Jul 31, 2015

Things I Eat: Raw Pizza

I don't know how to make this but I totally want to learn and know and eat a lot more of this all the time! This came from Awesome Foods and it is a raw pizza.

This is what I found.


And this was how it looked in the plastic containet.


And here is it heading toward my face.


And here it is with my teeth marks - right before it vanished.


It was so freaking delicious and I ate it all and it was very sad.

This is sort of expensive and maybe I could work on recreating it because it's raw and CLEARLY lists all the awesome ingredients (which I am so thankful for) but I don't have access to anything that can blend things down into a "spread."


Jul 29, 2015

Biking Adventures: Failing for Good Cause

I participated in the first, I think, Boob Ride in PA on July 11th (and just getting around to writing about it now).

It was a brutal course. I mean, I got a lot of emails saying it wasn't too late to change from the 30 miles I was doing to the 10. But, I figured, I could do it. Right? Even when I was talking to the people who use to do. .like. .the Olympics in. . everything and run marathons and stuff. . .who just thought to pick up biking. .probably should I figured I was out of my league.

Not this sassy flying fox! There I was, holding the sign!



Yeah - no pink for me - if you can't find me.


The course sort of looks like two boobs, by the way.


According to my calculations, I do that amount of climb and 10 miles more than what was listed. In the end, I was destroyed. I was with a pack of people, quickly had to stop and walk up hills and then ended up following the signs for the 10 mile ride in order to try to get home.

There was no Support and Gear (SAG) in this ride - but you always have an emergency number. I just did my best to power through what I could. I just couldn't get my breath, couldn't get into a rhythm - nothing. I was alone, too. No one came with me to ride or for support.

It was a BEAUTIFUL area and BEAUTIFUL ride. That was great. Lots of downhills. I did learn how to stand and petal, something I sort of was struggling with. I also learned I am not completely over my "street-panic" or panic that I will be stranded, lost or my adrenals will crash. I did make a few friends and got some laughs during a 2 mile climb.

I didn't really eat very good the week before this ride - I knew I would be hurting on some of the hills since my training routes tend to be a very gradual incline or no hills (or one big one and nothing else). So, that I can blame on me.

I do wish that someone had come with me - even to just enjoy historic Saint Peters Village which I had never heard of. I did take along my buddy, JJ - she lives in southern California and couldn't actually attend. I took these three pictures of me heading to the event:



Getting ready to ride:

And when I got back to my car. . .in defeat:


The only other really bad thing is that I had to take almost two weeks off from biking and go back on steady medication to combat the strain. It's always defeating to know your body is never going to be up for the tasks other people can go through.

I will also chalk this up to just, in general, having a horrible month in July and this toughness didn't help.

In the end, I did arrive back at my car and headed home.


Jul 27, 2015

A Cause: Eating Disorders & Rewards

My company, like many, offer a free heath screen and you can also earn "points" to get money off your insurance premiums. It's not a bad set up. Ideally, healthy behaviors are rewarded and those who maybe didn't know their levels were wonky, can take up healthy habits. Or at least have a baseline should something go wrong.

A lot of the points are award for:

  • Doing a health screening (at the office or through a doctor).
  • Finishing everything early.
  • Good cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure body mass/waist measurements.
  • Complete two health coaching.

And. .a new one this year - lose 5% of your body weight from last year.

No one, I guess, though about this in anyway? But, there it is. Just lost 5% of you body weight from last year.


That's it. Nothing about what your weight from last year. Your current situation. Your other levels. Nothing. If you can drop 5% of your weight, you can get points.

I searched through all the materials to find the asterisk, the star, the caveat about the 5% not applying to those who have good levels and who do not need to lose any weight. What about the 0% body fat people - or the people gaining quality weight? What about those with eating disorders suddenly seeing this encouragement to lose more weight.

No one else seemed bothered by it, I just felt I should take a stand for the 30 million people who, at some point, will fight with an eating disorder. Or the super-athletic people who tip the scales to the "unhealthy" even they are actually very healthy - like, you know, the Rock who eats over 5,000 calories and has an unhealthy BMI at 6'4 and 260lbs. (Trust me, he's in top physical condition)


Anyhow - for both side of that spectrum, this company-oked metric is a good one for EVERYONE. I decided to voice my concern even if no one else cared or would. Maybe this doesn't matter to anyone.

