Yesterday morning was full of packing because Hailey and I were off to good ‘ol GA! I know I’m not the first to realize this, but it’s amazing how much stuff you need to pack for someone so little.

Breakfast

1/2 cup dry oats microwaved with almond milk, topped with chia seeds, Nannie’s pecans and a dollop of Daisy pumpkin butter.

Lunch

Since we skipped snack, I was hAngry come lunch time. Wanting to avoid fast food, I googled ‘health food grocery store’ in Columbia, SC. Rosewood Market was the first to pop up, so off we went. I love finding health food stores because they usually have a wonderful selection of healthy foods to grab for lunch on the go. Rosewood Market was no exception!

Beside the display case full of freshly made grain salads, roasted vegetables, etc, they had a hot food section with a mouthwatering selection. The man behind the counter was incredibly friendly and happy to explain the differences between Thai fish cakes and seaside cakes (when is the last time you’ve heard choices like that at Burger King??)

I stopped to admire their bulk bins (my favorite part of healthy markets!)

before checking out. The cashier was also incredibly friendly, as was an organic farmer named Gene who was in line behind me. Are all people in Columbia this friendly?! If so, I’m moving there.

My lunch was a delicious combination of seaside cakes (a tofu and sea vegetable take on crab cakes) with cocktail sauce, brown rice with a flavorful sauce of some sort and steamed vegetables that included kale, carrots and onions. Every. Single. Bite. was phenomenal. So fresh! Check this gem out if you’re ever in Columbia!

Driving on…

Snack

We stopped at Mom’s office so Hailey could say hello and I munched on a ThinkThin crunch bar, which the company sent me to sample. The bar is made up of almond and cranberries and other various crunchies and I enjoyed it! So did my rumbling tummy.

Snack

Once I arrived at my parent’s place, I chowed down a peach Chobani and blueberries, followed by some delicious Wisconsin swiss and crackers.

Hailey was excited to spend some time with her Great Grandma Betty and finally meet her Great Aunt Pat! (Truth be told, Hailey was screaming right before this picture… I think I messed up her nap schedule, but it was still a good time!)

I was excited to sip on this delicious glass of red.

Dinner

We assembled homemade pizzas for dinner. Mom and I split one that was loaded with veggies- tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, onions, mushrooms… DElish! I ate 3 slices.

Looking back over this, I want to go back and eat everything from yesterday again… so many scrumptious bites!

How do you stay healthy of road trips?

I remember when Hailey was only a week old thinking about how I wish she’d stay this little forever, but I can honestly say that every month just keeps getting more and more fun. I’m really hoping this continues forever. or until she turns 14 and inevitably decides I’m no longer cool. Can we skip that part?

We don’t have another pediatrician appointment until 6 months, but I can tell she’s still growing just fine. She’s in size 2 diapers and mostly 6 month clothing. 3-6 month stuff is pretty snug.

She’s still sleeping wonderfully. We had one rough night where she was up every hour, but I totally blame myself and 2 two cups of coffee. Oops. But usually we bathe at 6:45, nurse her at 7:00 and she’s down between 7:15-7:30. She wakes up at 6:30 and nurses, then goes right back to bed for another 1.5 hours.

We still swaddle for night time, though I’ve found her like this once or twice in the morning.

Looks like the swaddle is on it’s way out. But not completely, yet. For naps I swaddle just her legs. I’ve tried no swaddle before and it turned into a 40 minute cry fest. Her legs are just so busy and she kicks so much that she is unable to go to sleep.

She is typically (always have to say typically, since things change day to day) napping 3 times. Around 9:45 she takes a 40 minute nap. Around 1:00 she naps for 1.5 hours and sometimes around 5:00, she’ll take a 30 minute cat nap.

She’s discovering more everyday. She babbles all the time and it will sometimes escalate into shrieks of joy. I think she is excited that she has found her voice. She is also using her mouth to experiment with various expressions. Her newest and favorite at the moment is the ‘squenched’ nose.

She still adores her feet and pulls her socks off so she can suck on her toes as often as possible.

Although I spend much of my day interacting with her, she is also pretty good at self play especially in the exersaucer. She loves using her feet to push herself around in the circle to play with the various toys.

She has also taken a stronger interest in Koda. I love watching them watch each other and envision a beautiful friendship to come.

Her motor skills are developing as well. She can take the pacifier out of her mouth and put it back in by herself. She loves to stand. Her hand always seems to be opening and closing and her little pinches can hurt. And her giggles. I love her little shrieking giggle, which she does quite often, especially if we tickle her ribs, bounce her on the bed or sneak up and scare her (sounds mean, but she loves the surprise!). Bath time is always good for some giggles, too.

