Real-life heroes

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I was busy the past couple of evenings trying to make sense of the future of nanotechnology and didn’t have a chance to tell you about meeting one of my real-life heroes on Wednesday night …

Condoleezza Rice speaks at Baylor University

Yes, that is Dr. Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State and one of my biggest role models! And, I got to shake her hand!! 🙂

She shared candidly about her growing-up years, challenges she faced in segregated Alabama, waffling about what to study in college and her experiences in Washington, D.C. (The video can be found here.) I appreciated her insights as a professional woman who went against the grain. She pulled no punches in saying that there are times in life when you have to be twice as good just for others to see you as good enough. She balanced that with a reminder that succumbing to victimhood is a losing battle and to not lose sight of your abilities and dreams.

She faced numerous obstacles as a woman of color in a white man’s field, and although our back-stories are different in many ways, I related to much of what she shared because of my own goals that don’t seem to mesh, at first glance, with the life of a woman raising five kids. She inspires me.

P.S. The nanotechnology thing was my portion of a group paper and has little to do with my scholarly interests, on the whole. I did, however, find it pretty interesting. One term paper and one group assignment down; one more term paper to go! I am hoping to finish it by Thanksgiving.

Foodie Friday: Hot cocoa

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Now that we’re having some mornings in the low-40s (and even 30s!), and I was in the mood for something other than coffee, so I made some Swiss Miss – No Sugar Added hot cocoa. I thought it was a pretty good choice at first, but then I did my label-reading homework and discovered that it really wasn’t the best option for me.

I made the handy-dandy chart below to spare you the hassle of reading labels, although the Swiss Miss nutrition site is quite consumer-friendly to peruse. The point is, food boxes are a marketing tool. They are designed to appeal to the consumer with attractive colors, pictures, fonts and phrases that will result in a purchase. When a low-carber like me picks up a box labeled No Sugar Added, I would like to assume that it’s the lowest sugar option available, but it isn’t.

Ironically, many fat-free foods are actually higher in sugar than people would expect, so my gut response usually is to opt for low sugar over low fat. Interestingly with this line of hot cocoa, the Fat Free variety is better on several counts than the No Sugar Added!

I’m not picking on Swiss Miss; I happen to like their products a lot and buy them often. I just thought it was interesting how the carb/sugar contents can vary so dramatically in seemingly similar products. It’s worth the time to read the labels and be sure that you choose the product that is right for your eating plan.

Swiss Miss*  varieties Sensible Sweets: Diet Sensible Sweets:  Fat Free Sensible Sweets:  No Sugar Added Classics: Milk Chocolate
Calories 25 50 60 120
Fat 0 0 1 2
Net carbs (total carbohydrates minus fiber) 3 9 11 23
Sugar 2 8 7 18

(Swiss Miss and Sensible Sweets are registered trademarks of ConAgra Foods. Data source)

As for me, I’ll be picking up a few boxes of Diet hot cocoa the next time I’m at the store. It’s just not worth double the calories, triple the carbs and quadruple the sugar for the next-best kind. (I didn’t even mention the Classics variety; we’ll call that the control group. I could have a snack-size chocolate bar with my Diet cocoa and still end up with fewer carbs/sugar/calories!)

Writing Wednesday: Arugula

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I think I may change “Writing Wednesday” to “Wednesday Words” or something similar, because I don’t always have something new to tell you about what I’m writing, per se, but my days are filled with quirky word-related mishaps. (Usually, it’s something funny that the boys say, but not always!)

Case in point: the other day, my mom and I were in the car with the boys, and they started talking about various things they’d like to do when they grow up. The topic of visiting family for the holidays came up, and I joked that they can take their kids trick-or-treating just at each others’ houses and get a motherlode of candy; not to mention, I’ll never have to cook Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, because I can just go to their houses and let them cook for me! 😉

One of them said something to the effect of, “Mom – when we’re all grown up and working jobs, you won’t have to work anymore, because we’ll take care of you.” (I’ll pause while you “Awwww …”)

I said, “That’s nice, because if I don’t have to work, then I’ll just retire in Arugula!”

As soon as it came out, I realized what I’d said, yet no one but my mom understood the humor. She and I were laughing so hard, I was tearing up. The boys were confused, so I had to explain the difference between Arugula and Aruba.

Monday Musings: Birthdays

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Today I’m thankful:
twenty-six hours of labor?!
I was so stubborn! 😉

The advantage of having your birthday fall on a weekend is that you get to keep celebrating on Monday! (And, let’s face it — Mondays need a little more joy.) I’m looking forward to lunch with some gals from work and Girls’ Night Out at my favorite wine bar after work.

One person I’d especially like to acknowledge during this season of celebration is my mom. If you don’t know her, you ought to wish you did. If my momnesia serves me correctly, I think my longest labor was 12-14 hours, depending on when you start counting “real” labor. (My water never broke ahead of time, so I considered it labor when the contractions started hitting in regular intervals.) When I’m reminded of my three labor experiences, it makes me even more thankful for my mom’s lonnnng labor with me. I’m stubborn; what can I say? 😉

But, you shouldn’t want to know her just because she endured bringing me into the world. You should want to know her because she’s a generous, loving, amazing woman whom I’m proud to call my friend, as well.  It would take us all day to itemize the myriad ways in which she blesses my life, but suffice it to say that I would be lost without the foundational influence of faith and courage that she instilled in me. I appreciate her so much and wanted to let the world (or at least the few dozen folks who my Dashboard says read this here blog) know that she’s awesome and I love her!