Happy Belated Memorial Day!

I'm sorry I've been gone for so long, but I've been busy getting ready to go to CHINA! So I've been running around in circles (very disorganized, I am) trying to get everything together.

Actually, I've been running around like crazy these past few days, cause I spent all weekend having FUN. I went on an organized bike ride (for fun, not speed) out to Sauvie Island, for the sole purpose of picking strawberries at Kruger's Farm. In addition to being a blast, it was a pretty good workout too- about 40 miles roundtrip. There were about 15 of us, plus two kiddies, and after scouring through the first crop of the season, we loaded our berries on the bikes, and headed to Peninsula Park Commons for a berry bikey bash :), complete with strawberry blender spirits, brisket, grilled asparagus and garlic buds (kinda like baby garlic?...), and great conversation about bike advocacy and activism. Jonathan Maus, the energizer bunny behind BikePortland was there with his lovely family, and we got to chat a bit about mapping out bike-related data (I offered to help if the need ever arose). It was such a wonderful day. This is why I love this town so much; any given weekend, there is an organized bike ride with really smart, passionate, and interesting folk. (Pictures coming soon...but for now, check out me and B on Jonathan's site)

In addition to the big ride, I rode the bike every chance I got this weekend, now that my bike is much more comfy since getting my handlebars adjusted (I was leaning over too far). Also, I went for a few runs. I haven't posted a lot about the running, but mainly cause I'm working my way back to running 6 miles (which is totally boring to talk about...again). I had to drop out of PFit after missing three weeks, but I plan to continue to train on my own towards a half mary this fall.

I hope to post again and give more details about my upcoming trip to the Middle Kingdom, but for now, I'm so excited, all I can say is...

Eeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Okay, one more...

(ohio sucks)

Now, I'm done. I promise.

Why Shitty Parents Suck

Okay, I gotta make up for my shitty last post's title, which implied veganism is, well, sucky. I don't really believe that. The worthless Atlanta couple used veganism as an excuse for abusive neglect, which sucks.

Now I have to make up for all the shitty, sucky, suck words I used in the last few posts:

sugar, smiley, silly, serendipity, SWELL, slappy, salsa, seraphim, SHOES, seashore.

Okay, that's enough. Now my blogging karma is set right again.

Why Veganism Sucks (for babies)

I just saw a piece in the NY Times about a vegan couple convicted of manslaughter because their 6 week old baby died of malnutrition...yes, malnutrition. These idiots fed their baby soy milk and apple juice INSTEAD OF BREASTMILK! A six week old! I can't get over that.

The author went on to point out that a vegan diet is not an adequate diet (especially for pregnant and nursing moms), which I certainly won't argue with, cause I ain't got the credentials and there are plenty of people that will, but I find it interesting that I stumbled upon it after my post earlier today. Balanced nutrition aside, I know it wasn't a good diet for me, because I spent more time and energy wondering where my next protein fix was coming from; more energy than the stupid beans could provide in the first place!

But, I'm still not convinced that it's an inadequate diet for adults... Lord knows, if you spit in this town, you'd hit at least two vegans, and they seem to be quite sprightly.

Working Too Much Sucks

Here's a great article B sent me about why working fewer hours would be good for the planet. I've already learned how going from a 50-60 hour workweek to a 30ish hour workweek has improved my well-being, but if our whole culture would chill out just a bit more, not only would we be helping our physical health (less stress), but we'd be producing less junk that when it comes down to it, doesn't really make anyone happy. I mean, come on, does this voice-operated remote control make your life any easier?
In eating news...

Veggiepalooza has ended early (a month is sooo long!), but really because it became near impossible on the road. I had a really hard time finding beans/soy when I needed them, so I resorted to chicken or turkey a few times to get my protein....and dang it sure tasted good. So I'm now practicing 'almost vegetarian', still staying away from dairy (I haven't had hardly any milk/cheese/eggs...oh yeah, except for a teaspoon of Miracle Whip here and there on my turkey sandwich...but it's so GOOD!), and pork and red meat, and eating fish/chicken/turkey maybe a few times a week. In other words, I'm going to mainly use meat and dairy as condiments rather than the main course. I'm also still avoiding sugar/white flour and salt, but the caffeine had to come back, because I missed it too much.

The good news is that my blood pressure medication made me faint every time I stood up, which means that my blood pressure has dropped... it is now 120/70 and pulse 60 without the meds. Yippee!! We'll see if that holds steady...(fingers crossed)

*****

In running news...

I'm a runner again!

I ran yesterday for about 45 minutes with a few minute walk break near the end, cause otherwise I would have DIED!

