Fundraising!

Food. Something I thought I knew so much about until I actually went to school for nutrition. It has been an amazing journey along this path of discovery and one of the most difficult things I have ever done. My goal throughout the application process is to try to document it via this blog or at the very least talk about current nutrition issues.

I have finally gotten some progress made on my website! I actually somehow ended up creating two websites so one will have to go eventually but here are the links so feel free to take a look and comment.
http://hotgreenlife.weebly.com/
https://about.me/negrinleah

I will be using the weebly one for my applications so any constructive criticism would be greatly helpful!

I am going to post again about fundraising for my amazing half marathon. As previously mentioned I am running the NYC half in order to raise money for an amazing charity, Back On My Feet. Below is a quote from one of the members and it just illustrates so well why this program is so important!

 “Before I used to hear people say that they ran 8 miles in the morning, and I didn’t believe them.  I thought that they were making it up; it wasn’t possible.  Now I’m one of those people running 8 miles in the morning.  It makes me realize that there are other things that I can do now that I thought were impossible before.”

Back On My Feet helps inspire so many people to move forward in their lives and see that there is a way to get out of whatever situation they might be in. Hopefully we can all be as successful as the member quoted above.

DONATE!

https://www.crowdrise.com/BackOnMyFeetNYCHalf16/fundraiser/leahnegrin

Training and Applying

It has been a very long while since I have had the time or the motivation to write on my blog. School takes up almost every single moment of my life. Dietetic programs are typically very difficult and LIU’s is no different. This program has taught me quite a bit about our anatomy, why people eat the way they do and how to help them as well as just how hard I can work and succeed, even at things like organic chemistry! It has been a roller coaster year with such highs and such lows it’s hard to remember them all. School will ultimately be worth it, being a Registered Dietitian is a dream of mine that is getting closer and closer to coming true. During this semester we are also applying for our Dietetic Internship which I call a residency as that seems to be the best way to describe it. We have different rotations, often in the hospital for our clinical rounds as well as a food service rotation and a community rotation. 

Another huge part of my life right now besides the application process is the training program that I am starting in order to run the NYC Half Marathon which takes place in March 2016. I am running to raise funds for a great charity called Back on My Feet which “uses running to help individuals experiencing homelessness change the way they see themselves so that they can make real changes resulting in employment and independent living.” 

I am very excited about running this race for an actual cause as I normally simply sign up for a race and run it. There is occasionally a cause that my race entry fee is donated towards but I haven’t yet had the experience of fundraising for an organization in order to race. I find it so refreshing to be doing this activity I love all the while helping others.

My blogs going forward will likely be a mix of my paralal training and application journeys. I hope reading about these massive undertakings will help those out there for next year's dietetic internship application process or those that are training for a half marathon! I am looking forward to sharing in the upcoming months!

If you would like to donate to Back on My Feet to help me reach my fundraising goal, the link to my fundraising page is below.

https://www.crowdrise.com/backonmyfeetnychalf16/fundraiser/leahnegrin

Post Race Food

Hi everyone! It’s been far too long since I've actually posted anything on my blog, life just took over and so many changes occurred! The largest one I guess I would say is that I went back to school for a second bachelors in Nutrition in order to be a Registered Dietitian and help people eat right and live longer, healthier lives! The journey is ridiculously hard as I’m not truly a chemistry person and the first year and a half of the program is a lot of chemistry! More about my journey as I try to keep up with my blogging starting now! I did a wonderful race yesterday, a 5K, nothing insanely difficult but since I broke my foot last September and it still acts up every once and awhile it can make running consistently really difficult.

Now I know we all are thankful for the food post a hard 5k, 10k, half marathon and so on but the last few races I've been privileged to run have had some less than stellar nutritional choices available post run.  First off, and most offensive are pork rinds, that's right they were serving pork rinds at a race supporting funding for cancer research.  This disgusting product shouldn't be a part of anyone's diet, ever, but most especially those receiving treatment or in remission from cancer-very disturbing to me. Second, comes a very common one, Skippy peanut butter, let's be real most of us know there are very few real ingredients in this 'peanut butter'. My parents use it on the rare occasion they have to trap a mouse, they wouldn't actually consume it themselves. The ingredients in the regular fat version are: Roasted peanuts-everyone should attempt to have organic if possible and raw peanuts are best, sugar-as a country we consume far too much of this ingredient, hydrogenated vegetable oils (cottonseed, soybean, and rapeseed)-hydrogenated oils have been shown to cause high cholesterol as they are a form of trans fats and all three of these oils are part of the genetically modified organism (GMO) family, which should be avoided and lastly salt. The scary part isn't even above, which is scary enough for me to never pick up the stuff but when you choose the low fat version of this ‘peanut butter’ you get all sorts of other additives: Roasted peanuts, corn syrup solids, sugar, soy protein, salt, hydrogenated vegetable oils (cottonseed, soybean and rapeseed, mono and diglycerides, minerals (magnesium oxide, zinc oxide, ferric orthophosphate, copper sulfate), vitamins (niacinamide, pyridoxide hydrochloride, folic acid). So as you can see you are getting a whole lot more than you should in your ‘peanut butter’.

