Life – Naturally Lindsay

SAHM Diaries | What I Do All Day

October 17, 2017 by Lindsay Ingalls 7 Comments

A few weeks back I was watching Jane’s instastories and she shared how instead of making a to-do list she decided to write down all the tasks she did each day. I thought this was such an interesting approach because as a stay-at-home parent there are many days where I feel that I never cross anything off my to-do list and end my day feeling like a bit of a failure. So I took Jane’s lead and decided to write down everything I did in an entire day but I took it one step further to basically include almost everything. Since I am a mama of a new baby I included nursing sessions because while those are nice to do they can often feel like tasks and like my life revolves around nursing*.

Monday September 25, 2017- start time 6am

– nurse
– package up some mail to ship out
– make breakfast for myself
– nurse
– get my littles ready for the day
– coffee shop and consignment shop date with my littles
– emptied dishwasher
– hand washed a load of dishes
– removed everything from the fridge to clean, organize and declutter to take photos for this sneak peek into our fridge.
– nurse
– cook lunch
– read books with littles
– nurse
– attempt to do a barre3 workout…..but instead nurse some more
– quite time over/prepare snack for littles
– nurse
– check emails
– nurse
– put beans in instant pot for dinner
– nurse
– re-heat coffee for 5th time and play with littles
– nurse
– cook dinner
– nurse
– eat dinner
– nurse
– eat ice cream and watch gilmore girls
– nurse
– catch up on YouTube ….
– nurse
– take a shower
– nurse

11pm go to bed.

This whole process was pretty eye opening in that I honestly didn’t realize just how much I actually do in a day. While I don’t often get all my tasks done for the day I am almost constantly doing something with a few moments here in there to take a break to eat and/or relax. My days will continue to change as Ingrid gets bigger and I would say just shy of a month later our Monday’s are already a bit different.

The reality is being a SAHM/WAHM is not a walk in the park. We don’t just sit around and do nothing all day. Most days are spent cooking, cleaning, facilitating learning (led by our children), driving places, mediating and doing a whole lot of loving.

*This list was made right around Ingrid’s 3-month growth spurt which is why there is so much nursing.

The Three B’s: Bowling, Birthday and BBQ

September 14, 2017 by Lindsay Ingalls 3 Comments

We have made it a tradition that on each of our children’s birthdays we will do a new activity or visit somewhere new. This year for Alder’s birthday we started our morning with coffee and pastries at Jet Black Coffee. Then it was on to the Circuit Bouldering gym for a quick climbing session before heading to our main event – bowling at Punch Bowl Social.

Neil and I had visited Punch Bowl Social last year on a date night but our visit was quick and we had no idea that it had three bowling areas, tons of games and karaoke rooms as well as some really delicious food. We were all pretty excited to spend the afternoon bowling and eating especially since this was the first time Edith and Alder had ever been bowling.

We opted to eat at our lane because there was no way we were going to get the kids to sit down and eat when they knew that bowling was just a few feet away. So we ordered our food and drinks and after we convincing Alder that the lightest ball would be best for him even though it was blue (his favorite colour at the moment) we got down to bowling.

One thing that I love about Punch Bowl Social bowling is that it’s by the hour versus by the game. This means we can bowl as many games as we can in our allotted time and we aren’t paying for each string. With two kids however we were lucky to make it through one game but either way still fun. I will note however if you are into some competitive bowling these lanes are not PBA approved but are just for gathering with friends for a fun time.

Not interested in bowling? Don’t worry Punch Bowl Social is worth visiting for the food alone. All the food is made in house and is not the normal greasy, heated up food you find at most bowling alleys. This food is top notch and so are the drinks. I am still dreaming about the Superfood Grain Bowl it was legitimately one of the best things I ate all summer.

The Superfood Grain Bowl has crispy farro (something I need to learn how to make), a bunch of great veggies and an incredible miso ginger vinaigrette. We also ordered the Black Eyed Pea Hummus which was was another amazing dish and we ordered the Boiled Peanuts which I was a bit skeptical about and the first few were hard to get down but the more I ate the more I liked them and even our five-year-old, Edith, couldn’t get enough. For drinks we went with a few of their homemade sodas which were all delicious but my favorite was the Season’s Soda.

