Multiphasic (Blessings)

The second week of this new year is approaching its end. It is the weekend of Malanka: the Orthodox(Ukrainian) New Year according to the Julian calendar. For me, it marks the official end of all mid-winter holiday feasting, at least those days that I’m familiar with, and not too soon either. There is no crueler and more brutally honest critique about how swinishly gluttonous one has been throughout the end of December/beginning of January than the discovery of how red the skin along the waistline turns, and how crushed one’s gonads feel, after trying to slip on and sport a pair of the tighter jeans that one owns in one’s wardrobe for the first time after the holiday season. It triggered a new motivator (see further below), but I digress. It’s so early, and I’m still trying to fix my bearing. This entry writing exercise has no fixed topic, and is as erratic and multiphasic as my periods of sleep have been. Throughout this second week of the year I was handed a mixed bag of blessings and curses; more of the former than the latter, thankfully.

I won’t get too specific about the curses except that they involved trying to muddle through toxic environments, which included: being almost overcome by fumes, and bracing for what I was suspecting to be a vermin infestation. Thankfully, the latter issue didn’t actually end up manifesting itself, and I could put my paranoia to rest.

My blessings were realizing that the stuff I put effort into learning a whole year ago didn’t just simply evaporate and disappear into the ether. I’ve been daring myself to use the Swedish and German I learned to read correspondence and interact with other new contacts by text. No one has reported to me yet that I’ve been too flawed or incomprehensible (or they’ve been too kind to say so). The fact that I’ve been cogent enough to remember these languages despite the lapse of their usage (and a fume-fogged mind) amazes me. The jeans issue as mentioned above, was my personal Harajuku moment (see The 4-Hour Body, by Tim Ferriss, page 38). It forced me to recollect what I did when I first primed myself to begin my journey back in the years when I became the fittest I’ve ever been. I realize that I’m actually in a better state of organization now, than when I started way back then, as I’ve been trying to reconfigure and reclaim some space in my office to set up a sensibly useful home gym. My last medical results shown that my lung tissues are now just about completely regenerated, and so I have no excuse to not get back into a regular exercise regimen. First, I must build up my core strength and joint flexibility, especially in the arm I injured back in 2016. Reclaiming and reconfiguring my space is a source of giving me some clarity of vision and purpose, nothing wrong with that, an extra motivator to reorganize other things beyond just this room.

Another bit of a blessing I guess, albeit a bewildering one for me, is for the fact that the New York Times recently listed the top 52 places in the world to visit in 2018, and strangely enough, my city, Saskatoon, was on that list. It made something like number 18 on it, and weirder still is the fact that it was the only Canadian city to appear on that list. If Saskatoon is considered to be such a gem, how bad off are the other places in Canada really? I won’t complain that it appeared in this card deck full of places on this globe that merit a visit. I guess it’s even more of an impressive accolade considering that the dominant buzzword circulating in the news for this week, to describe other places, even though it isn’t even being said outright, is “shithole” (no thanks to the grand poohbah of all idiot US presidents, Trump). Thankfully with this review, Saskatoon has managed to rise above all that. I’m just befuddled though as to the how and why it became selected. I would reckon that their research team obviously didn’t account for the winter months. They cite the Remai art gallery as an attraction; I have yet to see it myself, because I’m saving that visit for company who would genuinely appreciate it with me, so I can’t yet judge based upon that. But if I were asked now what makes Saskatoon an attractive city, I would suggest that wandering the Meewasin valley trails in the summer is the best thing you can do to figure that out for yourself, or visiting the Farmers Market, or else grabbing a coffee and enjoying it outside around the park by the Bess or by the river, or a pint in one of the pubs downtown or on Broadway. It’s quite festive during summer (to offset our all too brutal winters). It’s a bigger city that still feels like a small town, with enough people around who’ve been raised rurally, or remain connected to each other in a down-to-earth, close-knit folksy manner, who help diffuse away the pretentiousness and snobbery of something more urban and edging towards elitism, sided along with a huge multicultural blending that gets along a lot better with this sort of mix than most other places on Earth. For the most part, the people are generally approachable and friendly. The food scene is very diverse for a smaller urban centre. People from out East who come here for the first time generally express surprise at how seemingly cosmopolitan Saskatoon is, with their beliefs dashed by not finding more of a redneck culture being prominent for this place, as what is typically expected by them about Saskatchewan. One point of infamy about Saskatoon though, is its perceived high rate of crime. The city has been rated in the top ten worst Canadian cities for criminal activity for many consecutive years. I argue that Saskatoon actually isn’t that much more harsh or severe for criminal activity over most other cities in Canada. Sure, it’s higher, but not so much as to make it among the worst per capita. It’s just that with the close-knittedness of the community here, citizens here are far less likely to be complacent or dismissive when dealing with, or witnessing, suspicious activity in their neighbourhoods, and so are far more likely to report it, while people in most other larger centres tend to under report actual criminal activity. This naturally skews the crime stats on a higher rate for Saskatoon, I’d even say drastically. The shithole parts of this city (or of any city) is where people under report crime because of the sectors of the population that are intermingled in gang activity, and thus won’t squeal on each other. The police here are awesome too, both in terms of response times and availability, and dealing with most civic problems very tactfully, responsibly, and professionally no matter how trivial or severe on the spectrum. The city isn’t huge, so they can respond faster than bigger centres, and they give attention to calls that cops in larger centres wouldn’t trouble themselves to expend manpower for (and thus not recorded and accounted for in their  statistics). Naturally then, this extra availability and responsiveness of the peace officers here thus generates and facilitates more stats processed for criminal activity. In reality, I feel quite safe here in this city, as opposed to someplace like East Hastings in Vancouver. The Pareto principle also applies to crime stats where it’s figured 80% of criminal activity is done by 20% of a sector of criminals, except here in Saskatoon I’d say that it’s more like 90% of such crime is committed by 10% of the criminal population.

