So, How’s that Lean Eating Program Going?

12 Thursday Sep 2013

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A few people have asked me how things are going with the Lean Eating for Women program I started back in late July.  WOW!  I did this through the entire month of August and now all of a sudden it’s mid September!  YES!  I’m still doing this…I’m not giving up!  This is a year-long journey, and I am so happy to have tons of support all around me.  People like J, my family and my friends.  And a few co-workers who I trust to share what I’m doing.

Ironically, my work environment, the place I spend the most of my hours, is not conducive to this life changing journey of mine.  Work is an all-out Food Palooza every day.  I’ve probably blogged about this before.  Someone is always bringing in donuts or pastries and passing them around to everyone.  The DBAs in the cube farm near me love to bring in ice cream for themselves every week and since I sit near them they always offer me some too.  We’re always chatting about what we’re doing for lunch – who’s going out to lunch and where – or who volunteers to go pick up takeout Chinese.  People sometimes get offended when I politely decline the donuts they’re passing out.  That’s OK – that’s their stuff to deal with, not mine.

We even had an ice cream social at work this week as a nice thank you for all that we’ve been doing these past couple of months.  200 people descended on the large meeting room near our cafeteria and it was a make your own sundae set up with our Directors and VPs scooping up ice cream for us.  Fun!  I did have one scoop of chocolate ice cream and ate it slowly.  Interestingly enough, it didn’t taste that great.  Kind of metallic and yucky!

Now wait a second, why the heck am I blogging on a Thursday afternoon, you might be wondering?  Well, I woke up not feeling that great this morning with a slightly sore throat.  So I knew I didn’t have a lot of meetings today and just stayed at home and slept.  I am feeling a lot better now.  I probably slept with my mouth open and it got all dry and irritated!  Too funny.  What a relief!  I simply don’t have time to get sick!

Lean Eating is a habit-based coaching program.  Who wants to get overwhelmed having to learn everything they need to do all at once when starting something new, right?  That’s a guaranteed formula for failure.  Rather, this program has you start out small, just doing one or two things every day, repeating them.  And you track your progress on a private site to show whether or not you did your habits that particular day.  As time goes by, exercise programs are introduced, and now we’re just starting to practice some food-based habits.  Every habit builds upon the other one.  Get off track for a bit?  No problem…tomorrow is a clean slate!

We also are provided some reading material online every day and a short assignment to reflect on how you can apply the lesson content into your own life.  And, you track your progress online to show you’ve completed that day’s lesson.  If you get behind, it’s easy to catch up and see which ones you still need to do!  This was perfect for me, as I was in Kansas City in late July for Silpada National Conference right when the Lean Eating program kicked off so I missed the first few days of the program.  In retrospect that wasn’t a big deal at all, but I remember at the time I was a little worried as I had no idea what to expect!

The Precision Nutrition coaching team is very grounded.  Each of us in the program is assigned a coach, and there are online forums and private Facebook groups to hook up with to share ideas and ask questions.  My coach sends her group a short video message every week and we can book appointments with her to chat over the phone or Skype.  I would bet there isn’t one scenario they haven’t been through with the thousands of clients they’ve worked with!  So, no excuses!  Practice your habits, do your workouts and complete your assignments!  And it’s all with a sense of humor too – I don’t feel like I’m in a military boot camp at all!  And did I mention how easy it is?  Meaning, I just read what I’m supposed to do that day, do it and note online I completed it.  They include short videos showing how to do the exercises and I just print out the exercise list for that day and take it with me to the gym!

Getting exercise is becoming a habit with me again. I remember now how great I feel after a workout and how it helps me unwind mentally.  I’m at the gym 5 nights a week, I do something active outdoors once a week and have one day off.  I looked at my stats and I’ve been 93% compliant with getting my workouts done over the past two weeks!  YES!  High Five!  I feel great and have noticed some subtle changes in my muscle tone.  I’m down 7.5 lbs (3.4 kg) and can see the double chin slowly going away. Some of the exercises that were super hard at first are now getting slightly easier.  This has been a huge wakeup call for me.  I turned 46 in May and have never had a naturally thin, fit build.  After losing 35 lbs 10 years ago I gained about 60 lbs back!  This is not healthy!  So that’s why I’m doing this.  Regular exercise is essential for me to be the best me…YES!

I am a ‘peeker.’  I want to peek ahead and see what the program content will be toward the end.  I want to know exactly how we’ll shift into maintenance mode once the program wraps up next year. I want to know how to manage things like life that will conflict with the time I’ve budgeted to exercise every day. Hell, when I cook I like to open the oven door and peek at what’s cooking and inhale the aroma!  Peek peek peek!

Well, the Lean Eating website must have been designed with peekers like me in mind.  There is new content posted each day….and we can only peek ahead two days!  Ha ha!!  If you try to peek ahead further you’ll get redirected back to today’s info.  Well done, PN!

Lake Serene…Almost

02 Monday Sep 2013

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WP_000471Yep, 80% Lake Serene.  I got schooled yesterday – got a big ol’ in-your-face reminder that I probably still have a White Belt in hiking.  Well, no, I’m not a total novice…right?  I don’t remember what the next belt level is up from that. Hmmmm.

J and I were sooooo excited to get a change of scenery and get in a hike on this holiday weekend! We’ve both been working so hard – weekends too sometimes.  And this is that time of year in the Seattle area where you hold on for dear life to summer and you cherish each and every single sunny day. Now, normally September (and even parts of October sort of) are dry and sunny, but starting today (Labor Day) the forecast for the rest of the week doesn’t look too good.

