Wishful Slacker

New Year's Resolutions To Do's

I indulge whole-heartedly in the optimism that comes with the fresh start of a new year.  This year is no exception, and if anything, I feel more ready to attack my new list of resolutions than ever before.  I feel that we are all at risk of diving into new year's resolutions so deeply that they don't withstand the test of time, and before we know it everyone is scrambling around at Lent to give up the indulgences that they only just swore off as the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2012.  But, by creating a plan that not only includes what you are going to do but also answers the how and the when, in addition to identifying the barriers that prevented the attainment of this goal in the past, I think we have a much better shot at having success. 

If anything, I am looking at my resolutions this year as a refinement of my goals, the goals that I have always had, but in all honesty have never seriously acted upon.  One day, I will be sitting on the couch and will realize that 30 years have gone by without me ever doing these things.  That is my fear.  We only live once, and if not now, then when? 

I like to plan, and for years have always had some type of a planner at my side.  Often they were Franklin Covey planners, either stand-alone wirebound books or refill pages to go inside my fancy Franklin binder from years past.  Last year I really liked my system (a wirebound one-page-per-day book that had the perfect layout for my needs), but when I went on to Franklin Covey's site a few weeks ago, I was shocked to learn that they had discontinued it!  How did I learn this?  Well, I was dorky enough to utilize Franklin's online message system with one of their employees.  Yup.  When I replied, "Oh no! That is horrible!", some dude in Franklin's customer service center was probably like, this lady needs a life. 

This is where I am interested in your input, because I am taking a big plunge.  Because I couldn't find a suitable alternative Franklin planner system, I am going ALL-ELECTRONIC with my planning this year!  Yes- no paper.  No hand-written lists, no flipping through a dog-earred calendar.  Instead, I am sticking with iCal through Apple, and I downloaded a "to do" app the other day called Toodledo.  So far, I like it, and I think it will serve its purpose for me.  It is a website in addition to an app, so all my organizational needs will cross all platforms where I need them- on my work computer, my ipad, and my iphone.  You can integrate iCal into Toodledo, and it is on someone's "Honey Do" list to get me set up with that.  :-)

Anyways, I have this new planning system, and I know I want to work on these goals.  So to start off the new year, I have developed a plan for how to integrate these changes into my daily life.  For example, Jim and I have a subscription to Top Chef University that expires at the beginning of summer that we've been sitting on for several months.  To avoid having life carry it by, it is now on our schedule for every Friday night (Yes, Fridays.  Guys, we are boring now, remember?).   And that is basically how I am going about attacking my other tasks.  They're getting scheduled.  No more of this, "whenever I have time" stuff, because that will never happen.  Let's be honest!

If you made any New Year's resolutions, good luck!  I'd love to hear how you plan to implement them.  I figure that any and all peer support with these things can't be bad!

Time

Time.  It's an interesting concept.  Sometimes it flies by, prompting comments to our hair dressers about how we just can't keep up, that already the holidays have come and gone, that our maternity leaves are already almost over, that soon it will be spring.  Yet there are other moments in our lives when time crawls, sluggish and oozing like molasses, grabbing onto doorways and clinging to calendar days.  This is how it felt when my sister had cancer.

Those years were horrendous.  Bad news always hit right before Christmas, and her treatments always took place during winter months when, even under normal circumstances, there is often little to cheer about beneath those dark and heavy clouds.  A stem cell transplant was the last resort, and this took place on January 18, 2008, three years ago today.  Nine months later, my maid of honor stood by my side at our wedding, cancer free and with a gorgeous head of hair. 

Looking back, it takes my breath away thinking about how uncertain life was during those years when we were walking blind.  Since then, there have been many birthdays.  Weddings.  Family gatherings.  And the birth of my daughter.  There is no way to measure the joy I feel when I think of Eleanor and the moments she will be able to spend with her aunt Piper.  Time is precious, and it is ours.
 

