A Figs Store Review + miscellany
Is the Figs store worth a visit?
I talked about this a little bit on Friday, but some of you had more questions!
So, let's do a little walk-through of my opinion on the matter.
First: the store is rather small.
I was expecting, I dunno, something more like a warehouse. Ha. But the one in Philly, at least, has a fairly small footprint.
Because of the small size of the store, there is a limited selection of colors and sizes to try; I ended up having them ship a pair of pants to me because there were none in-store in the color I wanted.
However, it was super-duper helpful to be able to try on a bunch of different scrub styles; they did seem to have most sizes in most of the styles, as long as you didn't care about color.
So, I tried different fabrics, cuts, and sizes, and that helped me rule out a lot of stuff.
This pair of joggers, for instance, are the high-waisted style and they're a little too tight.
But the regular waist style is just fine:
Honestly, that was the best thing about going to the store: the elimination of options for me. I know what sizes didn't work for me, and I know which styles and which fabrics I hated.
(Notably: their new FormX line. The fabric feels great, but I loathed the styles on me. I looked like I was wearing double knit polyester pants from the 1970s. BLEAH.)
Anyway...now if I want to hunt down Figs scrubs on eBay, I know what to look for. And if Figs has a great sale, I can shop with confidence.
But it's not like I need to own a bazillion sets of scrubs; I will maintain a small collection and I'll manage by keeping up on my laundry. 😉
(If you do visit a Figs store, bring along a set of old scrubs to recycle, and you'll get a $50 credit. If you don't have any old ones, ask some co-workers for a set. 😉 )
Oh, and since someone usually asks: on my unit, we are allowed to wear whatever color of scrubs we want. Lucky us!
"Look what I bought!"
I texted that to my friend Jena, and she was expecting a picture of a new car to follow.
But I have not even had time to try to buy a car. Instead, I was showing her a picture of the protein pasta I bought:
She'd served me a pasta salad using this Barilla high protein pasta (which has real flour in it) and it was actually GOOD (unlike the 100% chickpea flour one they sell at Aldi.)
So. Some non-disgusting, high-protein pasta salad is coming with me to my night shifts this week. 😉
The biggest hole in most conspiracy theories
This is an extremely random topic, but hey, this is miscellany. Anything goes.
So, at work the other day my coworkers were discussing flat-earthers, and how they think everyone is conspiring to make us believe the earth is round, when it's actually flat.
(Note: it is not flat.)
And I said what I always say when conspiracy theories come up: there's no way people would cooperate well enough to pull this off.
Humans honestly are terrible at keeping secrets and terrible at cooperating. And to keep the flat-earth thing a secret, humans from many different countries would have to cooperate over a long period of time.
UNLIKELY, I say. 😉
I think this is true of smaller conspiracies too; for instance, I knew someone who thought a sports team had failed to win the World Series in many decades because there was a conspiracy to stop them (Using, I dunno, the umpires? Players on the team? Coaches?).
And I thought the same thing about cooperation...could you get this many people to cooperate and keep a secret like this over dozens of years?
UNLIKELY.
In an odd way, people who embrace conspiracy theories have a more optimistic view of humans than I do. 😉
(Something else I also always say when flat-earth theories come up: roads in the Midwest have grid corrections to keep them going straight. And that's because the earth is round. 😉 )
An online walking club for October
My blog friend Elisabeth is kicking off a new round of her Cool Bloggers Walking Club on October 1st, and she asked me to invite you all (and you don't have to be a blogger!)
The goal is just ten minutes of intentional movement each day. You can walk, stretch, dance, march in place while your coffee brews...whatever works for you. People will be joining from all over the world, and she’d love for you to join.
There will be weekly recaps with photos so you can see what fellow walkers are up to; from quiet neighborhood strolls to scenic hikes.
Here are some of Elisabeth's from last year:
It’s low-pressure, just for fun, it's free to participate, and Elisabeth made a printable tracker to help keep everyone motivated.
I'm joining in this year; I do already knock out at least ten minutes of walking each day, but I haven't formally tracked this and I haven't taken pictures before. 🙂
(Fair warning, some of the days will just be me walking the hospital halls!)
Click here to get all the details + join in!
Might I suggest a breakfast salad?
I think this idea first occurred to me at Fincon in 2021, when I went out to breakfast with my friend Whitney (from the Money Nerds podcast). I ordered avocado toast, and it came with a side of greens, dressed with a vinaigrette.
Before that, I hadn't really considered lettuce as a breakfast option! Since then, though, I have often added a simple salad to my breakfast of eggs + toast.
