Colours

Although I used to see March as that sad month that forced me to deal with the harsh realities of being a year older (drama much?), I now have a reason to look forward to it. You see,  March is also National Nutrition Month! According to the American Dietetic Association, this is a month to “focus attention on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits”. Nutrition geeks rejoice!


Now some of you may be thinking, “I have no idea how to celebrate this month. What do I do? Just be nutritious?” I am here to help, friends. The theme of this year’s National Nutrition Month is “Eat Right with Color”. That means you have my full permission to go crazy with colorful foods. I mean it. Go Lisa Frank on your plate! Check out the how’s (featuring past recipes from this blog) and why’s (info courtesy of this ADA article) below:


1. Go Green.- Green produce like apples, kiwi, green peppers, spinach and artichoke have antioxidant properties that can promote healthy vision and reduce the risk of cancer. Go eat some!

Spinach and artichoke dipTallarin verde


2. Orange you going to eat some yellow foods?- Before you roll your eyes at my extremely corny attempt to get you to eat orange and yellow foods, hear me out. Apricots, grapefruits, carrots, yellow peppers and sweet potatoes can boost your immune system and keep your eyes healthy. My current favorite from this group are grapefruits!

 These are delish too:

Ceviche with a side of boiled sweet potatoChili with carrots


3. It’s ok the have the blues sometimes (or the purples).- Blue and purple produce, like blueberries, plums, and eggplant may help with memory and urinary tract health. They are also pretty tasty, so why not throw a few berries in your next smoothie or on top of your oatmeal?





4. Seeing red.- For heart health and immunity, the red fruits and veggies are the way to go. Pink grapefruit, cranberries, red peppers and red onions are just some of my favorites in this group.

 Here are a few that I will be experimenting with soon:


Quinoa stuffed red peppersPeruvian Lomo saltado with tomatoesStrawberries with chocolate pb dip5. Be white as a ghost potato.- White, tan and brown fruits and vegetables have been researched for their benefits in heart health and cancer prevention.
 Which white food are you putting on your plate today? Bananas? Cauliflower? Potatoes? Onions?

Breakfast potato skins
Arroz con pollo topped with onion salsa6. Eat a rainbow!- Finally, if you’re the ambitious type and want to get all the colors in at once, here’s a delicious way to do it:

Black bean and corn salsa
Which colors are you filling your plate with today? How are you celebrating National Nutrition Month?

Choosing Food

When you eat a meal, do you think to yourself, “Mmmm…that vitamin K tastes awesome!” or “Wow, that folate really kicks up the flavor!” No? Didn’t think so.


Although we enjoy foods with our senses, many of the guidelines and recommendations we read about are written in terms of nutrients (vitamins, carbohydrates, fat, etc). There was an article in the Los Angeles Times yesterday that encourages people to choose foods, not nutrients. The article is based on a commentary by the Journal of the American Medical Association which focuses specifically on the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. While some of you may know what it means to “avoid foods with trans fats”, most people have no idea. That makes it easier for companies to lure them in with health claims and fancy packaging. If they see “No trans fats!!” on a box of cookies, then it must be okay!


If you don’t know the details about how much vitamin D or magnesium you should be getting in a day, don’t stress. Aiming to eat a balance of whole foods and cutting back on the boxed stuff will put you on the right path. The awesome Erika, wrote about processed foods recently and since she tells it like it is, I’ll just let her tell you. Speaking of the boxed stuff:


When I started Project Eunice Hearts Cooking, I did it to be less lazy with my cooking. As I experimented with more and more recipes, I noticed that the amount of processed food I was eating diminished. I started making my own sauces, eating more fresh vegetables, whipping up homemade appetizers like I’m Martha freakin’ Stewart, and I even stopped buying hummus! Yes, cooking takes a little longer than opening a can, but there is a satisfaction that comes along with doing it. I’m proud of the things I cook, and there was a time when I couldn’t say that.

                                          My heart also sparkles when I hear from you.

 Hearing that you tried one of my recipes or that one of my How-To posts helped you (or just made you laugh!) makes me all mushy inside. So, thank you for reading! You are all marvelous. And marvelous people deserve bear hugs. I’m not a big hugger though (personal space), so let me send you this virtual one:

Many hugs for you!!!

Back in the day

I know I promised you all a recipe by Kohy today, but someone passed out on the couch watching the basketball game last night. In his defense, he did cook me dinner so all is forgiven.


His big recipe debut will be tomorrow, but in the meantime, I thought I’d entertain you all with some of my back-in-the-day pictures and tell you a little more about myself in the process.


I was born and raised in South Florida. Although I look happy in the picture below, I’ve been told that I was the crankiest baby ever in the world of all babies. Check out those dimples, though. I mean, I could afford to be a brat with dimples like those.

Baby Eunice- 1983


My parents are from Peru, but I haven’t been there since I was about 7.

