Georgia Wedding Weekend

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My friends Leslie and Caleb were married Saturday at Jubilee. They chose this spot for the ceremony and I think it was perfect.

My friends Leslie and Caleb were married Saturday at Jubilee. They chose this spot for the ceremony and I think it was perfect.

I spent the last few days at Jubilee. I went a few days before my friends Leslie and Caleb’s wedding to hang out with them before they had back up North. Getting to spend time with my friends who live there and those who came from far away for the wedding was perfect. It was really just what I needed after two weeks of work/school/life chaos, and the wedding was beautiful.

I took a million pictures this weekend, so bear with me on this picture-heavy post.

Spending time with the bride before the wedding was one of my favorite times. It was a very peaceful "backstage." I can't believe my little Lesliebo is growing up. Ina and Leslie and I met when we all volunteered there for the first time in Fall 2009. I really feel like they are my sisters, and whenever we come back together it is like we never left.

Spending time with the bride before the wedding was one of my favorite times. It was a very peaceful "backstage." I can't believe my little Lesliebo is growing up. Ina and Leslie and I met when we all volunteered there for the first time in Fall 2009. I really feel like they are my sisters, and whenever we come back together it is like we never left.

The ceremony's musical accompaniment. I never realized how awesome accordions are.

The ceremony's musical accompaniment. I never realized how awesome accordions are.

This was really the only picture I took during the ceremony. There were a million other people taking pictures, and I wanted to just enjoy the moment..but Caleb's face seeing Leslie walk down the aisle was just priceless. He's standing here with his parents, who, along with Leslie's parents, helped officiate the ceremony. The whole thing was just a perfect representation of their love and values.

This was really the only picture I took during the ceremony. There were a million other people taking pictures, and I wanted to just enjoy the moment..but Caleb's face seeing Leslie walk down the aisle was just priceless. He's standing here with his parents, who, along with Leslie's parents, helped officiate the ceremony. The whole thing was just a perfect representation of their love and values.

Husband and wife! I first met Caleb when he and Leslie first began dating. She stayed on to volunteer for the term after ours, and he was a new volunteer. They left Jubilee, but came back here for the wedding because it was such a special place for them as individuals and a couple.

Husband and wife! I first met Caleb when he and Leslie first began dating. She stayed on to volunteer for the term after ours, and he was a new volunteer. They left Jubilee, but came back here for the wedding because it was such a special place for them as individuals and a couple.

After the ceremony, we had a potluck reception. The food was great, as always. Only at Jubilee will you find flan, Burmese sticky rice blueberry pie on the same wedding menu.

After the ceremony, we had a potluck reception. The food was great, as always. Only at Jubilee will you find flan, Burmese sticky rice blueberry pie on the same wedding menu.

One of my favorite foods from the wedding - tapioca in coconut milk.

One of my favorite foods from the wedding - tapioca in coconut milk.

For wedding favors, Caleb and Leslie made little jars of pickled vegetables. So cute.

For wedding favors, Caleb and Leslie made little jars of pickled vegetables. So cute.

After the couple had dinner with their family, we went out to celebrate in Athens. It was a good end to such a special day.

After the couple had dinner with their family, we went out to celebrate in Athens. It was a good end to such a special day. We were pretty tired here and I think there were some tears being held back in this picture.

It was really so perfect for them, and I’m glad I got to be there with the during some of the planning and ceremony time. I can be a little cynical sometimes about relationships (haha surprise!), but seeing them together made it impossible to be anything but happy and hopeful. I’m trying not to have the “back to real life blues” and instead stay energized and motivated this week.

26 Challenge: October/November goals!

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My weekend- tailgating - Health promotion ladies know how to party.

My weekend - tailgating! Health promotion ladies know how to party.

From my lack of posting, you should know that things are either going really well or really terrible. I would say it is kind of both. Life is good right now, but I’m mid-semester overwhelmed. Clearly, not enough to stay home on the weekends, but enough to freak out when it comes to adding the obligation of blogging on top of the obligation I’ve already invested the big bucks into.. grad school.

USC v. Auburn - we lost :( But the game was still fun!

USC v. Auburn - we lost :( But the game was still fun!

So, I would say Aug./Sept. was a mixed bag. I did much better than anticipated, but I definitely can’t say I succeed. Although, I kind of expected that after things kind of fell apart in the middle of the month. I’m not beating myself up because that seems kind of pointless, and I honestly don’t have time to waste on that. I’m not abandoning the goal of making those habits stick, I’m just taking them with me into the next months.

