I really think this latest move is starting to solidify something in my mind. Bush is not just a bad president. He’s not just incompetent. He really and truly wants to kill us. He wants to knock as many of us off as possible. Bush said he wants to “eliminate roadblocks” and “cut through paperwork” in rebuilding the collapsed I35 bridge. The only conclusion I can draw is that’s he’s not completely insane and that he is trying to kill us.
So I was reading Kelli’s most recent post, and just really wanted to comment. Body image is a very interesting thing to me. Especially, since it’s so much about your brains chemistry. There are so many things that can influence it, and an outside source that can cause one kid to become wildly anorexic can have no impact on another.
I was always a good weight growing up. As a child I got fed a ridiculously balanced diet with almost no snacking or junk food (yes I’m one of the carob and sesame snack kids). Probably too good. When my Grandmother came to visit she’d buy us like $100 worth of junkfood and we’d binge for the entire time she visited. We got so sick. When I hit puberty in the Soviet Union there wasn’t a lot of protein, plus I had a fantastic case of Amoebic Dysentary so my body was not absorbing things particularly well, so I hit 6’ while weighing 120 pounds. I think my body’s been struggling to put on weight ever since then. I’ve had a metabolism that doesn’t quit. In high school I’d eat half a bag of oreos in one sitting. I’d often just eat an entire plate of pasta to “fill in the cracks”. I left high school 6’4” and weighing somewhere between 130 and 140. My diet was not conducive to reliable weight measurement.
I didn’t actually start cooking until my first year of marriage to Julie. I got to the point where I couldn’t eat one more chicken breast, marinated in salad dressing and cooked on the George Foreman. My grandmother had recently started sending Julie a subscription to Gourmet magazine and so I started cooking recipes from that. I quickly moved towards being the only one who cooked in our house since I actually enjoyed it. Two years ago I realized that I was actually putting on weight. I had started to get rolls around my hips and a slight pot belly. Nothing particularly exciting, but for someone who has never been able to put on weight in their life it’s a pretty massive life change. So I started running. I initially said I was running so I could eat whatever I wanted. And I did. And it was fine. But eventually I realized that I was running these fantastic distances and I could eat 3500-4000 calories a day, but to what end? Why was I churning through this massive amount of food? And was I hurting Julie’s weight related goals just so I could be a glutton? So I started trying to cook better. We tried reduced portions for a while which worked, but made you feel like you were really working to eat healthy. Now Julie’s doing weight watchers (as am I by extension), and it’s been good to see that I should be eating about 2/3 more than her. Which is definitely not how we were doing things before. But I’ve lost 10 pounds since Julie started Weight Watchers. And I’ve gotten a lot of flack for that. No one can tell. And people see me without my shirt off when I run, so it’s not as though they wouldn’t notice if I’d become a rib cage attached to a spine again. But it does concern me. Weight loss and exercise are just as seductive as food. How do you find the balance? How do you find your healthy weight? And how do you get over the stigma of either being to heavy or too light? We definitely seem to have hit a place where you’re going to get criticized unless you’re living just on the border of overweight and at weight.
And how does this impact Stella? I grew up with 3 sisters, and a mother who has constantly been working on her weight. There’s a constant struggle to bolster self-image, and one improperly phrased comment can just destroy self-image. It’s even harder since what can be a compliment to one sister can be the most damning insult to another.
And this has continued with Julie. Do I really care how heavy she is? Not excessively. But I do worry about things like her health. And getting into negative patterns. I mean how do you find the line between allowing people the freedom to eat the foods they love without judgement (which they should be allowed to do), and helping them avoid getting into a bad pattern? No one’s going to thank you for feeding them fried foods every night and then refusing them a second helping once they’re 200 pounds overweight. It’s much easier to loose 20 pounds than 100. But at the same time it’s much easier to give an eating disorder to someone who’s 20 pounds overweight.
I definitely want to impart a good diet onto Stella, but I also know that imposing too good of a diet can lead to binges (see also: me and oreos) which I think with a girl could easily lead to bulimia. It’s a hard road. But at the same time, almost everyone gets skinnier in high school. Growth spurts are good at eating up extra calories and redistributing fat. The fat kid in grade school seems to often become the fat kid again in college. I guess it’s just a matter of imposing good eating habits with a balance of the fatty and the healthy so there won’t be a danger of binging. And then treading lightly with the body image. Oh well, hopefully the 5 primary women in my life have given me a lot of help in figuring out how to do that. And Julie, Caroline, and Christine were pledging just last weekend to try to never mention the negatives of weight around her.
Of course, that said, it’s an impossible chore. And chances are with Julie and my genetics we’ll have at least one kid dealing with being too skinny, and one being too fat. It’s going to be an interesting balancing act.
