April's CR Diary

Ode to Kale: Kale is my recently discovered favorite food. My favorite is the purple curly kale, but I eat all kind, preferably raw. Yum! I have started eating a lot of "garnish" since I discovered kale. And I probably never would have tried it if I hadn't been looking for the really, really healthy veggies and trying them all. Now I have to have at least one or two big bunches of kale in the house at all time.

Hmm, a big kale salad followed by Emily's pumpkin "pie" and I'm all set. :-)

Long time lurker, first time commmenter:

I LOVE kale ! I would've done the exact same thing.

Thanks for the time & effort on this blog - I've learned a ton --

Karen (eating her kale, spinach, chard & cilantro salad as I type).

I remember being a kid and wondering if the garnishes were actually edible!! As it turns out, the garnish is probably the healthiest part of the meal! I love kale too.

Kale, kale, the magical leaf
It's got more K than egg whites or beef
But none of its greenery's easy to harness
When it's stuck on a table wilting as garnish
So friends, be kind to that dish of kale
Nibble it! Chomp on it! And without fail
The dummies around you might think it quite queer
...but you'll exceed their piddly life expectancies by about 47 and a half years!

Hi April. I'm curious about how you do your tracking and software while travelling. Do you carry your scale with you to these meetings and weigh the salad, etc. for accuracy? I know you've used the baby scale for the egg whites while travelling, but what about in this case? I'm asking only because I don't think I trust myself eyeballing weights and such, but I also can't imagine carrying a scale to lunch every day.

Gina,

No, I don't weigh things at business luncheons... I would probably lose my job if I did! Making nurses feel comfortable is a lot of what I do, so busting out with the mini scale is out of the question. It's one of the things I find most frustrating about being stuck on the road so much. So I weigh and measure what I can - megamuffin for breakfast, etc. -- but other than that I try to get the healthiest things I can, avoid the outright gak (though the mashed potatoes got me for a few bites at our catered dinner last night!) and then try to make up for it when I get home.

It's hard. Balancing a very social job with CR is not easy. I find I can maintain exactly where I am, but going lower is very difficult. And maintaining exercise when on the road, when I'm out till 11 for work and then up again at meetings at 7 am is hard too.

Just got home from the House of Delegates and now exhausted... and back to Scranton at 6 Thursday morning.

a

Hi April, not to burst your enthusiasm, but this did happen to me. I don't know why but while working as an architect I decided to take a night job with a local caterer whose main client was the convention center. This was in San Antonio 22 years ago. As soon as I arrived for work, I was ordered to push a hot oven down in a tunnel under the convention center, up an elevator and into the room from which the food for about 500 people would be served within the space of 10 minutes. At serving time, my task was to take plates to the tables. Those of us whose responsibility was to take the food to the tables also had the task of putting the garnish on the plates, which were kale leaves and a tomato carved as a rose. Sometimes those garnishes fell on the floor, and the servers picked them up and put them on the plate. We were not told to take precautions with our hands other than washing them. All of the food was served with the hands, except for rice and sauces. That means chicken pieces were placed by hand by other in the line. So I kind of frown on convention food since that night. I didn't return to work the next day.
Cheers
Arturo

April. Thanks for your answer. I'm not in such a social job, but I work at a university...so I can imagine the looks I might get from the students if I start weighing food. Although, I'm less concerned about that than I would be if I were in the field that you are!