So moving on to the two habits goals for October/November..

Healthy Habit: Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. I know this seems like an easy one because I honestly love fruits and vegetables. And when I have time to cook all my meals, I eat mostly fruits and vegetables. But… when I have weeks like last week or weekends like my last weekend.. I end up eating a more “traditional” American diet… starch + protein + sugar. And it makes me feel awful.

I love fall vegetables, and I think this is doable. By making it a “habit,” I want to keep track of the servings per day to keep myself accountable on the days when it isn’t as easy to get them in.

Lifestyle Habit: Do mindfulness practice. At least 5 minutes. Every single day. I just started a mindfulness meditation program at school. And I really love it. The first class, we talked about the importance of mindfulness and we did some guided meditations. Finding a place for that in my schedule was a great decision.

Part of the class is “homework” which is doing some mindfulness practice and recording it. Every day. That sounds like forming a habit to me! So I’m making that homework my blog homework too. Our instructor Laura calls it “dogged compassion.” She also said something in class that really resonated with me: “There is always more right with you than wrong in any given moment.” That’s worth remembering. You can follow her on facebook if you want some mindfulness inspiration.

What are your goals for the fall? Do you feel inspired by the changing season or nervous? I’m a mixture of both. I love the cooler weather, but I have a well documented hatred for the shorter days. 

The trouble/importance of building habits

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This is a dramatic re-enactment of what I look like watching my online class lectures.

This is a dramatic re-enactment of what I look like watching my online class lectures at night.

I feel like the end of September is rapidly approaching, and I’m not sure I can successfully check off my good habits I had been working on. Before last week, things were going great, like beyond my wildest dreams great. I’d been avoiding night time snacking, getting my work done, going to the gym, planning meals. And then life happened, and I had to go back home for a week. I know that nobody would hold that against me, but life is always going to happen and I can’t just let things totally fall apart every single time.

The lesson this reinforces for me is that building habits, especially at the beginning, is like a house of cards. One wrong move and everything can fall apart. My habits were being built around the structure of my school life, not my home life. So, without a stronger foundation and more success under my belt, the habits didn’t stick. Things are better now that I’m back, if only because I don’t keep a lot of fun snacks at home, but I’m disappointed that I fell off such a huge winning streak for me.

And, as far as the organization goal… You know that nightmare everyone has, where they realize that they have a big exam for a class they forgot they were enrolled in? Well that’s actually my life, except I knew I was enrolled, I just put off watching the online lectures because.. I hate them, and I guess I was just waiting for a day that I might hate them a little bit less to start watching them. So this week, on top of everything, I will be sitting in front of my computer for 12 hours watching class. Boo.

But, in better news… after nearly two months without ANY running, this weekend I set out for a no expectations, getting-back-into-the-swing-of-things run, and ended up jogging for 60 minutes! I was really pleased, and I think that shows the power of cooler weather and cross training, which I’ve been doing all along. I have no goals for running right now, other than to keep doing it.

So, in lieu of a really pertinent question about habits or lifestyle changes.. I would like for you to leave me a link of your favorite procrastination site that I can refer to while taking study breaks. I love Dlisted and tracking the Ryan Gosling tag on Tumblr.

Put a vegetable on it!* Butternut Squash Cupcakes

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Maple Butternut Squash Cupcakes

Maple Butternut Squash Cupcakes

I use social events as an excuse to try new recipes, with varying degrees of success. Friday, the weather turned fall-like, and despite the fact that it was 90* the day before, I decided to run with that when choosing a dish to take to my friend Karla’s going away party. So, since I love putting vegetables in unexpected places*, and since I think pumpkin is the Marcia Brady of fall squash, I decided to take the pumpkin cupcake recipe from SmittenKitchen and tweak it using what I already had. I think using the pureed squash rather than the canned pumpkin made the cupcakes lighter, fluffier and more cake-like.

I grated nutmeg over the top to try to be fancy like the original recipe, but I'm not sure it worked. If you want fancy LOOKING cupcakes, someone needs to give me a cupcake school scholarship.

I grated nutmeg over the top to be fancy like the original recipe, but I'm not sure it worked. If you want fancy LOOKING cupcakes, someone needs to give me a scholarship to cupcake college.

Maple Butternut Squash Cupcakes

Serves a ton (the original recipe says 17 to 18 cupcakes, but I made minis and regular sizes, so I’m not exactly sure. But.. a lot of cupcakes.)

