Food Revolution tonight!

Have you always wanted to participate in a revolution but just can't find the time? Have you felt the need to be the voice of dissent when it concerns the school lunch system but weren't sure how to organize your radical thoughts and actions? Do you like to watch TV? If you answered yes to any of these questions, check out Food Revolution tonight. Jamie Oliver has an English accent which makes him smarter than Americans and better equipped to handle our obesity issue. He has come to the "unhealthiest city in America" to see how effective he can be at replacing the unhealthy menu items at the school lunch with better options for the kids. Watch Jamie and his cool hair take on the children of West Chester, Va. tonight!!

The new kid at shool

So I must say that making the decision to go back to school in your thirties is not an easy one.

There is much more life re-arranging now than in my twenties. I tried to do the part time waitress full time student gig like I did during my undergrad but ended up feeling like a drug addict. I would get off at such god awful hours (3-4 a.m.) drive home in that eerie pre-dawn with that strange feeling of having been awake all night, sleep until 11, squeeze a work out and some homework in before either going to class or work again. Now none of this had been an issue before. Actually, it worked out quite well. I waited tables all through college while getting my undergrad, breezed through school with a mighty fine GPA and still had plenty of time for friends, boyfriends, being awesome, etc., But things are veeeery different now.

And by different I mean exhausting.

Working and going to school is an interesting mix at any age and requires lots of juggling. However, now most of my friends are already leading their grown up lives (having gotten a degree that was useful and working up in a career that was fulfilling)and find it strange when I can't go wine tasting for a weekend because I "have a big test on Monday". Most people my age are way past any of this and I envy their put together, well thought out, direct path-in-life lives.

Another super fun aspect of returning to school is the new role of "the older student" I find myself playing. I take notes on a lap top. I told four girls behind me to shut up last semester. I wear ear plugs in the library. I sit in the front row. I am upset with myself whenever I don't get an "A". I have morphed into the annoying student I rolled my eyes at all through my undergrad. I just adore people's reactions when they discover my age, also. "WOW" my lab partner last spring said in Microbiology, "I never would have thought you were so OLD!" I was half flattered of course, to not look 32, but half irritated. I told her thanks, but really I was thinking "You know, when you're 32, you may not think it's so old!!" Or take for example the lab partner love birds in my chemistry class who REFUSED to stop holding hands even for one moment durding lab. They lit their Bunsen burners, titrated acids, measured volatile chemicals, all with 2 hands between two people. I wanted to shout at them "Not to worry you two. Pretty sure no one in the class wants to date either one of you!! Now please let go of each others hands before you blow something up for cryingout loud!!" Yeesh, I am turning into the super serious, overly focused career college student.

Due to the nature of the degrees I'm obtaining, I am taking undergrad classes simultaneously with grad classes. So on the one hand, I am the older, let's get this over with you little twerps student, but in my grad classes, I'm the "Holy crap please don't ask me what I'm doing my manuscript on or what projects I'm conducting research for because I'm embarrassed to say I have no idea". Take my geriatric nutrition class, my first grad class ever. I am lucky enough to be in all my classes with 3 of the raddest girls on campus. We affectionately refer to the women in our geriatric class as "the hens" because whenever you ask a question, they all begin clucking at once and find that they (not the professor) more than likely have the best answer. This may be true, but you will never be able to find out due to the fact everyone talks at once and over each other and is trying so hard to look smarter than the other person that the question or comment you made will never really be resolved.We usually just end up googling it on some one's I-phone and so I suppose I should be sending my tuition check to Wikipedia instead.

All these grievances aside, I so love being back in school. I'm learning so much and it is a good lesson in humility for me. Also, I feel so hip hanging around these youngsters and picking up on their lingo. I can't believe I just used the word hip. In a blog. Good Lord I really am old.

A handy measuring method

I am the girl who you never want to ask to "guesstimate" anything. I have zero sense of direction and no ability to visualize size or distance. Once when training for a race I accidentally ran 32 miles. Let's not get into how I did this, just know it was not pretty. I threw up in front of a group of people in Pacific Beach and had to have my roommate bring me a Gatorade in the shower while attempting to get myself together to attend her birthday dinner that night. All through the getting ready process she kept asking me, "Well I mean didn't you begin to think it seemed a little long?" The answer was, no I didn't. I just sort of knew I was running a long distance that day and it never occured to me it was waaaaaaaaaay too long.

