Sick lately

I thought I would/could escape. Silly Nathan.

After seeing CC's illness progress last week, I knew that Friday morning's scratchy throat spelled bad news. I remember back in the chain-smoking days - when scratchy throat instead prompted the question: am I sick, or have I been smoking too much? I remember smoking ultra-light Newport menthols when ill - ultra-lights were the only thing my throat would tolerate, and the temporary change to menthols tricked my lungs into thinking I was still smoking a full-flavored ciggie.
Pathetic.

Last Monday was the five year anniversary of quitting smoking. I celebrated with several/many drinks on Sunday and spent most of Monday lazing around hung over.
Pathetic.

This is the last week of veganism. It's gone by so quickly. And hasn't felt that difficult. We haven't eaten out much at all (which has been amazing for the budget). I've dropped 10 pounds (Mr. Scale had happy news for me this morning). Changes to my cholesteral come on February 17.

We thought about breaking the vegan diet last weekend to begin our new anti-inflamation diet. They're more similar than different. And oddly, I was craving fish. Since I've become convinced that Dr. Weil's diet is our best bet for long-term health, it seemed so arbitrary to delay beginning that diet for another week. But we held fast - primarily because I didn't want to explain to so many co-workers why I wasn't still vegan (the folks who, when I explained that my cholesteral was sky-high, said "Why not just take Lipitor").

In many ways, the new diet will be so much stricter than veganism. No more artificial sweeteners (goodbye Diet Coke and orange drink from Rainbow) and no more fast food (goodbye Big Mac). Severely restricted animal fats, refined flours, and other dairy. So goodbye bread and butter.
Hello whole grains, soy products, wild mushrooms and green tea! Hello sardines and fatty cold-water fish!

And no, Dr. Weil's diet doesn't require you to be so severe/strict - but, I figure that insofar as my chronic diseases are related to inflamation in immune responses - and insofar as any of the restricted foods may trigger a disproportionate allergy-like response from my immune system - then my best bet for getting well and reducing my dependence on prescription medicines is to follow this anti-inflamation diet as strictly as possible.

Plus, I'd rather have abs than brie.

Sore again

Worked out with Doug again yesterday. He mixed things up a bit and since I got there on time, we were able to include some leg exercises. So I'm sore again today, but certainly not as bad as last week. If things feel better tomorrow, I'm going to check with Doug about scheduling workouts on Monday and Friday. We'll see.

Tonight will be our first Thursday night games and tea party. Last week we started celebrating the non-smoking anniversary early by having drinks at Eli's. So this week we'll make some oolong tea and play a game. (I'm going to take Maggie for a special Thursday walk while CC's still at work) We're in the midst of the final season of The Wire, so this week's game session might be on the brief side.

Not too much else. I've been feeling pretty lazy this week - on Tuesday night I jazzed up a pasta sauce and we tried Barilla's semi-whole grain pasta (not awful). Last night the Trio hosted us. Tonight we're having vegi burgers that have been chilling in the freezer for a few months.

It's always so strange when a four-day week seems to drag on and on...

A New Day

Difficulty concentrating today. Shocking, I know.

Today is January 16, 2009.

Lunch out with co-workers. Luckily there was a garden burger on the menu.



Christmas decorations coming down this weekend. I'd be happy just taking down the ornaments. Then we could have a Valentines Tree - an Easter Tree - a Pride Tree - etc.

This morning I was thinking about George Bush and how proud I am to say that I never voted for this worst-ever President.

Thursday's don't feel as special

Still very sore today from the weight workout, so I cancelled tomorrow's session with Doug. He was very understanding, smiling devilishly when I told him I was still so sore. Need to keep stretching.

Dinner last night turned out well - although I burned some of my fingers with steam coming from the pressure cooker. All those unheaded warnings from the cookbooks - well, they'll be headed hereinafter.

Here's a picture of the granola bars CC made last weekend. Super delicious, with honey, almonds, and cashews - I think we'll make more next weekend and include some dried fruit.

That's all for today.

Thursday night used to mean drinks later when CC got home from work. Relaxing with cocktails in anticipation of the weekend.

It's odd - I'm not missing the vodka/drinks so much, but I do miss having a ritual. I need a new ritual.

Sore... very sore

Actually it isn't that bad. Lots of stretching going on today. And more leisurely treadmilling with CB after work (we actually milled last night for 30min)(CB got rewarded with two Grey Goose martinis - I had three virgin Natini's [i.e. club soda in a martini glass, with a cherry]).

The Trio is coming over tonight for Top Chef. We're going to have the cabbage from last night (delish, but I thought it'd be better on day 2), Thai Chickpeas, and the Lima Chili salad from last weekend. We soaked all the legumes last night and CC cooked the lima beans this morning. Go Teamwork! Go pressure cooker!

