Archive for January, 2008

Swim Lesson 3: Brain versus body

Published on January 29, 2008 in Personal, Swimming and fitness. 0 Comments

Last night’s swim lesson was exhausting. Or rather, I was exhausted.

Saturday and Sunday night was out with friends, eating and drinking and while terribly late, I never sleep very well when I’ve had too much to drink. So Monday I was tired and by 7:30pm’s swim lesson, I was more in the mood to curl up with a bowl of hot soup and a book than put on a bathing suit. But I went because I paid for it and I knew I’d miss it if I didn’t go.

I guess I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t in the mood, because our class was half the size as when it started. Fine by me: more attention from the instructor.

We spent what felt like an eternity doing the back stroke. Backstroke is sort of like freestyle but on your back (huh). The BBC’s excellent backstroke for beginners has a nifty instructional animation and some useful tips. For instance

  • It is a good idea to count how many strokes it takes you to swim a length so you will know when you are getting close to the end of the pool. (Brilliant!)
  • Try and swim with all of your body close to the surface of the water, almost like you are lying on your back in bed with your head on a pillow.
  • Use long fast kicks, making sure your legs are moving up and down.
  • Keep your knees underwater and bent a little, and your toes should make a small splash when you kick.
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Then our instructor had us learn the butterfly. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the butterfly in action, but it’s really weird looking, and somewhat ridiculous unless you’re an olympic athlete who swims to win rather than a normal person who swims to stay fit and relax. On top of all that, the butterfly requires really good technique. Wouldn’t it make more sense to perfect the basic strokes before getting into something advanced?

I was annoyed by the butterfly, and by my own unwillingness to try something new. I only did a couple [poorly executed] laps before class was finally over and I could go home and comfort myself with chickpea soup and a grapefruit (even if it’s wrong).

The learning point here is one lesson that I seem to revisit over and over again, but manage to forget every time: I just don’t have enough energy to work full-time, write part-time, swim, cycle, eat well, and have more than one or two drinks in a sitting. That last item on the list basically screws everything else, mainly because I don’t sleep well. This is an even harder lesson to learn than the butterfly. If I never swam the butterfly again in my life, at least I’d still have a social life.

What I need to remember is not the bad feeling of being tired, but the good feeling of swimming on a good night’s sleep, a well nourished body, and a bloodstream gushing with oxygen rather than toxins. Now how do I remember that when I’m at the pub?

Link to BBC’s Backstroke for beginners

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

High Protein Vegan Meals: Tofu Scramble

Published on January 27, 2008 in The Dinner Project, food, nutrition and recipes. 0 Comments

First in a series of high protein vegan meals!

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Tofu is a source of confusion for many aspiring chefs, vegetarian and meat-eaters alike. The trouble with tofu is that, when it doesn’t turn out well, it really doesn’t turn out well. I still recall my first attempt at stir-fried tofu, the soggy, gelantinous blobs that fell out of the skillet, ruining an otherwise edible pile of rice. A few more years and experiments later, I think I finally get it.

This recipe requires no marinating or special tofu prep - literally crumble it into the pan. You can use whatever veggies you have on hand to spruce things up, though we feel that the onion, soy sauce, nutritional yeast and cilantro are essential. Also, make sure you use firm tofu, not the silken stuff. To save on time, you can always use frozen veggies (we just discovered the joyful convenience of frozen diced onion - so wrong, yet so right).

Served with a slice of whole wheat toast, this meal has more than 25g of protein and fewer than 400 Calories.

Scrambled Tofu

Tofu Scramble

The essentials

  • 1 block (450g) firm tofu
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 10 sprigs cilantro (coriander) with stems, roughly chopped
  • 1 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • salt and pepper

The veggies

  • 4 mushrooms, diced
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 1 cup kale, chopped
  • Other veggies: bell peppers, jalapeno, broccoli, peas

The instructions

  1. Put a frying pan on medium heat and add the olive oil
  2. When the oil is hot, add the onion and cook until onion is soft and translucent
  3. Using your hands, crumble the tofu into the pan and sprinkle on the turmeric. (At this point the tofu might give up a lot of water. If so, turn up the heat and let the water boil off. This is key to not ending up with a soggy mess.)
  4. Add the soy sauce and the remaining veggies and cook until veggies are tender
  5. Sprinkle on the nutritional yeast and cilantro. Mix well.
  6. Salt and pepper to taste
  7. Serve hot with whole wheat toast and a side salad.

