Thursday, June 4, 2009

Please support my Rock & Run campaign

 

rr_2009Email_stationary_header

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you for your support if you've already donated. If not, THERE'S STILL TIME!!!!!

On June 7, I will participate in Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Rock & Run on the River, a 5K run/walk to benefit MSK's Cancer Survivorship Initiative. I'm writing to ask you to consider making a donation to support my campaign.

Today, more than 12 million people are living beyond cancer -- far more survivors than ever before! This growing population faces a host of challenges once they complete active treatment.

Your gift to my Rock & Run campaign helps MSK continue to respond to this growing need with research and a wide array of services, programs, and ongoing support for survivors and their families.

Please take a moment to visit my Rock & Run Web page, where you can make a fully tax-deductible online donation. Thank you so much!

Click here to visit my personal page.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://mskcc.convio.net/site/TR/rockandrun/RockandRun?px=1282281&pg=personal&fr_id=1090&et=9OZb1BqucSWwZO94y7kZIA..&s_tafId=3550

Click here to view the team page for The Huxtables
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://mskcc.convio.net/site/TR/rockandrun/RockandRun?team_id=6120&pg=team&fr_id=1090&et=jFeCIXWXQAKibUhKn88S5A..&s_tafId=3550

This email was sent to: theodora.blanchfield@gmail.com.
If you received this message in error, please accept our apologies and Contact Us so we may correct our records. Click here to change your email preferences. For more information on Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,click here.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Please support my Rock & Run campaign

 

rr_2009Email_stationary_header

Dear Friends and Family,
This June I will be participating in Rock & Run on the River, a 5K run/walk to benefit the Cancer Survivorship Initiative at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

I hope you'll consider making a donation to my Rock & Run campaign. This cause is near to my heart because I lost my grandfather, Herbert Blanchfield, to cancer. A World War II pilot and owner of a textile mill, my grandfather was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2000 and died a few short months later. For those of you that don't know, mesothelioma is a particularly nasty form of cancer usually caused by asbestos exposure. I am grateful for the care my grandfather received at Sloan-Kettering, and though it wasn't able to save him, I am running this race in his honor so that others may go on to live a full life after overcoming cancer.

Today, more than 12 million people are living beyond cancer -- far more than ever before. This growing population of survivors faces a host of difficult challenges as a result of their illness and treatment.

The Cancer Survivorship Initiative addresses these challenges. This precedent-setting program provides comprehensive post-treatment services, support, medical care, and counseling to help survivors lead full, active lives.

I promise to give my all to support this important cause. I hope you can help by making a gift that will bring me one step closer to my fundraising goal.

Please take a moment to visit my Rock & Run Web page, where you can make a fully tax-deductible online donation. Thank you so much!

Click here to visit my personal page.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://mskcc.convio.net/site/TR/rockandrun/RockandRun?px=1282281&pg=personal&fr_id=1090&et=Cwacht9LwcGRRR5WOAkYkA..&s_tafId=3550

Click here to view the team page for The Huxtables
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://mskcc.convio.net/site/TR/rockandrun/RockandRun?team_id=6120&pg=team&fr_id=1090&et=uPZpUN93VIXxhrUY40aROA..&s_tafId=3550

This email was sent to: theodora.blanchfield@gmail.com.
If you received this message in error, please accept our apologies and Contact Us so we may correct our records. Click here to change your email preferences. For more information on Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,click here.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Sorry folks...

This blog is now at losingweightinthecity.tumblr.com. I realized quickly Blogger's shortcomings. Please follow me there.

My day in food: lunch

From Pump. Super charged plate with bison, broccoli, peppers and
onions and some low fat cheese. I didn't have time to make lunch this
am!

Those are sweet potato chips in the background. I'm going to try them
when its time for an afternoon snack later.

Flexitarianism

I love my red meat just as much as the next omnivore. I also love my poultry and my fish. But sometimes, I also like things like tofu. (Which I think my Italian and Irish parents still don't understand. But that's okay.) In fact, it's actually pretty healthy for your body to have some days when you don't have meat. Even Women's Health (my favorite healthy mag) says so.


Ew, bean curd, you say. Once you get past that, and the strange consistency of raw tofu, you'll really like it. It has no discernible taste of its own, so you can do with what you like and it will sop up whatever flavoring you add to it. 

My old college roomie, Jen, made me some great tofu "parmigiana" a few weeks ago. I'll have to get the recipe from her (or she can post it in the comments!), but I think she used planko flakes for the "breading" and I'm assuming maybe eggs to make it stick. Jen and I lived together part of freshman year and all of sophomore year. All of the Chinese and pizza delivery people within a mile radius of American University knew our names. Now we're eating tofu together! We've come a long way, baby! 