I’ve begun to get emails about what she is eating. At this point, she is still exclusively breastfed. She eats 5(ish) times a day (6:30ish, 10:30ish, 2:30ish, 5:00ish and 7:00) *Always ‘ish’ because every day is slightly different and I don’t follow a strict schedule with her.

I am going to write a post with more details on the topic, but I plan to begin introducing solids around 6 months, so in the next few weeks. She is showing signs of interest (grabbing, air chewing, etc). I am highly considering taking the baby-led weaning approach and will write more about it at a later time.

I feel like I haven’t done much baby-related posting lately, but it’s because I haven’t had a whole lot to write about. Things are going smoothly and I love living everyday with my little family.

If you have any questions or any ideas for topics you’d like me to discuss, please just let me know!

My my my, where do I even start? I guess with Saturday morning. Which was gorgeous! Since it was 60 degrees and sunny, we decided on a family trip to Lake Norman State Park. It’s only about a 20 minute drive and offers some beautiful trails for hiking around.

Someone thought this trip was the BEST DAY OF HER LIFE.

Afterwards we grabbed lunch and visited REI. One Prana shirt (SPLURGE- but I love it) and one trip to Target later, we wrapped up a pretty awesome day. I was still on the mend from my sickness, so we decided to have a relaxing night in and after Hailey went to bed, we both settled onto the couch for an evening of reading and chili.

If you’ve read the Hunger Games series, you know it’s impossible to put down, so come 11:20 or so, we were both still reading on the couch…when our doorbell rang. It made me jump a mile high and Koda started barking like crazy. But what really made me jittery? No one was there.

Logic would say it was probably just some dumb kids but in the moment with our sleeping baby upstairs and just reading about some of the crazy pods that The Capitol had in place, I was jittery. I closed up the curtains and when I turned around David was standing there with shoes on and Koda at his side. I reallllllly didn’t want him venturing outside, but he insisted. He handed me one gun (who did he think I was, Katniss??) and took another (FYI- we’re the wrong house to mess with) and he and Koda headed out to take a lap around the house while I called the police (told them it was a non-emergency) and they sent an officer to drive around, just in case. I stood there, barely breathing, until I heard Koda and David return. The coast was clear.

Stupid kids shook up my whole night. It took me two episodes of How I Met Your Mother before my nerves were calmed enough to go to sleep.

In the morning, I was extra sleepy and David seemed to have caught my sickness. So a relaxing day was in order. More reading, some documentaries (am I making us sound really cool or what?!) and laundry made for a cozy Sunday. Especially when the snow started falling.

Hailey’s first snow flurries!

We rounded out the weekend with a healthy dinner. Clearly we both needed a solid dose of nutritional goodness so we could finally kick this cold out of our house.

Sweet potato with Smart Balance and cinnamon, broccoli and salmon with feta, spinach and red bell pepper.

And finally, the winner of the free case of Chobani is…

Megan!
I really want to try the blood orange! I’ve been looking everywhere and actually found the other 2 new flavors today, but still no blood orange. I’m not usually an apple-cinnamon kind of person, and I like my Greek yogurt with some fat and that one is 0%, but I bought one to try since it’s been getting rave reviews on so many blogs.

Please email me at Brittany@ahealthysliceoflife.com with your information.

Have you ever had to call 911?

I was a bit surprised by the lack of urgency in their voice. It sounded like I was calling the local pizza shop. I hope I never have to call with a real emergency.

I loved hearing your suggestions yesterday on natural cold and sinus remedies. I found out a few new tricks I didn’t know and now I’m looking forward to finding grapefruit seed extract (Thanks, Lisa!).

I spent more time than I care to admit to curled up on the couch, and though I think I’m over the hump, I’m not back to 100% yet. However, I’m feeling good enough to get some things done and not continue my Gossip Girl episode marathon. Speaking of, the first Gossip Girl episode is just bizarre. There is even a different Eleanor Waldorf. WTF? (Well, that’s fantastic!)

I digress.

I also had plenty of time to let my mind wander about things I’m loving lately and wanted to share…

Our new antenna. You’re picturing bunny ears, aren’t you? Think again!

This compact, flat box that is easily concealed by curtains is bringing us all the major networks, plus a other random channels. Instead of having DVR, we bought a Roku Box (about $100). Roku lets us stream content through Netflix and HuluPlus. It feels good to have finally cut the cord with the cable company (well, DISH to be exact).  Old cost of monthly TV bill: around $70. New monthly cost: $16 (for HuluPlus and Netflix).