Usually, it's just greens, a vinaigrette, and some Parmesan if I have it on hand.
The nice thing about this is that even if the rest of the day's meals go haywire, you have had at least one serving of vegetables. Before 9 am, even!
And you can feel quite satisfied with yourself about that.
Anyone who has to work with a team knows that conspiracy theories are ridiculous (such as the whole world conspiring over covid vaccines), particularly on a global level!
I understand that in this case the space should have been used for more scrubs but honestly, I wish more stores had seats!
@Sophie in Denmark,
I grew up in one of those families - and communities - where the conspiracies/lies were and are always better than the truth. Worse with YouTube (they are all graduates of the YouTube medical school). One of my favorite sayings is "lies, misinformation, and rumors will be half way around the world before the truth gets its shoes on. "
One of my cousins has said repeatedly that people who go to college think they know everything. I told him the more education I have done, the more I realize I don't know, but I am pretty decent at evaluating data. He is an expert in where groceries go on the shelves at Target, I happen to have a good understanding of vaccines/immunizations/ infections and the immune system (40 yrs of experience and education). If I ever need to know where the French dressing is at Target, he is my source, but I don't rely on him to tell me how MRNA technology and covid 19 are just fake. And I will never claim that I can fix your car's transmission because I saw a YouTube video describing the process.
And, by the way, the story that Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street are gay and corrupting children - as the PBS representative at the Congressional hearings said, "You do know they are puppets, right?"
Sorry to go on, but this dumbing down of America makes me sad.
@ceecee, Me too. There is an odd hostility toward knowledge and education among people who have little of both. I can't decide if it's defensiveness, resentment, or too little humility on the part of the knowledgable and educated. Maybe all of the above?
@ceecee, No, it's a fascinating comment. Agreed, and even if Bert and Ernie WERE gay, how is that corrupting children?!
I recently reread Educated by Tara Westover which was both parts amazing and depressing. I remember watching an episode of a TV series as a teen (it was Wife Swap, I'm embarrassed to say) where they swapped two religious families (if I remember correctly). One of the families was very academic and well-versed in religious history and the other family was Evangelical and took the Bible literally. The mother of that family actually said 'they've studied the truth right out of it'. Talk about an oxymoron!
@Kristina, I suspect part of it is the feeling that educated people generally live in cities (I am being terribly simplistic but this is for the sake of argument), and I believe that part of the criticism is the feeling that those people cannot understand the issues and realities of how non-educated and/or non-urban people live. Like with any problem, there is a grain of truth in it.
I don't understand why there was a sudden embrace of a race to the bottom with knowledge in general, but that's probably a bigger conversation for a different forum.
I am not a greens at breakfast person, but I can see it happening once I'm an empty nester. When I was a younger person, I would eat my mom's potato salad at breakfast if it was available because it was a special treat and I loved it so much. In my current season I'm just trying to make breakfast foods that my kids will be willing to eat before school and so salad is off the table for that meal. But I do eat a lot of lunch salads. There was a stretch where my kids all thought salad was my favorite food because I ate it for lunch everyday. Nope. I am just trying to be a responsible adult (though I do make my lunch salads enjoyable!)
@Ruth T, I feel that way about milk. In my case, I don't really like it, but I drink it every day to increase my intake of calcium and protein. There's some responsible adulting going on here, too!
@Ruth T, When one of my boys was about four years old, we were going out to eat and he commented that "Most of us will have fries or chicken, and mom will have girl food." I asked him what 'girl food' was and he said, "Oh, you know...salads and spicy stuff." He...was not wrong. 😉
@Ruth T, My kids always say salad is my favorite food, too. Ha. I eat so many salads BECAUSE it's not my favorite food, none of which are things I should be eating on a regular basis. 🙂
I’m curious about the need to buy your scrubs. In the UK, these are provided as part of your package at the hospital or clinic.
Is that not the case in the US?
Only if you work in a surgical area (including labor and delivery) Then they are given to you at each shift, sterilized. For regular floors, we buy our own scrubs.
@Victoria, In Canada we also buy our own scrubs (at least in the hospital I'm working at)
@Kristen, I think it depends on the facility too. During my daughter's pediatric residency at a university teaching hospital, the scrubs were provided for doctors and nurses, but she was too small for even the smallest size, so she had to buy her own scrubs. Scrubs were color-coded, she had to wear that awful hospital green which was for doctors. Nurses wore a very nice purple, I'm not sure what other professions wore.
Now in a private outpatient pediatric practice, she is enjoying wearing whatever color she wants and buying them to fit.
