Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few weeks ago, my older son made chocolate chip cookies for a chemistry project. Yes, chemistry. All the ingredients were listed by their chemical names and the quantities were in things called "moles" (don't ask) and the like. He had to convert everything into everyday English and everyday measurements like teaspoons and grams. It was a hoot and he got an honourable mention from his classmates on the quality of his cookies. One of the kids put in a quarter cup of salt instead of a quarter of a teaspoon. He won for absolute worst cookie.

The cookies were fabulous. I had two.

On Tuesday night, younger son made the same recipe for his Spanish class. It's almost March break and they were having a party to which everyone had to contribute a treat. We got out the crazy recipe and got to work. My son did a good part of the preparation himself although he was impressed with my ability to dollop spoonfuls of cookie dough onto the sheet at lightening speed. It's strange that I can do this quite competently since I didn't learn any of this as a child. I lived in a (mostly) cookie-free zone and when we did have cookies they were bought, not home-made. My mom was just not a baker.

This time, I had a couple of "finger shmooshes" of cookie dough plus half a cookie. Incredibly yummy...and it was enough.

Welcome to the moderation zone.

Suddenly Gone

My friend's brother died on Tuesday. He had a stroke while driving and crashed his car. His partner survived; fortunately, no one else got injured. Small mercies.

He was one of those "larger than life" people. He reminded me (and no doubt many others) of John Belushi in the movie, The Blues Brothers: a portly fellow with a porkpie hat who played the blues harmonica. He was at all of his sister's parties, leading the band made up of his nephews and other young musicians. He smoked, he probably drank and ate to excess and stayed up late at night.

He was in his mid-fifties and full of life.

And now, suddenly, he is gone.

His death makes me want to stress less, go for long walks, eat and drink with both enjoyment and moderation, kiss my husband and kids and celebrate the fact that I'm still here on this beautiful earth.

NewMe's Haiku

I started off my day writing a post that made me more and more agitated. Sometimes, I just have to NOT try to understand so much. The post is still in draft form.

On the bus, I began looking at people and making up haikus in my mind. If you don't know about "haiku", it's a Japanese poem made up of 17 syllables, in a three-line, 5-7-5 syllable form.

It's now my pleasure to present to you my new blog: NewMe's Haiku at newmeshaiku.blogspot.com

I'm also thinking of taking pottery lessons.

Maybe I really am becoming a NewMe.

Letting Go of the Numbers

Source: www.westga.edu/~distance/

I was at a conference a few weeks ago on personal finance. One of the speakers--who was excellent, by the way--said something in the course of her long, detailed speech that had nothing to do with personal finance and everything to do with personal health.

This woman was quite the stunner: in her mid-fifties with a figure to die for and energy radiating out of her entire being. She mentioned that she has been a runner for a long time, but decided to work with a personal trainer who really pulled her out of her comfort zone. Her trainer started her on weights and she freaked out. Why? Because she gained weight. Why did I put "gained" in bold italics? Simple. Because while she gained weight, she actually lost inches.

And herein lies the moral of the story.

Weight loss warriors are so obsessed, obsessed and (dare I say) obsessed with the numbers on the scale that they will sacrifice healthy habits just to see a smaller number on the scale. This woman had actually done something good for her health by gaining muscle mass and her first reaction was "oh, no!". Fortunately, she realized the error of her ways, but maybe that's because she's already gorgeous and famous (lol). Who knows.

It's this numbers obsession that has people forgetting the basics: eat healthy foods in reasonable portions and move your body. And take time to smell the roses and eat a piece of chocolate, if that what rings your bell. That's what it's all about.

The rest is just a meaningless numbers game.

The Ac-CENT on the Wrong Syl-LABLE?

Sadly, if we are to be really honest with ourselves, most women want to lose weight for esthetic reasons. It's been thousands of years since a truly fat woman was considered beautiful. The picture above is of the "Venus of Willendorf", a statue that was carved between 22,000-20,000 B.C. It represents what was the ideal female figure: voluptuous and fertile.

