A New Year

While I don't really subscribe to the notion of New Year's Resolutions (I think that if you want to make a change, there's no reason to wait for a particular date to begin), this year I want to take advantage of the season by thinking through some of the goals that I have for 2011. Some are things that I've already begun working on and would like to continue (see 2 and 6), and others are newer things I'd like to become habit (1). My goals fall into the three traditional areas of health, academic/professional, and personal.

1. Make yoga and strength training a regular part of my workout regime.
2. Embrace intuitive eating and food journaling to continue to reform my disordered eating habits and work to lose 15lbs.
3. Train for and complete at least 4 races, including 2 of a 10k distance or more.
4. Make summer plans that will advance my library career.
5. Graduate from my MLIS program in December.
6. Choose Master's programs to apply to; begin applications and soliciting letters of reccomendation.
7. Gain/improve reading knowledge in at least one foreign language.
8. Travel - Visit friends in Pittsburgh, Nashville, and/or Santa Barbara as budget and schedule allow.
9. Have my healthiest, happiest year yet!

This past year I started running regularly and built up a pretty good base over the summer, running my first 5k in September with a 32:40 chip time. My goal was just to run the entire race and finish, which I did! This spring, I'd like to start racing a little more competitively and improve my speed and distance. I also really love cycling (and am a decent swimmer) and would love to get into triathlons someday, but unfortunately my graduate student budget doesn't leave much room for a decent road bike at the moment. For now, I just like to tool around in the summer on my ancient mauve Raleigh road bike. In addition to more racing, I plan to be more diligent with my strength training to feel strong and boost my metabolism and experiment with yoga to help me de-stress and center myself. I've just begun a two-week unlimited intro special at a hot yoga studio, which will then give me a good discount on my first package. I've only been a couple of times, but I've enjoyed it a lot so far. I also plan to make more gym dates with my friend Dana, who is very knowledgeable about and dedicated to strength training, and have ordered a few strength training dvds to mix things up at home.

Since a very young age, I've struggled with disordered and binge eating and being overweight. I've made good progress in the last 9 or so months, but I'd like to keep that momentum going and continue to refine my diet and approach towards food. I've never had a full-blown eating disorder and I've never had a ton of weight to loose, but I'm definitely above where I'd like to be. I know that numbers goals for weight aren't always the best idea, but I don't feel I'm too hung up on the scale. Largely I'd just like to look better in my clothes, maybe loose a pants size and feel healthier. Fifteen pounds would put me at a weight that is healthy for my size and one that I think I could maintain without a huge effort.

As far as school and my career goes, this summer I would like to either apply for an internship at the Library of Congress or elsewhere, or take summer classes to better ensure I will be able to graduate a semester early in December. After I get my MLIS, I'm currently planning on continuing in school to earn my Master's in comparative religions. To that end, I'll eventually need to have reading knowledge in two foreign languages, which means beefing up my high school French and tackling the German for Reading book currently collecting dust on my bookshelf.

Lastly, I want to make time for a few fun things, like visiting some of my friends who have moved away. I've struggled a bit this past year, but I've made some great changes for the better as well. There are still some things I have to get through this year that will be difficult (mainly my unhappiness with my library program and my living situation), but I want to focus and on maximizing the positive aspects of my life as much as possible. With some hard work and few changes, I definitely think I'm poised to have my healthiest year yet!


Back to my day, the toning video I did ended up having a pretty good cardio component, and this is the view out my window, so I nixed the run.

(I'm not sure if you can tell, but it was snowing at the time)

I did a quick stretch and some foam rolling before I hopped into a hot shower instead :) Once I got cleaned up and did a few chores, I was ready for lunch. I had leftover black bean burrito deliciousness from last night's dinner. The roasted pepitas really make this dish. Afterward, I followed it up with a juicy (unpictured) pear.

Off to work I go, and then hopefully to an evening hot yoga class if I get out on time. Gotta get my money's worth! :) 

Pumpkin Oats and Pumping Iron

For breakfast, I made up some Bob's Red Mill high-fiber breakfast cereal with canned pumpkin and walnuts, topped with half a banana and some wheat germ, along side a cup of coffee with some unsweetened almond milk. The cereal was good, although it could have used a bit of sweetener, but honestly I was too lazy to go back to the kitchen for it.

Still getting used to the photo thing, and my ancient point-and-shoot certainly doesn't help matters any, but I'm working on it. Now, I'm off to do some strength training and maybe get in a quick run before work. Love having the mornings off!

