Agi's Sale

So there is a local raw foodist named Agi who recently relocated her Living Foods Store (destination to be determined). Yesterday was closing day. It was a sad day for me because her store was within walking distance of my apartment and therefore very conveniently located, but it was also a very happy day because pretty much everything in the store was buy one, get one free! Ready-made dehydrated snacks aren't cheap (I'm looking forward to the day when I have my own dehydrator) and her's just happen to be my absolute favorite! (see: www.agisrawfoods.com) The flavors she incorporates in her curry flaxseed crackers are devine and she makes the best chia seed bread. Needless to say, I spent a pretty penny stocking up. I am leaving here in a few days to go home to Massachusetts, but when I get back I really want to get into sprouting. It was very convenient that she was also selling bags of all her wheatgrass, alfalfa, and other sprouts for next to nothing! I was able to talk to Agi personally about her experience living raw (6 years and going strong) and was impressed with her passion. I'm not sure she realizes it, but she has been hugely influential to me, starting with when she distributed free samples at the gym one day (for full story, see "My Story" tab).
I am really starting to get into raw food! I have been 95-100% raw the last few days, and I can already feel the difference! I blasted through the book 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko in a day, I am planning out recipes from the book Fresh: The Ultimate Live Food Cookbook by Sergei and Valya Boutenko, and I am on chapter two of The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell. All of these, and more have completely transformed my perspective on food, how it's grown, harvested, transported, sold, marketed, and consumed. This is not something that should be taken lightly; this is direct causation of good or bad health. I feel as though I have barely scratched the surface; my raw journey is just begining and I am SO excited to document it in this blog. The results are unfathomable, yet undeniable. Living a 80-100% raw lifestyle has unimaginable benefits. You truly are what you eat. More to come.

Tulips Galore

Every year around this time there's an annual Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I see ads, billboards, flyers etc. for it and I always have intentions of going, but time slips by and then it's too late. Despite it being a gloomy Utah spring season, the Gardens were still open, and two weeks to go until the wedding, a nice nature walk was just the thing to calm our nerves. As you can tell from the picture, we are both still wearing our coats...yepp good ol' Utah weather.

 We happened to have gone on "Dutch Day" when they have an area with local vendors and musicians set up to entertain. My dad served his LDS mission in the Netherlands, so I am somewhat accustomed to seeing wooden shoes, pictures of windmills, and indulging in the occasional treat of a Stropwaffel. Basically, its a wafer-like pancake sandwich, made with two very thin layers of waffle and a layer of caramel-syrup in the middle. They had vendors that were selling bags of them, but I wanted Michael to have the full experience, so we walked over to where they were making them fresh (more expensive, but worth it). We waited in line; the people in front of us were served and then the sweet lady turned to take our order but said, "I am so sorry! We just ran out of syrup, if you come back in 20 minutes we'll have some more." So much for a fresh, warm Stopwaffel to warm the heart and soul...I was more disappointed that Michael couldn't experience it though. We meandered around a little while longer before returning to the warm Visitor's Center. 

With the two week countdown officially in place, there are a lot of details that need to be taken care of on our end still. Although we had our leisurely afternoon walk around the beautiful gardens, we also had a very productive Saturday, running all sorts of errands. We were both a little freaked out recently when we read that you are much more likely to have a heart attack if you sit for 8+ hours/day regularly. I'm not worried about myself (I stand all day doing hair and running around my apartment complex) so much as Mike who sits at a computer at work;  so it was probably for the best that we were standing all day. It reminded me of many-a-trip to New York City where I was forced to use my legs as my main source of transportation, and in awe of the magnitude of my surroundings, I wouldn't realize just how tired I was until I plopped down at the end of the day (or stopped at a Brookestone store and sat in their massage chairs). I had better get used to that feeling, because that is how it will be for the next two weeks, although I think there will be plenty of "tulips" to distract me.

If the shoe doesn't fit...Don't buy it!

