9:44 AM
Hello There,
I moved my blog over to the following address:
http://www.ricochetdreamer.blogspot.com/
No reason to have a different web address from the title of the blog, now is there?
All of my posts and things should theoretically be at the new site, though. So please come visit me over There
Thanks!
10:44 AM
I am in love with my tiny little garden. I also love the perk of living in a place that allows me to harvest arugula and basil mid-December.
This month's Cooking Light magazine has a great "Inspired Vegetarian" section that focuses on Ethiopian Food. It's written by Marcus Samuelsson, the author of Soul of a New Cuisine: The Discovery of a Continent, an African cookbook.
It's a beautiful thing how a kitchen can be a portal to other cultures, different worlds.
Last night we took one of the recipes from Cooking Light's Ethiopian food feature, Red Whole Wheat Penne Pasta (the Italians *attempted* to colonize Ethiopia, so there is an Italian influence on Ethiopian cuisine- the "red" part of the recipe comes from the fiery sauce made from local spice blends that replaces marinara or pesto- a syncretization of culture, on your dinner plate). The recipe required a good amount of basil and arugula- which, if I were to purchase at the store would probably run around $5 (I figure at least $2.50 each for containers of the fresh herbs). For me, the cost was that of 2 seeds and a little care, which eventually produced the beautiful plants who make their home in the raised bed we built for them.
The temperature here has only just barely dipped below freezing,and only a handful of times, so with the help of a frost blanket, my little green friends are still happy and growing, this late in the year. Amazing!
Last night cooking was more than an average weeknight ordeal. I felt connected to the earth when I clipped away herbs from the garden, and I was able to cook up a sense of place along with the food. It's a little thing, but it means a lot, to me.
9:51 AM
So last week totally knocked me out physically. The healthier I feel the more I realize how sick I was. Ick!! But the point is I have been getting back my strength, and the past couple of days I went jogging (about 4 miles each time).
And I realize several things. First of all, it really is true that I feel better when I exercise. My spirits are lifted, my head is cleared, and I feel a little tingly and exhilirated. It's good to be out of breath, good to feel your muscles being used. Yesterday made me remember why it is exactly that I love to get outside and run.
Secondly, I realize how nice it is to be able to go out and run at all , especially after being sick and not being physically able to run. But I also remember how, Not too long ago, I couldn't run. Not because I was sick, but because I was, well, fat. I was anything but "in shape." I couldn't run half a mile, much less four. It took a long time and a lot of effort to get to the place where I am today, and even though I haven't been at the top of my game lately, it's so much ahead of where I used to be; back then I couldn't even think about going on a 4 mile run- now that's a pretty short run to me.
Thirdly, I realize I can do a lot better.
The past month hasn't been a great month for me, running wise. I, once again, allowed myself to get sidetracked with school/work/family etc. And once you miss a few exercise sessions for "legitimate" reasons, like having a paper due, or it being Thanksgiving and family's in town, or what have you, it becomes awfully easy to skip a run because "you just don't feel like it."
But, as Natalie Goldberg points out, if you wait until you feel like running to run, you never will. To further that, I've never regretting going for a run. But I sure have regretting not going on a run. It has to be a priority.
Because of my running setbacks over the past month, my goal has changed. It's changed from running the full marathon to running the half marathon at Cowtown. I'm very disappointed in this, because I let it happen, but at the same time I'm a big believer in learning from mistakes. There's some good that'll come out of it- my goal has also changed from just wanting to finish to finishing with a PR (personal record). Right now my half marathon time is 2:28. That's about an 11:30 min. mile, I think. I have never claimed to be fast. So, getting a PR should be definitely doable.
But I have a bigger, overreaching goal. I really feel like I can be healthier in general. I want to be stronger, leaner, and smarter about the choices I make- because those choices ultimately affect my body,my endurance, even my longevity- and that by extension affects my relationships with people I love. And, as I've talked about before, I really feel like the better shape I'm in physically, the better shape I'm in mentally- I think better and can focus better if I'm exercising regularly and consistantly. And there's tons of research to back that up. It's not just me.
Now I realize, though, that the better shape I'm in physically, the better off I am emotionally, too. I haven't researched it much but I'm pretty convinced that exercising really does make me happier, at least, and I'd suspect that would be true for most people. I really think it does something positive to my brain chemical levels.
It's really just a coincedence that I'm wanting to ramp up the attention I'm paying to my health fairly close to the "New Year's Resolution" date. It's sort of been a general resolution that I made a couple years ago now. Most people who know me know that around that time I lost about 30 lbs, after practically a whole lifetime of being overweight. After the 30lb. mark, I just sort of stayed the same. But like I said, I know I can do better, it's just a matter of committing and following through. I think I'm going to experiment here with a "living well" series, maybe where I talk about my ongoing efforts to be healthier.
I obviously have too many categories in my hodgepodge blog already, so why not add just one more?
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