Hot dogs and Quinoa: A Journey to Health

Our menu tonight will include all beef hotdogs, complete with toasted buns, a topping bar of sauerkraut, tomatoes, pickle relish, fresh diced onion, pickled peppers, bright yellow mustard, and squizzles of ketchup. Those hot dogs will be accompanied by a cold, quinoa salad, with chopped celery, raisins, carrots, and a basil vinaigrette dressing. And we will also have something green. It could possibly be broccoli, or green beans, or coleslaw, or a salad, I’ll know in a couple of hours.

I have read loads of materials on health. I have taken a good number of courses, sat through hours of webinars and articles, and read a range of books on the subject. And I’m only halfway through my degree. I am always up to learn about new information on the health front or try a new healthy living challenge. I do believe there is heaps to be learned from these many places. And for that time that I am actively learning or undergoing a health challenge all of those pieces can fall into place….as long as this new concept remains my focus. But that is the trick.

What I have learned is that the perfect scenarios presented in a book, or a during a webinar don’t always translate to the real world.

“Dearly Beloved, 

We are gathered here today to get through this thing called “life”

-Prince

I have a family, and a job, and a home, and I am working on a degree, and there are things that go on in my life that don’t fit into the beautifully outlined ideas on health and wellness that are presented.

I am a fan of horror flicks. I am currently watching the “Stranger Things” series on Netflix. It is a supernatural, sometimes scary, adventure show, and bonus: it is set in the 1980’s. I’m good with the 1980’s in case the above Prince quote didn’t alert you to that already.

One of the characters, “Hopp” is explaining to his daughter “El” the meaning of the word “compromise”. He describes it as getting some of, but not everything you want. Hopp finishes his explanation by saying it means “halfway happy”. And I think this halfway happy idea is something applicable to so many areas of life.

Currently, I am balancing between school and my family, between macchiatos at the coffeeshop and developing my writing for my internship. I also just started working towards completing a 6-week me&my wellness health reboot, so I’m trying to fit that in somewhere. The halfway happy and compromise themes are so relevant because health is about balance.

I’m not physically ready to walk 3 miles a day, every day for 6 weeks.  And trying to fit that into my already busy schedule would be extremely stressful. I’m not ready to commit to specific class times for something like a Zumba or CrossFit class.  And I know at this point in my life I’m not ready to shift into becoming vegan, but I can make some small changes. To make that halfway healthy compromise work, I can add small, realistic goals.

One habit that I’ll be building in for my 6-week challenge is a daily gratitude journal. I already have the journal picked out and sitting on my nightstand. 🙂 If you are working with Anthony and the me&my wellness team, a new habit like this would be a great place for you to start.  I’ll be sure that I update y’all with my progress along my internship.

And this balancing, this halfway healthy compromise, is how we end up pairing a quinoa salad with juicy, plump, perfect all beef hotdogs in a lightly toasted bun, with a variety of toppings. I live a couple hours from Chicago, and if you have ever heard about Chicago dogs with all of their loads of toppings, it is all true. And they are glorious. And in case you were wondering, the bits of celery and onion and the mustard vinaigrette from the quinoa salad really compliments Chicago dogs beautifully.

Blog written by Sarah Holtz on 7th June 2021