Eating That Elephant

In a women’s group last night, the facilitator (the wonderful Sharon Greenlee, who will be re-running her series in April) listed one of the components of happiness as meaning.  We asked ourselves, “What would bring more meaning to my life?”

My answer was writing and more coaching.  Both are times I feel very connected to my true purpose.

Yet somehow, I rarely actually do any writing, and I’ve been letting coaching come to me, rather than promoting it.  I realized this morning that it is not lack of desire that is my problem – it’s lack of prioritization.  Yesterday I spent probably an hour researching horse bits for a friend’s daughter.  Mind you, this was joyfully done and was appreciated.  I don’t regret having done it as I learned a lot myself.  However, it certainly wasn’t “on purpose” (pun intended).  (The 1/2 hour or more I spent reading the biography of a friend’s friend who is a now-famous romance novelist really didn’t meet either criteria, unfortunately).

I rarely think, “Oh, I regret having done that” (unless it comes to email); in fact I pride myself on my recently found ability to (usually) stay connected to my feelings and stop doing something if it is not serving me (except reading email).  The problem, rather, is the opposite – I have so many productive, interesting things I would love to do!  So instead of choosing them, I often let them choose me.

This morning I realized that when I don’t consciously choose an activity, it’s still a form of “wasting” time.  This does not mean I will stop all of those activities.  I probably will still choose to sit and relax by watching TV – that is a valid choice when I need to unwind.   But when I intend to watch a few minutes, and instead I watch an hour while cleaning the kitchen, that is an hour I could have spent more purposefully.  Yes, of course, the kitchen needs to get cleaned – but not necessarily several times a day, nor at a “high energy” time when I could be much more productive, or in a rare alone moment when I could be doing something nurturing for myself.

I cleaned out the car today, vacuuming and wiping down some pretty filthy surfaces and windows even though technically, running it through the carwash would have been sufficient.  It did feel good to get it done.  But, it felt even better to stop myself from picking up more of such tasks, and simply to sit down and start writing.

As I alluded to in another post, I chose Newsgator because it seemed to be the only free RSS reader that will allow me to read blogs from my email as well as from the web.

There are two ways to do this in Newsgator, depending on how you access email. First, for both you will need a Newsgator Online account (free). www.newsgator.com has a tour and instructions.

If you use Outlook as your email reader, there is a custom (free) application available on the newsgator site under “Products for Individuals” called Newsgator Inbox for Outlook. You download and install this on the same computer that runs your Outlook and it will add itself into Outlook.  I tried it on Vista with Outlook 2003 and it works well.  The main advantage of using the Outlook add-in is that it provides a new menu which allows you to manage your Newsgator subscription from Outlook.

For all other email programs (Eudora, gmail, etc), or if you do not wish to install any new software, you will download emails using POP3 directly from the newsgator server and then if you don’t want them in your inbox directly, you can filter them using your email program’s filters or rules. To do this, first go to your newsgator account and click on the “settings” tab. Then click on “edit locations”, and scroll down to Newsgator Email Edition. Click on “configure”, enter the information you want, and then follow the instructions in your email program (each one will be different).

A week and a half ago, a friend and I rejoined a popular weight loss program with the initials WW. I’m not entirely following the program and yet I’ve found something that is working really well for me. Partially though I know that I had to get to a place where I was just ready. I’ve been thinking about it for years but just haven’t been ready to do it again.

Part of it is that the “core” program is so much easier for me than counting points because I don’t have a good memory and I’m too much of a spaz to go write everything down all the time. Also, the other factor that helps is that it dovetails nicely with the nutritional program I’m trying to adopt for our family.

Overall, I’m eating little in the way of processed foods, breads, and grains; more vegetables; more fat that WW suggests; and lots of whole foods. I’ve not had any cravings all week. (I was at a friend’s, and she was serving Oreos, which are not my favorite but usually when I’ve had little sugar, are still very compelling…I didn’t really even *want* them and didn’t eat any).

