Tuesday 30 April 2013

Mayleo

...sometimes combining words doesn't look as good as it sounds. I was trying to come up with a cool title for this post and I ended up combining 'mayo' and 'paleo' in my head and came up with 'mayleo'...which doesn't look as good... Some things just don't mix well, like extra virgin olive oil and egg yolks.

My mayo actually worked, so that's not where I'm going. But one tip I'd love to throw out there: DON'T USE EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL. I used about 3/4 evoo, some macadamia oil and some sweet almond oil, because I read a thousand recipes saying 'don't use evoo' and I was like 'I can handle a bit of evoo'. But no. Even slightly diluted, just no.

And I didn't even use that much oil. But when I make it again, I'll make sure I have a bit more patience (and a lighter tasting oil) so that I can see what it's like when you use all of the oil. I only used a third of the amount.

Monday 29 April 2013

Play

Stupid school. Why did it have to come back again? Oh well, another six terms and I'm outta there.

Whenever someone asks me what I want to do when I leave school, I just say that I'll get some random degree like massage or cooking or weightlifting or something and then I'll just have a gap life. Everyone seems to think I'm joking when I say that. But I'm pretty sure I'll get along swimmingly having a life full of fun and enjoyment.

I was epiphanising in bed the other night when there was a party next door and I couldn't sleep, and I decided that I had to have more fun in my life. Don't know how I was planning on biking out to a beach and surfing before sunrise, but a girl can dream, right? (speaking of dreaming, I thought I'd be able to eat a whole raw red onion that I'd sliced thickly and salted and patted, but the rest of me didn't think that that was possible just yet. So I had a chocolate dipped banana to calm my mouth :) )

Anyway, all I know is that I want my life to be full of play and fun and chock a block jam packed full of good, hearty enjoyment. Not like what my friends were talking about at lunch - they seemed so hilarified by tumblr. Oh how they waste their time...

BACK TO THE TOPIC I was originally gonna talk about. Mark (from Mark's Daily Apple, best site in the world) put up his weekend link love today and shared with us a video of this awesome guy who's 72 and plays like all day. When I first got into health, I saw photos of fit and healthy old people and thought 'I wanna be like that' but watching this video made me think of how much I reeeeeally want to be an awesome grandma. Which is a lot. I want to be as awesome as this cool cat. And not just his playingness, but his attitude towards life. He seems happier than most aged people - any people for that matter - that I've seen. Take a look > http://growingbolder.com/media/health/aging/never-leave-the-playground-793777.html

I've been giving a bit of thought into it, and I think that order sucks. Lists suck. Trying to perfectly structure everything sucks. Relaxing is a much better option, and the cycles that are meant to happen (circardian rhythyms, seasons, that sorta stuff) will happen. Mother Nature isn't stupid. She wouldn't make stuff work wrongly, so why try to perfect things to fit into some sort of schedule? Eat what you want, when you want (once you've got your cravings and ketosisness down pat). Exercise Play how you like, when you like. I've found that I'm more energetic and willing to workout later at night, so I'll probably try to do it before bed instead of in the morning. Work on the work you want to, when it feels right. Example: instead of me rehearsing my assessment speech, I'm blogging. Live the way you feel is right and screw order and time and perfection. Embrace mess, because neat stuff will just get ruined. Embrace dirt, because that's where all the minerals are (when you watch animals eat, they don't worry about cleaning dirty food - they just eat it.). And crave nature, adventure, curiousity, exploration, the outdoors, and all that good stuff.

Friday 26 April 2013

Ignore that I was laying on the beach when I was thinking this

Guys have it so much easier than girls. The way they work out is expected to be lifting a few times a week, playing soccer with friends or playing in general with friends/kids at the park, and sometimes they can be builders, meaning that they're lifting and cardioing all day. Whereas women are expected to (and mostly do) do heaps and heaps of cardio squeezed into their stressful day, and not having time to play because they're either doing stuff that's stressing them out, or relaxing and trying to destress. What has society come to?

I was sitting on the beach peoplewatching, and I noticed that all the guys were up and playing ball games while all the women were laying around on the beach getting their tan on. Now, I'm not for overexercising or anything, but wouldn't it be nice if the women were up and playing something too? You can still get an even tan playing around with a ball... or running around with children... or building sandcastles... or even just walking on the beach with someone. Going to the beach shouldn't mean lay on a plastic (or cotton) cloth and sloth about for hours on end to come home with slightly darker skin. Going to the beach should be a fun day out to play around and enjoy what nature has to offer. The beach should be an active playground, not an excuse for an outdoor bed.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Eggs Again

After four weeks of going egg-free, it is safe to say that not eating them didn't reduce my eczema. That can only mean one more thing... MORE EGGS FOR JORDIE! I should probably eat three eggs for brekkie every morning anyway, but now it's gonna be official. And breakfast is going to be a lot more diverse too. I won't be as weirded out by having leftovers or steak or a whopping heap of bacon for breakfast. Oh, and sardines, look out!

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Mmm... Tasty

To kick off this entry, here's the clip I'm about to tell you about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZuV1LJxtJk
Skip to 1.45 for the important bit by the way. I was watching Disney (forcibly by James) and this scene came up. I cracked up; this Jerry guy is me! It was hilarious. Watch the video to find out what I'm talking about! (PS I don't mean that I saw my grandmother in a bikini one day).

On a slightly different note, I bought some lamb's tongue at the butcher a few days ago because it was the cheapest cut of meat (no surprises there). I had a quick look up at how to cook it and even though I only found beef tongue, it seemed pretty simple: poach for a while, peel the skin, slice thin, panfry if wanted. There was speculation over whether to let it cool or not before peeling, so I did half half.

