Friday, May 25, 2012

Holiday weekend ramblings

I guess most of my posts this month have been related to movies, books or Project Tree.  Not much has been going on with me other than the usual - working and working out.  I went to Ithaca last weekend to play ultimate and that was cool.  I have plans to go on an overnight hike next weekend, but the weather might not cooperate.  I ordered up a two man tent and some other camping supplies that I don't have.  I'm probably a stove and a water filter short of the bare minimum.  It's definitely fun to rough it out in the woods and it's good exercise as well.  I've got to make sure I can roll up my sleeping pad.  I also need to check on my sleeping bag because it hasn't gotten any use in the past five years for sure which is pretty sad.  I'm still spending money, but at least it's money I have and I get paid three times in June so I'll have an extra paycheck's worth.  I have plans to get some more plants for the yard to fill in the front.  It's green, but could do with some color.  A blast from the past contacted me this week, but I had to cut things off this morning because it would be no good for either of us.  She's got something going on and I thrive on chaos so I'm not the most stabilizing influence.  I've decided to change up my diet after watching this video.  She doesn't say anything I didn't already know, but it's good to have reinforcement from time to time.  I'll get a bunch of vegetables and grass-fed meat when I hit the store tomorrow.  I also ordered a food dehydrator yesterday because kale chips sound like the only way I'll be able to eat kale since I don't do well with bitter food.  I already eat a fair amount of spinach so I can up my intake of carrots, peppers and berries to get some color.  Add in some broccoli and I'm golden.  A colleague was talking about getting his vegetables through juicing, but that process breaks down the vegetables so you lose the benefits of the fiber.  I think one of the problems plaguing the American diet is that our food is mostly predigested.  You don't have to do any work to chew it and you do even less work to digest it so we spend most of our day far from equilibrium.  Satiety seems to be a lost feeling since we eat until we're overfull rather than until we're no longer hungry.  The dehydrator should also let me make jerky which is a good snack.  It works the jaw muscles and takes forever to eat so you can't over eat.  It should make a good snack for the trail as well.  I've got plenty of kitchen gadgets, but you can never have too many and I put them to use.  I haven't decided if I should give up dairy as well since I don't know how it fits into a forager's lifestyle.  I guess milk might be ok, but cheese definitely requires some processing.  In honor of the holiday, I'll get some ice cream tomorrow and will live with the consequences.  Every diet should have room for crap food since it's ok to let yourself go now and then or you'll go crazy.  The hard part is reeling yourself back in and not sliding into bad habits.  I think I should be ok if I don't buy too much crap because I'll eat whatever I buy when I feel like it.  I'm not someone who can ration out Oreos or whatever.  I'll eat them until I feel full and then I'll eat a few more for good measure.  It's funny when you know you're doing something wrong, but you're powerless to stop it.  Is that how addiction works?


No comments: