A family of foodies

What can we say. . . we're Cajun! And Cajuns live to eat! It makes my heart take flight to see the next generation picking up traditional cooking. I'm especially pleased to see my two nephews learning to fend for themselves in the kitchen. The men in our families down here on the bayou can hold their own when it comes to cooking, but it's usually in the seafood and wild game departments. My Papa Babin made a mean turtle sauce piquante (pronounced PEE-con) and my Pyran Wayne ("Pyran" is Cajun for "Godfather") can cook up deer so tender it would make a vegetarian think twice about their choice!

So when my nephew Philip announced he was making crab cakes for the whole family for dinner, we were happy to be his dining guinea pigs! The basis of his concoction was from a recipe that won a contest a few years ago and was printed in the local newspaper. From the basic recipe, he modified and tweaked it until it had his own signature on it. The end product was so tasty that he's pretty much deemed the official crab cake maker of the family from here on out! I saved a left over one and scrambled it into some eggs for an awesome breakfast the next morning!

Staying on the food theme, my dad and I picked up a sack of raw oysters from the local oyster fisherman in town. My mom committed a cardinal sin of buying some already shucked at the grocery store to make the oyster dressing at Thanksgiving. The general consensus was that they were so washed down there was no taste left. So to avoid a similar disaster at Christmas, we got some fresh from Louisiana waters still in the shell.

It's only later in life that I've acquired a taste for these mollusks raw. I've always enjoyed them fried on a po-boy sandwich or in traditional dirty rice, but somewhere in my twenties I started to appreciate the intensely salty flavor and uniquely fleshy texture. As with most things that Cajuns eat, I often look at it and wonder who gazed upon this mucus-like blob in a relatively ugly shell and deduced that it might make a good meal! Thank goodness for that first intrepid soul!

This last picture is of a beautiful sight. . . what I opened my eyes to after a leisurely nap on the swing in my parents' yard!!! Although it turned cold for a couple of days, we are now back in the upper 70s with a lush humidity level in the 60s. Once again, I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt for the day.

This is pretty much a synopsis of my time back at home so far. I've gone back to the gym with my mom and sister and went to my nephew Philip's basketball game last night. I'm really enjoying being part of their everyday lives, even if it's just for a little while.

Whit & Kathie's family

OK, I'm going to stream line this call tree for a bit! Everyone contacts me for updates on Caldwell (AKA Cal) and Naomi ever since they were born prematurely on Dec 8, so I decided to do a post with pics of them! This picture of Cal was taken shortly after the twins were born at his birth weight of 1 pound 15 ounces. Look closely and you'll see Whit's wedding band as a bracelet around his wrist. He's had a rough go of it since birth, but Kathie confirmed on the phone today that he's making progress and seems to be a little fighter.

Kathie is holding Naomi in this picture wrapped in the blanket Suzanne hand knitted for them! Naomi has been making great progress since being born at 3 pounds 9 ounces. She's apparently developing quite a personality which sounds like it's bordering on rebellious! I think me and this girl are going to get along great!!!

Back here in Louisiana, the weather has turned chilly and it actually feels cold enough for Christmas (relative to south Louisiana anyway!). I love being back home around the holidays and am enjoying a slower pace for a little while. I'm looking forward to my niece and nephews being around the house for Christmas!

After passing through Atlanta. . .

After an early start to my Wednesday, my day was quite productive. Major progress in apartment and office packing, phone calls and informing utilities of my upcoming move culminated into settling myself into the flight from Los Angeles to New Orleans with continued productivity on my laptop. Amazing that a 3.5 hour flight would deposit me in south Louisiana and in a car to my parents' house for a late night supper of my mom's cooking! Nice thought, but not so fast!

After circling over New Orleans airport waiting for the dense fog to break long enough for us to land, fuel quantity finally dictated that we divert to the nearest open, unfoggy airport. . . Atlanta, GA! So, at 3:30 am, I found myself in a cab with a lost driver looking for the hotel United Airlines had given me a voucher to for the "night". With 2 hours of sleep under my belt for close to 36 hours, I made it to my parents' house yesterday around noon! Amazingly unphased by the extended journey home, I arrived happy and less stressed than I have been in a long time.

It felt so good to sleep in til 8:30 am today!!! I wanted to get a workout in this morning so my mom suggested I go to the gym with her for her "Silver Sneakers" exercise class. Sure, I was in the mode of organized exercise classes, so why not?! It sounds so innocent and easy doesn't it. . . Silver Sneakers? Yep, it's an exercise class for senior citizens, but after an hour with my mom and a bunch of spry coeds, I had actually worked up a sweat! I have to admit, I couldn't help but smile with good humor as I got my heart rate up with a group of AARP members to the sounds of Neil Diamond and Elvis!!! FUN! After the class was over, I finished off my workout with running a few miles on the treadmill.

