May 08 2013
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Setbacks/Throwbacks/Redux

I’m throwing out my vision of what I figure my blog should actually be. One of my biggest obstacles to writing regularly has been I don’t know what I should actually be talking about. My interests are varied and the things I like the most seem to have a lot of “competition” in the blog world. But so be it: I plan on discussing food/cooking (of the vegan/vegetarian variety), fitness (from the perspective of an unathletic but always determined woman), transit/libraries/other awesome community resources, and women’s issues of multiple varieties.

I don’t expect you to like all my content or agree with all my opinions, but I welcome you as long as you can keep it civil. My blog title may actually change from my name to something clever…as soon as I think of something clever.

So it begins:

Throwback Snacks

Some time ago, when the Pepsi and Mt Dew throwback drinks came out, I read an article about the merits of consuming cane sugar vs processed (fake) sugars like high fructose corn syrup. What the writer concluded was that any kind of sugar in large amounts was bad and the only time you should consume it was when it was it came with fiber, like in an apple – then threw in the comment “Talk about a throwback.”

I’ve done my best to embrace these ideas in the past few weeks by taking fruit (usually an orange or banana) to my “building the dream” job (how I’ll refer to my job that I work to pay the bills while I’m trying to find a way to get paid for what I like to do). It’s cheap and while I may not be craving the taste, fruit does a great job of giving me my sugar fix and not making me lethargic. While this should be a no-brainer, I previously snacked on “healthy” chips and sugary drinks because that’s what was available to me at the job. Planning ahead by just throwing a piece of fruit in my bag has alleviated several tummy aches.

Planning Dinner: Redux

Our house was in a good grove of planning dinner and sticking to what we planned for several weeks. But then…we got tired. Or rather, we got tired of the idea of cooking meals with a lot of prep. Or one or the other of us was just tired after a full day and we easily talked ourselves in to just grabbing something out or from the freezer section at Trader Joe’s. I feel confident the solution has three parts:

1) Finding New Meals – to get us excited
2) Prepping More Ahead of Time – use time when we have energy
3) Audit our Success – hold ourselves accountable to our budget/plan on a regular basis

Lists and calendars will have to start becoming a part of our food world (again, something we’ve always tried but couldn’t hang with). I’m “Ughing” inside my head as I write this, but discipline is always hard until it becomes habit.

So what’s worked the best in meal planning for you guys? I see this question regularly on food/health blogs but because I always see different types of feedback, I’m compelled to ask again.

Feb 20 2013
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Humble Advice From My Life

Giving Brown Bags a Chance

I used to be a purse girl. By this I mean I used to spend disposable income on purses and be proud of my collection. I never bought anything that I would consider ultra high-end (Louis Vuitton, Valentino, etc.) but there was a bit of Dooney & Bourke, Coach and Kate Spade. But my favorite of all-time was a beautiful cranberry red patent leather piece of magnificence by Sigrid Olsen. This piece of magnificence got compliments everywhere until one day it received what I now like to call the ultimate compliment and was stolen from me at a coffee shop. Stolen right in front of me, I might add, not the kind where I get up from the table and leave it there grab.

From that point on, I never bought another pretty bag. In fact, the only bag I have purchased was a very small purse from Target on clearance for less than $5. It’s actually gotten me compliments too…which of course solidified my decision to not lay down anymore good money on a bag. These days, when disposable income is something that only exists in the movies, I realize I should have stopped sooner.

But the story doesn’t end there…

You see there was one bag I never actually used. I kept it, along with all my other old bags that I’ve been unsuccessful at selling on eBay, in the dark corner of my closet. It’s the less-flashy sister of the kidnapped bag. And it has more space (a good bit more). And it has a wonderful middle compartment that zips up. And it’s well-made, able to carry a lot of weight. Basically, it’s my ideal purse. But it’s brown.

Though I found it shiny and wonderful under store lights, I never gave it a shot. And I continued to not give it a shot through ordeal after ordeal of  not having the right kind of room in my bag. Because I like black bags, or a bright color bag for a special occasion. The times I stood in my closet and decided not to take it out that day, I can honestly tell you that every single time I said to myself, “It’s brown and it will clash with all the black you’re wearing.” This was whether or not I was wearing black that day.

