Ok, so its been forever since I have posted...

It has been a hectic semester, traveling, eating out straight for eight weeks, tons to do. So I had been feeling really sluggish and run down so I thought I would do the master cleanse. What the heck, I always knocked it before, but until you try it, why knock it, you know? So anyway, I bought the lemons (organic, I have a really nice juicer), grade B pure maple syrup (you can use grade A but it does not have as many vitamins), and cayenne pepper, along with "The Master Cleanser" book by Stanley Burroughs. So first off, I really don't believe all of the stuff he says in the book, I mean, the guy was convicted of fraud and he killed several cancer patients, you can read about it on wikipedia. But being very determined and curious I decided to give it a go anyway. By the way, I am not doing this for weight loss, as I am pretty skinny to begin with. I weighed 105 this evening, so I have been adding a bit more syrup as the book recommends for those not wishing to "reduce". I have lost a few pounds, maybe five or so, but that is just water. The point is, the first day all I craved was coffee, which I have a major addiction to, and the other days I have not been hungry, have not wanted food or coffee, really I have not even wanted the lemonade. I feel great, like really really great. I am on day 7 now and think at max I will continue to 14 days and then replace one meal a day (breakfast) with juice. You never realize how sluggish eating out all the time, or even eating at home for that matter, makes you feel so sluggish. I am going to try transitioning to raw once the cleanse is done.

Lemon Cookies

OK, so cookies are not exactly health food, but sometimes I make sweets for my husband or for the people in my office. I don't eat them, but it's way cheaper (and healthier) to make them at home than to buy them at the store. The recipe can a variation on a common theme:

2 cups of flour (can use whole wheat, organic wheat, or cake flour)

1 cup sweetener (can use splenda, stevia, brown sugar, turbanido sugar, regular sugar, whatever)

1/3 cup canola oil

2 Tbsp. agave nectar

2 Tbsp. vegan smart balance spread

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. lemon oil (or lemon extract)

If you have poppyseeds you can add them, but I did not have any, so I omitted them. Heat the oven to 350 F, roll the cookies, slice them, bake for 12-15 mins, remove and cool.

A day at the zoo

Before I met my husband, I had never been to the zoo as I felt that it was cruel to keep animals in cages. On our honeymoon while in Amsterdam, he convinced me to go to the zoo, under the premise that some of the animals, which are endangered, actually thrive in zoos. They all had pelnty of space and seemed truly happy to be there and even a bit tame. All seemed very lazy, docile, and waiting for the humans to bring them their next meal. Since then I have asked to go to the zoo pretty much constantly. In fact we donate to the zoo now and have a membership!

Red Pandas are an example of animals that are endangered in the wild but can thrive in a captive environment. There are three at the Cleveland zoo that were born as twins. They are soo cute. Red Pandas are actually related to racoons, not pandas, but until I can go to the Altalta zoo this is the closest to a Panda I am going to get :) We also visited the Wolves, the Flamingos and other birds, and of course the cats.

Risotto two ways

I have been craving risotto lately, so this weekend I decided to cook risotto! You can boil it just like regular rice, but this requires stirring pretty much constantly as it is extremely glutinous. A more common method is to first brown onions in oil and to this mixture add the risotto and a portion of the cooking liquid (you can use water or stock of your choice here) at a time, stirring and adding liquid. I tried both methods and I have to say the second method made my

risotto much more creamy. One batch I made with purple cauliflower, onions, and sunflower seeds pan seared in olive oil. The second was made by first pan searing onions in an olive oil and smart balance mixture, after which the risotto was added with a small portion of vegetable stock at a time until it cooked al dente. At this point spinach and red wine vinegar were added and the mixture was cooked just until the spinach witled. Although both were delicious, the second was by far the best :D

Friday Food!

I use www.fitday.com to track diet and exercise. Most of the features are free, and it is a great way to keep up with nutrition stats.


Carbs
Protein
Fat
Alcohol (hey, everyone needs wine occasionally!)

When I first started using it I was only concerned with my "daily calorie balance" but lately I have actually been trying to eat healthy and so I just keep an eye on the nutrients bar chart to make sure I am getting an adequate amount of everything I need from food sources. I know it's a really tiny graph and hard to see, but the things below the 100% line are calcium and vitamin B, which the supplement covers. I do try to get calcium and vitamin B from fortified rice milk and juice, but "fortification" and "supplementation" are the same thing in my opinion. I mean, even cows milk is "fortified" with calcium and vitamin D.


Even though I take a multi vitamin also, just to make sure I am not deficient, it is still a good idea to shoot for 100% of everything! Today I have had a bagel (recently have been on a bagel kick, lol) and two larabars. One was not enough. I am going to Ruby Tuesday with my husband after work for the salad bar, so yummy.... Tomorrow I am going to cook and will post some photos. I am planning on making a risotto with steamed vegies, perhaps purple cauliflower. I can't wait, it has been almost a week since I have cooked anything and/or not eaten out.

Helping Others

Today when I got to work I had an email from someone in India asking me to help them with one of their computer simulations. They included the input and did not know what they were doing wrong. They got my email from a physics forum I post on, and they were nice in the email, so I decided to help them. There was also someone from another forum that needed help with their chemistry homework, so I helped them too. I generally don't get the chance help others, unless donating my old last season clothes to goodwill counts, which I don't think it does because it's just a lame excuse for me to shop more, so this felt good :) I played Frisbee in the park again today. The weather here is so lovely, it was 50 deg F this morning with a high of 70 deg F. Food wise I feel alot better about today than yesterday, I guess I am still full from the Indian Food! I had a bagel for breakfast, a larabar for lunch, and a raw vegie salad for dinner. Snack was 8 strawberries and a square of Green and Black's 85% Caco Organic Dark Chocolate. The best chocolate on the planet. Yum...I have to hide it from my husband because a bar lasts me like two weeks and if he finds my bar it is gone in a day :(

Oh Indian Food

Today was a sit at my desk day. I spent the entire day referencing research papers in BibTxt format using this nifty little piece of open source software called JabRef:

http://jabref.sourceforge.net/

Engrossed in my librarianeqsue activities, I basically just sat in my chair reading and cataloging articles all day. I think I got up twice to walk down the hallway. Breakfast was a bagel and carrot juice and lunch was a larabar. Dinner was a samosa, rice, and vegetable jalfrezi. So yummy! I love Indian food. The waitress at the restaurant was the same waitress we had nearly a year ago, but she was pregnant this time, so we left a nice tip. It's always good to see someone like her who really enjoys what she does. I mean, who wouldn't want to serve Indian Food? There is no way I could do that. If serving Indian food was my job that I would be as fit as she is. I have to limit myself to one or two curries a month :) Anyway, time for some Wii fit, coffee, more reading then bed. All in all a nice and relaxing day!