@Victoria, it depends on the hospital. At my hospital we have specific colors for specific specialties, and the hospital gives us credit through a website to buy scrubs in our specific color.
In general, requiring a certain color places the scrubs in the legal category of “uniform”, and employers are required to provide clothing if it’s a uniform. However, they can conform to the law by just giving a “credit” on a paycheck within the first month or so, which does place a financial burden on new employees, who have to purchase the uniform before getting paid.
Some hospitals do that, and then require people to wear a particular color.
I should have said “specific colors for specific role”, not specialties! RNs wear one color throughout the hospital, techs another, respiratory another, PT, transport, dietary, etc. Anywhere in the hospital, you can tell what someone’s job is by the color of their scrubs.
A note on scrubs--I see sooooo many scrubs in thrift stores. It seems like the sections for them keep getting larger and larger. Do they wear out that quickly? People get bored with them? (I can totally see that.)
A note on conspiracy theories-- I've never (knowingly) met a flat-earther. But I think conspiracies are possible because not everybody promoting whatever the thing is needs to be "in" on it. You just need one master manipulator. And if you read about how cults work and how there's so much secrecy, you can see how conspiracies might work.
@Jody S., I think that's more applicable with small areas of leadership - when it's multiple countries I find it hard to believe they are all in on pushing a conspiracy. Especially after having to sit on numerous team meetings where everyone is fighting about who is right and how they have the best way to lead on an issue!
That's what I'm saying about the flat earth issue. To pull this off, you'd have to have cooperation from many countries, and I am seriously skeptical of that being the case.
I wonder if some of the scrubs get donated because people leave the field, or switch to jobs where scrubs are color coded.
Orrr yes, maybe they just got bored!
@Kristen, Exactly! They should watch this explanation from Carl Sagan!
https://alumni.cornell.edu/snack-bar/carl-sagan-how-the-ancient-greeks-knew-the-earth-is-round/
@Jody S., I've bought several pairs of scrub pants at my usual thrift store haunts, because they make great gardening pants (all those pockets for tools!) at minimal expense.
And I get Kristen's point about the advantage of being able to try things on in stores. These days, I don't order ANY clothing or shoes online unless I've previously bought some IRL and know they fit.
@A. Marie, Yes! I hate how difficult it has become (at least where I live) to try on clothes/shoes that I want to buy. It is such a hassle to return things. Hm. Gardening pants? Pajamas? Maybe that would be a good thing for me.
@Sophie in Denmark, I came here to link to this! Carl Sagan, still relevant, although gone so long and too soon.
@Kristen,
One of my friends has worked at the same job for over 20 years, but the practice has randomly changed the scrubs at least four times.
Man, I just got rid of a BAG of scrubs in perfectly decent condition that were just a little big on me. Could have sent them forward to you guys for a lot of trade in value for you!
@Jody S.,
I get so frustrated at my "normal" sized friends chastising me for ordering clothes online. I'm five feet tall and about 100 pounds. Stores no longer EVER carry petites and if they do its a random size on a clearance rack.
I can't remember the last time I was able to try on clothes in person. It's always "oh, that size is only online."
UGH.
@Kristen,
I tend to think this, too. When the hospital where I work changed over to certain colors for each group (navy scrubs for nurses, black scrubs for OT/PT, etc), I imagine a lot of scrubs were donated or passed on to someone else. Back in the day, anyone who wore scrubs (outside of surgery areas) could wear any color or design....I always liked seeing the nurses in seasonal motif scrubs, or with Sponge Bob, etc., on them.
@ms.b214,
This happens a lot with plus-sized clothing as well. Sigh.
@A. Marie,
When I lived in Florida and would try walking my dogs in the evenings, I'd get eaten alive by mosquitoes. (In fact, the original name of the county where I lived was Mosquito County!) I found lightweight scrub pants are not only good to walk in -- the mosquitoes didn't bite me underneath my clothes--but some styles look so much like regular pants you'd wear to the office, that I bought them for that very purpose.
@Fru-gal Lisa, excellent idea! I'll look for these next time I'm at the thrift.
@Liz B., Yup. It is one of my sewing incentives. It takes just a little more effort to buy fabric and sew it than it does to try to shop in person, order or reorder or return and reorder online, for an iffy fit and iffy quality. And while sewing I watch old movies, listen to books on tape or the radio, or visit with sewing friends. I get original, quality clothes that wear longer and fit better, tho probably fewer than if I were willing to buy fast fashion or shop only at Walmart, fashion capital of rural America.
@Kristen, Or ... maybe they just lost or gained some weight.