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups flour (original recipe called for cake flour, but I just used plain baking flour. And no, I can’t figure out the difference in 30 seconds of googling, so I’m just letting you know what I used.)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk mixed with 1 Tbs vanilla
About 1 1/2 cups butternut squash, cubed (I used more and just measured out 1 1/4 cups after it was pureed.)

Frosting
Two (8-ounce) packages neufchatel cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup

Making cupcakes.

Making cupcakes.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Prepare squash for pureeing by peeling, slicing and boiling for about 10 minutes. Drain and then blend using wand mixer, food processor or blender. Mine was fluffy and about the consistency of baby food.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time and continue to beat until creamy consistency.

3. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients (flour, spices, salt, pepper) and in a small container mix buttermilk, vanilla and butternut squash.

4. Slowly alternate pouring dry mix and buttermilk  into sugar and butter while mixing. The batter should be pretty smooth with not many lumps.

5. Pour batter into greased or lined cupcake tins. Bake time will depend on the size, but take them out of the oven when a toothpick can be removed cleanly from the center. My mini cupcakes took about 7-10 minutes, and the larger ones took about 17-20 minutes.

6. While they are cooking, cream together ingredients for frosting and chill in refrigerator until ready. I let the cupcakes and the frosting cool for about 30 minutes before icing.

7. Impress friends and vegetable haters with this sweet, mild fall treat.

I think the cupcakes were a hit at the party. Karla and her husband Cosmin are leaving for Romania soon, so I was glad I got to see them and learn some Romanian/Indian/American dance moves with them before they left.

Bon Voyage, Karla and Cosmin!

Bon Voyage, Karla and Cosmin!

Saying Goodbye

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Saying goodbye.

Saying goodbye.

As you may have seen on Twitter.. Sunday afternoon, my Dad told me that my grandmother Helen, who has been in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s and other health problems for about three years, wasn’t doing well. I got to the nursing home, held her hand and said by goodbyes, and about an hour later she passed away.

When someone dies at 91, the tragedy of death isn’t for the person who is gone, but for those who are left behind. When you lose a loved one to something like Alzheimer’s, the sadness begins a long time before they are gone. Was she comfortable? Did she feel lonely? Was she scared?

I probably didn’t inherit the genes that kept Helen’s hair from turning gray into her 90′s, but it is easy to see parts of her in my personality, and those qualities I’ll carry with me. We were both the shortest people in the room most of the time, and also the most stubborn. If you did something she didn’t like, she would let you know, and for better or worse, I’m the same way.  She’s the first person I remember showing interest in fitness – I remember doing the Jane Fonda aerobic record in her living room. Into her late 70’s, she was known for power walking around our town.

This week, I’ve been helping my family and going through all the motions of funeral preparation. There were tears, lots of food and stories, and also a healthy dose of inappropriate humor, because that’s how my family deals with things. Both of my grandfathers died when I was a child, and so this is my first adult experience with death. While I know there are no correct responses to loss, I have been mindful of my own experience, ranging from expected sadness to robotic coping. I prefer to deal with things alone, after ceremony and ritual is done, and so that’s why I kind of intentionally disappeared this week.

Thanks to everyone who has sent kind messages, thoughts and prayers this way. A week out of the work/school/etc. loop has left me feeling so behind, but I expect to be back to normal by next week.

Making it work: Tips for Weekly Lunch Prep

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This is a former lunch, but a good illustration of something I might be eating.

This is a former lunch, but a good illustration of something I might be eating.

So, if you know me even a little bit, you know I am not a type A personality. I like having a plan, but I also like wasting time and putting stuff in piles to lose later. When it comes down to it, I like having a schedule so that I know exactly how much time I have to lollygag before I have to get serious.

But, since school and work have started back, I knew I had to stop flying by the seat of my pants when it came to meals, so I’ve been making large batches of food to take as lunch and dinner.

I think without real food, it is easy to hit up the vending machine for food that I don’t feel good about and isn’t satisfying. Even in the school of public health, where we supposedly have  a “healthy side” of the vending machine, I don’t find huge nutritional differences between the “healthy snacks” and “regular snacks.” After, I’m still hungry and feeling guilty about wasting a $1 on a bag of baked potato chips.