Lunch out today to celebrate my assistant's birthday. My first big foray into attempting to stay vegan at a non-Asian restaurant. Fairly successful. Thai sweet potato soup and a salad of roasted beets and watercress (sans goat cheese). After explaining to the server that I was vegan, they left off the goat cheese but included the shaved parmesan (I'm sure it was just a mixup from entering the order in the computer). Oh well - and at least I didn't have to explain to her what vegan meant.

In a weird way, it's been nice eating out and seeing how CR lives all the time. I remember times when we'd go somewhere and she'd be so excited that there were three vegan options.

Jella. I feel like jella.

Just got done working out with Doug. First attempt at weight training in ... 10+ years. It was nice having someone be in charge of knowing what to do - how many - what weights - how to stretch, etc. All I had to do was keep focused and lift/push/pull.

Leftover stuffed pepper for lunch - quinoa, mushrooms and black beans. Very tasty and not to labor-intensive.

So we're beginning week 2 of the vegan detox. The scale had happy news this morning. Sad how affirmation from the scale affects my enthusiasm. When I stepped on the scale last week on day 3 and saw that I'd dropped 3 pounds, I was ready to sign up for life.

Last night I picked up a blood pressure cuff at Target and my bloodpressure was 117/78! Probably due to the medicine - but I don't care - it's such a relief to feel like somethings back in line.

Tonight's dinner is Hot & Sour Mushroom Soup (shiitakes and enoki mushrooms with homemade lemongrass broth) and Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage (in the pressure cooker). This past week I've been uber-thankful for the pressure cooker - and as we further explore the world of whole grains and legumes, I'm growing ever more reliant on it.
In fact, last Saturday when CC was making the mushroom/sun-dried tomato risotto, he adapted the recipe to use the pressure cooker!

Lazy Weekend

A lazy, successful weekend.

Friday night we met up with friends from law school at the King & I. My first foray into not partaking in vodka - it went ok. I had mango and club soda. CC stuck to water. We ended up eating there too - much mock duck and tofu.
Then watched the Sex & The City movie. It's still a bit odd when we watch TV - CC's sprawled across the green couch, me lounging on the blue couch - TV tray sans vodka. But it worked out. I enjoyed several glasses of black current juice and club soda. The movie was spot on. A little long perhaps, but we weren't bored and couldn't think of any bits that should have been skipped.

Saturday was our lazy lazy lazy day. I made lima bean salad with sweet chili dressing for lunch. CC made granola bars in the afternoon while I worked on cleaning the SmartRoom (homemade granola bars are AMAZING!!). Dinner was mushroom and sun-dried tomato risotto from Vegan with a Vengeance. We didn't leave the house all day.

Yesterday was a bit harder. Many times lazy Sunday meant hanging downstairs at Eli's, enjoying martinis and french fries. We ran around SuperTarget and The Wedge to get groceries - and decided that vegan food from Pizza Luce would be a good treat.

Golden Globes with soy cheese pizza and vegan muffaletta - what could be better?



Today I'm meeting with the personal trainer at work - crossed fingers - because I'm scared...

Day 4

CC was able to duck out of work early last night, so we flew over to Ikea for some new storage boxes. I discovered we have this huge space above the buffet in our SmartRoom that these boxes fit perfectly. So this weekend I'm going to gather up all the papers, textbooks, DVD cases, season decorations, Bratz dolls, EVERYTHING that doesn't need to be very accessible and/or that we don't feel like sorting through now - and it's all going up there. As god is my witness, we're going to reclaim use of the SmartRoom!

After Ikea, it was fun with the pressure cooker. We make Armenian Red Lentil and Apricot stew from Lorna Sass's vegetarian pressure cooker book. Unfortunately, we didn't have red lentils (my bad from last week's pre-shopping inventory check). I decided we should just substitute yellow split peas - which mostly worked. They didn't cook as quickly, so the stew had to be simmered for 15 minutes - after which time the split peas were still very al dente. Oh well.

Then it was on to the hummus. CC had soaked the chickpeas that morning, so that cut 15 minutes off the time. I tried quartering the recipe - remembering the last hummus debacle where I used all of the Trio's tahini (which is expensive) and ended up with a gigantic tub of hummus that we struggled to consume before it went bad. We ended up with a little over 1 cup - which is just perfect for lunches today (along with green pepper crudite and fresh bread.


I stopped at the library last night to investigate whole-foods cookbooks - hoping to find one by Christina Pirelli (of Christina Cooks). While the website said it wasn't checked out, it wasn't on the shelf - although I did find a cookbook from Dr. Weil. I have this feeling that we'll probably end up following his advice with respect to diet and well-being.

Overall, I'm pretty frustrated. I don't know if you feel this way too, but having listened to enough environmentalists, progressive food policy folks and nutritionists on The Splendid Table, I really don't believe much from the Food and Drug Administration. For example, didn't the la-de-da food pyramid change twice in two years... Do we really think that General Mills and Cargill would allow the US Gov't to seriously explore the health benefits of long-term vegetarianism or veganism?