The Good (and a fantastic recipe!) and the Unhealthy

On Memorial Day my husband surprised me by baking what seemed like 48 dozen chocolate chip cookies.  Pre-pregnancy, I would have brought a bunch of them to work, trying to dispense of them so as to not overindulge.  Pregnancy-Lindsay looks at it a little differently.  Pregnancy-Lindsay thinks, hmm, if I load these up on a dinner plate instead of just grabbing one or two, it will mean less trips I'll have to make back to the kitchen to re-stock....

I am still so dependent on eating to feel better, that I will eat anything I can to get me happily through the evening hours at this point.  There are times I just need to eat and eat and eat to not feel sick.  I was really pleased- last week I reached the 1 week milestone of not throwing up, only to then get sick this past Friday AND Monday night.  My husband and I emailed each other before heading home from work and realized that neither of us have any dinner ideas for tonight.  If that means that I eat a dinner's-worth of chocolate chip cookies while we decide what to REALLY have for dinner, so be it- there's no arguing with these forces of nature. 

Thankfully, there are some tastes in my 18 weeks pregnant world that I am totally going for that ARE healthy.  Like cottage cheese with pineapple...mmmmmm.  To save time and energy, I lugged the whole cottage cheese tub to work and ate some forkfuls every couple hours, right out of that tub.  Another healthy food that my body is all about now is plain yogurt (preferably yummy Greek yogurt) with strawberries, blackberries, blueberries...whatever we've got on hand.  Okay, the picture below was actually something we had for dessert- so not so healthy since the gorgeous looking plump of goodness on top is homemade whipped cream with agave nectar drizzled over top.

I am really pleased that there is some hope that this fetus will now be nourished by something other than simple carbs and fat.  Basically, in those early pivotal weeks of cellular migration and body axis determination, this poor kid had only French fries to pave the way. 

One thing that really irks me about pregnancy guides (Hello What To Expect When You're Expecting- I'm talking to YOU!) is their tactic of making you feel really, REALLY horrible for how much you have messed up your unborn child by your "Survivor"-like eating habits.  I preferred the advice of the physician assistant I met with at my doctors office.  "If you can only eat a Twix bar, then eat a Twix bar.  We'd rather you be getting the calories than nothing at all."  It's about time someone made some sense!

I have not posted a recipe here for quite some time, and I really want to pass this one along.  My husband made this Mediterranean lentil salad last weekend, and we found the recipe in the June edition of Cooking Light magazine.  This dish is the BEST.  Seriously, I gobbled it up.  Want to hear something else beautiful about this dish?  It has got 210 calories, 7 grams of protein, and 5 grams of fiber per serving.  I want to make it again asap.  Thankfully I married someone as equally opposed to olives as I, so we omitted those in our version :-)

MAKE THIS (and enjoy!)!!!

Mediterranean Lentil Salad
Created by Rebecca Katz, Author of The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 cup dried lentils, rinsed well
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp dried oregano
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp brown rice vinegar (we used regular rice vinegar because that's what we had on hand)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 small cucumber, diced
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, sliced
3 tbsp chopped mint or parsley (we used parsley)
2 oz feta cheese, crumbled

Make It:
1. Combine the lentils, garlic, oregano, bay leaves, and cinnamon in a saucepan.  Add water until lentils are submerged approximately 2 inches.  Bring mixture to a boil, then cover and let simmer over low heat until tender, about 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Drain lentils and discard bay leaves.
3. Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, cumin, and salt.  Toss the lentils with the vinaigrette, stir in remaining ingredients, and top with feta. 

 

A nice day for a ride!

Meet Gary Fisher, my gorgeous new bicycle. 

Those of you that know my husband know that he has been an avid cyclist for a very long time now.  He got into city riding here in Chicago a couple years ago, and once the city cycling bug hit him there was no turning back.  He now rides into work every day in almost every type of weather aside from torrential rain and blizzard.  He varies his route each day, either taking the quiet neighborhood streets, sticking to the busier thoroughfares, or venturing over to the the lakefront path.

