Archive for March, 2011
20 items.
So we are on week three of C25K, and it’s pretty awesome. I never thought I was capable of jogging, but easing into it as gradually as this is really amazing. I am slowly learning to breathe, and to pace myself, and to run lightly enough that it doesn’t stress the joints. And it feels GREAT. I’m really starting to get it, too, why people like running so much.
Of course, Randi and I talk almost nonstop while we’re jogging, which doesn’t help the breathing. I hear at week 5 we’re going to do a 20 minute stretch of running. I imagine there will be much less talking then. Until that day, though, it’s a great way to get exercise and catch up with each other at the same time.
It is probably a good sign that I don’t feel the need to prove anything via the food diary, right? I mean, seriously, when I started this whole thing, I think I was trying to explain myself. Like, you guys, maybe I am fat but it is NOT because I eat three chocolate cakes for dinner every night. But that’s only because I myself was buying into the misconception that anyone who’s overweight must be overeating, must have no willpower, must be stuffing their face with fast food all day and sitting in front of the tv all night. But that wasn’t ME, I thought; it’s entirely unfair because I do everything right and I’m still fat. Unlike, you know, everyone else who’s overweight. THEY’RE what’s wrong with America. But now I’ve spent a year and change eating better and exercising even more, and I’ve lost a little weight, but not much. Could it be that every body is different? Could it be that a person can be healthy and fat at the same time? I swear, after almost every Sauceome I draw it’s like, *facepalm* Sarah, this stuff is obvious. You knew it all along, you just didn’t quite BELIEVE it.
But! So! Hmmm, right? I am really not sure about this format for the food diary. I mean, aesthetically I like it, but it just makes the page so LONG. From a technical standpoint, I’d kind of like to have the whole week on one page like I did last week, but you guys are right, there is something unique about thematically superimposing the day’s (or two days’) food with the comic. Bah! I think I’m going to be indecisive about this for a while, but we’ll try this format for now and see how it feels.
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So I have this large, multi-layer bento box that my sister gave me. It’s way too big for one person, so I rarely get to use it. But when Corinne asked me to share her table at Chicago Zine Fest this past weekend, I suddenly realized I had an opportunity. We had a convention in OUR OWN CITY, which meant I could pack a lunch made from ingredients in my own kitchen. I was definitely more excited about packing a lunch for the two of us than I was for the comics, and I am a pretty big fan of comics.
Usually at conventions we’re held a little bit hostage by what’s available, food-wise. Either there’s just junk food kiosks at the convention hall itself, or a handful of restaurants in walking distance of the center, if you know where to look. But finally, we had the luxury of packing our own lunch. I had an eel filet in the freezer, so we did brown rice maki with unagi and avocado, and it was just as delicious as it sounds. Do you know, all the recipe books say you have to let the rice cool at room temperature, and warn you against refrigerating it? I actually made this rice a week ago, coated it with the sushi vinegar and stuck it in the fridge, and it worked JUST FINE. So take that, sushi recipe books! I ain’t a part of your system!
In other news, I’m trying something new with the food diary this week, and we shall see where it leads us. Stay tuned!
So, I was going to try a thing, to shake things up a little with the food diary bits. It’s not that I don’t WANT to put the food diary back into the comics (well, a piece of me likes the extra space I have to draw now, but still), it’s that I can’t figure out a graceful way to do it. :) If I post a comic now on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, by necessity it’ll be a comic that I do on Sunday night, Tuesday night, and Thursday night. So that would be the food involved, Monday’s comic would have Sunday’s food. And then instead of having Fri-Sat-Sun orphaned conveniently together like they were before, I have Monday, Wednesday, and Friday/Saturday orphaned, and I just can’t figure out a clever and graceful way to … I’m not making any sense, am I? :)
Well, initially I was thinking hey guys, it’s my comic and I can do what I want, but Tony’s and AnthroK8’s comments gave me pause. It was kind of neat to have that day’s food paired with a comic about what happened that day, wasn’t it? For my own reasons, the food diary part is less important to me now, but it wasreally neat to explore that relationship, to see how the food affected what went down that day. I think I can figure out a way to get that back, without me having to give up any real estate on the page, and without having any sad little food diary orphans.
While I work on that, it is also kind of fun to see a whole (almost whole) week’s worth of food on a page, isn’t it? It’s a different sort of perspective.
Also! I am starting to gather files and get quotes to see about publishing a first-year Sauceome book! It will most likely be funded by a Kickstarter, unless any of you know any nice publishers that would like to pick it up. I’m thinking up fun rewards for Kickstarter donation levels right now; original pages, custom sketches, maybe even a painting of the food of your choice for the higher level contributors. Do you guys have any suggestions?
So, a few other tips! This works best if your egg isn’t super cold. Take it out of the fridge first and let it rest at room temperature for a few minutes if you can. You can poach an egg right out of the fridge, but you might want to leave it in the water for an extra minute or two. Also, don’t let the water get too hot – I usually let it come to a boil and turn it down a bit before dropping the egg in. Also, any kind of white vinegar will work; I usually use sushi vinegar, because that’s always in the fridge. Tonight, I put my poached egg on top of a salad of greens, blue cheese crumbles, and some grilled mushrooms and onions, and it was delicious! Seriously, I cleaned my plate. Even I was surprised at me.