I've only got a few more weeks to work back up to 6 miles, but this, I can do. Eating vegan for a month? Not so much. Oh well. It was worth a try. I just love Miracle Whip WAY too much.

I guess it's the hillbilly in me.

Unregulated Free-Market Anyone?

You want cancer with those fries?

Here's why it won't work. You will have to register to read (it's free and it'll get you fired up), but if you don't want to bother, the upshot is that many Chinese food exports- for human consumption- are also poisoned with chemicals the FDA (they're certainly far from perfect, they can only look at less that 1% of imported regulated food items) deems unfit for human consumption.

The article also talks about how chickens raised and slaughtered here in the U.S. can be shipped to China, processed there, and shipped BACK to the U.S. for our consumption. That's messed up in my opinion. And why do we put up with this? Because we shop at Wallyworld, we don't support small farmers, and we don't know or care where our food comes from! And the corporations know this.

To avoid the potentially dangerous products that don't get inspected (over 99%!), try to buy local, organic, non-processed as much as possible. In other words, know where your food comes from. Yeah, it's a pain in the butt, but how much of a pain is the alternative ignorance? Some may think, well somethin's gonna kill us anyway... Then why bother quit smoking/drinking/eating twinkies, going to the dentist/doctor? That defeatist attitude is complete cowardice in my opinion. And lazy. What the hell is more important than your health anyway?

Man, I'm pissed.

Neal Boortz can bite my butt.

Mixed Tapes

Do the kids still make mixes for their friends? I know they don't make tapes anymore, duh. But CDs? With the nutty RIAA folks running around roughing up those trying to share purchased music, what do the kids do these days?

I'm thinking about this because I'm making a CD mix for a friend this morning, which can be such a nostalgic activity. As I scroll through all my music on my computer (all my CD's are now in my iTunes library), I see other mixes people have made for me in the past. Friends and ex-boyfriends have turned me on to SO much music. One of my favorites is from Paul, a friend from school who gave me a New Orleans mix that is so much fun (he also introduced me to the the classic Byrds 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo', which if it was vinyl, would be totally worn out by now); and there's Henry, who routinely gave me music from his zine business bounty, and then there's the girl I used to work with who was from Austin and made copies of all her KGSR Christmas CD's.

Music mixes are not only an art (does 'Sweet Home Alabama' really work next to Curtis Mayfield?) but because music is so personal, they are like a little piece of us, shared with our friends. This is music that's meaningful.

God, how sappy. Can you tell I'm missing my friends?

*****

It was sooo beautiful here yesterday. B and I went for a bike ride in Forest Park, the largest urban forest reserve in the country. We rode the Leif Erikson trail up and up and up for 7 miles or so, and then back down and down and down. Up was tough, but it wasn't nearly as bouncy as down, which is no fun if you don't have shocks on your bike. So afterwards I felt so rattled and jangled that my teeth were numb, but it was still loads of fun. And it was a good workout, which I've been missing for several weeks, due to annoying cold that is finally clearing up, which means... I can RUN again! We saw tons of runners on the trail yesterday, so time to dust off those trail shoes, say goodbye to the pavement, and hello dirt! But it may be a few weeks before I'm ready for all that uphill. Right now I can just barely manage 2 miles of flat. I hate starting over again.

*****

If you've got critters, the FDA list of tainted pet foods has been updated, so make sure you're not feeding poison to your pets. I got lucky, but so many were not.

We Love Our Mommas

To all of our mommas out there: You rule the planet! You're the cats pajamas, the bees knees, the sun and the moon, and a chocolate quadruple layer cake. We may not always show it, but every day we think of our mommas, and today we offer up our thanks for all the pain and grief and gross diapers they've endured for us, the lessons they've taught us, and the thousands of meals they've cooked for us. It's like a Mommy Thanksgiving today! They worry about us constantly and love us even when we're shitheads, so I hope you can tell your mom today how much you love her.

I sent mine a card and donated to one of her favorite causes, The Elephant Sanctuary, and gave her a call. It's hard to live so far away from my mom, especially on days like today, but sounds like she's happily puttering around in the garden, which is good.

So Happy Mom's Day!

Chocolate and Cheese

Just so you know, I am human. I am not perfect. So, you'll understand when I tell you that I fell off the wagon a bit in Milwaukee (you're probably filled with glee). I was so huuungry when I got to the airport after a long day of teaching and eating only fruit and dehydrated bean soup at the lab, so after I checked my bags, I went in search of a place that had something yummy I could eat (and not a stoopid salad- sick of salads), but the Milwaukee airport is LAME.

So I ate a cheese pizza from Pizza Hut. And M&M's. Chocolate and cheese. It always comes back to chocolate and cheese, doesn't it?

