Clever Manka is dressed and undressed

2-3 large zucchini, julienned*
2-3 large carrots, julienned
Kosher salt
2 lb miniature/cocktail shrimp, peeled and cooked
2 t minced dried onion
1 t dried dill
1 T lemon juice
olive oil

I use one of these to make vegetable noodles. I highly recommend one for all kitchens. They make vegetables so much fun!

As you noodle-ify the zucchini, throw it into a colander and periodically sprinkle with kosher salt. When you've made all the zucchini into noodles, shake it or fluff it with your hands to distribute the salt. Salting-and-sitting releases excess moisture. Let the noodles rest for about fifteen minutes (I've gone as long as thirty). You can rinse and pat them dry if you like, but I just squeeze out the excess water and leave the salt on. That way I don't have to salt the food later. You don't need to do this for the carrots. Just slice them up into noodles.

Once the zucchini has been rested/patted/squoze, put the carrots in a big pot with a splash of olive oil. Cook for three to four minutes until they're barely this side of cooked. Just a tad past completely raw. Add the minced onion, zucchini, dill, and a bit more olive oil if things are looking dry. Stir fry for about five to six minutes until the zucchini is barely cooked. The noodles should still be a bit firm (this is one of the rare times I don't overcook the vegetables since usually I prefer them cooked to within a moment of incineration/mush).

Remove from heat and add your bag of shrimp. Be sure to drain out the excess water. Rinsing them isn't a bad idea, either. Re-use the colander recently vacated by the zucchini noodles. Add the lemon juice and stir well. Decide if you need more olive oil. I used less oil than I would usually, because I wanted this to be a cool, light meal.

Eat whenever you're ready. This works well at room temperature (the cold shrimp helps cool down the noodles) or straight out of the fridge the next day.

You know you've turned a corner in your approach to food when your impulse purchase at Costco is a five-dollar bag of organic baby kales.

Today I'm seriously and for real quitting smoking cigarettes until KCRF. I'm off to smoke my last one as soon as I click "post" here.

I forgot to take my Provigil this morning and I'm about to fall asleep at my desk. Man, that stuff really helps. I've been taking only the morning dose recently, so as to make my limited supply of it last through the end of the year. I hope that the Linking Decoction tea pills that my mom's TCM practitioner recommended in Provigil's stead work for me. I do not want to go back to being this tired all the time. This sucks.

As a state employee, I can get $480/year off my insurance premium by accumulating twenty points in their HealthQuest program. One part of that is getting a health screening thing where they check your height, weight, waist measurement, and a basic blood test. I had mine done today (which is why I forgot to take the Provigil--I had to fast, and I usually take the Provigil with my breakfast).

My numbers
Total Cholesterol: 185 mg/dL (<200 Desirable)
HDL Cholesterol: 72 mg/dL (>60 Optimal)
LDL Cholesterol: 102 mg/dL (100-129 Near Optimal)
TC/HDL Ratio: 2.6 (3.8 or below = Low Risk for women)
Triglycerides: 54 mg/dL (<150 Desirable)
Fasting Glucose: 95 mg/dL (<100 Normal)
Blood Pressure: 99/60 (<120/80 Normal)

The guy nearest me was getting his numbers read while I was getting my waist measurement. I guess they were good because he said "Wow, I'm going to go have a steak now!" And it made me want to scream because yeah, that's probably a really good idea, buddy, but our health care advice is so enmeshed in erroneous thinking and information that we're still shoving low-fat bullshit down people's throats and wondering why America is getting fatter and more disease-ridden by the second.

I estimate that 30-50% of my daily calories come from fat, and a lot of that is saturated fat. Coconut oil, eggs, fatty meats like steak or dark meat chicken...etc. But my numbers? All amazing. I'm a fucking poster child for health-by-the-numbers and I haven't eaten a whole grain since April of 2010.

I know that there's not one way of eating that works for every single person, but of the people I know who've ditched the grain-and-sugar combo, every single one reports improved health, as well as good mental and emotional states. And yet we are still bombarded with Low Fat High Fiber recommendations from every angle--not to mention what's readily available and affordable at the grocery store.

Speaking of things found at the grocery store, I saw this when I was picking up some spinach at Checker's last night.



Nice, right?

I know more than a few people who can use this today. Thanks to shanmonster, I give you Fifty Photos of Basset Hounds Running. You're welcome.

mckitterick is going great guns with the body-sculpting (see what I did there? guns!) and I'm feeling like a weak slob in comparison. So I'm cleaning up my eating act, big time. Protein and vegetables. Protein and vegetables. No fruit until the summer strawberries arrive. No wine except on Fridays and Saturdays, and no hard liquor whatsoever. Cranking up the high intensity workouts and resuming the heavy lifting (which, for me, means lifting my body off the floor). Thyroid issues, are you listening? Let's see what you do when I play hardball.

Heads-up, fellow seamsters: for the first time that I can remember, Hancock Fabrics is running a sale on Burda Patterns. April 7 through 10, Burda patterns are $2.49 each. I'm not sure if there's a purchase limit, and the Hancock sales flyer isn't loading on their website. But! Burda on sale. Pretty cool.