I didn't want to discuss the intent, I wanted to explain the impact.

--------------------------
From: Me
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 11:53 AM
To: Company Health Care Person
Subject: Vitality Points Concern

Hello!

I had a question/concern about the vitality points (knowing you had nothing to do with the creation):



As someone who weight 135lbs last year and 133lbs this year, I did not hit this mark and lost out on these points.

However, as someone who is of a completely normal body weight (and all normal readings) why would I strive to lose the required 6.75lbs? I did have a gut infection earlier this year resulting in my weight plummeting to about 125lbs because I couldn’t eat or absorb nutrients. I’m can only imagine I would have to adopt a very unhealthy lifestyle to lose this 5%.

I realize the point is to encourage obese and overweight people to adopt a healthier lifestyle – but weight is hardly a good measure and not one I believe should be stressed in this way without other caveats.

People who struggle with eating disorders, live a healthy and consistent lifestyle, as well as those increasing mass through strength training are hit hard by this metric rather than being rewarded for being healthy.

Is this something that would be addressed or a message I can send on to someone who constructs these things?
--------------------------
From: Company Health Care Person
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 1:11 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: Vitality Points Concern 

Hello ,

Thanks for your email. It would be best to go over this in person with your results booklet.
Can you head over now?

--------------------------
From: Me
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 2:07 PM
To:  Company Health Care Person
Subject: RE: Vitality Points Concern 

Sorry, I was in training. 

I don’t have any issue with my health or my results. I’m just pointing out the emphasis on losing 5% of your body weight as documented in the booklet does send a specific message that always losing weight will be rewarded.

--------------------------
From: Company Health Care Person 
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 2:22 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: Vitality Points Concern 

I can see your concern especially with having had experience in this area. I would suggest to voice your concern with people services.

In fact, one of the wellness directors will be onsite tomorrow. Why not speak with him about it that way he can directly answer your questions? He will be in training rooms 1 and 2 for the duration of the screenings tomorrow

--------------------------

Jul 24, 2015

Thing I Eat: Apple Fail-ritters

What are apple fritters? I don't know.

In my quest for breaded delights - I got this bag of oat flour which I was told works sorta like normal flour and I can use it for breading things.

Through the farm share thing I do sometimes, I had all these apples. I also was left alone. Bwahahaa. Time to get into the kitchen with no instructions and make a mess while blindly believing I know exactly what I am doing.

What You Need (This was a fail, so, maybe not)

  • Apples - IDK what kind. Whatever was in the box.
  • Oat flour - It's good people.
  • Sugar - maybe too much.
  • Cinnomen - I don't know how to spell it.
  • Coconut oil - 'Cause garlic oil wasn't going to work. 
What I Did
I used my Gefu 13410 Spiralfix Slicer to make these awesome apple rings. I actually also DO have an apple corer which I. . .used once. I bought it because it was the person I wanted to be. Thusly, it ended up being mostly unused because it was not the person I was. ANYHOW. 

I put the apples through the Gefu and then breaded them in oat flour. Just oat flour. I assumed it would just stick to the apples in the oil. Right? HAHAHA. I'm dumb.


I set myself up a little work station. Throwing the apples into the a pan of coconut oil and then waiting for them to brown a little while all the oat flour came off - I also set up a plate of way to much sugar and cinnamon. 



Then I put them in the sugar. .. then ate them.


Everything about it was good. It just wasn't. . .you know. . .anything.


Jul 20, 2015

Urg

Burnt out, folks. Burnt out.

I have renamed July to Misery.

Check back in on Misery 31st.

Er. you know. .I still have posts happening.



Jul 17, 2015

Things I Eat: Vega Protein Bar

Whatever you might think this tastes like - it probably does. It was not delightful or delicious. It was sort of half-dense and cakey.

I am a fan of Vega, in general. You can read the other stuff of theirs I tried in my Things I Eat: Vega Nutritional Shake.


It wasn't a horrible way to get 250 calories after a bike ride. Just. . .you know. . .not great.


Jul 15, 2015

Fun with Ringworm

I have this lesion on my arm - it actually was right where a horsefly bit me, so, I assumed that's what it was. Then it exploded so I decided to have some fun with it.


Here is what I came up with:

Vaccine gone wrong!


