I was planning to be away this weekend, but my travel plans fell through at the last minute.
As a result, I’m home, reveling in the fact that it’s a three-day weekend, and there’s no place for me to be first thing tomorrow morning.
Mondays have been more of a jolt than usual in recent weeks. I’ve started a full-time role as a renal dietitian for a hospital system, working with dialysis patients.
Some of you may remember that I spoke about plant-based diets and CKD at a kidney symposium several years ago.
My research for that event, plus a grand rounds presentation that followed it, sparked a new interest in renal nutrition, which I’m building on now.
Kidney care is highly interdisciplinary, and it sits at the cross-section of other specialties: diabetes care, cardiac care, and more. It’s really interesting and challenging.
I first began seeking out a professional shift for practical reasons. After five years of weathering the vicissitudes of self-employment, I wanted more stability in my life.
As I started to explore opportunities, I realized how ready I was to find my way back into the clinical sector. I tried and failed to go to medical school years ago, but the part of me that loves medicine is alive and well.
I’m still committed to my private practice, which isn’t going anywhere. My working hours are modified, of course, and they now include Saturdays. But I’ve been able to shift things around, and my clients have been wonderfully supportive and adaptable.
Already, my new role is making me a stronger, more competent private practice dietitian. And the in-depth, personalized work that I do in my private practice makes me a more insightful and patient-centered care-giver when I’m in the clinic.
It’s a big change, obviously. My hours are long, and I’m still adjusting to the workload, which is why time management is on my mind.
But this feels like the right thing to be doing right now. I’m in service to others and to myself. I’m growing intellectually, and I’m learning a ton.
And for the rest of today, I’ll be taking it easy.
Happy Sunday, friends. Here are some recipes and reads.
1. I already love miso butter brussels sprouts; now I want to make miso parsnips.
2. One pot creamy greens, yum.
3. This leek pasta is so simple—a truly minimalist recipe—and it looks really good.
4. Vegan orange muffins with fresh orange glaze are a perfect bit of sunshine for these wintery months.
5. I make a lot of my basic broccoli tofu stir fry when I’m in a rush, but one of my 2025 meal planning goals is to cook with seitan more often. Erin’s seitan stir fry looks like a perfect recipe for me.
1. I’m all for hosting (and attending) more parties, and I like Priya Parker’s tips for doing so more freely and easily, as told to Allie Volpe in this article.
Your house will never be clean enough, the decor never perfect enough, the menu never tasty enough, and the timing never ideal enough for a party, so you should just throw one anyway. ‘People prefer connection over perfection,’ Parker says.
Cheers to that!
2. A new blood test to detect colon cancer may help to increase screening among middle-aged and older people.
3. David Carrier’s examination of how “wild clocks” are falling out of rhythm is troubling, but not without a sense of hope in what can be renewed.
4. I read plenty about the microbiome, but I’m only just starting to learn about the oral microbiome specifically. The link between oral hygiene and risk of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease is really interesting.
5. In honor of Valentine’s Day this past Friday, fourteen things to say besides (or in addition to) “I love you.”
As you can imagine, my meal prep game has never been stronger than it is right now.
Weeknight cooking is not in the cards: I start to see my private clients as soon as I’m home from the clinic, and I’m hungry by the time I finish. Everything gets prepared over the weekend.
I always meal prep, but I haven’t been this extensive about it—making all of my breakfasts, lunches, and dinners in advance—since my dietetic internship year.
That year is what inspired The Vegan Week, which is getting plenty of use right now!
Since I thought I’d be away this weekend, I actually made extra and froze a lot of food for this coming week. My cooking is done, and I don’t have to worry about it.
If anything, I might make myself a nice, warm batch of tofu scramble to celebrate a slow morning tomorrow.
Hope you’ll have a slower-than-usual evening, and maybe even a peaceful Monday morning, too.
xo
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