Looking fly and toothless in 1990


I was a chatty child at home, but I was deathly afraid of strangers. To the point where I barely spoke to anyone from kindergarten through high school. Seriously. If you speak with anyone who knew me back then, they would describe me as “that girl with the big eyes who never talked”.

Second grade picture with my favorite cat shirt


In my head, there were so many reasons to justify my insecurities. My hair was too poofy, my eyes were too big and the braces! Well, the braces didn’t help any.

In all my metal glory- 1997


After high school, I gained back some of the confidence that I’d lost in my teenage years. I think that happens to most people. In my case, the turning point was when I made the huge decision to walk away from the lifestyle (religion) I was raised in.

With my mom and little brother-2004


I truly believe that above all else we need to trust ourselves. That gut feeling you get about big decisions is there for a reason. I wasn’t happy in my old life. When I finally listened to my gut feeling, I became a happier more confident person. I was finally able to be myself and love myself.


The reason I’m bringing any of  this up today was because of Rachel’s post about being your own hater. After seeing her vlog, I had to stop and think about what makes me confident and how I got to this point. I believed and trusted in myself and made the decision that was best for me. That’s not to say that I don’t have days when I feel bummed. There have been plenty of those lately! But, I can always come back to the root of who I am and know that I will be ok.

2010

You may be asking what this has to do with nutrition or fitness. Self-esteem and self-image are totally intertwined with being healthy. It’s your love for yourself that leads you to make nutrition and fitness goals in the first place. I hope you stop and think about this today. And quit with all the hating already!

So yeah

Another rotation down… A bunch more to go! I completed my Rehabilitation rotation last week. Although it wasn’t my first rotation, it was the first time I’d done clinical-type work in years. I forgot how much paperwork is involved!
 But I’m relieved that I remembered most of what I learned in class. My preceptor was an RD that I’ve known since my days as a diet tech student, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. To the RDs who have the patience to teach little interns like me: THANK YOU.

 I’ve been waiting for what’s going to happen in the next 5 months (my final round of rotations) for almost a decade. Yes, a decade. Better late than never, right? (More on my never-ending journey to RD-ism in a later post.) I don’t know if this happens to any of you, but when I’m stressed out or trying to concentrate on something, I hold my breath without realizing I’m doing it.

 As you can imagine, a lack of oxygen to the brain isn’t a good thing when you’re treating patients, so I’m trying to remind myself to breathe. Juuuuust breeeaaaathe. In other news, I took a very important, big, huge trip last weekend! I visited the place where Steeler dreams come true: Heinz Field. the view from our hotel room It was my first time in Pittsburgh and my first visit to Heinz Field.

 It was everything I imagined it would be. the view from my seat at the very top of Heinz Field The best part of the trip was seeing how excited everyone was about the Steelers. They wore Steelers gear even when it wasn’t game day (you do not see this in Miami). I guess that’s what happens when your team wins a bunch of Super Bowls. The only disappointment of the trip was our visit to Primanti Bros. I got the “cheesesteak”, which consisted of some sort of patty, fries, and too much coleslaw.

 The cheese was nowhere to be seen and the sandwich tasted like water. Maybe I’m just not a sandwich person? mehh Pittsburgh was definitely the breather (breeeaather) I needed to get back into internship prep mode. I have a break in-between rotations, so I’m using this time to work on pre-assignments, blog, and to freak out about my final rotations. keeping cool and not freaking outAlmost done!

About me !

My name is Carmen, and this is my little piece of the Internet. Here I am welcoming you to my blog:

I am a DTR, which stands for Diet Technician, Registered. I’m going to school to become a Registered Dietitian (RD) through a distance learning program at UMDNJ, and hope to make it official by the end of this year.


Back when I was 18-year-old Carmen, I wanted to be an interior designer to join my family in their upholstery business. I eagerly took my architecture classes and learned how to build tiny replicas of buildings with cardboard and super glue. I stayed up many nights willing myself to “create spaces” with sticks and plexiglass. Although I wasn’t a bad student, I wasn’t very happy and, frankly, I was tired of gluing my fingers together. During my last semester of interior design, I took a World Nutrition class as an elective. I clearly remember thinking,”Wait… you can talk about food for a living?!”


Suffice it to say, that class changed my life and brought me to where I am today. There have been lots of unexpected twists and turns in the last 9 years, but I can finally see the end of this journey and the beginning of my new career. It’s exciting… and scary!


This blog has been a long time coming, and I’m so happy to finally be able to share my thoughts and experiences with all of you. Food really can lead to fitness, and there will be plenty of talk on here about nutrition, exercise and health in general. However, believe me when I say that I am not here to preach to anyone. Being healthy is a lifelong adventure. Just because I read  a few books and took some classes doesn’t mean that I can kick back and eat doughnuts all day. You’re following me on my own journey to be healthy. I’m just hoping to share some of what I’ve learned, and to learn from you too.