Speed ahead several tens of thousands of years, and here's what today's magazines tell us we should look like:
I don't find either image particularly attractive. What I do find worrisome is how the Venuses amongst us are now automatically seen as unhealthy while other women are seen as healthy, simply because they are slim (if not anorexic). This attitude opens the door to eating disorders, self-flagellation (I only lost a pound this week--I'm a failure), yo-yo dieting and ultimately severe damage to one's metabolism and health in general.

Let's be honest: what would you prefer? Being skinny and unhealthy or being 10 pounds overweight (and who decides that, anyway?) and in great shape? How much would you give up to "look good", wear a size 4, or proudly wear a bikini?

Why are you going to the gym? Honestly? What if you were guaranteed to never get rid of your batwings, or flabby stomach? Would you still go to the gym? What if you never lost that last ten pounds? Would you still go to the gym, would you still try to eat healthy foods?

Diane at Fit to the Finish recently asked if you can be obese and healthy. I think the answer is obvious: if you're eating junk food in front of the TV and can't be bothered or aren't even able to walk down to the mailbox, you're unhealthy. But what if you exercise moderately, but regularly and eat healthy, unprocessed foods? You could still be "overweight" (again I ask, by whose standards?), though I somehow doubt you'd be obese. By many other measures, you could be quite healthy (BP, cholesterol, etc.).

And that's where the ac-CENT on the wrong syl-LABLE comes in. It's time to take the accent off weight and pounds (kilos) lost and put it where it belongs: on eating healthy foods, on enjoying (and not fearing) a wide variety of foods and on exercising to the best of our ability on a regular, sustainable, life-long basis rather than going the "biggest loser" route (which can never last a lifetime unless you're Gillian Michaels, who's making a fortune off browbeating people into obedience).

But that's so boring.

Random Thoughts from a Busy Woman

Source: tonyhallgreenbizcheckblog

Has anyone seen the ad on TV by the producers of high-fructose corn syrup? Just what the gullible public needs.

Oh yeah, then there's the ad that presents dinners you pop into the microwave as a healthy choice for families on the go and a way to promote time together around the dinner table. What about all the preservatives and salt these "healthy" meals no doubt contain?

Another article that a must-read from my favourite American newspaper, the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/health/23real.html Yes, dear, you really should eat more slowly.

I'm somewhat taken aback by how many bloggers constantly mention brand name foods. Does this mean people can't eat meals that they put together themselves because they can't calculate the calories contained in home-made anything? Just asking. And can't people just eat at a restaurant without downloading the calorie count of every menu item? Can't you just leave some food on your plate? (See: fear of food!).

I desperately want to answer two posts, one by Jack Sh*t on fear of food, and the other by Diane on fat acceptance, but right now, I need to take a relax break and then get to work on preparing a couple of conferences that are coming up way too fast.

I shall return...

Sitting and Standing

Source: disability.qld.gov.au

I have been very busy recently with work and coming to terms with my future in a lucrative but frustrating profession. Not surprisingly, my back--which is the barometer of my inner life--decided to go wonky about two weeks ago. I was actually in a fair bit of physical pain (just to add to my emotional upset!) for a few days and was starting to get quite worried about what might happen. I have had three ruptured discs in my life. The first one ended with my having emergency spinal surgery while the other two left me with nerve damage. So it's easy to see why I get really scared when my back starts to hurt.

The good news is that my back seems to be getting back to normal (3 steps forward, 1 step back--pardon the pun) and I am once again picking up the pieces and moving on.

Here's the other good news: I have an interesting little article I'd like to recommend for your reading pleasure.

Stand Up While You Read This! appeared in the New York Times a few days ago. According to this article, the chair is your enemy:

It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you.

I find this premise both depressing and fascinating. In today's world, how many of us have really active jobs? If you work in a daycare, or a hospital you can be easily run off your feet, but most of us work at extremely sedentary jobs. And even if you do move around a lot, like nurses, you can be out of shape, overweight and malnourished. How many nurses are so overworked that they eat junk food off the corner of their desks?

Although the article does tend to present a fairly gloomy point of view, there is perhaps some hope.

The message I'm getting is to mix it up. Inasmuch as possible, take a "move" break frequently. Get up from your desk. Go to the washroom. Get a glass of water...

Just take a few steps. Frequently. Then take a few more!