When we were talking about what to do I suddenly remembered a hike I did with a former co-worker about 10 or 11 years ago:  Lake Serene and Bridal Veil Falls.  So, that was our plan!  J had never been on that hike before and I told him how cool it is, because Lake Serene just suddenly pops up at the end of the trail.  I’ve never seen anything like it!  And it’s so worth it.  I told him how, yeah, there’s a bit of a climb at the end but the lake is stunning!

So, yesterday we hit the road and headed east on Highway 2.  We stopped for a late breakfast at a little café in Gold Bar.  And we’d packed some snacks for lunch and some water.  The turnoff for the trailhead is on Mount Index Road, about 7 miles east of Gold Bar, and it’s very clearly marked.  We were absolutely surprised to find a parking spot in the early afternoon, especially on a holiday weekend!

This hike is just over 7 miles round trip.  There’s a cool fork in the trail after a little ways where you can peel off for a half mile and go get up close with Bridal Veil Falls (and cool off!) or you can just stay on the main trail to Lake Serene, which was another two miles away.  We decided to just get to Lake Serene first.  And the trail does not disappoint.  Check out that pic up top of the gorgeous rock wall and falls trickling down.  I don’t know what kind of rock that is, but I just can’t get enough of that rich, charcoal grey color! We’re hiking up Mount Index here!

The first part of the trail climbs, but it’s mostly dirt with a few rocks and some muddy places and isn’t too difficult.  Once you cross the huge wooden bridge over the falls runoff it starts getting interesting.

As in ‘steep, rocky switchbacks’ interesting.WP_000468  Picture this shot at right but with a much steeper angle uphill.  That’s what the rest of the trek is up to the lake, and there are a few places where they put stairs in the trail.  In fact, it’s a 2000-foot elevation gain in about 3.5 miles!  YOW.  Lots of heavy breathing on this trail, including the adorable dogs we saw along the way.  And a couple of whining moaning kids too.  We were expecting it to be super crowded but amazingly it was not!  And the weather was perfect – 80 degrees and sunny.

I took in the wonderful scenery all around.  The lush green moss on the trees – some trees tipped over, some reaching tall into the sky.  The craggy, rocky pointy peak of Mount Index and so many others jabbing into the sky and the steep drops down below.  The beautiful streams which are probably runoffs from glaciers much higher up.  I love the sounds of streams gurgling along.  It just sounds like…love.

After a few stops to catch our breath and gulp some water we asked people coming back down the trail how far we had to go.  “About an hour,” one couple told us.  OMG.  Another hour of rocky, steep seemingly endless switchbacks…going uphill.  The rocks are pretty stable so I never felt unsafe like I was going to trip and fall, but the incline is steep.  I pictured the stair climbing machine in the gym and can see where hours working out would make this hike a lot easier.

Then I started to feel a little woozy and light headed.  I’d been drinking enough water (I thought)…but I had that feeling just like when J and I went in the steamroom and saunas at the gym.  After the steam and sauna I felt faint and it took me awhile to get back to center.  Flash forward back to us catching our breath on the trail and I waited for that same lightheadedness to pass.  I’m glad I’d felt it once before so I didn’t panic.  I just breathed through it.  But then I wondered…if I’m already starting to feel a little out of it and we’ve got tons more rocky climbing ahead…am I really up for this?  I don’t do enough hiking to feel like taking big risks.  I didn’t want to get even more winded and risk getting injured if I was not feeling 100% and not able to pay close attention to each and every step I took up the rocks.  And we were going through our water a lot more quickly than we realized.   I’d brought a couple liters and J had an extra one already in his pack along with our food.  Hmmmm.  I told him how excited I was for us to see the lake and all…but also that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we turned back.

So…he agreed and we did.  We knew going down the steep rocky trail would be hard on knees too, and I’m still not 100% healed from the fall I took at work in August.  I was relieved he wasn’t upset about turning back at all.  In fact, we talked about doing that hike again with better preparation.  Things like getting an earlier start in the day (we didn’t get on the trail until about 12:30pm), and bringing a lot more water and food.

I also might rethink what I wear.  I wore a sports bra, a tank top and a long-sleeved lightweight Dri-Fit mesh top over that…and my old J. Crew cotton shorts.  Dang I have a lot of synthetic workout/hiking clothing which is a much better choice than wearing cotton, but I can’t fit into a lot of it right now (not yet!).  And next time I’ll choose a more breathable baseball hat.  I’d doused myself both in sunscreen and in bug repellant because I’d read there were a lot of bugs on the trail.  How awesome…zero bug problems!  The bugs must have been from earlier in the year.  And the portion of the trail we did was mostly shady with some sunlight rippling through the trees, so I’ll ditch the long-sleeved top I brought for extra sun protection and just pack it along just in case.

Hiking boots are an absolute MUST on this trail.  Just sayin’.  What a relief my good ol’ Merrells with Gore-Tex are still trooping along.

And I had to laugh…I seriously blocked out how steep that climb was up to the lake!  And then I remembered…the last time I did that hike I was 11 years younger…and 40 lbs. lighter.

Lake Serene, we’re comin’ back!

Splat!!

18 Sunday Aug 2013

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ShoeHave I ever mentioned how I have a teeny bit of a klutzy streak?  Well, not all the time, but from time to time I’ve had some funny ‘hitches in my giddyup’ as that expression goes.  I’ve stumbled on carpet while walking in flats…right in front of my co-workers.  “We’ll have to move that next time,” I joke, after stumbling over nothing but air, ha ha.  I once tripped walking UP the stairs in my townhouse…slipping in my awesome zebra-striped fuzzy slippers holding a nice big glass of Merlot.  [Salt is AMAZING at absorbing red wine stains on brand new tan-colored carpet, just saying.]  The fuzzy slippers ended up in the Goodwill pile…turns out they’re no good on stairs.

