Food, Glorious Food

Throughout most of my childhood, instant noodles would be regular merienda fare. Even in college and my first year of grad school, pancit canton would be my quick go-to meal. But based on the bad reputation that this food item has gained over the years, with or without empirical support (e.g. IQ-lowering MSG and indigestible ingredients), I decided to stop eating it and opt for healthier food choices. Today, I started craving for instant mami because of the cool weather, so I decided to indulge for a bit and cook some up for myself. I went to the kitchen, put water in a pan and grabbed a pack. While waiting for the water to boil, I checked out the nutritional information out of curiosity. Lo and behold, one serving contained about 93% of my daily sodium needs. Back in the food basket it went.

Instead, I opted for some soft-boiled eggs Kopi Roti style. It didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, so I began searching for copycat recipes. I found none, but ended up reading this awesome food blog instead (which incidentally also had interesting instant noodle recipe suggestions, and a run-in with a company producing such products) and found myself drooling over their recipes. It made me want to cook, become a food blogger, and explore new flavors. All this as a result of my desire to eat healthy and lose weight. It doesn't help too that I belong to this food-loving family, and my own love affair with food will probably never end. Still, I'd like to believe that good food and good health can go together, but I've yet to discover how. There's so much information on the internet that it tends to overwhelm. Any suggestions?

The Ochoa Love Affair with Food

On a totally unrelated note, writing seems to be coming back to me. I can't quite tell whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, since the time I spent writing this was supposed to be spent working on my thesis. Speaking of my thesis, an entry should be in the works for some interesting findings I've uncovered.

{Aaron} In line with this, I have been bitten by the health bug. It all started with a shoot with a magazine for a portrait session with a yoga instructor. And then all of a sudden, I'm doing yoga, eating my veggies and enjoying my new found flexibility. But it all came together recently when I had a food shoot bonanza with an up and coming book series about healthy food that can be easily be done at home. Like this smoked salmon covered scrambled eggs on top of wheat pandesal.

Schooled

It's been five months since the last entry. I think it's time to try to return to this habit (again). My life now revolves around teaching and my thesis, and these two new experiences have broadened my horizons in ways that I didn't expect.

I have wanted to teach since I graduated from high school, though the subjects and students have changed throughout the years. But with my love for psychology, which has intensified over the years, I decided to take concrete steps to share this amazing knowledge with students. With the unexpected opportunities that were given to me, I am now teaching in two institutions close to my heart, and have begun to realize that my romantic notions need some adjustment. This reality check was largely due to my students' performance in their first exam. I had high expectations which most did not meet. These results led me to reflect on what went wrong, and I realized that my experience as a student is probably very far from that of the average student.

Extrinsic Motivation at Its Finest

I went through most of college with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge - learning something new was a source of excitement, I listened to my professors intently, read and highlighted my books and recited like the nerd that I am. Now that I have changed roles in the classroom, it dawned on me that most students do not share this enthusiasm for learning. It may partly be due to the excessively extrinsic focus of many students, i.e., the need to fulfill class requirements to meet a certain grade (high honors for some, just passing for others). But blaming it on them will get me nowhere. Teachers also have a responsibility to instill this love for learning when it is not yet present in their students. Now the challenge lies in figuring this out. Step one probably involves remembering that students have different interests. Integrating all these in the class and going beyond my own interests would be essential. I'm going to have to let go of the things that I consider important and try to focus on what THEY consider important. An exercise in empathy and role-taking is probably in order so that what I teach will be relevant to my students' experiences too.