Alicia Silverstone's Blog, page 170
May 9, 2011
my baby is here!
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My husband and I welcomed our 7 lb 15 oz baby boy Bear Blu Jarecki into the world on May 5th at 7:50am PT. We are all three in love! I'm so grateful to this community for all the love support good wishes and happy vibes you've sent me during my pregnancy...it has been wonderful. Thank you all!
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May 6, 2011
fatims superhero baby!
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Recently I shared parts one and two of my interview about natural pregnancy and childbirth with my friend Fatim. Here is her take on raising her son Adam as a superhero baby!
How do you feed Adam? What's a typical meal for him?
Warren and I often get a question like "does Adam eat macrobiotic food?" Of course he does! He eats what we eat. Some adjustments need to be made for babies and little ones but overall he eats grains beans vegetables seaweed fruits nut butters.
A typical meal would be : rice patties wrapped in nori pan-fried tofu sautéed broccoli. It usually includes a type of grain pasta rice brown or white quinoa couscous … a vegetable dish and a protein dish most of the time.
What are his favorite foods?
Nori is a favorite he calls it "nama" - so cute!! He loves tofu and mochi!!! He loves broccoli too and baby bok choy.
When he is around other little ones how do you deal with food? You said it's not an issue yet..like you made cupcakes and he wasn't really interested?
Adam goes to daycare for a few days a week and I cook for him in the morning so he has some nice quality food. Right now there isn't any issue; he eats what I make all the time. He just loves the food - he finds it delicious!! For his birthday I made your Favorite Cupcake recipe from your book it is my favorite now too! and he was the only one not eating it. The thing is he doesn't see cupcakes on a regular basis so he was fine without them. I am sure it will change soon …. But Warren and I will make some nice good quality treats naturally sweetened and homemade. I have made him some cookies or muffins but he's just not into them so I end up eating them and sharing them with my friends and their little ones too.
Ok cloth diapers versus eco diapers?
So this is the funny thing: while 8 months pregnant I went to a class on cloth diapers and was so determined to use them. And then I just felt it was too much for me to handle with taking care of our baby and myself too so we did and still do chlorine free diapers.
Did he sleep with you? And if so for how long? If not why? What were your thoughts on that?
He did for the first 3 months and after that we put him in his crib in his own bedroom. I think it is very important to have the baby with you at the beginning I believe that babies are not meant to sleep alone for the first few months. In all the traditional societies babies were sleeping with their parents. For how long? I think it is a personal choice. But I believe parents know better for their babies so whatever you choose to do is fine as long as you feel confident about it and have no after-thoughts or guilt.
Fatim has these final thoughts to share…
Pregnancy is the most important time in a woman's life to eat well. It is very important to eat a wide variety of foods. The baby needs a broad selection of ingredients and nutrients to choose from. Eating in a balanced manner will improve your health and the health of your baby.
No doubt cravings come up during pregnancy and the best way to satisfy them is to choose the best quality of what you are craving. If you crave a food like ice cream try to satisfy it first with a healthy alternative. If you cannot satisfy it there have a small amount and really enjoy it.
Please no guilt around food choices. Simply try to choose the best options and make yourself satisfied. Your baby's taste for food comes from your taste during this time.
Thank you Fatim! Are any of you kind lifers raising a superhero baby or young child? How is it going?
my friend fatims natural birth...
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This is part two of my interview with my friend Fatim. Fatim is married to macrobiotic counselor Warren Kramer who you've probably read about in my previous blogs.
Earlier I shared the portion of my interview with Fatim about her pregnancy. This time Fatim shares her experience having a natural childbirth with her adorable son Adam. Check it out:
Did you ever hesitate about having a natural home birth? If so what were your concerns and how did you decide?
Actually I didn't. Warren and I talked about it and we both agreed on having our baby at home. It felt very natural and a continuum to our natural lifestyle.
Did anyone give you a hard time about having a natural birth? How did you cope with it?
I think that when you tell your family that you want to have a home birth with your first baby they can be scared as they feel you don't know how it will be. So we had a back-up plan just in case something would have gone wrong. So they felt more comfortable knowing that.
Note from Alicia: I asked my midwives about back up plans and here's what they said:
"Midwifery is not legal in all states so no not every midwife has a back-up doctor. That being said midwives are well trained in recognizing problems and would send the mother to the hospital if a problem arose. There are studies out there proving the safety of home birth. They basically show that morbidity and mortality is relatively equal to birthing in the hospital just the types of risks are different. In addition there are many countries that have far better morbidity and mortality rates than the US where home birth is the norm and that the only women who birth in hospitals are high risk."