Playing hockey definitely can be humbling too…slips and falls are pretty typical when learning how to skate, pass and shoot that puck!  And to avoid colliding with your teammates and opponents out on the ice!  In fact, when I took that beginner hockey clinic nearly 10 (!) years ago this fall (no pun intended), one of the very first things we learned to do was how to get up after we fell.  ‘Cause believe me, we fell.  A LOT.  We were suited up in our gear but didn’t skate with our sticks or practice puck handing.  Nope, we started out just learning basic skating skills.  I learned very quickly to appreciate the investment I made in the protective gear we’re required to wear.

After completing the 8-week clinic we got split into two equally matched teams and we joined the novice division of our local hockey league…and we were on our way!  And while I wouldn’t count myself as a super great player, I got to be fairly decent and really pushed myself far beyond what I ever thought I was capable of, both physically and mentally.

And I learned that it’s actually a lot less treacherous playing hockey in the more intermediate levels than the novice levels.  Why?  Because more skilled players know how to skate.  They know how to control themselves and how to avoid collisions.  We were taught how to skate with our head up, using peripheral vision when moving the puck.  It’s not easy!  But it’s absolutely essential.  Skating head down, charging forward at high speed leads to all kinds of problems. That’s kind of like driving and only looking at the hood of your car, rather than at the horizon as you’re supposed to. Another thing we learned?  “Keep your head on a swivel.”  Ahhh, so so so so true.  Many unintended collisions with teammates and opponents drove that lesson home for sure.

These days I’ve traded my hockey skates for my new shoe BFFs…my Asics from my favorite running store, Run 26!

Now, what’s going on with the shoes in this picture?  Well, I have a weakness for really awesome shoes with heels.  Or platforms.  These are Jessica Simpson’s brand and I just love ’em….they’re so different from all of my other shoes!  And they’re cut wide too; normally I can’t wear sandals with straps near the toes because they’re too narrow and they dig into the sides of my feet.  Ouch.  When your feet hurt, nothing else matters!

I do have fun in those shoes.  I don’t wear them for long events like a day of shopping, but I do wear them to work occasionally.  What’s the key to walking in high platforms?  Walk carefully but confidently…and keep your vision tilted very slightly downward so you can see exactly where you are stepping.

So on last Tuesday at work that didn’t happen.  Here I was in white denim jeans and those shoes walking around in our break room.  I had an open small Tupperware full of cut up tomatoes and cucumbers in olive oil and a little salt…a perfect mid afternoon snack!  And as I was leaving the break room my foot suddenly started to wobble.  You know that feeling when you think you’re going to fall but you then try to mentally ‘correct’ the feeling so you don’t fall?  You think oh man, I’m OK I’m OK I’m OK, no…I’m not going to fall, no wait…I AM going to fall oh SHIT…no, no, I’ve got this…all in a few split seconds.

SPLAT!  I fell down hard uttering some sort of yelp.  Onto a concrete floor, taking the brunt of it on my right knee, so I thought.  I was in a crumpled sort of sideways hands and knees position and in shock.  I tried getting up but my head was spinning.  Luckily two of my co-workers were there and grabbed me under each arm to get me back on my feet.  Oh man, I felt like such a turd!  What the hell happened?  My veggies went flying, and they cleaned it up for me.  I kept offering to help and they kept saying no.  They even had to scrub the concrete floor with soap, because there now was a puddle of slippery olive oil on it.  Amazingly, nothing spilled on my clothes!

Somehow I hobbled back to my desk, stopping by my Manager’s office to tell her what happened.  Another co-worker ran to the break room, filled a large plastic bag with ice and brought it back to me at my desk.

Through all of this I feel really damn lucky.  Turns out I landed on my upper shin and not my kneecap when I fell.  I didn’t break my wrist when I landed on the concrete.  I didn’t hit my head on the counter nearby and didn’t knock out any teeth.  See what I mean here?  I feel very fortunate.   And the ice really helped…these past few days there was not much swelling at all.  Painful, yes, but no sharp shooting pains.

I later realized my foot had wobbled on the border between the carpeted area of the break room and the concrete.  There was a small rubber lip at the edge of the carpeting.  I stepped halfway onto carpet and halfway onto concrete and there was the wobble.  I felt relieved that was the cause, rather than wobbling on a completely flat surface.  Guess my ego got the most bruising of all!

I did skip a couple of my workouts this week – I spent the evening with an ice pack on my shin and just rested.  And when I did get back in the gym I started out slowly on the treadmill.  My shin was feeling stiff, and a little movement really helped.  And I modified my weight training workouts so I wouldn’t need to do any kneeling on my right side.  It worked!

And now I have a colorful bruise that’s on the mend.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to post pictures of it (it’s about the size of a chicken breast).  Just imagine swirls of yellow, green and a little purple on top of a neon-white leg.  You get the idea!

Spontaneous Sauna!

11 Sunday Aug 2013

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saunaWhen I started typing in here today I didn’t have a catchy title in mind (well, catchy in my mind, at least).  Usually that’s what inspires me to start writing.  But today, I’m doing the opposite.

I’m looking back on the 3 (!) weeks since starting the Lean Eating for Women program at Precision Nutrition.  I remember how I was a little frustrated that I would be out-of-town the first few days we started in late July…I didn’t want to miss the boat right off the bat and feel behind. How frustrating, especially not really knowing what to expect!  Well, on the other hand I was at Silpada National Conference, and my life was gloriously not my own for 4 days of jewelry sisterhood in Kansas City!

