Random Pet-Peeve

So.... you know how you go to a store & check out at the register and they all have these little card swipe screen boxes now? Right. It really irritates me when the screen says "Amount OK?" with options of 'yes' or 'no'. I hate that. I always want to hit "NO". No, the amount is not OK, I think all your stuff is overpriced. Do NOT ask me if it's "OK"... The machines that say "Is the total correct?" are much better. That's not an opinion question & I can honestly give a yes or no answer.

That's my random for the day.

No, wait... I lied. Another random thing... I did an experiment in advertising this weekend. Two years ago I made Lychee Punch for our Halloween Party and nobody touched it:

This year I made "Lychee Sangria". It actually tasted worse (the Pinot Grigio I got ended up being way too dry), but people drank more of it. I am convinced that it's because I called it Sangria, which seems to be trendy right now. Ah well. *sigh *

Unexpected (or rather, un-thought-about) effects of going Pseudo-Paleo/Primal

When I signed up for the MovNat Seminar in August, I was a bit wary because they said we'd be on a "Paleo Diet" and I was thinking: ?!?! "Are they going to try to feed me raw meat slabs or something?" No, not really and the food was all exquisite. I'm not going to go about trying to explain Paleo/Primal here, you can go follow links if you'd like some surface explanation or some more in-depth "science" explanations...

Long story short, I heard a first-hand account of Paleo from a fellow attendee, Greg, who's been following it for a while now. His story was intriguing. Next, I came home, went back to eating my normal crap, and suddenly was ravenous all the time felt sluggish and my guts were hating me. After 48 hours of eating "normally," I whipped together a fresh spinach & basil salad with nuts & olive oil & tomatoes, had some steak, maybe another Veg & finished up with a coconut milk, banana, blueberry, almond dessert and half way through the meal I felt a whole lot more real. Let's combine this with my observations from doing calorie restriction with the Daily Plate all last year - I could eat 1600 calories... if I ate a LOT of Veg, I'd lose weight, if I ate 1600 cals worth of sandwiches & potatoes, I'd stay put. Hmmm... not all calories seem to be the same. Additionally, it's a well known fact that my body does not like digesting grain products (i.e. bread-like things). Put all this together and I decided to start researching and attempting pseudo-paleo.

I'm currently reading the book The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain an plan to eventually move on to The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson The problem with both of these books is that they LOOK like and are formatted as "Diet" books because that's what sells. Eventhough Cordain has a ridiculous number of references in the back of the book - journals, papers, and other science publications to support his findings, I get irritated because he'll make statements about fact X or Y and not reference it. I'd like to know more. Oh well. And for the record, I get a lot of good info out of Mark's Daily Apple.

Anyway, so I'm trying it in bits & pieces and in addition to generally feeling better and learning about myself (like, I didn't know I didn't feel particularly well until I noticed I felt better. weird.), I've been forced out of my normal comfort zone. Let's face it, the Binkle cannot live on just Broccoli, Lima beans, Peas and chicken alone. I've been expanding my visions from Spinach salads to Spring Mix and Romaine & this has led me to start looking at the produce section differently... For instance: endives and Leeks... What are they, how can I use them & cook them? Beets - what should I do with those? After finding just beets and then bunches of beets (complete with leaves), should I buy the bunches and then eat the greens too? I've also been pushed to try more meats too. J's always wanted to eat more fish, but I avoid it since it stinks up the house & I dislike white fish generally. Well, I've been trying for more fish... found that my Shoppers carries bags of individually wrapped fish fillets that are flash frozen at sea and some of it is wild caught. This is great for me since then I don't have to worry about going out to buy fresh fish everytime, I can grab it out of the freezer for a quick meal instead of the frozen ravioli or other freezer "food product" and if baked in a sealed tinfoil pouch, the fish smell doesn't permeate the house totally. It's like rediscovering food. I found that I love raw red pepper as a snack, raw almonds taste amazing if your body needs them, and grapes are fantastic after a run. This is awesome.

