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Monday Link & List Love [01.21.2013]

I have found some interesting links lately that I wanted to share:

Monday Link Love

  • The Nitrate & Nitrite Myth: Another Reason not to Fear Bacon: This article “debunks” the idea that nitrates and nitrites can cause serious health problems (cancer, heart disease). Honestly – I want to believe it; I just don’t know if I can. Apparently nitrates and nitrites are found in much higher amounts in natural foods like celery and even in our own saliva than they are in hot dogs, bacon, and other processed meats. Even if they are – aren’t they different? Wouldn’t our bodies treat “natural” (whatever that means) nitrates/nitrites differently than artificial ones? I have no idea. I’m not a food scientist but I would really like to know the truth behind processed meats. (Because I love bacon. Who doesn’t?)
  • Breaking the Cycle of Emotional Eating: Just some goods tips for leading a happy, healthy life. I especially like #5 – Unleash Your Creativity and Do Something You Love Every Single Day.
  • Homemade Lotion Recipe: I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like it really couldn’t be simpler.
  • Slow-Cooker Squash Stew: Butternut squash, chard, and parmesan? Count me in.
  • 7 Ways You Might Be Inadvertently Sabotaging a Good Night’s Sleep: I may not always agree with him, but Mark Sisson just about always has an intelligent, well-thought-out response to just about every question or problem anyone could possibly have. In this case I do agree with him. The article is from November but particularly applicable now that I’m trying to sleep earlier. He makes good points – 1) are you getting natural light during the day? 2) are you eating too late? 6) do you have a nighttime ritual? and 7) are you simply staying up too late? –> These 4 all right true for me.
  • Vow to Get More Sleep in 2013: Another sleep article. Tips include 3) turn the heat down, 4) unplug (what I should be doing now!), 5) meditate, 6) do yoga (OK!), and 7) stop puttering! (That means no chores after 9pm, yes I am talking to you my fellow type A’s.)

And I also just wanted to share some other random things…

Monday List Love

  • Wanted to share this pic of dinner the other night. I was out of the city all day Saturday and when I got home, Bobby had prepared this beautiful meal! It’s a salad with hard boiled egg, bacon, onion, and homemade dressing. I had no idea he could cook – he totally outdid himself. He also made butternut squash ravioli (from TJ’s) with sauteed veggies and he cooked up a cheesy mushroom flatbread (also courtesy of TJ’s). The salad is served in a really beautiful dish from my mom.
    bobby-dinner-salad-ravioli-wine
  • Bobby used this salad recipe for the dinner salad and dressing. It was supposed to be spinach but I prefer romaine as a salad base.

That’s all I have… I’m off to do some reading and relax before I go to sleep (early). Hope your week is off to a good start.

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Best WordPress Commenting Plugins & Goal Updates

Note: This is replicating similar functionality that is built in with WordPress.COM blogs (but not .ORG). If you are self-hosting your blog using WordPress then you are .ORG (that is what I am). If you host your blog using WordPress.COM you don’t have to worry about all this because it’s built in. If you are not even using WordPress you can just skip down a few paragraphs to the updates below.

I don’t know about you, but when I comment on a blog with a question I very rarely go back to check for an answer. I like it when the blogger emails me back from the comment notification email they get in their inbox from WordPress. I also reply to nearly all my comments this way. I should really add the responses to my blog since sometimes people ask good questions that other people might want to see the answer to. So…

Best Blog Commenting Reply Plugins for WordPress

Reply to a comment on a post –> sends an email to the commenter.

First, if you don’t already have nested comments enabled, do so. It’s under Settings –> Discussion –> Enable threaded (nested) comments. This makes it so your comment replies are indented, like so:

Source.

Second, install Comment Reply Notification (search for it under Plugins –> Add New). This one sends an email to the commenter after you write a reply. You will need to go to Settings –> Comment Reply Notification and select the option that you want (I did “Anyone replies”). You can also change the format of the email that gets sent out with the reply.

Voila! Now you can have comment replies on your blog that also go to the original commenter’s email.

I will be replying a whole lot more now that I have this up and running. I’m very excited!

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August Goal Setting Update

Last week I listed out some goals that I wanted to make progress on by my birthday in mid-September.

Sleep goal. I am happy to say that I went to bed early-ish every night this last week! The latest I stayed up was on Saturday night (til about 1am) but all the other nights I was in bed around 11:30pm. I am so happy.

