What a horrible blogger I have become... It has been far too long since I have taken the time to write anything... There are two reasons for this. One: I feel like the days go by with a blink of an eye! I mean, I have so many friends living in the city and I barely have time to even see them...it is so strange. One would think having a school schedule from 9:00 AM to 4:15 PM would be perfect... plenty of time for other activities... I only work twice a week 5 PM to 9 PM (teaching pilates)...so where in gods name does the time go?? Everything takes longer living in the city, just getting to the grocery store take me motivating myself for the walk there, the crowds, and carrying everything back home...This brings me to my second reason I have been slacking...I wrote about "finding my swagger" in the last blog, and it has taken me much longer than expected...therefore, I think I have been a bit embarrassed to write anything. I want to write about positive movements and talk about how I have progressed and found my swagger. I have been afraid to fail in front of my few, but cherished readers.
As a trainer, teacher and now somewhat of a blogger, I believe it is my duty to be honest. I never want to tell my personal training clients or Pilates clients how "easy" it is to lose 10 pounds by just doing xyz or "just stop eating sugar" and you will see a change, etc... It isn't easy! And here I am struggling and I want to make sure I write about it. I promise positivity will come into my blogs, and this is not an anti positive post...it is just a realist post about how someone, as in love with fitness and health as I am, can struggle finding a happy medium while in culinary school and in a city with SO much to try!
New York City has been amazing so far. I wish I had more time to do REAL New York type things (Broadway shows, big brunches, rooftops and wine, music), however, school has really taken on most of my time. I must talk about my first night working in a kitchen.
Friday Night Dinners (FND)
FND is part of my program. We must work a minimum of 2 shifts in our schools kitchen/restaurant. Every Friday, our school transforms into a restaurant. People from New York and others pile into The Natural Gourmet restaurant to enjoy a three course meal prepared by either chefs from the school, or students of the school (our final project is to put on a dinner from start to finish). I have many friends in the culinary world, and it was very hard for me to comprehend why they worked in restaurants for next to nothing... I mean, cooks in New York make like 8-10 dollars an hour....and it is sooo much work! I never got it. Well, my first shift in the kitchen I finally got it. The energy in the kitchen is hard to explain.... from starting prep at 1:30 PM in the afternoon, till the final plate is cleaned and dried (around 10PM), one can't even imagine how time flies. It is the energy of a diverse group of people that don't even know each other well, coming together and working their asses off, never sitting down for a rest... and we have it easy (this I know). I get so into mincing 100 cloves of garlic, cleaning 100 carrots, chopping buckets of dandelions... I can't believe how quickly the nights go by. I see everything from the food being brought in from our vendors, to the prep, to these beautiful dishes getting sent out. It is so cool to see things come together and we all are a part of it. Tensions can get high, but I don't take anything personal... there is no time to be sensitive in the kitchen. The kitchen is a place where you have your eyes and ears open at all time, and your brain must be ON....or big mistakes can be made. Finishing my first FND was the most rewarding feeling... Sure, I don't get paid for it...and it is extremely hard work and LOTS of cleaning (grunt work)...but the reward is having that feeling of a successful last two days of prep (We start Thursday right after class go till 10, then Friday 1:30 - 10), and going out for a drink to unwind, then crashing. So nice to have such a feeling of accomplishment. A true hard days work. No one can be lazy in the kitchen (if you are a chef or student, "laziness" just isn't part of your makeup). Having these crazy 12-13 hour days on my feet have prepared me for so much more than just cooking. This type of work teaches people how to be assertive, working quickly under a heavy amount of stress, juggling 10 things at once, think on your toes, work with others, and deal with lots and lots of interesting personalities. These skills are needed no matter what line of work you are in. It is awesome.
SWAG, Where are you?
I have really been trying to get my self back in the shape I was prior to moving here ( I have put on a few lbs). But how can I when I want to try EVERY restaurant and I am in CULINARY school? Granted, my school is geared toward health supportive ingredients and dishes, but my entire eating cycle is all messed up right now. I refuse to be that person in class that won't try anything because I am afraid of gaining weight... I paid far too much for school, and tasting is extremely important. If you are not tasting, you are no cook or chef....sorry. It is just tough to eat breakfast, then taste things, then lunch, then taste, then come home (late, if I am working), and have dinner. So I have been challenging myself (started last Sunday), to Pilates every morning before class, and spin or run after class about 4-5 days a week. I feel a touch better this week...although, doesn't help that this past week was pastry, ice cream, and flour-less dessert week... I mean come ONNNN. Ugh, I am not saying I NEVER eat sweets, of course I do, but tasting things like this throughout the day, all week is just so tough. Even though we use health supportive ingredients, sugar is sugar...and sugar just isn't healthy in large amounts. Our instructors warned us we would be going through ups and downs due to all the crazy weeks of rice and beans, bread, cakes, etc. But things will temper out. I have to remind myself this is temporary and this is learning.