Basically, here is what I do. I’ve almost entirely eliminated trans-fats and “white” products except occasionally as treats. I limit almost all the cereal and bread grains to once a day and only whole grains. WW allows whole grain cereal without sugar, and Susan and I have decided we will substitute sprouted / healthy whole grain breads on some days. Dinner starches are limited to brown rice or potatoes, once a day.

What I am not “compliant” with WW is the amount of healthy oils I am using – I’m using quite a bit more than they suggest, and I’m going by different definitions of healthy that includes grass-fed beef and dairy fat, coconut oil, and fats from free-range chickens and pigs (bacon fat), because it has a lot of important vitamins in it (which are not nearly as present in traditionally raised animals).

Also, I’m learning more and more about getting better nutrition out of my food, through fermentation and alternate cooking methods. For example, adding vinegar to chicken broth and slow-cooking it (24 hours in a crockpot) pulls out a lot more minerals. Fermenting dairy (in the form of kefir) produces probiotics, and sprouting grains and fermenting vegetables brings out B vitamins.

Although I’m just beginning to count “extra points” in my head (since the core program allows a certain amount per week of off-program foods), I’ve been aware of them since I started. What I’ve ended up with is that I don’t count points for some extra healthy fat here and there with my whole foods at home. But if I’m eating out or eating traditional processed foods, I do, for a few reasons. First, I know my body. It loses weight well on high nutrition, pretty-high-calorie programs. (I’ve never gone as low in calories as WW recommends). But without the extra nutrition those “empty calories” add up and they don’t make me as satisfied, and so I need to track them. Second, I need the motivation right now to steer me toward whole foods that I’ve prepared at home – there needs to be a payoff other than the lack of cravings that I’m experiencing. Third, when I go out is when I need to make hard choices and sometimes choose not to, and choosing not to can get me off track very quickly.

So for example, I didn’t count the bacon fat I sauteed my onions in, nor the bits of chopped bacon that I put in my split pea soup. But if I were to go out and get a bacon-wrapped lean steak, I would count the bacon. Ditto for the butter the vegetables are sauteed in – if I ignore that, and still eat the bread, have a drink or two (counting points for those of course), my program will suffer. I need to make choices.

Speaking of drinks. I have been drinking very little alcohol, but I’ve thinking I may allow a limited amount of red wine without counting, while counting all other types of alcohol. Again, this motivates me toward the healthier choice (at least according to my acupuncturist…though she also says dark chocolate is good for me in small amounts, but not counting that would certainly be taking it too far, for me personally).

As for how this has changed my diet, honestly, the main meal I had to change was lunch, since I usually use my extra points in the evening and in little splurges through the day.

Breakfast wasn’t too hard. I will have oatmeal with some coconut oil (which is claimed to promote weight loss), or an egg, or a smoothie with raw milk or kefir and frozen fruit and coconut oil, or some combination if I’m rather hungry. Plus I almost always have tea or coffee mixed half with milk. Usually that will hold me through lunch but if not, I’ll have fruit, more tea & milk, a little cheese, or some combo for a snack. (I’ve eliminated crackers until I can make my own using high-nutrient sprouted grains, and then I will have those if I didn’t have grains for breakfast).

Out of habit, I’m used to using tortillas, bread, or other starches with my lunch, so this one is a bit tough for me. I am learning to train myself to prepare things in advance that I can pull out something healthy. (I’m also learning to use my 11 o’clock hunger signals as a signal to start chopping lunch vegies instead of munching on something, but the irony is that my 11 o’clock hunger has virtually gone away!) Soups are a great boon, and I’m not too fanatic about making sure they have only “core” ingredients if they are whole foods, even canned. A typical lunch would be a large salad with some raw cheese and chicken; or soup with some vegies or a glass of milk; and/or dinner leftovers.