After we finished up bowling we headed home to get ready for our mini birthday BBQ with friends. Since we had a big morning out we kept it simple with homemade slaw, chips, store bought cake (Whole Foods has the best vegan chocolate cake BTW) and veggie dogs.

We kept our veggie dogs super simple with just a bit of Sir Kensigton mustard and ketchup but this weekend we will be jazzing up our dogs and I just might have a recipe or two to share with you next week.

What birthday traditions do you have? What is your favorite birthday memory? I have to say birthdays for me are kind of a sore subject. I love celebrating others birthdays but I find that for some reason mine just never seems to be great. Oh well. I do have a great memory though when I was 13 or 14 my parents took me and a few friends to New Hampshire to go shopping and stay in a hotel.

A Succulent Themed Baby Shower

June 20, 2017 by Lindsay Ingalls 12 Comments

In May I was lucky enough to have the most beautiful baby shower. The party featured tons of green and white, lots of succulents and of course some pretty amazing food. The best part however was spending a few hours connecting with other women about life and motherhood while celebrating my third and final baby.

My friend Jenni is a party planner extraordinaire and she put designed and but together the most perfect succulent baby shower along with the help of Lisa.

One of the big features of the party was the create your own terrarium station. This was such a fun activity and what a wonderful gift to send home with guests! I’d share my terrarium with you but I have to say my black thumb shows even though I had easy directions to follow. That hasn’t stopped me from displaying it in my living room because it brings me so much joy to walk past it everyday and be reminded of this special day.

While Jenni designed the party Lisa was so gracious and catered the entire shower which included this amazing DIY Avocado Toast Bar and an amazing Vegan Cheese Board. The delicious food didn’t end there however we also had vegan chicken and waffles and a platter of veggies with Toby’s Tofu Spread.

While all I really wanted this shower to be was a time to celebrate this baby and pregnancy Edith was pretty thrilled that gifts were also involved and she was thrilled to help open them. We were beyond spoiled by these lovely ladies and can’t wait for baby #3 to arrive so we can use everything.

A huge thank you to all the lovely ladies who were able to attend my shower and of course extra thanks to Jenni and Lisa who took time to plan, prepare and put on this amazing day.

Photo credit: @jennibost
Party Planner extraordinaires: @jennibost & @thisbeautifulday

Motherhood.

June 19, 2017 by Lindsay Ingalls 2 Comments

Motherhood is rewarding, enlightening, fulfilling, and just overall incredible however it can also be lonely, isolating, challenging, frustrating and overwhelming. I entered motherhood with my husband by my side but without a strong group of mothers around me. I was the first of my close friends to get married and have children and while becoming a mother was incredible and I was thrilled those lonely, isolating, overwhelming feelings easily took over.

For me moving to Portland was such a shift and really helped to change my perspective in life and motherhood. I was forced to seek out opportunities to meet new people and when you have a 6 month old that means moms groups. I met other women just like me, new to motherhood and just trying to make our way through. I became more confident as a mother and as person and began to seek out more opportunities to meet people and that’s when I found Portland Bloggers and met some amazing creatives many of whom are women and many who are also navigating motherhood while following their passions. —

As I enter motherhood for the third time I am feeling anxious as we add another little human to our family but I am also comforted knowing that I have an amazing community here in Portland. I was reminded just how supported and lucky I am this past May when my girlfriends through an incredible succulent themed baby shower for me. It was more than I could have ever expected and it left me feeling so full of love, life and light. This baby will be entering the world filled with so much love and I feel that this time around (the last time around) I will also be entering motherhood with the love and support that I desired all those years ago.

Photo credit: @jennibost
Party Planner extraordinaires: @jennibost & @thisbeautifulday

A Late 2016 In Review

March 20, 2017 by Lindsay Ingalls 2 Comments

A little (late) 2016 in review. This was the year that I really returned to myself and started to focus on my interests and passions. I found myself diving into the world of essential oils, something that I had been putting off for years out of fear of the unknown and the cost of investment.

What I didn’t realize back in January 2016 when I took the plunge was that I was investing in myself. Investing in my health and wellbeing as well as my families. This spiraled into me focusing on other passions such as my health coaching that had taken a backseat to motherhood and life. It also had me expanding my health coaching into essential oil education.