Makes about 3 servings. Per serving: 103 Calories (kcal); 14g Total Fat; 22g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate
(Scrambled tofu with 1 slice whole wheat toast: 378 Calories; 26g Protein, 16g Total Fat; 38g Carbohydrate)

Nutrition information derived from the USDA food database.

Crossposted to smarterfitter.com

Feeling less good about grapefruit

Published on January 26, 2008 in food and nutrition. 0 Comments
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I love grapefruit. For the past two years or so I’ve eaten a grapefruit a day. They are my usual after-dinner dessert. So what’s with the British trying to sour my sweets?

A recent “British study” indicates regular grapefruit consumption increases risk of breast cancer. Whatever. I’m not going to worry about one little study. However, this little tidbit is a little disconcerting…

The study has been criticized in some circles for using conventionally grown grapefruits. Given the amount of research into the dangers of pesticides, and the kind of heavy pesticide use that goes into growing citrus fruits, it seems possible and even likely that the estrogen effects observed in the women eating a lot of grapefruit are due to chemical pesticides, and not the fruit itself.

I almost always eat “conventionally grown” grapefruit because the organic stuff is crazy expensive - over £1 ($1.96 USD) a grapefruit. But the article makes me want to brush my tongue and book a colonic. How creepy is it that pesticides can permeate the grapefruit’s skin and invade its delicious fruit? And just how many are getting through?

To find out, I looked to the Pesticide Data Program (PDP) which collects and analyses data on pesticide residues in agricultural commodities. Their 2006 Summary includes pesticide analysis of grapefruit. According to the report, “grapefruit are peeled and excess white membrane is removed” prior to the chemical check (so the fruit inside is tested, not the skin).

The lab test detected 9 different pesticides in 345 of 743 (46%) samples. However, only the fungicide Imazalil was found in more than 10% of the samples. According to the PAN Pesticides Database, Imazalil is one of their so-called “Bad Actors“, listed as a “likely” carcinogen and “moderately hazardous” in toxicity.

The sample only includes grapefruit grown in the U.S., so us expats can’t really draw any conclusions from this. But even if I were back in the U.S. of A, would I let the stats keep me from enjoying a Texas Ruby Red? Maybe. This is the kind of news that makes me want to own my own house, somewhere warm, far from crop dusters, where I can have my own garden and fruit trees.

We’re getting there…

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

How writers write

Published on January 26, 2008 in Freelance Writing and books. 1 Comment

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When I write, I don’t need a peaceful environment: music can be blasting, my baby can be crying. I don’t wait around for ‘moments of inspiration’. I just wake up and, like any person punching in, I get the work done.

- Kaui Hart Hemming, Time Out London No. 1953

Swim Lesson 2: Freestyle, baby

Published on January 22, 2008 in Personal and fitness. 0 Comments

The London Swim School offers three levels of adult swim lessons - beginners, intermediate, and advanced. Beginners is for non-swimmers, intermediate is for people who can swim 10 meters with the basic strokes, and advanced is, well, not me.

I signed up for intermediate. In our first lesson, the instructor watched all of us swim individually, and then divided us into two groups: beginner-intermediate and advanced-intermediate (my labels, not his).

I’m in the advanced-intermediate group, which is a good thing for my ego, but not a great thing for my technique. The instructor gives the most personal attention to the people who need it, as he should. But us “improvers” are kind of left swimming back and forth with little guidance or feedback.

Despite the lack of attention, the lessons challenge me as a workout. In lesson two, we swam laps, practicing various strokes that built up to the front crawl (aka free style). First, we swam without moving our arms at all, just holding our hands out ahead of our body and kicking - this was VERY hard. Then we moved our arms, but kept them under water, scooping our way across the pool like gophers. Then we took our elbows out, but not our hands. Then our elbows, hands, but not our fingertips. Then finally, we did the full stroke. We did 6 laps for each of these 6 variations. I was breathing hard the whole time - something I struggle to accomplish when I swim by myself.