Dinner has not been as hard as I expected, though to be honest we are not eating out very much lately so that helps. One night we had salmon, brown rice, and suateed greens (leftover broccoli for the guys who don’t like greens). I steamed the salmon in a little wine, lemon, and garlic, then added raw cream to the pan drippings for a sauce (and didn’t count the cream). Only problem was my son stole half my salmon! I made a huge pot of chili the other day, as we eat that a lot. Last night I picked up Quizno’s for the guys – I ate a 1″ slice but otherwise had a salad and leftover split pea soup with milk. One night when we were out and about, I picked up sushi at Sunflour market, because they have brown rice sushi and I didn’t want to have to count white rice. When we had lasagna, I simply counted the noodles.
I’m sure I’ll make refinements over time – it’s only been a week and half. But so far, I’m feeling satisfied, and the scale is going down. Perhaps not quickly, but the tradeoff is that the program is something I can maintain, at least that is my hope.

I’m trying to learn about RSS feeds. (It seems I’m always behind the times). Perhaps many of you already know all about them, and use them regularly. But just in case you feel as stupid about them as I do, I’ve collected some resources here for you.

There are lots of sites that will tell you what RSS, feeds, readers, etc are – but let’s break it down for a moment. Here’s why you care…Suppose someone sends you a link to a blog – a website where someone writes posts about whatever they feel like, such as this one. You love it…and you would like to hear more from that blog. How do you know when there are new posts? Do you have to go check it every time you want to read it?

The answer is that you can put all of the blogs you are interested in, as well as news sites, etc that you may want to keep up to date, in a “feed reader” – basically a place to keep track of all of them – so you can see them all in one place, know what you’ve already read, etc. With most, you still have to go check; with some, you can get updates via email.

Here are sites that talks about what feeds and feed readers (or aggregators) are in more detail:

http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?answer=79408

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,116018-page,1/article.html

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=166403685

Now the question becomes, how do I pick one? There are tons out there, and every “top 10” list seems to be different. Do you want to read on the web, or download software? Do you want to access them on your mobile phone? (I’m not even going to go there – I have enough to learn about!) Do you, like me, live in your email program and rarely remember to venture out of it?

I found this site that gives some favorites:

http://email.about.com/od/rssreaderswin/tp/top_rss_windows.htm

This one has a nice summary of why you might pick one type over another:

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/executive_tech/article.php/3521206

I decided to try out both Google Reader and Newsgator Online, and finally decided on Newsgator because it has a way to download to my email. Now I get all of the blogs I’m interested in put into an email folder of their own.

Our family made sushi (California Roll) for dinner tonight. It was so much fun! Here are some links in case you want to try it.

For the recipe we used the one from Good Eats –

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_31391,00.html

But before we were ready to try inside out rolls, we did normal rolls, using the same ingredients, like this:
http://sushiday.com/archives/2006/10/26/how-to-roll-maki-sushi/ Except that the way I had learned you only cover 1/2 of the nori with rice, not all but a little.

Then we did the inside-out California rolls, using the 1/2 sheet of nori like Good Eats says, and it worked pretty well – some of them fell apart. You have to be super careful when you cut them.

Then I got ambitious and made Caterpillar roll (but without the unagi – and still using the 1/2 sheet of nori) like this: http://sushiday.com/archives/2006/12/23/caterpillar-roll/ . They were the best IMO.

Lastly, I made miso soup with a bit of Thai fish sauce (instead of the fish “tea bag”), miso, and a bit of torn up nori. (Ratio – 2.5 cups water; 1.5 tbsp miso; 1 tablespoon fish sauce).

We’ve decided we’ll make Sunday into a regular date to make dinner together as a family…next week, homemade pizza with the bread machine.

Here is another version of a Webkinz Sweater, with a matching scarf. It’s easy enough that my son can make them, and the scarf is a nice learning tool for the child who wants to progress to the sweater.

For basic crochet instructions: http://www.lionbrand.com/faq/learnToCrochet.pdf

Scarf

For the scarf, form a loop in your yarn and make a chain that is 5 links plus the initial loop, plus what is on the hook. Neither of those count.