You see, I was so desperate, with a nasty headache, so I had no control over my decision-making, the body just took over from the brain and ordered that cheesy goodness (No! Nastiness). And chocolate. So, rather than bash myself to death over it, I just shrugged my shoulders and told myself I'd be better the next day. And I was. It's a whole lot easier to eat healthy at home.

So we'll see how I do next time I go outta town, but I'm gonna keep at it, because I already feel a lot better- my skin's clearing up, my clothes are looser, and *WARNING: TMI ALERT* my poo is wonderfully fluffy and copious.

*****

I finished Barbara Kingsolver's newest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and now am all psyched to buy a house so that I can dig up the yard for a big garden. Right now I'm looking out on my huge (rented) backyard, and the huge patch of grass that I can't dig up, so it is completely worthless for anything other than aesthetics and the grass bugs that Possum loves to pounce. Will greener than green grass ever become unfashionable? Here in Portland, a lot of folks are landscaping with native bunch grasses and flowers- and staying away from neon green carpeting- which is really beautiful and low-maintenance (saves a bunch of water too). It just seems more logical to landscape that way. I don't get the grass thing.

Anyway, back to Kingsolver. She's been my all-time favorite author since high school, when she came out with the Bean Trees, and I've devoured every one of her books since. Her appeal is that she's a naturalist with schooling in biology and ecology, but she writes with a down-home style and gentle quirkiness about people and their relationships with each other and their natural environment. Her books shaped many of my developing thoughts about how we should behave on this planet. So, I was mystified (and a little ticked) when I learned that she'd ended up on this stupid list/book of 100 people that are 'screwing up' America (which includes my personal hero, Jimmy Carter- if that tells you anything about the moron who came up with this list). So, if you'd like to buck the right-wing propoganda machine, hop on over to your local bookstore and buy as many of her books as they sell. She's a beautiful writer, kills her own chickens, but I'm pretty certain, not a terrorist.

Still veggin' out!

It's day four of the veg-tacular experiment and so far all's goin pretty well. My thoughts so far?

Well, first I'll just say that sugar comes from the devil. Cause it's HELL to get off of. But I've been able to go sugar-free for four days- this includes white, brown, honey, AND white flour, plus artificial sweeteners. Which alone is really hard to do, but I couldn't stop there, instead I decided to go all masochistic and give up meat and dairy products as well. Oh, and coffee.

Why, oh why this insanity you may ask? Well, several reasons, but I can share what I've learned so far:

• My diet (and most Americans) is overly reliant on processed/packaged stuff. And I previously thought I ate pretty healthy- i.e., I don't eat a lot of cookies, chips, frozen pizza, lunchables, ect. But a lot of stuff in boxes nonetheless.

• I (and most Americans) eat WAY too much sugar. Anyone who has seen me prepare coffee or tea inevitably gasps in astonishment at the number of spoons it takes to sweeten my coffee (full disclosure: three heaping spoonfulls. *gasp!* see, I told you) And I can drink several cups of coffee/tea a day. I gave up sugary soda's several years back, but I replaced them with the 'diet' version, which many docs will tell you, not such a healthy replacement. I've tried to give up sugar in the past with poor success (worse symptoms than quitting smoking), so to lose the pounds, it's time for another go.

• I (we) eat meat and dairy too frequently. Now, this is problematic for health reasons as well as other reasons which I mentioned previously within the fuzzy category of "environmental". I decided shortly after I moved to P-town that I would try to buy meat and dairy products from 'happy' local farms only, since they are in relative abundance here. These are smaller, family-run farms that practice sustainable non-concentrated animal feeding operation methods, which not only make for happier farm critters, but also reduces the crap (literally) that ends up in our streams, preserve top-soil, and actually produces more nutritious meats (more Omega 3 for example comes from cattle that graze on grass) than industrial CAFO methods. The problem I have run into though, is that some days, I'm feelin lazy and really just want to walk down the street and buy 'regular' chicken from the conventional grocery store for a stir-fry. And while traveling, it is near impossible to eat meat/dairy that is non-CAFO, but I'm so huungry, and I just have to have that yummy bbq. So, I have concluded that I need to first wean myself off ALL meats and (most) dairy's for a few weeks until I get used to eating mostly vegetables/fruits and grains. Once the experiment is complete, I will eat as a vegetarian who will occasionally eat fish while on the road, and when at home, I will occasionally indulge in the bounty from happy local chickens and cows.
  

