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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–

Hi Friends!

I’m diving into week two of my internship orientation. I can’t wait to update you guys about how it’s going and tell you all about my rotation schedule, etc…but for now, suffice it to say i’m super busy and I’m giving a presentation today so I’m letting one of my lovely readers take over for me.

Megan emailed me a few weeks ago to ask if she could share her story on my blog. As you may have guessed from the title of this post, her story involves sodium. As a future RD, I believe sodium is one of the most important nutrition topics there is- namely because almost everyone eats way too much of it.

I hope you’re read her story and take her tips to heart. A low-sodium diet is SUCH an important part of a healthy lifestyle!

Take it away, Megan!

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 Hi everyone! My name is Megan and I write over at The Delightfull Dash. I started my blog a few months ago to document my journey of getting fit while running and following a healthy vegetarian diet.

I approached Lindsay about an issue that is very dear to both of us, and she has been so kind to let me write a guest post while she’s getting acquainted with her dietetic internship schedule. So excited for her!

After years of gaining weight, dieting, losing weight, and gaining it all back again, my turning point for getting healthy once and for all came back in February of this year. My fiancé, Mark, got really sick, and we thought he had pneumonia. After calling 911 and rushing him to the hospital, it turned out things were a lot worse.

His blood pressure was through the roof (his BP was 270/180 when he got to the ER), his kidneys had shut down, his heart was failing, and his lungs were full of fluid. He had to be put in a medically induced coma and given immediate dialysis treatment to prevent him from dying. He was in the ICU for five days and in the hospital for a total of five weeks. He’s on permanent dialysis now (3x/week), and will need a kidney transplant. It’s been a serious wake up call.

It turns out that he had been losing kidney function for years and didn’t know it. This was because of his uncontrolled high blood pressure. Not only is high blood pressure rough on your heart, it’s a killer for your kidneys. It turns out that one of the main causes of high blood pressure is a high sodium diet.

Salt is lurking everywhere in your food, even in places you would never expect! While some salt is necessary for your body to function properly, it’s very easy to get too much if you don’t watch your diet.

Here are some tips for controlling your sodium intake:

1. Go easy with the salt shaker

You can season your food so many other ways. Use fresh and dried herbs, spices, and garlic to pack a flavor punch. There are many spice blends that are available; just be sure to choose the ones that are low sodium or sodium free. Mrs. Dash is a great salt-free choice.

2. Read the food labels!

Food labels can trick you if you’re not careful. Look at the amount of sodium, as well as the serving size. A food may appear to be low in sodium, but if the serving size is 1/8^th of the package and you eat the entire thing in one sitting, it’s no longer a healthy choice.

Check out this guide on what to look for when reading a food label.

3. Beware of frozen foods

Frozen foods, especially meats and packaged dinners, are notorious for being loaded with salt. If you can make it fresh yourself, go that route. If not, check the label and choose low sodium options.

4. Look for hidden culprits

Some high sodium foods may surprise you. Deli meats, bread, soup, chips, nuts, dressings, sauces, marinades, and some desserts often have a lot of salt. Again, read the food labels and make wise choices!

5. Be smart when dining out

You can often find nutrition information for menu items at the restaurant or on its web site. If it’s not displayed, just ask.

6. Ask a medical professional

I’m not a registered dietitian or doctor, so I’m speaking from my personal experience. Everyone has different medical issues and dietary needs. When in doubt, consult a medical professional. I’m sure Lindsay can point you in the right direction!

I hope these tips will help you make better choices! Your health is #1!

Here is the recipe for my Balsamic Portobello Panini with Pineapple Salsa. Low sodium of course!

Ingredients:

• portobello mushrooms
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 can pineapple in juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 yellow or red tomato
• olive oil
• arugula
• ciabatta or multigrain bread
• lowfat spicy mayo
• provolone cheese (optional)

1. Remove gills from portobello mushrooms (I used the edge of a spoon).

2. Drain pineapple juice from can into a bowl. Set pineapple aside.

3. Add balsamic vinegar and garlic to the pineapple juice. Whisk until combined.

4. Brush both sides of portobello mushrooms generously with the vinegar and pineapple marinade and let sit for at least 10-15 minutes.

5. Grill the portobello mushrooms until cooked through (my panini grill worked great).

6. Dice the tomato and pineapple and combine to create the salsa.

7. Brush 2 slices of bread with olive oil (one side only). Spread spicy mayo on the other side of each bread slice and layer portabello mushrooms. Create sandwich (add provolone cheese if desired).