Now, dare I say, I’m kindasorta getting used to the habit of working out at the gym after work (and also on the weekends too, when we do have a workout scheduled in our daily plan).  It’s nice going in and feeling good and familiar with the gym surroundings, seeing the regulars there and hoping I’ll soon seem like a regular as well!  And feeling confident about just doing the workouts I need to do, no matter how good I’m doing or how much I might suck.  Man, I’m so glad I started this new health and fitness journey in July, not January!  January is such a cliché for things like that (and the gym – as I’m sure most of them are – is completely bursting at the seams that month).  Then, it thins out a bit.

As far as eating goes, I’m practicing the habit of eating food slowly (with a heavy emphasis on practicing), and having a small meal or snack every 2 to 3 hours.  This REALLY helps me get through that late afternoon ‘crash’ I used to feel at work during the week, and it was that feeling that made me tired and unmotivated to get some exercise after work, whether it was going for a walk or getting in the gym.  I’d get home and plop down on the couch with a big bowl of pasta and pesto or whatever, eat too fast and then feel bloated and miserable the rest of the evening.  Wow, just a few small changes make such a huge difference in my energy level!  And I don’t feel nearly as hungry or wiped out at the end of the workday!  And so refreshed and happy after completing my workout!  WOW!!

J’s been very supportive as well.  On Friday he came over to help me take my body measurements.  We have to post our weight and measurements online every week…now, personally I find taking my measurements every week a bit much, but this is the process we need to follow and I’m trusting it.  On the other hand, I don’t like just posting my weight weekly – I know, I’m rebellious.  I find it much more accurate to weigh myself daily and then take that weekly average.  Our weight fluctuates all the time for numerous reasons…so I do follow the process and post my weight for the date I need to upload it, but I mentally track daily weigh-ins to see my overall trend.  For example, yesterday my weigh-in weight looks like I dropped half a pound from the previous week.  But, my weight was a full pound lower for 3 days  in a row prior to my weigh-in date weight.  Weighing myself daily helps me not freak out when it looks like – according to the weekly weigh-ins – that I’m not making any progress or even gaining weight.  AND, of course, muscle weighs more than fat, so I’m not going to freak out if I don’t steadily drop weight week after week.  This is a lifestyle change getting back in the habit of regular exercise, and I can’t possibly correct years of gradual weight gain in just 3 weeks.  Nor would I want to!

Anyway, on Friday I made us dinner – General Chang’s chicken – a fun twist on chicken with Asian-style spices…and gluten free.  J and I have both been super busy.  Man, there’s so much more I want to do together before the summer slips away and the weather turns.  But, I try not to stress about it too much.  August is flying by, but September is usually good weather too.  Anyway, as we were finishing dinner, he was talking about how he’s thinking about joining my gym too…mainly so he can take saunas, which he loves to do!  (He’s Swedish, by the way…OK, yes, those stereotypes start from something, right?).   And he thought, why not go check out the gym right now?  Man, that sounded good to me…those dirty dishes can wait!

We hopped down the street to the gym and I gave him the 25-cent tour.  It was a pretty light crowd inside – 9:00pm on a Friday night with beautiful weather and all.  I had to laugh as I’d not set foot in the steam/sauna section of the gym in years.  I couldn’t even remember if it was a co-ed area or if there were separate, private areas for men and women.  The locker room for me is to keep my clothes and purse secure while I work out and nothing more.  I live so close to the gym so I typically shower at home…driving 5 minutes in sweaty clothes isn’t really a big deal to me.  So I’d not been through the windy, twisty hallways in the back of the women’s locker room past the showers since the gym remodel a few years ago.  Then, suddenly, there was the big hot tub and the steam and sauna rooms…and there was J on the opposite side of the room!  HA!  Too funny…so the steam/sauna area IS co-ed!

As we were driving back home, J said he really wanted to take a sauna…and was happy he had some extra shorts with him.  I quickly changed into some synthetic workout shorts, a sports bra and a light t-shirt and we headed back to the gym yet again!  I don’t have a bathing suit that fits me any longer – yikes – and have been completely reluctant to even think about shopping for one given the size I am right now.

We did both the sauna and the steam rooms…ah, complete with a little eucalyptus aromatherapy too!  I need to do these in short stints until I get more used to the feeling…and make sure to drink plenty of water before and after.

What a great way to wrap up a busy week!  And now it’s time for a little shopping…I’m going to need more than one sports bra that fits, and while I love my bootleg-cut black yoga pants I’m getting a little sick of them too.  How funny that my closet is full of workout clothes from my size 6 years (OK, year) in 2004!  Hopefully I can find some stuff on clearance that hopefully will be too loose in good time!

Pardon My (Personal) Dust!

05 Monday Aug 2013

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95closeupWell dang…it’s been awhile since I posted in here, eh?  The last part of July literally went *poof* before my eyes…and now it’s August!!  So much going on lately!

What, you might ask?  Well, I spent 5 days in Kansas City (Missouri) last week at Silpada Designs National Conference (jewelry!), and it was even more fun than last year if that’s even possible!  It’s fun going as a first-timer, but just as fun having been once before.  I felt much more oriented and grounded in the mix of all the whirlwind excitement!

Take a look at those gorgeous babies in the picture…that’s hematite, pyrite and pearl mixed in with .925 sterling silver, the highest quality silver available in jewelry.  Same grade that Tiffany uses, but nowhere NEAR Tiffany prices!  What’s not to love?  Please message me if you’d like to learn more or would like me to personally send you a new catalogue with my compliments!

And on a more personal note, I’ve jumped on a glorious new journey to get back in shape and drop those extra pounds that have crept up slowly over the last decade.  I’ve joined a coaching program through Precision Nutrition – it’s their Lean Eating for Women program.  This is week 3 and I’m off to a pretty good start! [Guys, there’s a Men’s program too if you were wondering.]