For whatever reason last week, I got it off the shelf and began to stuff away. I was able to comfortably fit my notebook, computer power cord, the book I was reading and all the usual purse stuff without  any issues in bulge or weight. Without sounding too over the top: it was freeing.

Again, I don’t know what prompted me finally giving this bag a chance. I’d like to think it was a shift in attitude, or the brief realization that life is too short not to carry big, beautiful bags that you spent good money on. But an attitude shift occurred and I’m trying to capitalize on it. I’m now walking into my closet looking for old treasures to evaluate and am actually willing to try on clothes that I’m pretty sure don’t fit, accept that fact and give them away. I’m also free of the fear of the bag clashing with the color or style of what I’m wearing. What kind of fear is that anyway? People are cold and hungry on the streets of the city I live in and I’m afraid someone will see me have a fashion blunder? Really now…

So here’s to more days ahead with a bag that keeps my hands free and to living confidently. I’m pretty sure this is what being a grown-up is supposed to feel like.

Brown Bag of Glory

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Feb 19 2013
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Food

Drowning in a Bag of Chips, Rescued by Banana Bread

Regardless of the predominantly healthy changes in diet I’ve made in the past year, I’m as prone as I ever was to stress eating. Even though I tell myself that my choices during the bad times now are better than my choices in the bad times back when…well, they’re still bad eating choices. My favorite bad choice of late has been a big bag of chips, with some variation in flavor.

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Chips as a snack is a poor choice – but chips as a meal is just gross. Both this last Saturday and yesterday I used a bag of chips as a meal. One excuse is that I needed a portable, easy-to-eat-while-driving snack. But really I wanted salt and fat, and a lot of both, in a quick delivery system.

The fact was that we just had a death in the family and I’m a bit sad. Also, some other things in my world aren’t exactly going to plan and that also makes me a bit sad. Potato chips are no cure for the sadness, though they give me a small rush through a time when I’m in an otherwise dull place.

This leads me to what pulled me out of this chip rut: banana bread. Now you’re thinking, “Oh, so you’re replacing a lot of fat and salt with a lot of sugar and talking about it like it’s a good thing.” Not exactly. It’s not the eating of the banana bread that pulls me away from potato chips (and my sadness that took me there) – it’s the making of the banana bread. When I abruptly decided to make banana bread in the middle of the day, I had no desire to eat any at all. What I had was a desire to break away and to change what I was feeling in that moment. To do something with my hands that would lead to a finished product. And much like the potato chips, this needed to be something quick and easy. I’ve made banana bread so many times, it just made sense.

If your actions are allowing you to dwell on what’s wrong without doing anything to improve the situation (for example, lying on your bed with your arm attached to a bag of chips), I’m pretty sure it’s better to find something to do that will at least change what you’re dwelling on until you’re ready to move forward.

Baking this simple recipe allowed me to take my mind off sad thoughts and gave me a small sense of accomplishment. This allowed me to move forward with my day and not take those problems with me to other areas of my life.  Are all my problems solved? Well, no. But I’m currently not eating potato chips and am writing my first blog post in months.

(Oh, the banana bread was a huge hit with the rest of the house. There is no picture because…yeah, it’s gone already. The very simple recipe I use is:

  • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour yesterday)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup oil (I usually use canola)
  • 4 or more bananas (depending on their size or how moist you’d like the loaf)
  • Walnuts or other nut (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 (F) and grease a loaf pan. Puree bananas and oil in blender. Mix all dry ingredients together and then mix well with puree, adding nuts if desired. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. You may want to check your loaf starting at 45 minutes, as the bake time may vary depending on your oven and how many bananas you use.)

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Oct 29 2012
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Blustery Day

I return to the blog world on a day when many of my fellow east coasters will lose power and likely be unable to move for a couple of days at least. I’m lucky to be far enough away from the storm that we are getting a good bit of wind and some possible showers but nothing bad is predicted. Not too far to our west, snow is falling and a small earthquake was recorded this morning. I love where I live for more reasons than one, as severe weather doesn’t happen too often.

