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Happy New Year! 2010 in Review

Happy New Year to all.

I will be back to normal posting soon. In the meantime, here is an overview of wonderful things that have happened this past year…

Last year’s resolutions.

I wanted to learn a new language (didn’t do this), go to Hawaii (yes!), I cultivated patience, I ate more fried rice, ate less meat, I didn’t drink more Kombucha, I did drink less diet soda (overall), and I ended the year on a yoga streak (though I’m not sure I did much yoga throughout the whole year).

The Warrior Challenge (intenSati).

This was a month-long challenge to do 3+ classes a week of intenSati at one of New York’s poshest gyms. I had fun, and learned a lot.

Good conversations with good friends about behavioral change.

jan 30 2010 001

And also about drinking tea (yum) and eating kabocha.

Eating Fats.

The great fat experiment went well overall. I learned a lot about what my body needs. One thing to note is that it needs (a lot of) animal fats, so I will try to include more this year.

Trying acupuncture.

This was for stress and hormone stuff. Unfortunately at the time I wasn’t ready to commit to everything that I needed to do for acupuncture to work properly, so I quit after two sessions. I may give this another shot sometime though.

How Much Protein Do I Really Need?

This post was written as a response to anyone who doubts that vegetarians (or even vegans) can get enough protein on an animal-free diet. I don’t know the answer to this – I know that I need animal protein, but maybe not everyone does. My opinion on protein has changed (for the better) since I wrote the post. I’m now more into a high-fat, moderate-protein, and low-carb lifestyle.

Random favorites.

Including macrobiotic meals and fast food. I try not to limit myself too much.

Trailmaking and Wedding Planning.

Bobby and I went to NJ for the weekend and helped my dad build a trail. Lots of fun – hoping to do more things like that this year.

IBS Management.

I came up with a plan for my IBS – my IBS Management Plan. I didn’t stick to it as much as I would have liked. This year one of my resolutions is to get it under control as much as possible! Recent changes in my eating (eating more fats, fewer grains, more protein) have helped a lot.

Job changes – from full-time to part-time… (And back to full-time again, later in the year.)

Which meant more time to blog, more time to take a class (linguistics), and more time for my favorites like papaya salad and fresh cherries.

Discovery: eating mindfully.

Which later on led to…

And then, oh yeah…

I GOT MARRIED!

We were married in a Quaker meeting house and the reception was in my parents’ (beautiful) side yard. Here is my other wedding recap. (Guest posts listed there – had lots of good ones!)

Then we…

Went to Hawaii!

We had two glorious weeks on the beaches of Maui. Oh how I want to go back.

Walking talk (about how it is awesome).

How to Get Glowing Skin (very popular post).

I turned 24.

Had to have a kabocha scone for dessert on my birthday.

Project Food Blog.

(Didn’t get very far.)

The Hunger Diaries happened.

It died down pretty fast 😉

My Macro Plate Recipe.

Finally revealed it.

College-visiting with my sister.

(She got into her first choice! Not Brown, which is where we went that weekend.)

Highlights of the Fear and/or Sanity Weekend.

We took a weekend trip down to DC – so fun. Love the short hair.

And again… happy new year!

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Marriage Advice & Maui Fruit Stand {Honeymoon}

The First Hana Highway Fruit Stand

About a week into our honeymoon (in Maui) Bobby and I decided to do the Road to Hana. It is a long, twisty, windy road with lots of one-way bridges and blind curves. I got to drive.

The first stop we made was at a roadside fruit stand manned by a raw vegan and another guy. There were also chickens…

They gave us some samples. First was a fresh passionfruit (local). Did you know that as soon as a passionfruit is cracked open the vitamin C starts to disappear? It must oxidize or something.

I chatted with the owners. They were so excited about their organic, local fruit. Unfortunately it was not cheap! I think it was worth it though.

Then there was real sugarcane (local):

You chew on it and suck out the sweetness. It’s delicious. These are the fruits we ended up with (2 types of passionfruit, 2 different kinds of bananas, and an avocado):

I cannot find this fruit stand online anywhere (they said it was just called the “First Hana Highway Fruit Stand” because it is the first one you hit when you start the drive). I did get pictures with the raw vegan (the guy with long hair) and his friend. And now I forget their names, which is terrible!

Aloha!

Bobby got a picture too:

Fruit Stand Marriage Lessons

We ended up chatting with the two guys, and the non-raw-vegan (really wish I knew their names!) gave us some very sage marriage advice. He asked us if we had done research on marriage before we got married (we hadn’t, really).

First he asked if we knew what the number one reason for divorce was – we didn’t – it is money. I don’t think we will have to worry about that! We definitely don’t fight over money now, anyway. Sometimes Bobby wants me to be more extravagant but that’s about it. (I think I am finally loosening up based on my big purchase last week.)

The second thing he said was that we must always show love and communicate. I would agree. I think a lot of couples (married or not) can get in the habit of not hugging or kissing and not putting in that little bit of extra effort to be affectionate. It’s so important though; that is what keeps a marriage going!