Today was a beautiful day that flirted with temperatures between 78-82 degrees! I was in shorts all day!! My dad returned from the camp on Grand Isle with a few dozen crabs that he boiled up for us to eat. Man were they good!!! I realize that I post similar pictures to these every time I come home, but I just can't get enough of boiled seafood!!! For those of you who aren't lovers of these tasty little crustaceans, this close-up picture of the meat in a blue-crab claw will probably gross you out. But for the rest of us initiated boiled seafood addicts, this is tasty treasure from the bayous!!!

Hope everyone is getting to their holiday destinations in spite of the weather and that you end up with folks you really want to spend the season with. I'm looking forward to some down time with my family, and of course lots of great eating and conversation!

Keeping fit

In the never-ending quest to broaden my horizons, I decided to shake up my workouts a bit and go to an organized class. Now, I'm not one for organized fitness classes but after hearing that the clientele that I will be working with in my new career field were really into a program called Crossfit, I figured I'd better check it out.

I had a very enlightened professor in my undergraduate nutrition program named Dr. O'Neil. One of the classes I took with her was a seminar on fad diets. The first week of class, she had us each pull a slip of paper out of a bowl. Each slip of paper contained the title of one of the various popular diet books out at the time. For the remainder of the semester, we had to read the book, pull up any research sited by the authors and check out the validity of any claims made by the book. The clincher was that for one week, we had to actually do the diet. At the end of the semester, we each had to present on our diet book, pros and cons and what it was like to try to follow it. You want to know what your clients/patients are experiencing? Walk in their shoes for a while. Very enlightening! Through this experience, I learned that there are very few absolute truths in this world, especially when it comes to diet and exercise. There are some pretty solidly validated theories out there, many of which are the foundations of evidence-based nutrition and exercise. But there are also lots of shades of gray that merge with what works for each individual; something those of us working in these fields must constantly be aware of.

And so it was with this background that I showed up to my first class of a Crossfit boot camp program. Having been through boot camp once for real, I usually shun any fitness class with "boot camp" in the title, but there are a lot of basic moves and principles to learn with this particular fitness program. I figured this was the easiest way to get an introduction. So for four weeks in November-December, I attended classes 3 nights a week taught by JP at Crossfit San Diego.

This is not an infomerical for the program, so if you want to learn more about it, you can click on the link above. I'm posting this really just to make a point that sometimes it's a good thing to break out of our own "truths" and see what else is out there. Do I agree with every tenant of the program? Not really. Do I agree with all the principles of the nutrition program. No, I don't. But did I learn a few things and have fun for the four weeks I went there? Yep! Did I meet some fun & interesting folks while enjoying some challenging workouts outside my normal realm? Yeah, I sure did!

The reason I'm posting this tonight is because I had one last workout session with JP and Lauren earlier this evening. I've had a sinus infection and haven't been able to workout much for over a week now, so the session tonight was just what I needed to jump back into it. JP worked us pretty hard during the boot camp classes, but also did a great job of emphasizing proper form and keeping us motivated. Thanks to JP for shaking up my routine a bit and giving me a few more tools to add to my professional and personal tool boxes! And thanks to Lauren for keeping the class (and especially me) motivated! In the pic are the members of the boot camp class- Adam, Van, Lauren, Nicole, Maggie & baby Kelsey and me.

I fly out tomorrow for two weeks back home in Louisiana. So much packing left to do, but I'm really looking forward to this last break before I leave for training. Stay tuned, I'm sure I'll have lots of food reports coming up!

Colorado Springs USOC good-byes

If you every need an ego boost and want to hear good things said about you, just announce that you're leaving!!! As word of my impending departure from the USOC spreads, I have been humbled by the number of emails and phone calls I've received telling me how much I will be missed! Of course the ones who are happy to see you go don't usually email or call, but the sheer number of positive ones I've received gives me hope that I've made more friends than enemies and done more good than harm during my time here!!!

I'm often credited with developing the nutrition program at the USOC. As with any broad-reaching endeavor however, it can hardly be attributed to just one person. I may have initiated the program, but the two Dietitians posing with me in the first pic deserve as much credit as I do. Susie and Adam, along with Terri and Lance have been instrumental in growing the program and ensuring that it's roots were planted firmly enough to weather the current turn-over of personnel. Although Susie & Adam are the only two RDs left, I'm confident that with Terri's continued influence on the program, performance-based nutrition at the USOC with flourish.

After a full day of meetings, Performance Services headed downtown for our annual Christmas party. Kicking off the celebration was the newest naturalized citizen of the U.S. in Performance Services, Susie. In a thickly accented and Aussie-slang-laden speech, Susie lamented my departure but wished me success in my new career. I was presented a US Olympic flag signed by all my coworkers and toasted on to my next adventure. The conversation was lively during the dinner which was quickly followed by the White Elephant exchange. The gift choosing, stealing and bartering was so much fun we often laughed too hard to form complete sentences!