@A. Marie, and even then it may be a crap shoot. Just because size n fit last purchase, doesn't mean size n fits this purchase. Vanity sizing drives me nuts. And using what size pants you wear to figure out a size for another item may work well for those who are younger.
@ms.b214, I do not know where you are located, but our Kohl's and JCPenny's have a good selection of petite sizes and styles. Also Boscov has a whole section of just petites... I sympathize with your issue, tho mine is in the opposite direction. I need the longest pants, and those are always online only just about everywhere. Old Navy has been the best for jeans for me as they are true in their sizing in the style, regardless of length. So I can go into the store and try on the sizes.. then order them and have them delivered to my house or to the store.
@ms.b214, Santa, except on the plus side. I’m 5’9” And 240lb with broad shoulders, a tummy, and… a small bust.
Even in plus-size stores, nothing fits, because designers assume everyone who is plus size also has a big rack! Nope, some of us just have broad shoulders and a tummy.
Thanks for the shout-out. I can't wait to see all the mushrooms and mosses you see on your daily walk 🙂
When we were in Spain a few years ago we stayed at a hotel with breakfast included (obviously!). It was a giant buffet and I could not believe all the salad ingredients. There was a whole salad bar and almost everyone would load up a plate with greens. FOR BREAKFAST! Then again, why not. I will often put greens alongside an omelet or on top of a breakfast sandwich.
@Elisabeth, My husband and I went to northern Spain about twenty years ago, and the only thing I remember being available for breakfast in the small towns we were in were various combinations of pork and bread in the bars where people went to get coffee. I particularly remember bread with fatty ham and then a slice of just lard on top of that. The lunches, however, were three-course meals with wine for like six dollars a person. I always chose a salad for one of my courses, and this is when I learned that Spaniards preferentially choose greenish tomatoes to eat raw. And they really like pickled white asparagus. I learned many things on that trip. 🙂
@Elisabeth,
I always find it interesting to see what others eat for breakfast. I was recently in the Bay Area near the Oracle offices. Tikki Masala, jasmine rice, and Naan were on the breakfast bar as well as vegetarian options. It looked much better than the traditional American option, so I chose to have it for breakfast. It was delicious!
@Bee, I worked 3rd shift for a while (loved it, wish I could do it again). When I got off work at 7 am, I did not want to eat traditional breakfast items.
One of my 3rd shift co-workers said her neighbor used to give her the side eye when she sat outside in the summer after getting off work - having a glass of wine after she ate her dinner.
I eat a lot of salad, but not for breakfast. I do not want to chew that much first thing in the morning. If I have leftover greens, I cook them with my eggs. Even lettuce can be cooked, and that's actually a good option for leftover dressed salad when it's soggy and unappealing raw.
Looking at those photos of the walking challenge, I am feeling some envy of those autumn leaves. I was reading some old posts yesterday from when we lived in upstate New York and, although I do not really want to move back there, one of the things I was feeling nostalgic for was the fall colors. We have one apricot tree outside our door here that changes to a bright yellow for about a week in the fall, but that's it. Someday, I will go back east in the fall.
@kristin @ going country, if it's any consolation to you, it's not going to be a great fall color season here in Central NY because of this summer's drought. A lot of trees have already dropped a lot of leaves due to drought/heat stress. 🙁
@A. Marie, Same in Ohio. A lot of maples have started to drop brown leaves without going thru any color at all.
@A. Marie, That's so disappointing!
Heehee! I’ve been eating veggies with breakfast for over 10 years! I typically have zucchini which I pan sauté & put my soft boiled eggs on top. I will also use veggies from dinners. A few favorites are roasted vegetables (sometimes adding leftover sweet potatoes-yum!), an eggplant melangé that almost resembles shashuka, or creamed spinach. Some diced avocado adds a textural difference if I have any on hand.
@Theresa, I do the same when I'm watching my weight. A nice salad in the morning with a fried egg on top and some saute-ed veggies and viniagrette are low carb and keep you full til lunch. 🙂 So good!
I often put zucchini (preferred) or broccoli in my breakfast smoothies for similar reasons. Both easily blend into the flavour of whatever you're making (usually raspberry or blueberry) and it's an extra, easy serve of veg ticked off before the day even starts.
@Chelsea, I've been blending salad greens (a blend of baby kale and spinach) into my youngest's smoothies for a while now. Since I also put bananas and mangos in there, it tastes fine to him and he's gotten some greens, which normally he won't touch even with a ten-foot pole.
@Karen A.,
Smoothies are an excellent place to disguise vegetables. I make a similar smoothie for myself. I also sauté spinach and then scramble it into my eggs.