To anyone reading this in the path of Sandy, please stay as safe as you can and I am hoping you can return to normal as soon as possible.

It is today that I return with new ideas, some that I hope to talk about more in the coming months:

  • The Continued Epic Story of Being Vegan (Compromises and Sacrifices Included)
  • My Love of Fashion and Design…and How I Feel Useless When Discussing Either
  • The Joys of Living in a City After Spending Most of Your Life…Not In a City
  • Running & Working Out With No Particular Goals in Mind
  • Trying To Break Into a Career Where Background is Limited and Competition is High
  • Kindness, Compassion and Making a Difference Somehow
  • Public Transit and Why I Wish (and Hope) I Can Use it More

I’m hoping my activity can keep pace with my desires. My problem has never been lack of ideas or wanting, but lack of execution or doing.

Aug 24 2012
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On To The Next One

So I did the half-marathon in June and finished it in a time faster than any goal I set. This was awesome, no doubt about it.

And since then it’s been a struggle.

I was afraid to take any time off from training because I knew myself – I knew that I would find it hard to get back into a routine, to do long runs again, to figure out the next race goal…to find a  way to get better.

While extremely proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished, it doesn’t seem like enough. Yet it seems so hard to do more.

I am still running, but only shorter runs a couple of times a week and some cross-training at the gym. But it all feels empty. There is another race I want to register for but now I’m not sure I’ll be ready in time.

Should getting better be the goal? Or should the goal just be to maintain? Or just to enjoy whatever it is I’m doing?

Being horribly unfair to myself is the hardest habit to break: before I’ve had a chance to celebrate an achievement, I’m beating myself up for not being ready for the next one on my list.

Here’s to getting better at understanding myself and to many more miles in some form or another.

 

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Aug 08 2012
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Riddles in the Dark

Last night I sat in bed for the longest time trying to sleep and wondering why I couldn’t. It occurred to me that it had been ages since I had written anything here, or really anywhere. The questions remain why I continue to deny myself the pleasure of doing the one thing I know I’m good at. There are surely stories to tell and things to discuss. I don’t fear criticism or not having any readers. But the puzzle remains: why would the writer not bother to write?

Apr 22 2012
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Food, Running

Challenges Closer to the End

It’s just over a month away till my first half-marathon and it’s time to get my head right.

It would seem that most of the “small” victories have had their day: running a whole mile without stopping, followed by 2 miles without stopping, dropping the first 10 pounds, and (the latest from this weekend) taking in my water belt a notch. I’ve now figured out a pace that I can run on long routes that keeps me from walking and, occasionally, makes it possible for me to make a surge.

The challenges ahead: even longer mileage, even hotter and more humid days, business and family commitments running into our morning run times. I’ve always known these were coming or might come. And I know it will be worth it when I overcome them. But for the first time, I don’t consider these at all easy. Maybe I’m being foolish, after all it really wasn’t easy for my body to come out of couch potato – but I told myself that it should be. Before, it was 90% physical obstacles: now it’s time for the mind games.

I’m still telling myself a good story, envisioning the end and encouraging to myself while I run. Any other good mental exercises I should take on?

As for the report on our 9 miles yesterday, both the boyfriend and I felt horrible during and immediately after the run. I think the increased humidity had a lot to do with it. I didn’t even bother putting one of the bottles back in my belt for the last mile.

In food stories, while we’re thoroughly enjoying my CSA shares (photos will have to come later), we’re finding it hard to affordable supplement with things we want to eat, mainly tomatoes, cucumbers and onions. I know we probably could be more creative with what we have but inspiration is often lacking when it’s time for dinner.

I’ve yet to use scallions and spinach from this week’s share: any ideas?

I’ll be making tofu lettuce wraps as featured on this great blog later this week – I’ll be sure to report back as I’ve long wanted to add recipe reviews as a component of my blog. Feel free to link me to other good vegan recipes that I should make time for.

