For the last year, I’ve been about four months pregnant–or so it would seem from my bulging belly.  Elastic waistbands have been my friends while my actual pre-baby clothes have been sitting up in the attic for years.  Although I’ve tried everything from exercise boot camps to Spark People, my body has stubbornly held those pounds and even added a few more.

I was almost resigned to accept my flabby-bellied fate until a friend of mine mentioned a diet she had just started.  It had no limitations, but required her to eat avocado, dark chocolate, nuts, olives, or olive oil at every meal.  Since those are some of my favorite foods, I checked out the book The Flat Belly Diet immediately from our local library.

Here’s the diet in a nutshell:  The yummy foods mentioned above are required because they’re high in mono-unsaturated fats (called MUFAS in the diet).  Those fats are known to help keep you full while eating less, thus slowly melting away belly fat.  You eat four 400 calorie meals during the day and always include a MUFA at each sitting.  This means pesto, peanut butter, dark chocolate chips, and guacamole are your mainstays.  Yahoo!

I have dropped ten pounds in a month on this delicious diet!  After feeling as though my scale may have been broken for all those months that the numbers didn’t budge, I’m now rejoicing that weight loss is not only possible, but fun!  The meals keep me satiated and I look forward to each one because the recipes are so delectable.  Since I’m breastfeeding, I do eat an extra spoonful of peanut butter here and there, and am constantly amazed to see the weight keep dropping off.

Although daily exercise is recommended, it’s not required.  I haven’t been able to get in my workouts most days, but am surprised just by how well the weight loss is working just based on eating habits.

Is the diet eco-friendly and budget friendly?  Yes!  Since it’s so full of nuts and seeds, it isn’t overly dependent on meats.  The meats it does recommend are organic and it has several vegetarian options.  It eliminates processed foods (which are both expensive and full of packaging) and focuses on whole foods that aren’t packed with artificial sweeteners or synthetic fiber.   There are also organic packaged foods that you can purchase such as Kashi frozen meals that will do the trick if you don’t have time to cook.  You’ll be surprised to see that the first few days of the diet require cornflakes, but don’t let that throw you off!  They tried to pick transitional foods that people would be comfortable with.

Plus The Flat Belly Diet was written by editors of Prevention magazine, so its focus is on healthy foods that pack nutritional benefits as well as taste.  I’m trying to hold back, but I feel so lucky to have discovered this diet finally.    I still have about five pounds to go before I can button up my old shorts, but it’s nice to know that success is within sight!

Do you like it?  I’m blushing a bit right now, but we are really proud of our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, and are hoping that many of you find it helpful as you prepare for baby or select a gift for pregnant friends who are looking for eco-friendly, budget friendly solutions.  Please let us know if you’ve read it!  Also, if you have ideas on how to spread the word on our little gem, please let us know.  We loved writing it and editing it hundreds of times, but marketing isn’t our favorite hobby.  Still, we’d like to let expectant parents know how to save thousands of dollars while going green.  Thanks for your creative ideas!

As a thrifty, green soul, Shift Your Habit by Elizabeth Rogers seems written just for me. How do I love it? Let me count the ways:

1. It’s infinitely practical. The tips are focused on tiny lifestyle changes that save money and the environment. Each shift is listed along with cost savings, extra positives, and planetary benefits.
2. It’s road tested. Elizabeth Rogers, who also coauthored “the green book” asked dozens of families from across the nation to participate in the shifts. Some were excited about going green, and some just wanted to save money. Everyone benefited from the changes and those stories are featured throughout the book.
3. It’s just a list. For those of us functioning on limited sleep and less time, the book really is just a bulleted list with subtitles. It’s easy to get something out of it just by reading for five minutes.
4. It includes baby. Of course, as authors of The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, we absolutely believe that going green with baby should save you money. Rogers writes about the positives of cloth diapering, making homemade baby food and much more. If you want a brief intro about how to go green with baby, this is a great place to start.
5. It inspires me. We all suffer green fatigue when we take on too much, too soon. This book focuses on so many small, easy changes that suddenly saving money and the planet seems rather simple. It’s a great place to start reducing your impact or to find simple ways to go a bit further.

Here’s a sample tip from the book:

• The SHIFT: Buy motion-sensor outdoor security or porch lighting instead of non-sensor lighting that runs throughout the night.
• Save $$: Up to $160 on electricity bills per year.
• Save the Planet: Conserve 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
• Good for You: Deters trespassers!

Doesn’t that sound easy!  And that’s the format that most of the book takes––although it’s also sprinkled with intermittent stories of volunteer “shifting” families.  A great and incredibly easy read!

If money is feeling a bit tight, we recommend requesting this little gem at your local library and putting a reserve on it so that you’ll be the first one to check it out. (You can do the same with our book too!) Have you read Shift Your Habit or heard of it? It’s a one to add to your reading list!

I’m experiencing temporary insanity.  The  culprit is a twenty pound tyrant who has been hounding me for three straight nights.  Have I dealt constructively with the challenge?

Not quite…

I’ve consumed approximately one pound of cookie dough and a third of a chocolate bar.  She’s been crying off and on for forty five minutes and I’m trying to block it out while typing this.  Despite diaper changes, temperature adjustments, teething tablets, soothing songs and her total lack of sleep over the past two days, she seems to be up for the challenge of a good wail for hours to come.

