runlikejoy

Displaced Stay At Home Californian in rural N. Carolina

The Many Faces of Joy

The Many Faces of Joy

Monday, March 28, 2011

Waisting Away


So after 7 years of not really paying any attention whatsoever to my waistline, I went to the doctor last week and had a reality check. I need to cut my salt intake. I need to cut my carbohydrate intake. I need to avoid sugar. I need to stop drinking diet coke. I need to take blood pressure medication. I need to cut down on coffee and limit myself to just one cup in the morning or switch to decaf. I need to buy a blood pressure cuff and check my blood pressure 4 to 6 times a day. I need to continue exercising 5 to 7 times a week which when I told the doctor I already do, she raised her eyebrows. It was overwhelming.

I always thought that staying active and eating healthy would do the trick but I guess I was wrong. So I came home and immediately went through all the food in our pantry and looked at the sodium grams on each item. Canned Vegetarian chili, 480 grams of sodium per serving. Tortilla chips, 380 grams of sodium per serving. Random crackers, 420 grams of sodium per serving, Pace Picante Salsa (my favorite) 280 grams of sodium per serving. I was going to need iron will to do what the doctor was asking me to do.

So I inventoried what we did have, tons of fresh fruit and vegetables. Tons of nuts and grains. Tons of bulk food items like lentils, beans and garbanzos. Lots and lots of eggs and fish. I would give it a try, a real try, not a half assed try.

And so you can imagine my giddiness when I woke up this morning and weighed myself after a week of this nonsense, I had lost 8 lbs! EIGHT whole pounds! So I chortled to my husband that I had lost 8 lbs and he said, "remember that you can lose and gain weight during a day, morning weight is not necessarily indicative of your weight loss". And then I told another friend at a coop I go to and she said, "8 lbs is a lot of weight, if you lose too fast it might not be good, you can gain it right back".

I also got kudos too but we tend to only hear the negative stuff right? Not me, I'm on cloud 9. I know I'm not exactly wasting away but it feels divine to have lost 8 pounds.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

How to get your kid to stop picking her nose


Today my 4 year old decided to take a small ball of kleenex, roll it into a small ball and shove it up her nose. It was about the size of a jelly belly or skittle. Since she spends a good portion of her day with her finger up her nose, she decided the best way to get it out was to do exactly that, stick her finger up her nose. Imagine her horror when it wouldn't come out but rather got pushed further and further up her nasal passage. So she sniffed a lot trying to dislodge it. Then she tried blowing her nose a bunch and that didn't work either. At this point she started picking her nose again frantically. When that didn't work, she started to freak out. She was sitting in the back of the car when this all happened and she tried to explain to me between hiccups and sniffs and crying hysterically that she couldn't get the toilet paper ball out of her nose.

When I finally figured out what she was trying to tell me between hiccups and wails and exaggerated sniffling, it was my turn to freak out. First I almost ran the car off the road. Then she started to spaz out and try to claw her way out of her carseat, which is really only a booster so she technically doesn't have to work too hard at getting out of it. Now I'm driving 10 miles an hour in a 50 mph zone and looking for a place to pull over. On top of all this, she is screaming hysterically and sniffling and snorting upwards instead of blowing out and I am shouting at her to stop because if it gets to far up then we'll have to go to the doctor.

When she heard the word 'doctor' she stopped abruptly (stopped crying, stopped hiccuping, stopped sniffling, stopped freaking out) and asked "will I have to have a shot?" To which I reply "if you don't stop sticking your finger in your nose or sniffing in, then she will have to put tweezers in your nose to pull the Kleenex out" at which she started sobbing in earnest and almost broke my heart.

Finally after what felt like forever (4 minutes) we got home and we ran into the house and since she had been completely still and stopped jamming her little finger up her nose, I had her blow vigorously into a kleenex and the ball dislodged itsself and she didn't have to go to the doctor. We did a lot of hugging and kissing after because it was quite traumatic.

She assured me a mintue ago for the 4th time that she won't be putting any more Kleenex in her nose "EVER again Mommy!" I also haven't seen her pick her nose for 2 full hours.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Porcupine Balls


So I consider myself a vegetarian, a somewhat lackluster vegetarian but a vegetarian none-the-less. I was raised a vegetarian, a comment that raises eyebrows because people comprehend raising children to be Catholic or Baptist, but raising a child to be a vegetarian is another thing altogether. My mother belongs to a religious group that adhered to a strict health message and part of her interpretation of the religious values of this group was to raise her children vegetarian and even sometimes vegan. Personally I hated the vegan episodes but the vegetarianism is fine and I can survive very well without meat. I have a great story about how finding a turkey sandwich in the refrigerator caused my mother to burst into tears. But I digress. . . .

I say lackluster because I do eat chicken once in a blue moon and my mother-in-law makes a mean crispy bacon. And then there is seafood, which I indulge in when we eat out. But for the most part my children are vegetarian and I cook and shop like a vegetarian.

For Christmas I got a Costco membership and I fell immediately in love. All the ready to eat foods. All the pre-prepared foods. All the frozen food. All the large-volume foods. All the clothes. All the electronics. All the multi-vitamins. All the bagels. All the toilet paper.

The other day I decided to prepare a recipe my friend had told me about for my husband, and it called for ground beef - being a good vegetarian I decided that ground turkey would do just as well. So I sent my husband off to Costco to buy 20 pounds of ground turkey, at least it seemed like 20 pounds when he brought it home. And then I made these meatballs and gravy and served them to him over rice. I had to hold my breath while cooking the turkey because the smell made me nauseous.

Here is the recipe:

1 to 2 pounds of ground turkey
1/2 finely chopped onion (I used the food processor)
salt and pepper
2 eggs
2 cans mushroom soup
2 cans water (or one can water one can milk for creamier results)
oil
1 1/2 cups uncooked rice
3 cups of cooked rice left in rice cooker

Here is what I did:

I formed meatballs out of the turkey, onion, salt, pepper, uncooked rice and eggs. Next I browned them in a skillet with a little oil. (this is when I tried not to breathe) Then I put them in a casserole dish and covered them with the mushroom soup/water mixture and baked them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I served them over steamed rice and he loved them!

I am still a vegetarian but I am a porcupine ball professional.