Why I Relay

UNC’s Relay For Life was this past weekend and it was amazing and inspirational as always. It’s an overnight event put on by the American Cancer Society at colleges throughout the US to fundraise for cancer research, support, and treatments. I’ve done Relay since high school, and as I was getting depressed that this was my last Relay at UNC, I realized I’ll be right down the road next year and can keep participating in Relays long after graduation. I love how chill the 20-hour event always is and how much junk food I eat (popcorn, caramel apples, pasta, cookies, french fries… it’s ok, I can eat whatever I want in support of cancer fundraising). Although the weather didn’t allow it this year, I also love walking the track with my wonderfully supportive teammates and friends.

But my favorite part every year is the Luminary Ceremony which is kicked-off with a speech from someone who has been affected by cancer. This year’s speech by Elizabeth Arditti was definitely my favorite of my Relays at UNC. I can only imagine how hard it is to strike the perfect balance of being uplifting, inspirational, and not depressing, while talking about something as personal as how cancer affected her, but she completely nailed it. Her powerful words were the perfect way to start the Luminary Ceremony, where I lit luminaries with colorful glowsticks in memory of my grandparents.

I Relay for my grandparents, for everyone I know who has battled cancer and everyone who helped someone in their battle with cancer, to create more birthdays, and to prevent anymore cancer diagnoses.

 

 

You can continue to donate to UNC’s Relay For Life and my team through April. The Relay For Life committee did an amazing job this year, especially with the poor weather we had, and I want to thank my team for coming to the event with me!

Chocolate Frogs

No, this post is not about Harry Potter chocolate frogs. It’s about the health benefits of dark chocolate and the little green frog that you might see on the chocolate bag! Did it work… did I pique your interest? Well, when I walked into work one day, I had 2 dark chocolate pieces and a “Go Red for Women” brochure on my desk. It was there to promote awareness about heart disease being the number one killer of women, and as a perk, explain that moderate consumption of dark chocolate can lower the risk of heart failure by almost a third! Since I’ve had a major sweet tooth recently, I bought a whole bag of Dove dark chocolates (maybe not at risk for heart failure, but now for a cavity instead).

On the bag, I saw the Certified Rainforest Alliance frog symbol and remember seeing a hilarious ad for the “Follow the Frog” campaign in class last semester. I still didn’t know much about it, so I looked on their website about what the frog symbol actually means. They strive to “conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.” And by holding farms and businesses to certain standards, there are a lot of positive ripple effects like alleviating poverty, preventing deforestation, and decreasing climate change. I think it’s really awesome that a lot of companies get this certification, and it sounds silly but it’s something that made eating my chocolate a little more enjoyable. So my advice for today is follow the frog and indulge your chocolate cravings!

Appetizer Escapades

As I slowly make my cooking escapades more difficult, the next step up from the smoothie I made is a dip, if I’m not mistaken. I found this Sun-Dried Tomato and Artichoke dip recipe (even though I was REALLY tempted to make spinach and artichoke dip instead), and decided to try it out since it’s full of nutritious ingredients, some that are cancer-preventing (like UNC’s Relay for Life this weekend). Here’s why the ingredients are so good for you:

• Artichoke has very high levels of salvestrols, which have anti-cancer benefits. Artichokes also help your digestive system break down rich, fatty foods.
• Tomatoes are famous for flavenoid lycopene, which reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Sun-dried tomatoes have some increased vitamin levels compared to raw tomatoes.
• Garlic is a superfood that inhibits 72 known infectious agents, protects against ulcers, and may help eliminate metals from the body.
• Lemon juice also has anti-cancer benefits, in addition to being full of Vitamin C.

This dip is pretty easy to make and turned out delicious! The flavors are fairly strong, and I suggest using whole-wheat, toasted baguette slices instead of whole-wheat crackers like I did (that’s why you should follow the recipe and not scrape together random ingredients you already have like I did- whoops). I’m still waiting on roomie approval of this dip, but fingers crossed!