"According to my state regulations through the Board of Registered Nursing a nurse-midwife has to have a "supervising" physician. This doesn't have to be direct supervision but I need to have identified a physician that I can contact to transfer a patient at anytime during the pregnancy birth or postpartum. All of our clients have identified a back-up plan in case we need to transfer care to a hospital. These vary depending on the location of the client. If we need to transfer we call and then go to their physician's hospital. In a true emergency we call 911 and the EMS takes us to the closest appropriate hospital."
Did you ever during pregnancy wonder if you were doing the right thing? And did you seek advice from someone or somewhere?
Of course!! who doesn't?! Especially with the first baby right? Warren was there for me to help me guide me nurture me and give me some very good advice regarding foods cravings exercise … I also talked to some experienced macrobiotic moms and wanted to know how it was for them even if things are always different for every woman and every baby.
How long were you in pain? You said no pain!
Pain? Actually there wasn't any un-manageable pain; it was very smooth. I felt that the prenatal yoga was such a great tool to help me relax during the contractions. And I'm a belly dancer at heart too that is one of my passions with cooking so my body felt like doing some hip circles and hip shimmies too! Knowing that my midwife was there with me I knew that I was in very good hands. Overall I knew that my body was meant to give birth and was very peaceful with the process and very confident too. I have to say this was the most powerful spiritual beautiful experience in my life as a woman.
What do you think about cords around neck? Were you concerned about that?
I didn't think about it. Our midwife was very experienced and we knew that we had nothing to worry about.
Do you think your diet is what made your birth so easy?
I feel that my birth was so painless because of my macrobiotic diet.
Next I'll share Fatim's discussion about raising a superhero baby!
my friend fatims natural pregnancy
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When I was in Boston doing a speaking engagement I went to visit my friends Warren Fatim and their son Adam. You may know Warren from the blogs I've posted about his macrobiotic cooking classes.
I went over on the subway to visit them for lunch and to chat with Fatim about her beautiful birth and being a mom and all that exciting stuff! I knew I would learn a lot from her so I wanted to hear about her experience. I ended up having a huge make out session with Adam! He was sooo sweet and his little belly was so cute!
Anywho Fatim is beautiful and a great mom. She's a highly intelligent woman whom I respect and had such a lovely afternoon with.
Afterward Fatim sent me this note:
"When you left that day in the evening Adam was eating and I was reading the beautiful note you wrote on our cookbook I mean yours!. I showed the picture to Adam and he said "Hug hug !!" So he hugged your book !! He was so cute !! Oh my god!!"
Here is part one of my interview with Fatim:
Why did you become macrobiotic? And what was it like before? What amazing changes did you notice?
A friend of mine introduced me to macrobiotics while I was living in Paris. My first macrobiotic meal was in Spain and right away I loved the food. From there I started to read more about it and got more and more interested. I was very fascinated felt so much better in my body cleared my skin had acne since being a teenager and stabilized my emotions too. I am so grateful for macrobiotics. It's been 7 years now and I am a total new person because of it.
What foods were hardest for you to give up? If any?
To be honest there weren't really any. I loved the food right away but I was lucky to be able to experience some delicious Spanish macrobiotic food and then some food cooked by people who were experienced too. I trust my food palate a lot. Before starting macrobiotics in 2003 I already enjoyed cooking French where I was born Moroccan my roots from my parents and other ethnic foods. So for me delicious food is the most important thing. I do include some fish in my diet.
What kind of foods did you eat when you pregnant?
I ate a macrobiotic diet meaning grains beans tofu tempeh vegetables nuts seeds seaweed fruits. For the first 3 months I couldn't really eat brown rice so I ate more cracked grains :white rice polenta pasta. I wasn't too attracted to beans so I ate tofu tempeh. I was really able to eat more things in the 2nd and 3rd trimester. I loved orange juice during my pregnancy too and a funny thing is that Adam smelled like citrus the first few days!!! I had a little fish here and there when I felt like it.
Did you have cravings?
Yes I actually craved some cheese maybe because I'm from France the cheese country. So I did have some going out a couple times. While I talked to Warren about it he told me to increase fat and protein so I ate more deep-fried tempeh and tofu and it really helped tremendously to not need cheese.
How did you deal with nausea?
I had some nausea the first 2 months in the mornings. That's when I got into orange juice a lot it really helped me. I had ginger tea but it didn't help much. Sometimes I would have some plain crackers and it was helpful but overall I knew it would pass …. And it did …
Did you have any acid reflux?
No I didn't have any.
Did you find it uncomfy to sleep sometimes because of positions and extra weight? What did you do?