Then he comes home to his wife, who has not been on a bike in at least 5 years and has feared the thought of riding on the street in traffic.  Or along the lakefront path, where we have seen numerous accidents and collisions between bikers and runners.  Hmmm...I was content to give that a pass. 
  
But, over time, I must say, I started warming up to the idea of it all, especially now that we live in Roscoe Village with its wider and quieter neighborhood streets.  My husband found some great blogs about city cycling, most notably Let's Go Ride a Bike, written by two women, one in Chicago and the other in Nashville.  Their blog, written to promote biking, is all about how city riding can be done leisurely and without stress, AND without sacrificing fashion.  Check it out- it's really cool.  Just as I began feeling up to the idea of it all, my birthday arrived, along with an offer from my husband that we go out and get me a bike. 

And this is how my Gary Fisher entered my life.

Jim also added to his bike collection this past month with this beautiful Civia Loring, allowing him a new leisurely option to consider in the mornings instead of always taking out his fast-paced and trusty Surly.

Since I've been feeling like death warmed-over the past couple months, poor Gary Fisher has been relegated to our spare bedroom while the Surly and Civia have gotten to go out.  Poor Gary.  But finally, this morning, the weather was perfect and I was feeling pretty good, so out we went for a warm up run through the neighborhood.  It was great!  After riding around for a bit, we stopped off at Wishbone for breakfast, and from there went to ride home.  Only it felt so nice to be out on this beautiful day, feeling the breeze and sensing the quiet of this Sunday morning, that I wanted to keep going!  Which we did, weaving through the streets around Roscoe and up north of Addision into North Center, and over into the Southport Corrider. 

Now this was the way to enjoy a Sunday morning, sitting outside at Wishbone! Our bikes got to flirt with each other while we ate

I was happy to have Jim leading the way, helping me get used to the added awareness one needs of traffic and pedestrians.  I started to really get the hang of it- and at least felt like I got off to a good start!  And my body, which has literally engaged in NO physical activity these past few months, shrieked with joy, "Thank GOD, we're moving again!"

Curried Quinoa Salad- Jillian would be proud

With the two weeks of Olympics coverage, I'd lost track of our usual nightly television routine.  And because of that, we actually ate a HEALTHY dinner tonight while watching The Biggest Loser!  This is very uncharacteristic for us.  The one night of the week when we usually grab pizza or Thai food often occurs when Jillian and Bob are lauding the amazing benefits of Yoplait yogurt smoothies and 8 hour long workouts.  But TONIGHT, we ate a very healthy dinner.  I think Jillian smiled at me through the screen.  I love her.

I am not usually a reality television fan, but I love The Biggest Loser.  I spent equal amounts of time making fun of the forced mid-program advertising (Hey Bob, how about some ORBIT GUM to help your food cravings?!) and the over-the-top sappiness as I do cheering on the contestants and their lifestyle changes.  As I am midway through mocking someone, my eyes begin to sting.  "Are you CRYING?" my husband has asked me. 

Yes, indeed.  They got me.

But anyways, lets get back to our dinner, curried quinoa salad.  This recipe was featured in the Chicago Tribune in the past year, and it is what introduced us to The Flexitarian Diet by Dawn Jackson Blatner.  This recipe is really tasty and filling.  It is really easy to whip up too.  In the variation of the recipe on DJB's website, she also adds some walnuts, which I don't think is really necessary.  I just like gobbling up the chickpeas.  When the Chicago Tribune posted the recipe, they created a yogurt dressing to spoon on top of the salad, which I'll include here.  The hot chili sauce in the dressing gives it a great kick.  Use less if you'd like less heat (duh!).  Tonight we used garam masala, and the first time we made it we used curry powder.  Yum.  And just buy ready-shredded carrots to save time :-)

Leftovers are tasty too!