8. Place sandwich on panini grill or grill pan. Grill until golden brown.

9. Remove sandwich from grill and add tomato-pineapple salsa and arugula. Enjoy!

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Your turn! You tell us:

Do you watch your salt intake?  
Do you check the label for sodium content before buying processed foods?
What are some of your favorite low-sodium products and recipes?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Last week something special happened. Hubby and I celebrated one year meat-free! For those of you that don’t know, going vegetarian this time around was hubby’s idea. We decided to try it out for a month…and 12 months later we’re still going strong! Although we didn’t eat fish for that first month, we do now eat fish occasionally… but we’ve been meat-free for a year! Here are my recaps of what we ate during those first 4 weeks:

Veggie Month- Week 1
Veggie Month- Week 2
Veggie Month- Week 3
Veggie Month- Week 4

To celebrate 12 months of meat-free living, I decided to round up my 12 favorite meatless recipes of the past year and share them with you guys!

Ready? Ok! Here they are, in no particular order (click the links to see the recipes):

1. Mexican Loaded Sweet Potatoes

2. Lentil Veggie Mac & Cheese

3. Sweet Potato Falafel 

or Sweet Potato Falafel Rings

4. Lentil & Vegetable Curry

5. Spicy Black Bean Burgers w/ Goat Cheese

6. Curried Sweet Potato & Black Bean Tacos

7. Lentil Pot Pies

8. Meatless Meatballs

9. Tuna Quinoa Cakes

10. Sweet & Spicy Shrimp w/ Soba Noodles

11. Thai Peanut Salmon Burgers

12. Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Pizza
w/ Sweet Potato Socca Crust

So there you go!

Also, for those of you that are newer readers, my 2 year bloggy birthday is coming up soon and I’m going to be celebrating with a little series called “The Best of the Bean” so I can share some of my favorite recipes from the past 2 years with you guys…especially some of the ones I made when I first started blogging and the only people that read my blog were the hubby and my mom 🙂

PLUS, I have some fun giveaways lined up for you guys! So stay tuned…

Enjoy!
–Lindsay

Five years ago today, I was heading back to my college town

with the guy I’ve loved since I was 18 years old

eating dinner at our favorite restaurant

walking around the campus where we met

deciding to spend the rest of our lives together

Happy Engagement Day to the man who was so excited to propose to me
that he forgot to get down on one knee.

and I’ll never let him live it down.

I love you.

–Bean–

PS. Today also happens to be my best friend’s birthday.

She’s been my best friend since we were 12
and I’m lucky to have her in my life.

Happy Birthday Katharine!

Hi Friends!

Time for today’s post. It’s time for another Foodie Penpals reveal day!

This month, I received my box from Megan at I Run 4 Wine! Best blog name ever, right??? Megan was super sweet, contacting me immediately and asking about my food likes and dislikes. She also told me she lives in Florida and has access to lots of cuban food, spices and coffee and asked if i’d be interested in that. I said coffee for sure, and mentioned that my hubby LOVES plantain chips 🙂

A couple weeks later, this beautiful box showed up on my doorstep:

I love tissue paper 🙂
Let’s see what was inside:

Those plantain chips were just for the hubby and let me tell you, they didn’t last more than 2 hours. INHALED! I was able to try a few and they were delish! Super thin, crunchy and a bit spicy.

She also sent me some of her favorite seasonings. The Greek seasoning is her favorite and I can’t wait to try it. She also sent butter chicken mix since she read my blog and saw we love Indian food. She explained the she knew we were vegetarians and that she uses this to make a vegetarian version that is delicious so I’m sure we’ll be trying that soon. She also sent some garlic-lime seasoning for grilling veggies and seafood! The salad dressing and skinny cow treats were bonus items!

I saved the two best items of the box for last. First, the coffee:

She told me that the coffee is milled in Tampa and that the streets always smell of coffee in the morning. YUMMMM!! Megan makes it in her expresso maker with hot milk. We made it like regular coffee, and it was AMAZING! Good stuff.

Even better than the coffee though?

These. were. AMAZING!!!!! They’re chocolate chip granola cookies and Megan sent them individually vacuum sealed. I enjoyed every single one. I’m SO glad she included the recipe for me 🙂

Thanks so much Megan for an amazing package!!!!

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Now, don’t you wanna join in the fun?! Here are the Foodie Penpals 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 August, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.

You must submit your information by August 4th as pairings will be emailed on August 5th! You will receive a confirmation email from me within 24 hours if you sign up. IF YOU DON’T GET ONE, send me an email!

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It’s the weekend!! What are you up to?

On my to-do list?

I love my friends because they know me so well 🙂

And finally, we’re taking a vote. I put this on instagram and twitter last night…
Now it’s your chance to vote.
Should hubby keep his long hair or cut it short again?

Have a great day!

–Lindsay–