Fitness goals. No yoga yet, unfortunately, but lots of walking. I don’t know why I haven’t been into yoga lately. This was me doing down-dog on the lanai (balcony) on the honeymoon. I did actually do a yoga class in Hawaii; it was yoga on the beach in the early morning. (We were both morning people on the honeymoon because we didn’t really do the time change. So 6am in Hawaii was like noon in NYC. It worked.)

Music fun. Here is a lovely song by a band called Mumford & Sons. We are seeing them later this year. They are fantastic. Just wait for the chorus!

***

I will be back tomorrow with a standard healthy post. I just wanted to offer up that comment info for anyone who might find it useful, and do the goal update.

Do you have any great plugins you want to share?

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Goal Setting

I’m in an ambitious mood today, so here we go. My goals for the next few weeks (I want to see at least slight changes in all these areas by mid-September… my 24th birthday):

Going to Sleep Earlier

I am not really a night owl by choice, but night after night I fall into bed at 1:30am or later, only to roll out of bed at 7am bemoaning my existence. I took a class on sleep with my friend Mel down at Brooklyn Brainery a few months ago (BB is awesome, check it out if you are in NYC) so I do know that sleeping is incredibly important!

Goal: I’m going to follow the usual tricks – 1) get up at the same time every day, 2) set a routine for night (read for 20 minutes starting at 11 to get me sleepy), and 3) do this for at least 10 days in a row to get in the habit. I think ideally you’d do more than 10 days, but that is a start.

Food Less, Live More

I want to talk about some other stuff on the blog – I like food, but it’s not good to think about it too much. Maybe this is me being more intuitive.

Goal: Blog about other stuff every week!

More Fitness Fun

Been slacking a little on fitness, but I’ve been getting in some walks. I try to do 5,000 steps a day on a low day. 10,000 is better! I usually hit that. I’d like to do some more yoga, too. It keeps me sane, even if it’s just 20 minutes a day.

Goal: 20 minutes of yoga a day 5 days a week + at least 8,000 steps a day.

More Music Fun

Sometimes I listen to a song that just makes me happy. One of my (current; there are many more) favorites is:

  • Defying Gravity – this is off of the Glee Soundtrack. Actually the entire soundtrack is mood boosting. At least it is if you are like me, and you were a music nerd back in high school 😉

Goal: find a new song every week and play piano for 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week.

Were you a music nerd? Do ya miss it? I sure do. I have an audition for a choir tomorrow night, so I’m excited to (hopefully) have that back in my life. Favorite songs?

What are your goals for the next few months?

Are you good at following through on goals, or not so much? Why do you fail or succeed?

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Ketchup Versus Catsup

I made my ketchup recipe again this morning. I can’t get enough of these egg white omelettes I have been making.

This one did not come out as pretty as last week’s egg white omelette did. This is probably because I added in shredded zucchini to the egg whites and then started washing dishes instead of paying attention to the pan!

Ingredients:

  • 5 egg whites (organic, free range! I’m being strict about this)
  • shredded zucchini (too much – maybe a whole cup or so)
  • fresh basil from my dad’s garden (thanks Dad!)
  • 1 small chopped tomato (my favorite part about any omelette)
  • peanut oil for the pan (maybe 1/2 tablespoon; this is from Bell Plantation and it is awesome)
  • homemade ketchup (the best part!)

I mixed together the egg whites, zucchini, and basil. Then I heated up my wok (high heat), added peanut oil, and dumped in the egg white mix. I let that cook for a minute and dumped on the tomato, then attempted to fold it… And failed. It still tasted good, especially with the addition of my homemade ketchup. I have been adding sweetener to the ketchup (today it was honey) and so far my favorite way to sweeten it is with plain old white sugar. I think brown might be even better but unfortunately I am all out of it so I haven’t been able to try!

Ketchup versus Catsup (Cats):

I love my kitty-cats. Kabocha “Bo” is above; Couscous “Koos” is below.

Sometimes when I upload my pictures to blog I discover that Bobby has been photographing while I sleep! He tends to go to bed later than I do (I’m a midnight person and he’s a 3am person – but I would really prefer to be in bed by 10-11!).

What is your “bedtime”? I recently went to a workshop that emphasized the importance of getting to sleep before midnight, stopping eating around 8pm (so your body has time to digest before it sleeps), and stopping drinking around 9pm (so you don’t wake up because you have to pee!). The second two (eating, drinking) are both really hard for me to do. I tend to eat after dinner and I always have a big drink right before I sleep. I’d like to try this though and see if I feel any different.

Exercise of the day: Today Bobby and I walked together that same route I did the other day – up 5th Avenue next to Central Park. It was rather humid, but it was a nice walk. We just chatted and enjoyed this beautiful Fourth of July. Hope you are enjoying it too!