Ingredients

• 1 box (9 ounces) frozen artichokes, thawed and chopped
• 1/2 cup feta, crumbled
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (oil-packed), chopped, plus more for garnish
• 1/2 cup basil leaves, torn
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• Whole-wheat baguette slices, for serving

Directions

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine 1/2 cup artichokes, 1/4 cup feta, garlic, lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons water; puree until smooth.
2. In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, basil, remaining chopped artichokes, remaining 1/4 cup feta, and reserved artichoke puree; season with salt and pepper. Garnish with sun-dried tomatoes, if desired, and serve on baguette slices. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to three days.

Enjoy!

Smoothie of Champions

You’re drooling right? I am too at the memory of this delicious, cereal-coated french toast I ate on my cruise last week. So good. Alas, I’m going to try to counteract my continuous nomming last week with a few recipes full of cancer fighting foods!

I am not a great cook, so I figured I’d start with something that had a very low chance of me messing it up. I made this smoothie for breakfast but it would also be a great snack! The 2 most important ingredients were the frozen blueberries and the pomegranate juice because both fruits are full of antioxidants and have a ton of other health benefits. It’s super easy to make- just blend:

• 3/4 cups of frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cups pomegranate juice
• 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• A few ice cubes

The smoothie was pretty small, so if you want it as a more filling snack or meal, I would double the ingredients. Also, I used greek vanilla yogurt instead of regular yogurt, so it adds a little more protein than what the original recipe has. I wasn’t brave enough to add spinach to my smoothie, but my roommate always adds it to her smoothies, and you can’t tell it’s there at all but it makes it even more healthy! Next time Mal, next time.

Please comment if you have any suggestions for recipes you like or are interested in that I could try! A lot of health focused websites have lists of recipes that prevent different types of illnesses if you are interested in trying some of those.

Namaste

Surrender: complete acceptance of what is.

“Surrender” was the theme for the yoga class I went to tonight, and it was exactly how I needed to end my day. My quirky yoga instructor led the class with a mix of serene sayings and abrupt, straightforward musings about life. For instance, while she was talking about the peacefulness of surrendering to things you can’t control, she talked about yoga positions/life as either being a shit-show or making you feel strong- genius right?

I’ve heard several yoga teachers talk about the breath in your yoga practice being the hardest part, and it totally is. It was my focus for this class because I’ve never been able to breathe in sync with how you’re instructed to in yoga. Breathing in and breathing out should be the easiest part though, amidst stretching and contorting your body, shouldn’t it? The same should be true throughout your day. Breathing should just happen. But sometimes I get flustered and hold in all the things I think I should be worrying about, when I should just breathe them out. Taking a breath should be the first thing we do when we feel overwhelmed. So, I hope to remind you to listen to Mat Kearny and breathe in and breathe out… because everything keeps moving on.

Yoga is the perfect slower paced exercise, especially amid this (unrelenting) winter weather. If you haven’t tried it before, I’d encourage you to go a couple times and see how you like it. It helps you reason through things going on in your life (i.e. problems) and completely put your life on pause (i.e. problems) all at the same time. Not to mention there are some amazing health and happiness benefits of doing yoga. For some inspiration, check out my friend Laura’s photoblog of Maggie the yogi.

Open Your Third Eye

On my drive down to Charleston with 3 lovely ladies, we started talking about meditation and the book “The Experience of Insight.” I’ve heard from several people meditation is pretty hard to do, but super helpful. Maybe this week I’ll try it on some beach or at the front of our cruise ship, Titanic style.

“Meditation deepens through the continuity of awareness”

Campus Health says meditation is the regular, systematic training of attention to turn inward and dwell continuously on a single focus within consciousness. They have a lot of info and resources about meditating and there’s even weekly meditation in the Union! Campus Health also has a number of resources at your disposal for emotional wellness, which I’ve taken advantage of recently. Someone recently told me that college students don’t realize how many opportunities they have so easily available (not to mention free). So I’d encourage you to attend their meditation sessions or any of the other resources available to increase your well-being.

Franklin Street Yoga has free meditation every week as well. Their yoga teachers are phenomenal, and I can only imagine they would be great at fostering a peaceful meditation environment.