I am so happy that I am teaching again as well. I really miss my Austin clients, but have found some great clients here, and again, I love helping others get to their goals in a realistic way. So between teaching and getting back into my regular workouts, I am not feeling back to my old self, but I am getting there... I found that planning my workouts, just like they are appointments, is what I need. It is too difficult to hear an alarm in the morning, and figure out what workout I want to do... it is too easy for me to talk myself out of it. I love how I have now planned my Pilates workouts in the morning to jump-start my day. It is much easier than making it to a treadmill at a gym that is not convenient at 6:30 AM. I have to make my workout convenient and enjoyable if I am going to be able to commit to it. So my words of advice for folks that struggle with that swagger, or struggle finding motivation in the morning would be to PLAN. I make my breakfast and lunch in the morning, I write down my workout plan and the time, and that is that. No getting out of it. I lay my workout clothes out, pack my bag for school and everything is ready for the morning... No excuses.
Now I will really try to commit more time in the blog. I have written down topics, so I promise to promote more time to this. I truly love writing about my time in NYC, my life change, and struggles, but I want to be helpful to my readers as well. Happy Saturday to you! I will come back with some amazing recipes, my internship (I am applying now to work in a NYC restaurant), and will talk about my start of my Friday Night Dinner (our FND is November 8th), so sh*ts about to get crayyyyy! Excited though.
Keep that swag if you've got it, find that swag if you've lost it!
xo
Tyler
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Getting that Swagger Back
It has been over a month now since culinary school has started and my new life in the city has taken off. Of course I am in, what I like to call, the "honey moon" phase of my journey. I am excited about everything, love walking everywhere, smile at the honk happy cabs, giggle at the homeless/drunk men that are always talking to themselves, not minding wearing and packing a heavy backpack filled of everything I need for the day...I am not naive, I know I will soon grow tired of all of that, and my joyful attitude will turn, into well...a "New Yorker" attitude. Rushed, hand gripped on cellphone, stressed, and hard. It's cool though... I know what is coming my way, so I will take this child like excitement while I can...
I must admit though... I have not been feeling like myself the last two weeks or so. I have been feeling sluggish, skin not great, hair feels a bit dry, and I have had an anxious feeling at the pit of my stomach. I am not feeling at ease. I am not feeling bright and energetic. I am starting to come down hard on myself because I can't seem to get to this feeling of "damn, I am feeling good and looking even better." I have been racking my brain and here are where I see some potential reasons for this sans swag attitude:
1) I literally just moved... I sold my dream car in order to have money to come to a city, live in a teeny room with no sunlight, and no cable, and no Jojo (my dog). So I guess some of that is catching up to me. I was on such a high when I just picked up and moved, that I didn't even think about selling my car, leaving my dog, leaving my friends, and my large (comparatively) condo. Life just got hard. This is EXACTLY what I asked for.... so I need to remember, there is a reason I am doing this, I need to be excited for that reason and live in the moment and not in the past. This is temporary, but it is hard to not have my dog, have dinner where "everyone knows your name," and sleep in a place with sunlight in every room. I asked for it.
2) I am not teaching classes. Or at least I wasn't until last week... Thank GOD I was hired as a pilates instructor. I really feel like I was missing being a motivator and seeing clients. I was used to teaching 4-6 times a day (literally until the day before I moved), and then I moved and it all stopped. I am hoping that me now teaching at least twice a week after class will help with that aspect.
3) I am missing my runs on townlake... I love running the East River and will need to hit up Central Park soon, but there is nothing like the comforting run on townlake. Also, getting my early morning workouts have been a struggle. It takes work to get up and WALK (not drive), to the gym at 5:30 AM....I am used to a quick drive or a 2 minute jog to the gym in Austin. Here, I have to walk a mile and although that is nothing, it is the packing of everything I need that day (school clothes, books, knives, work clothes, cell charger etc., lunch), that makes the decision to get up and get everything into a backpack before 6 AM tough.