Throughout this week, the best blessing of all of them all was reuniting and reconnecting with someone from my past on a more soulful level. Thank you, you know who you are.

Hacking Combinatorial Abundance (and Cheat Days)

The cooler days that are signaling the dwindling down of summer and autumn’s approach are here. There are fewer days are left to enjoy my beverages outside, and to dangle in the hammock to read. I’m dying a little already in knowing that. I’m still healing my legs; so I haven’t done as much running lately. I’ve been cutting back both in frequency and intensity from what my program mandates. Thankfully, there have been fewer cracking and snapping noises coming from my hips and legs since I opted to tune it down. I mustered up the gumption to try for six kilometers last Thursday after a bit of a lapse. My substitute exercise after that has simply been longer walks with the dog. Saturday and Sunday was left for me to build a meal plan as the rain came.

As I said in my last entry, I’ve got a new eating/menu plan going on*, and in an effort to not feel desperately deprived, I’m taking advantage of starting it during this season with its bounty of newly harvested local fresh vegetables. I don’t know what is working better: the actual eating plan and eating things that have their peak nutritional content, or just because the extra heat and stress last week was killing my appetite, but I’ve lost eight pounds of mass without even doing much of anything. Whether it’s loss of actually body fat or from dehydration is debatable. Pounds lie all the time.

One thing that I bring to mind which gives me comfort and confidence for being able to stick to the plan is mathematics: more specifically, being mindful of combinations and permutations. In the same way that I determined that a reckless and unorthodox science geek/recipe buster like me will never make or eat the same kind of homemade soup or pizza twice, I reasoned that I should never feel deprived if take into account of utilizing even a small set of healthy ingredients (and omitting the junk carbs) that conforms to my plan, and by playing with the various combinations of them, resulting in hundreds, if not thousands, of unique recipes. Within all that, there have to be some options in there somewhere that are not only low-carb, high-fibre, high-vitamin, and high in protein, but delicious as well, and . . .  most importantly, will allow me to be less bored and frustrated with eating within these limitations. I should have added a subtitle above: How to diet without going totally f^%!ing insane!

Does that sound impossible to do? No, it really isn’t, is the answer. However, it’s sobering to realize that I’m more of a fixed habitual eater than I care to admit, and I have to learn to think outside the box more than I already do. How do I approach them, these changes I mean? I do the following things, with numerical reckonings by the use of a tool like the Supercook website (www.supercook.com). Simply input all the ingredients you have (or should be eating), and then let the automation take care of generating all the possible/plausible options you have for yourself. I thought my fridge and pantry were almost bare, until I plugged in the items of my inventory, and had over 6000 recipes listed for me with just those things.

Breakfast: The major habit change is early morning. I may not eat most of my carbs in the morning, but the way I eat them (or rather having the absence of them) is a radical change. I don’t fancy pancakes, so they are no loss to me. Neither is hot or cold cereal**. However, no toast for six days of the week though, that is a challenge for me. Bread is my most frequently used vehicle for eating carbohydrates, and to eat eggs without toast or English muffins, without being able to pile them with my eggs and other fixings on this platform, is like some sort of sacrilege of my ritual for me.
The remedy is scrambled eggs or omelettes about three or four times a week. There are countless ways to fill an omelette even with the ingredients and condiments I already have; scrambled eggs are one of those dishes that appear in some form in all international cuisines, each with its own ethnic signature. Lots of healthful options there; so I shouldn’t feel at all lacking in anything***.

Lunch: It’s easier to think of options for this, since it is already largely a part of my lifestyle. Mindful and simple advanced preparation is a bonus about it too. Twenty minutes of prep time at the most is all I need to make about five or six meal portions with my chop/slop/plop/drop-in-a-crockpot method of cooking. Anything with meat, vegetables, beans and lentils in it to poach, braise, or stew is fair game. I have a good stockpile of frozen healthy homemade soups as well. Raw salads, pickles, and fermented vegetables take care of the rest.

Supper: Another difficult phase because I’m at work, and there isn’t the stock of spices or ingredients that I like that I have at home. Lots of processed, trans-fat laden, and preserved food is there. Meals were brought from home instead most of the time at the last go around. I just have to be a little more mindful to check their menu in advance.

Bad Carb Plan: Being not the wasteful sort, I choose to cook and process any remaining “white” carbs and sugars around the kitchen into stuff that can be refrigerated or frozen, and eaten on the

Something I made to throw into the
"bad carb" bank for cheat day:
A Caramel and Apple Cheesecake . . .
to be thawed out for my birthday.

designated “cheat day”. See below.

Cheat Day: The holy of holies - a no-holds-barred orgy of gluttony for one day of the week (I choose Saturday). During the week, one banks the cravings. One can note them on a list or use a snapshot to record all the not-so-go-for-you food, and other diet violators into your own personal collection of food porn. It is the day when I could go to any restaurant without guilt, or drink alcohol more liberally if I so choose to. During the cheat day, you may also discover or do these things:

·         At the end of the week, you may notice that most of your craving targets earlier in the week were just passing fancies, and most of the stuff you noted or stuck in an album back then doesn’t turn your crank now. Whatever is left on there that you are just dying for is conveniently there to transfer to a grocery list, or is already cached in your freezer, and with the impulsivity element tamed and taken away, you will also save some time and money.

·         You may realize just how boring white carbs, all by themselves, really are. Just think about it - they are rarely consumed without some other flavouring: bread, potatoes, rice, tortillas, and pasta usually need to be enhanced with fat, sweetness, salt, meat, or zesty/savory/spicy sauces. When it does come to my cheat day, white carbs aren’t really the first things that come to mind when I want to binge on something, it’s the flavouring or seasoning in the sauce or other fixings on that pizza, or in the rice bowl, or on that potato chip, or in that pie shell. Targeting the flavours you crave, but not the carbs, is something to bring to mind for the next shopping trip or the next six days of the week.

