Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

Working my way into 2016

Happy New Year, ya’ll!  I would apologize for being late, but seeing as how I’m still getting out a few last Christmas gifts, this post is actually quite timely!

We spent New Year’s in Iowa with my family, and I spent the first few days of this week getting my head into 2016.

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On the school front, I’m taking three classes this semester, two in-person (dietetics/nutrition content) and one online (business management).  My original schedule had me on campus three days a week (very similar to last semester), but my T/H class changed to one longer meeting time on Thursdays.

The new timing of the Thursday class has some downsides, but I’ll save time by reducing my commutes from three days to two, which will be especially nice in the colder weather/darker days when just gearing up (clothing and lights) for the bike ride takes a significant amount of time.

I’m most excited about my “Experimental Foods” class.  It involves a lab (i.e., cooking) component, and it should be perfect for me since most of my cooking is experimental.  Mostly good experiments, but it can be tricky when someone asks me for a recipe!

My online class is through St. Louis Community College, which means I’ll benefit from their new partnership with MetroBus/Link, which provides a semester-long U-PASS to all credit students (you qualify for the pass even if you’re only taking one credit hour!).  I’m excited to be able to take advantage of this partnership!  I don’t take transit a lot, but having a pass instead of having to think about fare may inspire some additional trips, especially in these next few months, when we’re likely to have some iffy road conditions.

Also somewhat school-related — I’m putting a few hours a week into an internship with Lighter, a cool start-up currently offering meal planning and food delivery services focused on plant-based eating.  I’m excited to be part of the work (doing nutrition analysis on their recipes) and to see what’s in store for the company going forward!

Tidying Up
My name finally rose to the top of the library’s wait list for The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  While I have yet to officially start the process (I haven’t even finished reading the book), it shows promise, as I found not one, but two, long-lost items while doing some cleaning within a day of bringing the book home.

I’m curious to see where this leads for our household overall.  I’m not sure if Marie Kondo addresses this later in the book, but one of my big questions is how to get everyone in the house on board!

Mindfulness
I dug out my mindfulness journal so I have a concrete way to track getting back on track with my practice, after a failed attempt a few weeks ago (I knew right before the holidays was not great timing, but figured I’d give it a shot — oh well, each day a new beginning!).

On with the year!
It took me a week, but with my old-school, hard copy yearly planner in hand, I’m feeling ready for 2016.  I anticipate having plenty of opportunities to practice living in the moment, taking things one day, one hour, one minute at a time in the coming year.

 

Rest, recharge, renew — and play!

All three components of the title were much-needed, and the past five days have been fun, with more to come!

On Friday morning, we waved goodbye to Gabriel and my MIL — they’re having their own fun in Florida (including a holiday boat parade, a sighting of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Dolphin, and a run-in with a gold-coin-dispensing pirate) while we enjoy a child-free week here in St. Louis.

On Friday night, we went to the student showcase performance at Bumbershoot Aerial Arts, aptly named the Holiday Glitter Ball.  There was plenty of glitter and sparkle, plus a wonderful variety of aerial acts, all set to Christmas music.  With slightly different line-ups every night, I was tempted to go back for an encore performance, but we had other weekend plans.

We spent Saturday doing some much-needed cleaning before shifting gears to cooking for the Candy Cane Lane Potluck and Bike Ride we were hosting.  I made black bean soup and a version of this slaw, but with sriracha instead of curry paste.  The slaw was a huge hit!

With full bellies, we took to our bicycles for a nice, easy ride to enjoy the lights of Candy Cane Lane, Snowflake Street, and Angel Avenue.  We were joined by friends, including a family with three girls, and the youngest was my companion on Big Blue.   She’s right around G’s age, and it was fun hearing her reactions to the lights (I felt a little like I was cheating on Gabriel, though).  After immersing ourselves in the lights, we returned for cake and hot chocolate ice cream.  Did I mention that it was almost 70 degrees for our ride?  My initial plan was dessert and hot beverages, but that seemed rather silly with our weather — the ice cream our friends brought was perfect!

