For Pete’s 42nd birthday gift this year, I got him a ticket to Comic Con. Comic Con is a giant comic book convention that has panels with movie and television stars and also gaming and artists. You name it and they have it. It’s a giant gathering of nerds held in our area at the Rosemont Convention Center in Illinois.

This blog post is part of a two-part series. Tonight’s post will have pictures and details. Tomorrow you can look forward to my review of Comic Con! I know my friend Tim is looking forward to that!

Here is a picture of me waiting in line with Pete to see James Marsters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Smallville to name a few:

Here is my favorite picture of the day! It’s Pete with Batgirl with a dressed in a very authentic-looking 1960s costume. Behind us there is a Star Wars Combat class going on which I was watching while Pete and Tim got their pictures with Batgirl:

Here is a picture of Pete holding the “last in line” sign very excited to see Kevin Sorbo who played Hercules on the television show “Hercules” from the 1990s.

Here’s a great picture of Pete looking really annoyed with me for taking his picture and bugging him to look mad. I think he did a great job looking irritated in picture. Hopefully he was just acting:

We also saw Bruce Campbell (no comment on that tonight). Pete got to see the characters from the original Star Wars movies that played Chewbacca (played by Peter Mayhew) and Boba Fett (played by Jeremy Bulloch). I got to see Tom Felton who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies.

Pete got two comics in the comic book distributor room.

And we ended the day at my favorite place: Whole Foods. We had Chicago-style hot dogs (mine was vegan) and milkshakes (and yes they do make vegan milkshakes) at the Grill! Try and guess if the picture below is the vegan dog or the meat version of a hot dog. I bet you don’t know for sure which it is!

Pete I hope you enjoyed your birthday gift! I also hope you have a wonderful day off tomorrow sitting around reading comic books all day!

Check out tomorrow’s blog post for an actual review of Comic Con!

Sara Sawochka

What is a foodie pen pal?

Well it’s a pen pal that you send food and a written letter too! Oh yeah…and you receive a letter and food from somebody else too. It’s cool!

About a month ago I stumbled upon a blog which was promoting foodie pen pals run by Lindsey a/k/a The Lean Green Bean.

Here’s the link: http://www.theleangreenbean.com/foodie-penpals/

On the site is a sign up form for newbies if you want to try it after reading my experience with it. This is seriously fun!

Here’s how it works:

Lindsey sent out a spreadsheet in a mass email to everyone that had signed up for the month. The spreadsheet listed my foodie pen pal for this month. This month I had Amanda. I sent Amanda an email asking her what kinds of food she likes and if she asked if she had any dietary restrictions and also if there were any foods she didn’t like. I got lucky because Amanda was not picky at all!

Once I had Amanda’s preferences I had until 8/15/2012 to purchase her snacks and mail them to her. In the box I was allowed to include homemade and store-bought snacks and could spend $15.00 on my pen pal. I bought a box to mail the food in, bubble wrap, packing tape and got some really yummy treats. My husband was kind enough to help me pack up Amanda’s box and my grandmother was kind enough to take the box to post office today to mail it. The only other thing that needed to be included in the box was something written like a recipe or letter. The art form of actually writing a letter to someone was quite fun and something I haven’t done in a long time since everything is sent in a text format.

In return, Danielle had me as her foodie pen pal. After Danielle received the email she contacted me about my food preferences. I told her I was a vegan that didn’t like peanut butter. Danielle was not a vegan but eager to learn about it. Danielle emailed me yesterday to let me know that my box was in the mail and on its way to me. I’m really looking forward to receiving Danielle’s box!

The commitment is only monthly so if you don’t want to continue doing it the following month you don’t have to. It was so fun and a great way to connect with someone you’ve never met. It’s also a great way to do something nice for a stranger and brighten someone’s day. It has been such a positive experience and a neat way to get creative and personal through writing!

The last part of this is it’s a great way to promote other people’s blogs. Since Amanda was paired with a person that has a blog, she will be making a guest post on my blog about her box that I sent her. Danielle doesn’t have a blog so I will not be posting anything for her. But this will give you something to look forward to reading in the future! I know I’m excited to find out if Amanda liked my box of goodies.