Curried quinoa salad
2 cups water
1 cup quinoa
2 teaspoons curry powder or garam masala
8 green onions, chopped
2 cans (15 ounces each) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Yogurt-cumin dressing (recipe below)

Heat the water to a boil in a large saucepan.  Add the quinoa and curry powder; lower heat to a simmer.  Cover pan; cook 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, combine the green onions, chickpeas, carrots, and cranberries in a large bowl.  Stir together with the quinoa.  Serve drizzled with dressing.

Yogurt-cumin dressing: Combine 1 cup plain non-fat yogurt, 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, 3 teaspoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon each grated lemon zest and hot chili sauce and 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin in a small bowl; refrigerate before serving. 

Yummy breakfast

We are working on doing away with processed foods in our home, which has been going well.  It is so refreshing to eat pure food.  It requires increased thought and planning, and I find this extra amount of focus allows for greater appreciation for the quality of the food you eat.  We are really looking forward to the opening of the local farmer's markets in the spring (if that ever arrives!) and I'd love to check out the new French Market at the Ogilvie transportation center downtown.  We are exploring purchasing our meat from the Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm.  I've been feeling a lot of "meat guilt" recently, and am learning more about the meat industry.  My mother got us the movie Food, Inc, which we still have to watch but I've heard is very eye-opening.

I was away from Chicago last weekend, and my kind husband went grocery shopping for me, bringing home raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, kiwi fruit, and mangoes.  All week I've been whipping up variations of a fruit and yogurt parfait in the mornings.  I pour some Kashi GOLEAN Crunch! Honey Almond Flax cereal on the bottom of a bowl, spoon some plain lowfat yogurt on top (we used Trader Joe's organic yogurt this week), and then top it with fruit.  This week I alternated raspberries and blueberries with strawberries and kiwi (and this morning we added mangoes, pictured above!).  This was a very filling breakfast too- I wasn't starving by 10:30 am like usual!

In a variation of this, I sometimes just mix together yogurt, blueberries, and a little bit of honey.  Yum. 

I'll continue to post good finds as I stumble upon them :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fifteen years ago today, the day before Valentine's Day, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Words cannot express how fortunate my family has been during these years to now all be healthy and happy.  This goes to show the immense importance of health awareness and surveillance.  Be aware of your health and what feels off, practice healthy habits at home, such as performing self-breast exams, eat fruits and vegetables, exercise, floss, howl at the moon, etc, and see your doctor for annual exams!  You owe it to yourself and your loved ones.

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Orzo with Cilantro-Lime Pesto

I made this dish last Thursday night.  Jim wasn't home (he was off go-carting with coworkers), and I immediately felt a bit guilty for excluding him!  At first I thought I'd be doing him a favor, since the recipe came from The Flexitarian Diet cookbook that I like so much.  Jim has typically taken a bit more convincing for these all-vegetarian recipes, which is why I thought I'd err on the side of him NOT being a huge fan of this dish.  At least I made enough so that there was plenty extra and he got to enjoy it for lunch the next day.   

Keep in mind that this recipe is enough for about 1-2 servings, so make sure to double/triple/whatever the dish if you want more than that.  This is a true eyeball-it recipe.  Nothing needs to be exact.  Aside from cooking the pasta, there is no other cooking involved, which is nice too :-)

Orzo with Cilantro-Lime Pesto
From The Flexitarian Diet by Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, LDN

Ingredients (for 1-2 servings)
1/4 cup (2 oz) uncooked whole-grain orzo (regular is fine too of course)
1 cup fresh cilantro
1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup drained and chopped, jarred (in water) roasted red peppers
1/4 cup canned no-salt-added corn, drained

Cook orzo according to package directions.  With the chopper attachment of hand blender or in food processor, puree cilantro, lime juice, oil, pine nuts, and garlic to make cilantro pesto.  Toss cooked orzo with cilantro pesto and remaining ingredients.