This semester I crammed 32 hours of work and classes into a three day week. Yup, I know, pretty smart/stupid of me depending on which day it is. But you don’t have to have a four day weekend to do this. I tend to procrastinate until Monday evening to  prepare everything, and I’d say that excluding shopping time which you have to do anyway, actual time spent in the kitchen is only about an hour.

So far, I’ve lost about 9 pounds since I got home, from a combination of working out and meal planning. I thought I would share some of my tips in case you are looking for a way to save time and money during the work week.

Making it work: Weekly Lunch Prep Tips

1. Make food you actually want to eat. This is the most important part. Now isn’t the time to devote yourself to overly virtuous lunches. Yes, I know it seems like making yourself eat kale and tofu everyday for lunch would be a good plan. But it isn’t,  because you might make it the first day, but by the second day you will find yourself making any excuse to eat something else. You don’t want to have a sad lunch.

2. Don’t forget about your goals. Everyone has different needs for lunches. For me, I want something that is about 400 calories, contains vegetables and protein, and will keep me satisfied because my goal is weight loss.  Maybe you are looking to gain weight, maintain, eat more vegetables, save money… whatever. But you need to consider what you want before getting started.

3. Keep a list of meals that meet the requirements of #1 and #2. This can be a running list you keep, or recipes you’ve dog-earred in magazines. I think this helps me when I’m stumped at the grocery store. I usually only make two dishes per week, so it isn’t like you have to be super creative.

4. Be prepared. You’re going to need enough containers for your individual portions, something to carry it in, utensils to eat with, etc. I made the mistake last week of not packing any silverware with rice and beans. That’s not drinkable or appropriate finger food. It might help to keep a few extra (Clean!) forks/spoons at your work space or in your car depending on your day.

5. Make extra-extra. I’m often only cooking for one, but I tend to make recipes with 6 or more servings. If I make two dishes each week like this, I end up with extra servings to freeze later. So, as the semester gets busier, there will be weeks when I don’t have to cook at all because I’ve already got a week’s worth of meals frozen. This is also a good way to add variety to future week’s meal plans.

6. Think outside the box. I tend to make soups, curries, stir fries and other one-dish meals because.. well I already told you I’m lazy and I like them. But, I’ve had success making salads that kept well 2-3 days ahead just by waiting to add any wet ingredients. If you love sandwiches, you could also make something like chicken or tuna salad ahead of time.

7. Go halfsies. If you don’t want to make whole dishes ahead of time, take 30 minutes to chop, portion, or prepare parts of your favorite meals or snacks so that when you’re running late, you’re already halfway there. You could do this by making extra rice, pasta, sandwich spreads, chopped vegetables, etc.

So what are some ways you save time during the week? What are your favorite make-ahead or freezable dishes?

Bye bye, birthday month!

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I love cake with non edible things on it!

I love cake with non edible things on it!

I realized that I kind of stopped blogging about things I was doing. I swear that wasn’t because I stopped doing things. In fact, I think I’ve actually been doing more stuff in an attempt to put myself out there and say yes to social gatherings. But, now that my friends are tired of my blog and most of my readers aren’t real life friends yet,  I’m not sure how interesting these events would be to you. A back-to-school public health social? No. Alternacirque with belly dancing and lots of fire? Yeah, I probably should have thought to take better pictures there.

But the good news, is that slowly but surely I’m starting to feel like my old self. Even with some moments of very high stress in my personal life lately, I’ve still been able to keep my head on straight with a better routine and new habits. Unless you count the times when I just have to lay in bed and stare at the ceiling wondering, “How did I get here? Is this real life?” But maybe those moments have a place in my self-care plan too.

I would give myself a B+ on my first real week of cutting out nighttime snacking. Most of the problems come from poor planning. Having a last meal at 6, then working out til 10, and staying up until 2 doesn’t really work. But, this week I’m looking for high protein, low calorie snacks that I can have immediately after the gym. That way, I’m getting the right recovery foods without it turning into a snackfest.

As for the other lifestyle habit, I’m doing well when it comes to things I have to do. Setting alarms on my computer and phone is helping me keep track of appointments. But I need to be better about scheduling time to read for school rather than just putting it off until I run out of time.

I’m loving my new schedule and how easy it is to get work outs in. I’ve been doing Body Pump 2-3x week, along with some kind of cardio 45-60min 4-6x/week. Now that the weather is starting to feel less miserable, I’m feeling guilty about not taking the opportunity to run. I’ve decided not to focus on any real time/distance goals since my priority at the moment is weight loss, but I’d like to maintain the level I’m at since it took so long to get there.