I’m definitely going to do this next month. Next month I will get a brand new pen pal and someone new will be sending me a box. You get someone new every month which is pretty cool too!

Sara Sawochka

If you eat meat and eat/or eat at McDonalds, please support the humane killing of the animals.

Visit this site to learn more about how to stop the cruel slaughtering of these animals.
McCruelty: I’m Hatin’ It–Learn More.

Sara Sawochka

Last year at raise time, my office manager brought everyone into a large room and told the entire law firm that our raises weren’t going to be very large at that time because we’d had to comply with the same governmental regulations that the banks were forced to comply with. This meant even more bullet-proof glass, fancy new doors and key fobs, and a new vault had to be installed among other things in order to comply and keep our customers. On the downside he told us that our raises wouldn’t be as great as we might have expected them to be despite all of our hard work. Then he mentioned that our workload was down too (bottom line the owner wasn’t making as much money and spending more money than he wanted to) so we could expect to see that reflected in our raises as well.

But then the real kick in the teeth came…

He told us that we should be more efficient and that somehow we should try and figure out a way to squeeze a little more juice out of each lemon.

My thoughts as applicable to this situation were, “screw you.” No one really wants to be told that their raise for the year was being slashed because the company wasn’t making enough money and then be told to figure out how to work a little harder and be more efficient for less. That’s just bad presentation skills in my opinion. It’s not very motivating at all when put that way.

However, my manager did have a good point.

There are ways to be more efficient and get what you want done in less time. Maybe the workplace is one of them and maybe it’s not.

I do like to apply this principle to my training for marathons and triathlons. I really feel that more isn’t always better. When I’m tired I do not perform as well and my workouts aren’t as effective. I have a much better training session when I’m fresh and my body isn’t beaten up from doing multiple training sessions. In other words, I take a rest day or even two if I’m really sore from a tough workout. I adjust my workout schedule and don’t beat myself up if I don’t make everything I planned to do that week. I’ve found by spending a little bit less time training when I’m tired actually increases the quality of the workouts I do have because I have more energy when I do workout. I feel replenished before the workout and don’t dread it. I feel successful during the workout because it went well. I feel accomplished after the workout because I’ve made progress towards my racing goal. It’s a win-win situation. Efficiency can come in the form of quality instead of quantity.

Another place I like to apply this principle to is my work/social/home calendar. I like to be balanced. Balance is efficiency to me. If I’ve gotten good rest, worked an 8 hour day, done my workout and have spent some time with my new husband and my dogs then it’s been a good day. I’m more efficient because I’m coming from a happier and better balanced place. When I put in long hours at the office I get very stressed out. If I workout too long outside then I may be sore or tired afterwards and all I will want to do is rest. Or if I stay home on the couch all day and watch tv or am around Pete and the dogs too much, I go crazy. I need a balanced life. When I lead a balanced life I’m more efficient because I’m happy!

The last place I’ll let you explore with me is applying this principle to nutrition. I’m a vegan as most of you know. I do not believe in eating meat or any kind of animal byproducts. I believe that meat and dairy weren’t meant to be processed by the human body. My digestion is better and as a result I feel better. Digestion also affects my training. Last year while training for Chicago I never felt good after a run. I felt like last night’s dinner was still rumbling around inside me on my 16 mile long run. Now…if it goes in one end then it definintely comes out the other a LOT sooner. That’s a great thing. For me, by choosing not to eat meat and dairy my body is more efficient and happy and I am happier and more efficient as a result.

Squeezing a little more juice out of a lemon, or working in a more efficient manner, gets you more of what you want in less time and you’ll be happier over all. Now who would argue with that?

Sara Sawochka

Have you ever felt completely distracted by something? Have you ever had to bring your mind back to the here and now and focus on what you’re doing?

Focus is something I have a hard time with. I’m easily distracted by things going on around me. I’ve always had to force myself to pay attention in school, at work, when I’m grocery shopping. If I don’t force myself to focus then I become the opposite of a moth to a flame.

When I used to teach in a crowded dance studio, there were lots of teachers and students on the floor with private lessons going on all at one time. With people moving across the floor, music blaring and conversations being had, I remember really having to focus my attention on just my students because I could so easily lose my concentration on the task at hand.

