On Nutrition and Mindfulness

I've been mulling and contemplating and gearing up to try to begin to modify the way I think about food. Hmm, tentative much?

As a caveat, I'd like to state up front that this is not a lose-weight-before-the-wedding endeavor. I could gain ten pounds in the next year-and-a-bit, and The Future Mister would still find me gorgeous, I'd still have a fantastic dress and awesome hair, and enough beautifying happiness radiating out of my very pores to knock you over from twenty paces, thank you very much. If I happen to be ten pounds lighter on my wedding day, it'll be a byproduct of a healthier approach to life overall, not some specific effort to fit in a dress or an internal, theoretical idea of what a bride "should" look like.

With that rant out of the way, I'll add that what this is about is a realization that I've been commenting way too often lately that my stomach is "wonky" or "feeling 'off'" or just "meh." I suspect I'd have more energy and motivation to do the myriad of things I need to do every week if I wasn't unconsciously spending part of my energy on tummy woes. And, hey, who wouldn't love to have less discomfort of any variety if that's an option?

Obviously, there are a whole bunch of ways to start rethinking about nutrition, and I think for now I've narrowed it down using a process of elimination. A friend was talking recently about juice fasting, and I'm a little (or a lot) wary of that. I'm unsure how beneficial or harmful it might be to limit one's food intake to broth and juice for three (or however many) days. I've just got a gut feeling (heh, cue the rimshot) that this isn't what I should do.

I'm less concerned about the advisability of avoiding certain types of possible culprit foods. Dairy, gluten, that sort of thing. I don't think this would be unhealthy -- as long as I take some "fake" calcium, for instance -- but I'm ruling this one out too because, honestly, I just plain like those foods, and I'm choosing to be stubborn and keep eating them for now. Why take the overzealous step of banishing bread and cheese from my diet on pure speculation? That would border on tragic, methinks.

So. What I've decided to do in the meantime is to pay attention to what I consume in established nutrition categories. Namely: sodium, sugar, and saturated fat. I've never paid much attention to them in the past; I avoid them as a matter of general mindset, and I don't eat a lot of processed foods as it is, but I'm sure there's some of each lurking where I wouldn't expect it. There's no question that less of each is preferable, so I figure now is the time to start paying attention, assessing what I consume as a matter of habit, and making improvements moving forward. I'm guessing (or hoping? speculating?) that in making those changes, my overall food intake will be higher quality nutrition. If that, the path of least resistance, happens to resolve my low-level but relatively constant stomach wonkiness, so much the better.

And in a few weeks, I should be able to incorporate some uber-healthy sustenance straight from the garden!

Hello, lettuce!

Produce Department in the Backyard

Soon. Hopefully.

It was 90 degrees yesterday. The lowest forecasted overnight temperature on the horizon is 47. I'm thinking it's safe to say we're past frost danger.

Well, we better be, because what was left of the veggie seedlings went in the ground this week. 64 square feet of raised bed gardens, done and planted! Here's the inventory:

Kohlrabi
Two varieties of peas
Spinach
Two varieties of lettuce
Beets
Radishes
Leeks
Scallions
Cucumbers
String beans
Tomatoes
Peppers
Watermelon
Canteloupe

We're also trying to figure out a good one or two types of permanent fruit plants for the yard. Contenders are strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Rumor has it that blueberries love acidic soil, and we've got plenty o' that, so the decision might be made for us. You know what else we've got plenty of, though? Birds. Which might mean that regardless of the kind of fruit grown, the net volume making its way to human mouths could be nil.

I'd also love to plant asparagus. I'm pretty sure it requires full sun, though, and I'm not sure if there are any reliably sunny spots on the property other than along the front of the house. As fantastic as he is, I don't think Mr. Fantastic is necessarily on board with the idea of having tall, feathery, wispy foliage permanently in front of the house.

Part Deux: With a Sunday to Match

I wasn't kidding when I said I had an exceptional weekend. You've already heard how great Saturday night was, and while Sunday was very different, it was equally lovely.

The Awesome Fiance and I took an hour-long boat ride to spend the day visiting one of my closest friends. We live in an area that's generally pretty scenic, as areas go: nice architecture in the downtown area, city parks with beds of tulips or roses, depending on the season, that sort of thing. I gotta say, though, the islands off the northern New England coast take the cake -- so, so, so beautiful. And, lucky us, we got to spend most of the day on one. The Awesome Fiance was kind enough to snap a photo; note the new spring vegetation and birch trees in the background!



After a ferry ride back to the mainland, The Awesome Fiance and I fired up the grill and ate dinner out in the backyard: hot dogs and broccoli slaw (thank you, Smitten Kitchen!) and a few menacing but ultimately inconsequential raindrops. Then he got a fire going in our free-standing fire pit, so we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores! Oh yes we did! Realio, trulio, campfire s'mores. And, because a fire does not simply extinguish itself once it no longer senses the presence of marshmallows, we *had to* sit and watch it for an additional hour or so of soothing (pyromaniacal?) enjoyment.

A yard with a fire pit, and table, a grill, a hammock, and a garden: highly recommended. Having super-great friends who live on islands is great, too, but the key, really, is the super-great friends part.

