & highly recommend it.
Once the kids are in bed my husband & I love to watch shows together. We both used to love really dark TV shows but then about 6 years ago we decided we had to stop. We decided that we were going to keep our phones out of our bedroom and only watch light-hearted stuff at night. So far we’ve gone through The Office, Parks & Recreation and recently we finished Seinfeld. The series have so many seasons but it’s so much fun to end the day on a funny, light note.
There’s a strange thing that happens when you have kids. You just can’t handle the scary, serial killer, weirdo stuff like you used to. You think of it in a different way and it’s not good for your mental health or anxiety around your kids that is just innate as a parent anyway.
It really is a lifestyle change to free yourself of negative thoughts before bed. It changes your brain chemistry. It’s something that’s really important to me and my husband now. A non-negotiable.
Before bed I like to do a big stretch. I’ll do ‘legs up the wall’ or a few Sun Salutations. I just feel like I need to do this before my body stays still for the night.
♡ Supplements:
More recently I started putting chlorophyll drops ( and lemon of course ) in my water. I was researching ways to boost energy & chlorophyll came up with tons of other benefits ( more here ). So after I have my smoothie, I’ll add a few drops to my water bottle & it gives me a little boost of energy.
For my kids, I give them Omegas. This gives the kids a perfect ratio of Omega 3, 6, 9 which you can’t get from a vegan one. ( I take Mary Ruth’s Omega 3 ).
My favorite vitamin brand right now is Mary Ruth’s Organics. Almost everything is clean & organic and easy to absorb because most are liquid form, not pills.
The supplements I take most often are zinc, Vitamin C, vegan Omega 3, Om Mushroom Powder ( sometimes in my smoothie ). If I’m feeling under the weather or a little run down I’ll take a multivitamin too.
In the evening I like to take a Beauty Probiotic and Biotin by Mary Ruth’s.
So that’s a pretty typical ‘day in the life’ but as I said, it’s never exactly the same. To wrap it up I just wanted to share some easy shopping lists with you. We all know how Lauryn likes to have things streamlined, efficient and EASY for her community. You’ll be able to find most of these items in the Amazon storefront that she created for you too!
♡ SUPPLEMENTS:
Zinc ( kids too )
Multivitamin ( kids too )
♡ PANTRY:
Wild Planet canned tuna and salmon
♡ FRESH FOODS:
Carrots
Onion
Celery
Cucumbers
Broccoli
Avocado
Apples
Berries
Spinach
Sauerkraut
Nut milk
Eggs
Sweet potatoes
Bananas
Lemons
Limes
Oranges
♡ FREEZER:
Frozen fruit for smoothies
♡ SPICES & OILS:
There it is! A day in the life for my family. Again, all these things are in Lauryn’s Amazon store to keep things nice & easy. Hope you loved this post and be sure to follow me on Instagram! Lately, I’ve been sharing lots of Reels with easy, healthy recipes.
Thanks for having me TSC!
~ Carly
+ stalk the new PINK BALLS FACE MASSAGER here.
++ check out Katie’s 10 tips to start gardening.
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