This isn’t something I’m proud of but it is something I’ve gotten good at. The ability to focus helped me to finish a triathlon, Leon’s Triathlon in Hammond, IN, in particular, where I completely felt like a fish out of water. When I did Leon’s I had done two indoor sprint triathlons prior to that race. I’d never done an open water lake swim. I’d never swam 1500 meters. I’d never worn a wetsuit. My biking distances were close to 25 miles so I felt ok there but I’d never been in a race with that many tri-specific bikes whirring by me. I’d also never run 6.2 miles after biking 25 miles. There were so many new things I accomplished that day.

I completed the race and nearly finished last but I really had to do to get through the race was focus. My mantra throughout the whole race was “Here and Now”. Anytime I started to panic in the water because I couldn’t see the buoys I would tell myself “Focus on the here and now Sara.” Whenever the fancy tri bikes would fly past me on the bike course I would tell myself and they were on lap 2 and I was only on lap 1 I would mentally repeat my mantra “here and now” and it brought me back to focus. On the run when the sun was beating down on my back and during the last three miles it was me and one other person on the course I told myself “here and now.”

It was a good mantra for me. That was a really hard race for me so I didn’t push myself physically as hard as I probably could because I wanted to enjoy the experience. The race for me was more of a mental race than a physical race.

Was I under-prepared for the race? Probably. However, I had such good mental focus I was really able to pull through and finish the race with a smile.

The next time you find your mind wandering or think that something is tough and you can’t do it or if you feel like you’re a fish out of water just tell yourself “Here and Now” and you will find that your focus will come back to the present and you can finish the task at hand.

Sara Sawochka

We finally got married. After 8 years of being together, we finally tied the knot. In an odd way we work differently now. We work more as one versus what’s best for Sara and what’s best for Pete. I never saw myself as a girl that would ever get married but I’ve come to the conclusion that marriage is cool. It’s hard work. You have to dig deep. And at the end of the day it’s totally worth it if you find someone you love.

And you know the coolest part? We got married for free at an Adult Prom on Friday the 13th. It was uniquely me!

What makes you uniquely you?

Sara Sawochka

I took a break from blogging for a bit. To catch you up on what I’ve been up to here’s my top 10 list of where Sara’s been:

1. I got married on Friday the 13th of April.

2. I decided to change my last name from Dalton to Sawochka. I didn’t want any bad memories linked to my former last name.

3. I’ve been competing in triathlons. I’ve done four so far—three sprint distances and one Olympic distance.

4. I went on my honeymoon to Colorado with my new husband.

5. I’ve signed up and started training for the Disney marathon with Pete. We are up to 4.5 miles on the long runs. The longest run we do together will be 28 miles. We are planning to run past the marathon distance so that psychologically we know we can do the 26.2 miles on race day.

6. I’ve been working my vegan ways on Pete. I make a smoothie every morning with cocoa powder, ice, berries, bananas, chia seeds and coconut milk and offer him some and he always takes me up on it. We’ve also been able to agree on a cooked meal every week—stir fries have been awesome for us. Pete has a hand-hammered cast iron wok that has been setting around collecting dust so I’ve decided to put it to good use. We use tofu instead of chicken or beef and lots of veggies with some kind of noodle and we have dinner for two for the week. Two out of three meals for Pete are vegan. I’m so happy with that!

7. I’m still a mouthy vegan. People tell me how sorry they are that I’m a vegan and I’ll tell them that it’s their loss, not mine.

8. I’ve convinced someone else to do triathlons next season! Pete has decided to join me in Sprint distances next season. He has been to all four of my races taking pictures and can tell you everything you want to know about triathlons even though he hasn’t done one yet. It just goes to show you can learn a lot from watching and also gain a lot of desire to want to pursue something too by watching it too.

9. I’ve discovered that I really like racing! Last year I spent all summer training and did one race. This year I’ve done 4 triathlons so far and 1 trail running race and have decided that I like including the racing as part of my training. When I train for my first half Ironman next year I plan to include several sprint and Olympic distance races along the way. Just training is flat out boring. It’s fun to be where the action is.

