Day 48, Keen-wah!

If any of you out there have had the distinct pleasure of buying and watching David Lynch’s Inland Empire on DVD then you will already know what I’m talking about and have probably already discovered the wonders and sheer taste extravaganza of the South American wonder grain known simply (or not so simply as the name is likely to trip you up on first seeing it) as:

Quinoa



Haaailing from the Andean region of South America, this high protein (14g protein for every 100g quinoa), high in dietary fiber, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron, gluten free food, packed with essential amino acids is considered worldwide as being one of the most important foodstuffs in the early pre-Columbian Andean civilizations and has continued to be so for over 6,000 years. Did you know that this delectable grain is also an unusually complete food for all of your eating needs? You can eat this tasty food and rest easy knowing that your body is humming along nicely thanks in part to...quinoa!

Like I said up top, anyone who has the Inland Empire DVD is probably already aware of this wonder food because of the special features included with the movie. On the second disc of the DVD set David Lynch, always the groundbreaking and eccentric auteur, cooks for himself and for us a bowl of quinoa (see the comparison I’m making here? It’s also kind of like Robert Rodriguez’s 10 Minute Cooking School...except without all of the unappetizing cooked pig flesh) while regaling us with a story from a trip he took into...um, somewhere in the Middle East, I think (I’m not sure, it’s actually been a while since I’ve seen this particular special feature video).

So that’s what piqued my interest in quinoa, for all of you wondering why I’m going on about it. Within a week of seeing the video by Mr. Blue Velvet I found a local farmer’s market that, conveniently for me, has tons of the stuff. So I jumped on the chance to make some of the stuff for myself.

Cooking quinoa is astoundingly similar to cooking ordinary rice, in that you take two parts water for every one part of quinoa. Firstly, though, if the quinoa you find is still covered by saponins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponins) then remove the stuff by soaking the grain in water for a few hours, then changing the water and resoaking again, or rinsing it in ample running water either in a fine strainer or in cheesecloth. Hopefully you’ll be able to find quinoa that is presoaked. So once that’s done with let’s say that you wanted to make one cup of quinoa, well then you would cook it in two cups of water. Bring to boil the two cups of water and add the one cup of quinoa after turning the heat to a low simmer. Cook for 14-18 minutes (I usually do about 16 and a half to 17 minutes). Voila! You now have cooked and delicious quinoa!



Or, for a more appetizing look,



Looks de-lish, now doesn’t it? And just wait until you see the cooked stuff in front of you, it’ll look even tastier! Also, those tiny curls coming off of the actual quinoa are the germs of the stuff and are totally edible (there’s no way it would be worth it to eat the stuff if you had to get rid of each and every one of those things). They should have a slight “bite” to it, like al dente pasta, and really add some flavor and fun to it.

So look around your local supermarket or farmer’s market and see if you can snag yourself some of this amazing stuff. You won’t regret it, trust me (and check out Inland Empire, it’s full of weird, crazy goodness).

Hmm, I enjoyed this entry, perhaps I’ll have to make this unique food exploration thing a weekly event. Yeah, that sounds cool (I wonder if I’ll stick with it...any suggestions from you fine people?). Coming up next week...Couscous.

Also, for those of you who are interested, a basic recipe I found while hanging out on the Food Network web site (amazing, aren’t they? But I wouldn’t use much of the oil, it never seems to be worth it):

Quinoa and Veggies

2 cups quinoa
1 cup wild rice
1 tablespoon olive oil or peanut oil
1 cup mushrooms, diced
1/2 cup diced chives
1/2 cup diced orange bell pepper
1/2 cup diced yellow bell pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cayenne or crushed red pepper


In a large skillet, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add the quinoa and cook, stirring occasionally, until it expands out of its shell, about 10 minutes; be careful not to overcook it.

In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally until done, about 20 minutes.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, chives, bell peppers, salt, and cayenne pepper. Cook, while stirring, for about 3 minutes. Add the quinoa and rice and stir until hot. Serve immediately.

Day 47, Violent attacks of the noxious kind

Saturday afternoon was an uncomfortable time for me, yes yes, and I didn’t think I did anything to deserve it. But the human body has its own very unsubtle, and in some cases funny in retrospect, way of letting us know that what we’re doing to it isn’t what we should be doing. It has its own special way of asking, would you please stop doing what you’re doing? Thank you. Because that kind of stuff isn’t going to help in the long run and as a lesson for the future how’s about something you’ll never forget? Good.