4) I am not able to cook as easily. My kitchen here in the city is SMALL. Literally no room to cut veggies, oven is full of pans, and no dishwasher, which makes me less enthused to cook a nice meal....then clean. I do cook sometimes, but it also can be tough after 4 hours in a hot kitchen at school, to want to walk home, unpack, and cook again then clean. Therefore, I find myself going out to eat a lot... and probably over indulging more than I should, because I am new here in the city and wanting to try everything possible.
5) My meals have been a bit odd/off. We have practicals in school where we cook things like, soy, tempeh, grains, beans, etc., in one day. So I go to lunch, come back...cook a bunch of grain dishes, and then taste at 3 PM. So my body is thrown off....I guess it is all part of the culinary school experience.
6) I am thinking too much about failing....I am playing the "what if" game with myself, and not in a positive way. I am blessed to have such a genius brother who is a doctor, who married a genius nurse, who are happy, hard working, smart and have direction. I, on the other hand, do not. I have way too many loves in life. I want to be a musician, I want to be a pilates instructor, I want to open a restaurant, I want to be a nutritional counselor, I want to be a recruiter, etc., etc. I am not confused as to what I want to do, I just don't have an exact straight line to get to what I want, and it has been a journey for me. I am not anything like my family members and sometimes that weighs heavy on me. I have lived my life to make my family happy, but to also continue to do what makes me happy. Which is why I have worked 7 days a week, 3-4 different jobs, for a few years. I finally took a leap to do this New York thing, as something just for me. I know my family isn't thrilled... and it sucks. I keep worrying that if I don't come out of this experience and do something amazing, I will forever be looked at with those "I told you so." eyes. I literally risked everything to come here. I left my amazing jobs, dog, boyfriend, friends, house, sold my car, and if I can't come back and do something huge, then I have failed...Pretty scary and I am dwelling on that idea too much. Instead, I am hoping to change my thoughts to: "I am going to come back full of knowledge and do something that Austin has never seen." I am not sure why I started doubting myself, but these doubts are certainly taking away from my swagger... I need to refocus.
So, as I write, I even seen there are many variables that have made the last few weeks tough. I am trying to pull it together so I start to feel some sort of ease. I bought a journal (and really bad ass one), to write down my feelings. I am not singing at the moment, so my emotions are not coming out. The journaling is helping me understand my emotional ups and downs, and is helping me release a bit of my anxiety, just by putting thoughts on paper. I am using this week to really force myself to get up, get a workout done in the morning, get organized, lower the coffee intake, and stay home a bit to unwind, instead of going out.
New York is an amazing city, and there is no way I will see it all. I am trying to hard to fit too much into a day. This week will be the refocus, regroup week. My journey to get that energy back, and smile and laugh more. I have let negative energies take me down and now I need to climb back up. I will blog about my days this week, and what has worked and what hasn't. This was a bit more personal, but I do like to acknowledge real life problems, and show that these things should be addressed and actions should be taken to make a change, there just needs to be a bit more effort to get there.
So here's to my week of getting my own swagger back. Stay tuned.
Get your swag on
xo
Ty
I must admit though... I have not been feeling like myself the last two weeks or so. I have been feeling sluggish, skin not great, hair feels a bit dry, and I have had an anxious feeling at the pit of my stomach. I am not feeling at ease. I am not feeling bright and energetic. I am starting to come down hard on myself because I can't seem to get to this feeling of "damn, I am feeling good and looking even better." I have been racking my brain and here are where I see some potential reasons for this sans swag attitude:
1) I literally just moved... I sold my dream car in order to have money to come to a city, live in a teeny room with no sunlight, and no cable, and no Jojo (my dog). So I guess some of that is catching up to me. I was on such a high when I just picked up and moved, that I didn't even think about selling my car, leaving my dog, leaving my friends, and my large (comparatively) condo. Life just got hard. This is EXACTLY what I asked for.... so I need to remember, there is a reason I am doing this, I need to be excited for that reason and live in the moment and not in the past. This is temporary, but it is hard to not have my dog, have dinner where "everyone knows your name," and sleep in a place with sunlight in every room. I asked for it.
2) I am not teaching classes. Or at least I wasn't until last week... Thank GOD I was hired as a pilates instructor. I really feel like I was missing being a motivator and seeing clients. I was used to teaching 4-6 times a day (literally until the day before I moved), and then I moved and it all stopped. I am hoping that me now teaching at least twice a week after class will help with that aspect.