Your scarf will be 4 stitches wide (the 5th is the turning stitch). The beauty of this for kids is that they don’t need to figure out where to put the next stitch. For each row, simply count from the far left end – first count to the 4th (not counting the initial 1/2 stitch that came from your initial loop) and put the hook through number 4. Single crochet (wrap up around the back, pull through 1, wrap again, pull through all). Next count to number 3, then 2, then 1. After doing these 4 stitches, make a single chain stitch for the turning row, turn, and do it all again, counting back each time until you know by heart which stitch to start with and which one is next. So it starts like this, where x is your initial loop, and h is your hooked loop:

x 1 2 3 4 5 h

Stitch 4, then 3, then 2, then 1; chain; turn; repeat. Note that on row 1 you go under 1 piece of yarn, but on all other rows you go under both yarns of the “V”.

Sweater

Next, the sweater! Loosely chain on enough length to slip over your Webkinz head and form the neck. Using a simple slip stitch and making sure the chain is not twisted, join together. Crochet around and around (again, on row 1, going through 1 yarn, and through 2 after that) until it is the right length for the neck and any cuff you want. Try it on your dog, and leave it on for the next step.

Next you are going to make the body. Either rotate the collar so that your hook is at the side, or crochet over to one side. Then make a chain stitch (still attached) about 1/2 the circumference of the dog so that it will go under his legs and reattach to the main crochet. Straighten the chain, run it under his legs, and join this chain to the main crochet using a slip stitch. Now simply crochet around and around this new circle (either on the dog or off) until it reaches his back legs. If you would like a rounded edge on the back, turn around without using a turning stitch, and go backwards for a few inches and end with a slip stitch before tying off.

Here is the pattern I used as a base for the sweater, though I believe mine is simpler:

http://www.crochetnmore.com/dogsweater.htm

I found/modified this loom knitting pattern for my son’s Webkinz, and thought your kids might like to try it!

I modified a base pattern from here:

http://lindasloomroom.blogspot.com/2006/02/knifty-knitter-chihuahua-or-small-dog.html

You’ll need to refer to that pattern for pictures and details.
Materials: Knifty Knitter rectangular or 12-peg flower loom, bulky yarn.

First, I loosely wrapped 12 pegs on the end of the rectangular loom in the “e-wrap” pattern that you use on the round loom. When I got to the end of the first 6 I just went across to the other side. I did NOT use the figure eight pattern that you might usually use – I went around in a circle, with the crosses on the inside and the loops on the outside, like a f lower.

I knitted for 11 rows to make the back-end of the sweater – I found that I needed to knit about 3 rows more than I thought I would need by looking at it, because it tends to snug up when taken off the loom. I knitted the back end first, because it is naturally much looser than the cast on.

Next, using the above pattern as a guide, I picked two pegs for each leghole. Since I wanted the leg holes near the bottom, I left 3 pegs in between the legs, and 5 on top. Here’s an attempt at an illustration, with O for pegs that are knitted normally and X for leg-hole pegs:

O O O O X X

O X X O O O

If you look at this as if it is a circle, you can see there are 5 pegs for the top, and 3 for the bottom. I cast off the two legs and rewrapped them according to the above pattern.

Next, I knitted 9 rows for the neck of the sweater. This gave enough for a small cuff.

Now you are ready to cast off. If your Webkinz has a small head and neck, you can do a regular cast-off; I did this the first time and it worked OK. But it fits better with a loose cast-off. I used this one:

http://yarngear.com/looms/tips.htm – look for “SUPER-STRETCHY BIND-OFF”.

Have fun!! I’ll try to post a picture soon.

I never thought I would say this, but I had kale for dinner last night and it was delicious.

As a child, I was forced to eat kale and I hated it. Kale was out-hated only by okra (which I have to try again, though I’m told it is a delicacy). I lived on a large community (what you would call a “commune”) where most of our food was grown by hand, and only a small amount of necessities were purchased with the small pot of community money. I can remember toilet paper being rationed to a certain number of rolls per household per week, and bananas being only given to children under 2, and only 1 per week at that.