Additionally, I have felt empowered to focus more on my partner and love of my life and together we found a babysitter whom we love and we have a date night at least twice per month but usually three times.

Along with more focused time with my partner we spent the year really focusing on quality time with our kids exploring Portland and the PNW.

I have devoted more time and effort to my relationship with friends and have found myself surrounded by a group of really amazing people. People whom I have come to respect, love and whom I can rely on for support.

While this isn’t to paint a perfect picture, because things are by no means perfect, it is to say that when you take the time to follow your interests, explore new things and rededicate yourself to the things/ones you love life can be so much richer.

So cheers to 2016 and I look forward to what 2017 has to bring (especially this babe who will be joining us in June).

What are some of the highlights from you 2016?

12-Weeks to a Happier and Healthier Life | Weeks 3 & 4

September 28, 2015 by Lindsay Ingalls 14 Comments

I feel like it’s been longer than two weeks since we had a check-in but it hasn’t and here I am with a big one. I have so much to share with you about my diet, goals and where I am now. Keep reading!
Goals In Review:

(Dietary Goal) Diligently follow my 28 week transformation program. I wish I could say that I did but I had a few off days but overall I found that I was pretty successful and that the program helped me to focus on eating more intuitively (more about this in my review below)
(Physical Goal) Do 10+ minutes of barre3 online each day. Huge fail. I don’t know why but I just didn’t. This is going back on my goals again for weeks 5 & 6.
(Mental Goal) Spend 15 minutes per day reading a book. Okay so I didn’t read a book for 15 minutes everyday but I did read The Starch Solution by Dr. John McDougall.

Goals for Weeks 5 & 6:

(Dietary Goal) Drink 64oz of water everyday. I had been drinking close to a gallon of water everyday for a few weeks but in the past two weeks I haven’t been filing my water jar as frequently as I should. So cheers to drinking more water.
(Physical Goal) Do 10+ minutes of barre3 online each day. Let’s try this again. Anyone want to be my accountability partner?
(Mental Goal) Read and start The Orange Rhino Challenge. Being a stay-at-home mom of two little ones can be rewarding and fun but also exhausting and frustrating (usually all in the same day). If you know me you know I have a bit of a fiery personality and while my goals is be a gentle and warm parent I have my moments where I can be short and lose my patience. The thing is I don’t want to be short or lose my patience. I want to be calm, warm and in control of my emotions. You can read more about the challenge here.

Review of The Past Two Weeks:

I had a bit of a break through in the past two weeks regarding my diet. I had been following my 28 Day Transformation plan which called for five meals with certain portioned out components to each meal. Following the plan I found myself craving a lot of sweets and other junk foods but overall I just wanted more starches (brown rice, sweet potato, white potatoes, beans). I left many meals feeling full but not satisfied which would cause me to seek out other foods. This isn’t to say that the meal plan design for this program doesn’t work it just didn’t work for me. Besides not feeling satisfied with meals I also had a hard time fitting in the two snack meals because life just gets busy and for me three meals works best most of the time.

Finally after about 18 days of following the plan 80% of the time I decided to give into my craving and I had a huge bowl of rice at lunch. After that meal I felt super satisfied and more energetic. So I ended up increasing my starches by adding in more brown rice, whole grain pasta, potatoes and sweet potatoes. I did stick with keeping things low fat; the 28 Day Transformation program allowed for 2-3 servings of fat per day. Once I started listening to my body I found that within a few days my cravings decreased, my energy increased and my digestion improved.

So for now I am focusing on eating a bit more of starch based, low fat vegan diet because it is working for me. I haven’t given up oils and such but I plan to keep my diet mostly starches(oats, brown rice, sweet potato, winter squash, white potatoes, beans, legumes and occasionally whole grain pasta), fruits and veggies with a little bit of fat. If you’d like me to discuss this further in a separate post let me know!

Workouts as you saw above just haven’t been going well. I have been getting out most days with the kids for a walk or two during the day but as for focused workouts they just haven’t been happening. I have been spending more time focusing my diet and now that I am in a good spot I feel ready and excited to take on regular non-walking workouts such as barre3, running (!!) and hopefully try out some new classes in Portland.