That said, I tried making the Kale, Pickled Okra, and Pickles slaw this week and Stella loves it. You have to throw the Kale into a food processor so that the horrible texture doesn’t come through, but it’s really good, and Stella actually eats the slaw before she eats the bread (which is not the case with any other food we’ve fed her). Has anyone else tried this recipe? I’d love to find out if it’s something other kids would eat or if it’s just Stella.
Wow, I came in 3rd in my age group in the Sunstroke 5k last night. Which feels pretty good. Until you notice that 1st and 2nd place came within 14 seconds of each other. And I was 6 minutes 9 seconds out of 2nd place. Yeah, I rock. 26:24 was the actual time if you’re interested. That’s over a minute worse than my last time.
I felt like I pulled a pretty good race out, though. I was feeling like I was hung over yesterday (which is always unfortunate when you didn’t do any drinking the night before). I was drinking water like crazy yesterday, but I couldn’t make the feeling go away. At about mile 2.5 I had to stop and walk because I was having that wonderful sensation of the lights going out. That’s definitely my favorite running sensation. I pulled through though. I followed a guy in, caught him, and would have passed him for the finish if the trail hadn’t been crowded. I’m not big into running people down. I did almost get run down by the guy who ended up winning overall last night. He took a turn really wide. Like, almost ran into the chain link fence I was running along wide. It was excessive. He could have cut the corner, I have no clue why he had to turn that wide. He was definitely running out of control. I also had to jump off the path to dodge a bunch of people taking up the entire track. Really rude. If you’re going to pass on the narrow parts of the course, you could at least have the courtesy to drop back if someone’s coming the other direction and not force them off the road. Ahh well. It was fun in any case.
Someday I’ll post about the fantastic-ness that was slapdash this year. And me going psychotic after being awake for 43 hours. But that day is not today.
I wrote a post a while back about social stigma and obesity. This article draws up some recent findings in a fascinating way. The crux of the study that came out is this is:
[Risk of Obesity -] Genetics can’t explain it, since having a fat friend was more likely to predict a person’s obesity than having a fat sibling was. Environmental constraints can’t explain it, since faraway friends made a difference, while next-door neighbors didn’t. Availability of food can’t explain it, since friends had a bigger effect than spouses did. Nor can sheer imitative eating, since faraway friends had as big an effect as local friends did.
This is fascinating. It’s saying that social shame and social validation are two of the most powerful factors in our lives. That’s crazy. Even more interesting:
Fowler cautioned that studies “suggest that having more friends makes you healthier. So the last thing that you want to do is get rid of any of your friends.” Christakis added, “We are not suggesting that people should sever ties with their overweight friends. But forming ties with underweight or normal weight friends may be beneficial to you.”
Which is even more fascinating, that your group of friends can have serious ramifications on your health. Julie and I are addicted to the show Big Medicine. It’s about 2 doctors who perform gastric bypasses in Houston, TX. It’s sensational and it’s voyeurism, but it constantly begs the question, “How do people get that big?” And this study makes me wonder. Is it just the lack of friends? Would they have been able to hold steady at 300 pounds rather than ballooning up to 500 if they had had skinny friends (or even other 300 pound friends)? If this is really true, then we are so important to each other. Our behavior impacts each other on such a fundamental level. How are we impacting the world? When we judge, are we judging to make it a better place, or are we judging to try to get others to join us in our misery? What part of our lives does this not touch? Are we perhaps less individuals and more like a herd than we’d like to think?
So this post is mainly going to be about food. We had a good food night last night. I came up with something Stella liked. Really liked.
Pickle Pita
3 hot pickled okras, chopped
3 pickles chopped
1.5 cups diced green cabbage
1/2 cup roasted chicken cubed
1 pocket pita bread, cut in half
Mix okra, pickles and cabbage in a bowl. Line bottom of one half of pita with chicken, and then fill with slaw. Repeat with second pita.
I thought at the time that it had zero nutritional value, but now that I look it up cabbage is pretty good. Much better than iceberg lettuce. Okra and cucumbers aren’t fantastic, but they’re certainly not a twinky. In case you’re saying to yourself that you don’t like cabbage, don’t worry, it just tastes like a pickle relish. the cabbage is completely overpowered by the pickled vegetables.
Stella’s big into sour. The other night when I was cutting limes to get some fresh lime juice she demanded a wedge and proceed to suck on it for 20 minutes or so. So I figured she’d like the pickles.
When I handed Stella the pita she just looked at it. Then she picked it up and was about to dump it all over herself. I showed her how to eat it starting at the end, and she began doing so. It was amazing. She learned to eat a pita last night. And she loved the slaw. She was eating the slaw that had fallen out of the pita, while she still had bread left. Which if you know Stella’s bread addiction is shocking.