Lastly, he said that Bobby has to tell me I’m beautiful. I think this is self explanatory.

So his three main healthy marriage tips were:

  • Don’t fight over money
  • Be affectionate, show love, and always always communicate
  • Hubby tells wife she is beautiful just the way she is

What are your tips for a healthy relationship? (Romantic or otherwise – other relationships take work too.)

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Hawaiian Whole Foods (Honeymoon)

I never did a honeymoon recap (and I don’t know if I will; it would be a long post) but I did want to share a few things. We left Philadelphia early early early 2 days after the wedding (wedding was a Saturday; this was a Monday).

We got off the plane exhausted at the airport in Maui, and the rental car attendant kindly informed us that there was a Whole Foods just a few miles away where we could grab lunch.

We got to see some overpriced carrots (Maui has to import just about everything, so things are expensive – this is an issue for another post though! Going local is so important).

Sampled ceviche and some berry drink.

And finally got food.

We ate outside under some nice umbrella’d picnic tables.

And then we were on our way! Great first honeymoon meal.

And I’m back to work… Don’t forget about the stevia giveaway! You have just over 2 days left to enter. (And there are only 2 days until my birthday!)

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Wordless Wedding Post {Wordless Wednesday}

(Almost) Wordless Wedding Wednesday.

Hope you enjoy these pictures as I do some maintenance work on the blog. Back tomorrow with real updates. And happy first of September. September is my birth month and my favorite month of the year. September’s birthstone is sapphire. To go along with wedding photos, here are some wedding links:

I still look at my pictures almost every day. And every day I am still as happy as I was over a month ago.

What makes you happy on this (almost) wordless Wednesday?

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Mara: Food Blogging and Marriage

Aloha! My sweet friend Mara wrote a great guest post for me specifically about food blogging, marriage, and honeymooning! I will let her tell the story…

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Hi Salad Girl readers! I’m Mara, and I write a little food and cooking blog called “What’s For Dinner?” where I chronicle my adventures in cooking, and more recently, baking.

When Maggie asked me to do a guest post on weddings/marriage and how they relate to food and food blogging, I jumped at the chance! See, I got married to the love of my life this past November, and our wedding coincided nicely with the anniversary of my blog.

Not only has blogging my dinners made for more interesting meals in our house, it’s also helped to teach my husband, Adam, about various flavors that exist in the world, as well as the importance of having food that looks as good as it tastes.

But that’s not going to be what I write about. Oh no. Adam and I were put to the test mighty early in our marriage when we had a travel nightmare when trying to get to Jamaica on our honeymoon. How, you might be asking, does this relate to food blogging?

If you don’t want to click over, the nightmare in a nutshell was:

  • Flew out of Chicago into Philadelphia just as the first Noreaster snowstorm hit.
  • Got stuck in Philadelphia and missed our connecting flight
  • Waited 8 hours at PHL for our bags, which, in turn, were sent without us to Jamaica.
  • Spent the first night of our honeymoon in a crappy motel
  • Spent the 2nd night of our honeymoon in a less crappy hotel
  • Rearranged resort accommodations (Thanks Sandals!) and got put back on a flight to Chicago to wait for our new Jamaica flight
  • PHL to Chicago flight got cancelled minutes before we arrived at the airport.
  • Adam and I drove the 14 hours back to Chicago to wait for the Jamaica flight
  • We never received one cent back from US Airways for extra expenses incurred.

Well, for one, without my food blog, I would not be able to remember that the first
night of our honeymoon’s dinner was:

And Adam’s was:

Thanks to my food blog, I was able to chronicle every moment of the nightmare that occurred between leaving Chicago (home) and finally leaving home again for Jamaica, and have it on a public and much-read forum. Thanks to my blog, Adam and I are able to relive exactly how remarkable it is that we made it through our ordeal without killing each other, and came out of it stronger in the long run.

Because of my food blog, we were able to recall small details of our trip that ordinarily would’ve been forgotten, and thanks to more technology, we were able to chronicle our road trip via Facebook! We are reminded every day exactly how well-deserved our honeymoon was once we actually made it there… and we enjoyed every moment.

Congratulations Maggie! I hope you enjoy every moment of your wedding and honeymoon! My advice? Remember to be tolerant! You never know when a difficult time can turn into the adventure of a lifetime!

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Thanks again, Mara! Thankfully our honeymoon has been almost snag-free so far (there was a glitch with Expedia and our rental car… I’ll update after it is resolved).

Have you ever had an issue with an airline? I’ve had lots of delayed flights, and one time Bobby and I were stuck in the Las Vegas airport overnight because a delay out of Philly (apparently PHL really stinks) on our way to California (SFO) – we ended up missing the last flight out because of the delay.

P.S. If you have been enjoying these marriage/food-related guest posts and want to do one yourself, send me what you got – magpie707 (at) gmail (dot) com. I am going to keep on posting them periodically after I’m back 🙂