Nature Girl and 2009 Recap

I just found this article on MSNBC today: Looking at Nature Makes you Nicer. Cool. I've known for a while that I'm at my happiest when I'm around trees & rocks & water. In fact, when we first moved to the DC area, I started suffering from a Nature deficit - I found that I had to go run out and find a small naturey park and spend some time out there. It's like a reset button. I need it. This year has been wonderful because I've been pushing to be outside more. Getting more sunlight is good, sure, but also explore outdoor exercising opportunities, since I've always been prone to thinking exercise sucks. Sailing was wonderful because it really centered me and felt really primal, just shutting my mind off, listening to the water and paying very close attention to the wind on my skin (I was using that more than visual cues to tell wind direction). There was something very basic about being totally dependent on the weather, wind & water to get where you need to be. I've also been busy exploring all the parks I can find in the area as I figured out my need for trees to keep me interested in running. I'd like to become one of the Running People, but I don't think I'll ever free up enough time in my schedule for that. Now here's the rub. I live near a city, in a pretty densely suburban area, and I think I might currently have more actual access to nature than in rural Pennsylvania. Huh? That's right. This past weekend I went to visit my parents who live about 30 miles +/- southwest of Pittsburgh. The whole area is either farms or suburban developments that used to be farms. I figured I'd find a place to go for a run since there's so much more nature around there. Boy, was I ever wrong. There weren't really any parks within a 20 minute driving radius, other than recreation parks that are open fields and baseball diamonds. Though there were hills and trees and forests all around, they are all owned by someone, and not available for common use. (DON'T get me started on my rant about how Scotland was awesome because of their Land Access Rights... you have rights to go onto, use, pass through, and play on any land even if you don't own it as long as you leave it in the same condition you entered and the owners have a responsibility to maintain access to their land by providing gates or steps over fences.) It disturbed me to realize that in a rural area, full of natural beauty, one does not easily have access to it and that we only seem to regularly get access to it if you live in an area where it seems to be hard to come by and thereby requiring setting aside "nature reserves" and etc. Seems kind of wonky and messed up to me. That's just my thought for the day.

Also, for the record, I now have David Bowie's Version of "Nature Boy" running through my head on repeat.

So I figured it was time to evaluate my Samhain resolutions from last year. All in all, I think I did OK on the stuff that really mattered. I sucked at wearing more hats. I decided not to do the Boo!10K, but am training up for the Jingle All the Way 10K in the beginning of December, so that one kinda worked out. I JUST got a dentist appointment (next Tuesday argh!) because I realized I was running out of time. I ditched those last 10 lbs and toned relatively well. I got better at balancing work, play, relaxation and social, but it was at the expense of housekeeping, so I think I still have a bit to work on there, and I've been much better about the eating better and cooking more part in the past few months. An upward trend is what we're looking for. I kinda let the clothing business slide, but that's because I've kinda let the sewing slide, did a cost benefit analysis on the stress levels that would ensue and started going another direction with trying to figure out how to work on a health and mobility career. Now I'm pursuing certification for Exuberant Animal and things seem to be working out, so we'll see how it goes. : ) I'm pretty pleased. Now to just figure out what to resolve to do this coming year....

"damn having a scientific mind & a compulsion to experiment on myself!"

Just got my blood panels back from my physical - from Jan 08, my Cholesterol is down, the LDL is SIGNIFICANTLY down and I find myself wishing I had another panel from July or August '09... that would indicate whether it was strictly due to weight loss or due to healthier eating (have kinda gone half-paleo the past 5-6 weeks and wonder if/how much effect that might have).

Also, tested negative for Celiacs = yay, cake won't kill me! (if had in moderation)

Also, started training on the Couch to 5K program with my friend for Cherry Blossom. Since 30 sec jog to 90 sec walk is, well... kinda a cake-walk for me, I'm using it as an opportunity to start out slowly with running TRULY barefoot.... not too bad, though it's truly evident that I don't have a callus base yet. I really want to see if barefoot vs. psuedo barefoot has more of an effect on foot arch strength... Though you can feel rocks & etc through the Virbam Five Fingers, I can say with complete certainty now that it is WAY different without shoes - after doing a 30 second jog on a sea of shale-like gravel and acorns, going "OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! OWWWIE!!!" That was a bad trip plan on my part and will wait to attempt that again until I have some calluses built up. : ) Onward with the experiments!