A few of my favorite bloggers have recently committed to getting back on track. Caitlin declared the whole month of November as a time to get back on track; Angela is doing it for the first week of November, starting today (the 2nd). I’m feeling it too: I haven’t been doing that much yoga, I haven’t been walking as much as I like to, and, to be perfectly honest, I’ve been eating a lot of crap. I haven’t been practicing mindfulness either, and I find myself munching through the day instead of eating proper meals.

This challenge might be hard for a few reasons – 1) Bobby and I are driving across the country next week; 2) the holidays and lots of decadent foods are coming up; 3) due to the move, I don’t know what my new routine will be (we’re moving to Manhattan btw). But I’m going to try. I’m synthesizing their goals and mine, and this is what I came up with. I’m going to try to do this for as long as I can. These aren’t arbitrary; these goals are what my ideal lifestyle would be so I want to keep up with them.

1. Go to bed early (by 11:30pm) and get 7-8 hours of sleep a night.
2. Cut out artificial sweeteners. I’ve been on a diet coke kick recently and it’s time to stop.
3. More veggies, less fruit.
4. More cooked foods, fewer raw.
5. Lots of water and tea.
6. Cook and plan more (or at least eat out at cheap-yet-healthy places).
7. Sit down for every meal.
8. Do something relaxing for 30 minutes every day (yoga, a bath, these exercises).
9. 30+ minutes of cardio each day (walking, running, yoga).
10. Give myself credit. Even if I don’t do all of these things perfectly, I’m going to give myself credit for the attempts and partial successes.

Because we’re moving, I’m trying to use up the groceries we have and I don’t plan on buying more. This week I’ll be eating out a lot but I’m not too worried about that; I love eating out and I can always find something healthy on the menu. The only thing that worries me about eating out is the money issue. I wish I was less frugal

The other issue I might have is that this weekend is the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. I plan on eating well, but I doubt that I’m going to get much sleep because two of my favorite bloggers are coming to stay with me and we’re all going together. I am so excited to meet them.

Some of the yummy dishes I plan on making and eating during this November challenge are…

a healthy Thanksgiving meal, like last year’s

fresh delicious salads

lots of squash fries…

this fun Indian mushroom recipe

… and lots more. You should check out my recipes page for more inspiration. This bread recipe was one of the first things I ever posted (December 2007).

Anyway, back to the “back on track” plan. Today has been a good day so far. I did a yoga class this morning at my studio and I went to bed early last night (crashed on the couch at 9:30pm). I wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner, but Bobby has band practice… so maybe not.

And now this post is getting epic. Happy November! Are you challenging yourself this month?

Right now I’m watching Food, Inc. with my dad. I’m really glad he’s watching it… I’ll let you know what he thinks.

Quick summary of our day: This morning my midterm went fine; I think my bowl of protein powder oats gave me some good brain power. We didn’t really do anything else terribly exciting today because I had to show our apartment at 1pm. We got Chipotle for lunch (Dad’s first time) – I got a veggie salad, Dad got a chicken bowl, and Bobby got a chicken burrito. After the showing we headed to Santana Row, an upscale shopping area in San Jose.

Sorry in advance for the crappy pictures – left my sweet camera at home and used the small one.

Tonight we went out for dinner with out cousins. We got Vietnamese at Pho Nam in Sunnyvale. This place is great. I got #52, the Vermicelli with Shrimp. It came with veggies (lettuce, cilantro, carrots, cucumber), vermicelli (rice noodles), grilled shrimp (with oil), and a yummy fish sauce topping. We got (unpictured) spring rolls (fried and fresh) for the table as well.

I thought this meal was fab – fresh, light, and pretty healthy. Dad got pork and shrimp vermicelli (similar to mine) and Bobby got beef pho (noodle soup). Bobby also got a strawberry shake – I thought it was pretty so I snapped a picture (and had some of course).

Dessert was lots of fresh pineapple from Safeway (Thanks, Dad!).

Just a reminder – I don’t post about everything I eat; don’t think this was everything I ate today

I have been eating this awesome smoked mozzarella cheese on apples. I’ll try to remember to take a picture next time I have it. And I still have to share that crazy chocolate treat that I got recently too.

Have you had any cool new food finds lately?

I have 3 goals in mind for July:

1. Less kabocha!
2. More healthy fats!
3. Be spontaneous

I had a kind of last hurrah with kabocha last night and finished a whole one (and it was big).  I think it’s time for moderation.

As for healthy fats… I do enjoy my nut butters and olive oil, but not enough.  Maria posted about this yesterday, too.  I have nut butter with breakfast and usually a little bit of olive oil with dinner and lunch – but it probably totals about 2 tablespoons altogether.  So I’m going to go for it and start incorporating more fat.

Spontaneity is also something I want to improve on.  This is just eating what I want when I want it, rather than waiting for the normal times that I eat and eating the same things.

Yesterday wasn’t a total bust in terms of goals though – I made a kickbutt Thai papaya salad based on my recipe here.

Ingredients – 1 shredded green papaya (50 cents on sale @ Vietnamese market), 1 shredded organic carrot, 2 chopped plum tomatoes (also on sale), 5-6 cloves of garlic.

