Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Get Drunk by Charles Beaudelaire
Always be drunk.
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
"Time to get drunk!
Don't be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!
On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!"
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
"Time to get drunk!
Don't be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!
On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!"
Friday, January 6, 2012
It is time to move on to greener pastures...
Well, this blog has become largely a paleo blog, and therefore I am moving it to a new location:
Grokette's Primal Musings
I will certainly write here again, when the muse kisses me gently. ;)
So long.... Me!
Grokette's Primal Musings
I will certainly write here again, when the muse kisses me gently. ;)
So long.... Me!
Saturday, July 2, 2011
The Carb Flu
I'm reading a book called Run Like A Mother, written by Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell. I bought the book in April when I picked up my packet for the Race for the Roses Half Marathon. I shook hands with Sarah, who lives right here in Portland. She is as tall as I am, which I loved of course.
The book is a pretty good read, although I'll say that there is not a whole lot of new information for me. It's more entertaining than educational if you will. However, when they get to talking about nutrition, I couldn't help being a little turned off. I believe it is Sarah who wrote about doing a 14 day trial of the South Beach Diet. She is a carb junkie, loves all bagels, pasta, and other grains, and was hesitant about trying low carbing. But well, as a contributor for Runner's World Magazine, she agreed to experiment with the South Beach Diet.
Obviously it could only go wrong. She felt miserable for the entire 14 days, but instead of going a little deeper, she quickly dismissed the low carb diet as no good and happily went back to her old ways of eating lots and lots of carbs. I don't claim to hold the truth for everyone and everything. But I was turned off by how quickly she was to argue that runners should not eat a low carb diet. Why?
1.) The South Beach Diet is not the way to go. Yeah, sorry, that's my opinion, and I'm sticking with it. With this diet you still rely too heavily on grains. Those need to go. Period!
2.) Fourteen days are not enough! She quit right at the point when her body was getting used to this different kind of fuel. I'm arguing that, being a carb junkie, she should have stuck with it for at least 30 days.
3.) A little more research into the subject of low carbing would have led her to the paleo/primal way of life, and with that to forums where nutrition for runners is discussed in great detail.
Her experience could have been an entirely different one had she known about the carb flu, adjusted her running accordingly, and stuck it out for at least one month. I remember all too well, how miserable I felt for a couple of weeks. Getting the sugar and grains out of my body completely took some time. But once I got past it, I felt better than ever before. Before long runs I do eat more carbs to keep my body fueled, but I do not need pasta or bagels in order to run better.
As a matter of fact, I ran a much better Half Marathon this year than I did last year, when I still ate according to conventional wisdom. Last year I ran an average 12minute/mile. This morning, during my Team in Training run of 9 miles, I ran an average of 9.5minute/mile. Granted I'm working out differently, but honestly, I think that eating like this has made a huge difference in my overall performance. (It's made me about 30lbs lighter, too!)
Read all about the carb flu at Mark's Daily Apple.
BTW: Current weight: 154lbs. At a height of almost 6feet this is better than I ever expected!!
The book is a pretty good read, although I'll say that there is not a whole lot of new information for me. It's more entertaining than educational if you will. However, when they get to talking about nutrition, I couldn't help being a little turned off. I believe it is Sarah who wrote about doing a 14 day trial of the South Beach Diet. She is a carb junkie, loves all bagels, pasta, and other grains, and was hesitant about trying low carbing. But well, as a contributor for Runner's World Magazine, she agreed to experiment with the South Beach Diet.
Obviously it could only go wrong. She felt miserable for the entire 14 days, but instead of going a little deeper, she quickly dismissed the low carb diet as no good and happily went back to her old ways of eating lots and lots of carbs. I don't claim to hold the truth for everyone and everything. But I was turned off by how quickly she was to argue that runners should not eat a low carb diet. Why?
1.) The South Beach Diet is not the way to go. Yeah, sorry, that's my opinion, and I'm sticking with it. With this diet you still rely too heavily on grains. Those need to go. Period!
2.) Fourteen days are not enough! She quit right at the point when her body was getting used to this different kind of fuel. I'm arguing that, being a carb junkie, she should have stuck with it for at least 30 days.
3.) A little more research into the subject of low carbing would have led her to the paleo/primal way of life, and with that to forums where nutrition for runners is discussed in great detail.
Her experience could have been an entirely different one had she known about the carb flu, adjusted her running accordingly, and stuck it out for at least one month. I remember all too well, how miserable I felt for a couple of weeks. Getting the sugar and grains out of my body completely took some time. But once I got past it, I felt better than ever before. Before long runs I do eat more carbs to keep my body fueled, but I do not need pasta or bagels in order to run better.
As a matter of fact, I ran a much better Half Marathon this year than I did last year, when I still ate according to conventional wisdom. Last year I ran an average 12minute/mile. This morning, during my Team in Training run of 9 miles, I ran an average of 9.5minute/mile. Granted I'm working out differently, but honestly, I think that eating like this has made a huge difference in my overall performance. (It's made me about 30lbs lighter, too!)
Read all about the carb flu at Mark's Daily Apple.
BTW: Current weight: 154lbs. At a height of almost 6feet this is better than I ever expected!!
Friday, July 1, 2011
Success Stories - What's not to love about them?
It's Friday... and every Friday I make sure to read Mark's Daily Apple. I have been a fan of Mark since the day I found out about him. Every day he posts a new article. And so far every single one has been well written, well researched, and while they tend to get really long at times, his website is still the one I go to most of the time.