This picture lists some great benefits of meditation that could help anyone, even if you don’t think you need to destress or aren’t trying to resolve any of these issues. Stress can have a much larger impact on your health than you might realize, and you could have many background stressors in your life (anyone else not excited for the real world in 2 months…). Meditation can also help anxiety and depression better than medicine can, and can help cancer patient have a better quality of life.

So meditation = world peace?

Soaking up the Sunshine

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been counting down the days till spring break – I can’t wait to be in the sunny Turks & Caicos where it’s currently 81 degrees! I know a lot of people will also be soaking up the sun next week, so I thought I’d write a post about protecting your skin and preventing skin cancer. My mom has had a few scares with cancerous spots because she grew up at the beach not wearing any sunscreen, so I try to be really cautious. Plus nobody wants to look like a lobster the second day of vacation and attempting to take even a (luke)warm shower will be a struggle.

To limit your sun exposure, take some shade breaks under an umbrella especially between 10am and 4pm when the UV rays are the strongest. Wearing clothing can also prevent your skin from getting exposed to UV rays, but not all clothing protects completely. If your skin burns easily (I’m looking at you, gingers), consider buying special clothes that protect your skin even when it’s wet, while still being lightweight and comfortable. Wear sunglasses that ideally block 99% to 100% of UVA and UVB rays – look for a label that says “UV absorption up to 400 nm.” To keep your beautiful face from burning, consider wearing a hat too.

I’ve heard many myths about sunscreen, especially about SPF, and didn’t think to look up the facts until writing this. Here’s a picture of the sunscreen I just bought for my trip (because it seemed legit), but let me break it down for you about what you should look for when you’re picking up your sunscreen:

• It’s best to wear sunscreen with broad spectrum protection, which protects against both UVA and UVB rays.
• Your sunscreen should be an SPF of 30 or higher. The SPF scale works like this – SPF 15 sunscreens filter out about 93% of UVB rays, SPF 30 about 97%, SPF 50 about 98%, and SPF 100 about 99%. Lower than SPF 15 15 has been shown only to help prevent sunburn, not skin cancer or early skin aging (ain’t nobody got time for wrinkles, so just buy a higher SPF).
• Sunscreens can claim to be “water resistant,” but they have to state whether they protect the skin for 40 or 80 minutes.
• Reapply every 2 hours.

I hope everyone has a delightfully relaxing and fun spring break! Campus Health just posted a really insightful blog about how important relaxing is for your well-being, and it discusses a ton of tangible benefits of relaxing. Keep a lookout for more posts from me next week – beach reading perhaps?

More Birthdays

There’s a lot going on in the month of March (including warm weather… I’m hoping). It’s National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and National Nutrition Month so guess what I’ll be blogging about today? How nutrition can prevent cancer! It’s like the stars have aligned. I’ve found a ton of great resources about preventing cancer that I want to share with y’all, and I know you may be thinking it’s silly that I’m concerned about this already. But (1) every single one of the cancer preventative recipes, advice, etc. are healthy regardless and (2) it’s worth wearing a seatbelt even if you usually don’t need it just in case, right? It’s often hard to take things seriously unless you’re directly impacted by it. Both of my grandparents as well as friends have lost their fight with cancer and I know many people currently fighting cancer. It’s something that makes me feel a little helpless, so trying these suggestions out and sharing them makes me feel like I’m creating more birthdays.

“Cancer is still a riddle, with many factors, including genetics, playing a role. But growing evidence suggests that there are steps that we can take to lower our chances of getting the disease”

In a recent Washington Post article about how diet and exercise can reduce your risk of cancer, they go over the basics of how you can reduce your risk of getting cancer.

1. Maintain a healthy weight. How do you do that, you ask? Great question, keep reading.
   
2. Get active. A sedentary lifestyle, coupled with overeating, can create an energy imbalance thatcauses abnormalities in the body. Cancer is when damaged cells reproduce out of control, so that makes sense. Get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity weekly. As Elle Woods said best, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy,” so it’s a win-win for sure.
3. And finally, eat healthily. EatRight.org has great dietary guidelines, recipes, information on specific health concerns, exercise tips, and advice from registered dietitians.
4. Also it’s a good idea to avoid tobacco, limit alcohol, know your family history, be careful about sun exposure and get age-appropriate screening.