Recounting a Great Weekend, Part I: R to the O

Ohmygoodness, ohmygoodness, ohmygoodness. I just wrapped up one of the best weekends I could have hoped for. This post is likely to be full of soaring and poetic narrative detailing over-optimism, sheer joy, and blatant avoidance of all things remotely negative. If any of these things bother you, I suggest you stop reading now. Otherwise, chipperness ahoy!

Mr. Terrific and I spent Friday evening with a lovely group of his coworkers. Great people, all very welcoming, friendly, and just plain fun to be around. Awesomeness points: hundreds.

On Saturday, we made some progress on the old house front. The corners of one particularly awkward hallway (over a staircase) that I couldn't reach are now officially painted. Hooray for Mr. Terrific being taller than I am. Awesomeness points: several.

In the afternoon, it was strongly suggested that I take a nap (insert another few awesomeness points for that), in preparation for a surprise adventure in the evening. Mr. Terrific had asked me a few weeks ago to block out the day and he managed to keep me thoroughly perplexed about why, refusing to refer to the plan as anything other than just "the surprise." We got in the car in the early evening and I was assigned to navigation assistance, as the directions were of no help in deciphering the substance of the destination ("Brownfield?! What the heck's in Brownfield?").

Pulling into the parking lot (and I use the term loosely... dirt road and adjacent field, more like) wasn't helpful, either. The adorable farmhouse exterior gave no indication that we were about to walk into a gorgeous, serene, cathedral-ceilings-with-timber-frame-exposed-beams, 200-seat performing arts venue to see a primarily acoustic show by quite possibly my favorite band. [For those of you reading from a geographic distance, if you've not yet discovered the
Rustic Overtones, good lord, you need to check them out. Seriously. Now. Please? For me? It will make my so happy to know I've shared their fantabulousness with others.]

And what a show it was. Such palpable excitement and energy from the two hundred of us who wanted to be there enough to make the long trek over back roads not even navigable via GPS technology. Such talent on the stage, fantastic songwriting, and amazing musicianship. I've got a special place in my heart for any band with a horn line, but these guys are over-the-top talented. And the singer? Dude has got control over his voice, yo.

I might be slightly biased, what with the fact that Rustic Overtones provided much of the sountrack of the early years of my adulthood. To be fair, though, Mr. Terrific, who's been skeptical of the extent of their talents, was mightily impressed Saturday night and may be won over as a convert in the near future. Regardless of whether my perception of their fabulosity was accurate, for me, enjoying the show was an electric, soul-nourishing experience. It's the sort of thing that might, I suspect, only be fully appreciated by those who've had the opportunity to feel the rush of being showered in appreciative applause (which I've only had an inkling of in comparison, to be fair). Listening to expertly performed music so energetically good that my face hurt from smiling and my hands hurt from clapping made my soul decidedly un-hurty. Awesomeness points: a gazillion.

Where does the time go?

No, seriously? How is it that the days are flying by so fast one might almost hear a barely perceptible sonic boom?

Lunch with a friend, trip to the gym, mini-grocery excursion (meaning that I only picked up a few things, not that I went to a store dealing only in very small wares), then to the post office, then home. Four and a half hours, gone. Huh? I just barely have enough time to water the vegetables in the garden outside before I have to get ready for the fun evening plans we've got scheduled.

Slow down, time! (Um, but then pick back up again on cue when I'm employed again and at work, mkay?)

A rare instance in which it's good to be wrong...

Remember my rant about the recurring rain and lack of evaporation? Well, the weather sure showed me! We were supposed to have rain (and hail, I'd heard) yesterday afternoon, but the forecast was wonderfully inaccurate. The sunshine and evaporation were most appreciated. I celebrated by mowing two lawns and painting a whole bunch of wall surface area.

I also managed, finally, to get a reasonably okay picture of my new, shorter hair, having gotten my hair cut back on Friday. Until it gets a little bit longer, I think I'll need to add some curl (as shown) to feel like I don't look like I'm seven. Every haircut I've ever had has looked best about three or four weeks after the actual cut, and I suppose this one only serves to prove that I've got consistent hair.



And yes, that's a better, brighter photo of Picovoli. I've now moved on to Camden, in a so-pale-it's-almost-gray lavender cotton/angora blend. Mmmmm.

Evaporation: I Miss It

Let me first state that I'm very thankful I'm not dealing with the shoveling of snow and the scraping of frost on cars right now. Things could be worse. Still, though, I will proceed to complain.

We're in a rainy stretch. Or, to be more precise, a threatening-to-be-rainy stretch. For weeks and weeks now (well, it feels like it, anyway) we've had some precipitation at least every 36 hours or so. We've had brief sunny breaks, but they're difficult to enjoy thoroughly with more rain looming in the forecast.

More annoying than having to bring the hammock inside each day or having to put off mowing the lawn is the fact that the house has felt damp. Bath towels? Damp. Hand-wash sweaters on a drying rack? Damp for days on end. I'm not usually the sort of person who needs lots of sunshine, from a cheerfulness perspective, and in fact I quite like rain in moderation, but some evaporation would be really nice about now.

A check of the forecast tells me there might be some evaporation on Wednesday, before more rain on Thursday. Sigh.