·         Learn the easy way – while eating your bad foods, you may discover that you just can’t eat as much as you usually could, because your stomach will have shrank a bit during the first six or so days. You, by default, then are automatically and willingly reducing your own calorie intake, but you at least get enough of a taste of what makes you happy. Or, you may . . .

·        Learn the hard way – that is you up end ignoring your stomach signals, and go out on a full-blown rampage of a barbarous binge fest. The indigestion and the pain and discomfort of a near-bursting gut that you experience afterward from trying to overstuff your shrunken belly is enough to dissuade you from eating like that ever again for a long while, and you may approach the next six days with exercising a lot more self-control and discipline. In comparing people to jackasses: some people just can’t learn to move forward by following the carrot; they need to be beaten with the stick instead.

Eagerly Anticipated Cheat Day Foods (for the next ten Saturdays, at least****): Beer, Toast, Rye Bread, English Muffins, Liver Varenyky, Pho Soup, Homemade Pizza, Homemade Perogies, Piroshky, Spring rolls, Bagels and Cream Cheese, Kvass, Empanadas, Enchiladas, Croissants from Christine’s Bakery, Tacos, Linguini alla Vongoli, Sushi, Potato Pancakes, Battered and Deep Fried Pike, Dim Sum Buns, Cabbage Rolls, Whiskey, Ice Cream, Cheese Cake. But, as I said . . . these cravings too may pass.   

*- In hopes to peel off some weight to take more pressure and wear off my joints passively. Actually, to be more accurate, I’m redeploying an old plan that was successful for me: The Slow-Carb Diet™, from the book, The 4-Hour Body, by Timothy Ferriss.

**- A little bit of a cheat is eating course milled grain (like steel cut oats) porridge. I only eat it on the mornings when I do a longer course of running/walking. I don’t use milk or sugar though. I may throw in some yogurt after it’s cooked. I make it with a thinner consistency, and it’s flavoured by cooking it my slow cooker over night with cinnamon sticks, nuts, and other sweet spices (cloves, cardamom, poppy or chia seeds, walnuts, almonds, etc.). Enough is made for three running days of the week, which includes Cheat Day Saturday.

***- Around the World in 44 Flavor Combinations on pages 148-149, in The 4 - Hour Chef, by Timothy Ferriss, is an example of different ways to eat eggs with an ethnic flare. Including them with the combinations of ingredients I currently have in my fridge, pantry, and cupboards to add to and make omelettes, I have about 687 different variations to experiment with: more than a couple of years’ worth of breakfasts that are in compliance to this regimen.

****- Hopefully my legs, hips, and feet will be fully healed by then.

Inflammation Blaster Recipes

I found myself using my day off to do some inventing in my kitchen again; not because I really wanted to. The prolonged period of more idleness due to injury, the extra stress, and being at work too often and eating the cruddy food there is all taking a toll on me. I won't go into any more specifics than that. The resulting poor medical evaluation I got is forcing me to prepare for some dietary and lifestyle changes. I don't want to be relegated to start eating like a tofu-munching hippie, but I'd rather have some compromise and do that with some moderation than be setting myself on a course of being dependant on expensive medications, and then be perhaps afflicted by adverse side-effects from using them.
   
The stuff I made should be useful in countering many types of inflammatory problems in general, not just specifically my issues. Inflammation of one type or another is the major symptom of most chronic diseases. The challenge is to not feel deprived, and to use and substitute with stuff that I already like (or can at least tolerate). Because I was weighing and calculating proportions and quantities, I decided to translate all my activity into the following three recipes for sharing. The MyFitnessPal app on my smartphone did the rest of the calculations for any really anal people who need the specifics about the calories and nutrition, which are also transposed here.

Smokey Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

4        Red Bell Peppers, halved with cores, seeds, and green stems removed
2 Tbsp        Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Coat the bottom of a heatproof dish with olive oil as well as brush the outer skin of the pepper halves. Place and arrange the halves with the skin side up in the dish and put into the oven on the broil setting. Cook until the waxy skin of the peppers begins to blister and turn black. Remove from the oven, and then put the pepper halves into a ziplock bag. Press out the air, seal the bag, and allow the peppers to cool until lukewarm or cooler. Peel off and discard the blistered and blackened waxy skin away from the flesh of the pepper halves (the back of a knife works well). Once skinned, chop the pepper halves into fine bits. While the peppers are broiling, sauté

1        Small Onion, finely chopped in
1 Tbsp        Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and

Small pinch of salt

 

Once the onion is sautéed until translucent, add it with the peppers into a pot of at least 4 litre capacity* with

1 ¼ Cup        Chicken Stock
200 mL         Tomato Sauce

Heat the mixture to a boil, and then turn the heat down to a simmer. Using an immersion blender, purée the contents until it is a smooth and even consistency. While simmering, use a whisk to blend in

1 Tbsp        Smoked paprika
 
The whisking will also help remove some remaining bits of waxy pepper skin that may have been left on the pepper flesh.

Add salt to taste. Makes about 3 servings. Recommend serving with crackers or croutons.

Nutrition per serving:
Calories: 188; Total Fat (g) 10.9: Saturated (g) 1.7, Polyunsaturated (g) 1.3, Monounsaturated (g) 7.3, Trans (g) 0; Cholesterol (mg) 3.0; Sodium (mg) 844; Potassium (mg) 278.3; Carbs (g) 17.2; Fibre (g): 4.4; Sugar (g) 9.5; Protein (g) 5.2
Daily Percentage Value of: Vitamin A – 25.1%, Vitamin C – 9.7%, Calcium – 1.8%, Iron – 8.5%

 
Cauliflower and Roasted Garlic Dip

Take a whole garlic bulb and slice off the root end, and on the exposed root end drizzle about a teaspoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a small sprinkle of salt. Wrap the bulb in a square of aluminum foil and place on a heatproof dish with the cut end facing upwards. Broil for about 15-20 minutes or until the bulb begins to soften. When cool enough to handle, remove the aluminum foil, and then peel the skins away from the cloves.