The lesson keyed me into two things I should concentrate on next time I practice free style: keep my hands close to my body and my elbows high when they come out of the water.

I also learned that I am a very weak kicker. I can keep up with my fellow advanced-intermediate friends when we used our arms, but when it came to straight-up kicking, they blow me out of the proverbial water.

Speaking of friends, one of the reasons I took this class was to meet fellow swimmers. There’s not much time for socializing, but when we’re not doing laps, everyone is very talkative and nice. The pool is a funny place. At the end of the last class, some of us lingered at the edge of the pool before getting out, talking about the class, tattoos, whatever. One guy would intermittently start floating on his back. Another girl was passively splashing water with her hands. I had a hold of the edge of the pool and were letting my legs float in the water. It’s like the pool reconnects us with a childhood instinct to play. I like that.

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Getting started as a freelance writer

Published on January 20, 2008 in Freelance Writing, Personal and freedom. 0 Comments
So many books...

I’ve decided to diverge from my - let’s face it - undefined career path and pursue freelance writing. A few things have brought me to this point, none of which involve my coming into a large inheritance that will make this choice relatively risk-free.

You know that feeling where time seems to disappear and whoops, it’s suddenly 3am and you’ve spent your entire night completely absorbed by an art project, computer program, or shamefully addictive TV series?

Math used to do this for me, but that hasn’t happened since high school calculus.

BeakersStill, I labored on with math because I believed that, if I found my niche, I’d find my love. But true love never came. Instead, math and I awkwardly remained “just friends”, and if I was feeling particularly vulnerable, we were mortal enemies (like when I set out to prove a theorem that I knew should take two pages but I could barely muster the first few lines).

I’ll always have a penchant for science and numbers, but if push my attempt to BE a scientist any further, I fear there will be no saving whatever friendship is left between math and I.

Then there’s the question that’s been scaring the shit out of me: if I don’t do math, what the hell else will I do?

Recently, the answer has taken the shape of books, bicycle grease, mechanical pencils, mind maps and moleskins. What do I love? I love cycling, walking across mountains, camping, cooking dal, taking pictures of food, making lists, making THINGS - paintings, web pages, mix CDs. Most of all, I love to write about this stuff. And when I think about my “career”, the part I enjoy most is writing papers and making pretty graphs.

As I see it, freelance writing is the perfect job. I’d get paid to learn new things, talk to people, and write all about it. And if it all worked out, I’d even get paid to eat and travel. Best of all, it would give me an independent income and the freedom to work anywhere I want, be it at home or on the road, traveling across the country in my adventure wagon.

Freelance writing would give me the freedom to live wherever I want, whenever I want. This is my dream.

Um, ok, how?

Patience and hard work.

I fully expect this to take many years. I’m not quitting my job (yet), but I am looking to transition into something that will give me more freedom and creative energy to freelance as much as possible.

In the meantime, I’m taking a few actions to get me started:

  1. Read books about writing

    I’ve just read The Freelance Writer’s Handbook by Andrew Crofts (more on this later) and have Tim to thank for my ever expanding reference book collection.

  2. Take a course on freelancing

    I not only need to practice writing, I also need to meet other writers and get feedback from someone who knows what they’re talking about. Last Friday I had my first Freelance Writing class at City University (more on this later, too).

  3. Write as much as humanly possible

    In order to be a freelance writer, I need to practice writing like one. I’ll start by writing about freelance writing, my progress, and all the little things I learn along the way. I want to spend more time writing high(er) quality features and less time on random banter.

My short term goal is to have an article to sell by the end of my course (March 28). The next step will be to sell it.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.

Published on January 19, 2008 in books, food and nutrition. 0 Comments
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…health should be a byproduct of eating well, for reasons that have nothing to do with health, such as cooking meals, eating together and eating real food. You’re going to be healthy, but that’s not the goal. The goal should just be eating well for pleasure, for community, and all the other reasons people eat.

I’ve only just started reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan, but already I’m scared. The book illustrates how difficult it is to trace the origin of our food, and it leaves me wondering, “what exactly AM I eating?”

Pollan wrote his latest book, In Defense of Food, to help us hungry hippos figure out what’s OK to eat and what’s, well, not really food at all.