Our bottles of water and nuun awaiting their fate of a long Saturday...

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Apr 18 2012
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Food, Running

Recovery Issues/Eating at Home

 

A lot has happened since my Friday evening post, most importantly another long run on Saturday. This week was 7 miles and I somehow convinced myself that this was going to be easy after doing 10 miles the week before. I’ll save you the suspense: it wasn’t, any way you looked at it. I had a really rough start and just couldn’t get into a rhythm. I always have a rough first 1.5 miles, but this stretched into the 4.5 mile point. It wasn’t until the last mile that I didn’t feel like this wasn’t an uncomfortable exercise. This wasn’t shin splints bothering me, just more like my body saying, “You can keep going, but I’m not feeling this.”

To make matters worse, recovery wasn’t any better. We always eat well and when we’re supposed to; I initially felt fine, but about 3 hours after the run ended I started feeling like I was coming down with the flu – general yuckiness and extra tired. I tried to pinpoint why this was a particularly rough day and I can only sight one thing that was different from previous long runs: a tiny bit less sleep. Even though I did some extra yawns on Saturday morning, I didn’t consider that maybe I needed more sleep before starting the run. Some of you are reading this and thinking, “Duh, sleep is important!” – but most of my life, spent not training for a half-marathon, hasn’t been severely effected by a lack of sleep on a particular night. (Or maybe it has, but that sounds like another blog post…)

What is your required sleep times for particular run days? Do you see noticeable differences on workouts with more sleep the night before?

We’re on our second week of not eating any meals outside of the house. We pack lunches and snacks and we’ve learned to say “no” to the luring temptation of Thai restaurants and humus trays with cocktails. Tax season reminded us of how much our budget needed revamping and we decided the easiest place to start was to eat what we already had. A few things worth noting so far:

  • Last week we had a bag less of trash to throw out – we usually go through 2 but only had 1 (Yay for less waste!).
  • Bananas are becoming as much of a snack as they are a component of a lot of breakfasts and lunches.
  • We’re making a more sincere effort to utilize what’s in our CSA share. I was guilty of throwing away greens from our winter shares, but I made a point to incorporate some swiss chard into dinner this time. We’ve also had a problem letting fresh herbs get past their prime, but my boyfriend saved the oregano in the yummy pasta salad he made last night (pictured below).

Anyone out there a total at-home eater right now? What’s a realistic food budget look like for you?

Pasta salad: whole wheat penne, chickpeas, diced tomatoes, shredded carrots, tuscan-italian dressing and fresh oregano.

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Apr 13 2012
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Food, Running

Better Days and CSAs

(So I can’t promise that all of my blog titles will rhyme or be a great example of alliteration, but why not take advantage of it while I can, right?)

Really good news to report in my running world! In my last post, I was complaining of shin splints and was wary of any kind of injury that could be coming on. Wednesday’s workout was all on the bike at the gym, with some discomfort but nothing drastic. Yesterday was a particularly stressful day prior to running, so I really wanted to run. No, I needed to, for the first time since starting my training, sweat out frustration instead of just doing it because it was on the schedule. When I started my route, I went very easy because of the previous pain, but soon noticed that I wasn’t feeling much. So I began to push myself. The whole route I kept telling myself the same 3 things (no joke): I will do the best I can, I will not stop without pain and if I do have pain, I will forgive myself because there will be another run on another day…

My results? My end time showed that I had taken 3 minutes off of my usual 3 mile time. I was quite fulfilled.

I will give the disclaimer that I’m not a very fast runner to begin with, but I always run my whole route. Also, I’ve never made an effort to push myself beyond my comfort zone in running. I don’t have a goal time for my half-marathon, only to finish and not feel like I want to die…but setting this new challenge for myself did pique my interest. We’ll see where I take it from here.

Do you set particular personal challenges in running or just do it for enjoyment and/or to finish a goal mileage? I’m finding most of the runners I run into are time driven, but I’m hoping to find more of the other kind :-) .