A little off the breakfast topic, but my grandbabies think mac and cheese should be green. My DIL always adds a little finely chopped spinach.
Um, hello? Not only do we routinely eat salad for breakfast around here, I even came up with a song about it: “We’re having salad for breakfast, cuz antioxidants protect us…”
I've never had a salad for breakfast, but that's just because I don't salads in general.
Otherwise, any food is a go for me. Breakfast today was leftovers Chicken Pad Thai. And I'll sometimes have "breakfast" for diner (nothing wrong with peanut butter toasts or a bowl of cereals at 6h pm).
My husband disagrees with me on that one but, hey! Fridays are "fetch for yourself" diners in my house, so I keep it simple (I don't like cooking)
Food is food, "it's not that deep" as my teenager would say! 🙂
@Isa, DH loves dinner for breakfast (usually leftovers), but he will not eat breakfast for dinner. This has actually caused a bit of disagreement in our house now that he WFH. I purposely make leftovers to eat for lunch. However, if he eats them for breakfast, then what does one eat at lunch? I am frustrated by meal planning. I'm learning to go with the flow in this new stage of life.
@Bee, My sympathies. My solution is to plan lots of leftovers. If DH complains he can go out for pickup or whatever, but the cost is a deterrent, so laziness wins the budget. If he's hungry enough he'll eat whatever is in the fridge, except breakfast for dinner. Heh heh.
I agree with your take on conspiracy theories and hate the current environment which seems to feed them. I've tried to figure out why this is happening and my logical mind really doesn't understand how people can buy into this stuff. I know they've always existed but today they are far too mainstream.
On a related note, one of our all-time favorite bad movies is Capricorn One which stars OJ Simpson, among others, and deals with a fake Mars landing hoax. Of course when the movie first came out in the 1970s, many were convinced this was how they "faked" the moon landing. We joke about the moon landing hoax a lot, but sadly, way too many people today take these theories seriously. Just sad.
@Bobi, when Kristen mentioned the "flat Earth" conspiracy, it also made me think of people who think the moon landing was faked. As my mom has always said, the Soviets would have LOVED if it had been faked and even they were never able to find the evidence!
@Bobi, This article and chart breaks it down quite well:
https://web.archive.org/web/20211129151427/https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/29/metro/this-chart-conspiracy-theories-has-gone-viral-freebritney-qanon-local-disinformation-researcher-breaks-down-what-know/
Social media also pushes conspiracy theories because it causes more content and engagement. I recommend Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams for more in this.
@Sophie in Denmark, There is an error in the web address - the beginning with http was posted twice accidentally! Also a typo, more on this, not in this!
@Bobi, I got to coordinate a seminar on gossip. We discovered that the main motive is for less powerful people to feel that they know something important about more powerful people, and I think a similar effect is at work with conspiracies. The "secret" truth gives us little people an edge, and knocks the big people down a few notches. Perhaps. I don't understand wanting to be in alliance with the little people, but it does give the gossiper/conspiracist a moment of importance.
If the earth was flat, the cats would have knocked everything off it!
@Lynn D., most totally correct observation! Thanks for the grin. 😎
@Lynn D.,
ROTFL!!!!!!!
I believe you're right!
@Lynn D., AMEN!
@Lynn D., thank you for the belly laugh while I am bed rotting (woke up at 3:30 & refuse to get up before a decent hour). Bella, the cat princess in this house, does not knock things off, except she throws her mousies off the couch. She does however enjoy all other cat highjinks.
Glad the Fig store was worth it! I’d imagine it was fun to take a day trip with your nursing buddies 🙂 When I was working as an RN in a hospital Koi scrubs were all the rage. Loved my Kois! They were more cargo pants style, but the colors were fun, the pockets were fabulous. and the fabric was so soft and comfortable. The fabric makes all the difference!
Does putting spinach in my smoothie count as morning greens?
Good luck on night shift - do you have alternating shifts or does your management just want you to train on nights for a bit? I trained on day shift and then had to go to nights for a few years before a day shift position opened up. (Granted, that was over 20 years ago and things change!)
I just have to train on nights for a bit and then I will be almost all days. WHEW.
@Kristen,
I know nights are not easy. The first hospital I worked at we all did 12 hour shifts, one month days the next nights. Or you could work straight nights. I learned so much from the night nurses as a new grad. You really have to be organized and efficient, and you better have EVERYTHING together if you need to call that sleepy resident during the night.
Good luck with the scrub hunt. I used to make a lot of scrubs, not always the most frugal thing. My son needed olive green scrubs (he worked in behavioral health) and they were always tough to find.
