Monthly Archives: August 2011

This week in bentos: 8-27-11

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*Welcome to This Week in Bentos!  Every week, I post photos of one or more of my bento lunches from that week.  I use a Laptop Lunches bento box and I love it because it helps me to reduce the amount waste I create, since I don’t produce a lot of extra garbage from throw away packaging.  I also love how it creates perfect portion sizes.  To learn more about how I pack and carry my bento, check out this post and this post too*

Morning Snack: Oikos vanilla yogurt with cherries, hemp granola, and walnuts

Lunch: Hummus and spinach sandwich, Chicken minestrone soup (not shown), apple with Nutella

Afternoon snack: Hard boiled egg, Babybel Gouda, brocolli

The first week back at school is crazy exhausting and busy, which is why I haven’t posted much lately.  But back to school also means back to bentos :)  and I’ve had some pretty awesome ones lately.  I’ve discovered that the best method of eating to keep my metabolism where I want it is to eat every three hours and eat smaller meals, so I’ve started packing morning and afternoon snacks with my lunch bento.

Morning Snack: Fage 0% greek yogurt with frozen blueberries and hemp granola

Lunch: Spinach salad with quinoa, chicken sausage, tomato, feta and olive oil; nectarine and Lindt chocolate square

Afternoon snack: Celery, Triscuit whole wheat crackers, hummus

You might remember these awesome Japanese bento boxes that Katrina of PuglyPixel gave me.  I’ve been using them regularly lately to hold my snacks.

Morning snack: Fage 0% greek yogurt with nectarine, hemp granola and walnuts

Lunch: Spinach salad with tomatoes, celery, feta, hard-boiled egg; grapes and cheddar cheese

Afternoon snack: Carrots, celery and hummus

11 in 2011: Try Hot Yoga Again

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One of my summer 11 in 2011 goals was to try hot yoga again.  I went to a Bikram class once last summer (where the room is heated to 105 degrees and you work through a set series of postures) and I hated it.  But, I decided to give it another shot this year and buy a Groupon for one month of classes at Evolation Yoga (which has studios throughout the country).

I’ve been to two classes so far.  One was a traditional hot yoga style class (for some reason they refuse to call it Bikram – licensing issues maybe?).  Like I said before, the room is heated to 105 degrees.  The idea is that the intense heat loosens up your muscles, letting you go deeper into the poses.  The excessive sweating is supposed to cleanse toxins from the body.  And if you’ve ever spent 90 minutes in a heated room doing all sorts of intense yoga postures, you understand how much you can sweat.  All of my clothes were drenched, my towel on my mat was drenched, and my hair was soaked through.

I enjoyed the poses and found the class intense and satisfying.  The instructor was nice, which helped, because the hot yoga instructor I had gone to at another studio felt more like a drill sergeant.  I went to a flow style class too, where the room was only 90 degrees (still really hot).  That class completely exhausted me and left me feeling drained the next day.

I still plan to try a couple more classes before my groupon expires, but I don’t think I’ll be going back after that.  Here’s why:

I like plain old Hatha yoga, where you get into a pose and push yourself to go deeper.  I like to feel relaxed and calm when I practice yoga.  I want to leave the studio feeling relaxed and peaceful.  I don’t want to feel my heart rate go crazy, or be drenched in sweat, or feel exhausted when I leave.  That’s what my cardio workouts are for.  For some people, yoga might be their cardio, and that’s fine.  It’s just not what I’m looking for when I go to a class.

Evolation is a great studio if you’re looking for a yoga class that’s intense and challenging.  That’s just not where I’m at in my yoga journey right now.

 

 

#7: Knit Myself a Sweater

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Why, you might ask, am I wearing a merino wool sweater when it’s 90 degrees outside?  Because I just finished knitting it, that’s why.