I love poached eggs. I have actually been making them a long time, long before I knew how to do it properly. I’m actually pretty good at making eggs benedict, but Niles isn’t a fan of eggs, and it’s a pretty labor-intensive dish to make for oneself, so I haven’t done that in a long while. Plus, I can’t bear to waste anything, so since the hollandaise only uses egg yolks, and I’m left with a bunch of egg whites, making myself eggs benedict also means I’m probably going to end up making meringue cookies. Not the worst fate in the world, but it does kind of double the work load.
My beloved Small Bar: we often refer to them as “the living room”. I love them, but we are there very often, and the menu can get kind of old. Fortunately the specials menu changes up a lot, and is usually pretty interesting and creative. Tonight, of the four of us dining, three of us got the special “Borracho Burger”. We were sitting at the bar, and I could watch the cook making it. While the burger was on the grill, and the cheese was melting on top, he took a bottle of tequila and drizzled generous amounts over the patties, coaxing some pretty big flames up from underneath. It was delicious! Guacamole, melted chihuahua cheese, an enormous pile of pico de gallo, a slice of lime – it was just tart enough, just spicy enough, just savory enough. An excellent burger!
Sorry for the Simpsons reference. There are some words I can’t see without a Simpsons quote popping into the brainspace.
Hey, how are we liking the new format? Does the food diary part get lost, or is it okay? Should I wait and post the whole week of food in one entry? Be honest, I can take it. :)
Oh, Law & Order SVU. I actually did sit there on the couch arguing with Niles that none of the photos of the corpses of the assaulted and murdered women in this episode were fat. But I’m not even sure that it was the Queens victim that they meant when the episode said “fat”, she certainly didn’t even look “tv fat” to me at the time. All of those corpses were extremely attractive! Ok, it probably didn’t go that far.
Still. Maybe, just maybe, this is one of those things that makes us hate ourselves so much, this idea of “tv fat”. If that’s what qualifies as unattractive in tv land – a land that, let’s face it, 99% of us tune in to on a regular basis – what chance have the rest of us got? Measured against the bodies (no pun intended) we see every minute of every day, everywhere around us, how do I avoid comparing myself, and finding myself wanting?
I was biking to work one morning this week, and I passed a mom walking to school with her two daughters. Both daughters were wearing t-shirts, jeans and brightly colored tu-tus, and they were skipping along so happily, almost giddily, that I almost laughed out loud. “It’s too bad we can’t really wear whatever we want as we get older,” I thought to myself, before I realized that I actually have the kind of job where I can pretty much wear whatever I want. I mean, all week I’ve been wearing brightly colored frilly dresses over jeans or purple corduroys. So the lesson to take away from all of this, besides the fact that I’m mildly superstitious, is that I dress like a six-year-old most days.
To be fair, the weather’s actually been pretty springy here in Chicago the past few days. I could let my wardrobe take credit for it, but I imagine the prevailing air currents and the tilt of the earth’s axis played a small role as well.
NOTE! If anyone wants to know, I got the “I’m drunk” bee shirt from the amazing Joey Allison Sayers at a convention. It is just as awesome in person.
Well, I certainly feel better about my choices this week than I did last week. I know I’ve done well when it takes me a long time to color one of these pages, because that means I ate a decent variety of greens and veggies and other fun things. I’ve also managed to have a lot of sushi for some reason, that’s always good. My stomach’s been hurting all day today, though, and I am wondering if it was last night’s omelette. Eggs never used to bother me, but I also used to eat them a lot more. Niles doesn’t like eggs, so I just don’t make them very often. It’s funny, those things. Cheese and milk never used to bother me before either, but if I have a large amount of it – say, some pizza with some milk stouts – I pay for that these days too.
Anyway. Not bad! Also, had the second day of c25k tonight, and it was – dare I say – easier than the first. I think I’m going to like this jogging thing.
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Hooray!!! Seriously, I don’t know why I was so surprised to see this much of a positive change after my doctor’s visit. It makes total sense. I’ve spent a year making tiny changes in my diet, eating lots more salad greens, fruit and veggies, drinking less, having fewer helpings of things – of COURSE my cholesterol has improved.
It’s another point in favor of Health at Every Size. I mean, at 210, my cholesterol was still within normal, healthy limits. I’ve lost all of 15 pounds, and it’s significantly improved. By your standard height/weight calculators, I’m still “obese”, but I bike my 15 miles a day without getting winded, and I’ve started jogging. Well, to be fair, I’ve started the couch-to-5K program. :) But soon, it will be legitimate jogging! My point is, I’m still a size 12. I probably don’t look fit. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not fit.
Anyway, I’m all in favor of utter privacy re: medical records, unless you have stuff to brag about. A+ in cholesterol!! I need a gold star. Where does one get gold stars?
