Confessions of a Startled Woman

Funny how a week out of state to visit family turned into three weeks off blogging. Since I know you all know the routine of going out of town and then the getting back into the routine of the routine, I won’t belabor the whys of my dereliction of duty on Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman.

To summarize the trip, Adventure Guy and I had a blast. Our rented house was on a non-motorized lake (yay) and came equipped with a canoe and a rowboat. My two sisters and brother-in-law added four kayaks and two bicycles and we were set. Camp Damp (my family name) was ready to go.

I did everything there was to do. If it floated, I was in it or on it. I rode the bikes, includng an ancient Peugeot 10-speed found in the basement. Adventure Guy, newly educated in bike maintenance, tuned it up. It was a paddle shift bike, if you know what that is. That info alone dates it to probably the 60s or 70s. Once I figured out the distance between gears, it rode pretty well. Enough to toodle into the tiny town of Clifton on Cranberry Lake with Adventure Guy and my younger sister. I walked. Adventure Guy and I rode up and down the hills around Cranberry Lake in forest! (Not many trees in Utah where we live, so trees are a treat. So is the shade they provide.)

The trip back, however, was a 12-hour marathon with Washington, D.C. shut down from storms and the domino effect of cancelled flights. It was worse than the trip out when Delta cancelled our connection and we spent the night in Detroit. Bright spot: there was a Middle Eastern restaurant that took our airline vouchers. We had a feast!

While I was there, a recurring theme was perspective. What lenses was I living at the moment? For example, a negative perspective on the house focused on the major musty smell that all/most 0ld Adirondack houses have, small windows, the lack of air conditioning, steep stairs, and the leaking toilet upstairs. The lens I chose to live through that week was laughing at the inconveniences, remembering that musty places get enough rain to have gorgeous lakes and forests for me to play in, and gratitude for my older sister who daily changed the paper towels under the toilet tank so the musty smell was reduced.

Finding different ways to get my green dots factored in with perspective as well with two days of rain. (Living in Utah means not a lot of summer activities changed because of rain.) Darker lenses of perspective whined about the steepness and hauling up my luggage. Green dot perspective meant I was getting credit for every trip up and down those stairs. On the rainy days, I made some extra up and downs. (Those stairs were steep enough that my size 10 feet didn’t fit and I gained a rather rapid descent after a certain point on the those treads. My little sister and I hit a badminton shuttlecock back and forth to get our heart rates up during the breaks in rain.

And then there was the walking into town to go behind the library to get the wi-fi connection for my phone which had no cell coverage for the week. I had no idea I was that tethered to technology.

Back at home

Now that I’m home and back at the gym (I just switched from 24-HR Fitness to a county rec center for better class schedules and PICKLEBALL.) I am continuing to deal with perspective. The weight is slooooowwww in coming off. I don’t care about all the green dots on every day. The goals for the DirectLife are getting tougher and I’m not making them as easily. (Would I like a little whine with that cheese?) I washed out of trying Power Pump this morning. So, time for a perspective check.

I have lost 15 lbs. I am in a different size short. I have moved over the hooks on my top underpinnings. I am handling hills better on my bike. I think about the tale of the Chinese Bamboo tree. If it takes four years to shed the excess weight and improve my health, will I still do it? Plenty of thinking and catching the attitude plunges.

Foodwise, I’m working back into what I do to make our clean eating work: Make Aheads. At least that’s what I call them. I have friends who don’t/won’t eat leftovers and I have to shake my head. I make leftovers on purpose. I’m also “eating down the inventory” with what’s in the house. It makes for creative combinations. Here’s the items in process:

Stuffed Peppers

Sort of cooked, hollowed out green peppers (cooked in the microwave)

Can of Northern beans

Fresh basil

a couple of handfuls of cooked red lentils

cooked onions

cooked ground turkey

tail end of a bottle of agave-sweetened barbecue sauce.

tail end of a jar of Black Bean Corn Salsa

last bit of V-8 in a small bottle

Organic ketchup on top for the baking in the toaster oven. (Because I didn’t want to heat up the oven.)

Yield: Six with some extra filling in the pan.

Mystery Dish

The rest of the cooked ground turkey went into an unnamed dish:

Cooked ground turkey

chopped up green peppers (the salvageable parts of the green peppers I hollowed out for the stuff peppers)

oregano

feta cheese

a partial packet of fajita seasoning

I’ll serve this over salad greens, chopped hardboiled eggs, shredded purple cabbage with a lime dressing.

Lemony Rice

1 c Basmati rice (it’s a lower glycemic index rice)

3 c chicken/vegetable stock – hot or boiling

2 T olive oil or one each of olive oil and butter

1 t salt

3 T juice from lemon. Throw in a little zest if you’re feeling zippy. I used RealLemon and I don’t like it as much as the fresh.

In a large frying pan, flatten out the uncooked rice and put in the oils until you heat up the stock. Add the stock and cover and cook. Can’t tell you how long to cook because  a prospective student’s parent called me and I overcooked it because I was on the phone! This time it will have a nutty, lemony flavor as it got rather crispy on the bottom.

Tell me I’m not the only one who does leftovers on purpose. What are yours?