August 13, 2008
hello, all! 
Hi, it's me. Sorry I've been so quiet, it's just there's been an awful lot that's happened and that's still happening. This is really my whirlwind year of change. Whether I like it or not.
I've been focusing more lately on what I'm eating and drinking, and the types of exercise I'm getting.
Maybe a month or two ago, I borrowed a folding bike from a friend, and I absolutely adored it. It rode great. It folded up tiny. It weighs next to nothing (or, 30#). So I took a couple of weeks to think about it, and finally went a few weeks and bought one. A folding bike of my own!
I'm loving riding it. Today I rode 2 miles into town, and then another 4.5 miles from a train stop to work. It really makes me feel good -- and it makes me sleep good, too.
And yesterday, for the first time in I don't know how long, I went to the gym. I did some upper-body strengthening that I'm still feeling. But it's a good feeling. I'm planning to go back in tomorrow.
_________
Sometimes, I think I'm really doing well, self-esteemwise. And then.... like yesterday, or the day before, I saw a picture taken in June. It's not flattering, at all! All I could see in the photo was my belly. Now, I'm not deluded. I know I have a belly, and I'll probably have a belly the rest of my life. Even when I got down to my post-college low of 160#, I had a belly. I doubt it's the first thing anyone notices about me. But for whatever reason, that's what I see on myself.
I want to love my body. But I want you to love my body as well. Is that too much to ask?
Posted at August 13, 2008 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | body image
April 12, 2008
motor vehicular breakdown
This has not been my week, transportation-wise.
Admittedly, I finally got my transit pass, which makes me insanely, insanely happy. I was losing hope that I would ever get it.
But, I've had two motorvehicles die on me in 6 days. I'm feeling a little superstitious at this point.
I was running out to Tigard to see a friend on Sunday when my clutch failed on Hwy 26. I got up the Sylvan hill, and up the Sylvan exit, and then the car stopped and refused to go any further.
Two days and a lot of money later, I had a car with a new clutch... that still isn't running right. I wish I had a mechanic that I could trust.
Today, I had thought I would be meeting my friend downtown ... but she wanted to meet at her house (not convenient to public transit). Okay, so I jumped on the scooter. We were going to get breakfast at a wildly popular place, and then go to the Farmer's Market, go to her favorite chocolate shop, REI, and then our favorite restaurant for some good yiddish soul food.
But first, I had to stop at the ATM about 15 blocks away.
And when I tried to start the scooter again, no such luck.
I had a big hill to walk the scooter up, and then of course, the rest of the way home. It took an hour and a half.
It was notable that black folks were the only ones to stop and see how I was doing, or if I needed help. I saw lots of people while I pushed the damn 350# scooter home, the vast majority of them white, but I had one woman commiserate and offer her phone; two guys on bicycles stop and ask how I was doing and if they could help; and a clutch of women on a house stoop commiserated, offered the phone, and offered to help.
Two of my neighbors (also african-american) scolded me for not calling them (if only I had had their numbers with me!).
Obviously I need a new plan of action. I'm going to:
- get on a towing plan (AAA or BetterWorld)
- get a new cellphone where I can actually hear the person I'm talking to
And right now I'm going to take a nap, because I'm exhausted!
Posted at April 12, 2008 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | off-topic
April 6, 2008
Vietnamese Cabbage Salad
This theoretically will serve 3-4 people as a main dish, but that hasn't been my experience. In my household, it serves 2, and is a topic of conversation for weeks afterwards.
This is based on Guilty Carnivore's Vietnamese Chicken Slaw, which I'm guessing is based on the Spicy Cabbage & Chicken Salad in Andrea Nguyen's Into The Vietnamese Kitchen.
Salad Components
1 head green cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, shredded
(instead of cabbage & carrots, I use prepared coleslaw and broccoli slaw mixes)
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped coarsely
24 leaves spearmint
12 purple perilla leaves (these are available at a Viet grocery -- if you can't get them, just add another 12 leaves of mint)
Dressing
2 cloves of garlic, forced through a garlic press
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
Juice of two small limes (or one big lime)
3 tablespoons sugar
a dash of salt
1 and 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 thai bird chilies, minced
1 and 1/2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon garlic chili sauce or siracha
Garnish
Handful of roasted peanuts (no skins)
First make the dressing, combining the ingredients above and giving it a taste to be sure it is as you like it. I used a Korean hot sesame oil, which just about blew my head off, so I skipped the hot peppers and hot sauce completely (and added more rice vinegar, lime & fish sauce). If you don't care for spicy hot, skip the hot stuff, and reduce the sugar to a teaspoon or less, tasting for seasoning.
If you want to be super traditional, chop the garlic & peppers, and then use a mortar & pestle to pound and mash them. The smell that come off them when they're pasty is so superior to my quick version, and it really doesn't take that much longer.