Kale was good for me, I was told, and since it was one of the few vegies that would grow *in the snow*, it came at a time when nutrition was especially low. I had heard tales of “wheat berry winter” where the mills had broken down, there was no money to fix them, and all there was to eat were wheat berries cooked like cereal – perhaps a little salt if you had stored some away – but fortunately I didn’t live there during that time!

Luckily I actually didn’t mind the bland flavor of soybeans, which were the mainstay of our diet; most children detested them. Pinto beans, more of a rarity, I didn’t care for and would often eat as pills, swallowing each one whole, or I would surreptitiously feed them to the cat waiting under the table, who couldn’t afford to be picky either. But kale, there really is no way to swallow whole. I clearly remember gagging down this horribly bitter tasting leaf which I was convinced really was a noxious weed. If we had vinegar, sometimes I could mask the taste with that, but as I grew older and we moved off the community, I resolved to leave kale and pinto beans behind me as a part of my past. I would explain to friends in college that it wasn’t that I didn’t like beans – I had simply already eaten my lifetime supply.

So I was quite surprised when, over at a friends house, I observed her and her 3 year old daughter not only enjoying but fighting over (complete with dualing forks) sauteed kale. Eating kale is definitely not something I would put past this vegetarian, ultra-nutrition oriented friend, but her daughter? I tentatively asked to try a bite – whoever came up with the strategy of not giving your children food that you want them to have, and eating it all yourself with relish, must have been a genius as it certainly worked on me.

It must have some nutrient I’m in need of, because that one bite (which I admitted was quite good) got a hold of me. I started craving more and bought my own bunch. Of course, once it was in my kitchen, all of my doubts returned – it still was that squeaky, beautifully dark-colored leaf that I had detested for so long and admired as a pretty addition to a plate but not actually considered food. After several days of considering it and opting for the lettuce instead, I finally tried it, cooked in some bacon fat and lots of apple cider vinegar. It was … not bad, I admitted. The next day I tried microwaving it, as I only had a few minutes. That was a horrible mistake – I can only guess that it was the metal content caused it to spark and shrivel. Finally on my third try, it came out wonderful. Delicious. Here’s what I did.

Lisa Rediscovers Kale

Wash kale and tear leaves from stalks into bite-sized pieces. Trim ends off stalks, and slice into very thin disks. Melt a pat of butter in a covered pan. Add kale and stalk disks, 1/2 cup of water, and steam for about 10 minutes or until disks lose their bitterness and kale is starting to get soft. Meanwhile, chop about 1/2 cup red or sweet yellow onion and a bit of garlic. Push kale to sides, and add onion and garlic with another pat of butter to center of pan and soften to transparent.

Taste, and add salt, vinegar, or other ingredients as needed. (At the last minute, I added some sliced breakfast sausage that I had leftover so that it was made into a meal – it went surpisingly well together!)

The Straw Trick

My son takes quite a few supplements despite having a very strong gag reflex. Here is a trick that he figured out that makes taking pills so much easier, as well as some other ways of getting in supplements.

Find a big, fat straw – I got them from Amazon (here’s a direct link) but my MIL has straws that were used to hold up flower stems and they work OK – check a florist. (I don’t know what kind of plastic they are, and they crack quickly, so if the trick works, it’s worth a pack of straws). Sometimes you can get fat straws from a quick-mart type place in a drink. We wash and reuse ours for quite a while.

Put the straw in juice (we use a tall, skinny glass), and put a capsule into the straw. Try it yourself first. Put the pill all the way down the straw – most pills float but keep the straw firmly touching the glass. The child can practice with small candies, but they must be slippery – no chewables or tablets, even if they taste good! (This is important at first, because if the pill gets stuck at the back of the throat, it feels strange and the child may not want to try anything else for a while.

Now, simply suck up juice and pill together. The straw puts it right on the perfect place of the tongue for swallowing. Some people are concerned the child might choke, but our mouths are trained from an early age to swallow whatever the straw puts there.