These two.

Picture repeat, I know. Hailey was quite a little angel yesterday (if you discount the one screaming episode when I tried to put her down for a nap without her legs being swaddled… more on that next week). She played in her exersaucer and wiggled on her mat for quite a while. She even gave me an 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon! David managed to finish up work stuff a little early and took on full Hailey and dinner duty while I snoozed on the couch. That’s love.

New paint. When we first moved into our house 2 years ago, I was determined to jazz it up with COLOR. This led to me painting the master bedroom this color.

While I actually liked the color, I could never bring the whole room together, so 2 yeas later, I went back to neutral. It now looks like this:

Much more calming. Now I just need new bedside tables, lamps and art (to bring color into the room)…. any suggestions??

Chobani. Even though I didn’t indulge yesterday (no dairy for sinus reasons), I’ve been enjoying the box of Chobani’s new flavors that they sent me to try out!

Apple Cinnamon is hands down my new favorite. It’s incredible. Especially with some LOVE grown granola mixed in. The passion fruit has good flavor. The crunchy seeds take a little getting used to, but I love the authenticity that the seeds bring. Real passion fruit, people! And the blood orange, I think, is the most unique, and also yummy.

But, don’t take my word for it. Try all the new flavors yourself! Chobani has generously offered to send one Healthy Slice reader FREE Chobani!

To enter:

Tell me what new Chobani flavor you want to try the most (mandatory).

For an additional entry

Tweet about this giveaway and/or post about it on your Facebook wall with a link to the post. “I want to win the new @chobani flavors from @ahealthyslice – enter here http://ow.ly/986V7 ”

Contest ends Sunday at midnight.

Have a fantastic weekend!

It finally happened.

I got sick.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve really been sick. I had a stomach virus about 4 years ago that was almost worse than childbirth. Almost. But since then, it’s been a little cold here or there.

This can’t compare to the stomach virus, but I am, without a doubt in a brawl with my sinuses. It started out innocently enough with a stuffy nose, but I now have a constant headache around my eyes, a stuffy nose and definitely some drip that’s making my throat burn.

Oh, and a 5 month old child. Did I mention that?

I blame the community pilates mats. Lesson learned. I will overcome my lazy attitude and BRING my own next time. Sigh.

So while I’m crossing my fingers and toes that Hailey doesn’t catch it and that she’s up for bumming on the couch all day while sipping hot tea (chances of that happening are slim to none), I’ll also be attacking my sinuses with every natural remedy I know. I’ve looked into traditional medicines, but with breastfeeding, I’m holding of on those a last resort. So, homeopathic it is!

Water. I’ll be chugging it.

Apple Cider Vinegar. There are a plethora of people that say drinking 1/8 cup of ACV mixed with 16 ounces of water will help by thinning mucus.

It’s not the most delicious thing you’ll ever drink, so if you want to try it, use a cup with a straw. Maybe I’m just drinking the (vinegar-flavored) kool-aid, but I think it works.

I’ll be laying off dairy (with thickens mucus) and instead drinking a lot of hot liquids, like my mom’s homemade chicken noodle soup that I have in the freezer.

Neti pot. I’ve boiled water (because I’m paranoid) and mixed in 1 tsp of salt per 2 cups of water.

Then, pour away. Makes me feels realllly sexy.

And maybe if I’m lucky (or if I whine and act pathetic enough) my sweet husband will bring me home some hot and sour soup, which, based on results from my childhood is the ultimate cure all!

What’s your favorite home remedy for sinus related ailments?

Sometimes on special days, you need to jazz things up a bit…

Breakfast

Forget diamonds, I added some sparkle to my breakfast, with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkling of chia seeds. They topped off a quick version of grilled banana French toast. The bananas are the key to making this SO good.

Post-Pilates Snack

I gave myself flower. (Kind of reminds you of “I love lamp” doesn’t it?) In organic gala apple form with a peanut butter center.

Lunch

I added some spice to the day with a Morningstar Farms spicy black bean burger, hummus, feta and spinach on a wheat roll. Cherry tomatoes on the side for some LOVEly color.

Snack?

I spent part of Hailey’s (accidental) nap time

eating cookie dough baking cookies. I skipped over to deliver some to the neighbors (Happy Valentine’s Day from the Valentine’s Fairy!… or bored housewife) after I sampled 1 or 2 (just to make sure they were edible, of course!)