Early Sunday morning, Matthew took off for a work trip to D.C., leaving me as a bachelorette for three days.  Despite the dreary rain encouraging a home day, I went out and was rewarded with an energizing Advent service at church.  The rest of the day was spent in good rainy-day fashion, including a nice long nap.

I worked on Monday and Tuesday, but it was not all work and no play, as I hosted a small group for dinner on Monday night.  I wrapped up my work for the week on Tuesday so Matthew and I could enjoy some stay-cation time during the second half of the week.

I had initially looked into destinations within an hour or two for a little overnight getaway, and while there are some nice options, I wasn’t finding anything I loved, so we opted with the tried-and-true Lou — plenty of great restaurants and activity options.

Yesterday we did some shopping, along with a visit to the garden for a fabulous mid-December harvest, before returning home for a dinner of homemade pasta and an evening at the ice rink.  The bike ride to and from the rink provided an opportunity to enjoy some of the Christmas lights on The Hill, and we enjoyed less-crowded, weeknight ice skating with the lovely Christmas lights at the rink.

The fun continues into Saturday with more plans for food, friends, and festivities — and hopefully a few more naps!

Worn out but still kicking

It’s been quite the week: G’s nail-removal surgery, 1 exam, 2 presentations, and an interview — glad to be on the other side of all of those things!

I started this post before Thanksgiving, when, not surprisingly, my worn-down body caught the first cold of the season.  Let’s just say that part-time job plus [9 credit hour] part-time school plus co-running a household for the past 16 weeks (right on the heels of a very intense month following G’s accident) was more than a bit overwhelming.

I survived, but I’m going to make some changes for the spring semester: reduced hours at my job and getting back into regular meditation practice.  I’ll be taking 10 credit hours, but one of the classes is online, which might make the course-load feel a bit lighter — one can always hope!

So, about that meditation practice . . . .  After almost a year of regular, dedicated mindfulness meditation practice, I fell off the train in a big way following G’s accident, and with the flurry of activity around my return to school, I never got back on board.  I don’t know if this is possible, but I felt like even though I wasn’t making time for formal practice, I benefited from the previous work I’d done, in a sense building up some reserves or buffer, but after 4+ intense months, those reserves are empty.  Time to rebuild that mindfulness muscle!

G’s surgery
We weren’t sure what to expect post-op, so we made the most of the pre-surgery weekend with a family bike ride to view local Christmas lights, a friend’s birthday party, and readying our house for Christmas.

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We found the perfect field cedar at Matthew’s grandpa’s, and hauled it home on our little car.  By the end of the day, after only one tree-tipping episode, our not-so-little tree was decked for the holidays.

We arrived at the hospital bright and early on Monday morning to “get those silly nails out,” getting a lovely view of the moon and Venus on the way.  The play area next to G’s same-day surgery prep room kept him calm and distracted from his empty belly until go time.  I accompanied him into the surgical suite and stayed until the anesthetic took effect.  Two hours later, we were headed home, with the hardware in tow — nine-inch titanium nails!

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Monday and Tuesday were rough, with some stomach side effects from the anesthesia (somewhat unexpected because he didn’t have issues in August), but by Wednesday morning, this kid was claiming no pain (without drugs) and literally bouncing off the walls.  So, so thankful that this is behind us!

Dietetics coursework
My first of six [part-time] semesters (plus a few summer courses) is now behind me!  Somewhat ironically, my grades matter more in dietetics than they would have if I’d gone the physician assistant route, because getting a dietetic internship (required to become an R.D.) is really competitive.  With the possibility of PA school, I’d tried to start internalizing the idea that I didn’t have to “be the valedictorian” of my PA class.  When I chose dietetics instead, I had to rearrange my plans for mediocrity 😉

Anyhow, the semester went well, and, despite a near-disaster with a group project (I had group projects/presentations in all three of my classes — gah!), I should come out well on the old GPA front.  More importantly, I met some cool people, and my classes exposed me to new information and ideas!