One of my 11 in 2011 goals was to completely knit a sweater, in a yarn that I actually like, and that fits in all the right places.  You’d think, being that I’ve been a knitting for almost ten years now, that I’d have already done this.  While I’ve knitted a few sweaters, most were either in crappy yarn, or fit poorly because I didn’t understand gauge, or both.  These past two winters have been bitter (by Florida standards), and I kept kicking myself for not knitting a decent sweater.  I wanted to actually have this one ready to wear before it gets cold.

 

This lovely is knitting with Malabrigo Merino, which is oh so fabulous.  The yardage on this yarn is fabulous.  I bought three of each color, but I only used two of the white.  I based the striping pattern on a Boden sweater from seasons past (don’t have the image anymore).  I followed Elizabeth Zimmerman’s percentage formula roughly, although I tweaked things here and there.  I also added decreases at the waist and increases at the bust, because I wanted to have shaping.  I kind of did my own thing with the neckline – I intended it to be more of a scoop than a crew, but I’m still satisfied with how it came out.

And yes, my sweater did take eight months.  That includes the gauge swatching, and ripping out the body after making it halfway when I realized that my gauge was off.  I’m a slow knitter, but it was worth it.  This sweater is so warm and cozy and amazing.  I guarantee you’ll be seeing it lots this winter!

 

11 in 2011: Go on a Day Hike/Picnic

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One of my Summer 11 in 2011 goals was to go on a day hike/picnic.  Last week, I finally got around to it.  Now there are some who will argue that walking around a boardwalk in a park isn’t real hiking, and while I admit that it’s not as challenging as the AT or hiking up a mountain, when there’s sticky Florida heat all around you, it’s still a good workout.

I took a trip last week with my mom, my brother’s girlfriend, and my two nephews to Lettuce Lake Park.  Lettuce Lake is definitely one of my favorite nature parks in Tampa.  I’ve been going there since I was a little kid, and there’s lots to do there.  We chose to focus on the gorgeous boardwalk around the Hillsborough River and Lettuce Lake, but there’s also a bike path, hiking trails, canoe launch, shelters for cookouts, etc.  We took advantage of the playground too :)  We saw two baby alligators, a turtle, an owl, lots of ibises, egrets, limpkins, and of course, a ton of squirrels.

My nephew took this photo for me – he’s six.  His little hands barely fit around my DSLR, but he’s a great photographer.  I’ve let him play with my smaller (re: less expensive) digital camera before, and he takes great photos.

Of course, I packed a bento lunch for the picnic.  There’s a turkey, muenster and avocado sandwich, spinach salad with olive oil, carrot sticks and some cherries.  Awesome!

If you’re ever around Tampa, I highly recommend making a stop in Lettuce Lake Park.  You won’t regret it!

My Fitness Plan (for the school year)

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This summer, I’ve been really good about getting active again.  I’ve worked out on and off since I was 18, but the only time I was really consistent (and got results) was about 5 and a 1/2 years ago, when I went running three times a week and did strength training twice a week consistently for several months.  I lost a lot of weight, felt great, and ran a 5K.  Then my fiance at the time broke up with me (I always worked out with him) and I was never really as consistent after that.  I tried to keep running, but I slacked off.  I got back into gym workouts while in grad school and had some consistency, but they became too boring and took too much time, so I dropped that.  This summer, with plenty of free time, I’ve begun consistently running three days a week, strength training for two, and going to a yoga class for one.

I know that it will be difficult to maintain this when I start working forty hours a week again in two weeks.  I have to be at work by 7:00am each morning, and I don’t want to wake up at 4:30am to go running in the dark, because that’s not enjoyable to me, and I need to enjoy my workouts if I want to keep it up.  So this is my plan to make sure that I find a pace that is sustainable.  By writing it down on here, it helps me to commit to my plan and stick with it.  (If I am consistent for two weeks, I plan on giving myself a little reward, like some cute workout clothes from Athelta or Lululemon.  If I’m consistent for another month after that, I get another reward.  That will help motivate me on days when I really don’t feel like working out.)

(Note: this plan is specifically for me and my schedule.  I don’t expect it to work for everyone, and I didn’t write it that way.)