Why must it be a capsule to start? These are so much more slippery than tablets plus they don’t have any flavor. Softgels work well too, but do often have flavor, so try these after capsules. There are three ways to deal with tablets:

• If the child takes other large capsules (for example 1g Vit C) we open it up, and stuff a small tablet inside it. Because the capsule has powder in it, there is a little extra space, plus there is more overlap between the two halves of the capsule than is truly needed so the capsule just gets a bit longer. This works well for many medications, as the pills are fairly small, and often have a “split line” so you can easily break them into halves.
• If a larger pill is not a capsule, I cut it in half if needed (as long as it isn’t time release), and I put it into an empty capsule (you can dump out one of a less-expensive supplement to to see if the trick works). Empty capsules can be saved from when you make fruit smoothies, or can be purchased in different sizes from most health food stores and vitamin shops.
• Lastly, some children, especially after using this method a while, can take capsules straight into the straw. (We have a B complex that doesn’t fit in a capsule that my son now takes this way). What I do with most tablets is go to a health food / vitamin store and look for empty capsules. put the straw in juice, the pill down the straw, and suck it up into the mouth. Find a capsule that will fit your pill.

I’ve started buying everything I can in capsules, but for those that I can’t I have mastered the art of squeezing in lots of different things into capsules.

Other Tricks

Splitting capsules: If you have two capsules the same size (one might be empty), you can split them into 2 doses fairly easily by opening the capsule and distributing the powder between the two halves, and then putting an empty half capsule on each end. You can repeat for smaller splits, though you will use a lot of empties. It’s not exact, of course, but many things absorb better in multiple doses.

Distraction: I find my son takes his supplements more easily if he is watching TV and I put the straw under his mouth (once he knows the trick of course) because he is not thinking about it or tensing up his body. (Ditto with not-so-great tasting fruit shakes).

Fruit smoothies are a great way to hide supplements. If your supplements taste bad, you’ll want to use frozen fruit because it numbs the taste buds. (However, an interesting note is that our taste buds often don’t object to supplements we really need – e.g., one way my practitioner tests if I need zinc is to put some on my tongue (a special formulation) – if it tastes horrible you don’t need zinc!). I can’t stand the taste of fish oil in smoothies, but my son doesn’t hardly notice.Overripe bananas are great for sweetening smoothies – slice them into a freezer bag whenever they are spotted brown and no-one wants to eat them.

It’s possible to make smoothies in a blender, of course, but if you have a hand (immersion) blender they make fabulous smoothies. My basic recipe is:

• 1/2 cup whole yogurt on the bottom
• a few chunks frozen banana
• a handful of frozen berries, peaches, or other fruit
• supplements (e.g., powders or opened capsules, liquid fish oil, whey protein powder, magnesium drink mix, Vitamin C, etc)
• Other foods you want to hide (raw tofu, raw egg yolk, frozen cubes of vegies)
• Enough milk (if supplements are too sour) or juice (if it is too bland) to make it blend well

Blend thoroughly, stopping every few seconds to get the air bubble out and adding a little more liquid if needed. I’ll add a little sweetener sometimes at the end after taste testing (or more banana). Sometimes a bit of lemon juice is helpful to make it more “intense” – though it will require more sweetener, it will cover more other tastes as well.

When I use an immersion blender, the consistency is almost like soft-serve ice cream and can be eaten with a spoon.

If fruit shakes are used for “dosed” supplements, it can get tricky if you make too much fruit shake. In this case you might make the fruit shake for the family, and add the child’s supplements after most has been poured out. For non “dosed” amounts, where you just want to get some nutrition in, you can freeze extra fruit shake into cubes, and re-blend them later.

Enzymes: Enzymes shouldn’t be put in fruit shakes because they quickly get activated by the liquid and make the whole thing taste awful. But, they can be mixed into anything fatty such as nut butter or chocolate as fat doesn’t activate them. Or you can use the Straw Trick. There are more tricks on enzymestuff.com for enzymes as well as lots of information.