I have to say that even our midwife was very surprised; I was able to sleep great through the whole night until I gave birth. She did suggest that I get a big long pillow a pregnancy pillow and it was so nice to have that. It helped me to get in a more comfortable position.
Did you have a hard time feeling fully truly satisfied with food during your pregnancy? Like food just wasn't cutting it?
What happened is Warren would cook some beautiful food for us and I would say to him: "This is not what I want sorry honey!" So we would go and eat out to a Japanese restaurant or an Italian restaurant. I felt so bad that he had cooked some great food but that wasn't appealing to me. The key is to listen to your own instinct and intuition listen to what the baby wants!!
Do you think your diet is what made your pregnancy so easy?
I feel that my pregnancy was so wonderful because of my diet.
Next time I'll share Fatim's feedback about having a natural birth! Did any of you Kind Lifers follow a macro or superhero diet during your pregnancy? I want to hear how it went for you!
May 5, 2011
warren kramer will be back in LA soon!
Macrobiotic educator and counselor Warren Kramer will be back in LA May 18-23 to teach several classes in Venice and on the Westside you know him from my previous blogs or maybe you've already attended one of his classes!. This time he's giving a lecture about health and technology particularly about everyday exposure to radiation I'll be blogging about this soon. Sounds like a great class!
He's also teaching a yummy looking cooking class about macrobiotic dishes from around the world. Additional topics he'll cover in his series of classes are summer cooking the seven levels of eating according to traditional Chinese medicine and balancing acid and alkaline foods for stress reduction. If you want to dive in and take all of his classes this spring sign up before May 9 for a big discount.
Also if any of you have been thinking of seeing a macrobiotic counselor Warren is great! His wife recently had a baby I'll be blogging about her pregnancy and natural birth soon so Warren is a wonderful resource for anyone who is pregnant or for anyone looking to be more superhero. He'll be available for private counseling during his trip to LA so if any of you LA Kind Lifers want to see a macrobiotic counselor consider booking a session with him while he's in town.
Is anyone looking for one-on-one guidance for being more superhero? What would your biggest questions for a macrobiotic counselor be?
May 4, 2011
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unplug your tv!!!
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I must say I love love love unplugging my TV after I'm done watching. I also love keeping my VCR/DVD player unplugged until I need to use it. The only thing that stays plugged is all the time in my DVR/Tivo type machine since it won't record anything if I unplug it.
Here's my system: We have these 3 plugs for the TV TV DVD DVR and they're all labeled. This helps me to know what I can unplug after I'm done watching TV or watching a movie. And for some reason having this system seriously makes me deliriously happy! Every time I unplug the TV or the DVD/VCR player I know that I am saving soo much energy which is the best feeling!
When electronics or appliances or really anything with a power cord is plugged into a socket they're still using up energy. It seems weird I know but it's true. So if you start doing this and unplug things when you aren't using them you can save about 50 on all of your energy bills... Not to mention saving the Earth's resources.
This is such an easy thing to do I'd love it for you all to give it a try! Just take 5 minutes and label your cords. Keep them unplugged and then whenever you need to use something you'll know which cord to plug in. It's so easy and makes such a big difference.
Let me know if any of you have energy saving tricks of your own!
May 3, 2011
great hemp protein!
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I recently discovered this brand of hemp protein called Living Harvest. They have a couple of great vegan products that I like – their Tempt Hempmilk is great and I haven't tried the Tempt Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert but it looks worth trying. They also have hemp protein powder.
I wanted to spread the word about them especially because it's Hemp History Week.
What are your favorite hemp products?
May 2, 2011
Made Just Right has Sweet Prizes for Your Dessert Recipes Sponsored Post
Vegan Lemon Cheesecake with Glazed Berries made with Earth Balance® buttery spread graham cracker crumbs cinnamon salt silken tofu vegan cream cheese vegan granulated sugar cornstarch lemon zest vanilla extract mixed berries and light agave nectar
Are you someone who knows desserts can be delicious – and healthy too? Desserts don't have to be sinful or wreck your diet to taste sweet and decadent!
This week the Spring to Life Recipe Contest is looking for healthy dessert recipes that have at least one plant-based ingredient in them such as a fruit whole grain nuts tofu… you get the idea!
Enter your dessert recipes at Made Just Right before Sunday May 8 for a chance to be one of eight winners who will receive a year's supply of Earth Balance a Forks Over Knives DVD and t-shirt and a Made Just Right™ custom bamboo cutting board oven mitt and measuring cup. One grand prize winner will get an all-expense paid trip to New York City and dinner at one of Alicia's favorite vegan restaurants Candle 79!
Looks like a pretty sweet deal for someone to win! Visit Made Just Right for more information and instructions about how to upload your recipes.
Happy and healthy cooking!
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