Add all the roasted garlic cloves to

400 g        Cooked and mashed Cauliflower, and
½ Cup        Plain Greek Yogurt, with a
Dash of salt and a sprinkle of Cayenne Pepper

Blend together with into a thick consistent purée. Chill before serving with crackers or raw vegetable sticks. Makes about 4 servings.

Nutrition per serving
Calories: 83; Total Fat (g) 2.3; Cholesterol (mg) 1.7; Sodium (mg) 350.8; Potassium (mg)72; Carbs (g) 12.7; Fibre (g) 2.1; Protein (g) 4.3
Daily Percentage Value of: Vitamin A - .5%, Vitamin C – 87.6%, Calcium – 8.4%, Iron – 4.1%

 
Lentil Hummus
 
500 g         Cooked Green Lentils (preferably grown in Saskatchewan)
½ Cup        Chopped Cilantro leaves
2 Tbsp        Tahini (Sesame Seed) paste
15        Pickled Hot Banana Pepper Rings
½ tsp        Ground Cumin
1        finely minced clove of raw garlic
1        Lemon's zest and juice
 
Drain lentils thoroughly, and then add the remaining ingredients in a high sided bowl. Use an immersion blender and whiz the mixture into a thick and even consistency. Use for dipping veggie sticks or crackers. Makes about 4 servings.

Nutrition per serving
Calories: 140; Fat (g) 4.9; Monounsaturated fat (g) 1.7; Cholesterol (mg) 0; Sodium (mg) 86.3; Potassium (mg) 53.1; Carbs (g) 16.2; Fibre (g) 0.6; Sugars (g) 1; Protein (g) 8
Daily Percentage Value of: Vitamin A – 2.7%, Vitamin C – 29.6%, Calcium - 3%, Iron – 4.1%
 
*- More so to keep from splattering the entire kitchen with redness when whizzing with the blender.

Decision Deadline, The Body Politic, New Wheels

It has been a very busy week, and I'm glad that it's over. I'm outside tonight, enjoying this magnificent full moon, having a midnight snack of some piquant leftover Moroccan beef tagine recipe I was experimenting with, and listening to the loud crowds exiting Prairieland Park from the Top of the Hops venue. I'm regretful that I couldn't go this year, and I was reminiscing about the past ones I went to with my cousins, whom I'm beginning to miss.

Sitting down to write this has been my only moment of leisure throughout this week. Today, I feel like I'm back to normal physically, but I claim this reluctantly, as not to jinx myself with some other impending upset. I felt and thought the same thing earlier last week, and on that same day of that conclusion I ended up acquiring and suffering perhaps the worst case of food poisoning I ever had in my life. It resulted in the most unwelcome way to have a ten pound drop in weight overnight (I'll spare the graphic details). I've been carless for a long while, and after running short of food and supplies; toting full backpack loads of groceries (up to an extra 20 kg in weight) on long bike trips was beginning to take a toll on my knees as well through that week, so that has been no help either. It has been so long since I've felt or functioned anywhere close to normal, I suppose I've become estranged for so long from what "normal" feels like. It goes without saying that given the circumstances, the commitment to training has faltered badly. I ran three times this week, and my heart rate and breathing were much better.

In a previous entry I gave myself until May 19th to decide as to whether or not to hold my race slot in the Saskatchewan Marathon. The torment I was feeling throughout that week was swaying me to consider the decline option, but ultimately I decided to hold on to it and participate. I definitely won't be breaking records: my goals are simply to start and finish the thing in one piece. To endure this 10 km race, in the current shape I'm in, I expect that I'd have to hold my pace between 7'00" and 7'30" per kilometer. That's somewhat abysmal in my mind, but pushing harder would only wreck me for the rest of the year. I wish my body could govern itself better than it seems to be doing now.

If the human body's functions were controlled by something analogous in terms of a political system it sure as hell would not be a democracy. The body isn't controlled by the some ruling majority of strong healthy organs and tissues that you do have functioning: rather it is controlled and corrupted by the few minor (or just one) tissue(s) that aren't working well. It's always being dictated and limited by the worst of what you have going on, like a banana republic dictatorship. If that isn't enough, there are always foreign terrorist sleeper cell networks . . . most of which are literally single cells, that are trying to take over, like cancer, bacteria, parasitic protozoa, fungi, yeast, viruses, and other such gollywobs that don't even weigh a single gram when numbered in the millions, waiting to strike and dominate when conditions are right. You can bring yourself to your best through training, but your bodily empire can still be conquered by an invasion of something as simple as flu or salmonella (what I suspect I was afflicted with previously).

I finally found a vehicle last Sunday. Its older than I wanted it to be, but it's within budget, has been well maintained, and of a reliable make and model. It has more power, and more luxury options, than my last one. It's a pimpin' machine (for me anyway); so far the best vehicle I've had yet. Its colour is a deeper, darker, more intense tone of red than that of my last car: somewhere between that of a sophisticated oxblood pottery glaze, and a sluttier-looking shade of cherry lipstick: not too low-key, and yet not too gaudy and ostentatious, just the right mixture of the sacred and profane . . . I like that! I wasn't able to get my hands on it until two days ago, and I'm still exploring the bells and whistles. It's good enough for me as one who is driving a car on a more and more infrequent basis.

Ides of March, Training and Detox, and the Futility of Seeking Serenity

The harsh reality about how unfit I've been rendered by this winter came to me Tuesday. Armed with my new heart monitor, I burned around the track for a five kilometer distance as a trial session for getting to know what my actual peak heart rate is when I run. I shamefully admit that after two and half years of running, I still didn't know what this was yet. I confess that I pushed it a little harder than I should have; my average rate was recorded at a terrible 169 bpm: way too high, and my pace wasn't even anywhere close to my personal best for my high pace five click running. What was even more distressing was when I exited the steam room afterward. I realized that another thing about this winter compared to the others since I lived here is that I haven't found time to make better use of the sauna, or sweat properly. When I walked out of there I was not just looking red, but almost purple as I shocked myself passing a mirror, a worse looking sort of sickly hue than when I come out of a heavily chlorine-saturated swimming pool. 