Now, to the salad. Chiffonade your herbs, and put them in a large bowl. Add cabbage & salad (or slaw mix), and toss thoroughly. Just before eating, add the dressing and toss to mix well. The salad may wilt a little -- that's no problem. Now taste it for balance of sour, sweet, salty & spicy, and transfer to a serving plate leaving any excess dressing behind. Garnish with roasted peanuts.
Posted at April 6, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | recipe
February 19, 2008
the force of memory
It's so very strange how life is -- don't you think? Yesterday and today, I've gone off diet, so to speak, and eaten meat and dairy.
Now, I do think about meat and dairy all the time. I think several types of thoughts:
- gosh, I feel better since I'm not eating that
and
- gosh, that tastes so good, I hope I'll get to eat it again.
I always think that meat and dairy are going to taste better. No, they taste different, but not better. In fact, I have to say that I've felt a bit let down with each bit of meat or dairy I've had.
I remember feeling this way after the 6 week vegan detox last year, that this stuff was okay, but not the great fantastic thing that I had been expecting. So why do I keep going back for more?
For the most part, it's a social thing. Though today I just broke down and I have no excuses other than that I thought it would taste crazy good. And really, not so much.
++++++
Yesterday was fun. My sweetie had to work so I stayed home and got domestic. I made no-knead bread, veggie stock, and then red lentil soup; I washed clothes and did other unromantic things which made me feel all swell inside.
And to my great shock, I am continuing to lose weight very slowly. This weekend, I ate pretty much whatever I wanted, I got vegan cookies and desserts, I ate chocolate. And still lost weight. I spent most of the weekend on the couch, just lying around. And still lost weight. It's crazy.
Posted at February 19, 2008 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | off-topic
February 6, 2008
tracking information is vital to measuring performance and improvement
As I mentioned in the last post, I'm keeping track of where I'm at step-wise, and weight-wise, every day. Or close to everyday, as I do sometimes forget. Still, the fact that I'm paying attention seems to be paying off.
I'm not consistently hitting 10,000 steps a day, but I'm getting closer. And while I manage to forget my weight about a half-hour after I get off the scale, I'm still left with the sense that either I'm losing, I'm maintaining, or I'm gaining.
For the most part, it's been losing. I'm trying to keep to the Michael Pollan plan (eat food... not too much... mostly plants). In spite of several evening events this week, in spite of a beer and some cassoulet, in spite of a day where I barely ate any plants at all, I am very slowly losing. I mean, slowly. And that's exactly how I want it.
....
Not surprisingly, I've had some interesting walks. One day, I walked to the MAX (about 20 minutes), got off at the grocery store, loaded up my bags, and then repeated the process home. I learned that I'm not crazy about carrying groceries for any distance.
Another day, I planned to walk to my favorite cafe in town, about 4.5 miles. But once I got outside, it was raining, and then it was snowing, and then this didn't seem to be such a great idea. So again, I walked to the MAX and took it part of the way there, and then walked through the neighborhood. It still took me a while, and by the time I got to the MAX, my socks were already socked. Thank g-d they were wool, so they were still warm. Not long after I got off MAX, my pants and shoes were soaked too. But it was still a good walk, and a fairly long one, the sort that made me very blissfully tired.
.....
The other night I went to a fantastic potluck with Julia Child as the theme. We had all read Child's My Life in France, and our hostess made the most fabulous cassoulet. I struggled for days trying to think of something vegan to make that would appeal to the other guests, and also something that would not require an entire day of cooking.
It was quite a relief to come across the Salade Composee from The French Chef Cookbook, which is just marinated veggies & beans on top of salad greens. In spite of that, it was quite elegant.
Salade Composee
for the vinaigrette
1-2 Tablespoons wine vinegar or lemon juice
a smidge of salt
fresh ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon dijon or dry mustard
6-8 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oilfor the salad
a can of borlotti beans, rinsed & drained (you can use any kind)
raw zucchini sliced
raw mushrooms sliced
salad greens
cherry tomatoes
nicoise olives
fingerling or banana potatoes, chopped into bitesized pieces
parsleyObviously, the idea is to make a nice salad with what you have on hand. I think marinating asparagus and green beans, and then grilling would be an excellent addition. If I were still eating fish, I'd add a good European tuna packed in olive oil. Easter egg radishes would be pretty, and grilled zucchini or carrot slices would be nice, too.
- cook the fingerling potatoes in salted water for about 10 minutes, or until tender
- create the vinaigrette by placing all the ingredients in a bowl, and whisking until combined
- marinate beans, zucchini, mushrooms and potatoes in vinaigrette for 20-30 minutes
- dress the greens lightly and arrange on a planter. Mound the food items in their own pyramids. Sprinkle a little more vinaigrette and chopped parsley on top
But most of the time, I come home from work, and we impromptu decide what we're going to eat. This isn't the best of all possible worlds as we're invariably both hungry, which leads us to eating canned soup and fake meat sandwiches.