10. I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I’m not happy at my current job and I’m trying to figure out what a good career path would be. Foreclosing on people’s homes in a petty office environment just isn’t where I want to be anymore. I’m ready to grow and move on.

I’ve done a lot of growing and learning and changing in the last few months. I’ve had some exciting times (like my wedding and honeymoon) and also some humbling experiences (like finishing nearly last at Leon’s Olympic Distance triathlon) but I’m still here and I’m still going and trying and at the end of the day I know I did my best and have given it all I’ve got. And that’s what really matters most!

Sara

Are you kidding me?

If you adopt a vegan-eating lifestyle, curious non-vegans will ask you two questions:

1. How do you know you’re getting enough protein?

2. Are you sure you’re getting enough vitamins and minerals?

To answer both questions to my non-vegan friends: How do you know you’re getting enough protein and how do you know you’re getting enough vitamins and minerals? Do you have some magical chart that you look at or just because you eat meat and cheese does that automatically mean you’re getting enough vitamins and minerals?

Studies have shown that the Standard American Diet (and yes the acronym spells out SAD) is too high in protein and lacking in vitamins and minerals.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s always the vegan that is the exception to the rule. Just because you eat a vegan diet doesn’t mean you’re eating a healthier diet. Replacing meat and dairy with French fries and potato chips doesn’t mean you’re eating a plant-strong diet.

I just wanted to clear the air because I get asked these questions a lot. So if you ask me these questions, I’m going to fire them right back to you.

If you’re really worried about my health, here’s some of what I eat:

1. Vegetables: kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, living pea tendrils, dandelion greens, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, fresh herbs, broccoli, cauliflower, avocados just to name a few.

2. Fruits: bananas, mangoes, pears, apples, watermelon, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, pineapple, papaya, oranges, dates and tangerines for a few examples.

3. Nuts: raw Brazil, macadamia, and almonds are what I’m lovin’ right now!

4. Plant milks are usually coconut or almond milk.

5. Sadly the “seeds” I eat usually come in a processed form like hemp seed and chocolate protein powder (OMG is that good)–all organic from Whole Foods. It goes great in smoothies. I also put flax seed oil on my salads. I’m going to be trying some chia seeds soon once I buy my juicer. I’ve had chia seeds in some bottled vegan fruit drinks from Whole Foods and they give the drink a little character and extra texture.

So as you can see I eat no meat, dairy, eggs, cheese or fish but look at all of the awesome stuff left over! I really love fresh, all organic and simple foods. When someone asks me “Hey what’s in your food” I want to be able to say words I can pronounce and actually know what the food is.

I’m no saint though. I have my cravings like anyone else. I love chocolate especially around certain times of the month. So I’ll get an organic vegan chocolate bar from Whole Foods or even Wiseway if I’m in a pinch and need something to gnaw on.

Plant foods have complete proteins and plenty of vitamins and minerals. I don’t have a magical chart that I look at to make sure I’m getting the right amount. I just know that by eating organic, minimally processed foods that I’m doing my body a lot of good. You have to be the judge of what’s right for you and your body.

I’m guessing you don’t have a magical vitamin and protein chart either so please stop asking me if I have one. I’ve educated you on what vegans eat. I’d say we eat plenty of protein, vitamins and minerals without being overloaded.

I hope you eat what makes you feel good and satisfied and I’ll continue to do the same.

Sara

What on earth could these two things have to do with one another? You’ll see!

“Singing a cappella is doing so without any instruments as musical accompaniment” (per wikipedia.com). I’d never been exposed to a cappella music groups until I went to IU. There was an a cappella music group at IU Bloomington, with some seriously hot guys (sorry Pete) called Straight No Chaser. The original group wound up with a singing engagement on PBS a few years ago because someone posted a video on youtube.com of them singing their version of the 12 Days of Christmas (posted below) and their fame progressed from there. There are so many songs that are redone in an a cappella style. Some songs really complement the a cappella style and some really don’t. That, however, is an individual opinion. Each singer in an a cappella group has their own function: they either are creating an instrumental sound (like a beat or melody) or they are singing the vocals. A cappella songs that are remade from their original music version sound similar to the original version and yet maintain their own distinct, unique sound.