I know it might be wrong to complain about free food after a race, I just feel runners know better than to put this junk in their bodies so why not serve us better products? Hell I'd even be willing to pay a couple more dollars for post-race food I'd actually eat. Just felt like sharing this, maybe get some conversation started, and maybe even make a change!

Cooking ahead for cheaper!

Happy weekend everyone! Today I did something I always want to do but can never seem to find the time, cook ahead of time and freeze things! I made 8 burritos for my parents and froze them so that they wouldn't have to pay a ton of money for Amy’s enchiladas at the health food store. Normally they get them at Walmart (I know, I know Walmart) but they didn't have them! In our local health food store they were about $5.50 verses about $3 in Walmart. Long and short of it, I bought several products and created burritos for them to freeze! The following ingredients were in the burritos:

Trader Joe’s whole wheat tortillas

Eden Organic refried beans

Green chilies 

Onions

Garlic

Pinch of pink Himalayan salt

Daiya Mozzarella (on sale otherwise I would have used cheddar)

Olives

Basically you cook all the ingredients and combine them! Roll them up, roll them into the foil and freeze! See pictures below for step by step instructions and the finished product. Sorry for the out of order pictures but you get the idea!

My best friend aka my vitamix

 Refried beans being heated

 Yves 'ground beef', brown rice, green chilies, garlic and onions

 Brown rice, green chilies, garlic, onion and a little bit of tofu

 All of the ingredients for my homemade burritos!

 Brown rice, tofu, Yves 'ground beef', green chilies, onion and garlic

 Refried beans on whole wheat tortilla

 Love to my daiya cheese that melts!

 Black olives

 Two of the burritos wrapped

 Yves meatless ground 'beef'

Turning people...pause for gasp....VEGAN

Now let me just say this has only happened maybe a couple of times, mostly I think I've helped people think more about what they eat, not always turning vegan or vegetarian but at least encouraging them to be more conscious. When speaking to people about my personal food choices, I'm never 'out there to turn em!' but just want to share this amazingly exciting journey I'm on of discovering super healthy cruelty free AMAZING food!. One person I always secretly wish was vegan but 99.9% won't be is my wonderful boyfriend Brad. As far as non vegan boyfriends go he's fantastic as he eats whatever I cook and will go to any vegan restaurant I drag him to, always enjoying it of course. I typically believe that he doesn't lie about liking the food I ask him to try, so I take his word for it when he says he really likes something. Let's say he was going to go vegan, just for fun, there are are several blogs I would recommend for him, to ease him into a transition. I will list them for you below, maybe these will help you think more about what you're eating, and just how easy vegan food can be to make!

http://www.laziestvegans.com/
http://theveganstoner.blogspot.com/
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/
http://www.itseasybeingvegan.com/

These are just a few as the list I would include could be pages and pages long! Either way these blogs inspire some super exciting food to be tried! Happy eating!

Brad's Birthday Dinner

Well today was the day we decided to celebrate Brad’s 31^st birthday this year. We started with the spy museum in Times Square that was really interesting and exciting, and Brad seemed to like it which was great. Next up was me making Brad’s favorite meal and favorite dessert, turkey tetrazzini and pumpkin Reese’s peanut butter cups.  Obviously all these things were going to be vegan! I am not a vegan that can touch meat anymore, it’s too much thinking about what’s really in it! As they say; ‘raw chicken is dirtier and more germ ridden than a toilet seat’. So attached are the amazing pictures of this culinary amazingness, Brad was a huge fan.  Here is the recipe for the Turkey' Tetrazzini and of course a shout out to my favorite dessert resource! for the pumpkin Reese's. My pumpkin peanut butter Reese's were a little different as I ended up adding too much of the pumpkin spice-oh well people loved it!

Cubed seitan with mushrooms, red bell pepper, onion and garlic. 

Cream sauce! This was veggie broth with whole wheat flour (only a 1/4 cup) and 4 oz. of vegan cream cheese melted in.

Whole wheat spaghetti with soy mozzarella and vegan parmesan cheese 

Whole wheat spaghetti mixed with the cream sauce 

Only a little bit eat so far.....a half hour later-GONE!

Chocolate pumpkin peanut butter cups!

Mom's amazing results

Good morning everyone! I have some super exciting news! On the way to work this morning my mom called me, as soon as I saw her pop up on the caller ID I thought, “who is in the hospital?!” (negative thinking I know)  But she was calling with good news! Her A1C blood test results (more on what this test is exactly but know it’s a diabetes/glucose indicator test) were the lowest they've ever been!!! Her results showed a 6, she used to be at a 7.3 and normal is a 5.  Isn't that amazing?! So by eating a largely plant based diet she's loosing weight, eating less sugar and getting amazing results!  Not only were the results fabulous from her A1C but her cholesterol was fantastic as well. Now more about the A1C:

The A1C test measures your average blood glucose control for the past 2 to 3 months and is determined by measuring the percentage of glycated hemoglobin, or HbA1c, in the blood.

My favorite analogy: “In some ways, the A1C test is like a baseball player's season batting average; it tells you about a person's overall success. Neither a single day's blood test results nor a single game's batting record gives the same big picture” (American Diabetes Association)

So bottom line people, the small changes my parents made have helped them live a longer, happier and healthier life! Change is always possible, you just have to be open to it.