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Hi Friends!

Today is a big day. For several reasons. First of all, it’s Foodie Penpals Reveal Day…which is always a big deal. Second of all, Foodie Penpals turns 1 today. I started the program last September so that means this is our 12th reveal day!! In honor of that, and thanks to the lovely Calee, we have a new Foodie Penpals logo and TWO new blog badges for you guys to choose from if you are a blogger that participates and wants to display one on your sidebar.

Isn’t it pretty? Here are the two blog badges you can choose from. Just copy the code in the box below the one you like and place it in your sidebar!

<div align="center"><a href="https://www.theleangreenbean.com/foodie-penpals/" title="The Lean Green Bean" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.theleangreenbean.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/blogbadgeAPPLE.jpg" alt="The Lean Green Bean" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

OR

<div align="center"><a href="https://www.theleangreenbean.com/foodie-penpals/" title="The Lean Green Bean" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.theleangreenbean.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/blogbadgeSTAMP.jpg" alt="The Lean Green Bean" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Hope you like them!

So now let’s move on to this month’s reveal! I received my package from Meg over at Veggie Girl Cooks. She’s a nursing student and has a great blog 🙂 Check out what she sent me!

 I immediately dug into these:

Yummmm. Then I examined the rest of the box!

Let’s break it down:

Tomatoes that she canned herself! Meg actually has a group of friends who all do Foodie Penpals and they get together and go shopping for their packages! I LOVE IT! One of her friends runs a professional rent by the hour kitchen called Kitchen Thyme and they got together and canned some tomatoes! So awesome.

Next up, some local pb in her favorite flavor. Amazing!

She sent me some dates and a recipe for “Guitless Mini Snickers.” Right up my alley! Can’t wait to try!

That other recipe peeking out is The Smart Kitchen’s recipe for Lemon Miso hummus and she sent some sesame seaweed snacks to dip in it!

She also included some Kim Kim- a local Korean Hot Sauce that’s nice and spicy and a little bit sweet. Perfect for hubby.

Thank you so much Meg for the amazing package!!

Now, after reading that don’t you want a penpal of your own?! Here are the details!

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. 
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. 

If you’re interested in participating for September, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.

You must submit your information by October 4th as pairings will be emailed on October 5th!

*If you’re from somewhere besides the US, Canada or Europe and want to participate, send me an email and I’ll see if we get enough interest this month!

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Current penpals…remember that you MUST sign up again each month to get back on the list!!!!!

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Moving on to a couple more reasons why today is special. Today is the first day of the #LiveLeanEatGreen October Photo-A-Day challenge! If you’re participating, here’s the list of prompts again:

So today you should be eating an extra serving of veggies at lunch!! Take a pic. Put it on instagram, tweet it, post it to facebook. Don’t forget to tag me for a chance to be picked as the daily winner. All 31 daily winners will be entered to win a box of goodies from yours truly 🙂 Let’s see what you’ve got!

And finally, last but not least…today is special because someone very special turns 28 today! This guy:

Happy birthday hubby 🙂 I love you!!

Have a great day!

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Whew! That’s all i think.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

This week there is no Fitness Friday.

This week I broke my 5 1/2 month streak of getting 10,000 or more steps each day….and yes, it almost killed me… thanks to my stubborn, competitive nature.

This week there are no new workouts for you, no #proof pictures.

This week I wore more layers than I do in the middle of winter and still could not get warm.

This week I was in bed before midnight every single night.

This week, my body needed rest…

…and this week, I listened.

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Instead, I’m using today to tell you guys about a fun little challenge I’ve set up for the month of October!

This challenge is meant to be fun! Each day there’s a simple task to complete. The tasks in green involve healthy food choices, the tasks in pink involve fitness and the tasks in orange involve appreciating life! The challenge is a nice mix of all three. I’ll be completing each task, and taking a picture of each one.

Now for the fun part! I’d love to have you join me!

Are you up for it? Just perform the task each day, then capture it in a picture. Upload it to instagram, twitter or facebook and be sure to tag me and use the hashtag- #LiveLeanEatGreen 

Here’s how to find me:

On instagram: @theleangreenbean
On twitter: @leangrnbeanblog
On facebook: The Lean Green Bean

I can’t wait to see some great pictures of you guys making healthy food choices, moving more and appreciating life!

And guess what?! There’s more!

Each day I’ll pick one photo to be the winner of the day. At the end of the month i’ll do a recap post. It will include a recap of all my pictures from the month, and a recap of all of the daily winners! And at the end of the month, all 31 daily winners will be entered into a drawing and I’ll pick one winner to receive a special package from me stuffed full of  fun stuff! Healthy eats, tasty treats and whatever other fun stuff I come across throughout the month! Just a little thank you from me to you for participating in my challenge!

So what do you say!? Challenge starts Monday!

Who’s in?!

If you’re excited to participate, please help spread the word! Tweet about it. Post the challenge on instagram and facebook. Tell your friends! The more the merrier.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

It’s hard to believe it’s time to catch you guys up on another two weeks of my internship! There have been some changes to my schedule recently so let’s cover those first, shall we? I was originally supposed to be at CHA for 5 weeks. Then I extended my stay to 8 weeks. Now we’re back down to 7 weeks, and here’s why!