The common thing about the lungs and the skin are that each have direct contact with both the air in our environment and the body's blood supply simultaneously. It stands to reason that if my lungs are still crappy and full of toxic junk, it's quite likely that it will reflect on my skin that has been exposed to it as well, especially when it's put through even a mild degree of environmental stress, like the steam room. The dryness, plus not being able to expose the skin and open the pores and sweat freely for this especially long winter season probably doesn't do much good for any body. Neither does constantly being indoors, inhaling recirculated air, with the dust and fungal/mould spores, and whatever other viruses, germs and household product chemical residues are in it. I'm sure that the shockingly ghastly and unnatural colour of my skin after that session was a sign that I'm due for some hard core form of spring detoxification.





Some Homemade Sealer Salads for the week
 Energy/Nutrients Value per jar: Calories - 231.3
Total Fat 17.4 g, Cholesterol 0 g, Sodium 272 mg
Potassium 411.3 mg, Total Carbs 18.6 g
Dietary Fiber 7.0 g, Sugars 5.3 g
Protein 5.0 g, Daily Recommended percentage of
Vitamin A 93.2%, Vitamin C 102.3 %
Calcium 13.0 %, Iron 22.0%

I've been already taking measures for such a detox, and commiting to it for least for a couple of weeks. I've started to automate things enough in the kitchen to do the following:

• eat more raw greens/chlorophyll
• eliminate sugar and white flour/starch
• use more leaner simple proteins (fish, chicken, nuts, eggs, and beans)
• limit salt
• increase antioxidants and vitamin C (lemons, grapefruits, onions, ginger, turmeric, garlic, berries, mushrooms)
• increase dosages of vitamin D
• consume more fibre
• gobble up those multivitamins
• limit milk intake (except for cottage cheese, buttermilk/kefir, and yogurt)
• water, water, water, water . . . at least four litres per day
• stop drinking alcohol (Boooo!)

I'll try to steam/sauna everyday throughout, then I should get a massage after the first week of this, and another after the second.

Despite all the good intentions, there was nothing but a road to hell before me, no matter which I turned. I'm talking about yesterday. The ides of March weren't just bad for Caesar. I completed my circuit at the track, only to have my sports watch display crap out on me, rendering it useless: my new monitor, which I was so proud of for getting at a great discount a few days before, also rendered useless. I was beginning to fume with frustration. Walking out of the track building (into more bloody blowing snow) didn't improve my mood any either; but I tell myself to think progressively, baby steps, etc., and I drove to the Future Shop to assess the price of a replacement (not buying anything, nothing in stock, thus wasting my time). I could (should) have opted to use the exit from the parking lot that took me directly home, but I reflected a bit, upon looking at more of this goddamned snow coming, and thought to myself that it might be better instead to go the other way out to Dutch Growers greenhouses. Why this decision? Probably because the core of me was (is) so desperate to see something floral and verdant after this long, dreary, wretched season. I tell myself: "Remember, be progressive man, seek out the better, SERENITY NOW!" As I was driving away from the shopping centre, waiting for my chance to try to cautiously turn onto the road in drifting snow conditions, BAM! An idiot in a truck* rear-ends me.

My day of trying to work progressively for training better and trying to mentally endure ten more new centimeters of this oncoming white hell only resulted in a damaged watch, a wrecked car, and few other unwelcome scenes and issues waiting for me when I arrived home. I should have just stayed in bed. I chose to say "Screw it!" to the detox for rest of the day, and drank wine and feasted on bread and sugary sweet baklava at a function later that evening.

Yesterday for me was only proof that the road to hell is paved with the best intentions. Perhaps I should be observant of the fact that today, according to Mental Floss, is World Sleep Day. A day to stay home, draw the curtains, shut down and go into some kind of coma, and stop the rest of the world from biting at my ass.

*- A stupid big-ass Dodge half-ton. I hate these friggin' trucks, and the most of the typical dimwitted and foolish personity types and demeanor of the young men around this neighbourhood who drive them.




Cooking with a Head Full of Neo-C

Current scenario: beginning of the first stretch of days off since the New Year began.

Conditions: Blizzard warnings for the South, -30 º C wind chill factor outside. I woke up friggin’ sick; the fates, it seems, are conspiring against me again to make any time off I get uncomfortable and miserable. Too damn cold outside to ski; I’m too damn sore and lacking in energy for it even if it wasn’t. There is nowhere else to go because I definitely should not be driving while in the state I'm currently in.

Solutions: Use Neo Citron, and consume easy to digest food with lots of vitamins and aromatics to hammer down this dirty old bastard of a cold.

How I know that the old Neo-C is already screwing with my mind:

·         My autocorrect/spell/grammar checker is working overtime as I write this

·        My memory and perception of time is so warped that I need to use visuals, write lists, and program alarms to guide me from task to task

·         The strange looks I’m getting from the dog as she watches me trying to operate around here

·         Holy crap! I’m actually experimenting with vegetarian* cooking . . . AAARRGH!!!

 

Lemons to Lemonade Event: I figured that I might as well capitalize on these list making/time keeping moments to compile and share an actual recipe I created out of my cold-medication addled head.

Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

Step 1: Make Stock

This time I use a meaty turkey carcass/bones from Christmas, acquired from my well-wishing mother, that was saved in my freezer. Place in large-ish (6 litre capacity) pot with these other ingredients:

·         2 – peeled, coarsely chopped, large onions

·         2 – peeled, coarsely chopped carrots

·         2 – chopped stalks celery

·         3  cloves - peeled crushed garlic

·         1 cup - chopped fresh parsley

·         1 pinch - each of marjoram, thyme

·         2 teaspoons - peppercorns

·         2 - bay leaves

Fill up the pot with water until it's about a centimeter from the edge. Bring to a boil, and then lower heat to let simmer, and then cover.