I bought some tofu the other day that I want to cook tonight, and I'm looking for a recipe. Some of my loyal readers have asked for recipes, so be sure to watch for some great (EASY - I live alone and make dinner after 8pm when I get home from the gym, so nothing tough here!) healthy recipes.

My day in food: breakfast

Two eggs and turkey bacon.

(mm, bacon!)

My Day in Food: Dinner (Last night)

Update on temptation:

Attended Junior League meeting, was steadfast in declining pizza. I was walking home from the subway, and my stomach started GRUMBLING. I think other people were actually looking at me, it was growling so loudly. I walked past a few more pizza parlors (this is NYC, after all, and there are as many pizza parlors as people) and had an inner debate: "Would it REALLY be SO bad if I had a slice of pizza?" My trainer (who's now reading this, I think) would be glad to know that the angel in my head told the devil in my head "YES! It would be so bad to have it."

So, I stopped and picked up some sushi because, in retrospect, my "dinner" was too small. It was even too small to post a photo of. It was the leftovers of the balsamic chicken from the night before on some more lettuce. So, I had two sushi rolls. I wish they had brown rice, and I wish there hadn't been tempura flakes in the sweet potato one (have you noticed I love sweet potatoes?), but I think it was still a better choice than the pizza.

I got on the scale this am and weighed two pounds less than I did yesterday, so I guess it was an okay choice! That's still one pound more than I weighed when I woke up Friday. No more overindulging weekends for a while for me!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Temptation

NYC is an amazing city to live in and even diet in! When I first moved
here, I took advantage of the great restaurants, the 24-hour
neighborhood grocery stores and--my favorite--SeamlessWeb.

For those not in the know, seamlessweb.com is a Web site where you can
order food to be delivered without ever speaking to the kindly souls
answering the phone that don't have a damn clue what you're saying. It
shows you what restaurants are available at the time you're placing
your order, and it even stores your credit card.

Needless to say, the Thai and Italian places were excited to have me
move in. But even now that I'm eating healthy, SeamlessWeb is still my
friend. I can order from Energy Kitchen, a healthy place with lots of
lean protein and veggies, or from the sushi place if I go easy (or
brown) on the rice. There's also Pump, where I went yesterday, which
is also amazing

You're thinking, okay, I can handle myself at home, but what about
when I go out?

Tonight I have a Junior League meeting at someone's apartment, so I
plan on grabbing a bite first so that I'm not tempted to eat the pizza
that I know she'll order.

What if you're going out a restaurant? I guarantee almost anywhere has a
salad or some kind of protein you can get. If not, make a concious
effort to eat as small a portion as possible and have something
healthier when you get home. I'm sure you know this, but try to get
any and all sauces on the side.

How do you resist temptation? Drop me an e-mail at theodora dot blanchfield at gmail dot com or let me know in the comments!

Midafternoon snack

Pineapple and water!

I'm judging you.

I'm not gonna lie, sometimes it's helpful to look at someone eating McDonald's (like someone at my office was as I was walking out) and think, "I am so much healthier. In a few months, I'm going to look way hotter than you."

Don't tell me you've never thought that! But in situations like work, it helps to maintain that stubbornness that no matter what yumminess you smell, you're just not going to give in.

My day in food: Lunch

Lunch today is a Boca tomato-and-basil burger on a bed of spinach with some tomatoes and sundried tomatoes. I microwaved the burger, so this lunch took about a minute to make. I'm eating at home because I work walking distance from my apartment and my little dog needs a walk, but this is something you could make at work, too, as long as your office has a microwave.

As far as keeping the spinach from going soggy from the dressing, The Container store has these awesome Salad Blaster Bowls, which my former (amazing!) boss turned me onto a few years ago. I wasn't really eating much salad then, so I bought one and promptly lost it in my next move. But I'm going to order another one, and you can do so too, here.




Tuesday in Food: Breakfast

Omlette with sun-dried tomato
Turkey bacon
Coffee (obviously)

There's a lot of brouhaha about whether you should drink coffee if
you're trying to lose weight. I say that if you can avoid it, you
probably should. However, I only drink one cup in the am and consume
no other caffeine the rest of the day.

But I'm starting to prefer my exercise high!

Oops. Here are the other fitness blogs Mary posted:


Monday night in food

I admit that this posting what I'm eating is ripped off from
Nutritionista, but I think it's a great idea.