Duh. Common sense, right? Apparently not when your getting your shoes on sale. Meh, who cares if they're an entire size too big. And they're running shoes that you'll be wearing 5x/week for at least an hour. Who needs comfort when you can get a sweet deal? 

No need to chastise me on this because I definitely learned my lesson. About 5 months ago this exact scenario happened to me. I found a cute pair of running shoes at a ridiculously low price, and pleaded with the salesperson, "are you sure you don't have these in a size 8? Or even 7.5?" Nope. Only a 7. I was in complete denial about the pinch on my toes, the pressure on my heal, and the tightness over my arch. Who feels pain when looking at a new pair of black and pink Nike's? Besides, smaller shoes make your feet look cute. Deal. Swipe, Done. 

The buyer's euphoria soon wore off though as I laced up and went on my first run. Hmm. Ok kind of painful. Well, I still have to break them in! They'll be just fiiiiiine. A few months later, nothing changed. Working out had become second nature to me. I would set an alarm, but I really didn't need to, because every day like clockwork I would lean over completely awake and well rested and turn it off 5 minutes before it would have gone off. (I guess early morning seminary can be a good thing! haha) I love to workout. I love the way I feel, I love being empowered and sensing my strength as I progress everyday. But those darn shoes were making my life miserable; so yesterday, I decided to do something about it. Count on me to get another deal; I had a coupon to this specialty store called 26.2 (the distance in miles of a marathon). Now, I run, but I am not a runner. I do everything, yoga, cardio, strength...you name it. (This actually will work to my advantage I learned as I won't use the "mileage" on my shoes as fast on the elliptical or stair stepper as I would on the open road or treadmill. Sweet.) 

So this shoe place was pretty darn cool. They put me in a neutral pair of shoes, brought me to the back where there was a treadmill, recorded video of me running and then slowed it way down and analyzed my stride. Talk about customer service! I was very impressed. They then gave me three pairs of different brands of shoes that would accommodate my feet. I was sold once again on the Nike's (my favorites, always) and blissfully walked home on a cloud. 

The next day I awoke (before my alarm) and nearly jumped out of bed, thrilled to wear my flashy yet comfortable shoes to the gym. (photographed above are the GOOD shoes that fit). So if you can take anything away from this, it is: spend the money (get a deal if you can still) and invest in a pair of shoes that fit. Always.

Taste of...cream cheese??

So about three months ago (this would be prior to me owning a Vitamix, which has since transformed me from a health conscious eater into a healthy raw eater) I saw an add for a Taste of Home cooking class hosted at a local Marriott for *gasp* only $10!! My thinking was, "I'm engaged, I don't know much of anything about cooking, it's cheap, it's local, and it comes with free magazines, coupons, and giveaways that will make it all worth it! I'd be a fool to let this one slip by me." To me it was a no brainer. I went online later that day and signed up.
It's amazing what can change in three months. I was still looking forward to the class, but of course, the word "cooking" was in the title, and having changed my ways to mostly raw foods, I was less than exhilarated to YAY start cooking! I went in knowing this, but was still open to learning more about food prep, cooking, and presenting. After all, there is always more to learn, and I wanted my $10 worth.
Upon arriving solo, I realized that I had signed up to participate with literally, a mob of local Relief Society's that were drooling with anticipation over learning the newest combination of ingredients for their Sunday Casseroles. Hmm. Interesting.
I meandered slowly around the perimeter of the auditorium, checking out all of the vendors and trying to dodge the crazed buzzing crowd. Cup cake decorators, jewelry designers, candle makers, krazy koupon ladies, to name a few. The best part about going to one of these shows by yourself is that there is always an odd number of seats being taken in a row, meaning I was one of the last people to sit, but still managed to get a third row end seat. Nice!
The lady seated next to me was with her eight year old daughter. She quickly introduced herself and started talking all about how they go every year, how they always win big, how she loooooves the recipes and can't wait to get cookin! The demonstrations began, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I think all of the recipes had a hefty combinations of two or more of the following ingredients: mayo, butter, sour cream, whipped cream, cream of something, and lots of cream cheese. Any ingredient that my neighbor didn't agree with she would lean over and promptly say something like, "Now, if I were in my kitchen I would definitely substitute chicken for the shrimp. Blech. Seafood." (What is it about Utah people and their distaste for seafood!?) There are only so many courtesy chuckles that I can spare before I just start sounding fake. She just had to be that lady, you know, the really loud in-your-face kind who screams at every opportunity. "Time foooooor.......another giveaway!!" Cover your ears.
By the time it was ending, no one within a few rows of us had even come close to claiming a prize. Granted, we were in a room of probably 300+ women, but they had a lot of cream cheese coupons to give out. I was slightly relieved to get out of there, although I did learn a thing or two about cooking and what kinds of fatty creams and pastes are best for binding a chocolate eclair vs. a mushroom paste. Overall, I'm glad I went. I probably will hardly use anything I learned (one useful thing, they explained how to chop a mango). I didn't win anything (I didn't mind). And I met a lot of really loud mouthed women who took their creamy cooking very seriously (entertaining to me). Worth $10? For a one time thing, sure. Will I ever do it again? Probably not. Live and learn.