I popped the tongues (five of them) in a pot with some rosemary, oregano and chilli...

Sunday 21 April 2013

Pull ups

Last year we had to find a book for English that was an autobiography, and I picked out Anthony Field (the Blue Wiggle) and read it realising that it was half about his health struggle, half a guidebook to the sorts of exercises he does. He's 50 and ripped, so whatever he did must be fantastic. What he DID do was discover the magic of barefootedness, but also of inverted workouts. Basically all his workout moves are done on a pull up bar. I was pretty mystified by this style of workouts and really liked the idea of it, but didn't like the idea of getting a pull up bar.

I've been reading recently about pull ups (especially on Al Kavadlo's site) and about how amazing they are, so I got dad to screw in a makeshift bar. It's from a hair washing basin and it's a funny shape so it's a bit strange to hang off. I can't pull myself up yet. Not even a chin up. So I'm gonna hang until my back muscles get used to it.

And while I do that, I'll do all funny stuff with my legs. On the beach we stayed at for the week, they had a boardwalk and I hung off the bottom of it sometimes, like this morning. I can only hold a really bad L for 6 seconds but the tucks are a little easier. I'll just have to practice when I get home.

Friday 19 April 2013

Egglessness


I'm sick of my eczema. It's one of the main problems I have that's gotten worse with my adoption of a paleo diet. I've had it for a couple of years now (apart from childhood), and it popped back up when I started getting super stressed about school. So my eczema is mainly due to all the stress I go through but I sometimes like to blame foods for it.

I looked up dietary options for 'fixing' eczema that go with paleo-ness, and I've found a few options, but I decided to go with an egg allergy first. Eggs are my hero. They're my staple breakfast, and they're probably the only things I make sure I get good quality of. I go nuts for them. But last October, when I started eating more eggs (and more carrots), I noticed that my skin was getting more orange, so I thought it was the eggs (but I cut out carrots for a bit and I'm much better now).

I don't know why the hell I decided to cut out eggs on EASTER. I was just sick of my eczema so much (it had gotten worse with my four or so assessments in the same week) that I decided that a month to cut out something. So I cut out eggs, because it was a single food, even though it's one of the only foods I couldn't imagine giving up.

It's been 2 weeks - actually, nearly 3 - since I stopped eating them, and unless it's a die off reaction, my body needs eggs. But let's just see how I go.

Next Thursday I'm driving out to the country to get some free range eggs to celebrate :) I don't think I'll be able to go egg free for much longer.

Sunday 14 April 2013

I Did It Again

Well, let's just say it's been a looooong time since I even thought about blogging, but here I am again. I think I need a strategy for this. That works.

I'm thinking really ultra short entries. Things that take me two seconds to write. Because I can write a hell of a lot when I get going, so I think my entries should just be short and sweet.

I was hoping to rekindle the fire of my blogging by making them more like Facebook updates and short things that happen, such as:

"I went to dad's, and since he buys EVERYTHING when they're on special, he branched out of his usual jams and bought a St Dalfour's Fig Jam. Not only is the jar super pretty (can't wait to ferment some asparagus in there!) and it's from France (I've been a little obsessed with France since I read the beginning of 'French Kids Eat Everything'), but it's PALEO!! Oh yes, there is a god. All of their jams. All they have is the fruit, fruit juice concentrate (ok, so maybe Grok didn't have access to that), some citric acid - normally just lemon juicey type of stuff - and some have pectin (from fruit). Ahhh! So I had a spoonful of it with my persimmon. I know, I'm weird, ok?"

That would be the entire entry, maybe with an additional photo or two.

Or, if it's more lengthy, it'd only be like this:

"Today I took my time to volunteer at the Tough Mudder that I had signed up for. I wanted to do it myself but 20km? In mud? With all those horrific(ally awesome) obstacles? Not with this bendy boney body. So I turned up hopeful to make a possible friend or two, and see how difficult this challenge was.

I turned up and after looking anorexic and not eating much of the free lunch I was given (a veggie burger, a bag of chips, a cookie, and an apple - which I ate slowly), I was sent out to man the mohawk and mullet area, and I only shaved two guys' heads since everyone else shaved theirs before (I got there at midday). Then one of the head volunteer guys came over and dropped me at the finish line to put the glorified orange headbands on everyone.

I was there for a while. I, along with a girl called Dana who had volunteered over her hours, and an American couple of which the guy was the winner this morning, stretched the headbands around the wet and muddy heads. A few people asked us to 'crown' them, a couple of guys got down on one knee (the guy knighted him), and I even got a lovely sloppy muddy hug. A few dainty girls came out the other side of the electric shocky thing crying. But I think that if I was to do it, I'd give the poor volunteer a messy hug and make sure they got muddy. Hehehe.

And when it was over, I followed David, one of the main volunteer guys, around like a lost puppy and he got me to cut all the zip cords on the banners. That was not fun, I can tell you. But after doing it for a while, I came out of the portaloo with him an some other main volunteer guy telling me that they wanted me to sign up to do paid volunteer-style work. I could be paid for this sort of stuff! So we exchanged details and I took leftover bananas and solo cans home.

But getting a possible job wasn't the only amazing thing today. I learnt how to quickly lever zip cords out, I learnt that you don't have to be ripped (or even have any nice physique) to be a Tough Mudder, and I learnt that doing good gets you places."

And sometimes it might just be:

"I MADE MYSELF A BEANIE! It's hot pink and ribbed and the perfect size for my head and I'm actually going to wear it places. Yaaay!"

I'll see if I can keep entries up once a week (I'm thinking Thursdays), but let's just see what exciting happenings happen.

:)