Vacation in the cold

Good evening!  It's 9:18pm here in Provincetown, MA and it feels like 4 am.  Because that's how we role in the country.

This morning I started off the day with two scrambled eggs with spinach and mushrooms.  Then Grace and I took a nice long walk through town.

 

It's cold here, but it IS warmer here than NY, although very windy.

We stopped in Marine Specialties, the store that has everything you don't need in the world.

Just a ton o crap

Fishing supplies

A lot of hunting and fishing knives

Tons of flags

WWII stuff.  All itchy.

We walked down to the Breakwater

And Grace took me to a cranberry bog, which was very exciting

And then to Herring Cove beach for some glorious views.

All in all I think we walked about 3 miles.  We stopped at a great little spot for lunch, where I got a roast beef sandwich with swiss and veggies and horseradish sauce.  I ate about half the bread.

While we're at it, I ate about 6 peanut butter cups today:

And dinner was spaghetti squash and pasta with pesto alfredo, made by Grace.  I also had two small stuffed clams and some wine today.

Tomorrow!  I'm meeting with a trainer at The Provincetown Gym (I did about 30 minutes of cardio there yesterday btw).  We're going to discuss my goals and I hope to bring a good routine back to NYC with me in a few days.

I have more to write but these lovely pictures of Ptown are taking up my time.  And I'm tired because it's 9:34 in the country.

No smoking.
3 miles walking today.

Goodnight!

Escape to the Cape

The Breakwater in Provincetown, stormy.

I hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas.  I did.  On Sunday I decided to "beat the storm" and take the semi-reliable rental Mercury Tracer to Provincetown, MA for a week.

It wasn't too bad for a while, but eventually it got to near white-out conditions and I had to find a hotel.

Spooky cemetery.  OOOOOoooooooooo

 I pulled into Provincetown yesterday morning and immediately went to find my friend Grace so we could go to luncheon.  I had only had a banana and was very hungry.  We decided on The Squealing Pig, a lovely little pub.  I love pubs.  WHO DOESN'T LOVE A GOOD PUB?

 Grace suggested we have beers with lunch, which was a genius plan.  She went to Smith, you know.

I had to get the wings, as they were organic and free range and all.  Grace got the lovely lentil soup and truffle and parmesan fries.
Then we took three hour naps because of the beer-with-lunch thing.  Dinner was frozen pizza that we covered with broccoli.

I wanted to have a nice long walk around town or in the dunes, but it's really pretty cold and very windy outside, so we stopped by the breakwater and made a nice moviefilm and then I went and signed up for a week's membership at The Provincetown Gym, the first gym I ever belonged to.  There were five people in the gym this afternoon at 1 pm, and I am excited to have a relaxing week at anice, uncrowded gym.

 

I had a nice lunch of Salami and some dark chocolate and I'm getting ready to go watch the Sunset at Herring Cove beach, and then will head to the gym.  I haven't really gotten any exercise in a week and I feel insane.  I have to get moving!   Ahhhhh!

The Bay

Enjoy your afternoon!

I am very ready. To be done being sick.

Let me tell you.

I have enough mint tea.  All tea, but I feel as though my whole body might be mentholated right now.  It's an icky feeling.

I might trade my soul to never have a post-nasal drip cough ever again.

I haven't exercised in a couple of weeks.

And am not sleeping well.  I was exhausted last night and couldn't sleep.  I know if I were exercising it would help. 

A few more days.  No dairy, rest, juice, vitamins.
Maybe I'll try for some push-ups tonight.  Something.  But it's already going to be a late night and an early morning. 
Time for another orange carrot ginger whatever juice.

This isn't my best post.  But I'm tired.

I am so sick.