Going back to the eat healthy thing I keep harping on- I found a great list of foods that ward off carcinogens from Joy Bauer. I love watching her attempt to bring sanity to Hoda and Kathy Lee on the Today Show. Anyways, keep these foods in mind and add them to your list of must-haves!

• Grapefruit
• Peanuts
• Berries
• Sweet potatoes
• Wild salmon
• Flaxseed
• Turmeric
• Tea
• Cruciferous vegetables – AKA broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage (had to google that one.)
• Pomegranates

Have a happy and healthy March everyone! Keep in mind that UNC Chapel Hill’s Relay For Life fundraiser is coming up on March 28th, which is one way that you and I can help prevent cancer and create more birthdays! I encourage all of you to sign up and join my team – ask me if you have any questions (:

You’re Either Feeding a Disease or Fighting It

I promise I don’t always take what I eat so seriously, BUT this is the foundation of what I want my blog to convey. A lot of people probably wouldn’t think about altering their diet until something was already wrong, but I think it’s a great idea to be a little more conscious of what you put into your body before anything wrong things happen. Think about all the incredible things your body does all the time- good nutrition will help it keep doing that for a long, long time.

I’ll be cooking some great recipes down the road that are thought to prevent certain illnesses and diseases, and let you know how it goes! But first I thought I’d share some great, natural food staples that are delicious and perfect to always have handy. Whole Living has a great list of nutritious foods to keep stocked, and you can also find recipes with some of these on their website. I’m pretty terrible at throwing together meals, so maybe you can do eeny meeny miny moe with a few of these ingredients and let me know how it goes.

Greens, Garlic, Onions, Citrus, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Frozen fruit, Artichokes, Chile peppers, Fresh & Dried herbs, Spices, Nuts, Olive oil, Quinoa, Soba noodles, Legumes, Whole wheat pasta, Rice, Spelt, Mustard, Pomegranate Molasses, Olives, Vinegars, Breadcrumbs, Miso
Sea salt, Green tea, Hard cheese, Yogurt, Broth, Fish sauce, Wine, and Walnut, flaxseed, or pumpkin seed oil.

Other good foods to have for every occasion are power foods, or foods that have high nutritive value such as vitamins and antioxidants. You get a lot of bang for your buck with these foods!

Strawberries, Avocados, Artichokes, Pepper, Apricots, Tomatoes, Dark chocolate, Quinoa, Lentil
Fish, Apples, Kiwi, Eggs, Spinach, Grapefruit, Carrots, Kale, Sweet potatoes, and Broccoli.

Another good food tip to keep in mind, is what foods you should buy organic and what foods you don’t need to. You should especially buy organic fruits and vegetables if they have thin skins, because they absorb more of the pesticides that are sprayed on them. Some of the foods that you should consider buying organic are:

Apples, celery, cherries,  grapes, lettuce, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, and sweet bell peppers.

Since it’s National Eating Disorders Awareness week, I thought I’d also share a great blog post I found explaining how not eating enough or fasting for periods of time is bad for you. There are a ton of great resources on Nedawareness.org to help you, or help you help a friend.
Let me know if you have any other suggestions for nutritious food staples and recipes for them! Stay tuned for some of my cooking attempts!

The All Too Common Cold

When I came to college and started taking care of myself when I was sick, I became really interested in natural ways to cure things (and, let’s be honest, hanging out in Carrboro helped me get in touch with my granola side). I’ve never been a huge fan of taking medication on a whim for every ailment, especially because I’ve found that some natural remedies work even better. People have gotten lazy about their health because they’re just hoping that modern medicine will save them down the road. There are a lot of reasons to maintain a healthy lifestyle especially for the fact that “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.” Plus, it may seem like taking a medication is the easy way out, but there are going to be a hundred side effects and it may not help you solve the problem that’s causing the illness. However, doctor visits and medication are sometimes necessary, but you can try these natural cures as a first line of defense. I want to test out some natural prevention tactics against everything from colds to diseases that run in my family, and let you know how it goes!