3) I am missing my runs on townlake... I love running the East River and will need to hit up Central Park soon, but there is nothing like the comforting run on townlake. Also, getting my early morning workouts have been a struggle. It takes work to get up and WALK (not drive), to the gym at 5:30 AM....I am used to a quick drive or a 2 minute jog to the gym in Austin. Here, I have to walk a mile and although that is nothing, it is the packing of everything I need that day (school clothes, books, knives, work clothes, cell charger etc., lunch), that makes the decision to get up and get everything into a backpack before 6 AM tough.
4) I am not able to cook as easily. My kitchen here in the city is SMALL. Literally no room to cut veggies, oven is full of pans, and no dishwasher, which makes me less enthused to cook a nice meal....then clean. I do cook sometimes, but it also can be tough after 4 hours in a hot kitchen at school, to want to walk home, unpack, and cook again then clean. Therefore, I find myself going out to eat a lot... and probably over indulging more than I should, because I am new here in the city and wanting to try everything possible.
5) My meals have been a bit odd/off. We have practicals in school where we cook things like, soy, tempeh, grains, beans, etc., in one day. So I go to lunch, come back...cook a bunch of grain dishes, and then taste at 3 PM. So my body is thrown off....I guess it is all part of the culinary school experience.
6) I am thinking too much about failing....I am playing the "what if" game with myself, and not in a positive way. I am blessed to have such a genius brother who is a doctor, who married a genius nurse, who are happy, hard working, smart and have direction. I, on the other hand, do not. I have way too many loves in life. I want to be a musician, I want to be a pilates instructor, I want to open a restaurant, I want to be a nutritional counselor, I want to be a recruiter, etc., etc. I am not confused as to what I want to do, I just don't have an exact straight line to get to what I want, and it has been a journey for me. I am not anything like my family members and sometimes that weighs heavy on me. I have lived my life to make my family happy, but to also continue to do what makes me happy. Which is why I have worked 7 days a week, 3-4 different jobs, for a few years. I finally took a leap to do this New York thing, as something just for me. I know my family isn't thrilled... and it sucks. I keep worrying that if I don't come out of this experience and do something amazing, I will forever be looked at with those "I told you so." eyes. I literally risked everything to come here. I left my amazing jobs, dog, boyfriend, friends, house, sold my car, and if I can't come back and do something huge, then I have failed...Pretty scary and I am dwelling on that idea too much. Instead, I am hoping to change my thoughts to: "I am going to come back full of knowledge and do something that Austin has never seen." I am not sure why I started doubting myself, but these doubts are certainly taking away from my swagger... I need to refocus.
So, as I write, I even seen there are many variables that have made the last few weeks tough. I am trying to pull it together so I start to feel some sort of ease. I bought a journal (and really bad ass one), to write down my feelings. I am not singing at the moment, so my emotions are not coming out. The journaling is helping me understand my emotional ups and downs, and is helping me release a bit of my anxiety, just by putting thoughts on paper. I am using this week to really force myself to get up, get a workout done in the morning, get organized, lower the coffee intake, and stay home a bit to unwind, instead of going out.
New York is an amazing city, and there is no way I will see it all. I am trying to hard to fit too much into a day. This week will be the refocus, regroup week. My journey to get that energy back, and smile and laugh more. I have let negative energies take me down and now I need to climb back up. I will blog about my days this week, and what has worked and what hasn't. This was a bit more personal, but I do like to acknowledge real life problems, and show that these things should be addressed and actions should be taken to make a change, there just needs to be a bit more effort to get there.
So here's to my week of getting my own swagger back. Stay tuned.
Get your swag on
xo
Ty
Friday, August 9, 2013
Going WITH (not against) the "Super" Grain
Swagger Recipe Day!
I know quinoa is all the rage right now, and I am usually one to go against the "grain" (get it?) with trends, BUT...for the past year, I have been so in love with quinoa. I have it for breakfast (sweet with hemp milk and cinnamon, or savory with an egg and avocado), lunch (my quinoa fried rice), and even with dinner (as my starch, next to some veggies and fish).