So I actually did some research on what we could make in that sort of instance, and came up with Jacque Pepin's Cold Black Bean Soup. It being winter, I warmed it up a little.
Black Bean Soup
a large can of black beans
olive oil
hot sauce
several cloves of garlic
salt
veggie broth
cilantro
lime
avocado
- puree part or all of the black beans with some olive oil
- add hot sauce, garlic and salt to taste
- add enough broth to make it creamy
- heat and serve, garnished with chopped cilantro & chunked avocado. A squirt of lime really brings it to life.
adding salsa is another variant that is very good.
....
And, I've been knitting like a fiend. I'm working on a baby blanket for a cow-orker and it really is turning out gorgeously, I gotta say. Of course I don't have a picture, are you kidding?
My local yarn shop has gotten slipper bottoms in, so I can begin making slippers for everyone I know once I finish said baby blanket.
And the embers armwarmers are excruciatingly close to done. I just need to spend a little bit more time on them.
I'm planning to start going through my stash and dunging it out. Stuff with labels I may try to sell, stuff without I'll probably donate. I'm ridiculously excited about this... It's part of my decluttering effort, which is moving glacially slowly. But, it's moving.
Posted at February 6, 2008 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | walking
January 28, 2008
doldrums
I seem to be in a holding pattern right now. A bit of the January doldrums.
This morning, I went to make myself a blended salad, which usually looks like a smoothie from the raspberries and strawberries in it. But I forgot, conveniently, that I am not supposed to be eating any seeds, which raspberries and strawberries have in spades. So I think I pulled the majority of them out, but who knows?
Anyways, the result was that my blended salad was light green in color—not something I want to take out in public with me. I need to find some way to color and flavor these now that I can't eat berries temporarily. I wonder how wildly expensive berry juices are?
+++
My sweetie is losing a lot of weight, and lately, his blood sugar has been in the ideal range. This is exciting stuff. I've been seeing other signs of him being in better health as well.
Me, if I'm losing, it's going very very slowly. Very not dramatic. But I'm interested in trying to improve my own health as well.
I'm eating almost vegan at home. The almost is the occasional package of ramen and putting butter blend on my slices of homemade bread. I'm still eating a couple meals out a week, and eating whatever I want when I do.
I've been wearing the pedometer religiously, but not so good about getting 10,000 steps in a day. Today I will make it. I will! Yesterday I danced while washing dishes and baking bread but I still came in with a lousy step count. Grumble.
++++
The biggest news in my kitchen has been baking almost no-knead bread. The hype is true -- it's easy, and it's tasty.
I've been using the Cooks Illustrated recipe, which includes some vinegar and beer for flavor. I started with the all-white flour loaf, which was really a bread I'd be happy to buy. Yesterday, I made the whole wheat loaf, which was even better.
The way this stuff works is:
one, dump all your ingredients in a bowl. Stir with a spatula to combine. This may take all of five minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place for 8-18 hours.
two, roll your sticky dough out onto a floured surface and give it about 10 to 15 kneads. Plop it on a sprayed sheet of parchment and let sit for 2 hours.
three, about an hour and a half later, put your dutch oven and lid in the oven and let it heat up at 500 degrees.
four, when it's time to bake the bread, just transfer the dough on parchment to the dutch oven, leaving the parchment beneath. If you like something on the crust, add it now, and take a sharp knife and cut the dough's top. Now, put on the lid and let bake at 425 for a half hour.
five, take off the lid, put in the temp probe, and give it 15-20 more minutes, until the outside of the bread is a deep brown, and the inside is 210 degrees. Let the bread cool on a rack, and leave the house for 2 hours.
six, come back and enjoy. Your house will smell good and everything tastes better with with fresh bread.
I have never been able to bake bread outside of a bread machine, so having made two perfect loaves in two weeks just makes me feel like I've worked some kind of magic.
Posted at January 28, 2008 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | off-topic
January 18, 2008
Stairway to Heaven
My cow-orkers called the route, the Stairway to Heaven. They weren't just a kidding. It didn't end up being a long walk, clocking in under 3 miles, but it was one of the hardest walks I've done recently (and an example of all the conditioning I've lost).
We moseyed through downtown and the PSU campus to 12th & College, climbing the first hill over the freeway. There at 12th & College is a public staircase, one of many in Portland. A couple of guys in much better shape than us mentioned that it had 179 steps. Luckily for us, there were landings perhaps every 50 steps or so.
The staircase was so step that I couldn't look down towards the city from the landings -- and I'm not usually scared of heights.
It was a great walk. Once we were up the stairs, we were on Cardinell, and we walked back down the hill and back into the city. Just like that.
Posted at January 18, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | walking
