I started a new job, which I love. I moved for the second time in three months to a gorgeous new apartment, which I also love. I traveled to Houston, then home, then Atlanta and back home over two weeks, arriving back just in time to complete said move.

I have had little desire to be on the computer. I think maybe I’m burned out? Any way, I need a break, from Facebook, from Twitter, from blogging, heck even from email. Does this ever happen to you guys?

I’ll be back soon with more recipes from my lovely new kitchen. That’s my view of the lake. It’s not panoramic or anything, but I’m quite fond of it any way

The pumpkin bread, also from The Joy of Vegan Baking, was such a miserable failure that I threw the entire loaf out. I underestimated the cooking time and over mixed the batter, resulting in a super dense and chewy brick. I learned from it, though, and I think the next time I attempt the recipe the bread will come out better.

Earlier this week I had the Tofu Quiche Salad from Field of Greens, and ever since I’ve been hankering for mini tofu quiches. I quick google search pointed me to The Fat Free Vegan Kitchen’s version. Off I went to Whole Foods in search of nutritional yeast and tahini. Exotic ingredients be damned, I had to have those quiches.

When life gives you failed quiches, make scrambled eggs

The coolest thing about this recipe is that it actually tastes like egg, and the texture is spot on. I think most folks would be surprised, and many would ask for seconds.

That is until I had to go out of town for a research meeting. I learned this weekend that it is hard, nay, IMPOSSIBLE to log my every bite when

1. Others are cooking for me
2. I don’t have a scale and measuring instruments to weigh my portions

Dangit, I tried my best to log the meals I was being forced to eat served at our meeting, but have you ever tried to guess the amount and composition of ingredients in a perfunctorily titled dish like “Sauteed Chicken with Vegetables”? I gave up halfway through the second day at the conference and just relied on my judgment to steer me away from the bad stuff. I chose the vegetarian option when it was available and hunted the snack tables for dried fruit and nuts.

A greasy lunch at The Woodlawn Tap, similar to mine today

And then I flew to Chicago to visit my boyfriend, and all those good intentions have melted away, much like tonight’s Bryers Cherry Vanilla ice cream on my tongue. EATING WELL WHILE ON THE ROAD IS HARD FOR ME. I turn into a toddler when I’m traveling, just grabbing at what looks good and shoving it in my mouth. My biggest hurdle? Especially when I visit Chicago, every meal feels like a celebration and I give myself a free pass to eat what I want. Couple that with my ambitious sightseeing goals when I come here, and I have little time to prepare and eat the food I would eat at home. That said, there is no excuse for the beer and french fries I had for lunch today.

Does anyone have some advice they’d like to impart on how to eat well on the road? How do you guys make your selves “behave” while traveling?

Photo credit Jasmined

Surprise! I cook in a closet with a dorm 'fridge.

That is a SAD picture. Just look at my empty little ‘fridge! There’s no way I could create a meal with those offerings, right? Not really. When I find the ‘fridge empty I can always head to the cupboard, which I know will be stocked. That’s the key to cooking on the fly: a well stocked pantry. I won’t claim that what emerges from the pot is the most gourmet of meals, but sometimes I just need a quick healthy meal that doesn’t require a trip to the store.

Here’s how it usually plays out:

The Base: A pasta or grain of some sort. Pastas, rices, and grains can keep for several months in a cool dry place. I always have several options on hand. Tonight, I’m going for the whole wheat rotini pasta. Once it was cooked and drained I added…

The Veg: Here’s where canned soups and veggies are a busy gal’s best friend. Stick to low sodium soups and you can get quite a bit of nutrition for very little work. My other staple is a couple kinds of frozen veggies. I usually have spinach, broccoli and peas in the freezer at all times. I can grab a cup or so and add to a one-pot meal for a quick vitamin dose. For this concoction I reached for the spinach and some canned tomato soup.

Half-assed meal, half-assed photography

The Protein: No meat here, just dried or canned beans or lentils. When I’m traveling a lot I don’t keep meat around, so for these quickie meals I turn to legumes for the protein. Lentils go well with the flavors I picked out, so I cooked up a half cup and added them to the cooked pasta and veggies.

Tha Flavah: Cured olives, parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar, pressed garlic, canned broths and spices can liven up what appears to be a rather dull meal. I had some parmesan in the back of the fridge, so I topped the pasta with a little and sprinkled on some Italian seasoning.

Those olive chips are TAY-STEE

These half-assed meals are typically one-pot, which makes preparing and cleaning up much easier. This particular meal took me about 25 minutes to prepare. Much of the time was hands off, giving me a chance to do other chores like laundry. Multitasking FTW!