Side note… know what happens when a sweet vizsla pup is hoping you spill and sits right under the mixer? This.

Snack

I finished off the BBQ with a side of pickles.

Dinner

A fantastic version of burrito bowls! The base was made up of romaine.  Followed by a mixture of brown rice, black beans and a can of Mexican Rotel. The next layer was the shredded chicken, peppers and onions. All topped off with sour cream, avocado and cilantro. Perfection.

Finally

After baby girl was put to bed and David was done with work, and after he sent me on a mini scavenger hunt around the house (Squee! ), we snuggled up with a glass of wine and an (unpictured) Reese’s mini.

Another wonderful Valentine’s day in the books.

PS- in case you missed it, check out me out on Blue Cross Blue Shield’s website. I’m the featured blogger for Women’s Heart Health Month!

Best thing you ate on Valentine’s Day was… ???

Love. That’s what today is all about, right?

Some people express it with chocolate and flowers. Some with teddy bears and cards (to Hallmark’s delight). But me? I say it with pork.

I’m not a big pork fan. I don’t know whether it’s remnants of guilt from when I had Sammy the pig as a pet, or what, but I rarely eat pork (unless it’s bacon. I totally eat bacon). But David? He likes it. Especially if it’s smothered in BBQ sauce.

So this year I said I love you with pork. And really, what man’s man can’t appreciate that? So make this for your guy and let them hug you extra tightly… and you don’t even have to tell him how easy it was to make!

Slow Cooker Shredded Pork BBQ

I based this recipe on one shared with me at my mom’s church group. It’s a keeper!

• 1-1.5 lb pork loin
• 1 bottle of beer (I used Yuengling)
• 1 bottle Sweet Baby Rays (I used sweet and spicy)
• 1 onion, sliced

Only 4 ingredients? Yup. Simplicity at it’s best!

Place the pork in the slow cooker in the morning. Cover with sliced onions and beer.

Set on low and let the slow cooker do it’s thing for 8-10 hours. At that point, drain the liquid and use 2 forks to shred the pork. It takes no time at all, as the pork should fall apart at this point.

Squeeze in almost all of the Sweet Baby Rays. I like to save a little extra for the buns. Mix well.

Serve it up on toasted wheat buns with dill pickle chips.

Throw in some veggies on the side, because you love him!

If you are going to say I love you to a guy with food, what do you make?

Good morning! It was a fun and busy weekend around the Dixon house because we had Mema and Grandpa in town visiting!

We had a great time and it’s always nice to have extra hands to help with projects and with Hailey holding. I’m pretty lucky to have such wonderful in-laws.  I’m grateful everyday for them raising such an incredible son who I get to call my husband.

That’s right, folks, A Healthy Slice of Life is serving up a little cheese today, but in honor on Valentine’s Day being tomorrow, I thought it’d be fun. Feel free to join in!

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?
Hm. This should be an easy one, right? We started dating in 2003, but there were a few years of off and on due to the fact that he was a couple years older than me and was working in the real world while I was still living it up in college world. So we’ve been together somewhere between 6-9 years.

2. How did you meet? {What’s your “love” story?}
We met 11/29/2003 at a UGA/GT tailgate party set up by one of my sorority sisters. I had been out the night before and really didn’t want to go, but one of my best friends dragged me out of bed and we showed up to Sigma Chi house at Georgia Tech for the party a little on the early side. We wandered the halls looking for a place to sit for a bit and ended up finding a couch in a room at the end of the hall. We sat down, looked up and saw a (drop dead sexy) guy getting out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist. He saw us sitting in the mirror and was shocked (because you don’t often see girls at Georgia Tech ) but still flashed us a smile.

We hung out that day, but in the craziness of college football, I ran off. However, a week or so later he called to invite me to a Christmas date night, and being that I just had gotten out of a dead-end relationship, my girlfriends pushed me to go. I’m so glad I did, because sparks began to fly. I actually called my parents the next day and told them I had met the guy I was going to marry. True story.

3. If married, how long have you been married?
It will be 3 years this May the 2nd.

4. Where did you get married? Big or small wedding?
We got married outside in the north Georgia mountains. We had about 115 people in attendance and it was exactly the wedding I wanted. I love looking back at pictures and reliving it!

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!
I call him babe. Pretty creative, huh?

