Foodie Fridays: Portion Control and the Nation of Over eaters

by in Foodie Fridays

I think a common problem is that we eat too much…

I have an expectation of quantity in my meals built in from growing up in a nation of large portions, over-eaters, and finishing what’s on your plate. Slowly, as a culture, we’ve been moving away from this but the damage has been done. I want to eat and I want it to be a lot. Every time.

I also have an expectation that the food should fulfill qualities of a stereotypical meal when in fact not every time I eat do I need to represent carbs or sugar or meat. But I still think eating without any of these constitutes an incomplete meal that I must make up for in subsequent meals.

My appetite expectations don’t meet my realistic amount of hunger and instead of allowing this disparity to exist, I reconcile the difference by consuming more than I want or need to. And then I do that two more times every day. So many extra calories!

We must first change our eating attitudes and then amend our eating behaviors.

Author Tuesdays: Writing About Children for Adults

by in Author Thursdays, Author Tuesdays | 1 Comment

AWP Panel with Suzanne Berne, Ann Pancake, Melanie Rae Thon, and Kent Meyers.

What makes for a compelling child character in literary fiction?

Here was my take-away from the panel:

  • Children are unable to pretend not to see what’s in front of them such as the homeless person in front of a Bloomingdale’s
  • Children don’t always have purpose in what they do or where they go
  • Children’s dreams can be small (such as taking a bath every day or going to the neighbor’s tree house).
  • Children can have unexpected insights
  • Children create unusual metaphors
  • Children are a natural fit for stream-of-consciousness writing style
What other advice do you have for an adult writing a compelling child character?

Foodie Fridays: Vegan burgers – You’re Eating Them Wrong

by in Foodie Fridays

What do you see when I say (write) the word “burger” ?? Probably a slab of beef encased in buns with some lettuce/cheese/onions/ketchup/etc. Essentially a traditional burger, right?

What about a vegan or veggie burger? Do you still see the same thing? Does this burger still have buns, lettuce, ketchup, etc?

I’m hear to tell you that you’ve been eating those vegan/veggie burgers wrong. They aren’t like meat patties. They are best eaten without all the burger accessories. They can be crumbled and placed atop a salad or with rice. They are like a patty stir fry. I think the best way to eat these bad boys is plain or as a ‘side’ with your meal.

Author Thursdays: AWP – an Effort in Futility, Confusion, Overeager Expectations, and the Occasional Schmooze

by in Author Thursdays, Local Events | 4 Comments

As you dear readers know, I was at the AWP conference last Thursday and Saturday. Here is the short assessment: Don’t pay when you don’t have to. AWP, this year, was able to offer free admission to the bookfair. I’m not sure they advertised the fact that at the book fair were three stages and there were at least 3-5 lectures at each stage on Saturday. This means that they were FREE. The only portions of AWP that required the pass (and the money to purchase the pass), were most of the other panels/discussions/readings, Thursday and Friday, and the receptions/parties at night. 
I only attended 2/3 days, didn’t go to any of the receptions/parties, and didn’t think much of the panels.  

There was also a free networking with visiting authors event hosted outside of AWP by several groups at the Sorrento Hotel on Thursday, which I did attend.

Just going to Seattle was a treat in and of itself and Saturday was no exception. Traffic was easier. Parking was easier. Pike Place Market was open. Next time AWP rolls around, I suggest saving the $200 and just spending the day in Seattle and checking out the book fair.

Pictured above are two pieces of excellent writing advice written by AWP event goers, hosted at a Writing Advice booth at the book fair. These two were my favorites.

Medical Mondays: Why I Do and Do Not Like the Nuva Ring (birth control)

by in medical Mondays

Here’s the breakdown according to my experiences:

Pros:

  1. Regular periods
  2. Convenience of only dealing with it once every three weeks
  3. No side effects 
  4. Availability
  5. I can take it out myself without the aid of a doctor
  6. Easy in, easy out
  7. Low dose of hormones

Cons

  1. Price (try $100 a month)
  2. Price (insurance hardly covers this thing!)
  3. Price (Every month!)
  4. I can take it out myself, which means it does not sit that far back and can be ‘felt’
  5. Did I mention the price?

I’ve had an overwhelmingly positive experience thus far with the nuva ring. The worst part about it is that it is so pricey and my current insurance does not cover much of that price and the entire price goes towards a monster deductible i.e. I will be paying full price for most months out of the year at a whopping approximate $295 for a three pack.

Con: Pricing is everything nowadays and this thing is not cheap. It is so not cheap that I wonder if anyone is really using it… Who has this kind of money? Or do I just have the wrong kind of insurance? Now that a multitude of birth control is offered for free, why would anyone choose to pay $100 a month for the nuva ring?

Pro: No side effects. Repeat, no side effects. When I was on no birth control, the Mirena, and oral birth control I experienced a wide and wild variety of side effects during, before, and after my period. Basically, some days I was a mess. I got cramping, headaches, nausea, 2 week long periods, 2 day long periods, heavy heavy periods, bloating, extreme carb and sugar cravings, etc.
     The nuva ring has given me no side effects other than actually bleeding. But hey guess what, I only have a three day period. Every time.

Pro: Regular periods. I know when it’s going to happen. My entire post-puberty life has been spent without knowing when I would get my period. And I was wildly irregular. Not that I’m weird or anything but I have a list of all the dates when I got my periods and so can do some statistics. Here are some results for you: the range was 10 – 91 days between periods. The mean was 40 days between periods. Sometimes our bodies are great indications for how much stress or changes is in our lives.

Pro: I don’t have to worry about forgetting to take my birth control as much as with oral birth control because I only have to worry about taking it out every four weeks and putting it back in. I have this scheduled on my calendar so I won’t forget and I have all day on the Sunday to take out or put in. It’s easy! You’ll notice I said every four weeks and not the standard three because, as I mentioned earlier, my average time between periods was 40 days and so I thought my body was more used to a longer time than 21 days between periods.