I don't know any flat-earthers, as far as I know, but I have to wonder how they make themselves believe it. With the ability to take a trip to space (if you have the money) people can now see for themselves, if they insist on seeing for believing.
I eat greens, a protein and a starchy vegetable every morning for breakfast, with extremely rare exceptions. My favorite is spinach, but I will eat a number of other greens, too. I have had salad for breakfast, but I prefer cooked greens, as they are easier on my system. I try to eat at least one and usually two vegetables at every meal, 95% of the time.
I think I'll do that walking challenge, hopefully outdoors most of the time. If the air would cool off, it would help!
Exactly. All of the self-pay space explorers would have to agree to keep the secret as well!
@JD, I’ve been thinking about the Cool Bloggers Walking Club but most mornings I am walking in the dark, which makes it difficult to take photos. The reasons to participate is that I want to hang out with Elisabeth, even if just virtually. :i-)
I used to wonder if the moonwalk was fake. That idea came to me all on its own when I was about college-aged. Now I know that it couldn’t be faked, because it would take the cooperation of too many uncooperative people.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, No need to take pictures. It's always fun to see what other people are viewing on their walks, but you can join in without sending anything my way. Just knowing you're walking is a treat (and it means I'll get to fill in CA on my map of states with walkers!!!).
@JD, Yay for a new walker. October is usually the best weather in my "neck of the woods" - not too hot, not too cold...but I have friends in Florida that are still melting in the heat and humidity 🙁
@Elisabeth,
Count me as one of the Floridians still melting! But I plan to walk!
@Elisabeth, I have walking problems and use a walker with wheels. I'm planning on doing my walking just outside my door on the grass. Hopefully I can increase my steps each day. Thanks for the challenge.
Kathy in Alabama
@Kathy, I'm so glad you're joining in. Feel free to incorporate other forms of movement if walking is a challenge. Chair yoga/stretching is a great option and so versatile!
Thank you for the Figs store review! My nursing career (I'm sure I mentioned this before) began in the starched white dress uniforms and stockings and sturdy shoes. I wore a cap only when I was in school. It was and still is very professional look. We had a blue and white pinafore over our white outfits when in nursing school. I knew two LPN's that continued to wear caps even after it was no longer required and it suited their personalities. I remember hearing a 75 y/o British preacher talking about when he first met his wife when she was in uniform (during the 30's) and her blue and red visiting cape and he imitated her throwing the edge back over her shoulder with a sparkle in his gaze and no more words. You could see he was still clearly twitterpated though she was no longer alive.
I have no brain space to think about a flat earth conspiracy. My mind makes up plenty of stories about other things.
Salads w brekkie? Funny you should mention that. I've actually fixed breakfast and didn't eat just toast or a donut with my chai latte yesterday morning and this morning after work. Yesterday it was cheesy scrambled eggs, some apple salad, and Aldi everything sourdough toast. This morning it was a slice of very thick apple wood smoked bacon halved and fixed in the air fryer with a a half of a potato, wedged and roasted, roasted shishito peppers and more toast. When my appetite picks up like this in the fall, I think it is preparing for hibernation mode.
Since reading The Glucose Revolution, I start every meal including breakfast with some vegetables. However, I am lazy with food prep and usually just eat some mini-peppers or a cucumber rather than a real salad.
We eat salads year ' round, baby greens, apples, grapes, berries plus all the usual carrots with the yummy apple cider vinaigrette. Topped with nuts. A boiled egg, a small avocado toast and that lasts me for hours. If I am working, I put it in a pita and forget the avocado toast.
Our hospital hosts pop up scrub sales Every month. Featuring different brands, including socks, shoes and tools. I am very muscular and have difficulties fitting shoulders, thighs and biceps, it sure helps to try on dif styles.
As far as "flat earth" just watch the stars and in the daylight, watch the airplanes. Such silliness.
PNW has a beautiful leaf peeping season.
Yes I try to eat greens (or cucumber or celery) to start the day and each meal when possible! Really helps my energy levels.
I still remember when my eldest was just starting finger foods, I got out some leftover green beans for her breakfast while visiting my parents. My mom said she had never served green beans for breakfast before ha!
I do like having a salad like that at breakfast, but I'm at the stage of life where I'm trying to eat quickly and often one-handed. Maybe when the baby gets bigger :-)
I played in a Japanese orchestra for six months in the 1980s and we did a lot of touring from school to school, usually spending two or three nights on the road. Sometimes we stayed at Japanese style inns and sometimes we stayed in western style hotels. Both provided breakfast, but the hotels provided a “western” breakfast which always included salad. I thought that was so weird.