Then last night Julie and I had SPICE-RUBBED CHICKEN AND VEGETABLE TACOS WITH CILANTRO SLAW AND CHIPOTLE CREAM for dinner. It was fantastic. I love smoked paprika, and it was loaded with vegetables. My cilantro slaw was just white cabbage mixed with cilantro and white wine vinegar. We used fat-free sour cream and only two teaspoons of olive oil.
Our side was black beans with garlic. Normally I sauté the garlic first, and then add the beans. Last night, I just poured the can into the pan, and added the garlic on top. Olive oil is a point per teaspoon in Weight Watchers (yes, teaspoon), so I’ve been learning to cook without it. And in this case the beans were far better for it. They tasted the same, but they weren’t greasy which was really nice.
So later Julie and I were talking about eating vegetables and how hard it is. That no matter what they try to do to teach kids to eat vegetables, they’re just not interested. I mean we crave fat. French cooking is so successful because everything is based upon fat. And it’s so good. When I started gaining weight from my cooking I started running to compensate. Julie being on weight watchers has really forced me to take a look at my eating. I’m cooking her meals that are significantly lower in fat and calories, and I’m really enjoying it. And where was I going to go? I’m running 5k a day now. That probably puts me at being able to consume about 3500 calories a day without gaining weight. But where does it stop? I love food, but am I going to start running 10ks so I can have ever more extravagant meals? And how is that going to impact Julie and Stella? Are they going to start running 10ks with me? My cooking really impacts how they eat. I can really decide whether weight is going to be a constant struggle in their lives. It’s a bit sobering.
So last night inspired me. I’m definitely going to keep trying to squeeze in French cooking. But I’m probably going to scale it back to once or twice a week. And I’m going to try to figure out how to make vegetables taste good. I’m sure this is possible. It’s going to be an adventure.
So I guess to kick it off, does anyone have any recipes with tons of vegetables I should try? Do you know of any vegetable combinations that make less-tasty super nutritional vegetables taste better?
2007-07-27T01:59:29.000Z
For salads I use Kale, it really packs a nutritional punch. Lettuce is a waste of my time. The HEB at William Cannon and Brodie has lovely kale usually. Don’t get the russian purple kale, it is quite peppery and can really turn off your eaters. I have a problem getting in the veggies too. It seems the only way I can do it is to have the meat and two veggie sides plate dinner. The problem with veggies is that cooking them too much takes away the vitamins. So I try to cook them just enough so that Henry can chew them. He LOVES baby limas. I just get a frozen bag of them and cook em up in plain water. He seems happy with that. As far as dishes that use tons of veggies all in one sitting. How about veggie lasagna? Maybe sub low fat cottage cheese for the cheese one usually uses that my pregnant name is hiding the name of. Oh and my sister told me that if you wash off your canned black beans prior to cooking you can get rid of half the sodium. Doesn’t WW offer recipes? And I LOVE French cooking. I think they get away with the fats because they don’t pair fats with mega carbs like we do.
The one I said looked pretty, but tasted like Chicken Salad? Here’s the pictures. I think I’m going to try to rejigger this. I love the idea julienning a bunch of vegetables and wrapping them up in a little meat. It’s suck a nice way to get fruits and vegetables. This one unfortunately just didn’t work. Maybe I’ll try a hot and cool theme. Some of them will be a combination of citrus, peppers, and green apples. Some will be a combo of cucumbers, celery, pickles, and pickled okra. That would probably be good.
Update: New UNKLE out today! 
War Stories
Man this past weekend was good. So much better than last weekend.
Friday night started out a bit rough. Julie wasn’t in a great mood and we were looking for a Mexican restaurant to eat at. We tried Casa Garcia, but they had a 25 minute wait. No good for our fading child. I suggested Bonitas, but by that point Julie had gone into full-bore pessimist mode. It’s kind of entertaining if you can put up with it. She had decided that there was no way Bonitas had margaritas, it would be broiling hot inside (even though it was less than 80 degrees outside), and they would let her eat her tortillas. Probably the anti-christ would be there too, and the sun would crash into the earth while we were waiting in the parking lot for their 1 hour and 45 minute wait. I just drove over there, because you do have to at least try to get something to eat.
Thankfully, Julie was 100% wrong. The temperature inside was nice. They had margaritas, and the food was great. I love the place because they start you off with 6 salsas and a monkey dish full of pickled vegetables on a double-decker lazy susan with the chips on top.
I gorged myself on chips and assorted Salsas. I tried to give Stella a pickled carrot. No dice. I tried a pickled mushroom. Yum. I gave her control of the monkey dish of pickled foods to root around in. She pulled out some onions and munched happily. Then she pulled out some sort of pepper. I figured that wouldn’t last long, but she took a bite. Then she took another. Then a third. About thirty seconds this look came over her face, and she started looking intensely unhappy. She started crying a little bit and squirming, trying to escape our grasp. I tried to put her on the ground, but she didn’t want that. Eventually we got water and it was clear that the pepper’s heat had caught up with her, and she was expressing herself as best she could. It was pretty comical in retrospect. It’s fun having a kid who can make decisions and learn from them.
