Catching Up

Is it really August 12th already? Damn, I should get off my ass and do some things... like my taxes.

Summer's been fairly lazy, which generally suits me fine, but it's been at the expense of my disposition, sanity, and fitness level. So I'm slowly starting to turn that around. I'm playing less poker, but replacing it with other leisure activities (video games, movies, drinking... I didn't say I was improving the QUALITY), which strangely enough is creating a feeling of accomplishment. Why? Because I have STACKS of games, movies, books, and yes, booze, that are being neglected. It makes me feel like a spoiled pack rat. I have all these things, but I never use them.

I've also started exercising daily again. It's only been 3 days so far, and I won't feel like I'm actually in a groove until at least 2 weeks of consecutive effort. It's a fitness ladder idea, where small reps of simple exercises are done until they're not challenging (usually 3 days - 1 week), and then reps are increased. It's worked for me in the past, and I imagine it will again now. I miss being in the same neighbourhood as "in shape".

With that comes dieting. I'm lucky to fall into the world of the "guy" diet. Stop eating crap. Okay, I'm drinking a coke right now, but it's my first pop in... probably weeks. I don't cut back on meals, I just alter them a bit (lower fat, more veggies, bake instead of fry, etc.), and I deal with snacking by (a) reducing the amount of snacking I do, and (b) switching to healthier snacks (ie.- baked pea pod "chips", carrot sticks, fruit, fruit, and more fruit). Last week I hit over 178lbs, which is a high-water mark for me (back to 175 today), when I should be around 155-160. I'm not even weight-obesessed, but it's all sitting in front, which isn't that attractive nor good for the shape of my shirts.

And let's be honest here - dieting isn't that difficult if you actually commit to it. We're nothing more than processing factories. As long as the calories in are less than the calories out, we lose weight. It's a matter of having some idea what we're eating. Even sitting on our ass all day burns a few thousand calories, what with the heart beating, eyes blinking, lungs breathing, and right hand moving in a furious vertic... never mind.

Let's segue right into food, shall we? I've been incredibly neglectful in my food posting. It's largely because my cameras are all of two rooms away from my kitchen, zipped up in a camera bag. Oh, and also because my meals have been generally unexciting.

My friend and I are splitting a weekly organic produce box, which means a ton of vegetables and fruit every week that last all of 7 days max before going bad (the downside of organics). I'm mostly keeping up, but I think I'm going to lose the yellow beans soon.

Recently - all veggie stir fries (no rice, no noodles) for 3 days (due to large veggie inventory). Sprouts, carrots, water chestnuts, bok choy, onion, garlic, snow peas, peppers, soy sauce, spice, etc.. One had some REALLY bland steak.

Granted, the pizza and caesar salad on Sunday was freakin' awesome. Again, best friend over means more can be done in less time. An easy pizza crust, sauce, chard, vidalia onion, honey garlic elk sausage, crumbled elk burger, mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan reggiano... soooo good. An excellent caesar dressing (mayo, fresh lemon juice, capers, anchovy, dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, garlic, olive oil, all in a food processor) on the salad... yah. Oh, and a fantastic bottle of 2003 Catena Alta Malbec (I find it sad that I have only 2 bottles left... and about 5 of the Cabernet Sauvignon which I should get to). I love that wine.

I imagine tonight will involve vegetables - beans, peas, squash, peppers, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, corn, onions, and more. I also have peaches, plums, watermelon, orange, lemon, wild blueberries, mangoes, banana, and strawberries kicking around... oh, and some romaine and a little bit of that caesar dressing. Stuff that needs eating. So how I deal with that?

Would a minestrone or vegetable soup be out of the question? It IS August, so that seems a bit much. Maybe some sort of gazpacho? Naw, I'm just not a cold soup fan.

I'll start simply enough - the last cob of corn + boiling water + sugar + milk... topped with butter and salt.

The fruit can become a smoothie or compote. Likely smoothie.

So, there's the rest of the veggies. Medley? Steam 'em up and toss them with a little olive oil and garlic? Raw vegetable salad? Stuff a chicken breast with some of them?

I MAY have a pork chop or two in the freezer. Hmmm... grilled orange pork chop, vegetable medley, fruit smoothie. Corn on the cob to start. That could work quite nicely. I may even wander up to the BBQs for the grilling.

Okay, enough blogging, back to work.