Now, I was a little skeptical about signing up.  Some of you who tune in here regularly might recall my dip into Intuitive Eating.  How refreshing…intuitive eating is not dieting!  So I was worried that the LE program might in fact be a diet.  And I’m very relieved to discover that it’s not.  In fact, it embraces lots of Intuitive Eating principles such as paying attention to your internal cues and noting when you’re starting to feel full.  It’s habit-based coaching, meaning you start out small by learning and practicing a couple of new habits, rather than getting everything WHOOOSH all at once.  It’s too overwhelming otherwise!

So the initial habits have nothing to do with what to eat or what not to eat.  Rather, just getting good nutritional supplements and some exercise (the routines are provided, along with short video clips to demonstrate).  Then we’ll build on those going forward!  Oh man, I have been so sore – but in a glorious way – so much that I have trouble getting out of bed in the morning (damn those planks!!).  But I’m getting the discipline back in my brain, and frankly it’s nice spending some time in the gym rather than flushing $100 a month down the toilet for dues without ever setting foot inside.  I’m getting in the habit of having my workout clothes in a pile ready to throw into my car on my way to work so I can get in the gym right afterwards.  As much as it would be great to do early morning workouts (my gym opens daily at 5:00am), that’s just not in my DNA.  So, early evening workouts it is.

I also had to take some pictures and do some body measurements for a baseline (this is a year-long program).  THAT was a little painful.  Thankfully, J was a champ as always, getting my pictures taken and helping me measure my biceps, waist, hips, neck, etc.  I cried a little as I weighed in on the scales at 204.5 lbs (about 95 kg).  And I’m only 5’4″ (1.6m).  How the fuck did this happen?? 10 years ago I was 138 lbs (63 kg) and a svelte size 6!  I’m grateful J finds me attractive…believe me, I’m doing this for ME and my personal health first and foremost.  I don’t want to be gripped by high blood pressure or the possible danger of diabetes looming in my future (thankfully I’m not diabetic).

So that’s what’s going on these days.  I’ll definitely have more to post as I get more underway in this journey.  I know I’ll get frustrated at times…that’s where the “excellence, not perfection” motto has to kick in.  I’m a little scared too, but excited.

That’s when I remember the words of Dr. Tom Barrett, our keynote speaker at Silpada convention this year:  “Sometimes you have to do it afraid.”

Ten Years an Aunt

21 Sunday Jul 2013

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I woke up with a huge smile this morning…after gloriously sleeping in.  10 years ago my youngest brother and his wife welcomed their first child, C.  We knew it was going to be a boy, but the name was kept a secret.  Although my Dad and my sister-in-law’s Dad have the same name, so we were sure that was going to be his middle name.  So much guessing!  So much waiting and wondering!

So on the night of July 21, 2003, I came home from my usual evening walk to a wonderful message on my answering machine…he was here!!  And I took the day off from work the next day to drive to Portland, OR with my folks to go meet him!  They were first-time grandparents!

To say that day changed my life is a huge understatement.  Wow, my brother was now a Dad!  I’m an Aunt!  This is amazing!

And watching him grow up, discovering the world…priceless.  I remember one time at Thanksgiving we had a bunch of family together, and out of the blue he asks, “Hey, how come we all have the same last name?”  Love it!  Or the time he called to ask me which planet is the closest to the Earth (he was doing an astronomy course in school).

Shortly after he was born, I visited the Intuitive Healer I used to see a few times a year a few years ago (hmmm, maybe another visit is in order?).  I mentioned my new nephew C to her, and she smiled and LIT UP.  She exclaimed, “he’s going to be an accomplished writer!”  WOW!  That totally came out of nowhere!  In fact, I’ve mentioned this to very few people…and not at all to my brother and his family as I don’t want to bring in any bias.  I just really want to let this play out and see what his passions are.  Right now it’s building and launching model rockets!  If he does indeed become a writer I will find that Intuitive Healer and let her know!!

Whatever he chooses to do, I will love that C always and no matter what.  Happy Birthday!!

Happy 4th of July…and “slow down little missy”

07 Sunday Jul 2013

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WP_000341After last year’s drama over the 4th of July I was ready for a truly relaxing getaway weekend.  And man, how time flies!  Can’t believe all that was a year ago.  If you don’t feel like clicking on that link, we had about a 3-4 acre beach grass fire in front of our property on the Washington coast, set off by an unsuccessful bottle rocket launcher.  No one ever came forward to claim responsibility, and my family, neighbors and I watched helplessly as the volunteer fire crew got it under control while the winds blew hard in our direction.  And my eldest nephew had to stay home with my sister-in-law, as he’d made a trip to the ER after trying a superhero-style leap off of a neighbor’s backyard slope behind a basketball hoop…and missed catching the hoop.

So this year we had nearly all of my immediate family at the beach house in Ocean Park, but not quite as many extended family in the neighboring houses as in other years.  It just seemed, well, a little quieter this year overall.  But we still had the fun crowds watching the parade down the main street, which has everything from the local high school band, people running for office, the car club, a belly dancing troupe…and a shopping cart drill team thanks to one of the grocery store’s employees!  And a fantastic time laughing and talking around the fire pit with other relatives in Oysterville, WA, just a short drive from Ocean Park and on the Willapa Bay side of the peninsula.

As I’ve likely written before, getting there is half the fun.  Meaning, the road trip from the Seattle area to Ocean Park is beautiful.  Even more beautiful once you get off the main I-5 freeway and onto the smaller more rural highways.  I’ve driven the route hundreds of times and it’s different every time.  It’s usually around 4 or 4 1/2 hours…but this year it took a whopping 5 1/2.  Bad traffic and an extra stop I hadn’t planned on making.