Ringworm

Mark of Satan - I'm a witch.

Cigar burn.

Supernumerary nipple

Lab experiment accident

Hipster tattoo

I'm turning into pizza.

My twin.

Firework accident.

Eye of Sauron.

Brown recluse spider bite.

Ended up being ringworm. I got it from one of the cats, I bet. It's sort of itchy, but, I got the cream for it. It looks real bad, but, it's not that critical.


Jul 13, 2015

Achievement Unlocked: My Bar!

Not like a drinking bar, a. . .bar of food. Not a buffet. Prepackaged. . . .

Due to biking (and general laziness), having an awesome energy source that is compliant with my needs that tastes good is SUPER hard to come by. Then I discovered Go Macro and I will never go back.


I can't have the peanut butter ones, but. . .I mo


They are in the 250 calorie range, delicious and they don't bother my tums - which is so nice!

I have tried the Prolonged Power and Sweet Rejuvenation which I really like. I can't wait to try more!

A friend on Facebook did comment I should try the Charmed Bar - this friend does a lot of yoga, so I bought two. They are not as good. Then again, I am not a big fan of. . .non-blended type bars. I don't like the Kind Bars and while she stated "it's just like a cookie" other than the shape, it's not awesome.

It does pack a good amount of calories, though. So I will eat the two I got for energy. Not pleasure. Ick.

Go Macro!












Jul 10, 2015

Things I Eat: Awesome Food: Apple Delights

Oh. It's a delight! Remember Awesome Foods, the expensive but BEST THING EVER FOR MY FACE?!

Here is what I got.


Here it is in the plastic - the one bite I remembered to take a picture of. You actually get three in the pack.


Here it is heading to my face.


Here's a bite out of it. . .right before I ate EVERYTHING


And I was sad again. Because they were all gone. Awesome Foods products are not cheap - but they are totally worth it. Now I need to find a lot of Brazil nuts and TRY to make some type of spread. Because it's amazing. 


Jul 8, 2015

Farm to FACE

I am sort of lucky that someone decided to try to get the office to eat fruit and veggies. For the super low cost of $10 I got this box of fruits and veggies. Did you know, you can eat everything in this box raw? That includes corn - yeah, people questioning what I was doing at my desk, you can eat corn raw.


In trying to research this - it's called Farm to Family (or farm to face, as I would call it) and there are a lot of these programs around provided fresh edible plants for people. You should totally check it out and see if you can volunteer or purchase your own box of fun.


Jul 6, 2015

Models

I've been seeing a lot of "plus sized" models doing modeling for non-plus sized-sentric stores. You know, "plus size" which is the industry way of saying "fat" and "unfortunate" and "unappealing."

Plus sized models, or as I call them, "models" are often nitched. Put in very specific locations or stores. As an advertising director told me, "No one wants to see fat or ugly women."

A single statement that seemed to sum up a lot of. . .things wrong with the world.

I feel like the media has been telling me - that once women are a certain size, they can't sell fashion or someone like me would be distracted by their size and choose not to buy the clothes.

As a fairly normal person, I must say, I see only the fashion not the size as being "too big" or "fat." I do often see models who look so skinny they actually look as if they would be ill. I think a lot of them are hyped-uped in the media.

Anyhow, a skinny model or curvy model - I actually don't care about the body type. I just really like it when I get the measurements of the model so I can line up my body type to his/her body type to see how the clothes fit. Can we have THAT happen a lot more?

I saw this cute dress on a plus sized model and totally wanted to buy it. Good taste looks good on anyone, regardless of size. I like seeing a wide range of women modeling clothes - I don't know, makes me feel. . .better. And makes the fashion accessible and like. . .I want to belong to this tribe of fine women.

Seriously.




Jul 3, 2015

Things I Eat: Jar Salad

I'm not sure this is really a thing or not. I mean, it's just what I am eating. .so. . .

Salads, man. You know, not-a-lass. Get it? Salad - it's a lad. It'S A LAD. Not a lass. I'm funny.



So, I brought out my old faithful Mason jar - faithful because it can't really escape - and filled it with some spinach (which I chopped a little to cut down on awkward face stuffing), two peaches and then a drizzle of butter olive oil from Bella Olive Taproom.

That's it. And it's very, very tasty! Butter, spinach, sweet fruit. It's a party in my mouth.


NOM!