As some of you may know, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics puts on a big conference every year called the Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo. It’s a huge event and they bring in a lot of big name speakers.

In the past, i haven’t been able to attend due to the price of plane tickets. I wasn’t planning on going this year either, for the same reason, but last week…on a whim…I decided to check plane tickets one more time. I was able to find a plane ticket for $160 round trip, including tax. I immediately bought it and that means…I’m going to Philadelphia here in a few weeks! The conference has an opening session on Saturday October 6th, followed by almost 3 full days of sessions, speakers and events. I’m SO excited to go. Almost all my fellow interns are going as well, along with some RDs and Dietetic interns i’ve met through the blogging world!

I’m still in the process of deciding which sessions I want to attend, but here are some that caught my eye when I first looked through them:

Smart Phones and Smart Patients: The New Rules of Engagement
Social Media: New Ethical and Legal Paradigm
Non-Traditional Career Paths in Dietetics
Bridging the Technology Gap: Utilizing New Tools to Communicate Engaging Messages to Moms
Nutrition for the Electronic Age: Grab Your Seat at the Table
You have the coolest job!- RDs in the Food Industry

Obviously not all of the sessions are geared towards these topics. Many are very clinically focused…but I’m using this as an opportunity to learn more about the things I’m interested, and also topics that can apply to my blog and future career!

So, for that 8th week I was supposed to be at CHA, I’ll be at FNCE Monday and Tuesday. I’ll have Wednesday to recover and then Thursday and Friday I’ll be spending time with Gina, who is a supermarket dietitian for Giant Eagle. I’ve gotten to know Gina through blogging and can’t wait to meet her in person. One thing I already know I get to help with is a grocery store tour for gluten-free shoppers!

Then, on October 15th I start my next 8 week rotation at the Center for Healthy Weight.

So, what have I been doing for the past two weeks?

I spent my fourth week at CHA doing a variety of projects.
-I organized a lot of nutrition tips and information so it can be easily utilized by their marketing person.
– I met with a CHA employee that works in one of their programs I didn’t know much about called Columbus Kids, that focuses a lot of school readiness.
– I created a Nutrition 101 flyer for them to give out to the parents they work with.

– I did some research on effective food demos.
– I put together a powerpoint to train new Americorp members about how to successfully teach nutrition education classes to adults.

– I helped with and spoke at the first Columbus Dietetic Association meeting of the year. The topic was social media and I got to speak about Foodie Penpals
– I talked with some students that are currently enrolled in the Diet Tech program I completed.
– I sat in on a meeting with Shelby and an organization called Local Matters that runs the Cooking Matters program that I volunteered with over the summer. They have a Cooking Matters program for childcare providers so the two agencies are working together to implement that with some of CHA’s childcare providers.
– We got to do some one on one counsel after there was a bit of a miscommunication about a presentation that Shelby was supposed to give. The middleman had her wires crossed and told each agency different things so only one person showed up. However she was very interseted in nutrition and her husband was diabetic so we did some counseling with her and sent her home with lots of materials and information
-I taught another nutrition ed lesson at the food pantry
– I sat in on a provider training that some CHA employees were giving to their after school site providers.

Then during Week 5, things were a little less crazy.

-I reviewed some books with kids experiments in them and tagged ones that could possibly be passed on to childcare providers.
– I made a tooth brushing chart to be included in the CARES kits so that kids can put a sticker up every time they brush their teeth.

-I attended a morning of Americorps orientation and helped give them a crash course in nutrition to refresh their memories before they start teaching kids.
– I taught another adult ed class, this time at a different food pantry.
-I did lots of research and started gathering activites for the next CARES kit that will go out in February. I got to select the theme and everything that will go in it. I picked “Eat the Rainbow” as the them and all of the contents are geared towards getting the kids to eat their fruits and veggies, eat lots of different colors, etc.
– I attended a training Shelby put on for CHA childcare providers.
– I went on a home visit with Meghan from the Columbus Kids department.

Whew! So now you’re all caught up.

Now you tell me:

-Are you going to FNCE?! Let’s meet up!
-Do you live in Philly? Let’s meet up!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Time for another heartfelt post. It’s been a while, yes?  Here we go.

As a general rule, bloggers are busy people. Whether blogging is your hobby, a part-time job, or even if it’s a full-time job, it’s rarely the only thing you have going on in your life. More than likely, you’re being pulled in a million different directions, trying to do a million different things…just like me. Over the past few weeks, several people have said some version of the same thing to me. It’s been phrased in different ways, from different people- strangers, bloggers I respect, friends- but essentially what it boils down to is them telling me that “I’ve got everything figured out and I balance everything really well.”

While in a way that IS true- I have a great husband, I’m super close to finishing something I’ve been working towards for 3+ years, I have a blog that I love, etc…in another way it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

I’m writing this post to show you guys that even thought I may do a good job of making it seem like i have everything figured out all the time- I don’t. But  that’s ok. I do a lot. I’m a wife, an intern, a blogger, a daughter, a friend, a freelance writer, an athlete. I’m busy. And sometimes I take on more than I probably should. But my heart is in the right place. I’m doing everything I do because I love it. And i’m doing the best I can. And that’s all that matters.