Living in New York for only three weeks now, I have realized, breakfast for me is always a "grab and go" item. First of all, I don't really have a place in my apartment to sit down with a nice hot cup of Joe and a warm breakfast while reading the newspaper, secondly, I am always in a hurry to get out the door (since I am new to walking everywhere, I like to give myself plenty of time). So breakfast has been a challenging meal to get down, and keep healthy (been finding lots of egg sandwiches). My quinoa bowls are not ideal when speed walking in the city... So I experimented with quinoa muffin cakes. They sound odd, and if you don't particularly like quinoa, these suckers aren't for you. I love the nutty, fluffy, bite to quinoa and these cakes have been awesome not only for breakfast on the go, but also for a pre-workout snack (you know when you are starving before a workout but you don't want to eat too much?). So I figured I would share this recipe with you all and you can see for yourself. I make about 12-14 and put in Tupperware for the week in the fridge, and add whatever topping I am in the mood for.
This is what I came up with, but I am no professional chef, I am experimenting and when things turn out delish, I share with you! I urge you to add or take out whatever ingredient (minus the quinoa), and make these recipes your own!
What you need:
2 1/2 cups cooked quinoa (rinse first)
4 LOCAL/organic eggs
1 Tablespoon of cinnamon
1/4-cup milk of your choice (almond, coconut, hemp, regular)
Teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-2 Tablespoons of pure maple syrup
Dash of kosher salt
Topping (choice of one, two, all or none):
Almond Butter
Hazelnut spread
Hempseeds
Chia Seeds
Cinnamon
Add-ins (optional) - I have tried a variety of choices below in these muffins, so feel free to get creative with your favorite healthy ingredient and add to the mixture.
1/4-cup hemp seeds
1/4-cup chia seeds
Chopped raw nuts
Macha powder
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
Grab a muffin pan and grease using oil or butter to help muffins from sticking or use muffin tins
Whisk together eggs, vanilla, milk, and maple syrup in a medium-mixing bowl
Add mixture to cooked quinoa
Add salt and cinnamon to mixture
Whatever fun ingredients you want to add
Fill Muffin tins with mixture and cook for about 12 minutes (keep your eye on it, all ovens are different).
Let these guys cool completely; these are not the easiest to get out of tin, so be patient.
Once cooled, you can eat/store as is, or top with raw almond butter and/or hazelnut spread (as more of a dessert snack, or great for kids), and a dash of more cinnamon and hemp seeds/chia seeds for added crunch. Protein, Aminos (contains all 9 essential amino acids), Energy, Iron, Fiber, and delicious! Go get it!
Get your Swag on and enjoy!
-T
Friday, August 2, 2013
Get your Swag on...and Welcome!
Welcome to Swagger!
This is a blog I have created, to really help readers to find the key to getting to that place of feeling really good every day. You know, those days where you walk with a little bit more pep, a bit more sway in your hips... that walk you do when you feel really good in those skinny jeans...this is what I mean by swagger. According to Oxford English Dictionary, swagger means to walk or behave in a very confident and typically arrogant or aggressive way Now, I have my own understanding of the word swagger, so I tend to keep the latter part of the definition out. It should just be: "To walk or behave in a confident way... Or putting some attitude in it (whatever "it" is)." I get that feeling when I am eating right, enjoying my workouts, and enjoying LIFE (meaning, champagne, social dinners, maybe a piece of freshly made lemon pound cake).
These swagger days come to me when my skin is glowing, my hair feels healthy, stress is low, body feels toned, I am slaying it at work... Lots of things come into play to have that swagger mentality and they vary from person to person.
A bit about me. Well, I am a twenty something year old that has not quite figured it all out (unlike my doctor brother). I have been in the fitness industry for about 7 years now, along with working in the corporate world as a recruiter. This year I made a big decision to leave the corporate world to make fitness and wellness my full time career. I am a personal trainer, pilates instructor and cycle instructor. I have always been an avid (for the lack of a better word) "foodie," and decided while I was making life changing choices, to go a head and enroll at The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. Within a month of this decision, I packed, sold my dream car to have money to live, and moved to New York City. If I really were to pursue this passion of health and wellness, I wanted to know all I could about it. Food is the most important part of feeling good. Our bodies can heal from food, survive off food, and change through food. Not only that, but food is a seriously interesting thing to study....it effects not only our bodies, but our environment. Everything is connected (a little food for thought).
This blog is meant to share things I have come to find helpful in achieving my own health and wellness goals, along with recipes, my travels and experiences in the big apple, my chaotic days in culinary school, and tips on how to get your own swagger mentality on! I believe life should be lived to the fullest. I have had to learn to not sweat the small stuff and try to enjoy what is going on around. I have days where I feel I have lost my swagger, but when I re-group....BAM! It's a great feeling. I hope you enjoy and I hope you leave comments where you see fit. I learn from those around me, so enlighten me!
Get your Swag On!
xo
Ty
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