The worst thing about winter for me is getting all of these cold germs that seem to be everywhere. Unfortunately, this winter my roommates and I seem to be catching colds right and left and passing them around to each other. But the silver lining here is that I’ve been able to test out a ton of remedies that I’ve found so I can tell you what worked for me!

Preventing a Cold

These suggestions for keeping your immune system strong and preventing colds are just good things to do regardless, and I’m sure you’ve heard them before so I’ll cut to the chase.

• Get enough sleep – approximately 7-9 hours depending on your individual needs and lifestyle.
• Don’t be stressed. Easier said than done, I know. BUT stress releases cortisol, which has negative effects on your immune system and wreaks lots of other havoc on your body. Meditation has been show to reduce stress and negative emotions which makes you a happier, healthier person and less prone to colds.
• Exercise. This can also be a great stress reliever- I’m a huge fan of yoga to help tackle both these problems.
• Take vitamins. This didn’t even occur to me until I got hit by 2 rounds of colds, but recently I’ve become the vitamin stocker for my apartment.

Treating a Cold

My favorite cold-fighting tip that I’ve learned is that honey is great for soothing a sore throat and has been shown to be better for suppressing a cough than cough medicine. Tea helps soothe a sore throat too, so why not add a ton of delicious honey to it? I’ve found this works incredibly well, especially to prevent nighttime coughing.

Vitamin C can reduce the duration and severity of your cold, and while there is mixed evidence about whether taking Echinacea before or during a cold will help, I take a combo pill of both of them if I feel a cold coming on. Zinc is another vitamin that specifically helps to relieve symptoms when you have a cold.

Now I can’t say that I’ve tried all of these, but immune-supporting and cold-fighting spices include turmeric, ginger, cayenne, mushrooms, red bell pepper, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, garlic, Brazil nuts, whole grains, and beans – all of which are healthy regardless of whether you’re fighting a cold or not.

I hope y’all don’t get any more colds this winter, but if you do I hope some of these suggestions help you fight it off!

Do Less, Be More

I don’t know about you, but getting back into routines after a nice break is really rough for me. This week back to work after 2 weeks off felt like it lasted forever. And the normal, day-to-day things stressed me out way more this week because I hadn’t had to deal with it in awhile.

I came across this HuffPost blog post that says the only resolution you need to make is this: do less, be more. I love it. I think it’s exactly what I need to re-center myself and not get so crazy stressed about tiny things.

This article is full of great advice, and I promise something will resonate with you if you read the whole thing. Out of the 62 ways to do less and be more, I’m guessing you’ll come across a few that you think would really solve some problems and stressors in your life.

I’m someone who worries all the time… about what I’m going to do every minute for the rest of the day (1. Ditch the itinerary), what I should be doing (5. Ditch the boundaries, constraints, and rules that you normally place upon yourself), and who I should be keeping in touch with (6. Ditch the wire).

“Worry is a misuse of your imagination.”

Some of my other favorite pieces of advice for this particular problem of mine are
11. Rest your brain
13. Release your heart
29. Connect with your well-being, your mood, your happiness
38. Organize, clean, Feng Shui, rearrange, create good vibes in your environments
41. Decide that today’s the day to forgive someone else
49. Give yourself permission to not please everyone.

I know I’ve heard each of these ideas a dozen times before and deep down I know these are things I need to incorporate into my life, but this article hit my twitter feed at a great time because I really needed to read this. I hope it’s something that helps you recenter at least one aspect of your life today, this week, this year. It almost seems like there are very few things in life we can control, but we can control how we react and handle the chaos that comes at us. We should stop multitasking and doing a hundred things halfway, whether to satisfy others or ourselves. So keep in mind to do less and be more as you start your week and your year- thanks for reading!

Slow to cook

Picture From BudgetBytes.com

I post a new blog basically anytime I cook something fun, and obviously it’s not that often. I’m trying to find new, delicious recipes that have enough leftovers to last me a while of lunches to pack for work. I found some great slow cooker recipes, and the first one I tried was this white chicken chili recipe that I found on the Budget Bytes blog.