Here’s a youtube video of them performing 12 Days of Christmas with their own special twist on it. I’ve seen this performed live and it’s hilarious and really awesome. They have such a unique sound.

So now that I’ve basically done an infomercial for Straight No Chaser, I’ll go on to what this has to do with veganism and even further into raw food veganism.

As you know, and if you don’t know you can read all about it on my blog, I tried vegan eating for 2 weeks for a project for my blog. I called it a Very Vegan Valentine’s Day. I didn’t last the entire two weeks. I lasted one week and decided to convert because I liked it so much. With veganism, you remove all animals (beef, fish, poultry, etc.) and also animal by-products (eggs, milk, butter, etc.) and you’re left with a plant-based diet. In veganism the food can be cooked or uncooked…your choice. There are a lot of similar dishes that you make as a vegan by replacing or substituting certain ingredients in place of the meat, butter, etc.

There’s a sect of veganism called raw food veganism where you still eat vegan foods (all plant based) but you don’t cook anything over 108 degrees or so (the degrees vary in the different articles I’ve read). I’ve only been eating raw for a week and one-half so I don’t consider myself an expert, but I do have a little experience with it now to blog about it.

The first week I went raw, I ordered a week’s worth of food from Karyn’s Raw restaurant in Chicago. I figured if I was going to go raw for a while, and had no idea how to prepare the food, I’d pay a little extra and see what was out there. So on 4/1/2012 I walked out of Karyn’s Raw restaurant with a huge box of raw food. I discovered a whole new world of food. It was food that tasted similar to the vegan dishes I was used to eating but it was a little different. I was still able to have my vegan pizzas, pastas, and desserts but they were done in a whole new way: raw. Taking the animals, animal by-products and even the cooking process out of food you really are just left with food in its organic, uncooked state. However there are ways of preparing the food that make it taste similar to what you were used to eating before. Vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds really pull together to create fabulous tasting food. Raw food that is prepared (like the “breads” and desserts) taste a lot denser and are a lot more filling than cooked foods. Not everything that I tried from Karyn’s restaurant tasted similar to the dish she was trying to recreate but I’ll admit she hit pretty much dead on for most things. Again, like the a cappella music, it’s meant to be similar to what you’re used to but not exactly the same.

While eating raw vegan foods or cooked vegan foods, the plants do all the work and pull double duty in place of the meat and animal by-products to make the plants shine through and the same is true for a cappella music.  The singers pull double duty, each with their own unique part: some of the singers replace the musical instrumentation and some sing. By removing one element out of the equation other factors must be relied upon to produce a similar enough end result that people will still listen to the music or try eating the food.

If music didn’t sound good people wouldn’t listen to it. If food didn’t taste good people wouldn’t eat it. When we pull out instruments or an element like meat or even a process like cooking, it forces the music or food to stand on its own, pull together in a different way and really shine through without the extra additives. You are left with a product that is similar to what you’re used to listening to or eating, something that you can relate to what was replaced and still left with a new experience at the end of the day. And you know the best part of all of it? You can decide if it’s for you or not!

If you relate veganism or raw food veganism to eating a bunch of cold vegetables, would that appeal to you? Probably not. But if I took those foods and incorporated them into a dish and called it Hawaiian pizza, would you give it a try? You might. And even better is that you might like it. With the a cappella music, if you associate it to your sixth grade squeaky Catholic school choir concert then you may never want to listen to it, but if I post a popular song like the 12 Days of Christmas and ask you to listen to it, you might come out with a new perspective on it!

Raw food veganism isn’t for everyone and there’s always cooked veganism to try. If veganism doesn’t appeal to you, then there’s always vegetarianism or back to the diet you were most likely raised on with meat and animal by-products. The same is true with music. If a cappella music just isn’t for you, then you can always chose to add instrumental-style music back into your listening repertoire.

We all have choices. These are unique options I’m offering up to you to explore. Veganism, raw food veganism and a cappella music are on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of each other and also in terms of what people are used to eating and listening to for music. But they are similar to each other in that they remove one element and the final result is still similar to what you’re used to but different and unique in its own way. You just gotta give it a try!

Enjoy!

Sara