I am deathly ill.  I believe I have, dare I say it, the FLU.
Ugh.  I haven't felt this sick (or cold, wait no hot, no wait FREEZING cold, no way it's so hot in here) in a long time.  It took all my strength yesterday to muster up enough energy to walk two blocks to the pharmacy to buy a thermometer and some tylenol.  Then I took my temp (101.5), ordered Indian food, took two bites, and then promptly passed out again.
I took a picture of myself, and debated whether or not I should post it.  I decided to do so.

Don't I look awesome?  I'm actually starting to get the giggles about just how bad I look.  Which makes me feel better, actually.  So now I'm glad I posted it.

It's a bummer though.  It's Christmas week in New York and I haven't seen any of it.  I love the holidays in New York.  But instead I have to stay home and not eat Indian food.  Also, some of you may know that my bed is a futon on the ground.  I've considered buying a real bed, but I've found the futon to be emotionally appropriate at this juncture in my life.  I kind of revel in it, actually.
But not when I'm sick.  When I'm sick I want to be in front of a roaring fireplace, underneath one hundred quilts, on a bed that is 50% cloud/50% baby goose feathers, sipping some of my mom's homemade soup, with Christmas movies playing somewhere in the background (at least in December).

Did you know I ADORE Christmas??

But it could be worse.  Being sick is making me chill out, which is good.  I feel like I need it.

I'm planning a trip to the Cape after Christmas and am considering renting a car.  Then I thought, if I have this car  - why go to Cape Cod??  Why not go to...Savannah, Georgia?!

So I spent awhile Yelping Savannah, GA.

Or Charleston, SC??

So then I spent an inordinate amount of time looking up Charleston, SC.

And then I checked the hotel availability in both cities.

I'll be going to the Cape.

Since I got up at 4pm yesterday and went to bed around 9pm, I woke this morning to the moon shining into my face, and I remembered that last night was a lunar eclipse, 

Now, this picture may be unimpressive, but when I actually woke up at 5:37 am it was much larger and maybe even a bit brighter.  You have to factor in, though, the 30 minutes it took for me to muster the strength to go to the window.  I didn't even change the settings and I clearly should have.

And then I remembered last night was a lunar eclipse, which obviously I missed because I couldn't see it lying facedown in my pillow. 

But at least I got the shiny-moon part afterwards.

I've been up for more than 3 hours.  I'm going to go heat up some mulligatawny, leave it in the microwave untouched, and pass out.

bye now.

A challenge

So I got this.

A coconut.  I've been having a tough time - shopping at the greenmarkets has been so easy and straightforward up until this week.  Now it's all wintry veg and I don't have a wide array of experience with doing creative things with cabbage and squash and things.  SO I've been also going to the grocery store.  And I wind up taking home a coconut.
I went to howtoopenacoconut.com, for real, to figure out how to open it.
I nailed into the three indent spots, placed it op top of a glass, and nailed into the opposite end of the coconut.

And promptly broke the glass.  I've been a clumsy idiot lately.  Just in the past 24 hours, I've jammed my finger, stubbed my toe, burned my face with duck fat, and now I've broken a glass.  So I placed it on top of another glass, which my roommate told me was a bad idea.  Which was true. 
Eventually, I managed to drain the juice of the coconut and then followed the website's directions to wrap it in a towel, place it on the floor, and wack at it with the hammer to open it up, which I did, and tore several holes in the towel.  Sigh.  I wish the website had maybe suggested i use and OLD towel, not one a regularly dry my bod on.

The roommates obviously found the whole process curious and fascinating and stood around marveling and rolling their eyes at me and all.  Then we all tried it.  I'll be trying it in a smoothie tomorrow morning.  Broken glass and torn towel aside, the coconut is open and the flesh has been removed and is in the refrigerator.

This morning I had a banana-cherry green monster, which I have discovered is the MOST DELICIOUS FLAVOR. 

 I went to lunch with friends and got a blt with potato salad (I ate about half) and a root beer, because root beer kicks.

They gave us a lot of drinks.  There were only 3 of us.

These two terrifying individuals proved to be marvelous luncheon companions.