There’s a great interview with Mr. Pollan on the New York Times, in which he discusses the philosophy behind the book, which is summed up by the subject of this post. The challenge in getting people to eat real food is the cooking…

A lot of us are intimidated by cooking today. We watch cooking shows on TV but we cook very little. We’re turning cooking into a spectator sport. This process of outsourcing our food preparation to large corporations, which is what we’ve been doing the last 50 years, is a big part of our problem. We’re seduced by convenience. You’re going to have to put a little more time and effort into preparing your food. I’m trying to get across how pleasurable that can be. It needn’t be a chore. It can be incredibly rewarding to move food closer to the center of your life.

Read the book
Read the interview
Read Pollan’s original article in the Times
Read the commentary on angry fat girlz

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Another year of swimming begins: Lesson 1

Published on January 17, 2008 in Personal and fitness. 0 Comments
Leaping into the abyss...

Last year I wrote about my year of swimming. Then I stopped for three weeks over the winter holidays. Now, getting back into swimming has been SLOW. I surprise myself by how easily I find excuses skip it - I get to bed too late, or I have a late dinner, or an early meeting. It doesn’t make much sense to me, this hesitation to do something that I really want to do anyway. But there it is, in the form of a big warm bed, beneath the covers, and far from the dark, cold windy bike ride that separates me from the pool.

As luck would have it, the Clissold Leisure Centre just opened right down the street. (On a side and somewhat ironic note, the Clissold Swimming Club linked to one of our posts) Not only do they have a 25m training pool, but they’re also running adult swim classes. So I signed up for the Intermediate class. £50. 4 months. 16 weeks. 16 lessons. What a bargain.

Last Monday was lesson 1. I went in feeling pretty confident that I’d be one of the better swimmers in the class. But that’s a silly way to think, especially when I turned out to be, well, a very average swimmer. We spent most of the time kicking, first with a kick board, then without, then on our backs, not using our arms at all. Very slow and tiring work. My legs are weak and puny. I was hoping to meet some fellow swimmers in the class but we were too busy swimming to really mingle. This is good, in a way, and there’s a small amount of socializing between drills. I can’t really get into the whole let’s-chat-while-we’re-naked-in-the-locker room scene. Too booshy.

Looking forward to next Monday’s class. And a swim tomorrow morning (now that my legs have recovered).

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Still Life with Food

Published on January 14, 2008 in food and photos. 0 Comments
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The forest is paved in cumin… the streets are lined with broccoli… and the mountains are loaves of bread. In fact, the BBC claims that everything in this photo is edible.

This is the work of photographer Carl Warner. Check it out:

BBC Slideshow
Carl Warner’s website

How is Liquid Smoke made?

Published on January 12, 2008 in food and nutrition. 2 Comments
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My mom loves Liquid Smoke. My sister hates the stuff. Tim just thinks its weird. What do I think? I’m not sure. I kind of like the flavor because it reminds me of a cheese dip I used to have at the Etc. Cafe in Champaign-Urbana (it does not, however, remind me of veggie burgers cooked over an open fire).

At the same time, I always thought Liquid Smoke was a little weird. It tastes like smoke, so where’s the fire?

According to Colgin, bottler of liquid smoke, the process is not chemical or synthetic, but the actual liquification of wood smoke.

Liquid Smoke is produced by burning fresh cut hickory, mesquite, apple, and pecan wood chips at extremely high temperatures and moisture levels. There’s nothing “synthetic” about it – it’s not made from chemicals. It is made by placing high grade smoking woods in sealed retorts (1), where intense heat makes the wood smolder (not burn) (2), releasing the gases seen in ordinary smoke.

These gases are quickly chilled in condensers (3), which liquefies the smoke; it is then forced through seven refining vats (5 - 11) and a large filter (12), to remove impurities. Finally, the liquid is received into large oak barrels (14) which will age the liquid smoke for mellowness.

Has this changed the way I feel about Liquid Smoke? I’m reassured that it’s not weird processed food, but still unsure of its flavor. I just cooked up some black-eyed peas and added a little smoke at the end, as called for in this recipe for Creole Black-eyed Peas. We’ll see how I feel after dinner.

Update: I have since made the black-eyed peas and they were awesome. A definite keeper of a recipe.

Link

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