Every so often I’ll buy a steam-in-the-bag bag of vegetables from the freezer section of the supermarket because chopping and peeling vegetables is definitely not my favorite thing to do. It’s just easier and sometimes I think I’m entitled to a little bit of ease (even if I haven’t been working too hard). Well, concerning this particular incident, I bought and ate one of those bags of vegetables for lunch on Saturday, an Asian Medley variety of vegetables consisting of broccoli florets, julienned carrots, mini corn (anyone else think that’s as crazy and weird as I do?), and sugar snap peas. I tend to get rid of the peas because I don’t think that those will react well to my body and its numerous allergies (take a look at my Day 17 entry for the reason for my concern).

That particular variety is also “Specially Seasoned”, meaning that it’s not PCP-kosher but whatever. Now compared to all of the other “Specially Seasoned” varieties of bag vegetables in the freezer section the Asian Medley is by far the least “Specially Seasoned” so I don’t feel bad about getting and eating it. The calorie, fat, and carb levels are almost exactly the same as any other mixing of vegetables so the problem isn’t there. There are only two differences, one is in the level of sodium listed which is obviously more than plain vegetables, not much more but more. The other difference is in the taste of the actual stuff: intensely noticeable right off but it soon turns into this mish-mash of indistinguishable flavors blending together to become something salty, unidentifiable, and eventually, admittedly, unsatisfying.

Which brings me to my Saturday afternoon. Let me start by telling you about the e-mail Patrick sent to us all on Saturday afternoon (well, Saturday afternoon for me, at least). This particular e-mails topic was about salt and why we are all limiting our supplementary salt intake to as little as humanly possible before we start going into salt withdrawal and die (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt#Health_effects). (Also, how weird is it that I have a problem concerning my salt intake on the exact same day that I get an e-mail by Patrick about our salt intake? It’s creepy, almost).

In the e-mail he enlightened us as to why we are trying to limit our salt intake and the basic gist of it was this: there is already enough sodium in vegetables and fruit and etc. in our diets that we don’t need any additional salt added to it, either by the manufacturer of the food we eat or by our own hand. There is enough in all of the PCP foods that any extra is superfluous. Now since we are on low sodium diets and have been for forty-seven days now any extra sodium we put into our systems that isn’t already in the vegetables we’re eating will certainly make itself known to us.

Hence this posting. It seems that the extra sodium in the Asian Medley bag of vegetables was enough to slightly tip my new daily required amount of sodium over the edge, enough to send me on a slippery slope of gastrointestinal displeasure. Yippee skippee, eh? One of the side effects of going over my new limit of sodium, according to Patrick, is an uncomfortable bloating sensation and, boy, is that what I ended up with about three or four hours after I ate that Asian Medley. The bathroom never looked so inviting.

So, touche, body of mine. Lesson learned. But how about next time you just “accidentally” cause me to burn up that stuff in the microwave or on the stove where I’ll be forced to eat something tastier and healthier for me, instead of putting me through that crap again because that was almost unbearable.

Are we cool on that? Let’s hope so.

Day 46, So begineth...

The second half, sirs and ladies. It certainly has been interesting and difficult, and rewarding and a big learning experience, and frustrating and exhilarating, depressing, fulfilling, tasty, tiring, muscley.

Those first few weeks had me worried, I must tell you. I can’t believe that I made it past those arduous days where everything was changing and my body and my days were becoming radically different in such a short time. I wasn’t ready for it, looking back on it now at the time it felt like I wasn’t ready to change. I fought it at every turn when I should have been riding that wonderful new wave and smiling at all of the changes happening with me.

Eh. Live and learn, right folks?

But then, whoa. Things started to get easier and easier, certainly not any less tiring or challenging but it felt like I was growing and adapting to all of the changes. I was becoming used to the speed that my body was traveling at while at the same time, unconsciously, preparing myself for all of the future changes (that are still at this very moment happening).

These times are exhilarating and I’m enjoying nearly every minute of it now, I mean, except for those freaking v-sits and chest dips but what are you gonna do? These improvements are rewarding and definitely empowering. I’m not sure what switch inside of me suddenly decided to flip itself on a while back but, boy, am I glad that it chose to and at the most perfect moment.

I want to thank all of you faithful readers (and the occasional ones, too) for the support so far. Without you guys along with Patrick, David, and Corry then I would have been lost weeks ago. I have no doubt in my mind that without the pushing that you all have given me then I would be sitting here right now, chips in hand wishing that I had stuck with it instead of buckling under the pressure I was putting on myself.

So it’s been an exciting and interesting forty-six days so far, let’s have an equally wonderful final month and a half. Good luck to you, David and Corry, and have the most wonderful day all of you readers. You’re what makes this whole thing possible.

Day 45, A resolution

Of sorts. And it’s not even January 1!

So yesterday was Friday which means that it was sparring day at the karate school (ah the very last sparring day at our current location, new building coming on Monday). Sparring day is usually something to look forward to during the otherwise dismal week spent there because, well, first it is Friday so that means no work the next day, that’s always good, but it also means that I get to have some real time to train and get in a great cardiovascular workout all at the same time.