Another deviation from running: I love our CSA! Ever since we’ve gone vegan this last time (but we do use honey), I really appreciate fresh vegetables. I also take pride in supporting local farms, but my favorite thing about our weekly share is that I never know until the day before I get it, what I’m going to get. I love being able to try new things instead of getting stuck in the rut that going to the produce aisle will eventually toss me into. It’s this same “goody bag joy” that makes so many people enjoy service like Birchbox or Stitch Fix.

Are you a CSA member? Is the “not knowing what you’ll get” factor good or bad in your opinion?

All the color! Strawberries, honey, sweet potatoes, carrots and swiss chard shown. We also got green lettuce, red lettuce, cilantro and oregano.

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Apr 11 2012
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Running

Shin Splints and Snap Shots

Yesterday I wrote about how much I had started to like running. Post run, I encountered what I had been warned about multiple times but what I had hoped would pass me by: shin splints. So far, it’s only effecting one leg. I iced and Adviled last night and did feel an improvement this morning. My initial fear was that this was going to totally mess up my training and did my best not to panic – and do a little bit of research.

There is one immediate possible cause that sticks out above the rest: my shoes. Last week my boyfriend and I determined that our shoes were probably done, but got busy and put off getting a new pair. A Facebook friend also commented – after my complaining in a status update – that when she gets shin splints, she knows it’s time to get new shoes. I’m inclined to get to the running store before the end of the week (and before my next run).

If you saw my training schedule from yesterday, you’ll notice that today is a cross-training day. I’m thinking that I’ll keep to the stationary bike for the full hour (I often try to do some “hill work” on the treadmill); less pressure on my legs that way. The pain isn’t severe but I’ve worked too hard to risk an injury that could keep me from doing 13.1. I know some people just run through them and end up fine but I’m unwilling to try that without new shoes first.

If you have another good idea of what I should be doing for the shin splints, please comment.

Now for a slight deviation from running, a topic that has been on everyone’s radar (after Monday’s BILLION dollar news): Instagram. More specifically, my thoughts on why it has captured the imagination of so many of us.

I first encountered Instagram when I had an old iPhone 3G, but late last year I became an Android user and of course left the photo-sharing app behind…until last week. Since I’ve had the app back, I had to ask myself why I actually liked it so much.

It’s not like we can’t take pictures with our mobile devices anyway and share them…well, any where. The things that make it stick out (and make it as frequently visited as Facebook on my phone):

  1. You get that look from your childhood or old family pictures on the picture you just took. And without having to go back to film cameras. Does anyone still own one? (much respect if you do and still use it) My mom has two, but hasn’t used either since getting her first digital camera 5 years ago. Didn’t we all love Polaroids? Now when I find one, I get a serious case of nostalgia – and a good cure may be the ability to put that “Polaroid look” on pictures I can take today. Thank you Instagram filters!
  2. Because, deep down, we all want to be cool artists. We may not want to be photographers, painters, graphic designers or the like for a living, but we want to feel like we can create art. And what’s really wrong with that? You can take an ordinary (or a really freaking great) photo and make it a little more artsy with the right Instagram filter. I know some people really hate this aspect and find it quite pretentious, or even “dangerous” to the “real” art world. Come on. If this gives someone who has to work a crummy desk job, and can’t afford an amazing digital camera and the latest version of Photoshop, the opportunity to explore some outlet of creativity, what’s that hurting?
  3. Seeing the world in pictures is as awesome as it ever was. Even with the world at our fingertips, thanks to the internet, I haven’t lost the curiosity and wonder of pictures of places that are thousands of miles away from where I am. In the last week, I’ve started following Instagramers from Siberia, Scotland, Rome, Thailand and many other locations far, far away. I get to see pictures of the more touristy sites, the Nat Geo type nature views and the everyday minutia of people who live there. This will never get old for me. This is just a new way to still be an amazed kid looking through the big, color-print coffee-table books of places you may never get to go…but maybe one day…

What makes you love or hate Instagram? Any particularly cool users I should be following?

My comment when I posted this to Instagram this morning: "Prior to Instagram? Just another breakfast"

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