These helpful tips listed below are perfect for the measurement challenged person such as myself.They make it much easier to estimate portions. Use the props suggested at home to get an idea for the size and put them into practice when you're eating out or when trying to figure out your fruit and veggie intake for the day; it's easier then you think when you figure a large salad is easily two cups of veggies. Another good tip that I use at home is measuring out 1 cup of cereal, fruit, etc., placing it in a bowl and then continue to use the same bowl and you can eyeball it every time.

Props Used to Estimate Food Portions
The Grain Group
1/2 cooked cup rice ---- tennis ball
1 pancake (1 ounce or 5") ---- compact disc (CD)
1 piece of cornbread (2 ounces) ---- bar of soap
1 slice of bread (1 ounce) ---- audiocassette tape
1 cup of pasta/spaghetti (2 ounces) ---- a fist
1 cup of cereal flakes (1 ounce) ---- a fist

The Vegetable Group
1 cup green salad ---- baseball or a fist
1 medium baked potato (1 cup) ---- computer mouse or a fist- Smaller than the standard potato!!
1/2 cup cooked broccoli ---- light bulb
1/2 cup serving ---- 6 asparagus spears; 7 or 8 baby carrots; 1 ear of corn on the cob

The Fruit Group
1/2 cup of grapes (15 grapes) ---- light bulb
1/2 cup of fresh fruit ---- 7 cotton balls
1 medium size fruit ---- tennis ball or a fist
1 cup of cut-up fruit ---- baseball or a fist
1/4 cup raisins ---- large egg

The Milk Group
1 1/2 ounces hard cheese ---- 9-volt battery or your index and middle fingers
1 ounce of processed cheese ---- your thumb
1 cup of ice cream ---- baseball

The Meat and Beans Group
2 tablespoons peanut butter (= 2 oz. meat) ---- ping-pong ball
1 teaspoon peanut butter (= 1/3 oz. meat) ---- fingertip
1 tablespoon peanut butter (= 1 oz. meat) ---- thumb tip
3 ounces grilled/baked fish or chicken ---- checkbook
3 ounces cooked meat, fish, poultry ---- your palm, a deck of cards or a cassette tape

Discretionary Calories

Fats, Sugars and Sodium
teaspoon butter, margarine ---- stamp, the thickness of your finger or knuckle to thumb tip
tablespoons regular salad dressing ping-pong ball

Snack Foods
1 ounce of nuts or small candies ---- one handful
1 ounce of pretzels ---- two handfuls
1/2 cup of popcorn ---- one man's handful
1/3 cup of popcorn ---- one woman's handful

Serving Dishes/Utensils
1/2 cup ---- custard cup or mashed potato scoop
1 1/2 cups ---- large cereal/soup bowl
1 1/2 cups of pasta, noodles ---- dinner plate, not heaped
1/2 cup of pasta, noodles ---- custard cup or mashed potato scoop

I got these ideas from the website
calorie count .

The Frustrated Cowboys

So I realize it has been awhile since I've posted...what can I say, I'm busy, overwhelmed, blah, blah, blah.

My good friends Jeff and Tara (owner's of Dexterity Salon) came to visit me last week. They brought along their friends Stephen and Stefanie and we just had a grand ol' time. It was so great to hang out with them, I don't get as many visitors as I would think I would living in sunny SoCal, but Utah is a pretty cool place too, so I guess I'm not too insulted. Unfortunately our weather was complete crap but we ended up making the best of things.

They stayed up in Del Mar (about 20 minutes north of us) and they came across this shop up there called "The Frustrated Cowboy"; for obvious reasons this quickly became a running joke. What a name.

Below is a pic of us at Miso Harney sushi in Old Town, miss those cowboys already:(

Brown rice is better

With all the processing that goes on in our food system, we should always be looking for things that are less refined and closer to their natural state. The easiest way to do this is (usually) for opting for things that are brown instead of white. We should be getting about 6 ounces of grains a day and at least half of these should be whole grains. The average American, by the way, gets one serving of whole grains in a day.