I love salads but I don't have them for breakfast only because I prefer to eat something hot in the morning.
Conspiracy theories trouble me greatly as they indicate a lack of critical thinking and highlight the dangers of herd mentality. Last year I was so disappointed to learn that a wonderful neighbor is a full-on conspiracy theorist who believes, among other things, that 9/11 was an insurance plot (as evidenced by the way the buildings collapsed) and that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax because the school wasn't even in existence at the time (as evidenced by the lack of utility bills for two years prior). Good grief. It's all so frightening and discouraging and is just getting worse in our current environment where untruths abound in many forms.
An online walking club - fun!
@MB in MN, we need herd immunity, not herd mentality.
Love the miscellany! I'm definitely going to join Elisabeth's walking challenge. I walk for at least half an hour most days, so should be easy. 😉
I enjoyed reading about the Figs store! It may be small, but sounds like a fun road trip. My good friend is a doctor and lives near the other Figs store. I'll have to ask her if she's been.
And I'm so with you on the conspiracy theories. I disbelieve most of them because, y'know, people just can't keep quiet! Haha. Though MKUltra did end up being true...
@Natalie K., Welcome to the club. Sounds like it will be a breeze for you to fit this into your schedule since it's already part of your routine. That's awesome!
@Elisabeth, Thanks! Looking forward to it 🙂
Unrelated to today's post (which I enjoyed), a few days ago you asked if we would send you a screenshot of any ads on your blog that either cover your words or start playing audibly. I had one start playing audibly today while I was reading this post, but I'm not sure how to send it to you.
Thanks!
So, Mediavine (the ad company) says the best way to help them scout out the rogue ads is to report it yourself. If you click the Mediavine logo on any ad, you should get to a button that says, "report ad". Thank you!!!
I looooove a good crunchy salad, but not at breakfast. Maybe it's because I like vinaigrette type dressings, and and sour things just don't appeal to me in the morning. (I also like yogurt and cottage cheese, but not in the morning). To each his own.
Interestingly, I do often eat yogurt and cottage cheese but those are usually lunch foods for me!
@Liz B., I've never understood the lure of vinaigrette dressing. I'd be having creamy blue cheese or caesar with mine. I can assure my better half would not welcome salad for breakfast anymore than he'd welcome chicken or tuna salad sandwiches for dinner. To each their own when it comes to food.
Totally agree about the conspiracy theories. As a veteran, any conspiracy that requires cooperation for any length of time from the military or government falls apart right there for me. The runaround and paperwork required to get ANYTHING done... nope.
I don't have a need for them, but I go to my local thrift store all the time, and they always have large rack of used scrubs for sale, which could be a good way to get that $50 credit - unless they have to be that particular brand.
One of my dearest friends (of blessed memory) used to say that it was the garbage fairy who picked up the garbage on Fridays, but she didn't believe in the garbage fairy, since she had never seen her. She also didn't believe in city sanitation workers, since she had never seen them either. LOL, it was a fun invitation to try to convince her. And although it was all tongue in cheek, it was also impossible to make an argument she couldn't dispute with some crazy semi-logic--you could be right as rain and she would think of some way to dispute your argument. That's how conspiracy theories work, I think.
On the breakfast front, I'm not a fan of salads with vinegar type dressings (as I'm growing older, I'm not very tolerant of sour flavors like vinegar), but cabbage and eggs is a great combo. I often saute cabbage and onions and then make a little hole and fry and egg in the nest. This is especially nice when our CSA gives us a cabbage bigger than a bowling ball every time for several weeks in a row (you should see the carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, too!!!). I also like to make a Japanese "pancake" called okonomiyaki that is filled with cabbage for breakfast on weekends when I have more time.
My breakfast greens belong in smoothies M-F (on non-oatmeal days), and in eggs S-S, and are often to be found there.
And I fully support traveling to an actual store to try on clothing/shoes to ensure knowing how their stuff fits one, so it can be found online or in thrift stores. However, I've had many online thrifted items arrive that have been shrunken and are, therefore, no longer the promised size.
And is anyone else grossed out by the perfumed/dirty smell of many thrifted items? Why do they all smell the same? Yuck.
I lived with my godmother for a few years and she would tease me because I liked to eat cold mashed potatoes, cold macaroni and cheese, cold fried chicken, etc FOR BREAKFAST. ROFLMBO
I sometimes eat salad for breakfast, too! I'm laser-focused on getting daily greens, and sometimes that's the easiest way to make sure I do. Nothing fancy, usually some simply dressed greens like yours with a bit of parmesan, maybe some chopped carrot or bell pepper. Always with some sort of protein at breakfast, too.