Nothing is going to beat fifty photos of Basset Hounds running, so I'm just gonna close with a repeat of that. Enjoy.

I realized that Paleo-eating mindset had really sunk in when I saw this image on Dr. Boli and thought "Hm. Sounds tasty."



Maybe I'll try cinnamon instead of curry in the next batch of jerky.

Scott Sonnon says this on his blog today:

People must first correct their current imbalanced state before moving on to sophisticated movements. They must compensate for where they’re beginning, which is not at “zero” with some genetically/evolutionarily flawed spine. But with a series of compensations which must be unloaded to restore the body’s natural proclivity for movement.

I've been thinking about moving lately. Not moving as in pack-up-stuff-and-hire-a-truck. Moving as in getting my ass off the couch and starting some serious sweat. I know I've been saying that forever, but I'm moving pretty slow these days--mentally, physically, emotionally. Everything's slow. I'm trying to think of it as baby steps and not beating myself up for being a fucking lazy-ass slacker.

mckitterick had his exercise enthusiasm triggered this week. I'm hoping to osmosis-off some of his excitement.

Dinner last night. ( Cut for recipe )

I finally made time to spend in my sewing room yesterday. I started and finished this skirt, View C, which fit beautifully. The side godet doesn't look nearly so goofy in person. I made it mostly as a mock-up for View E, which I'll be wearing at the department holiday party (in hot pink with a mostly-see-through black blouse). The garment measurements are the same, the construction methods are basically the same, and they're both cut on the bias, so it should be fine. I didn't need two flouncy skirts, so I hope the View E fits as well as C. I made View C in a soft rayon-poly with a gabardine weave that will look very sassy with the field boots.

Oh, and I also made an apron after spilling stuff on my sweater while cooking on Thursday. Very cute apron, and I felt better just for having made it. I also put together a second pair of bloomers for roya_spirit. Why don't I sew more often? I really should stop overscheduling myself and allow myself more time in the sewing room.

Thursday through Saturday were spent in a borderline binge-fest. I'm back to a Whole30 mode of eating for the next few weeks. Maybe a glass of wine on the weekend, but I gotta get back on the wagon. I didn't eat anything technically off my menu, but I am feeling icky from eating too much fruit and fruit-sweetened items. Apples in my cranberry-squash casserole, baked pears, hot cider...major fructose overdose. Friday and Saturday I had some bad stomach cramping and I felt hungry all the time. No fun. Happily, we had an impromptu dinner guest last night, so I got to unload the last of the squash and the pears.

I'm surprisingly excited about a return to lower sugar vegetables and Moar Meat. Those stomach cramps really sucked and I forgot what it was like to be thinking about food all the time. What a drag. I used to live like this? Suxxor.

Not going out to faire today, at all. My sinuses are still full (had to Afrin again last night so I could sleep--going to try a double dose of Sudafed today), and I'm just not feeling it. Dancing tomorrow, though!

Fetish is living in the downstairs bathroom 90% of the time, now. She consistently pees on the bath mat, so I no longer keep one on the floor. Instead, I have a rotating selection of beat-up old towels (the ones I use for henna) that are easily laundered. The only time she's allowed out of the bathroom is when she's supervised. As in don't-take-your-eyes-off-her supervised. This pretty much means in one's lap, or next to one on the couch. She doesn't get to walk around the house anymore. Right now she's in my lap, which is a treat since she wasn't allowed on laps when people were sitting at the table. Poor cat. She must be confused. And lonely.

For the Paleo-types around here: I stumbled onto The Healthy Skeptic's blog yesterday. LJ RSS feed for it is here if you want to add it to your F-page. Interesting health-related topics from a practitioner of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine who follows a primalesque paleo eating style. He goes beyond the standard discussions of general health and writes in-depth articles on treatment for depression, diabetes, and thyroid issues.

I have, sadly, given up on Mark Sisson and the Daily Apple. There were always a couple things about Sisson that made me cringe (he's rather sexist, among other things), but the message made up for the gripes I had with his personality. Lately, though, he's sorta jumped the shark. I guess he figured out that it was hard to make money without selling product, so now he's pushing this protein powder mix along with his supplements. The supplements, okay, whatever. And he's always said his old protein shake stuff was just a hold over from his pre-Primal Blueprint days and that's where most of his revenue came from. Okay. But now he has a new product that is (I quote) "the perfect tool for living a healthy Primal lifestyle in the modern world."

What. The. Fuck.

Then he spent the next few days talking about how ohemgee, yoga really can be a tool for good health, and how watching too much television is bad for you.

Really?

I think I'm done with Mark Sisson. I appreciate his help getting me on this path, but he's got nothing to offer me now. I still think the original Primal Blueprint book is a great resource, but I won't be subscribing or sending anyone else to his blog these days.

On the other hand, Whole9 is coming out with additional support information for clean eating--Whole30 3.0. They're also doing some tough love articles on ethically responsible eating.