Never Say Never

That's what I said. 

For the last five years my opinion of blogging has evolved, starting out with the simple question, "What is a blog, anyways?" When I found out that it is really just a glorified journal posted online for the world to see, my next question was, "Who in the world would ever want the world to read their journal? Why would anyone want to share their innermost feelings with cyberspace? Tisk. Crazy people." I rolled my eyes and forgot about the subject. Then, of course, my family had to get involved. I think my brother and sister started their blogs around the same time, Kate's blog serving the purpose of keeping us all up to date with her travels abroad, and Joe's being a daily photo safari. My thoughts: "Hmm. That's cool." I was still in high school, living at home, where the community desktop was set to Joe's photo blog. I took guilty pleasure in looking forward to seeing a new photo post everyday, still in denial thinking "Pshh. Stupid blogs." My parents soaked up this new way of communicating long distance and urged me to start a blog. "Are you insane? I live with you! If you want to know anything about my life, just ask! I'm not going to publish it online!" To which my dad would say, "But it's so hard to get through to you, I just want to know what your thoughts are!" There's a reason thoughts are internal, and mine weren't about to venture any further than my brain cavity. Thank you very much. 

So a couple of years go by, I graduated and moved to Utah, finally giving my parents a legitimate reason to even discuss the idea of blogging. Ok. I'll think about it. K, Thought about it. And the answer was still a firm NO. No No No No way Jose. Sarah, my other sister, and my dad had started blogs and were getting into them as well now. Peer pressure? I think not. Occasionally my mom would ask, "Did you read the latest entry on Sarah's blog?" Nope. (Sorry Sarah.) That's one way to abruptly end a conversation. Lucky parents, once Kate started having kids, she would post photos on her blog, and of course, her being hundreds of miles away and me loving to dote on my niece and nephew (who are the cutest humans alive) I of course had to have her site as a favorite so as to check it regularly. 

Ok, so I've been sitting on this issue for 4+ years, letting the idea of blogging settle inside me, when I make the crucial decision to subscribe to Kate's blog. Yes. No more, "oh I feel like checking up on my sister's life." I deliberately made the decision to receive emails whenever she updated her posts. I genuinely enjoyed reading what she had to say! How could this be?! After a month or so of updates, I decided to rethink blogging. After all, I am getting married (less than three weeks away!), I finished school, and I have made substantial life changes in the last year including eating raw(er), working out, managing my money, breaking a terrible lifelong nail biting habit (to name a few accomplishments). Why not share? So after years, literally, of throwing this idea in my head, I have decided to spit it out, and give you: Dot's Blog. I am hesitant, I am nervous, I am excited, anxious, and a little doubtful that anyone will even care for it. But here it is anyways. The name is suiting, seeing as my thoughts are gold to me, but possibly trash to you (compost), but hey! Compost is a good thing! And it's fresh, meaning, well, depending on how often I decide to update this, there will be new posts to sift through. Enjoy and please comment (be nice!)