Before lunch, I had a light snack of some sliced duck breast, spaghetti squash, and half a piece of bread with butter.

Tonight I had pizza for dinner with the roommates, and a few chocolates.

I have to tell you something.  I smoked a few cigarettes last night.  I was right, it's too soon for me to go out with friends the way I used to and have some drinks and expect not to smoke.  I get a few drinks in me, and it's all over, especially when I'm with smokers.  Drinking and smoking go hand in hand.  In fact, I'm fairly certain that I used to drink sometimes just so I could smoke.  That's a pretty serious addiction.  I gotta change it all up.
But it's okay.  I'm not going to beat myself up about it.  I've been feeling pretty blah this week, and not so strong.  Weeks like this, I have to be extra careful, because I'm much more inclined to slip.
No real exercise today.  I've got to join a gym, it's been SO COLD outside that I'm not walking much.  I'm in a bit of limbo right now.  I feel like I'm not "moving" in my life.  Just one of those weeks.

I leave you with Kitty giving Matt a hug.

And of Kitty hanging out with F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Goodnight!  Be nice to yourself.

Learning more about the food we eat

Turns out, I knew nothing about the food I eat.  For instance, I knew that grass-fed meat was supposed to be better for you, but I didn't know why.  So I decided to do some research.
I've been doing a lot of reading on Fitness Spotlight, which led me to Eat Wild, where I've found out many fascinating facts.  Among them:

• The European Union has banned the import of all US poultry since 1997
• Commercially produced meat has much higher fat than grass-fed meat
• "a study from the Journal of Clinical Nutrition says that the more full-fat dairy products people consume, the lower their risk of heart attack---provided the cows were grass-fed.   
• Commercially farmed animals are sometimes fed CANDY, sometimes still in their wrappers.
• Pasture-fed hens produce eggs that have up to ten times the amount of Omega-3's than commercially produced eggs.

An excerpt:

“Omega-6 is like a fat producing bomb...”

"So said French researcher Gerard Ailhaud, commenting on the results of a new study showing that mice fed the amount of omega-6 fatty acids present in the modern western diet grow fatter and fatter with each succeeding generation. In the picture shown, the mouse on the left was raised on the high levels of omega-6 fatty acids and low levels of omega-3 fatty acids typical of the American diet. In addition to being grossly overweight, it has the warning signs of diabetes. The healthy mouse on the right was raised on standard mouse chow. The two mice got equal amounts of exercise. The mice are the fourth generation to be raised on the two types of diet.

Omega-6 fatty acids are essential for health, but the amount consumed by most Americans increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, inflammatory diseases, and cancer. Omega-6s are most abundant in vegetable oils such as corn oil, safflower oil, and cottonseed oils. (Olive oil is low in omega- 6 fatty acids.) Few people realize that grain-fed animals are also a major source of omega-6s. Meat and dairy products from animals fed a high-grain diet, which is the typical feedlot diet, have up to ten times more omega-6s than products from animals raised on their natural diet of pasture. 

This study suggests that if we switch to food with a healthy balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, we will be leaner and healthier, and so will our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Massiera, F;  Barbry, P; Guesnet, P; Joly, A; Luquet, S; Brest,, CM; Mohsen-Kanson, T; Amri, E and G. Ailhaud. A Western-like fat diet is sufficient to induce a gradual enhancement in fat mass over generations. Journal of Lipid Research. August 2010. Volume 51, pages 2352-2361."

"Because meat from grass-fed animals is lower in fat than meat from grain-fed animals, it is also lower in calories. (Fat has 9 calories per gram, compared with only 4 calories for protein and carbohydrates. The greater the fat content, the greater the number of calories.) As an example, a 6-ounce steak from a grass-finished steer can have 100 fewer calories than a 6-ounce steak from a grain-fed steer. If you eat a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds a year), switching to lean grassfed beef will save you 17,733 calories a year—without requiring any willpower or change in your eating habits. If everything else in your diet remains constant, you'll lose about six pounds a year. If all Americans switched to grassfed meat, our national epidemic of obesity might diminish."