From the Christmas Party, a few of us headed south to the Golden Bee at the Broadmoor to meet up with Lance and Paul (in the pic with me and my yard of beer!). This pub was assembled in the 1960s next to the Broodmoor hotel using panels and fixtures shipped over from a 19th century English pub. I don't know where the name Golden Bee came from, but the waitresses throw embroidered bee patches that stick to you!

Another fun feature of the pub is the ragtime piano player. It reminded me a lot of the dueling piano bar at Pat O'Brien's in New Orleans. The enthusiastic piano player will crank out whatever song you want to sing along to; everything from Margarittaville to New York, New York which Zach and Steve happen to be dancing to in this pic! We sang, laughed, relived Olympic experiences, drank and ate oysters on the half shell as the night slipped by.

Even though the meetings continued for the rest of the week, I headed back to San Diego yesterday to continue wrapping things up here. Before leaving for the airport, the T&T team had a final lunch together with me off complex. As I turned to walk away from my team for the last 2 years, April commented "and then there were four." With the departure of Vinny and myself, the T&T team is down to just Peter, John, April & Zach (in the pic on the Olympic pathway).

I'm typing this post from my apt. on Coronado awaiting my doctor's appt. I started to catch a cold or something prior to leaving for the Springs and all the festivities pushed me over the edge. With so much to get done before I go home for the holidays, I need to be 100% as I wrap up my life in California. Wish me luck that I shake this thing quick and am productive for the rest of the weekend! Hmm, probably could've done without the yards of beer. . .

Quick update from Colorado

After a snow-delayed late night landing in Colorado Springs on Monday, my week has been pretty hectic. I'm here for meetings at the USOC; lots of paperwork to be done, projects to be handed over and people to meet with.

After an absolutely depressing visit to my house here in the Springs, David & Suzanne took me to Mirch Masala for some of my favorite Indian food!!! I won't go into details about my house but suffice it to say that I am extremely disappointed at the former tenants' lack of respect for other people's property and the seeming inability of my property manager to do anything about it. The world would be so much better off if people would just do the right thing. On a happier note, we had a wonderful dinner and really enjoyed catching up. These little snippets of time with Suzanne & David make my trips back to the Springs so much more enjoyable!

As I was flying out of San Diego, Whit & Kathie became parents! The monitoring that Kathie was undergoing revealed that an early delivery would be best for the babies, so at 8:00 pm Monday night Caldwell (spelling?) and Naomi entered this world at 1 lb 15 oz and 3 lb 9 oz respectively. Yes, they are tiny but doing fine. I spoke with Kathie on the phone last night and she sounded great! She didn't know how long she and the babies would be in the hospital, but that all was well. Their long-awaited parenthood journey has begun. . .

I'm here until tomorrow afternoon for more meetings then I head back to the San Diego. So much to get done both professionally and personally before I embark on my next adventure!

Joining the Army!

Now that work & family know my career plans, I can share them here on my blog. After 5 years with the USOC, I have decided to move on to the next adventure. Ten years after being discharged from active duty in the U.S. Navy, I have the opportunity to put my nutrition skills to use for active duty Soldiers. In a couple of weeks, I will be commissioned as a Captain in the U.S. Army and will start Officer Basic Leadership training in San Antonio, TX on January 4. As our troops are enduring long tours in arduous conditions, I feel an obligation to do my part to make sure that they are provided with every possible edge for optimal performance. Though a small contribution, I feel that what I've learned in the athletic arena can be of great use to our men and women in uniform. I didn't make this decision lightly; I've mulled this choice over quite a bit for the last couple of years and feel very comfortable that this is the right move for me at this point in my life. Obviously, the opinions of my family & friends weigh heavily in my decision process, so it was an easy choice once I realized EVERYONE supported this career move.

For those of you who know me well, it's no secret that I've missed my military days. Not just "missed" in a nostalgic kind of way, but more of a feeling that I wasn't quite done yet. I attempted to go back into the Navy as an Aerospace Physiologist after finishing my advanced degrees, but I was promptly informed that at the age of 35, I was too old for the program. Unenthused by the thought of working strictly as an RD in a hospital, I didn't think there were any other options for me until I met Ann, an Army COL at a nutrition conference a couple of years ago. It was then that I realized that my expertise could be put to use while wearing a uniform.

And so, at the ripe old age of 40, I knew it was now or never to confront the lingering feeling that my time serving in the military was unfinished business. One of my only fears in life is to get into my 80s and look back and regret that I didn't do something; that I didn't take advantage of an opportunity that presented itself. Granted, some of the things I've done I certainly have no desire to ever do again, but I am the person I am right now because I had those experiences. I can only hope that I will be happy with the person I become after this new experience!

Long story short (kind of), forgive me for lapses in correspondances as I scramble to fulfill commitments and tie up loose ends at work, pack up my life here in San Diego and get this body ready for military physical fitness standards! Good thing standards are age and gender adjusted! Stay tuned, I'm sure there are some great stories coming up. . .