Depending on a number of factors, on any given day I will find myself obsessing over some body part in a most unconstructive way. You guys know what I’m talking about. I’ll stand in front of the mirror and poke at the fupa, turn to the side and cringe at the saddle bags, wave my arms around to watch the upper arm jiggle. I spend a lot of time engaging in this behavior, which got me to thinking…why the hell do I do that?

The crap I say to myself I would never say to anyone else, it does little to motivate me to change the “problem areas” and it sure as shit doesn’t make me feel too good. My body image issues may not be serious enough to make me sick, but I feel like I gotta stop this nonsense. I’ve come up with a few ideas to help me develop a more realistic body image:

• Make a cartoon drawing of myself as I see myself on my worst day and share it with my girlfriends. I know this sounds nutz, but hear me out. When I was in grad school one of my best friends and I had a conversation about the body parts we hate. As I listened to her describe her “moon face” I thought how funny it would be to actually draw out our bad body images and share them with each other. You see, I never thought of her as having a moon face, in fact I find her quite lovely. We said we would do it one day, but we never did. I’m totally going to force my friends to do this with me, just to prove how ridiculous our body obsessions are. It may require a few bottles of wine, but be forewarned, I’m coming after you with crayons in hand…you know who you are…
• For every insult I hurl at the mirror, I will also force out one compliment. This one is a little easier. Take the picture above, for example. My biggest complaints are the fupa and jiggly thighs, but dang I got some great cleavage and a super-cute booty. This little exercise is my way of finding some positive motivation within to get my butt to the yoga studio or to give me the will power to stick to my healthy diet.
• When I find myself being overly critical, I will think of one small thing I can do that day to “fix” the “problem”. Tacking on a few extra sit-ups (fupa), taking the stairs instead of the elevator (saddle bags) and avoiding the M&M jar (all of it) are examples a small things I can do that may or may not “fix” the “problem”. At least I’ll feel like I’m doing something about it.

Do you think any of these ideas would work for you? Better yet, will you share your ridiculous body image drawings with me? I can always use a good laugh

How cute is this? Xueexueg drew the asanas he can do!

Less than a year ago I started practicing Ashtanga Yoga, and I was hooked. I’m not being dramatic when I say that Ashtanga changed my life. My stress levels went way down, it gave me something to be totally intense about, and my body hadn’t looked that hot in years. I was happily practicing 3-4 times a week for several months when the pain started in my left elbow. I complained about it for a few weeks. It got to the point that it ached all day and was making it difficult to do simple things like type and steer my car.

At the prodding of my boyfriend, who is much health nuttier than me, I went to a physical therapist to get a diagnosis. After some X-rays and a few questions the doctor diagnosed me with epicondylitis, or tennis elbow. I said “Funny, ‘cuz I’ve never played tennis, wocka wocka wocka!” I wasn’t laughing, though, when he told me that I had to stay off the elbow for six weeks. I was crushed. I’d made some breakthroughs in my practice recently, I was on a roll. I knew that taking six weeks off would be like starting over. I went home and cried, out of frustration, anger and sadness.

I went about three weeks without going to class when I finally said to myself “This is bullshit”. So I went back. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Not only did my elbow get worse, but I injured my back and neck to the point that I couldn’t turn my head. I felt like a jackass, and I was totally defeated. I think I went back one more time before just giving up.

Over the next three months I ran through the range of emotions associated with loss: anger, sorrow, acceptance. I reached the point where I was telling myself that my body is just not meant for Ashtanga, that maybe I can do it sporadically but I’ll never go back to 3-4 days a week. Deep inside my head and heart, I could hear a voice saying “Quitter! Excuses are like farts, everyone makes them and they all stink!” Lately I’ve been trying to find a routine that could replace Ashtanga, but nothing has stuck. To boot, I’m getting fat. Boo-hoo, I’m riding this pity train to Fattyville and I’m taking you with me!

But wait! Last night I had the good fortune to meet a hilarious and genuine lady, Liz Bick. She’s visiting for a while from England and has been practicing Ashtanga for 3 years. I soon found out that when she used to live here she went to my old studio,  and has been going since she’s been back. It took some persuasion, but she talked me in to going to class this morning. I was excited about the idea and promised her she would see me in the morning.

Considering that I had about two drinks too many last night, I am amazed I made it to class. If I hadn’t promised to show up I probably would have stayed in bed another hour. Thanks, Liz, for motivating me! I got through about half my regular practice when I decided to stop in the interest of being able to walk out of the studio. Ashtanga is no punk, it WILL kick your ass. As I was lying in my final resting pose I felt a sense of accomplishment and contentment. I decided there that I would start going back to class, slowly at first and with my focus on protecting my elbow. You see, I think I have been hyper-extending in a few of my poses. If I really concentrate I can teach myself to break that bad habit. Instead of focusing on progressing in my practice I’ll have to pay attention to not hurting myself. It’s not as exciting, but I don’t care. I’m just so glad to be back that I’ll take it.