Mostly my time spent there is devoted to teaching all of the other students--that being my job because unfortunately I can’t get paid to just train for a few hours a day...or for reading or watching movies. Monday through Friday from four in the afternoon until nine at night are classes that I teach and very rarely do I get to work out on my own during those times. Hence the reason why I started taking kung fu and judo classes, because I can’t spend five hours a day teaching that stuff and then expect to be fulfilled from it, I’ve got to spend some time developing my own self not just teaching others.

Friday is the one big exception. Granted there are still three other classes during that day that I have to teach but at six o’clock the advanced belt class, my class, rolls along. Sparring class is different from any of the other “kata” classes in that I don’t have to be standing in front of a big group of kids counting numbers and telling them to bend their knees to be able to teach something. In sparring class I am able to get in there and spar the students myself, so I’m able to (hopefully) impart some of my earned knowledge to them while physically interacting and moving with the other person like everyone else in the class.

Like I said before, it gives me a way to train and further develop my abilities in a way that I wouldn’t be able to do any other time of the week due to my obligation to teach. It is also a fantastic cardio workout. For about forty-five minutes there is continuous movement, and when I say continuous movement I mean continuous movement, only stopping about every five minutes to change partners. So every bit of my body gets a thorough workout:arms from punching and blocking and other strikes, hips and core from moving constantly and keeping my balance in those fast and stressful moments when the other person is all over you, and legs from all of the kicks and leg blocks. It’s very intensive and very enjoyable.

Much the same way that the PCP exercise program is.

I realized something at the end of the class yesterday, I had spent the two or three previous sparring classes sitting out due to either a stomach issue or just plain laziness, and now after going through an entire class and getting to move around a lot, I kind of miss it. Even with all of the limitations imposed on the sparring (nothing to the legs or back, it being very “linear”, few acceptable strikes and kicks) I miss the physicality of it all and the interaction that you get with sparring your partner. All that is odd to say because, generally, I try to be and believe I am a very nonviolent person who normally avoids any kind of situation that would involve using what I know, I try to be the definition of “peace” (key word there is “try”). When it comes down to it though I see those sparring classes as a workout with a little training, something like: 90% workout, 10% training.

So my resolution? I resolve to get off my lazy butt and spar every week, every chance I can. I’m missing a great opportunity to really maximize my effort and potential to reach peak condition by sitting out those sparring classes. I enjoy them and they are a great workout, something that I’m used to but ends up being totally different every week because of the wide array of people and their different styles of sparring. I could be doing so much more than I have been these last few Fridays and I’m going to do my best to be my best.

Day 44, I must apologize

. . .

For the short post today.

Had you going there, didn’t I? That’s okay, we need to get a little suspense here with these things, keep you on your toes, you know? Otherwise these could get mighty boring and that wouldn’t be good at all, no sir. So if I have to make it seem like I totally went off track with my diet or have been lying about doing all of those jumpropes then so be it. It’ll keep you guessing and that’s the name of the game folks: what’s going to happen next?

Honestly, though, these past few days have been pretty slow as far as things on my side of the universe are concerned so I don’t have much to say today. I really should be making more of an effort to be looking around for new and clever exercises and ways to do the exercises that I am doing right now. I should be looking about on the Food Network web site or on AllRecipes.com for wonderful new PCP-themed and vegan related recipes for all of you, my faithful readers, to try out on you own time. I really should be doing things but I’ve been in a really lazy mood lately, also I’ve been afflicted by a stress induced annoyance down right below my belly button caused by unnecessary crap happening down at the ol’ job.

So instead of getting off my butt I’ll just keep you all updated on my diet and exercise programs because, as you all know, Wednesday and Thursday (for me, at least) are diet and exercise plan update days. I will warn you, though, don’t get your hopes up thinking that there will be a great many radical changes to my plans. I’m telling you not to get your hopes up because they will be slightly crushed. The changes for my diet and exercise plans are exactly...nothing. Nothing will change for me for another week. I will still be on the same diet plan, that you can find in earlier postings, and my exercise plan still consists of the “Day 1/Day 2/Day3” schedule.

So, I do apologize. Nothing tantalizingly new there but I do, as always, appreciate you keeping yourselves updated on my daily life. If you’re looking for some changes then go and ask how David and Corry’s plans have changed (because they have) and in the meantime I will go and do my jumproping--the jumproping that I still do every day, fear not--and I will definitely, most certainly think of something more interesting for all of you to read for this coming weekend.

Oh, that’s right, the weekend’s coming up. I hope all of you have a wonderful one and have much celebrating/partying/fun-making planned.

Day 43, Might I say, "Ugh"?