The other irritation is that everything else is so anecdotal - for instance, I read yesterday that Alanis Morissette recently went vegan and now her alergies have cleared up.



So I think Dr. Weil will end up being our authority for the time being. If only he didn't have such a strange beard...

Day 3

Things are going swimmingly. Delicious dinner last night. NT does such a fabulous job making pasta, and the sauce was delicious. Here's a photo! (CR's been photographing their meals, so I stole this one from her blog)

Today's lunch was previously-frozen eggplant curry that had an unfortunate look, but tasted ok. Tonight I'm making hummus, apricot and red lentil stew, and fresh bread. The pressure cooker will be getting a workout.

When refilling my water today at lunch, I passed someone eating a piece of pizza. Oh well. But other than that things are going swimmingly.

Day 2

Made it through Day 1! No cookies or candy corn (which has been sitting there 7 feet from my office). No bites of leftover cheesy pasta. No booze. It was a good day.

We got groceries last night and then CC made borscht in the pressure cooker. I forgot to photograph it, but it was red and delicious.

Tonight we're heading to the Trio's for homemade pasta and pesto - I'm super psyched!

After dinner last night, instead of sitting in front of the TV, watching nothing of substance, and missing the little glass(es) of vodka I usually enjoyed, I went to the study and worked on this other blog project I'm starting. Wordpress released an update that they kept asking me to install - so I gave it my best shot. And completely screwed something up (I didn't lose any content). This whole website infrastructure thing is so unintuitive. But hopefully this little escapade will help in the long run.

Top Chef tonight!!!!! Double elimination and the British judge who says "It's the bland leading the bland."

Day 1

Thank god for the deep freeze.

CC got home last night and we looked through our food on hand. We had leftover Indian Chili in the freezer that's vegan, and today's lunch. I made the grocery list, so tonight we'll get supplies for the remainder of the week. Boiling steel cut oats for this week's breakfasts was just too daunting, so we're having Kashi bars this week (making homemade granola bars this weekend).

So far so good (acknowledging it's only been about 4 hours). But I've noticed during diets in the past that on that very first morning I find myself absentmindedly grabbing a cookie (which I never eat) or handfuls of whatever candy someone has around. I'd rather have abs than brie... I'd rather have abs than brie... There's no place like home...

Here are couple of pictures from last weekend. I rented a fisheye lens from the local camera shop. T'was tons of fun - Maggie was very curious - probably because I'd moved the dining room table around.

Vegan borscht tonight! I'll take a picture.

The New Year begins today

Apologies for the long silence. Such an odd time, Christmas. Last week, for example, I "worked" Monday, Tuesday, and a couple of hours on Wednesday. I thought my time had to be entered Friday, so I came into work - only to find out it's due today at 5pm. One of the partners I work for asked if I wanted to join them for drinks (it was 2pm).

So even though Christmas was a week and a half ago, it's felt like some long foggy time of unproductivity. It also affected my blogging. I'll try to post some pictures tonight - but no promises.

CC gets back from NoDak today. We left on Friday, so it was a weird weekend. Both Maggie and I spent lots of time laying around, not talking much. Watching reruns (I watched Independence Day one and a half times last night) and infomercials. I had hoped to begin cooking some vegan staples (steel cut oats for breakfasts), but spent most of yesterday cleaning out the SmartRoom. It wasn't wasted time, but I am more stressed about tomorrow's vegan detox month beginning.

As I was digging through the freezer, etc. - I started wondering if I should just throw most things out. Tonight, for example, we're tossing all the meat and dairy from the fridge. But what about the frozen sausages in the freezer? And CC made a HUGE quantity of chicken stock before leaving for NoDak...

It wouldn't be a huge issue except that I'm very much hoping to return to the George Bush Diet after January (fish=ok; meat/poultry=not ok)(i.e., eat nothing smarter than George Bush). So I think the sausages should go. But that seems wasteful. I'll check with CC.

We also need to purge a bunch of booze. I'll be too tempted by any clear booze (tequilla or vodka), so those have to go.

Vegan Month starts tomorrow. I'm nervous for some reason. I'm not too worried about cheating. I'm not afraid that I'll feel hungry all the time. I would have missed beef, but I read this little article in the Wedge newsletter about cows that have triggered my guilt again (I think cows are the cutest of the meat animals). Additionally, I've decided that we need to keep perspective if things get difficult, if we're tempted to cheat/quit. For instance, the most important things are no booze, no caffeine, and eating vegan. If I break down and have a Boca burger during the first two weeks, that's better than having a martini. If we don't have homemade bread made, better to have a vegan sandwich on store bread than to feel defeated and wind up at McDonalds.

Maybe I'm worried about cheese. Many people I've discussed Vegan Month with keep returning to cheese. I'm a fan, certainly - but I've never thought about cheese as so essential. Until I start thinking about cheese-less pizza.

So tomorrow it begins. And in honor of the endeavor, I've crafted two special mottos:

I'd rather be thin than drunk.

I'd rather have abs than brie.