Because nobody’s perfect.

Today I thought I’d give you guys a peek into a day in my life right now. Obviously every day is a little bit different but this should give you little glimpse into life lately:

(Mom, please don’t read this part…I promise I catch up on my sleep on the weekends!)

6:00am- wake up

6:00-7:00- feed the animals, eat breakfast, drink coffee, get dressed, read blogs, promote my blog post for the day, spread the love for some other people’s blog posts

7:00- out the door

7:00-7:30- drive to my internship. If i leave by 7, I can get there by 7:30. If i leave at 7:15, I won’t get there until closer to 8. I’m lucky that for this rotation, my preceptor is very flexible and I can pretty much come in whenever I want as long as I’m there by 9 and then work 8 hours. However, I’ve been choosing to work 7:30-3:30 to minimize the time I have to sit in rush hour traffic.

7:30-3:30- work

3:30-4:00- drive home. Sometimes I don’t leave work until 4 and then i get home around 4:40ish.

4:00-5:00- feed the dogs, unpack my lunch box, throw the ball for tucker, check my email, respond to emails

5:00-6:00- hubby comes home. I collapse on the bed and stare into space, occasionally take a  nap, chat with hubby, try to decompress from the day

6:00-8:00- answer foodie penpals emails, deal with foodie penpals problems, answer more emails, think about dinner

8:00-9:00- make dinner, eat dinner, take pictures of dinner

9:00-10:30- pack my lunch, respond to comments, work on internship assignments like case studies, modules, medical terminology, presentations, etc…, put the  finishing touches on tomorrow’s blog post

10:30-11:30- workout (lately running, or walking the dogs about 3 miles to get my steps in)

11:30-12:00- stretch, guzzle water, eat again

12:00-12:30am- shower, collapse into bed

6:00 am- get up and do it all over again

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So there you have it. Like I said, every day is a little bit different. Some days I do get to bed before midnight. Most days I don’t.

As you can from the schedule above, I definitely don’t have things totally figured out.

Am I sleeping enough? No.
Am I eating enough? Usually, but not always…when I’m stressed, or I really don’t get enough sleep, I tend to spend some of the day feeling sick to my stomach.
Am I spending enough time with my hubby? Not always.
Do I call my family as often as I should? No.
Have I gotten so wrapped up in my own life that I’ve forgotten to celebrate important milestones with my friends, like birthdays and anniversaries? Yes.
Am I lifting weights as often as I should? No.

But I’m trying. And nobody’s perfect.

I knew going into this internship that it would be a HUGE learning experience. And it has been. Trying to readjust to working full-time AND keep up a blog has been a challenge. Trying to fit in everything that I need to do during the hours before and after work has been hard.

But each week I’m getting better.

So what am I doing right?

1) I’ve gotten really good at going to bed early on the weekends. In fact, usually on Fridays I come home from work and face plant into bed for 2-3 hours, get up, eat dinner and then go back to bed by 9:30 or 10. Exciting life, eh? And then I repeat that early bedtime on Saturday night. Is that ideal? No. Do I know that I should be getting more than 5-6 hours of sleep during the week? Yes. Luckily I’ve never been one to require tons of sleep. I can function pretty darn well on about 6 hours. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be trying to get 8 hours.

2) I pretty much rock at being an intern. I love what I’m doing and that makes it easy to work hard while I’m there and do a good job.

3) I’ve also been doing a pretty good job at working out. Even though I’m tired. And most nights I don’t have time to get to it until 10 or 11pm, I’m still doing it. And i’ve had some pretty darn good late night runs! Have I been lifting weights as much as I should? No. But when I’m trying to get 10,000 steps in each day, and I sit at a desk for 8 hours so that when I come home I only have 2,000-3,000 of those steps done…something’s gotta give. I’ll choose running 3 miles over standing still and lifting weights. BUT, I know weight lifting is important. So i’m making an effort to lift at least one day on the weekend, when I have more time to get my steps in doing other things. And now that I’m getting more and more used to my schedule, I plan to try to fit in one more day of lifting during the week. 2 days/week is better than nothing.

Nobody’s perfect.

I also know that when I switch to a next rotation, that doesn’t involve sitting at a desk quite as much, I may come home with many more steps…and then i’ll adjust my routine again. Life is constantly changing.

As for spending more time just being?  Just doing nothing besides sitting and relaxing with my hubby? I’m working on it. Do I know it’s important? Yes. Do I have approximately one million other things that I feel like I could be doing at any given time? Yes. I’ve always struggled with that. But that’s just it. I COULD be doing them. I don’t always NEED to be. The world won’t end if I don’t get a blog post up the next day, or don’t respond to an email until tomorrow. I’m trying to remember that. And take a step back.

But nobody’s perfect.

I no longer have the time to physically write a  blog post every day. I’ve pretty much had to learn how to get ALL my blog posts for the week done ,or at least mostly done, on the weekends. It’s been an adjustment. But I’m getting better. I downloaded an editorial calendar widget (who knows why I didn’t do this earlier?!) It’s AMAZING! I can see the entire month, schedule posts out a couple of weeks and see where I need to fill in the blanks.