On top of that, my three year old didn’t nap today and was having constant meltdowns all afternoon that coincided perfectly with the baby’s hysteria.  Did they concoct this torture plan ahead of time?

No—the truth is it’s all my fault.  I wanted a dishwasher.  For the last two miserable nights we’ve been visiting my mother because our kitchen is being torn apart and remodeled.  My baby, who normally slumbers in her crib pretty well, reminds me at regular hourly intervals that she’s not happy with the transition. On top of that my three year old isn’t napping well, nor is he coping with being away from home.  Neither am I.

At times like these, when my very bones ache with exhaustion, I’m not so chipper about hanging out the laundry or blending up homemade baby food.  ( or EVER traveling ANYWHERE again!)  So—honestly, I have to say that for me sleep is an essential part of being a good parent and a greener parent.

Did you end up traveling anywhere with baby for spring break?  Did you experience the same nocturnal misery?  I sincerely hope you didn’t!

One of the first natural baby food cookbooks to hit the mainstream, Super Baby Food, is still enjoying relative fame.  I was thrilled to find the first edition in its purple cover in a pile of garage sale books and happily paid a quarter to make it mine.

I eagerly rushed home and began reading, but found myself disappointed.  The book is loosely organized, full of anecdotes and often difficult to follow.  Although it’s over 500 pages long, there are really only about thirty critically important pages of information to read.

To be fair, I do love those thirty pages. Ruth Yaron challenges our ideas of traditional baby food by offering up other ingredients for home-blended meals.  She explains how to whirl up vegetables and fruits in your blender and then dump it into ice cube trays to freeze and store.  As baby gets older, she has tips for including egg yolk, beans, kale, and a variety of other healthy foods into a “super porridge” that can be inexpensively prepared.

Yager also has some fun recipes for toddler foods including tofu McNuggets, nutty millet pancakes and peanut butter pudding.   The creativity in food presentation and delivery are pretty remarkable as well.  For example, she recommends spreading a slice of bread with peanut butter and then wrapping it around a whole banana as a creative vegan hot dog.

It’s also fascinating that Yager’s children have been quite healthy based on their rich diet of whole grains, greens, and hearty proteins.  She insists that while most children are sick between six to twelve times a year, her family faces illness once or twice at most.

As a working mom with limited time, I found the book to be heavily layered with irrelevant details and tough to weed through. For example, in the middle of the arts and crafts section she goes into great detail about using zip lock bags, adult sized socks and duct tape to avoid purchasing snow boots.  On the same page she gives directions for shining patent leather shoes with petroleum jelly. I’m not sure either of those things even needs to be in a baby food book.  To be fair, I haven’t read the second edition which may have edited some of the cumbersome tidbits out.

Is it worth buying?  If you’re interested in making your own baby food for economic, health and environmental reasons it’s a good resource, but I would recommend checking it out from the library or picking it up secondhand.  I’ll be sending my copy out to a lucky reader who will be able to read the book for herself and develop her own opinion.  Simply comment by February 12th to be entered in our giveaway!

Have you read Super Baby Food?  Did you find it be a valuable resource?  Do you make your own food at home?

Sure, your parents have changed a diaper, but it’s been a few years. Now they’re going to be grandparents. Perhaps they’re left wondering what, exactly, they will do when the baby cries or how they’ll spend a rainy afternoon with their darlings. In comes The Grandparents Handbook by Elizabeth LaBan.

The handbook includes intriguing-sounding recipes to try with kids (overnight pickles and chocolate-covered pretzels, for example) and activities grandparents can enjoy with young children (why not create a family newspaper or hold a mock election?).The book is packed with ideas, tips, and advice for new or seasoned grandparents. It’s a cute little hardcover book, complete with adorable retro illustrations.

So here are the only two gripes I have about the book: 1. Why is there no apostrophe in the title? As an English teacher, this bothers me. 2. Let’s go back to the diapers. Right in the beginning of the book, the rookie grandparent will find instructions for changing a diaper. LaBan assures her readers that diapers have improved in the last twenty or thirty years—now they’re disposable! But if the parents want to help out the environment “with cloth diapers, safety pins, and endless trips to the washing machine”? Just ask them to switch to disposables while the grandparents come over. “If they protest , tell them you’re out of practice and afraid of accidentally sticking the baby with a safety pin.”

Now, we don’t have to tell our Green Baby Guide readers how misguided this advice is. First of all, almost no cloth diaper enthusiasts use diaper pins anymore—newfangled cloth diapers come with Velcro closures, just like disposables! Also, I didn’t like the idea of the grandparents undermining the parents’ decisions about how to care for the child.

Despite the diaper blunder, it’s a great little book, and I will admit that most people would not get so worked up over the diaper chapter. I plan to give my own copy to my mom (who, by the way, had no problem changing my daughter’s cloth diapers!).  With The Grandparents Handbook, she’ll have a grand time building gingerbread houses, going clover hunting, and making scones for an afternoon tea with Audrey.

We have one copy of the Grandparents Handbook to give away! Just post a comment before next Tuesday (the 22nd) and you’ll be entered to win!