When a raw rice grain is refined into white rice, you lose pretty much all the nutrients: 67% of vitamin B3, 80% of vitamin B1, 90% of vitamin B6, 50% of manganese and phosphorus, 60% of iron (a nutrient most of us are deficient in) and all the fiber and essential fatty acids-to be exact. Why would anyone in their right mind do this to such a lovely plant? White rice has traditionally been viewed as the rice that the wealthy consumed since they could afford to pay the higher price that came from the processing. Peasants and working class consumed the brown rice and so brown rice became associated with lower socio-economic status. Undoing years of stigma attached to the different types is a work in progress.

In addition to all those nutrients lost in processing, brown rice also contains antioxidants which neutralize free radicals (or reactive oxygen species) in our bodies. What you say? Is there more? Why yes there is.

Being a whole grain and all, brown rice can help lower your cholesterol (it binds to it), keeps you fuller longer (can help you with weight loss), improves gut health (makes a bulky stool, or as my advanced nutrition professor refers to it- "fluffy poo"), and controls blood sugar levels for diabetics.

Amazing. And you can get instant brown rice or Uncle Ben's even makes it in those microwaveable packs. Top it with fish or add in a stir fry and you have a very healthy alternative to white rice.

They say furlough we say hell no.

Okay sorry I am a little excited today.

My friends and I participated in a walk out today on campus to rally against our tuition increases, professor pay cuts, lay offs, class reduction and furlough days. It was so great to be able to vent our frustrations on campus and with so many other people!!

It is so unfair that our school system suffers while San Diego City employees are getting pay raises and while we remain engaged in a billion dollar war abroad. Ever since Proposition 13 making property taxes capped at 2% was passed in California in the 70s, education funding has steadily decreased because this was a huge contributor to funding the school system here. Now, as wealthy property owners enjoy a tax that has not changed since 1978, our UCs and State schools are laying off amazing professors, shutting their doors to in state students, furloughing 9 days a SEMESTER and cutting pay for professors. All this is happening while we pay 32% more in tuition while receiving less and less aid and less and less education.

Whew! That was a rant I know. BUT, if we don't' say anything we will continue to be taken advantage of. I hope our rally today made a difference!!

walk out news coverage

Wedding pictures

These are some older pictures of my friend Jason's wedding. Jason and I have been friends since and he married a really adorable girl named Liz. Like all friends, we lost touch a little after high school but it was so gret to see him and my other friends. He seems genuinely happy:) Congrats to him and his wife.

Only me...

There are certain things that only happen to me. This is one of them.

Monday after school I had to unload a bunch of boxes from my car. I parked in the alley behind our apartment building and had to take them upstairs one by one so I left the hatchback to my car open. Anyway, finished unloading everything and came back down shut the hatchback. End of story.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I go for a run, come back and my neighbor knocks on my door. She is a nurse and had just gotten back from work.

Neighbor: "Hey Anjee, did you know there is a cat in your car?"
Me: "A CAT??" (I thought she said hat)
Neighbor:" Ya a cat. I just parked next to you and it looked at me from inside your backseat. "

So I go to my car, and sure enough, the resident alley cat is perched (literally) on my backseat. Just hanging out. HE must have hopped in there the previous night during my unloading and spent the night in my car. I open the door and try to scoot him out but he is pretty excited to be in there.

Me: "Do they like poop or pee or anything?"
Neighbor: "Ya but you would be able to smell it right away."

Now I know I may offend some cat people, but I am not cat fan. Of all the cars for this thing to have a sleepover in, it had to choose mine.

Now I am late for school, so I hop in my car and am racing to campus. I am on the lookout for fleas because of course every animal living in an alley would have them. And then I notice it. The little puddle on my passenger seat. Cat pee. Awesome.

After school I spent $60 to get my seats and carpets shampooed. Luckily I have seat covers and was able to wash them. I really hope it doesn't' smell. On the bright side, my interior looks awesome. On the not so bright side, this experience has deepened my distaste for the feline species.