That three months of psychological yoga jail I put myself in has taught me a lot. I was being stubborn and impatient, trying to maintain my focus on pushing forward in my practice when I should have placed my intent on breaking the bad habits I’d fallen into. As our bodies change through exercise, I guess our intentions have to follow suit. And just like any other pursuit, I think it’s reasonable to step back and reassess our fitness goals from time to time. For me, that meant changing my way of thinking about yoga, at least for now.

This won't be my goal, not for a VERY long time

Photo Credits xueexueg, virginiazuluaga, and milopeng

How stupid is it that I’m actually taking this trip? Very. This is my point, I guess. As much as I try to live a healthy lifestyle sometimes I’m forced to make decisions that aren’t exactly “healthy”. ASCO is the biggest event of the year for my company, and my counterpart at work has just welcomed a newborn baby boy into his household. Budget cutbacks have limited the participation from the rest of our team. My boss and I are IT this year, plus one of my team mates who graciously offered to pay his own way to attend. My boss told me I could skip it, but I know I’m really needed so I’m just gonna grit my teeth and power through.

Say a little prayer for me that I am 100% better tomorrow. I get the feeling I’m in for a bumpy ride.

Hey, how'd they get their cameras in my bedroom?

Let me explain how it’s gone for me: you ever try to nail jello to a wall?

Some nights I stay up too late goofing off online doing research for this blog. Despite my best intentions, other nights I toss and turn for a while before drifting off. I averaged around 6.5-7 hours a night last week, but I’d wager my norm is closer to 5.5-6 hours a night.

Apparently, this is not good for me. The long term effects of sleep deprivation are linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and traffic accidents. Plus is makes you irritable, anxious, and not able to concentrate. Dang. Not getting enough sleep can make you a fat ball of nerves on the verge of a heart attack? I joke here, but it looks like this is a serious problem for affluent countries, and is a culprit of many of our most pressing health issues like diabetes and obesity.

So what can I do to improve this situation?

I have a few ideas that I’m going to try out this week. I will turn off the computer an hour before I need to be asleep in order to get 7.5 hours. I will read some fiction for the next half hour and then turn out the lights and settle in 30 minutes before I need to be asleep. This is not going to be easy for me, as I do love to goof off at night, but I’m curious to see if my concentration and overall health and well being improve noticeably.

If you have any tips on how to get enough sleep then do your thang in the comments. I’d love the advice!

Photo credit: riot jane

damnit.

Since I left the free-cake-and-baked-good mine field of MD Anderson (they like their parties), I’ve been so proud of my ability to resist the lesser temptations presented at my new gig. Bowl of M&Ms? Nice try. Half eaten box of donuts? Psssh! I’m practically invincible!

This morning the email that would remind me of my mortality popped into my mailbox. In celebration of the grand opening of our new cafeteria the chef had prepared FREE CAKE. I’m not exaggerating, I couldn’t concentrate for the next hour. I kept bugging my team mate, trying to convince him to go down there with me. Furtively sneaking off by myself to grab a piece of free cake seemed so…pathetic. Finally I found my accomplice. A few minutes later I was forking into my mouth chunks of yellow sheet cake covered in half inch thick icing. Holy shit, was I happy.

Where am I going with this?

Guilt. It’s an ugly thing to deal with when it comes to food, and for most of us struggling with staying healthy, it’s par for the course. After I polished off a modestly-sized piece of cake, I immediately felt the pangs of guilt ruining my sugar high. But why? I can’t even remember the last time I had a piece of cake. I had to remind myself that most days, as I stated above, I make great choices about snacking. So one time when there was free cake in the entire 6 months I’ve been at this job, I indulged. Big deal.

This brings me to my second point: barring any major health issues like diabetes, for God’s sake, don’t make anything off limits completely. If you love cake, by all means eat some cake now and then. ESPECIALLY IF IT’S FREE. When you put severe restrictions on your diet you set yourself up for failure, guilt, and many other nasty negative feelings. Instead, try doing what I did. I caught myself, realized I was being a tad ridiculous, and vowed to exercise and eat a modest dinner this evening. Perfection is not the goal for me, nor should it be for anyone. Balance is what I’m aiming for. After finishing my yoga routine and polishing off a soup and salad dinner, I feel pretty darn balanced.

Cake once in a while is not bad. Sitting on your ass everyday eating cake is. Obsessing about every morsel that passes your lips is even worse.

Photo credit: John Ong