Overall I am feeling like I am in a good place. I learned a lot over the past few weeks and I am feeling more positive, more energetic, and excited for the next 8 weeks and beyond.

How are you doing with your goals?

prAna #7daystretch, Yoga Pants & 7 Things You Might Not Know About Me

September 23, 2015 by Lindsay Ingalls 6 Comments

I recently participated in the prAna and Fit Approach #7daystretch campaign on Instagram. It was a great excuse to get myself back into regular stretching and I am finding myself loving the prompts, community and creativity that comes with fun campaigns like this one.

I also had an opportunity to try out a pair of prAna leggings from their Fall collection and I instantly fell in love. There is something about a pair of quality leggings that reminds me why it’s okay to invest a little more in something great. It reminded me so much that I went out and bought myself a pair of their Misty Knickers. Now I basically live in my Prisim Capris and Misty Knickers because they are so comfortable, cute and I can wear them for a workout (barre, yoga, walk, hike) or I can simply pair them with a pair of casual shoes, a t-shirt and a denim jacket for a casual but cool look. The fit of both of these pants are just so comfortable, a little higher rise so it holds everything in (#postpartumbelly) and what can I say my butt looks great in them.

Have you tried prAna pants? My husband has a pair of the Brion pants and another pair that I can’t remember the name of but he loves both of them. They are perfect for hiking and for casual wear as well.

In honor of the 7 Day Stretch here are 7 Things You Might Not Know About Me:

75% of my blog posts are written by hand. I have always been better at expressing myself through words if I first write something down on a piece of paper. It’s really my first draft of something so when I do go to type it there are less grammatical errors and overall my posts just seem to be better.
I could eat pasta with Earth Balance and nutritional yeast everyday (but I don’t). I know boring right? I love all kinds of food and to cook up really fun meals but I also love something so simple. When I was a child I used to have pasta with butter and parmesan all the time and this is basically my vegan version of a childhood favorite.
Every September I re-watch Gilmore Girls. I don’t know what it is about Gilmore Girls but its just says Fall to me. I have been watching the show every Fall since it started. One year I was gifted three of the seasons and so came the tradition of watching those first three seasons and eventually the fourth every year. I almost purchased the entire boxset last year but then it came out on Netflix so I am holding off until it is no longer on Netflix. Also for those of you who might be wondering Neil also likes Netflix and I’m am trying to get Edith into it as well so when she is older she can start the yearly tradition with me.
Running With Tongs used to be a vegan food blog. Shout out to those of you who remember the Cooking For A Vegan Lover days. I started blogging in December 2006 about cooking for my vegan boyfriend (now husband) Neil. I wrote about vegan recipes and vegan restaurants and then in 2010 I started my health coaching journey and my blog slowly evolved to be more of a lifestyle blog and so I changed the name to Cook.Vegan.Lover. (cooking, vegan and everything I loved). I honestly wanted to change it something else completely but was scared to make a huge name change at that time. Finally in 2011 my blog had really turned into all things healthy living and not specifically vegan so I made the leap to Running With Tongs and here we are today.
My favorite place to eat in Portland is Harlow. Harlow is a vegetarian restaurant in SE Portland and it has just really delicious and nourishing food. My favorites to order are the Harlow Mac & Cheese, Mercy Blues with Tempeh and the Huevos Rancheros (sans huevos sub tempeh).
I have lived in 4 different apartments/townhouses/houses in less than 3 years. We moved to the Portland area in January 2013 and since we moved site unseen we chose a place that was a few miles from Neil’s job. After realizing that living in the suburbs was not for us we (finally) moved into Portland. Well a surprise pregnancy left us with a townhouse that was just a bit too small for our family so we moved back to the suburbs to be closer once again to Neil’s work. Fast forward a year and after finding out our rent was going to increase by 20% if we renewed our lease and the fact that we still felt like the suburbs were not for us we again (finally) moved back to Portland where we plan to be for the longterm future.
I am a total homebody. I love to explore but I am more than happy to spend my free time at home working on projects, pinning things to pinterest or binge watching my favorite show.

What is one (or seven) things I might not know about you?

Disclaimer: prAna sent me a pair of their leggings as part of the #7daystretch campaign with Fit Approach. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this campaign.

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