One of my Favorites

4 12 2008

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Dinner: One of my favorites! Boneless, skinless chicken breasts with whole wheat pasta, hunt’s garlic and onion tomato sauce

Salad: TJ Champs Elyse, Red bell pepper, mushroom, snap peas and Goddess Dressing

I saute the chicken in the pan with some pepper, salt and a dash of parm cheese… While that cooked on low, I boiled the pasta, drained it, then tossed in the sauce into the now-empty pan.

Dessert:
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No Pudge , using the single mix method- Genius!
Added in banana, peanut butter, pumpkin butter and extra nonfat greek yogurt!

Body:
4 mile run, 10 minute elliptical cool down

“ahhhh” this is me sighing because it felt fantastic!

Mind:
Paper #2 done, worked on Paper #3 due friday, lots of studying this weekend while my sister will be enjoying herself in paradise..

Soul:
Done with classes for the semester!!!
Woohoo!

Oh I wish I could be going to my sister’s 30th birthday party in paradise this weekend! I could not afford the $700. Had I worked this semester as planned, I would have been just fine. Unfortunately, I could not and I know she will only turn 30 once but I can’t go bankrupt for it as much as I want to!
Plus, I have finals on monday and wednesday and that would just not be easy to relax on the beach with a Pina Colada when I need to memorize metabolic pathways and research methods!

In the past seven days I have done yoga twice and run on 3 of the days. I feel FANTASTIC. Incredibly balanced. I love it!

I rented movies specifically for Jeff- “Stepbrothers” which we just finished watching after dinner & during dessert. We totally turned the lights out like a movie theater, and now its time for Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer from 1964!





Oatmeal Sundae

3 12 2008

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The Base of my sundae, instead of ice cream: Irish Style oats!
- Mixed with organic pumpkin puree, Chocolate Protein Powder, Cinnamon, and heated up in the microwave.

The Toppings:
- Marshmallows- were, well, Marshmallows, but then I got creative

- “Whip Cream”: I put on a scoop of nonfat greek yogurt with a spoon of pumpkin butter ( i swear this combo is scrumptious)

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“Fruit Topping”: Blueberries (frozen heated in the microwave)- I LOVE the purple color

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“Nuts”: My favorite heart healthy fats: Flaxseed and Peanut Butter (Smucker’s All Natural Creamy)

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I know it is not really a sundae, but essentially the way I put it together totally reminded me of a sundae with all the toppings!

Happy Hump Day to All!





Pumpkin Pineapple Strawberry Yogurt Oats

2 12 2008

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Irish Style Oats: These oats are essentially steel cut oats, only quicker cooking. Much less processed than say, quaker instant, but do no need to be cooked for 30 minutes on the stove! I got them at Trader Joes for about $3 for a bucket (32 servings-ish ?) So that is 1/4 cup of irish style oats, mixed with about 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup organic pumpkin . Microwaved with cinnamon and a little brown sugar for about 4 minutes. It was so hot so I put a few frozen pineapple and a few frozen strawberries stuck into the oats to heat up

Then, I needed protein! I didn’t feel up to eggs So O% Chobani Plain it was! ( That is the big container I have had for a few weeks but its funny how it looks just like the single serving size. Either way, there was just under one serving left.. so…

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The Final One bowl Product
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I mixed pumpkin butter into the yogurt- SO DELICIOUS! I added a teaspoon of peanut butter but apparently it thought the bowl was a slide….” Weeeeeeee” all the way into the oats. I don’t mind so much with oats when things mix but I am totally the type that likes everything separate and not touching each other ( not in a weird way, just how i would prefer). In the middle is a little sprinkle of Uncle Sam’s cereal (mostly just flax seeds because thats all i wanted)

Body:
I am not tired or sore from yesterday! Which is great! I think I will stick to running 3+ miles every other day + biking and more cardio to equal about a 6-10 mile run would equal. I would be up for a workout, but since I had a great cardio session yesterday and have LOTS of writing to do for my paper due tomorrow- I decided on a pre-final/dinner workout this afternoon ( I use purple dumbells my mom got me for me about five years ago- they are 8lbs each)

strength- shoulders and chest: push ups, plank, bent over fly ‘s; abs: planks, figure 8′s, side to sides, my version of sit ups ( I have my arms above my head, knees bent, feet on the floor, keep my arms up and lift up then twist side to side and back down)

and… Yoga! 30 minutes felt fantastic, I wish I had more time!

