Tidbits

There are so many things that I want to share but that fall through the cracks of my regular posts. So here are some tidbits of what’s been going on lately.

♥ We went to Tennessee last weekend to visit David in college for the first time since he started! We shared a great meal at Terminal Brewhouse in Chattanooga. I had a veggie “stuffed sandwich” (basically a calzone) and a delicious housemade Belgian White.

♥ I discovered this brand of Asian noodles in our farmers market and am completely in love. All of their noodle varieties are whole grain and they are flawless. I have a healthy ramen recipe to share with you using the noodles. Added bonus: the brand is GMO free!

♥ I mentioned after the bar exam was over that I wanted to start reading for fun again, which I haven’t done in years. Well I still haven’t managed to pick up a physical book, but I have been listening to books. Between running errands and taking Jason to and from work, I spend a lot of time in the car in traffic. Suddenly traffic is productive and I hardly mind it anymore with a good book to listen to. So far I’ve finished Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and Healthy Eating, Healthy World by J. Stanfield Hicks and J. Morris Hicks. I’m currently listening to Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I loved Kitchen Confidential, and I’m really glad I read it as an audiobook because it’s narrated by Anthony Bourdain himself. The book is a glimpse into his restaurant career, and his crude humor had me cracking up the entire time. I could listen to that guy all day.

Healthy Eating, Healthy World was really great. A lot of it was information that I already know well (the environmental impact of the meat industry, the links between animal product consumption and cancer, etc.) but I did learn a few new things. Mostly it helped me strengthen my confidence in my decision to go meatless and really motivated me to eat more health promoting foods. Something really clicked for me when the author said that healthy eating should be more about what you DO eat and not about what you’re not eating. I find this to be so simple but so profound. I’ve been proud of myself this year for not eating meat because I feel like it’s healthier, but I’ve been focusing on the wrong thing. It’s actually more important for my health that I eat a lot of whole fruits and vegetables than it is that I never touch a piece of meat. I’m still a vegetarian but I’m going to start focusing much more on what I’m actually including in my diet (whole real foods), not what gets excluded.

So far The Omnivore’s Dilemma is very slow starting. I’m not giving up on it because I’ve heard how great it is (one of my good friends went vegetarian because of it!) but I hope it picks up soon because that Atlanta traffic is boring me to tears.

♥ Finally got a haircut and relaxer today! I’m so glad to have found a hairstylist here that I love. Let’s not talk about how bad I am at taking selfies.

♥ I have a new favorite app! Anybody else use Any.DO to make to-do lists? I’m in love with the functionality of it and it’s really been helping me get things done.

♥ Can I tell you how annoyed I am that feedly is STILL not connected to the new blog address. You have no idea how hard I’ve tried to fix the problem and how terrible feedly has been in helping me. I would say sorry, but the people this applies to aren’t even seeing this because they aren’t getting my new posts…I could cry. But I’ll try not to. Needless to say, I’m still trying to fix the problem.

♥ My baby sister is on Instagram! I was flabbergasted to learn that it’s what all the cool 10-year-olds (and even younger…) are doing these days. You should see what pros her fellow 5th graders are at it! And they all have iPhones. I feel old and strange after learning this news. You should follow her on Instagram @sushinerd10. She’s adorable.

I think I’ve blabbed on enough for one day. See you guys tomorrow!

-Lauren