Before Christmas:
I miraculously completed my outpatient rotation! I counseled 6 patients on weight loss and it went surprisingly well! I was nervous, don't get me wrong, but all of the RDs told me I was doing very well and I didn't seem even the least bit nervous. One of them even told me I was "a natural." I'm not sure how I managed to keep a poker face during those sessions. I mean, on the inside, my stomach was in knots, I felt overwhelmingly nauseous, and I was sweating like a snow cone in Phoenix (sorry, couldn't resist the Mrs. Doubtfire reference.) But this rotation confirmed, yet again, what I've heard at the end of every rotation that I've done so far, which is.... I'm way too hard on myself. I wish I could be more confident going into these rotations, but that's just not how my thought process works, you know? Anyways, I feel really good about my future as an RD, I felt like I really helped some people out by suggesting small, but important changes to improve people's eating habits and hopefully trim off some pounds. One thing that I learned by the way, is that eating a regular (American) sized bagel is equivalent to eating 5 slices of bread! Isn't that mind-boggling? Outpatient nutrition counseling is all about these portion distortion issues. When you ask someone if they would like to eat 5 slices of bread in the morning, they would most likely say no, right? Yet, so many people eat bagels for breakfast! What's so fascinating is helping people realize the portions that they are eating. When a patient of ours realized how much bread bagels really consist of, you could tell that they were thinking "Maybe I don't really realize how much I'm actually putting into my body." And please, don't think that I'm saying bagels are bad for you! I'm definitely not, I had one today for lunch as a matter of fact But for someone who is trying to lose weight and is eating 2-3 bagels a week, this is an obvious change that they could make.
Here are some (staged) pictures from my rotation! I look so professional, right? :)
Christmas and New Years:
For Christmas, Justin and I took a 5-day trip back South. We spent half of our break in Raleigh and half of our break in Atlanta. It was a hectic break, but it was soo good to see everyone and eat delicious food. (Nothing says home sweet home like Mom's Mac and Cheese and a round of Farkle!!) Justin and I only got to spend 5 days away from Boston, so it was really difficult to leave everyone so soon, but we had to be back for work and what not. Luckily, my awesome friends (and future bridesmaids!), Jessica and Erika, came from GA to visit me for New Years! It was so good to see them and we had a great time!! Here are a few photos from Jessica's album from their trip:
Justin was thrilled having 3 girls in the apartment with him! Haha. He managed to survive. Probably because Justin found this to be a perfect opportunity to spoil Noel with attention. He loves when I add pictures of him on here ;)
After Christmas/New Year's:
Since I've been back to the hospital I've been working at one of the hospital's cafes in my "Retail" rotation. My project? To change up the panini menu. The cafe that I'm working at doesn't have a full kitchen, meaning not a lot of big equipment can be there, therefore the menu is limited. What they do serve for lunch, as a main entrée, are panini sandwiches. My job is to come up with some new panini options. So far I've come up with four:
1. Mega Melt (a friend's idea -- Swiss, cheddar, American, and provolone grilled cheese sandwich)
2. BLT with cheese
3. Sesame Chicken Wrap (Sesame dressing, chicken, spinach, onions, and carrots in a low-carb tortilla)
4. Chicken, Bacon, Ranch (a completely stolen idea from Subway, I must admit)
I've got to come up with a few more, especially healthier options, in order to finish the project. It's difficult to have healthy options when every sandwich usually contains cheese, but we'll figure it out. They already have soo many panini options on the menu (5 standard: cheese, ham and cheese, turkey and cheese, hummus/spinach/tomato/cheese, and eggplant parmesan AND 2-3 specials: can be anything from a reuben to a chicken quesadilla). Coming up with tasty, healthy, cheap, and easy-to-make sandwiches is no walk in the park! Any creative suggestions/ideas are welcome!
I will be working in this cafe for another week and then I'll be matched up to a group of 4 interns and we will work on a Business Plan. This Business Plan is something (a product, teaching tool, service, whatever) that we come up with and do a HUGE 3-week project on in order to develop the item/idea on paper and into a presentation. For example, one group last year came up with the idea of a Wii game that was basically a game where you would go grocery shopping with a dietitian and she would give you advice on what to buy. Of course, the game wasn't actually produced, but they had to do all the work-up for it as if it was going to be put on shelves ready to sell tomorrow. Crazy, right? I will let you know what idea we decide on. As of now, I can't think of anything creative, but hopefully we will think of something epic!