Mind:
Paper #2. … (5 pages are written but I emailed it to the professor for revisions)

Minority health response paper. We have to read this week’s articles on concordance in healthcare, minority medical research views, and how these concpets tie into our own topics we researched (mine was native american children on reservations). Minority groups such as african americans, native americans, hispanics etc. have experienced racial discrimination for hundreds of years and this not only reflects in their culture and education and emotional well being, but it leaves most with negative views of healthcare practices also. The Tuskegee Syphillis Study is one very very bad example that has unfortunately not been made well-known for a variety of reasons.

Essentially, a group of about 400 men who HAD syphillis, were offered to take part in medical research to hopefully find cures for the disease. At the time there was no institutional review board that oversees the ethical practices of research. Well, as a graduate student and having been a student member of the Institutional Review Board in undergrad, there are ethical standards we must now abide by in research (both animal and human research) such as:
- informed consent ( which protects the participant in the research by securing their participation and fully disclosing what is happening in the research. If anything not explained on the consent form should occur, they would be protected by law because they signed what was on the consent form only so anything else would be illegal for the researchers to try).
There are many other aspects of IRB’s but essentially they were formed to protect the research participants- make sure they are not harmed etc.

Well, the Tuskegee study essentially gave some of their subjects the drug that helped the disease, while others got another drug that didn’t do any harm but did not cure it. Because there was no IRB or standards at the time, the study needed to maintain the groups as they progressed to make sure there were no other side effects, make sure they found the cure, etc. Well the people that did not get the right drug ( which the researchers did NOT know at first which drug would help ) eventually started passing away because of the disease. So the researchers then found out which drug was the “cure” and STILL did not offer the “other drug” group the “cure drug” because they wanted to continue research on the other “drug” .This was a HORRIBLE example of medical research and luckily in the 70′s when they found out about the “cure drug” , the researchers were slapped with a lawsuit and helped families of all the victims and tried to rectify their wrong-doings.

Unfortunately, this had major impacts of minority health research because now people that may be at a disadvantage are PURPOSELY not seeking health care because 1. they do not trust “white” doctors 2. they do not trust the government 3. Minority groups have been asked about the study and have complete misunderstandings of the TRUTH. (this was from a focus group that was one article I read this week). They believed researchers injected men with syphillis when that is not true. They believed that the government knew all along and was purposely trying to opress that group of men- all kinds of stuff.

So if you are interested in that study here is more info on it : http://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/after.htm . I left out a lot of details but tried to give a basic understanding of what went on.

Anyway, that is what I need to write my paper about today.!

Final Exam at 5:00 pm at a diner! It is for my gastronomy class, we are eating at a local diner that serves only local, fresh, organic food . I am not sure what part of that is the exam but we will see!! I will be bringing my camera!

Soul:

I had a dinner at a local sustainable organic diner that serves fantastic wines, cocktails and is in this fantastic historical building for my first final exam of the semester!! How awesome is that!

Jeff and I talked about our christmas plans and who/when/where we will be seeing.

My brother is most likely going to visit since he didnt get to visit over thanksgiving!

Jeff’s cousin ( we went to their wedding in september in NY- Buffalo- Niagra Falls trip) is visiting the weekend after I am finished with exams.

My paper , although I am not satisfied completely with it, is pretty much done. I could hand it in as in, ( which feels great with all the other work I need to do) but I am a slight perfectionist.

Did I mention I had dinner as my final exam? I had a great conversation over dinner with classmates on top of that!