Prep time: Used 7 extra minutes to peel and chop vegetables (I did this as I was making breakfast). Three hours of time for simmering the stock. During that time, I cracked open and prepared another cup of Neo Citron, and used the medication high to ponder the various other vicissitudes of life that randomly enter the mind. Add salt to taste. Strain, reserve what is needed, separate the rest of the liquid into smaller containers and freeze it. Or, if time-pressed or lazy, just get a 1 litre carton of inferior quality chicken (or vegetable*) stock from the store. Proceed to step two.

Step 2: Make Soup

Ingredients:

·         ½ - small butternut squash, gutted (seeds removed)

·         2 – medium sized stalks of celery, chopped

·         1 – large carrot, peeled and chopped

·         30 grams – fresh ginger root, peeled, chopped, crushed

·         3 Tbsp – ghee** (or butter)

·         2 cups – prepared stock* (not in picture)

·         Salt and pepper to taste

·         Chopped parsley or green onions for garnish and taste (optional)

Procedure:

Place the butternut squash, cut side up, in a heat-proof baking dish, put two tablespoons of ghee and the crushed ginger in the hollowed cavity. Put the carrots and celery, and remaining tablespoon of ghee in another baking dish. Sprinkle ground black pepper on top of the squash and other veggies.

Preheat oven at 350 ºF (176 ºC), cover baking vessels with aluminum foil. Bake the carrot/celery mixture until soft (about 40 minutes). Bake squash for an extra 25-30 minutes.

Scoop out the ginger and squash flesh away from the rind, and add them, with the baked carrots and celery into a smaller pot. Add the stock in with the vegetables and heat on the range until it begins to boil.

Use an immersion blender to purée the mixture into a smooth and even consistency. Add salt to taste.

Pour in a bowl and serve topped with chopped parsley, or minced green onion (which is used here).

Yield: Two large bowls (500 mL, each)

Nutrition/Calories: I really just don’t give a shit today.

Verdict: It’s OK. I'm saving other bowl for when my tongue isn’t coated with whatever crud that seems to be a side-effect of this medication. Also considering using grated frozen lemon to top the soup to experiment with flavour (thanks for the turkey bits and the tip Mom).

*- I know a stock made with turkey bones isn't technically vegetarian, but in my little world, if I see no actual bits of meat in the final outcome of preparation, it qualifies as vegetarian to me. The sanctimonious fools who call themselves true vegetarians, or who wish to affiliate themselves with, as Anthony Bourdain calls them, the Hez b’ullah splinter group known as the vegans, could probably use vegetable stock instead, but I’d doubt if it would taste as good. If we weren’t supposed to eat animals, then the Lord Almighty shouldn’t have made them taste so much like meat.

**- What the <bleep> is ghee? Ghee is a type of clarified butter, used chiefly in Indian cuisine. Unlike regular butter, it can be used to cook stuff at higher temperatures because it doesn’t burn as easily. You can find it in an East Indian specialty grocery shop, but it’s also easy to make it home. Put a couple of pounds (1 kg) of butter (salted or unsalted, it’s up to you) in a slow-cooker set on high for about two hours. Skim off the floating solids with a paper towel, and then slowly and carefully pour off the clear liquified butter into a heat-proof storage container, off of the remaining heavier dairy solids/residues sticking to the bottom of the crock pot. This stuff will last a long time in the fridge, whereas aging regular butter will eventually turn rancid because of the extra dairy solids.

Insight from a Submarine Sandwich

For those who don't really know me yet, I have a seemingly weird aspect, in this day in age, to share about my lifestyle. Despite being male, single, and living alone, I have no strong urge or fondness for consuming fast food, take out/delivery, or prepared convenience foods. The last time I ever ate at a McDonald's was thirteen years ago; in Venezuela of all places, on a road trip along the coast. French fries, most of the time, have absolutely no appeal to me at all. Since some form of ground beef is an ever-present feature on the menus at work, it makes me less inclined to prepare it at home, and even more disinterested to eat it as some lukewarm, soggy, paper-wrapped, piece-of-shit patty on a bun from a fast food joint. To get more value for my money and time when I do eat out at a restaurant, I usually make certain to go someplace where I can order something exotic: something that I couldn't normally make for cheaper or better in my own home. As I learn and gain skills in cooking more things, there hence becomes fewer places that I'd bother visiting and dining in anymore, at least around this town, which is kind of a shame in some respects: one consequence being that it keeps me from being more social.

My current mad science project:
23 L of Morgan's Draught Ale
in a closed primary fermentation system.
Original Gravity: 1.045
Brewing temperature: 26 º Celsius

I'm weirdly different as a single guy when it comes to food. I know how to create recipes, and how to cook meals using ingredients from scratch. I'm a guy who knows the science of fermentation, canning, and pickling things. I can make all sorts of hors d'oeuvres, soups, and desserts, even though they aren't my most preferred things. I can cure fish and stuff my own sausages. I've made my own bread and wine; thus I have the means to have 'holy communion' in my own place should it ever become necessary. I wish I knew more guys like me who do this as well, or more women who can appreciate this talent who'd want to keep company with me. But as it is, it's more often the case that I get looked at as some sort of freak of nature. It's like I'm a lone living specimen of this rare and strange sort of sub-species of human being: Bacallario culina*.

I must admit though that it seems like within the past few years I've been neglecting the true spirit of freedom and independence I used to have as a cooking bachelor with my own kitchen to operate/exploit/abuse for myself in anyway, at any time of the day. Those occasions of grilling some pork chops at two o'clock in the morning on a whim, or having a sushi making marathon, or spontaneously dashing out to scrounge up some superb quality European cheese, or fresh live oysters from somewhere, have somehow disappeared. I speculate that it's because over that time it's due to me being more steadfast with keeping a "proper" diet for training purposes; perhaps because I'm reading more and following other intellectual pursuits and using less time cooking, or maybe it's also because condo living now keeps me restrained with mindful consideration in limiting late night kitchen clattering and mischievous experimentation seeing now that I have neighbours closer beside and above me. Since living here, I've been also deprived of the use of a proper barbeque, and my smokehouse for curing meat and fish to my liking. Life, sadly, became more regulated. Perhaps it's time to rebel a bit.