So, since I like to keep it real here on the blog, I wanted to share all of that to you guys…because I’m sure a lot of you can relate. And this post is a reminder to myself, as well as to all of you. Everyone has busy schedules. Just remember that it’s ok to not have everything figured out. And those people you’re comparing yourself to…the ones you think are totally perfect, when you sometimes feel like a hot mess who has no control over her life? Those people are struggling to get everything figured out too.

Just because they make it look easy, doesn’t mean it isn’t hard.

But just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. In fact, usually the hardest thigns are the the things worth working for. Because they’re worth it.

So stop comparing your life to other peoples. Your life is YOURS. You’re doing what YOU do. Not what other people are doing. Find a schedule that works for YOU. Figure out what you care about most and work those things into your schedule. Don’t feel like you have to run 10 miles before work just because there’s 45 other people out there doing it…if you really don’t like running. That’s not benefitting anyone.

And do the best you can…because that’s all anyone can ask of you…and that’s all you should ask of yourself.

I’m a work in progress. Imperfectly perfect. And that’s ok.

–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Today I have a very special guest post for you guys.

My beautiful cousin is taking over the blog today to tell you her skin cancer story. Some of you may remember a few weeks ago when both hubby and I went to get skin cancer screenings…

The story below is one of the big reasons why. (The other being the fact that I spent 8 summers working for a landscaping company). Even though I waited longer than I should have after her diagnosis, she was still the main reason I eventually went.

Kristine and I spent a lot of time together when we were younger. Her mom, my aunt, took care of me while my parents were at work when I was little.

As we got older, my cousins used to come visit us with my grandparents every summer.  I have a lot of great memories from those summers and most of them involve time spent at the pool. Even though we’re cousins, Kristine and I are about as far apart as you can get on the skin tone spectrum. I am darker skinned and tan very easily. She is extremely fair-skinned and burns very easily.

Please read her story…and then go schedule yourself a screening if you haven’t been recently.

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Hi everyone!

I’m Kristine, and I’m lovely Lindsay’s cousin.  I’m 29 years old and I live in Minnesota.  This is my skin cancer story.

From the time I was a kid, I knew I was at a higher risk for skin cancer than most people I knew.  I have fair skin, freckles, green eyes, and reddish/blonde hair.  I sunburn easily, although there were plenty of times in my youth that I allowed myself to burn, because it eventually turned to tan.  I figured a few days of lobster-esque red was worth it for a few days of a somewhat golden hue (although it was accompanied with highly attractive peeling skin and burn/tan lines).

As I moved into my twenties, I started becoming a bit more conscious of my skin, and spent more time thinking about sun protection when I was outside.  However, it still wasn’t a big part of my life.  In October 2009 I was a bridesmaid in one of my best friend’s weddings.  Our dresses were strapless, and as I was fitted for my dress I noticed a large freckle on my right shoulder looked a bit bigger and darker than I remembered.  I didn’t think much of it.  After the wedding, I noticed the freckle jumped out in several pictures.  While I was pretty sure it hadn’t always looked the way it did, I couldn’t remember for sure.

In order to be able to compare, I dug out my wedding photos, taken two years earlier.  I had worn a strapless gown for my wedding, and hoped there would be an image of me that would show that freckle on my right shoulder.  Sure enough, I had a few pictures of it, and realized that on my wedding day, the freckle was lighter, smaller, and more symmetrical than it was now.  I knew that I needed to take action.

Over the next few days I did some research.  I looked at images of skin cancer and perused the Mayo Clinic site for signs and symptoms- click here to see them.  This is embarrassing to admit now, but another reason I had blown off my freckle for a while is when people write of skin cancer, they talk about moles that change shape.  I figured a freckle was in a whole other category as I believed moles were only spots on your skin that were raised.  Well, turns out, most all of my “freckles” are flat moles, and the one on my shoulder was exactly that.

I researched dermatologists in my area, and vetoed establishments that only promoted the cosmetic side of dermatology (skin peels, laser treatments, etc.) and instead selected a clinic that specifically touted their work with skin cancer.  At my first appointment, my dermatologist did a full body check.  When we got to my shoulder, she agreed the spot was a concern.  They numbed the area with novocain and used a small razor to scoop it out.  The scoop was sent to the lab to be biopsied.

A few days later I got a call from my dermatologist.  My ‘scoop’ was malignant, and it was the most serious kind of skin cancer; melanoma.  The good news, however, is the cancer was still on the surface.  To treat it, I would need to come in as soon as possible for a surgical procedure to remove several millimeters of skin in all directions and depths close to the spot to ensure all the cancer was removed.  I went in a few days later for the procedure.  After about 45 minutes, they had removed the skin they wanted.  That skin was biopsied, and luckily, it confirmed that all the cancer had been removed from my body.

Since then, I have had 3 other suspicious-looking scoops taken out of my body.  One on my back, one on my arm, and one on my thigh.  My arm and thigh checked out fine, but my back was considered extremely abnormal, and very likely pre-cancerous.  For that reason, we performed the same surgical procedure on that spot as was done on my shoulder.