What an odd day yesterday was. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened, in fact, some may say that yesterday was a completely normal day with nothing different about it compared to any other day in the last month and a half. So why was it such an odd and peculiar day? Well, you can blame that on the exercises.

Blame it on me, too.

So yesterday was my Day 1 exercise schedule day so that means that I was busy doing exercises that I’ve been doing frequently for the past two or three weeks--they were, well, old exercises and frankly ones that I’m getting used to and a little bored with. Sometimes you get to a point where bicep curls are just bicep curls, nothing much else and when you’ve busted through your heavier resistance bands and are left with your weakest band then it just doesn’t feel like you’re getting much of a workout. Sure you might still be getting a pretty decent workout but the exercising is more mental than anything else so if it doesn’t feel like you’re working then you may end up doing something potentially damaging like overworking your body. After a point your body and mind become so inured to what you’re doing that they just shut off and turn on the autopilot which doesn’t help me all that much. I just don’t get the same workout as I would if I were totally invested and focused on what I was doing.

Anyway, yesterday I got to the point, for the first time since starting the project where I really, really didn’t want to do any of my exercises. I may honestly would have rather been repeatedly punched in the stomach by some sweaty, burly, somewhat smelly guy named Jimmy-Joe. As unpleasant as that sounds, doing the exercises seemed like a far worse alternative.

I will tell you right off that I did end up getting off my tired butt and trudging my way through all of the exercises that Wednesday had in store for me but, man oh man, did it take a lot of effort to get though. It took great strength of will, people! and I was nearly bested by my own lethargic mind and body. Curse those things.

But...like everything else with this project, once you get going the difficulty and the desire not to do what I need to do melts away and is replaced with a wonderful, warm, satisfied feeling of accomplishment and muscle tears. My body may have resisted, and resisted hard, at first but as I got into the swing of it, jumproping my way to sweatiness and busting out those pushups like there was no tomorrow things started to get much easier and the resistance that I started with faded away. I was greeted with that familiar tired euphoric feeling that comes with a nice workout and by the end of it all I was feeling rather proud of myself for overcoming my first big, resistance hurdle and coming out on top, above my lack of desire laughing triumphantly all the way to a better physique.

Day 42, Alright, point proven

There’s no need to tell me more than once what I should or, in this case, shouldn’t be doing.

I suppose I should be happy, though. I’m beginning to gain a better understanding of how my body reacts to all of the food I’m putting into it and all of the strenuous exercise I’m subjecting it to.

Yesterday, in an effort to get everything done and settled away as quickly as possible so that I could get out and to the stores to spend the cash that was burning a rather large hole in my pocket, I do believe that I overdid some stuff. I sped through everything I was supposed to do so that I could get to the stuff that I wanted to do much earlier. While it did work I was left feeling sore and unpleasant.

I again woke up about a half hour earlier than I usually do and after putting in my contacts and using the other bathroom utilities I rushed into the kitchen and, in a veritable tornado of activity, made a vegetable burrito, glass of fruit juice, and morning protein powder drink. I honestly may have set some kind of eating record as I scarfed that whole meal down which is never good because if you can’t sit back and savor what you’re eating then what is the point of eating at all?...I mean, besides not dying a slow, horrible death.

Yesterday was my Day 3 exercise routine that consists only of jumproping. I knocked that out in record time too. That was definitely a big mistake because if I can get through all of that stuff without breaking a sweat or even getting slightly winded then all of that exercise work is for naught. For naught, kind sirs and ladies!

On the plus side I was able to get all that I wanted to do done and out of the way before lunch time and was able to sit and actually enjoy that meal while watching a new movie that I thoroughly enjoyed. Yeah, not much of a plus side.

Much to my surprise my body did not like all that I was doing to it. Who would’ve thunk it, eh? I mean I was able to get everything done faster than I ever have before and I was able to do everything that I wanted to do before noon. So what was the problem? Well that was exactly the problem, I went through everything so quickly without paying attention to the signals and cries my body was giving me that I was left with something that felt like somebody was slowly grinding their balled up fist into the right side of my stomach, right below my ribs (the “oblique” section of my torso).

The body gives you those signals for a reason. Those signals are a desperate sign emanating from your body telling you to SLOW DOWN, for pete’s sake, and to not overdo it because overdoing it could potentially be very damaging, perhaps permanently, to your body. Who would possibly want that? Not me, not anymore.

So yesterday was a bit of a learning experience for me, I learned that while speeding through everything might get me to what I want to do quicker but at a much greater cost than I should ever be willing to take. It was an uncomfortable lesson to learn but I am glad I learned it. I only wish that I learned it sooner and wasn’t so closed off to realize all of that earlier on in the project.

But that’s what this is all about.

Have a nice day :-)