21-Day Vegan Challenge

Last spring, I discovered the amazing world of healthy-living blogs. I immediately became addicted, and I have reaped many lessons and many hours of entertainment since. I admire much about the blogging community and so have naturally flirted with the idea of starting my own. This morning I began the PCRM 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, so along with that challenge, I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to test out the blogging waters as well. I plan to document my experience during these three weeks to get a feel for blogging and what really goes into one. I imagine it will be mostly for my own record and accountability, but I'm putting it out there nonetheless. It's probably going to be pretty rough for a while, blog-wise, but I'm really excited about the vegan challenge.

Soon after my discovery of nutrition and exercise blogs, I graduated from college. With a ton of time on my hands last summer, I started reading up on nutrition and diet, as well as ramping up my exercise regime. After reading books like Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, Alicia Silerstone's The Kind Diet, and Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals, I decided to become a vegetarian in July. I no longer eat any meat or fish, so the big change for the next three weeks will be cutting out dairy. Along with this challenge, I also recently purchased a pass at a hot yoga studio and will be experimenting with adding regular yoga practice into my workout schedule, along with running, spinning and strength training.

On to the vegan eats! Since I'm pretty comfortable in the kitchen and already have quite a few favorite vegan recipes, I'm only very loosely following the suggested meal plan. Today I started off with a delicious pear before my morning yoga class. When I came home, I was pretty hungry and dove right in to the quick edamame and corn salad I threw together last night. I had a few leftovers to use up and so I came up with this easy salad. I didn't really measure anything, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, so I thought I'd share. It contained:

3/4 bag of frozen edamame, thawed
3/4 bag of frozen corn, thawed
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
Dressed with approx. 2T lime juice, 3-4T guacamole and salt and pepper to taste

Later, I snacked on half a banana and mandarin orange sections with some plain yogurt that I didn't want to throw out (I don't consider this "cheating", just a transition day) and a little bit of galaxy granola. I also made Alex's Bitter Chocolate Cake for One substituting a flax egg and stirring in a few chopped up squares of a vegan 85% dark chocolate bar. I had half in the afternoon with a cup of green tea and the other half after dinner.

Speaking of which, dinner was fab! I used this recipe for black bean burritos that No Meat Athlete turned me on to, using Daiya vegan cheddar and omitting the sour cream. So delicious. This was my first time trying any vegan cheese, and it seems Daiya is definitely the best brand. I liked how well it melted, but the taste seemed a bit sweet almost, which was interesting. I almost think I would have liked the dish better without any sort of cheese, but I'll have to try it in other applications to decide how I feel about it.

That's it for food today. Even though it wasn't completely vegan, between my meals and yoga this morning, I felt very energetic, light and centered today, which I hope to keep up. I didn't miss the dairy at all and I'm looking forward to the rest of the three weeks! Sorry for the long, not terribly exiting post, but tomorrow, I'm planning a little bit more backstory and some photos :) I'm hoping each post will get a little better than the last and that eventually this will become something readable. Wish me luck!

Musings of a procrastinating undergrad...

In the end of term crush of the last few weeks, I’ve found myself, as most do, writing a rather lot of papers. And in writing those papers – trying to answer some question, trying to find an angle, formulate a thesis, get them done – I’ve noticed that I have repeatedly approached my introductory material as an effort to correct some misapprehension. The “real” Hitler versus his pop culture persona, a more nuanced and informed view of FDR’s New Deal, the reality behind modern-day Creationism – these are just a few of my recent written endeavors – the sorts of things that include amazingly original declarations along the lines of “While it is commonly assumed that xxx is yyy, actually, it is better understood as zzz.” In undertaking my last paper, and again leaning towards such an approach, I began to question why this was (hey, it beat finishing the essay).

Was I just completely without literary creativity? In a mental rut? Lazy? Or, just maybe, was there something deeper corralling my thoughts in this particular direction. This was when I realized that this very sentiment – of re-education, the correction of misapprehensions – has been a constant refrain in the back of my mind throughout my time at university. Time and time again, I realized how my haphazardly accumulated and only vaguely acknowledged preconceptions and notions – about the nature of people, books, places, events – were almost invariably totally wrong. I have always considered myself a generally well-read, reasonably informed, intelligent person, but I am continually surprised at the wild differences between the fuzzy pictures in my head and reality.

Has anybody else has this same revelation? Is it merely the definition of education? Or, of good education? I’m not sure, but the experience seems to have awoken the voracious scholar in me; I grow restless thinking that I must be similarly uninformed, mistaken, about so many innumerable things. I am eager (as any undergrad with her eye on a doctorate ought to be, if possible) to learn, read, expand my knowledge in an effort, though ultimately futile, to combat discomfiting sense of ignorance. Young, naïve, starry-eyed as I may be, this is my quest.

Now...If only I could find a less overt (i.e. more interesting) approach for the six more papers I have to write…