I usually grab dinner at the Crow’s Nest drive-in in Montesano.  Fast food doesn’t count when you’re road trippin’, right?  This is my classic although somewhat ridiculous excuse for a good, greasy burger and a shake.  After 3 hours on the road – double my usual time to get to this spot at about the halfway point of the drive, I knew I’d be arriving at the house after dark.  The main freeway traffic earlier had crawled…for some reason I had this silly idea that most other people would get an earlier start getting out of town and on the road, while I still had a full day at the office.  So, I stand corrected!  But it was a beautiful evening, and Mount Rainier was out – it was so clear you could even see the rolling foothills all around it.  Gorgeous.

I’m a pretty good ‘eater in the car’ type, even when driving, but this time I ended up wearing my dinner, as a few diced onions and sauce from my cheeseburger danced down the front of my new t-shirt as I sped down Highway 101.  I was determined to make up time, but the curvy highway keeps your speed in check.

And how interesting a segue is that.  This part of Highway 101 winds over quite a few rivers, creeks and sloughs that all eventually flow into Willapa Bay.  And summer is construction season, so bridge maintenance work is in full swing.  The sun was setting and I realized I didn’t need my sunglasses much anymore as the road wound through the trees.  I made up lost time driving a little faster – getting up around 65 mph on a curvy highway is about my limit.  Then…construction zones.  One of the bridges was down to just one lane, and they had an automated traffic light set up to keep traffic flowing long after the work crews went home. Painfully long light cycle…and I could tell I was just one of many frustrated drivers eager to make up time spent backed up in traffic earlier in the afternoon to get to wherever they were going.

A few miles later the highway straightened out and I was probably doing 65 or 70 again…enjoying the last bits of sunlight, admiring the beautiful bay views – and up ahead was another bridge construction zone.  Speed limit 25mph so says the warning sign.  So I gently started tapping my brakes to slow down…I wanted to do a gradual slow and nothing obnoxious.  As I was slowing down I saw a bunch of County police in their Tahoes facing the other direction.  Suddenly their lights started flashing and I continued to brake.  OK, it’s a construction zone but it’s after hours (around 9pm or so) so nobody is working, and oh, those cops must have been called elsewhere…that’s why that guy is pulling out into the road and turning around my direction, right?  RIGHT?  I keep slowing down and realize OH SHIT, he’s pulling me over!  Maybe I’m wrong and I just need to pull over to get out of his way.  Nooo…I pull over and he pulls over behind me.  FUCK.

As much as I want to tell this dude to get a life and leave us city people alone and go fight some REAL crime rather than trolling for speeding cars in a construction zone where NO ONE is working, I keep composed.  A half hour later he’s completed his paperwork and I get my license, registration and insurance card back.  And a $113 ticket for doing 35 mph in a 25 mph zone.  UGH.  OK, I was in the process of slowing down…I just didn’t slow down fast enough.

baby islandThat was at milepost 33 on Highway 101 in Washington state, if anyone wants to map that.  Right near the construction of the bridge over the mid Nemah River.  Be warned, my friends.  When it says 25mph, they mean it.  And fines double or triple in construction zones, even if no one is working in them.

So I didn’t want that episode dampening my mood any longer…I’m headed to the beach!  By now it was just after dark and I had the home stretch of the drive ahead of me.  The curviest parts of Highway 101 actually.  This picture is of Baby Island in Willapa Bay, and the sight of it always makes me smile.  I found this picture online – never have been in a spot to pull over and attempt to take a picture of it myself as the road shoulder is a little narrow and precarious – and you can see the bay, mud and beautiful sky.  I was actually driving this in that kind of not-quite-totally-dark dark.  Instead of beautiful sunset colors, everything had a brown, taupe and dark green glow.  You could still see the outlines of everything so clearly.  It was surreal; I can’t remember the last time I ever have seen the bay at night like that.

Deer are very common on the Long Beach peninsula, and I was crossing my fingers hard that one would not spontaneously leap out in front of me in the dark on the last stretch of the highway to Ocean Park.  Between bad traffic, spilled food and a speeding ticket that was enough.

It took me a good 24 hours or so to wind down.  And nothing better than seeing my adorable nephews and niece to put a huge smile on my face the next morning!  We enjoyed the annual parade through Ocean Park, watching the huge fireworks on the beach in the evening from our back porch, the volunteer beach cleanup (you would not believe the amount of fireworks debris left behind on the beach!) and just playing and relaxing.  Because you just can’t help but chill out and slow down when you get to Ocean Park.  The pace is slower, the salt air makes me sleep like a rock, cell phone coverage is a little spotty but improving…and the TV stays off.

oceanHere’s the view looking south at the (Pacific) ocean on Beach Cleanup day (July 5).  Nice relief from the hot weather we were having at home (but nothing compared to some other parts of the country, yikes).

And a large doe I encountered on a walk about a quarter-mile from the house…she was just standing in the middle of the road and walked over into someone’s yard to start munching grass.

Oh, and what’s with the “slow down little missy” in the post title?  That was J’s wise words to me in a text message after I told him I got a ticket!  Too funny.

Deer

 

The Joy of Mornings

23 Sunday Jun 2013

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Somehow over the years I’ve become less and less of a morning person. Nope, I don’t bounce out of bed joyfully greeting the day…I’m a happy person but notsomuch in the morning generally – I’m a little groggy and not the best conversationalist.  And it’s not unusual for me to sleep in until 10:30 or 11:00am on weekend mornings.  I used to feel a little guilty about that but then I realized no, my body needs this…I’ll savor it.  And a wonderful bed with new 1200 thread count sheets makes it blissful (but not hard on the wallet…thank you overstock.com).