• Traveling while trying to eat responsibly is really tough...but doable. Tonight I'm sitting on the bed in my hotel room in Baton Rouge (yes, had to come back) surrounded by the remnants of my dinner, all brought from home: vegan instant black bean soup, flax seed/whole wheat corn chips, homemade salsa, and an orange for dessert. Yum. I did walk across the street to go to the grocery for b'fast and lunch items for tomorrow, but I was so disheartened that I walked out with just a canteloupe and a green smoothie. Just about everything in the store is meat/cheese/white flour/sugar based. The produce didn't look that much more promising, cause it was all industrial ag produce, and I don't exactly have the means to prepare a meal from scratch in my hotel room (and I'm already sick of salads). What I need is a Whole Foods- they have a much better selection of prepared healthy foods. So, in lieu of Whole Foods, tomorrow night I'm treating myself to a Ruth's Chris Steak House (wait for it) vegetarian meal of grilled portobellos, garlic mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Now, that's a meal I can get excited about.

So, how am I feeling? Well, Day 1 was not so bad- felt okay. Day 2: I thought about french bread first thing in the morning, and by later in the day (after a bike move too), I was pretty grumpy. Day 3: grumpy and really spacey (like putting frying pan in freezer instead of cabinet spacey). Today (Day 4): Better. Not so grumpy, and a little more alert. Also, I only slept 5 hours last night and I was not the slightest bit groggy when I woke up (may be due to lower caffeine since I've switched to tea). Overall on the grumpy scale? (1 = Richard Simmons and 10 = the devil), I've been about a 6, or Oscar the Grouch. Tomorrow I'm shooting for Ernie, but may have to settle for Bert.

And in fitness news, I have still not run. This chest/coughing thing is still a problem, but I plan to run tomorrow no matter what. I was able to ride a bike this weekend helping out on one of these, but I felt like crap afterwards and hacked up half my lung.

I'll just leave you with that lovely image.

Day 1 of Veggiepalooza

Was not too bad!

The hardest time was this morning after no coffee (green tea sweetened with stevia instead), and a bowl of oatmeal sans brown sugar. So sad. It took me FOREVER to choke it down- and that was with the bananas, raisins, walnuts, sunflower seeds AND stevia. How long before I can enjoy my oatmeal without the brown sugar? After breakfast I went back to bed partially cause I'm still feeling coughey/sniffely/sickly, but also because I was missing my usual coffee-sugar wake-me-up routine, and just didn't want to be awake. Can you blame me?

So I slept until noon.

I finally woke up just so I could eat again, fixed a boring salad/soup lunch, ran a few errands, whined about not being able to run for almost TWO WEEKS (don't want to talk about it), and fixed a pretty decent dinner. Omigod, fresh asparagus is totally the bomb!

If you're curious, below is everything I ate today (next thing you know, I'll be posting my b.m. events) and it's probably the healthiest I've ever eaten in a day. Ever. The tablespoon of hummus by the way was for my low-fat homemade dressing (hummus, balsalmic vinegar, black and cayenne pepper), the recipe adapted from this group of hotties.

Now, I'm curious to see if I can get enough energy eating this way when I start running again.

*Sniff*

Do not adjust your dials...

I got tired of the previous lame template, and in a fit of typical impulsive behavior, I changed it.

This one feels more organized and seems to have better feng shui.

It's also a nice analog to the dietary change/experiment I'm about to embark on...

...which is to go whole-hog (Eee!) vegan for 6 weeks!

I've been working towards this in my thoughts and (to a lesser degree) my actions for awhile after reading about and ruminating on (can't help it!) many aspects of our food production culture. I began with Wendell Berry, now Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver's newest have become my latest 'teachers' about food and how it relates to the health of the planet and our bodies.

In addition, I just read a copy of Eat 2 Live which promotes a mostly vegan diet for optimal health. Furhman, the author, dares his readers to try 6 weeks of no meat/dairy/sugar/salt/processed foods, and you know about my weakness for dares... It appears the vegan way has helped many folks drop weight, AND get off heart/cholesterol/blood pressure meds, which I've been trying to do since I quit smoking, so what's the harm? Not only is a vegan diet better for our bodies, it's also much better for our planet. So you know that just makes me giddy with the potential for virtuousness.

Now, I have consulted with two vegetarians I know, but mainly to ask, can I do this even though I dislike tofu? They both seem to think I'll develop a taste for it. We'll just have to see about that.

But for now, I'm mainly focused on how to eat salad, fruit, beans, more salad, beans, and salad, without getting bored. I've been collecting recipes all week online, my fridge is stuffed to the gills with springtime produce, my cupboard is stocked with new-to-me things like Braggs Liquid Amino seasoning, oat bran, vegetable stock, tarragon (?), and so I think I'm ready for the next six weeks.

But can she give up bbq?

Stay tuned...

Kill Your TV

Just stumbled on this video from a college student. This will probably elicit an emotional response from the women who read my blog, while the men will probably just think it looks cool.

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