Weekend Photo Recap

1 12 2008

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Friday Lunch: Leftover Mediterranean Primavera Pasta with extra veggies (from dinner on wednesday night)
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Friday Non-Dinner: English Muffin,1/2 with Peanut Butter n Pumpkin Butter ( bottom left), 1/2 with Rosemary Pork (top left), Cranberry Relish and Chobani Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt (top right) a bite of Tiramisu (bottom right)

 

Saturday Breakfast: Oatmeal (irish style oats mixed with water), lots of Cinnamon, Half a banana, peanut butter, Blueberries, Egg whites with Hot Sauce

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Saturday Lunch: Tuna with a pickle and mustard, Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle Soup
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(dinner out Grilled Chicken Salad)
Sunday Breakfast:
Coconut, Berries, Nonfat greek yogurt, pumpkin butter, peanut butter on top of Pumpkin mixed with egg whites, cinnamon, baking powder, and irish style oats

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Sunday Dinner: SO GOOD! Some leftover rosemary pork, Annie’s mac and cheese , and TONS of frozen veggies:
Asparagus , Bell Pepper Mix , Spinach , Broccoli, Artichokes- All heated up in the microwave with a little TJ poultry seasoning and some parm cheese.
 

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Monday Breakfast
Pumpkin Pie for 1 (sort of) and Berries! I didn’t bake it because I was hungry and lazy- I added tsp peanut butter (bottom, left) and a tsp of flax butter (bottom, right) Some pumpkin butter not even a tsp, and about 1/4 cup chobani nonfat plain yogurt ( love it- its the best texture i think)

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Savory Oats, Attempt #2 COMPLETE SUCCESS

25 11 2008

Body:

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO….HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Can you tell I am excited? I ran 5.15 miles in 42 minutes!
It was hard, the first mile was easy – i was like this is so awesome this is so awesome- and then I started coughing and was thinking to myself “I can I can I can I can” every step of the way until the 5 mile mark.

Sigh… my quads are super sore from yesterday’s lifting but I am fairly confident by thursday (rest day tomorrow) I will feel fine!

I am a little sore all over, just in that lovely ” ooh we missed you exercise” kind of way.

Mind:
Heading to work on paper- metabolism paper only today- lots of reading and then writing- Hyperglycemia Cell Metabolism this is your warning, I will conquer you !

Soul:
I love running I love running fast I love running slow I love being able to run I love runner’s high I love that my knee did not hurt one bit I love running

I am so excited for my parents to come here – It takes off SO much stress from me and I can relax and conquer the (world) I mean, metabolism paper.

Pre-Run Fuel:

English Muffin
Nonfat Cottage Cheese
Pumpkin Butter
Banana
Flaxseed Butter

Savory Oats Lunch:

In this order, I re-arranged from yesterday


3/4 cup Leek and Potato Soup
1/2 cup irish oats
Trader Joes Poultry Seasoning (which actually contains all healthy spices and no salt or chemicals!)

Heated up in the Microwave for 2 minutes..let cool while I seperately heated up 1/2 cup frozen spinach and broccoli. Drained out any excess water and added it to the oat soup… Added some chopped red pepper, parmesean and pork from last night

Heated it all up for another 1 minute…

YUMMMMM!

So I had an apple and pumpkin butter on the side but then since pork and apples go so nicely together- I threw in some apple into it to.

I would recommend this to anyone and everyone!





Monday!

24 11 2008
Body:
Heading to the gym right now (8:08am), I am prepping myself for early workouts since I will be running tomorrow morning and then thursday morning at 8 am is the 8k Turkey Trot!

Mind:
Early workout means I can spend most of the day getting my metabolism paper started!

Soul:
I have hated being unable to workout. I love movement, and exercise. It is such a big part of my life that being sick was a double negative because I was forced to rest for a week – I know it sounds silly to most people. When your body adjusts to running 10-13 miles in a workout though, NOT exercising is just as hard on top of feeling crappy.

I am planning on leaving class about 5:00-5:30 so that I can head out to my parents, however, if I have to stay for the whole class- I am not sure if I would head out at night- which will mean I head to campus to run then drive out to my parents tomorrow.

Breakfast:
I decided on this banana just to fuel my workout at first, but then realized I HATE eating two breakfasts- I won’t be hungry for lunch and then i have to eat late… etc. So I had a Thomas’ Light high fiber English muffin ( Thanks Melissa!! She gave us an extra bag of them) with pumpkin butter and Nonfat greek yogurt (plain) but I added frozen blueberries to it last night..

Happy Monday to All!!!








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