Back in the early to mid 1990s I lived and worked in Seattle proper.  It was an easy walk from my apartment to catch the bus to downtown – man, I really miss those days sometimes…I miss working downtown.  I’d get up at 5:00am and would be at my desk at work by 6:30am.  I had a staff of about 15 back then and the more high maintenance portion of the bunch worked the early shift so it was good for me to be onsite when they were there and have that presence.

I now look back and think DAMN, who was that girl?  Over the years my jobs have been with companies where things started a little later than normal corporate hours.  Meaning, nothing started before 9:00 or even 9:30am.  I got used to this and I guess my body just adjusted.  Throw in hockey a few years later and you’ve got a lifestyle of late nights and weird hours.  Hockey games typically wouldn’t start until 9:00pm, 10:00pm or even 11:00pm – on a Sunday night.  At a rink that might be a 40 minute drive from my house.  Thankfully there’s no traffic that late at night on Sundays. Mondays at work were brutal but most of my co-workers were understanding.

At my current job our consulting team has to be onsite in the office between 9:00am and 3:30pm.  So we can choose to work say 6:30 – 3:30 or 8 – 5:00, or 9 – 6:00.  8:30 – 5:00 is what works for me, and I take a half hour lunch break in there too.  My commute is a mere third the length of the time my prior one was, so getting to work at 8:30 is not a huge problem.

I cherish my sleep and I’m very thankful that I don’t have problems sleeping well. It’s a little hard for me to wind down and immediately go to sleep when I get in bed but once I’m out, I’m out.

Now, I had to laugh at myself when I called my favorite spa asking for a pedicure appointment.  The only time they had on Saturday was…10:00am.  A time when I’m usually somewhat comatose in bed.  But vanity won out and I reluctantly took the appointment.  Luckily there was a Starbucks nearby…hello, double tall latte!

But as I was driving to the spa yesterday morning, I looked around at took in the scenery.  People out jogging with their dogs.  Having coffee outside and having conversations like it’s mid afternoon.  Shopkeepers getting ready to open their stores…sweeping the sidewalks and power washing. WOW…so much activity going on when I’m normally dead to the world.  Maybe I’m missing out on something here!

And this morning I rolled out of bed much earlier than usual…to my cousin J’s baby shower! J is from here but she and her husband live in LA now.  And they’re expecting twins in September!  Boys!  We are so excited…and elated!  Twins don’t run in my side of the family and neither in J’s hubby’s.  So this is truly a miracle!  I admit I did a double take when I saw the shower invitation  – 10:30am.  Wow…brunch!  Everything was amazing and it was so good to see J.  I even made it without coffee!

Wonder how late I will stay up tonight?

General Chang’s Chicken…Gluten Free!

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

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Who ever said chicken has to be boring?  With so many ways to prepare it and how it shows up in just about every kind of ethnic cooking…what’s not to love?  This is a gluten-free (GF) recipe and it’s super quick, easy and full of really great flavors.  And it has a nice ‘after burn’ with the spices which I love.  You can taste and adjust the spiciness up or down to your taste.  I eat GF occasionally and mostly by choice, not by necessity…a few in my family are gluten intolerant and I’m experimenting with different recipes to cook for them and to also learn how to adjust non-GF recipes to accommodate. So for any of you skeptics out there…try this recipe!  You won’t even know it’s GF.

Best advice for a GF lifestyle:  cook from scratch…that way you’ll know exactly what’s going into your food!  This recommendation is from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski.

And this recipe is for General Chang’s Chicken, a hybrid of Chang’s spicy chicken and General Tso’s chicken.  Chang’s spicy chicken is a popular GF dish at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, which is a version of General Tso’s chicken, combining sweet and a fair amount of heat in a heavily Americanized version of Hunan-style Chinese cuisine that grew out of NYC in the 1970s.

Serves 4

  • Olive oil
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
  • Cornstarch
  • 3 to 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3/4 C orange juice
  • 3/4 C cranberry juice
  • 1/4 C rice vinegar
  • 3 T tamari wheat-free soy sauce
  • 3 T brown sugar
  • 2 T ground fresh chili paste
  • 1/4 C water
  • Chopped scallions for garnish

Heat 4-5 T of olive oil in a skillet or wok.  Meanwhile, dredge the cubed chicken breasts fully in the cornstarch.  Add the chicken to the oil and cook, turning, until cooked through, lightly browned and crispy on all sides.  Transfer to a bowl lined with paper towels.

Add the garlic to the remaining olive oil in the skillet (add a little more olive oil if needed) and cook until fragrant.  Add the orange juice, cranberry juice, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and chili paste and stir to mix well.  Mix 2 tsp of cornstarch with the 1/4 C water and stir into the sauce.  Bring to a boil.

Return the chicken to the skillet and cook until the sauce thickens and the chicken is heated through.  Garnish with chopped scallions and serve.  Serve over rice.

Fivenineteen notes: As with other recipes calling for minced garlic, I used minced garlic from a jar.  1/2 tsp is about 1 clove of garlic equivalent, and it’s a huge timesaver.  Take the extra time to really shake off the cornstarch after dredging the chicken in it by using a colander before transferring it to the hot skillet.  I admittedly was hungry and in a hurry making this dish and I carelessly transferred the chicken cubes coated with cornstarch into the skillet with tongs, a little too thickly coated.  I used a green curry chili paste from a jar and it turned out great; I’m excited to try this same recipe with a red curry chili paste as well.