  • Sundays: AM – Yoga class – I treat this like church.   I do my best to always make it every week.  Occasionally though, I do go out for brunch with my family.  On those days, I will go to Yoga in the Park in the evening, or practice at home.
  • Mondays and Wednesdays – AM – Strength Training – I mostly do free weights and body weight exercises, as well as crunches.  By doing this in the morning, I can get energized for the day, and free up time after work for meetings and errands.  Since I do this indoors at home, it doesn’t matter if it’s dark outside.  Waking up extra early only two days a week is much more sustainable for me than trying to do it every day. Ideas: Buy an old iPod and armband to listen to tunes while working out.   Break up the routine occasionally with medicine balls, exercise balls, etc)
  • Tuesdays and Thursdays – PM – Cardio – For me, this is generally running.  But I’ll switch it up every once and awhile to make it interesting.  Swimming, hiking, skating, biking are all other options.  I need to make sure this is something that I look forward to.  I plan to try jogging in new locations, like local parks and such, to help motivate me (of course, I always carry mace when I run.  A girl has to be safe).  I’ll pack a bag with my running clothes so I can change after work and hit it fast, otherwise my motivation will likely lag.
  • Friday – PM – Day off or Fun Workout – Depending on how hard I’ve hit it the rest of the week, this is generally a day to take it a bit easy and do something fun.  Walking to a local park and swinging on the swingset, swimming laps for fun, visiting an indoor skating rink.  Just something to get my body moving, but nothing too intense because of what comes next…
  • Saturday – AM – Long run – This is to help me train for a 5K (and after that, a 10K maybe?).  I can do different types of cardio for my other workouts, but this needs to always be a run, to keep my training steady.

 

A Non-Niche Blog

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Sarah Von at Yes and Yes had a great post today about tips for non-niche bloggers. I felt so inspired after reading it that I wrote a really long comment.  Here it is:

“Thank you for writing this post! I’ve gradually shifted my blog over the past year from being a daily outfit blog to a non-niche blog. There’s several topics that I write about a lot (style, sustainability, bentos, health, Etsy) but there’s not one individual thing. I recently changed my tagline to ” a little bit of this and that for the optimistic soul” and I’m so glad I did. It really sums up the tone of my blog, since I prefer to keep a positive perspective.

Thanks for re-affirming that I made the right choice. I was worried at first about losing readers, but now I enjoy writing my blog more than ever.”

I’m so happy that I got myself out of the box I had originally put myself into.  I started as a craft blogger, but then discovered the style world, and started only blogging daily outfits, but then as I discovered other interests, I wanted to write about them too, but I wasn’t sure how they would fit.  Now that I’ve accepted the fact that my blog doesn’t stick into one defined niche, I feel so free.  I can write about outfits or bento boxes or composting or my Etsy favorites or riding my bike,  always keeping what I consider my signature positive tone..  I may not have the statistics and sheer number of readers that I used to have, but I feel that the quality of my interactions with you, my readers, has improved dramatically since I shifted.  I don’t know if you noticed, by I updated my header recently by changing the tagline from “style and sustainability for the optimistic soul” to “a little bit of this and that for the optimistic soul”.

I just want to say thank to my readers for sticking with me and supporting me as I transitioned to where my blog is today.  It wouldn’t be anywhere near as much fun without you!

New Bento Toys

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Personally, I think that one of the best ways to eat healthy more often is to make it fun.  And what better way to do that than with fun bento accessories?

I got these at my local Asian supermarket.  If you have one near you, check it out!  If not, then try some of the shops listed on Just Bento.  Many of them have a fantastic selection of fun bento accessories.

The ones I got are a cookie cutter set (mainly for veggies and fruit) and a crinkle cut knife.  The cookie cutter is great for making cute flower shapes.  So far, I’ve tried carrots and bell peppers, but I’m sure I’ll find more fun ways to use it.  The crinkle cutter is great for making carrot chips.

It really doesn’t take much extra time to use tools like this while putting together lunches, but it makes the lunches so much more fun to eat.  What do you do to make lunches more fun?

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