We got our food. I the Tacos al pastor. Julie the beef fajitas. Both of us black beans and lime cilantro rice as our sides. Their rice is fantastic. It’s so different from typical Tex-Mex. So light and fresh tasting. Their fajita meat was fantastic. I was eating it plain and while it wasn’t the best cooked meat I’ve ever had, it was the best flavored. It had an actual taste. And my tacos were good too. We all gorged on each other’s food. It was a great meal, and Julie has decided it’s our new Mexican restaurant. Hurray!
On Saturday, we took Stella to get pictures taken. I almost said “made”. Julie is rubbing off on me. Although she says pajamas like me on occasion now too. It was not particularly productive, and we ended up babysitting another child name Jayden (I have no clue how this happened, but suddenly I was taking care of two kids). This picture is my favorite. Very Clint Eastwood:
We went out to lunch with parents at Galaxy Cafe. Then off to mail off the postcards for Slapdash Flimflammery 4 (get your tickets now!). On this trip I was the ass, and we ended up driving down Slaughter, then William Cannon, even though Julie insisted the post office was off 290. Which it was.
Baby being babysitted by grandparents, we decided to drive over to CompUSA to look at laptops. Julie fell in love with an iBook’s software (specifically photobooth), but after a lot of comparisons a trip to Best Buy and another to CompUSA again, we ended up getting her HP. It looks pretty spiffy, and it has a screen you can read. We had to spend most of last night cleaning the laptop of shovelware. But it seems to be working pretty nicely now. And Julie bought the computer, and installed her own ram. She’s a badass, I tell you. Now I get to wait until November or December for my new computer…
On Saturday night I went to a reading Julie was doing as part of Sam Bass Community Theater’s play reading series. The play was Stop Kiss and I thought it was great. I really found Julie and Julie (Wright’s) relationship compelling and believable. Some of the characters were completely useless, so the play wasn’t without problems, but I was really impressed with Julie’s acting. Karen Jambon seems to always get the most amazing performances out of her. To the point where I can forget that I’m watching my wife. Very enjoyable.
Sunday, Julie had to go to the reading directly after church. She dropped Stella and I off at a bus stop and headed north. I should point out here that I could have driven. I just like taking the bus and it’s easier than moving a carseat into the back of my incredibly un-childseat friendly VW Golf. Seriously, you don’t want to try to put a carseat in one of those. You have to clamber into the backseat completely to put the kid in, and there isn’t enough space between the back of my seat and Stella’s car seat, so her carseat is pitched forward a little bit. No fun.
So we took the bus. Stella’s free, so I just swiped my card and got a nice window seat. Stella loved it. She looked at all the people on the bus, and out the HUGE windows. I get the feeling she can’t see much facing backwards in the xB, so she was loving this. She saw fountains, and birds, and the river. It was great. Then about Manchaca and Lamar she started swerving like a drunken sailor and passed out. She slept through the rest of the bus ride. Through getting put into her stroller, and through the entire walk home. She probably would have slept for quite a while if I hadn’t changed her diaper. I have no clue why changing her diaper wakes her up. Ah well, we had a great time together on Sunday. She was up to all sorts of schenanigans, and I had to chase her through CompUSA while Julie bought her computer.I’ve got to say I was shocked by how much stuff they have at child level at CompUSA. Pretty much everything in the store is stored about 1 foot off the ground. Needless to say Stella had a lot of fun pulling things off of the shelves and rearranging them in creative ways.
Sunday night we had some tasty stir-fry and watched Harold and Maude, which I think has become one of Julie and my new favorite movies. Fantastic stuff! I think it’s up there with Poe and The Cure for cultural references for Goths.
While Bush is out of the office Congress should impeach Cheney. Charge him with all the crimes they supposedly can’t charge him with because he’s vice-president. This is a golden opportunity! He’s said he’s outside the law because he’s the veep. Well he’s gonna be president. Do it America!
Thanks for all the kind words for Stella guys. She’s doing much better. I finally got out last night and went to see Julie performing in this weeks 365 days/365 plays performance. It was very well performed. The scripts were lacking though.
Here’s some more food pictures from last week. It’s Chicken and Cashew Stir-Fry.
I guess the pictures for the things that were little sushi rolls that tasted like tuna salad haven’t been downloaded from the camera yet.
Loaded Gun Theory is a sponsored project of Austin Creative Alliance.
For more information on Austin performing arts visit Now Playing Austin.