 Check out the site.

Ok, I'll stop ranting now.  I'll be back later with a post that will include a picture of a coconut and a torn towel.

Good evening.

This morning I was feeling wary about eating (I've been feeling flu-y), so I only had a lemon water/cayenne thingy until I got to work around noon.

Then I had a Starbucks' Perfect Oatmeal.

At work #2 I had half a burrito and did a fair amount of grazing.

Including a fancy bourbon drink that some co-workers mixed up because it was slow.

Yes, I am drinking again.  I may go on the fast again after the new year, but for now I am drinking, though not much.  I don't want to slow down the progress am I making and I want to maintain a clear head.  Well, as clear as possible.


I really need to join a gym.  The gym near my apartment seems to have really sporadic hours.  I can't seem to get anyone on the phone.  I'm still walking a lot, but it's time to up the ante and get in a gym and work with a trainer a few times to get a good routine going.
I got a physical yesterday, and though I seem to be in good health for the most part, my doctor did tell me my blood pressure is trending upward, slowly but surely.  Yesterday it was at 123/97, which she says isn't low, not high, but not low either.  Last year it was 118 over something, I can't remember what.  But my doc says quitting smoking and rinking less will certainly help, but I have to exercise more.

This week I'm very busy and finances are kind of tight as I still have to buy some Christmas presents and I'm going away after Christmas AND I have two weeks off of work coming up.  eeeek.  But after the new year I will definitely be joining a gym.

All in all I'm feeling pretty good lately.  I've made some lifestyle changes; quitting smoking, drinking a lot less, eating better, exercising more, and now that I have it's time to start thinking about what's next.  How to push myself further.  I'll be discussing this more.

Though my trips to the farmer's market these days don't prove to be as bountiful as a couple of weeks ago.  Cabbage and onions only go so far.

Goodnight!  Be nice to yourself!

The Last Few Days

I'll write more later!

Lunch in the crockpot

Yesterday I decided to make a kind of beef Stroganoff in my New Crockpot!  I had some nice fancy beef, fancy mushrooms and Brussels sprouts.  I knew I wanted to stay away from making stew.  I don't really like stew.  So Stroganoff it was.

First things first.  I floured the beef and browned it in butter.  I kind of burnt the butter a bit.  I thought about starting over but decided not to.  I'm just rustic like that.

While that was doing it's thang, I cut the roots off the fancy pioppini mushrooms and dusted off the dirt.  I am not an advocate of washing mushrooms, generally.   I don't actually mind a little dirt.

 Pioppini mushrooms benefit from long cooking, apparently.  What with their woody stems and all.

 Then I sauteed an onion and a bunch of garlic in the leftover butter. And then I deglazed the pan with the beef stock I was putting into the crockpot, which I didn't take a picture of because some things must remain private. 

I kid!  By the way, kitty totally helped with all this.

Her knife skills aren't great, but she's definitely improving. 
Then I quartered the Brussels sprouts, and threw them in the crockpot with the beef, mushrooms, beef stock, onions, garlic, salt, and some herbs I found in the fridge.

I had it for lunch yesterday with celery root and potato puree.

Bad picture, and that's a mushrooms stem, not a spider leg or something.

Next time, I'll likely chop the mushrooms up before throwing em in the corck, but in general, this dish came out delicious.  Marvelous.

I may write another post later, but I'm feeling ill today.  So just in case:

No smoking.
No drinking.
No exercise today.  Feeling sick.

Unfortunately, I've stopped the pushups challenge.  My elbows were hurting.  Anyone know what that's about?  I'm going to the doctor on Monday, so I'll ask her about it.

I think I'm going to watch a movie with kitty.

This is the first cat I've had that likes to give hugs,

Be well.  Be nice to yourself.