It was harder to prepare than advertised, but that was due to that fact that 2 can-openers broke on me (what are the odds) and I didn’t know how to mince garlic… so those were just user errors. Once those issues were resolved, easy-peasy! Cooking raw meat freaks me out a little, so my favorite part of making slow cooker meals was that this was the easiest, most foolproof way to cook chicken. And it makes enough to last all week or share with friends!

The ingredients are as follows:

• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 jalapeño (optional)
• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (about ¾ lb.)
• 1 16oz. jar salsa verde
• 2 15oz. cans cannellini beans
• 1 15oz. can pinto beans
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups chicken broth- I ended up adding a little more because a lot of the chicken broth boiled off. If you like less soupy chili, then leave as is.
• 4 oz. Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded

1. Put the diced onion, minced garlic, jalapeño, and chicken in the slow cooker.
2. Drain and rinse the beans, then add the beans, salsa, cumin, oregano, cayenne, and freshly ground black pepper to the slow cooker.
3. Pour 2 cups of chicken broth into the slow cookers and gently stir everything.
4. Cook on high for 4 hours.
5. When it’s finished, the chicken should be tender and easy to shred (if not, cook for another hour). Use two forks to shred the chicken.
6. Top with Monterrey Jack cheese, and serve!

Do you have a favorite slow cooker meal that you make? I’d love to hear what it is- I’m in need of another one to try!

Eve Carson 5K

I ran the Eve Carson 5K again this year, and although I was slightly less prepared, it was still a successful race! I’m not a huge fan of running, so a 5K is something I needed to mentally and physically get ready for. Luckily I had a great motivator by my side on a beautiful day in Chapel Hill, not to mention there was a swarm of people cheering the runners on.The 5K raised over $116,000, a lot of which funds the Eve Carson Scholarship. I finished the race just a few minutes slower than last year, and my treat afterwards was a string of sugary, fried foods from the NC State fair- probably not the best way to refuel, but it was the most delicious ice cream I’ve had in years!

Below are the 5 stages of my 5K experience:

Pre-race excitement!

Beginning of the race high

Crossed the finish line.. barely

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exhausted

Recovered and happy in front of the Old Well

Gratitude

I wanted to write a quick post about gratitude mostly for my own sake, but I’m grateful for anyone who’s reading it (: Leaving my wonderful Chapel Hill bubble and entering the working world in Raleigh was a tough transition. But to better embrace this new normal, I wanted to start consciously acknowledging the things that I am grateful for. I had seen a few articles around this time about the benefits of being grateful, and while some people may not think these benefits can be tied definitively back to being more grateful (myself included), it can only improve your life/perspective and make you happier. Some of these benefits include:

• Stronger immune system
• Better sleep and increased energy
• More confidence
• Deeper relaxation
• Easier bounce back from tough situations
• Improved mental health
• Better relationships

Over a month ago I decided to write down 3 things that I was grateful for each day… unfortunately I’ve only done it about 10 times. But it’s better than nothing right? And hopefully this post will keep me more accountable for doing it since it’s now out in the world. I hope you and I both are able to appreciate the little things a little more! Let me know your thoughts on gratitude and anything you do to be more appreciative.

Whole Foods Adventures

Sometimes adventures work out just right and sometimes you get the wrong kind of oats.

I went to the Whole Foods in Raleigh for the first time, and I had forgotten how much of an adventure it is. I don’t know the aisles and have to search for what I need (maybe take a couple of extra laps around the store) and make sure I don’t accidentally get $12 organic grapes or a vegan pizza or something. But I got the most amazing fruits and vegetables, quesadilla, and a bourbon-glazed salmon- needless to say I’m having a great week of dinners 🙂

I went to the store in search of 3 specific ingredients for a 3 ingredient cookie recipe I found! So excited about it. Unfortunately I screwed up on one of the ingredients… not one of my baking triumphs. I discovered that steel cut oats and regular oats are too different to substitute for this cookie recipe. But if you use regular oats, this recipe will work out great!

