She Says: Are you flaxing kidding me?
Happy Tuesday, Readers! I am in a good mood because I taught my first lesson today and I love student teaching. I know it’s not quite the same as teaching, but I just love it so much. People often ask me if I am happy I left my legal career and I know now with 98% certainty that I did the right thing for me. Unfortunately, corporate CEOs will not pay me large sums of money in 7 minute intervals for teaching their children, so 2% of me still worries about money. Ultimately, life is too short to be miserable all day, especially when there was something I was passionate about doing.
Lunch. I’ve brought the Chobani Greek Yogurt and plastic baggy with ground flax for lunch a few times now. I methodically open the yogurt, open the baggy, pour the flax into the yogurt, stir and eat. I’ve noticed others in the teachers lounge checking out my actions, but no one says anything. Either they’re still in the polite phase, no one notices because we have about 12 minutes to eat or they already know all about flax.
Speaking of flax, I saw this blog post discussing studies linking ALA intake (from both flax oil and milled seed) with higher incidence of prostate cancer. Why can’t anything just be good? I guess water is, but other than that it seems like everything has some “negative study” associated with it these days (i.e. soy). I’ve already learned to question the motivation behind these types of studies (i.e. HFCS commericals), but still it’s interesting to read.
Also note worthy is my planned after school/pre-run snack (by the way, putting my clothes out before I leave in the morning has helped tremendously with keeping me motivated to run). Mark mentioned that we once received a sample of Larabars. It was very nice of Larabar to send free bars to anyone who asked a couple years ago, but um we didn’t really like them. I just remember them being an odd texture, very small for the calories and very sweet with odd flavoring. I hope it was just the variety we received because I’m giving it an other go today! I think I packed Cashew Cookie, which sounded safe enough. I already cut it in half and was slightly disappointed by how small it is for the calories, but we’ll see how it goes. Can’t beat the ingredients: cashews and dates.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Heather, Natasha gave me a fresh fig the other day when Adam, Dan Barry and I were out riding bikes. It was good. I never had it before.
I am 12.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I bought chobani with flax and fruit and some howmangaed to dump flax all over the computer station… very non descrete!
September 9th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Mmm, I had to leave my ground flax in the freezer at home when I moved on campus, I miss it
I too wish things could just be good, but in our world there are two sides (or more) to EVERY story. It definitely takes some effort to not make ourselves miserably obsessing over every study out there, but it’s just a question of overanalyzing things.
Have a great day!
September 9th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
somehow flax has this nasty taste to me, i just can’t eat it. weird right? maybe it’s because i keep thinking about the fishies? i don’t know, it is probs all in my head!
September 9th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
“Life is too short to be miserable all day, especially when there was something I was passionate about doing” Amen!! Glad that you had a good first day of teaching
As I’m sure you know by now, I’m a Larabar fanatic; so any uneaten bars will be gladly accepted by yours truly!!
September 9th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
i agree. why can’t anything just be good for you without being a cancer trigger?
September 9th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I’m on 6 min intervals for billing, and I have to have my time in daily. Some days it takes me 1 hour to type up my time for the day. I would say it is one of the worst parts of the job, but I don’t know that I can rank the worst part!
September 9th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Heather,
That teacher’s lounge comment reaaally resonated with me because in the school where I teach, there’s an aide who stands and stares at me and the flaxseed-filled cottage cheese part of my lunch while her microwave lunch heats up…and I’ve been asked on more than one occasion what’s in my lunch by other teachers…there’s something about the flax.
I’m so glad that you’re loving student teaching!! Every day is a little adventure isn’t it?
Amy
September 9th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Amy, I love the school where I’m student teaching and that makes it even better! Interestingly, they seem like a fairly healthy group. I’ve spotted one guy eating tofu sandwiches and another teacher eats chobani, too.
Aimee, Flashbacks. Noooooo.
Rhodeygirl, I do not eat fish and I am fine with the ground up flaxseed. It blends more with the natural flavor of oatmeal, so maybe try that.
Mark, My fresh fig experience was “meh.” Bike rides are definitely part of an intense lifestyle.