Dressing – soy sauce, rice vinegar, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, sugar (sweet simplicity), PB2, chili powder, chili flakes… (I might be forgetting something).

This is Bobby’s and my favorite salad, and we ate the whole thing while we were watching jeopardy and wheel (million dollar winner last night!).  Yes, we are old and we love jeopardy and wheel.  I probably had about 80% of the salad, but I was impressed at how much of it Bobby ate.  He’s not as much of a veggie disposal as I am.  The whole salad cost me about $1 to make because of this great Vietnamese store that has a cheapo rack. I got a green papaya ($0.50), a big bag of 4 chayotes and 4 tomatoes ($1.50), and 6 eggplants ($0.50).  I think that’s all.

In the afternoon I made a lunch sort of thing with shrimp, konnyaku, chayote (on sale), olive oil, stir-fry sauce, and mustard (added later).  I’m almost done with the shrimp. I’m liking chayote – it’s kind of bland, but it’s nice and crunchy and good with other flavors.  I had a few other random snacks, so this wasn’t really a lunch.  Yummy though.  More like a snack to hold me until dinner.

Want to join me with any of the goals?  What are your goals for July?

Before I forget, Justine is having a really cool giveaway, so I’m going to do a confession of the day to get an extra entry – I hate clutter, but I have a terrible time getting rid of things.  I try to make Bobby give away all those ratty t-shirts that he never wears, but I always want to keep mine.  I hate the clutter but I’m scared that as soon as I give something away I’ll need it!

One more thing – my friend just launched this cool recipe search engine, NomFinder.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  I’ll pass on suggestions to him.

For all of my FAQ posts, check out my FAQ page.

4. Carolinebee says, “I would love to hear your educational/career history.”

I went into college undecided.  I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, or what I enjoyed.  I took some econ classes because that was what my dad majored in and I had worked for him my whole life (financial and pension stuff).  I also took math classes because they were fun and I was good at it.  I realized that I could double major and graduate early, and being the competitive/crazy/type-A person that I am, I went for it.  I liked my math and econ classes, but I loved so many other classes too (Italian, Linguistics, Oceanography, Business, etc…).

I graduated in December ‘07 with degrees in Math and Econ. (I’m class of ‘08.)  I had an internship before my senior year (2007) at JPMorgan as a summer associate; I worked on the mortgage backed securities trading desk.  Hours were 6am – 7pm.  I lived in Greenwich village in a teeny studio apartment that I shared with my friend from Cornell who also was working at JPMorgan.  I got the job offer but turned it down; it was a bad time to enter that field (my friends who accepted got laid off a little while ago).

When I graduated, I got a job at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.  I worked there from February ‘08 – May ‘08.  I was a research associate.  I worked for a senior international economist.  Lots of statistics and programming. There were parts of the job I liked, but overall I felt like our department didn’t get much done. I didn’t like it enough to stick with the hour-long commute (1 hour each way), so I decided to find a job closer to Bobby’s job.

I fond a job as a software engineer at a local (Mountain View, CA) internet startup.  This job started out pretty fun. Unfortunately, my boss quit, and after that the company started to go downhill.  Many other senior people quit, we had people running things that didn’t know what they were doing, and the company ended up doing a major downsize back in January ‘09. They laid off 70% of the company in one day.

Now…

5. Jen asks, “What job(s) are you working right now, and what are your career plans for the future?”

I blog and I do private tutoring; I also get a few students from a local tutoring company.  I tutored for the SAT as well as math and english.  I have also tutored online, which was kinda cool.

I was doing a little bit of webdesign consulting work, but that’s mostly ended now.

I’ve also taken two YogaFit trainings, which starts me on the path to being a RYT (registered yoga teacher – 200 hours of training).  I haven’t started teaching yet, but I do plan on pursuing this more in the near future. This isn’t my main focus, but it’s a lovely hobby

For the future – I would love to find a job that incorporates what I’ve learned from blogging with education or another hobby of mine (yoga, health, cooking, music).

6. Clare asks, “For a person who is terrified of raw fish, what would be the “safest” sashimi for that person to try first?”

I had to consult with Bobby on this one.  We decided that both tuna and salmon are probably the mildest fish to start with.  Another way to start would be to get smoked salmon, which isn’t truly raw.  Unagi (eel), my favorite sushi, is not raw either.  After you tackle tuna and salmon, move onto crazier things!

7. Sophia asks, “what is your favorite cuisine?”

This is so hard!  I would have to say that in general, I love ALL Asian food… but my favorite is definitely Vietnamese (without MSG), or Thai.  My favorite dish of all time is papaya salad (especially with shrimp) and both of these cuisines have amazing versions of it.  I love Vietnamese food because it’s always light and healthy and I leave the table feeling energized.  Thai food is a bit heavier, but it’s amazingly savory and they have the best stir-frys ever.  I can’t decide!  Other favorites – Korean (bi bim bap), Japanese (sukiyaki), and real Chinese food.  Not Chinese take out.  I lived with 3 Chinese roommates when I first moved to Cali and they fed me some amazing dishes.  The Bay Area has so many great Asian restaurants and I’ve even tried Malaysian food (they have papaya salad too).

You’re probably sick of listening to me go on, so I’ll save some more for later. Keep them coming  I love answering your questions.  Happy Monday!