Birthday Blog Takeover #6

Missed the previous guest posts?

Check ‘em out…Kyle, Mom, Marie, In-Laws, Ethel

This next one is from my bestie Alene.  If you read my blog with any frequency, then she really doesn’t need an introduction.  Enjoy!

A Birthday Tribute to E

Elise and I have known each other for most of our lives.  We were in kindergarten together, and that’s about the earliest memory in my mind, so to me, that’s pretty much the beginning.  So we’ve known each other from the beginning.  And we started with one big commonality – we both have weird hard-to-say names.  Elise and Alene.  You can imagine the variations we’ve heard. :)  And for as long as I can remember, I have called her Elsie – a common mispronunciation she heard all her life.

Elsie was one of those kids who always had an abundance of energy, a loud voice (shoot, she had two sisters to compete with), and a laugh you could hear from the next room.  She played harder than anyone else, and was always one of my smartest friends.  But the thing I think about first when I think of Elsie is her incredibly strong character.  At a young age, when going against the grain was highly unpopular, she was the one who would stand up and shout when something wasn’t right.  If someone were being teased or talked about badly, she was the only one who would say, “That’s not cool, don’t say that” with squinched-up eyebrows that let anyone around her know she meant what she was saying.  And I remember thinking – damn, she is brave, and pretty cool.

And now as an adult, she continues to pave her own path, make her own rules, and be the kind of friend I idolize and love.  A couple years ago, I learned she was writing a blog.  This was back when she was living on the east coast (I’ve been a California girl my whole life) and we didn’t see each other much.  I started reading her blog, mostly because it felt like a way to keep up with what was going on with her.  And over time, I started to learn more and more about the health aspects of her eating habits and diet.  It was so interesting – a lot of the food she wrote about eating did not appeal to me at all.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I made an “ew” face more than once reading some of her posts.  I come from a family that eats meat regularly and is pretty healthy overall, but more in the eat-your-fruits-and-veggies generic kind of way.

But after months of reading her blog and taking note of her recipes, my mindset started to change.  I started to get more and more interested in the various health aspects to different kind of food (did you know there’s calcium in broccoli?  Yeah, me either…) and the nutrients that come from various foods and what they do for you.  I started to re-evaluate the foods I was buying and making for myself.  Even when I would go out for lunch during the work week, I started to change my lunch decisions.  And the more I started eating healthy foods, the more I craved those foods.

New food choices:

 

 

 

In the midst of this slow transformation of my mindset and eating habits, I started food journals with another friend – a friend Elise had introduced me to.  Ethel and I met years ago, back when we were all still in college.  We didn’t see each other often, mostly when Elise would invite me to their Thursday Night Dinners.  But we reunited a couple years ago, went on a friend-date, and became close friends.

 

Recently, we started food journals that we keep up every day – emailing back and forth whenever we eat, talking about our food choices, struggles we have (eating when we’re not hungry, bored, tired, etc.), and attempts to eat better.  Over time, we’ve both improved what foods we eat, how we shop, and how we cook.

All inspired by Elise 🙂

The other day, I was on my way home from my exercise class, hungry, and no food in the house because I’d just come back from a trip.  Situations like these used to lead to a fast-food dinner on the way home.  In-n-Out, Taco Bell, maybe pizza delivery.  But that night, as I drove home, I was craving something fresh.  Something crispy.  I wanted SALAD.  And, now that there’s a Whole Foods ad campaign on her blog just about every day, Elsie’s favorite go-to for ready-made dinner pops into my head when I get hungry.  So I stopped by the delicious delicious place and made up a salad at the salad bar.  I meant to just get that, but of course I can’t hardly get out of WF without groceries.  So – that resulted in:

 

Now as an adult, Elsie is still a friend I look up to, one I know will be there when I really need her, one who makes positive choices that I would also like to make.  I am so thankful we’re back in the same city again – because now we not only play together, but we cook together and try new food spots.  Some of my favorite things to do.  🙂

So E, on your birthday, a toast to you.  Friend for life.  Love you mucho.

*Alene is actually the ONLY person I allow to call me “Elsie” because it’s a name that I’ve been mistakenly called my entire life (and thus hate) – in turn I call her “Alien” because it’s my way of reciprocating the annoying mispronunciation.