On Genetics and Us

I was once cornered by an individual who began firing off questions about personalized genomics.  He had done his research.

"Do you know how many conditions companies like "23 and Me" can test for?"
No.
"Now I read that all of us are carriers of at least 7 or 8 recessive genetic conditions.  Is that true?"
Yes.
"Well, how do they know that is true?  Have they tested everyone?  Do they revise that number over time?  Have they tested the eskimos?"

Anyways, this went on for several minutes, but the topic is one that I have found particularly interesting since grad school.  Now, I am not as much interested in WHAT these new personalized genomics companies have to offer.  Rather, I am more interested in people's responses to learning that they could potentially have access to this very personal genetic information.

Here's the deal.  When we think of "genetic disease," we frequently think of what we call "single gene disorders."  One gene has a mutation, and that mutation leads to that individual being affected with a genetic condition.  One gene, One disease.  Sickle cell disease.  Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  Cystic fibrosis.  You get the picture.

Over time, we are learning that the majority of conditions and diseases do not fit into the "one gene, one disease" category.  Rather, these fall into the category of multifactorial disease, which means that there are likely many, many genes, and many, many environmental factors, that all interact with each other.  Line up certain genetic variations with different environmental prompts, and you have a complex multifactorial condition.  Lupus.  Multiple sclerosis.  Type II Diabetes.  Parkinson's disease.

Several direct-to-consumer companies have developed genetic testing that can be ordered from a private individual's home and sent directly to a lab with no doctor involved.  Some of these companies have genetic counselors, others do not.  Some of these companies help their customers and their customers' physicians interpret their results, others do not.  Several of these labs do offer testing for single gene conditions on their panel.  In addition to testing for known single gene disorders, many direct-to-consumer companies also offer risk assessments for common complex and multifactorial diseases.  A big area of research at the moment involves trying to locate variations in our genes, or polymorphisms, that could confer an increased RISK for a condition.  What this means is that this polymorphism, in conjunction with other genetic and environmental factors, could lead to disease.  As you can imagine, the confounding variables in these studies are numerous (for example, did this polymorphism influence this disease, or was it that this individual lived next to a tire manufacturing plant for 30 years?).  There is still much to learn in this area, and many feel that we're far away from giving accurate risk assessments for individuals based on our current limited knowledge of the diseases that affect people today.

Here is what interests me.  Many people, probably including the individual I mentioned above, would be a kid on Christmas morning if they could get their hands on their own personal genomics report.  To be able to say, "well look at that, they found that I carry a risk factor for heart disease" holds great value for many.  But what will they do with that information?  In grad school, we had several discussions about where the health focus should be in today's society.  We all support the research and advances that have developed over the years in treating single gene disorders and the testing that has allowed other family members the ability to know if they are at risk.  But what are the greatest concerns for the health of people in developed nations in this world? 

The modern lifestyle that has brought us so much has also been dangerous to our health, despite the amazing health care gains that have developed over the past 100 years.  There are numerous medical conditions that affect low-risk individuals for reasons we do not understand.  However, for many of us, our risks for disease would decrease significantly if we were to change our daily habits.  It is difficult to leave the comforts that bring us pleasure, like smoking, the sedentary life, and food.  I took some very eye-opening courses in the Public Health Department when I was at U of M, where the discussion focused on helping individuals to address their ambivalence over change.  We learned about identifying the personal barriers to change, and what small steps could lead to minimizing those barriers.  The bottom line is that change can really, really suck.

While direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies advertise the benefits of knowing if one carries an increased genetic susceptibility to multifactorial diseases, we as individuals may not understand that our greatest control in our health lies in our behaviors.  That is what concerns me.  So what if you carry a polymorphism present in 5% of the population that is thought to influence one's risk for hypertension.  Is that going to get you to drop those 30 pounds and adopt a healthier lifestyle?  You tell me.