On the bike
The amazing weather for biking continues into December.  After making my 16-mile RT commute three days a week for the past 16 weeks, I am in pretty decent biking-shape.  I only used the car for five of those school commutes, justifying my choice to not by a parking pass.

I may have to ride my commute route a few times over the next four weeks, just so I don’t lose everything I’ve built.  Other than that, I’m looking forward to a little down time to rest and recharge for 2016!

 

This commute

As I mentioned in my #30daysofbiking post (can’t believe it’s been TWO months since I wrote that — talk about time flying!), I’ve really enjoyed having a regular bike commute again.  The weather has been quite accommodating this fall — until this week, I’ve only driven the car to campus once (a rainy day where I had to be across town right after class).

My previous regular bike commute ended in December 2009 when I took a job in Jefferson County (promoting biking, somewhat ironically) and ditched the bike for the car.  While my current commute is a similar route to that last commute, there are some major differences that I’m dealing with this time around, including some things that I knew were nice, but didn’t fully appreciate about my last set-up.

Until now, I’ve always had a “home base” at my final destination.  For a couple of years, that was just a cubicle, which wasn’t as nice as having my own office (a rare luxury these days, I know), but even with just the cubicle, it was something — a place where I could leave my stuff and not have to lug it around with me all day (think change of clothes, rain gear, cold weather clothing, etc.).  As a non-employee student, that place to off-load is a luxury I don’t have.

During the 2.5 years that I had a private office, I had a built-in place to change clothes (rather than attempting to do so within the confines of a bathroom stall).  I was also spoiled by being able to bring my bike right into my office with me — no need for my trusty steed to have to weather the elements.  With my current commute, I’m lucky if I can cram Midnight into the partially covered bike rack on days when wet weather looms.

Similar to my previous commutes, I do have access to a locker room and shower on the other end.  I’m able to leave a padlock on a locker, so I stashed a pair of shower sandals and a bar of soap.  Unfortunately, all of the lockers are half-size, so it limits the usefulness as far as stashing gear on a daily basis (might need to get a second padlock and just claim another locker, as I’m about the only person to use the space anyway!).

I’ve used the locker room to change and freshen up a number of times, and in October I finally got around to trying the showers.  All went well the first time, but on the second occasion, there were no towels available (there had been previously, so I hadn’t brought my own), and I was forced to ditch the shower plan in favor of a less comprehensive clean-up regimen — guess I need to stash a towel there, too!

The other big difference is that on my previous commute, I had a fairly easy public transit back-up plan: a short walk to a bus that ran every 20 minutes -> bus ride to MetroLink (light rail) -> MetroLink to within a block of my office.  That meant that if the weather looked iffy later in the day (storms, heavy rain, winter weather), I could confidently bike to work, knowing I could leave my bike locked IN my office and rely on transit to get home.  And on totally rotten days, I could leave both the bike and car at home and enjoy transit (to be fair, not always a perfect experience, neither as fun nor convenient as biking, but it usually worked out well).

I haven’t even looked at my transit options for my current commute, but I know it’s nowhere near that nice, and while technically doable, it starts bordering on ridiculous when I do have access to a car.

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Anyhow, that’s a snapshot of the forecast for the beginning of this week (taken on Monday).  I drove to class on Monday night and I’m car-bound today as well.  Fortunately, Thursday looks better.

I have biked in rain a few times this semester, once or twice in fairly light stuff (but you still get pretty wet after 40 minutes) and once in an all-out downpour.  Doable, but it requires hauling my wet stuff around all day (or cramming it into a half-size locker where it doesn’t really have a chance to dry), and no nice transit back-up if things get really nasty, so it’s definitely a harder sell.