To drive the point home about how I should strive to keep my independence and to renew my zeal and passion for getting freaky in my own kitchen space again, I took a unique route. I thought I should be re-acquainted with my regular fear and loathing for fast food. Last night, I choose the closest place to me: a Subway, which isn't even a full shop, but just a service counter inside the local Petro-Can gas station. I went there around 11:00 PM: just in time to avoid any drunken creeps stumbling out from the sleazy bar across the street from it, and being stuck in a line up populated with such idiots. I realized then just how estranged I've been from buying fast food, and just how contra it is to the very core of my lifestyle. When I approached the counter, to place an order to the sandwich artist** there was then strange feelings of guilt: like one would have if one were a lifelong non-smoker at my age all of a sudden now purchasing tobacco, or (I speculate) if a real prudish person were to try to casually ask a kink shop clerk for the wildest and craziest form of sex toy ever made. Even with Subway actually having lot of healthier choices to put into a sandwich, many of which I opted for, I still felt cheap and dirty inside for being this lazy, and spending that kind of money for something so seemingly mediocre.

However, I'm glad I went through this exercise, at this critical time when I'm building my New Year's resolutions. To get where you want to go, sometimes you have to glimpse at the side of life you really don't want to ever have. I don't want to become so stupid, or let my life to decline so badly, that it comes to a point where food bought in a gas station becomes thought of as a 'special treat', or coming to the point where I'm so exhausted or time-deprived that this becomes a regular recurring option/habit to nourish myself. I deserve better than this given the skills, knowledge, and interests that I have.


*- This is the best proper Latin taxonomic nomenclature I could find that means 'Bachelor of the Kitchen'. If anyone has something better, or more suitable, I welcome you to so inform me.
**- No kidding, this is the actual title I saw in a job posting from Subway for a person who takes your order and prepares your sub, and takes your payment. . . what a goddamned joke! Real artists should rightfully be insulted with this ridiculous term. Trust me, no food that gets served to you wrapped in paper and plastic is a work of art. Aggrandizement with a meaningless titles is just another way of corporate world trying to dazzle you with bullshit. I should have walked out of there on that principle alone. But I digress. . .   

Big Steps Up, Proper Fueling, and Countering Obesity

By the end of this month, I should be reaching 2500 recorded running kilometers. Currently, I’m half way through week seven of marathon training; I'm just about half way through the whole training programme itself. I’m starting to verge into the realm of doing some extended hardcore runs, and compounded with the extra cycling, and strength training I’ve been doing, it demands a whole other pattern of habits and adjustments for consuming and expending energy. I was through all this last year; it means having to eat often throughout the day; it involves forcing myself to eat the right food at the right times, even when I don’t really feel like it, or when it’s far from convenient for me to do so. On some days, like the 22 plus kilometer run due this coming Sunday, it means something like an extra 2700 calorie intake (mostly as slow-burning carbs, which I really don’t prefer eating) just to last through such a training session. That means more than doubling my normal meal load. It makes me sick just to think about trying to haul around all that extra food in the gut (plus the extra water I’ll need to hydrate) while trying to run that distance. There are some people who can pack this in with no problem. At one time in my life I could have, but not anymore. Other people in their forties who can consume that on a regular basis, who don't run, would probably accumulate a weight of over 300 lbs. It led me to think about the impact of being that obese, not just for a person’s personal health, but for society, as more and more such people are becoming a more common sight.

I found an article from Men’s Health News saying that the cost to the American public for the impact created by the prevalence of obesity in that nation is $190 billion dollars, or around $608 per person. I became curious, and started crunching some numbers to try and estimate how much that would translate to as the equivalent sorts of costs to the Canadian public.

According to the global statistics site, NationMaster, the USA has the distinction of being the fattest nation in the world, ranking number one, with 30.6% of its population falling into the category of obese. Canada, by comparison, ranks as the 11^th most obese nation on the planet, with 14.3% of Canadians having enough excess poundage to be classified as such. I think personally that this figure is wrong, and I believe that there are a lot more chubby Canadians around than the numbers say. Indubitably, that number is surely rising. Maybe this statistic was compiled during the summer/early fall months when we as the Canadian public generally swing toward more outside activity and are at the peak of our annual fitness level, and have more weight loss going on instead of weight gain. I think the major reason why many Canadians become overweight is because we are subjected to colder winter months during which there is a higher likelihood of more stagnation and inactivity (that’s my excuse anyway). That generalized theory doesn’t hold water though, since I was very surprised to see that warmer sunnier nations have higher obesity rates than we do, like Mexico (ranked 2^nd), Australia (6^th) and New Zealand (7^th), while modern industrialized northern societies, with long cold winter seasons similar to Canada, have lower rates of obesity than our nation, such as Finland (ranked 15^th), Iceland (17^th), Sweden (21^st), and Norway (26^th).

Anyway, for now I’m using the US data to interpolate Canada’s cost to deal with the public impact of obesity, since we share a lot of common food and lifestyle choices. By interpolating from each nation’s population numbers and respective percentages of obese people, I calculated that the number of Americans who are obese outnumber obese Canadians by twenty times. I figured out that proportionately, it then would cost the Canadian public, 1.057 billion dollars to manage the impact of obesity population: roughly costing each Canadian $31 on a per capita basis to nationally deal with the impact of our overweight citizens (in theory)*.

Rather than us forking over $31 each to the taxman to finance a public battle against obesity, which of course would be inflated to whatever obscene figure to account for a wasteful cost for administration and bureaucracy, why don’t we all try to do our own experiments in home economics to gain victory over our own personal battles of the bulge, that will ultimately allow us to keep and save a hell of a lot more than $31 per year**. My own money saving strategies, which automatically translate into a means of weight control are:

·         I cycle or walk as often as I can during the spring, summer, and early fall to work. Even though it’s a relatively short distance, my fuel savings are tremendous.