My dermatologist stressed to me that I should tell all my family and friends of my experience.  Although I was at a higher risk due to my physical characteristics, she noted that skin cancer affects all skin types and genders, and is becoming increasingly common in youth.  My story prompted several of my family members, friends, and coworkers to visit a dermatologist for the first time.  Most all had to have something biopsied, and most all came back just fine.  However, several of them had spots deemed precancerous, and one of my male friends had a melanoma discovered and removed.  The friend with the melanoma and most of the others who had spots removed have much darker features than I do and tan easily.

I now wear sunscreen every day, and reapply multiple times when I’m outside.  I have purchased sunglasses that offer UV protection, and dress appropriately when spending time outside.  I make a point to stay in the shade, and I wear hats to keep my head protected.  Even when it’s freezing cold in the winter in Minnesota, I still wear sunscreen as even though the sun doesn’t feel hot, its rays are just as powerful as a 90 degree summer day.  For the first year after my melanoma I visited my dermatologist every 3 months.  We then switched to 6 months.  Now, I will go annually for the rest of my life.

I encourage everyone to perform a skin evaluation.  Look at your body and take note of places where you have moles.  Follow the ABCDE’s to know if you should consider getting checked (click here learn what these are here).  It’s also good to familiarize yourself with any spots so even if they aren’t a concern now, it will be easier to tell in the future if there are any changes on your body.  In my case, my husband has helped me take photos of my arms, legs, back, etc. so we can have a physical reminder of how my skin looks at certain times. 

When in doubt; get it checked out.  The Skin Cancer Foundation of America has an active newsletter and Facebook page that also offers helpful tips, and their website gives lots of great information.

Just remember that having darker features or tanning easily does not make you immune to skin cancer.  Everyone should protect themselves with sunscreen, and take the time to check their body for areas of concern.

Skin cancer is 100 percent treatable, as long as it’s caught early enough.

Thanks for reading!  If anyone has questions, I’d be happy to try to answer them.  Stay sun safe out there!

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So there you have it, friends. I URGE YOU, BEG YOU, PLEAD WITH YOU to go get a skin cancer screening if you haven’t already. Tell your friends and family…take them with you! Even though both my screening and my hubby’s came back perfectly normal with no cause for concern, I will never regret going!

If you’re still not convinced, go read Alyssa’s story over at Life of Blyss. CLICK HERE. Read about her recovery from surgery HERE.

Let’s chat:

Have you ever had a skin cancer screening? Do you get them regularly?

–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Time for another update. I can hardly believe I’m in week 4 of my first rotation! Yikes! Time is flying.

So what have I been up to?

Week 2

During week 2 I focused on making final revisions to some of the projects I worked on in Week 1 including finding handouts to go with my weekly tips that are being sent to after school program providers during National Childhood Obesity Awareness month. Then I moved on to some new projects.

Currently, CHA has two after school programs that are taught- one called Food Folks that focuses on Nutrition and one called CATCH that focuses on physical activity. They are considering switching cirriculums so that they would be using a cirriculum from the same company for both programs. I got to evaluate the new potential Nutrition cirriculum, figure out how it could be organized into 10 lessons and give my input as to whether it was a solid cirriculum or not.

I also got to work on a little side project for Shelby. She had a family friend contact her because his daughter recently decided she wanted to be a vegetarian. The girl is in 8th grade and the parents wanted to know what they should be doing to make sure she was getting all the nutrients she needed with her new vegetarian diet. Hello?! Right up my alley! I pulled together some handouts and information to send to them and also wrote them a long letter about the importance of iron, calcium, etc. I also suggested some different protein sources she could try, etc. I even got to promote the ole bloggy since I have lots of veggie recipes 🙂

Towards the end of the week I taught another adult nutrition education class at the food pantry, attended a webinar about Health Behavior Theory and revamped the nutrition presentation that’s given to Americorps members by making it more interactive (this included putting together a little test for them to take which was fun)! I also did some research on the politically correct way to talk about obesity/obese people.

On Friday, I attended a presentation that Shelby gave to some employees at Nationwide Insurance (one of the big employers here in Columbus). They do a big push for charitable donations during the month of September and Nationwide matches any donations their employees make, which is awesome! They invited Children’s Hunger Alliance and Habitat for Humanity to come share some info about themselves to give their employees some ideas about where they might want to donate their money. Employees have the option of making a general donation or choosing a specific agency to donate to.

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 Week 3

Last week I tackled a few larger projects that were more about creating things from scratch. I met with Shelby to review my updated calendar of projects and learn about the new things I was going to start working on. I developed a presentation that will be given to the in-home childcare providers when we give them the CARES kits that we’ve been putting together. The theme of the kit is Healthy Smiles and the kits include activites for the children. This presentation is designed to share more information with the providers themselves about things like the importance of calcium in building strong bones and teeth, how to care for childrens’ teeth at certain ages and tips for dealing with chidlren that always want sweet snacks.