Stir 1-2 bananas (great to get rid of old, mushy bananas you have), about 1 cup of oats (regular or instant!), and mix in a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips. You could also add in cinnamon, raisins, or nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, and you’ll have the healthiest dessert ever!

Standing Desk or Exercise Ball?

During my internships I never had a problem with sitting all day long, but I think it’s hitting me that I will, for the indefinite future, be sitting for 8+ hours a day. And it’s driving me crazy. I drive to work, sit all day staring at my computer, and the cafeteria, printers, and bathrooms are all 30 seconds away. So unfortunately, the 1 minute walk to and from the parking lot is the most walking I do during the week. I get so fidgety and bored and apparently it’s not good for you either. Even 30 minutes of exercise doesn’t counteract the damage caused by sitting all day, so what should I do? A few people at my office have standing desks, and I’m really tempted to try to get one for my cube. Some of the girls I work with sit on exercise balls all day and love it –  mostly because it helps them stay focused since they have to stay engaged. There are advantages and disadvantages to both options, but anything seems less boring and better for you than sitting the entire time.

Do you have a standing desk or sit on an exercise ball and like/dislike it? I’d love to hear about it!

Also to counteract being bored, I’m looking for ways to decorate my horrible gray cube. Pinterest has become my inspiration for all things adult… aka lame (recent pins include healthy packed lunches and closet organizational tips- yikes). The pin on the left was my favorite/cheapest/most useful find, so I thought I’d share it. Anyone else have cute ideas?

How to have breakfast when running out the door

Hey everyone! As you may know, I started this blog for a class in the spring – ah those were the days when my “responsibilities” were writing a blog… So I took a little break from posting after graduation, but now that I have moved to Raleigh and been working for a few weeks I’d like to post every now and then.

I’m trying to adjust to the working world where I have to stay focused for 8 hours straight then have absolutely nothing to do afterwards besides decorate my apartment. This weekend has been really relaxing and I’ve caught up on everything I needed to do so I had time to prepare my breakfasts for the coming week! I first saw the idea of egg muffins on another blog and thought it would be perfect for grabbing on the way to work in the morning. I’m one of those people that has to eat breakfast, but I barely give myself time to throw on clothes and run out the door. I’m really excited to have these ready for this week, and I already know they’re going to be delicious because I didn’t have the will power to not eat a couple.

 

 

 

 

 

These egg muffins are basically little omelettes that are great to refrigerate and heat up later! I changed the recipe a little from the one that I found, and you can do the same and add whatever ingredients sound good to you!  Here’s how I made the egg muffins:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter the muffin tin
• Mix 4 eggs, a splash of milk, chopped up spinach, and salt and pepper to taste
• Pour into 6 muffin cups
• Sprinkle in bacon bits and sharp cheddar cheese
• Bake for about 20 minutes

To make these slightly healthier, you can use 2 whole eggs + 5 eggs whites, forget the bacon, and add more veggies. I’m waiting for my avocado to ripen so I can top the egg muffins with it one morning 🙂

Thanks so much for reading! If you have good ideas for what you have for breakfast before/at work, I’d really love to hear them. Or if you have ways on how to stay focused at work, that would be even more helpful haha.

 

Knuckle Cracking Myths

I crack my knuckles…and hips and ankles and back…and arthritis runs in my family, so I thought I’d look into whether there is a correlation between the two.

How Stuff Works explains that when you hear your knuckles popping it’s because the joint is stretched far enough that the pressure in the connective tissue capsule drops low so bubbles in the fluid surrounding your joint burst. Really only one in depth study has been done examining possible joint damage caused by knuckle cracking. It found that there wasn’t a connection with arthritis and joint cracking, but there were signs of soft tissue damage to the joint capsule and a decrease in grip strength. Another study found that knuckle crackers were more likely to have swollen hands and reduced hand strength, but the counter argument suggested that people with looser ligaments have the ability to crack their knuckles and have reduced hand strength because of it. Other “experts” and studies seem to find the same (somewhat inconclusive) result. However, there is risk of a stroke if you crack your neck (I’m guilty of that too). Even though the risk is low it sounds terrifying enough for me to stop cracking at least my neck.