Fridays, however, are my favorite day. Friday is Success Story day. And I love nothing as much as a good paleo/primal success story. Today Dean from Being Primal is featured in the success stories. Besides a well written piece he provides a little bit of eye candy for this gal here. Yes, I'm a sucker for eye candy. So, really, who can blame me for never missing a Friday post?
Grok on, fabulous people. It's a sunny day here in Oregon. It's about time!
Fridays, however, are my favorite day. Friday is Success Story day. And I love nothing as much as a good paleo/primal success story. Today Dean from Being Primal is featured in the success stories. Besides a well written piece he provides a little bit of eye candy for this gal here. Yes, I'm a sucker for eye candy. So, really, who can blame me for never missing a Friday post?
Grok on, fabulous people. It's a sunny day here in Oregon. It's about time!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
The 30 Day Challenge
Grains, sugars, highly processed foods, soy and corn in everything... it's just not that good for the human body. And I noticed positive changes right away... in my appearance, in my well-being. Life is better now.
Beautifully, with paleo not just being a fad, you are free to tweak things a little, so they fit your needs. Of course this also means, that sometimes you may fall off the bandwagon a little. With that I don't mean, that you'll start eating grains again, or stuff your body with a ton of sugar. In my case it was simply a little more of everything. More wine (can't live without wine), more dark chocolate, more nutty desserts. I got really creative, inventing desserts and snacks, that my whole family would appreciate.
And so, after several months of feeling incredibly good and healthy, I became a bit of a slacker. Not that this was a terrible thing. I maintained my weight, and I ate only paleo approved foods. But somewhere inside I knew I just didn't feel quite right anymore. I needed to recommit.
I started my 30 Day Challenge yesterday. Honestly, it's not that much of a challenge. I can't drink any wine during this time, and no chocolate at all. Fortunately I do not experience the same withdrawals as I did in January, when I went cold turkey from living a life of conventional wisdom foods to strictly paleo. It is only Day 2, and already I feel more rested. I had a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon this morning, went to the gym, where I rode the spinning bike for 30 minutes and did 30 (THIRTY!!) real push-ups. Yes, I took one minute breaks after each set of 10. But, good grief, this is the first time in my life that I can do real push-ups! I'm 36!!
Check out the little food plate up in the corner. After the new food plate was released a few weeks ago, people started tweaking it. This is one of the paleo versions. Mine would likely have a little more protein on it, but otherwise that's pretty much how I eat. Life is good!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And now for something completely different:
Remember I self-published a book in April? Well, the book is available on Amazon, and you can take a quick peek inside before you buy it. It's now available for $9.99 on paperback, and for only $3.99 on the Kindle. It's a good book, a nice and easy summer read. CHECK IT OUT!
http://www.amazon.com/Planned-Gabrielle-Moon/dp/1461085543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1309277440&sr=8-1
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Snacking fun
Snacking has been a big issue in my life, ever since I went primal (yes, I'm calling it primal now, because I do in fact eat some cheese and butter). In a constant effort to excite my children about this new way of life, I have been baking banana nut muffins, coconut flour brownies, baked kale chips (not a favorite around here), and created my very own version of almond butter balls. All of these things are of course quite delicious if somewhat time consuming to prepare.
I will start posting recipes for these things here, starting with the banana nut muffins, courtesy of my running buddy B.
Of course, sometimes you just need a quick snack. For such cases I recommend fruit or vegetables dipped in almond butter. A celery stalk can have almond butter spread all over it... a few raisins on top, and the snack is interesting for kids, too. :)
Have you ever tried Chia seed pudding? It's not for everyone. But if you're into the ooey gooey Chia seeds, try mixing them with water to desired consistency, add some sweetener (honey or maple syrup will do), and enjoy.
And finally, how about some fruit salad? Just add a variety of fruits (berries, bananas, maybe an apple, an orange) in a bowl. For protein add a tablespoon or two of almond butter, and if you're into coconut milk, you might add a little bit of that too. This is an absolutely delicious treat, and the kids love cutting up fruit.
Have a wonderful day.
I will start posting recipes for these things here, starting with the banana nut muffins, courtesy of my running buddy B.
Ingredients
2 cups Almond Meal
1/4 cup ground Flax Seed
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
4 tsp Cinnamon
5 ripe Bananas
2 tsp Honey
4 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
Optional: Walnuts (1 1/2 cups), Dark Chocolate Chips (1 1/2 cups), blueberries (2 cups) or anything else you like to have in a muffin!
Preheat oven to 375. Mix wet ingredients in one bowl, mashing or blending the bananas well (Unless you like banana chunks in your muffins). Then mix all the dry ingredients in a 2nd bowl. Blend the two bowls together. Spoon into well greased (coconut oil) muffin pans.
Bake for 22-24 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Of course, sometimes you just need a quick snack. For such cases I recommend fruit or vegetables dipped in almond butter. A celery stalk can have almond butter spread all over it... a few raisins on top, and the snack is interesting for kids, too. :)
Have you ever tried Chia seed pudding? It's not for everyone. But if you're into the ooey gooey Chia seeds, try mixing them with water to desired consistency, add some sweetener (honey or maple syrup will do), and enjoy.
And finally, how about some fruit salad? Just add a variety of fruits (berries, bananas, maybe an apple, an orange) in a bowl. For protein add a tablespoon or two of almond butter, and if you're into coconut milk, you might add a little bit of that too. This is an absolutely delicious treat, and the kids love cutting up fruit.
Have a wonderful day.
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