I also developed a flyer that will be distributed to in-home childcare providers that are participating in the new Healthy Homes program. It focuses on creating bulletin boards in the home to display information for parents. The flyer gives them tips for how to make a good bulletin board, suggests themes, etc.

I attended a meeting about the Step Up to Quality program that is currently being used in child care centers and preschools. The program is expanding and being revised and in the coming years it will be used in more after school programs and by more in-home child care providers. I also attended a meeting at CHA with the grants team. It was interesting to hear about all the grants they’re applying for, which ones they’ve received funding from recently and which projects the money is being used to fund.

On Friday I met with someone in the marketing department at CHA to learn about her job and things she does on a daily basis. I’m going to work on a project for her that involves organizing all sorts of tips and links so that they can become more active in the social media world. I also started doing some research about how to do an effective food demo since they want to add more food demoing to their adult nutrition ed classes. Shelby wanted me to do some research about what equipment they would need, how involved it would be to train the Americorp members to do these food demos and put together some tips for how to do an effect demo. Finally, I redesigned another flyer going out to providers about the importance of milk. All the info was crammed onto one side so I made it 2-sided!

The original

Mine

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 I’ve never really been all that great at designing stuff, but I must say that I’ve been impressing myself with the powerpoints and flyers I’ve designed recently! It’s so much fun!

So there you go! You’re all caught up! I’ll be back in a couple weeks to fill you in again 🙂

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

I had another post scheduled for today but a post about my internship seems to be in high demand, so that’s what you’re getting today 🙂

As you know, I officially started my internship one week ago. Prior to that, I had two weeks of orientation. I’ll try to give you a run-down of both today. Hopefully some of you will find it interesting. If not, feel free to skip this post and come back tomorrow!

Let’s start with orientation! My intern class has 14 interns. 12 of us are full-time and the other 2 are part-time.

From left to right: Audrey, Annie, Lauren A., Sandra, Rachel, Erin L., Teryn, Jeff, me, Erin B., Lauren B., Laura, Courtney & Sally

Five of us were already in the Columbus area. Audrey and I just finished the undergrad program, Erin L and Annie just finished the master’s program and Lauren A was working in the area. Jeff, Erin B. and Lauren B. came from other areas in Ohio. As for the rest of the interns…Sandra came from Illinois, Teryn came from Indiana, Laura came from Arizona and Courtney came from Tennessee. Plus, Sally has been living in Germany for the past several years! We have a good mix of interns. Some are just out of undergrad, some graduated a few years ago and have been working and several have their masters degrees.

Some of us were able to meet up earlier in the summer but several of us hadn’t met until the first day of orientation. Orientation started Wednesday, August 8th. We spent the day getting to know each other, going through policies and procedures and finding out where our rotations would be. We also got to meet our internship director. She’s awesome! She’s young, intelligent and SO passionate about her job.

Thursday we turned in all of the materials we had to complete and collect prior to orientation. This included things like background checks, medical info, proof of insurance, etc. We reviewed the Diabetes Module that we had to complete before orientation started as well. The rest of the day was spent taking a medical terminology test, a clinical exam and reviewing the clinical side of dietetics. Several interns are starting with their clinical rotation and many of us haven’t been in Medical Nutrition Therapy classes for a while so we had lots to review. We went over lab values, equations, and did a practice case study.

Friday, we only had orientation for 3 hours and we continued our clinical review. I spent the weekend updating my planner with all of my rotations and assignments!

Monday, August 13th we picked up right where we left off! All of us had to put together a 10 minute presentation prior to the start of orientation on a nutrition related topic of our choice! I chose to do mine on “Eating Healthy on a Budget” and I was even able to talk about my Survive on $35 experience. I presented on Monday, along with three other interns and the rest of the presentation were spread out throughout the week.

Monday – Thursday we spent the remainder of our time reviewing a wide variety of topics. We covered Food Service management and reviewed how to calculate food costs, we reviewed the forms commonly used in long term care facilities and we talked about community nutrition. We also had some of in interns from last year come in and talk to us about their experiences. We heard about their rotations and got the chance to ask them questions. It was really helpful to hear their advice and tips for the internship.

We spent some time taking group photos one day, we talked about study materials for the RD exam and learned how to create an online portfolio of the work we do during the internship. We also completed several case studies, had a debate and practiced calculating tube feeds. One afternoon we went to visit a site we’ll be working at while helping with a program called Simple Suppers. We also practiced counseling techniques and role played practice conversations with each other.

Here’s a list of all the things we covered during orientation:

On Friday, we had an intern potluck at our director’s loft. She has a great rooftop space so we were able to hang out up there, eat good food and chat! Lots of my fellow interns are foodies like me and I love it! We’re even starting a recipe club 🙂

And just like that, orientation was over and we were ready to start our first rotations!

Even though it is very difficult to get a Dietetic Internship, once you secure one, they are usually very willing to work with you and customize your internship to your interests! I’m very interested in child nutrition my first three rotations are all very child-focused. I get to do my food service management rotation in a school, instead of in a hospital or long-term care setting and I get to do my outpatient clinical rotation at The Center for Healthy Weight which deals with obese children. In addition, my community rotation is also very child focused!

