By the time I get home from my internship each day, I am completely wiped out! But that doesn’t mean I’m not loving every minute of it.

Here’s what a typical day looks like for me:

6:30 AM: alarm goes off and I roll out of bed. Quickly decide on what to wear, put on a pot of coffee, and sit down to breakfast. Usually breakfast is either a high fiber/high protein cereal (I love Kashi!) with almond milk and a banana OR a ww bagel with peanut butter and fruit.

7:00 AM: brush my teeth, pack my lunch bag, pour my coffee into my travel mug and head out the door at 7:15!

7:45 AM: arrive at the VA and make my way to the intern office to check my email and finish up any notes from the day before.

8 AM – 12 PM: class time! Today we reviewed tube feedings and CHO counting.

12PM-12:30 PM: lunch

12:30 PM – 1:15 PM: go to the Main hospital. Print out screenings forms for the patients we plan to see that day and review their charts.

1:15 PM – 3 PM: visit patients and work on assessments for their charts.

3 PM – 4 PM: work on assigned case study

4 PM – 4:30 PM: head back to the intern office to check emails and finish things up for the day before heading home

5: 15 PM: time to power walk!

6:00 PM – 10:00 PM : shower, cook dinner, check email/blogs, and work on more internship assignments (usually with Lifetime on in the background)

10PM: Ok, I’m actually lucky if I can make it up to this point! Last night I was in bed at 9, believe it or not!

Of course, next week it’s all going to change since we’ll only have class Monday and I’ll actually be in my first rotation, but I still thought you might be interested just to see what “a day in the life” looks like currently

Nutrition News

Healthiest Ethnic Cuisines

Nutrition Experts Warn About Protein Supplements

Lunchbox Project

Many of us are aware that school meals, which can account for 2/3 of children’s daily calories (if consuming both breakfast and lunch), are sadly not the most nutritious. Shows like Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution have shown that what children are eating at school is not so much food as chemicals and preservatives combined with fat and sodium into food-like shapes. If you’re anything like me, I’m sure you’re feeling pretty horrified!

That’s why I wanted to share The Lunchbox Project with you. The Lunchbox Project has a goal of raising $20,000 to promote healthy food in schools for children.

You can either donate directly or shop for the cause at OpenSky. When you purchase any of the following items, OpenSky will donate $1 for each bought to the Lunchbox Project:

• Artisana almond butter
• Wee Bee raw honey
• GoodOnYaBar sample pack

PLUS if you buy the bar sample pack you can get free shipping by entering the coupon code “FREESHIPSAMPLER” — I don’t know about you, but I love free stuff!

I think all of the above items would be excellent choices for your own personal lunchbox too, don’t you think? An almond butter and honey sandwich, perhaps? Yum!

Do you have a particular organization that you usually donate to?

~Meredith

I’m sure you all have been eagerly waiting to hear about the first day of my internship!

After this photo was taken, I hopped in my little blue Yaris and drove to the VA, very excited to start my time as a dietetic intern.

The first 3 days this week are spent doing the general hospital orientation, which is a little bit boring because a lot of the information (such as various employee benefits) unfortunately does not apply to the interns! Still, some of the info was definitely useful and we had plenty of breaks to step outside into the warm Florida sun and chat with each other.

I actually had met all of the interns over the previous week except for one, and everyone is super nice and we seem to get along really well. There are seven of us girls and one guy, and as one of the girls said: even though we come from all over the country,  we are all a lot alike (hello type A personalities!).

The dietitians actually provided us with lunch yesterday (so sweet) along with books we’ll need for the next 10 months . . . and then after our long day, they offered to take us to dinner and a baseball game!

It was $5 burger night at the Green Iguana, and the vegetarians among us were treated to a special improvised burger just for us.

Lots of sauteed veggies to fill up our buns, plus the usual lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles. We also shared a basket of fries — you know, the crinkly ones? So good!

Then we headed to the stadium to cheer on our new home team, the Tampa Bay Rays.

We kept hearing references being made to cowbells, and we soon found out why.

Apparently you ring them not only to cheer on the home team, but also to distract the opponent. The dietitian who accompanied us passed around tootsie pops for us to snack on during the game — you gotta laugh, a bunch of dietitians spending the night eating burgers, fries, and candy!

We didn’t stay in our seats forever though, because we soon learned that there is a tank of sting rays at the stadium whom you can actually pet! We went off to investigate.

Unfortunately we couldn’t get too close because the stingrays were on break, but we still enjoyed watching them.

At 10:00 we were tied 4-4 with yet another inning to go . . . we were all pretty tired from our long day though and had the drive home ahead of us, so we missed the end of the game but I’m happy to say we won!

I’m still super exhausted after not a lot of sleep last night and a long day at the VA today, so I’m going to sign off for now!

~Meredith