We’ll have to see how the weather plays out in the new year.  January and February usually bring our worst winter weather.  Between getting myself and Gabriel where we need to go, I may need to accept being in the car more than I’d really like for the first several weeks of the spring semester.

Regardless of what the new year brings, I’m quite happy to have established this new bike commute.  I’m definitely stronger and faster than I was just a few months ago, and I’m reaping the mental health benefits of the regular physical activity as well.  At the end of the day, there’s something so rewarding about getting somewhere under my own power!

 

Halloween weekend

The weather was lovely on Friday night, so we kicked off the weekend with a family bike ride to check out the neighborhood Halloween decorations.  The forecast for Saturday night looked less than ideal for trick-or-treating, so I wanted to make the most of it, and we did.  All was well, despite the fact that I didn’t realized my rear bike lights weren’t on until four blocks into the ride — oops!

Saturday dawned drizzly and gray, as promised.  We made the most of it by baking bread (Matthew) and making chickpea dumpling soup (me).  My food lab instructor mentioned chickpea flour dumplings last week in class (I was probably the only one in the room who had every actually consumed them), and I realized I’d completely forgotten about that recipe, which is quite tasty.  Fun to bring it back!

After some post-lunch quiet time, Matthew and Gabriel got into full tiger costume.

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I’ve got the two cutest tigers in town, and that’s no lion!

After a quick visit to Nana and Papa’s, we returned home for dinner (something nice and healthy before all that candy!).  Despite my fears, the weather mostly cooperated for trick-or-treating.  It was damp when we headed out, but no active precipitation.  We walked a few blocks to a street that is very active in trick-or-treating.  There were some great decorations, including this kid dressed up as a creepy jester who looked like a statue until he jumped at you.  The house with what had been G’s favorite decorations added an animated werewolf for Halloween night, and it was too creepy for my little tiger.  About halfway through, it started spitting, and there was a very light drizzle just as we finished.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend shared Ellyn Satter’s recommendation for handling Halloween candy, basically putting the child in charge (at least to some degree) to help him/her learn self-regulation.  I really like a lot of Satter’s work (mentioned in my “Avoiding Pitfalls in Raising a Healthy Eater” post), so, despite some qualms about these particular recommendations, I decided to give it a try that first night.

I told G he could pick out what he wanted, and also that if he was hungry for something else (we don’t usually do a snack before bed, because bedtime is so close to dinner, but we were up late and he had done a lot of walking), he could have a piece of the [fresh-baked] bread.  In the end, G picked 4-5 pieces of candy and then asked for a piece of bread.

I’ll admit that after each piece of candy, I was wondering, “Will this piece be the last one?” and I wouldn’t have minded if he’d chosen even less candy (yes, I might have some control issues), but as a “sometimes” thing, this was not at all unreasonable.

We’re now doing a bit more direction with the candy, and I’m not going for the “as much as he wants at snack time” thing.  Mostly I feel like there’s SO MUCH candy for a 4-year-old, and I’m wishing we’d visited fewer houses, as neither Matthew nor I are particularly interested in helping consume the candy stash (we’d prefer our sugar and fat calories from our homemade treats!).  Looking ahead to next year, I think it might be more fun (and lead to less candy) if we host a Halloween party, which would include some trick-or-treating for the kids, but would also include games and Halloween-themed food items.

Saturday’s rain delayed gardening until Sunday (yes, the garden is still alive and kicking!), and my tigers worked in the garden while I stayed home and did homework.  They returned as I was finishing dinner preparations, and G happily munched on some extra kohlrabi before showing me the big ol’ kohlrabi that Matthew had just harvested.

G with kohl rabi
“Make it quick, Mom. This is heavy!”

And that’s a wrap on our weekend!  I have a number of other posts in the works, including one on my no-longer-so-new bike commute, but I also have lots of school-related writing due in the next few weeks, so no promises!