I was able to get credit for many of the previous supervised practice hours that I completed while getting my Dietetic Technician degree. There was a very long and involved form that I had to fill out for each rotation detailing what I did and what competencies I met. It took forever, but it was worth it because I ended up getting credit for almost 7 weeks of prior learning. That means I’ll be able to finish my rotations earlier, take the test earlier and find a job earlier. Along with tailoring my rotations to be more child-focused, I was also able to focus my clinical rotations more on outpatient counseling, instead of inpatient hospital rotations. I spent several hundred hours at the hospital during my clinical practicums for my Diet Tech degree and I’m very certain that I don’t enjoy clinical dietetics. So, I’ll be working both children and adults in an outpatient setting to gain more experience in that area.

So, back to my first rotation. Last Monday I started my first week at Children’s Hunger Alliance. CHA is an organization that I’m already very familiar with. I found out about them soon after I moved to Columbus and I love all of the programs run. I’ve also spent several hours volunteering with them in the past. So I was super excited to find out I was going there!

My preceptor for this rotation is amazing! She’s actually a graduate of the Ohio State internship as well. She finished her internship and passed her exam last summer and has been working for CHA for a little over a year. I can already tell I’m going to learn A TON from her!

I was originally only schedule to be at this rotation for 5 weeks. However, my next rotation is scheduled to be my culminating experience, which most interns do at the end of the internship but this was the only way it would fit in my schedule. I was supposed to do my culminating rotation with a supermarket RD that I actually know through blogging, but the timing didn’t work out for her because she’s getting married in a few weeks! So, I loved my first week at CHA so much that I’ve already decided to extended my stay there to include my 3 week culminating experience!  I’m still going to spend a couple of days with Gina learning about what supermarket RDs do, I just won’t be with her for the whole 3 weeks.

This will be my home for the next 8 weeks:

So, what did I do all week? SO MUCH STUFF!

Monday: I met Shelby, my preceptor, and we took a tour around the office and met some of the other employees. Then I met with one of the VP’s Shelly to learn more about CHA as an organization. Afterwards, Shelby and I spent a couple of hours getting to know each other and reviewing the calendar of projects she had put together for me. We talked about all of the things I would be working on while I was there! After lunch, I got to work on a couple of projects. I was in charge of drafting a letter to all of the childcare providers that CHA works with to tell them about how September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. I explained that we would be sending them weekly information during the month of September with activities, tips and recipes that they can use to teach healthy habits to the children in their care.

Shelby is also has a very active role in our local Columbus Dietetic Association. She’s responsible for planning all of the meetings so I get to help her with some of that. The topic of our first meeting is social media! Perfect for me right?! Anyways, Shelby wanted to try something different this month and we’re going to do a speed network exercise at the meeting. I was in charge of doing some research on speed networking and putting together the directions and procedures so we can make this successful at the meeting!

Tuesday: I continued to work on my speed networking directions. I also continued to work on the information we are sending to the childcare providers. Each week they’ll be getting an email with some handouts and a couple of key points that we want to reinforce with them. I got to develop the key points and tips based on the handouts we’re using. After talking with Shelby, I learned that the speaker for the CDA meeting is going to be Sally from Real Mom Nutrition, who I also know through the blog world! After we realized I knew her, we thought it would be fun to have me introduce her at the meeting. I emailed Sally to let her know and she suggested that I talk a little bit about my blog and about Foodie Penpals because it’s a good example of using social media to connect people! I’m so excited that I get to speak a little bit at the meeting so I’ll be putting together some slides for her to include in her presentation so that I can jump in at some point!

I also started watching Weight of the Nation. Have you seen it? It’s a series that aired on HBO and addressed several obesity and health related issues. CHA has a copy so I was able to watch all the segments. It was really interesting and I’m hoping to do a post on it at some point. I took notes and developed some questions that I will be using in a few weeks when the current Dietetic Tech students from Columbus State come to CHA to learn about the organization. We will be showing them a clip of Weight of the Nation and then they’ll be participating in some discussion and debates.

Finally, Shelby and I attended a meeting at the YWCA. In addition to doing a lot of work with children, CHA also has an adult education component. They are a host site for AmeriCorps and members teach adult nutrition classes, as well as lead after school nutrition and physical education programs for kids. The adult education classes are taught at places like the YWCA and certain food pantries. At the YWCA, the nutrition education is taught in conjunction with a cooking demo that is done by the chef. The meeting we attended was with the chef and one of her regular volunteers. It was interesting to hear them talk about how the program has developed over the past year. We also selected recipes for upcoming classes.

Wednesday: Today was packed with meetings. First, we headed back to the YWCA to observe the nutrition ed and cooking class that we discussed in the meeting on Tuesday. After that, we headed to a meeting with the United Way. It was a large meeting that involved some small group discussion about partner strategies and future plans for the United Way and how they can be most effective in the community. After lunch, I prepped all the materials to teach my first nutrition education class on Thursday and we went grocery shopping to get the items we needed to make a snack for the class. We also went to check out a potential site for the CDA meeting. I wrapped up the day by sitting in a on a conference call with Shelly (the VP) about Action for Healthy Kids, another Central Ohio program.