Pro: I also don’t have to worry about going to the doctor to take it out like I did with the Mirena. Also, if it’s TEOTWAWKI (Sh*t hits the fan I’ll be able to take out my birth control when it “expires”).

Pro: The nuva ring is also a lower dose of estrogen, the hormone typically blamed for side effects. I take to heart the phrase: ‘moderation is key’.

Con: This is one I didn’t realize might be an issue. Because you can take out the nuva ring yourself, it can be felt by anything the length of my longest finger (3″ or so), I guess due to placement and size. After some basic research, this may mean I have not put it in the right place! 

Author Tuesdays: AWP is in Seattle this week…

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AWP’s Conference is held in Seattle this year, are you going?

“Each year, AWP holds its Annual Conference & Bookfair in a different city to celebrate the authors, teachers, students, writing programs, literary centers, and publishers of that region. More than 12,000 writers and readers attended our 2013 conference, and over 650 exhibitors were represented at our bookfair. AWP’s is now the largest literary conference in North America. We hope you’ll join us in 2014.”

Here are a few events I will be attending:
R142. Once It’s Out of the Gate: Post-Publication Marketing and Platform-Building.
R164. 20 Things You Need to Know About Starting a Writers Group & 10 Things You Need to Know If You’re Already in One!.
R208. I’m Just Not That Into You: Unsympathetic Characters in Fiction.
R257. New Fairy Tales from the North

This is my first ever conference! My first ever writer’s conference! Any suggestions, tips, pointers for me?

Foodie Fridays: Why Rice Milk is my go-to milk substitute

by in Foodie Fridays and tagged

 

Milk goes with….

Cereal
Cookies
just to drink it
baking/cooking
stir fry cream thickener

Does almond milk, soy milk, hemp milk, etc go with these foods/in these instances?

Not in my opinion.

Here is my personal milk acceptance list for taste/appropriateness pairing


Type of Milk
Plain
Cereal
Dipping Cookies
Baking/Cooking
Traditional (cow’s) milk
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Goat/Sheep Milk
Yucky
Ew
Gross
In small quantities
Rice Milk
Yes
Yes
Maybe
Yes
Soy Milk
In the mood
No
No
Yes
Almond Milk
Sometimes
No
No
Yes
Coconut Milk
Not really
With certain types
No
Yes

Rice milk is the bomb!

Here is Costco’s link to their lovely organic unsweetened rice milk:

http://www2.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11906374&whse=BD_767&topnav=bdoff&cat=77990&hierPath=7445*&lang=en-US

Toiling Tuesdays: How I am So Productive

by in Toiling Tuesdays

I don’t just make to do lists, I make a plan of attack. A plan of attack may look like a to do list but it differs in a very significant way: activities are broken up like so…

Sample Plan of Attack:

2 sections of internal audit procedure
test one bag of switches
add 4 vendors to list
finalize vendor selection and approval criteria, send for release
organize emails
pay credit card
finish xyz board edits
2 sections of internal audit procedure
test one bag of switches
…

You’ll notice that most of these pertain to working (with a personal errand thrown in). I like to intersperse all the work activities with short isolated personal items so that I will psychologically think I got ‘everything’ I needed to get done finished and not just harping on work the entire time. Doing a plan of attack this way, I tend to work from when I wake up in the morning (a bit before 8 AM) to before I have to leave for a night time activity or start my exercises or break for dinner (between 4:30 P.M. and 6 P.M.) Additionally, sometimes my work plan of attack merges into my night-time personal plan of attack with very few, if any, work activities thrown in.

The key to a plan of attack is to create shorter and manageable activities and break up the long slog of writing a procedure or testing 500 boards. You will remain alert, excited, and productive. The key is to know the amount of one activity to put in your plan of attack. Sometimes I organize the plan by time slots but most of the time it’s by amount I want to accomplish.

The plan of attack is a constantly changing plan, don’t feel obligated to stick to it completely, you can move around things or add on to each part of the activity. Sometimes when I’m on a roll I’ll just continue with one thing until I’m sick of doing it.

My other important tip for staying so productive: If you find yourself procrastinating on a project because you don’t want to do it, find something harder that you want to do even less than the first project and voile that first project won’t seem so bad and you’ll get it done (in lieu of the harder project)

Miscellaneous Mondays: Childhood Memories Dashed

by in Miscellaneous Mondays | 3 Comments

Have you ever gone back to a place you remembered as a child and it is not the same? You’re taller, bigger, wiser, older, etc but sometimes it is the place that changes more than your perspective.

I had such an experience a couple of months ago…

I was born and spent my formative years in Washington (Kirkland-Woodinville area). I remember very few actual places from around that area. Since I moved back here (to WA but a bit more South than that area), I have tried to re-visit those childhood memories in person. I have gone to the houses I remember and even got a personal tour in one of them (perks of being a young innocent looking female).

I remember a few shops (the Melting Pot since gone) and a bagel shop we used to go to enough times that I can remember the layout and the products. My dad would take me and my two siblings there and we would always get the same items. My sister would get a cinnamon stick. My brother would get a chocolate bagel. I would get a tutti fruiti bagel (raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries).

Bigfoot Bagels was the name of this place. Bigfoot Bagels does not exist anymore, at least as it used to be. It is now Woodinville bagels. They discontinued the tutti fruitti bagel years ago. When I walked in and asked about my second choice, the chocolate chip, they had also recently discontinued this bagel as well. What happened to the neighborhood bagel shop with the unique name? What happened to the shop in my memories? Gone. Different. Changed.

Sometimes it is best to leave your memories as memories.