·         I’m blessed with urban living in that I walk or cycle for grocery shopping during the same aforementioned seasons of the year. When I do this, I’m automatically set with a limit as to how much I can physically carry home. It forces me to be mindful about what I really need; if I really do need more, it translates as more exercise in making return trips to the stores or markets, or learning to do without for the time being, and avoiding stuffing myself with that extra food.

·         In trying to avoid excess useless bulk to haul home by bike or on foot, it pretty much eliminates canned/bottled drinks (pop and juice) as a shopping choice; which are major culprits in excessive empty calorie intake. I drink more water, coffee, or tea at home. Milk jugs/cartons are the only drink containers I get at the grocery store. Wine and beer are pretty much the only other bottled drinks I consume (and I make and store those at home, or I walk to a local licensed restaurant or lounge/parlour to have them). The higher liquor prices in these places ensure that I drink in moderation.

·         The produce, dairy, and meat sections of the store are pretty much where I spend most of my time when grocery shopping. Thus, I’m more likely to walk out of there then with food that’s less tainted with preservatives, excess sugar, and salt. The only frozen food I buy is meat/seafood, veggies, and fruit for protein smoothies. If it has been pre-battered/pre-fried it stays in the freezer (trans-fats).

·         I turn off cable TV service during the summer; without planting my ass in front of a TV set I automatically find ways to be more active.

·         Despite having a limited balcony space, I still set up a container garden. When I put effort and energy into trying to grow and harvest my own food, I feel more obligated to use it right.

·         I purchase good food boxes from the CHEP program. It has a double benefit: I get a variety of nutritious fruit, and my money goes to support a programme to help feed children, and educate them about, nutritious food.

These methods at least give me more months of losing weight than I have gaining it back over winter. Sure, I knowingly sacrifice some convenience, but I believe over-convenience is a big part of the problem with a population gaining excessive weight. I tend to live like an average European over the snow-free months. If more people around did the strategies I just mentioned, I would think that our nation’s obesity rate would drop to be on par with some of the European nations that rate between positions twenty and thirty in the obesity rate rankings.  

I know I risk sounding a bit bigoted by posting this: making myself seem anti-fat. More accurately, I’m pro-fit and a strong believer that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure: preferring to directly embrace the positive rather than trying to fool myself and others into believing that a condition that is sapping away one’s quality of life is somehow normal or positive. We can’t make systems better by purposely spending billions of dollars adjusting for that which is objectionable, and yet for the most part correctable on the individual’s level.  When we accommodate too much it’s like we are supporting a person’s right to be obese or addicted to anything in general, and basically enabling them for a course of poorer health. Let’s get real and face it, most obese people really don’t want to be that fat, and less concerned about gaining a right to be fat. Survey any group of people who have experienced both physical conditions in their life: once where they were very fit and healthy, and then some other point in their lifetimes when they were very overweight***, and then ask them to compare the two lifestyles. I’m sure 99.9% of those surveyed would say that they were more pleased and comfortable with their general physical and mental well-being when they were on the fit end of the spectrum. They weren’t putting a strain on themselves, and they weren’t draining the public health system when they were fit and healthy. Sadly though, we are seeing more and more cases of people who have never known what it is like to actually be fit at any time throughout their lives. They started out being fat from childhood right through to adulthood, and thus have been completely estranged from any idea of what a healthier, more positive lifestyle is actually like. Obese people are uncomfortable to say the least; thence comes a whole plague of marketing gimmicks to exploit their suffering. Sadly, now it seems like there is a whole marketing system happening globally that necessarily needs obese people to exist.

There was a saying I heard a while ago that makes perfect sense to me: if you aren’t going to use time, energy, and money to try to stay healthy, you’ll have to learn how to deal with wasting time, energy, and money being sick. I would venture to guess that 80-90 percent of medical aid given and hospital care is due to ignorance and stupidity, either by accidents afflicted by someone onto the patient, or because of the patient’s own wrong-doing or poor lifestyle choices (I’d say mostly due to the latter). Sloth and gluttony are getting to be too common as the reasons why people are setting themselves up for future long-term medical care, or worse. Obesity is a preventable thing with a bit of personal effort and discipline, and nothing you or I should be shelling out extra tax dollars for to fix.

*- I think is a gross underestimation of what the actual cost would be here in Canada. The article listed and stressed more about the costs of converting public utilities over to accommodate obese bodies in the US. However, given that we have a universal healthcare system that the USA doesn’t have, we as Canadians would have to factor in the costs of things in our tax bill like obesity linked medical interventions like pharmaceutical aids to treat Type 2 Diabetes and atherosclerosis (insulin, lipostatin drugs, blood pressure regulators, etc.) and consequential surgeries and therapies (cardiac procedures, stroke recovery, joint repair, hip replacements, etc.), and resulting hospital stays/staff wages etc. . . you get the picture: the cost is a lot more exorbitant than 31 dollars a year per person. The sector of our population that doesn’t pay taxes; yet has the highest rates of lifestyle related illnesses/health risks complicates the matter further (you know who you are).

** The article didn’t state the time period over which that $608 was spent, so let us assume it’s annually given that it relates to public spending budgets/taxes. I didn't distinguish the monetary values as American or Canadian dollars since today the two currencies are very close to being at parity. It's enough to realize that the figures are approaching something very astronomical.

***-Myself included, I’ve been there too; not 300 lbs big, but significantly overweight. I don’t wish this curse on anyone. Being civil toward and accepting of people who are overweight is just a matter of respect and human dignity, and accept that they may have the potential to change with the right motivators. However, the promoting of the social movement of “fat acceptance”: actively tolerating the lowering standard of health that is ultimately destructive to the well-being for others is stupid. We might as well promote “tobacco acceptance”, “alcohol-abuse acceptance” or “crystal meth acceptance” if we were to use that line of thinking. Love the sinner: hate the sin.