I was surprised during a trip to Italy in 2023 to see salads and pickled vegetables on the hotel breakfast buffets. Apparently many Middle Eastern travelers love them; they were usually near the "halal" or "kosher" platters. Why not? They are beautiful, healthful, filling, and work well with all manner of eggs and bread and coffee.
I live just outside Philadelphia, and had no idea there was a Figs store downtown. Kind of irrelevant to me as my scrub wearing days are behind me. We had to wear the hospital issued scrubs in the OR, and when not in the OR we needed to wear non scrub clothes. Even 10 years ago “cute” and “well fitting” scrubs didn’t exist. It’s a newer phenomena ☺️
so glad you have figs now. they look great on you. don't like greens much at all so i would never have them at breakfast. i like pineapple, sometimes cheerios and griddle cakes from tj's. serving size is two but i usually have one. r u paying for the ny times mini puzzle? sorry i am so curious.
The worst speciality/scrubs color coordination I ever saw was a kind of washed out brown for the gastro people, which made me mistake the doc who had done my husband's colonoscopy for the janitor. L&D nurses got a beautiful deep rose and the anesthesiologist wore midnight blue, so there a theme going on.
Whoever made that decision for the gastro people was probably like “hehehehehe”!
Reminds me of Sir Terry Pratchetts`s discworld...
Everyone knows that if the world was flat, cats would have pushed everything off of it by now. 🙂
I eat salads at breakfast, too!
can you or anyone reading this help me with the block that keeps popping on with this page isnt responding on it with wait and exit to click on. Sunce this is from your blog I have thought you might have a solution AND if other readers had a solution for this.
Takes a really long time to read punching on the wait a million times or so.
THANK YOU
Hmm, ads should close when you click the X. Are you on desktop? Or a phone?
My family does a cousins breakfast about once a month. We get together at a restaurant and I usually order the steamed broccoli as my side, with lemon... Never thought of it until I started paying more attention to the lack of veggies in my daily consumption. It goes great with California eggs benedict at Perkins!!!
Good for you! Almost everyone could stand to eat more veggies, so they are a very safe addition to any meal. Even breakfast!
Yes! Salad for breakfast! I am on the DASH diet to keep my BP in check,naturally, and it works.But you have to have 9 servings a day of fruits/vegs! A half a cup is a serving so it isn’t TOO hard, but I do have to start thinking about vegs and fruit at EVERY meal,starting at breakfast! Sometimes Ido greens,sometimes just chopped tomatoes and peppers with some blue cheese sprinkles, or some chopped cucumbers.With eggs, its tasty! With oatmeal,I do 2 fruits.
DASH diet is similar to Mediterranean with a little more focus on the number of servings, and focus on lower fat protein selections.Not hard to follow,really!
I love this way of making a diet more nutrient-dense. When you focus on ADDING in so many nutritious things, a nice side effect is that it leaves less room for foods that are not as nutrient-dense.
#1. I eat roasted Brussel sprouts/Broccoli every morning for breakfast. I agree that it is a way to get veggies in since I have a problem getting them in at dinner.
#2. I joined the CBWC but I don' t know where I am supposed to log the pictures of my walks. Can you help? I plan on going with my husband on his daily dog walks but will use my morning workout as my "walk" on my 12-hour workdays. You know there is no time when you get home for much of anything.
#3 I am going to try to find protein pasta at Aldi. I have never looked as we don't consume much pasta, but if it has protein it might be worth a try.
#4. I don't think we have an Amazon Fresh store near here but I am going to look.
@Joyce, Hi Joyce. You can send them to me (Elisabeth) at optimisticmusings {at} gmail {dot} com
I love to get pictures and post them, but also please don't feel pressured to take photos. Only as you're interested and able 🙂
@Elisabeth, Thank you! I set a reminder on my phone so I don't miss one day of walking. 🙂
Also on “flat earth”: anyone with a telescope and access to a large body of water with masted ships (a decent-sized sailboat is big enough) on it can disprove “flat earth”. I’ve personally seen this on the Great Lakes.
If the earth was truly flat, a ship coming from far away would be tiny, then big as it approached from the horizon.
Because the earth is round, what you actually see is the mast FIRST, then the body of the ship appearing to “rise up” from beyond the horizon.
See also: why humans have known the earth was round for hundreds of years, long before satellites and space travel! All you need is a telescope, and the technology to make those is not new.