Should I stop cracking my knuckles/everything? Yes. Is it annoying to everyone around me when I do it? Probably. Am I going to stop completely? Maybe one day. If there was more evidence that came out to convince me, I would definitely try harder. But if you have never cracked your back or been to the chiropractor, you don’t know the joy that comes from the feeling after your back cracks. Yes, joy.

De-stress

I’ve touched on stress before when talking about using meditation to combat it, but I wanted to revisit the subject and hopefully someone tense and overwhelmed in Davis will take a second to read this and de-stress.

When you’re stressed or anxious, your body releases cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine which is good in certain circumstances, but can take a toll on your body if it’s chronic. Too much cortisol can suppress the immune system, increase blood pressure and sugar, decrease libido, produce acne, contribute to obesity, etc. And if something stresses you out, it could take anywhere from half an hour to a couple of days to return to your normal resting state after these hormones are released. 

UNC Campus Health Services has a list of things you can do to deal with stress better including asking for help, taking a break to exercise or take a warm shower, and breathing or meditating. Another de-stress list from Huffington Post suggests 20 scientifically backed things you should try right now if you’re stressed:

1. Go for a 10 minute walk
2. Breathe deeply
3. Visualize
4. Eat a snack
5. Buy yourself a plant
6. Step away from your screen
7. Pucker up
8. Apply pressure in certain places on your hand
9. Turn off your phone
10. Eat a piece of candy
11. Try web based stress management programs
12. Chew a piece of gum
13. Watch a viral video
14. Progressive muscle relaxation
15. TURN OFF YOUR PHONE
16. See your best friend
17. Eat a banana
18. Try eagle pose
19. Craft
20. Put on some music

For time management especially during finals, CHS suggests making a master schedule and a to-do list that is *prioritized*. That’s the best advice about to-do lists I’ve heard in a long time, because they can be daunting. Prioritizing your tasks can help you focus less on the endless things it seems like you have to do and more on the one thing you should be concentrating on first.

Good luck everyone! Keep in mind you won’t remember this one test that you’re stressing about, or even this one class. There are much bigger and better things going on in your life- this one exam is just a drop in this ocean.

Advocating for Sleep

I often need 9 hours of sleep (plus a morning cup of coffee) to feel fully awake and energized all day. I know that’s a lot more than some (most) people get, but I feel fairly useless the next day unless I get enough sleep and practice good sleeping habits. Either insomnia or poor sleeping habits run in my family, so I’ll continue trying to prevent both.

A lot of people in different stages of life don’t get enough sleep and sometimes they don’t know that some of their problems stem from getting a poor night’s…. week’s or month’s…sleep. It takes a toll on your body and you’ll definitely be able to feel the difference when you’re finally well rested. The infographic to the right shows all of the benefits of getting enough sleep (and that means catching up on “sleep debt” from that all nighter you pulled).

I was having a rough patch for sleeping well and feeling rested, so I started using the app Sleep Time. It’s free and tracks your sleep- duration, depth, and timing. It also allows you to set an alarm to wake you up when you’re in the lightest stage of sleep – ever been jolted awake in the middle of a dream by your alarm and didn’t feel like you were actually awake until 30 mins later? It can help prevent that. It can also help you track your sleep schedule so you go to sleep around the same time every night, get enough sleep, and identify reasons you aren’t sleeping well. To the left is a screenshot of one night’s sleep (it also shows a weekly version so you can compare each night side by side).

Try out these tips for better sleep from the National Sleep Foundation if you’re having trouble sleeping or aren’t feeling rested:

• Establish consistent sleep and wake schedules, even on weekends
• Create a regular, relaxing bedtime routine such as soaking in a hot bath or listening to soothing music – begin an hour or more before the time you expect to fall asleep
• Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool
• Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows
• Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex (keep “sleep stealers” out of the bedroom – avoid watching TV, using a computer or reading in bed)
• Finish eating at least 2-3 hours before your regular bedtime
• Exercise regularly.
• Avoid caffeine and alcohol products close to bedtime and give up smoking