Last night: chicken and tomatoes and spinach sauteed in balsamic
vinegar with sweet potato "fries." who says eating well can't also be
yummy?

Other fitness blogs -- and a shoutout from Mary Rambin!

Last August, I got my Wired magazine and was surprised there was a pretty, 20-something woman on the cover. The story was about Julia Allison, a blogger living in NYC -- where I was about to move. She's apparently one of the most hated people on the Internet, but, hey, that also means she's one of the most known people on the Internet. Anyway, I started reading her blog and have been hooked ever since. I also started reading her cobloggers' blogs, Mary and Meghan.

Mary may be a god-awful speller, which, sometimes makes her posts a bit hard to read for this grammar nazi, but her blog's gotten better and better. She also teaches occasional spin classes and is really into fitness. To that end, she's been devoting posts on Mondays for the past to weeks to fitness tips and secrets -- including how to set up your spin bike! Now, I've been taking spin classes for the past year and a half, but I never, never knew the handlebars were supposed to be below the saddle. I could feel if the seat was too high or too low, but that was the extent of setting up my bike correctly.

Yesterday, she asked for readers' favorite fitness blogs, so, learning from her coblogger, I took the liberty to do a little self-promotion and sent her a link to this here little blog, which she linked to! Hello NonSociety readers and thanks for visiting. Hope you like what you see, and feel free to let me know if you don't. (Which I'm sure you will.) I'm a professional writer, but still trying to get my blogging sea legs.

And thanks for the shout-out, Mary!

Monday, April 6, 2009

My day in food: Lunch

I'm at one of my new fave places: Pump. They have great, healthy
lunches. It's sort of like Chipotle in that you get to watch them make
it and every meal is based on a wrap, salad or "plate," which is a
fancy way of saying rice bowl.

Then you add protein, veggies and a "bold flavor," which is something
like onions and peppers or tomatoes and basil.

I like it here because it's easy and healthy.

Today I got:
A little bit of brown rice - my stomach has been a little rumbly
lately, so hopefully this will settle it a bit.

Tofu

Chili

Peppers and onions

A wee bit o cheese

And some Guac. I'll check calories after I get back to work and let
y'all know later!

How to set up your spin bike


How To Set Up Your Spin Bike from Mary Rambin on Vimeo.

Courtesy of one of my favorite bloggers, Mary Rambin of NonSociety.

Let loose, but not too loose!

My last post talked about how to be hungover healthily. This weekend, I also over-indulged. I've been staying on track all week, but by the time the weekend comes, I want to let loose a bit. I think it's possible to do that healthily, but one needs to remember "everything in moderation." I sort of remembered that this weekend :) 


It's easy to say I'm too hungover, tired, whatever to go to the gym. That's when you really need to go, because your metabolism is slowing down from the crap you've been putting in. So yesterday, I dragged myself off the couch after brunch and went running with my dog. I felt great afterwards and it was just the push I needed. I've signed up the Army Ten-Miler, I'm running a 5K in June, and I have my friend's wedding coming up in August. This is no time to slack!

13 pounds down, 37 to go. Though I'm not ready still to share my weight with y'all, I'll keep honest with how much I've lost. 

Saturday, March 28, 2009

How to be hungover...healthily

Not an oxymoron, I swear.

I went out for a few cocktails last night after a long week (some old habits die hard, but hey, at least I went for the lower-calorie version - vodka soda!) and I'm definitely dragging ass a little this morning. Instead of getting some greasy-ass food (mmmm), I just googled "healthy food hangover." This is what came up. Enjoy on your Saturday!

10 Healthy Hangover Cures
If you don't want to spend the Holiday season walking around with a headache and an upset stomach among other hangover symptoms, you can simply avoid drinking alcohol but for those of you who find it easier to socialize while being a bit tipsy, here are a few hangover tips:
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/485561/10_healthy_hangover_cures.html

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

On getting distracted.

I did, this weekend.

I went to D.C. to see some old friends and fell back into some old habits. I had more wine than I've had in the past few weeks. I had tacos (mmmm). I had cheese. And no, they weren't really worth it.

I did, however, bring some of my new habits to D.C. I ordered salads with most meals, or I ordered vegetables. I drank lots of water with the wine. I EVEN DID THE STAIRMASTER SATURDAY. Sunday, I slept in and just couldn't do it. But I'm trying to get back on track, and I'm proud I didn't get that off-track.

But, for some reason, going to the gym has been just that much harder this week. Good thing I have my trainer tomorrow. And good thing I took a kickboxing class tonight, just to mix things up.