Buon appetito!

Gluten Free Bread from Scratch – the Experiment

02 Sunday Jun 2013

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ingredAnd now for something completely different…bread made from scratch!  Gluten free!  This is definitely going out on a limb in here, for I rarely keep any kind of breads in my house, and while I love to cook I can’t remember making bread from scratch ever.  Maybe a pie crust or cake awhile back, but not a loaf of bread!  And certainly not gluten-free.

Oh boy…gluten free eating.  There is so much information out there about gluten intolerance, Celiac disease and on and on.  So many stories about the benefits of cutting gluten out of our diets.  I am no expert in diet or nutrition.  But I love to cook and thought…why not try a GF recipe?  Maybe try eating GF for a while and see what happens?  I haven’t been diagnosed intolerant, but I haven’t specifically been tested for it either.

One thing to note about GF eating…it can be expensive.  I don’t know the exact reason for this, but one seems to be that the best selections of GF foods are in specialty grocery stores where prices are going to be higher in general.  Now this isn’t always the case 100% of the time – remember this is amateur hour GF blogging in here today.  I’m learning…and enjoying the journey!

Personally I don’t have a problem with spending a little more on food.  Eating out, cooking and even grocery shopping itself are all huge pleasures for me.  Adventurous and fascinating!  I like to say that what we put in our bodies – our fuel – is so essential, so why not make it the best?  And if that means spending a little more, why not?  Now if I was married and raising 5 kids I might think differently about grocery shopping.

I recently picked up a copy of Artisanal Gluten Free Cooking, by Kelli and Peter Bronski.  And I really hit the jackpot with this book.  It’s beautifully written and easy to understand.  It’s very warm and welcoming – not snooty or pretentious.  As you might expect, the first part of the book talks about gluten – what it is and what intolerance means.  It also provides tips on how to navigate the grocery store and how to read ingredient labels.  Gluten is not always going to be called out as “gluten” on a label.  It can be hidden in things like soy sauce or yogurt.  The authors even go on to recommend NOT buying GF things like potato starch or brown rice flour in the bulk food section of the store to save money.  There is risk of cross-contamination with the containers and scoops.  Yikes.

So this weekend I went in a completely different cooking direction and baked a loaf of bread.  I was intrigued by the GF flour recipe that is the foundation of so many of the recipes in this book – breads, cookies, waffles, cakes and pasta.  The authors recommend making a large batch of it (meaning, quadruple their recipe) and storing it in an air-tight container in the fridge.  I made the batch as-is (about 3 cups) and used all of it in the bread recipe.

But first, a trip to the grocery store was in order.  I’m familiar with a few specialty ingredients, and knew the best place to start was the PCC in my neighborhood.  The staff is super friendly and knowledgeable.  If they don’t have something you need, they will go to the ends of the earth to find it for you!  So in this picture we have about $30 worth of ingredients.  See what I mean about pricey?  Much more $$ than your everyday garden variety plain ol’ white flour.  The topper was the 8 ounces of xanthan gum – $12!  What the hell is xanthan gum, you might be wondering?  Well, it basically is the substitute for gluten.  It binds ingredients together like gluten does.  So don’t leave it out trying to save a few bucks!  You won’t be very happy how your recipes turn out.

The one thing that stumped me was potato flour.  I had no problems finding the potato starch, but couldn’t find potato flour anywhere.  So I asked one of the guys for help and he returned with another guy in tow.  They explained that potato starch and potato flour are exactly the same thing.  Hmmm…I wondered…is this true?  I told them that the recipe I’m going to do calls them out distinctly as two separate ingredients.  So they recommended using dried potato flakes and pureeing them in a food processor into a flour.  Sounds good to me!  I don’t know if this is what the authors intended, so I still want to research this further and see if other stores carry potato flour. Or I might just have to poke around online.

I used the bowl attachment of my Cuisinart Smart Stick Blender and it worked beautifully for this basic recipe – about 3 cups total.

Artisan Gluten Free Flour Mix

  • 1 1/4 C brown rice flour
  • 3/4 C sorghum flour
  • 2/3 C cornstarch
  • 1/4 C potato starch
  • 1 T + 1 tsp potato flour
  • 1 tsp xanthan gum

Combine all ingredients and store in an air-tight container in the fridge.  Now for the BREAD…this recipe makes 1 loaf – about 12 servings:

  • 2 1/4 C milk
  • 2 T sugar
  • 1 T salted butter
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 1/4 C of the GF flour mix (above)
  • 1 tsp xanthan gum
  • 2 1/4 tsp (1 package) active dry yeast

Grease a 9 x 5″ loaf pan.  Heat the milk, sugar, salt and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until warmed and the butter is fully melted.  If the milk heats too quickly before the butter fully melts, remove the saucepan from the heat and finish melting the butter.  Mix the GF flour, xanthan gum and yeast in a large bowl.  Add the warm milk mixture, stirring to combine.  The dough will be very sticky.  Spread the dough in the prepared loaf pan.  Cover and let rise in a warm location free from drafts for 30-60 minutes or until doubled in size.

breadPreheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Bake the loaf for 40 minutes, or until firm to the touch.

Here’s what my loaf looked like just before popping it in the oven – yum!  I had covered it loosely with a kitchen towel.  My cooking time was a little longer than 40 minutes.  Test by inserting a toothpick in the loaf.  If it comes out clean, the bread is done.

And the verdict?  Wonderful!  The bread turned out very moist, not crumbly.  I tried a slice plain, and while it’s OK on its own I would recommend using it for sandwiches or for dipping in soups.  Great news – it’s a blank canvas!

I’m very excited to try more recipes in this book…buon appetito!