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
I could name so many! But if I must choose 3… I love his sense of humor. It’s exactly in sync with mine and we laugh all the time. I love his intelligence.  It still amazes me to this day how much he knows about all sorts of random subjects. We still talk for hours and the conversation doesn’t get dull.  I love his outlook on life. He works hard and is incredibly driven and takes amazing care of Hailey and me; on the other hand, he plays hard too, and has an incredible sense of adventure. I consider myself one very lucky lady.

7. Tell us how he proposed?
He surprised me by proposing in the Blue Ridge Mountains at an overlook off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

After I said yes and was jumping around the car, he whisked me off to a bed and breakfast in Hot Springs, NC where we spent the weekend eating delicious food, kayaking down the Broad river and talking about our future.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
Haha, can I say neither? I guess I lean towards champagne and flowers (if potted flowers count). He shows me he loves me in a million other little ways though.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
I’m a let’s go on an adventure together kind of gal.

10. Tell us one thing you’d like to do with your significant other one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
Visit New Zealand. And a million other places.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine’s Day.
Remember that hard working part? He has some mandatory work business to attend to, so I’ll be putting our little love bug down, then snuggling on the couch with Koda.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine’s day?
Nope. Just a billion more Valentine’s days to spend together.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
I’m a music nerd, so I love listening to lyrics. One of my favorites by Lee Brice sums it up pretty well in my opinion…

Be a best friend. Tell the truth. Overuse I love you. Go to work. Do your best. Don’t outsmart your commonsense. Never let your praying knees get lazy. And love like crazy.

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.

(photo courtesy of Lauren Klein)

In your opinion…

Valentines Day…

love it or hate it?

I loved all the feedback about how to overcome the wog block I seemed to hit and really appreciate all the info from you runners! A few people mentioned that I needed to give myself a break, which had me wondering how I came across in yesterday’s post.

Was I frustrated? Yes, definitely. But my frustrations with overcoming the challenging workouts doesn’t mean I don’t think I’m kicking butt. If you would have told me a few years ago that I would be able to wog for an hour or cover 5 miles at once, I would have laughed my face off, but I’m doing it… and I’m darn proud.

Which got me thinking about pride. See, even just typing that makes me think ‘oh, it’s one of the 7 deadly sins. Bad pride, bad!’. But that’s ridiculous.

Why?

Because pride is a bad thing.

Right?

Nonsense. When we work hard to accomplish something, we deserve to be proud. Acknowledging it out loud shouldn’t be discouraged, rather it should be ENcouraged.

I’m all about some self-deprecation, but I also think acknowledging our own accomplishments is important.

So, I’m proud.

I’m proud that I used yesterday’s off day to squeeze in yoga.

I’m proud that I take the time and effort to prepare foods that nourish my family and me.

I’m proud of my family and how we work as a team.

I’m proud of my post baby body. It may not be Victoria’s-Secret-perfect, but it is strong and healthy.

I’m proud, and I’m going to acknowledge it.  Because we all should be allowed to be proud.

What is one thing that YOU are proud of yourself for?

Last week I had a tough wog. I take that back. It wasn’t tough. It flat out SUCKED. The day was beautiful, so I attempted the outdoor track. I had high hopes until I looked at my Couch to 10k app. Run 20 minutes. Walk 1 minute. Run 20 minutes again.

Excuse me?

The last wog had been run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute, 4 times. That 1 minute walk was frickin’ important. How can you just jump to 20?!

As I feared, the wog sucked. (Self fulfilled prophecy? Perhaps.) I jogged, kicking my own butt around the track, for 20 minutes, then sat down and pouted.

I attempted it again the next day, with similar results. I felt defeated. And frustrated. And I took 4 days off.

Monday I was back in the gym, but unwilling to let myself have another bad wog, I backtracked from week 11 on the C210k app to week 9.

Run 7 minutes then walk 2 minutes 6 times.

I rocked those 5 miles.

I took pilates on Tuesday and was back on the dreadmill yesterday.

Run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes 5 times.

Though my legs felt like logs, I got into it (running at a 10 minute mile pace- 6.0 on the treadmill). It was tough.

I got through 4.8 miles, but man, was I dragging afterwards. I don’t understand. What’s the difference from Monday to Wednesday? The challenge wasn’t all that different.

If that’s tough, how am I even going to attempt 20 minutes of jogging?

Do I need more rest days?

Do I need to eat differently beforehand?

I’m very close to resorting to caffeine-fueled wogs- especially if I have to even attempt to tackle (2) 20 minutes runs. I’ve wogged after a cup of coffee once or twice and I feel like I’m invincible! Before I start my caffeine drip, do you have any suggestions?!