Thursday: I taught a nutrition ed class with an AmeriCorp member about Healthy Snacking and Healthy Fast Food Choices at a local food pantry. Afterwards, I made some edits to the child care provider letter and key points and started developing a similar set of key points that will be sent to the after school programs the CHA works with.

CHA sends out a quarterly themed kit to childcare providers that provides a calendar and several activities that can be done with children, along with some supplies to do these activities. The theme of the kit for this fall is “Healthy Smiles”. Shelby had a lot of information gathered for the kits already but she asked me to do some more research and see if I could come up with some other information and activities to include.

Friday: I continued to research and gather materials for the Healthy Smiles CARES (Children are Ready for Education and Success) kits. I also worked on editing and updating a powerpoint presentation that will be used during orientation for the new AmeriCorps members that start in a couple of weeks. The presentation is on poverty, hunger and obesity so I was updating statistics, developing question to include to get the audience involved and adding more information about the relationship between poverty and obesity.

In the afternoon, I reviewed and edited the rough draft for the calendar that is included in the CARES kits. Each month of the calendar has a suggested book to read, and several math/science/physical activities that work with the theme of the month and book. Since I used to teach preschool, I reviewed the activities to make sure they were preschool appropriate and I also reviewed the text of the calendar to make sure the language was simple enough for the providers to understand.

Whew! So there you go! I’m loving this rotation and would be happy if I could just do my whole internship here 🙂 If you guys found this interesting, let me know and I”ll try to do a recap every week or two!

Have you ever done an internship?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

We’re kicking off a BIG WEEK over here today! On August 25th, The Bean turns 2. I cannot believe i’ve been blogging for 2 years. Where did the time go?! And what did I DO with my time before I started blogging?

First of all, if you were absent over the weekend, you should check out Bean Bytes #2! CLICK HERE to read it- lots of links to some of the best posts I read last week and some random life pictures.

Anyways, I know that a lot of you are fairly new readers, so I thought it would be fun to go back through all my old posts and round up some of the best posts you’ll find on my blog. It turned out not to be so fun for me…it took forever and my computer was a major pain…BUT i did it! And I really hope you guys will enjoy the roundups. I organized all favorite posts into categories and I’m going to spread them out over this week so I don’t overwhelm you!

Today we’re starting off with appetizers, soups and salads, side dishes, breakfasts and snacks!

Appetizers

Veggie Rollups
Pepperoni Pizza Puffs
Curried Sweet Potato & Red Pepper Dip
Spicy Salmon Cornmeal Cakes
Goat Cheese & Cranberry Stuffed Mushrooms
Sweet Potato & Roasted  Red Pepper Hummus
Chunky Greek Hummus Plate
Sweet & Spicy Strawberry Peach Guacamole
Spicy Feta Dip
Black Bean Guacamole
Sweet Potato Puffs
Roasted Cherry Goat Cheese 

Soups/Salads

Salmon Corn Chowder
Smoked Gouda IPA Soup
Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili
Tandoori Chicken Spinach Salad
Loaded Spinach Salad
Ginger Citrus Avocado Dressing
Salad Topping Ideas

Sides

Grilled Potato Kabobs
Crispy Parmesan Zucchini Fries
Avocado Dipped Sweet Potato Fries
Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Salad

Breakfast

Buckwheat Crepes
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes
Whole Wheat Banana Crunch Pancakes
Berry Breakfast Quinoa

Snacks

Homemade Wheat Thins
Spicy Garlic Flatbread Crackers
Brown Rice Granola Bars
No-Bake Chocolate PB Oatmeal Balls
Homemade Lara Bites
Sweet & Spicy Roasted Chickpeas
PB & J Bites
Chocolate Dipped Frozen Yogurt Bites
Almond Graham Banana Bites
Dessert Hummus- Three Ways
Crockpot Applesauce
The Evolution of a Smoothie

So there you go! Hope you find something you like! Or maybe something you haven’t seen before 🙂

Now for the fun part! Did I mention there’s a giveaway every day this week?! Just for you guys. Because without you, this blog wouldn’t be possible!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!!!

I think we all know I’m a HUGE avocado fan. As a future RD, I know the importance of incorporating healthy fats into my diet so we go through a lot of avocados over here. Do you think you could figure out a way to use up some beautiful California Avocados? Perhaps to try out one of the two guacamole recipes above?!

My friends at Avocados Direct  (you can find them on twitter- CLICK HERE and facebook- CLICK HERE) are going to send one lucky winner a California Avocado Gift Pack containing 8 jumbo avocados!

Wanna win?

Just leave a comment below telling me your favorite way to eat or use avocados! That’s it.

For one additional entry, you may tweet the following:
“Enter to win an 8 pack of California avocados from @LeanGrnBeanBlog! Just tell her your favorite way to eat them: https://www.theleangreenbean.com/appetizers-more/”

Then come back and leave another comment telling me you tweeted.

2 entries max per person.
Giveaway is open until Wednesday, August 22, 2012 at 10pm
{Giveaway open to US Residents only}

Winner will be chosen via random.org and will have 48 hours to contact me before another winner is chosen.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–