Good, "Heavy" Thoughts

(I know this is a long post without pictures, but it’s a good one)

I couldn’t sleep last night. Or the night before. Or the night before. That.

Not that I couldn’t sleep, but I would wake up after 3 or 4 hours and unable to go back to sleep even though I was feeling tired. And the sleep I did get, didn’t feel like sleep at all.

So instead of stirring in bed for 3 more hours (totally painful) I decided, if I’m up…well then I’m up! On went the coffee pot; on went the gym shoes; on went the stretchy outfit.

I’m having trouble sleeping because I’m considering my next career move. While walk/jogging around the park from 6:04am to 7:46am I started thinking about goods & services & money. It’s funny, humans are inclined to pay money for services that show immediate changes or tangible goods they desires at that moment. 

Service Ex: Getting my hair done by the hair dresser with all the fancy accouterments (Dye, cut, Style)

Goods Ex: Buying a stretchy outfit so you can look like me when you walk around the park at 6am!!

Now when money is involved and it doesn’t show an immediate change or a caused change it’s harder to spend the money.

Service Ex: Paying for nutrition counseling

So what happens to people who want the desired outcome of nutrition counseling but are unwilling to pay for the lengthy and possibly subjective process depending on their ability or their body's ability to change?

Goods Ex: Buying diet pills and shake weights, as seen on TV

And what service wins after those ‘goods’ are purchased?

...Doctors and massage therapists.

Now there are exceptions. Exception one being; someone with a medical disease that requires nutrition education so they stop having diarrhea is a good example…but not a “goods Ex.”

Dietitians would have a better chance selling their ‘services’ if they provided ‘goods.’ Like educating people while they taste test or while giving a cooking demonstration using a particular product line for sale.

Or … figure out how your product can save employers money.

Because if people are unwilling to pay for nutrition counseling, they may be willing to use their employers insurance benefits to pay their doctors for the result of their nutrition knowledge defecit.

But I mean, I get it. I’m the same way. The only reason I’m valuing my service is because I’m personally interested in food, health, and exercise.  A patient of mine yesterday was a social worker and we started talking about behavior change to which he stated “you have to meet the client where they are.” I agree completely.
The readiness of change/stages of change.
But it is easier to be at a higher state of change when you don’t have to fork over your own change for that change.

Ex: If I had dental insurance, I would have gone to the dentist 2 years ago.  Does that mean I neglect my teeth altogether? No, I buy ‘goods’ like toothpaste and toothbrushes. But the ‘service’ end doesn’t get paid.

If dietitians were reimbursed for their services, would we see more clients/patients? Probably. Would it lead to less health care costs: less medications, less hospital visits, less medical devices or other devices to cater to a larger size? Probably.

But either because insurance companies are neglecting to see the financial benefit of prevention due to lack of evidence (due to prevention!) or are unsure that the client/patient will comply with recommendations even if they were given the reimbursed service (the cost of insurance money that wasn’t used efficiently), dietitians are not reimbursed.

It’s a double edge sword. And I kind of get it. But who gets the piece of the sword? The physical therapist who are reimbursed to deal with arthritic pain related to additional weight on joints, doctors who assess and treat problems related to obesity, or pharmacist who supply the drugs for those conditions. And the ‘goods’ market thrives. Like the drug companies.

I bet the government will come down on the fast food business ‘goods’ before aiding nutritional professionals’ ‘services.’

And that would be good. I just think it would be good to aid in the service department as well. But considering my desire for a sleeping pill, due to this chronic 3-4 hour night sleep regimen that I have going, I get it. Maybe if I get rid of these “heavy” thoughts I’d sleep better and wouldn’t need ‘goods’ to help me do so.
That would be good.

Show-Me Miss American Pi

The loop in St. Louis is really just one street. Like Bourbon or Beale.

It’s certainly a loop of diversity. The most concentrated spectacle of old/young/punks/hipsters/academics/innercityers/ethnic/posers/emo/ecetra. There also seems to be a decent amount of police presence at night due to the close proximity of the slashes stated above.

The loop is really called the Delmar Loop which resides in University City. The Washington University academics, residing between hipster and innercityers above (not sure why “innercityers” has a red squiggly line under it..), abbreviated it to “U-City” while also abbreviating themselves to “Wash U” students.  

Then Nelly claimed it "the Loop." Which made him proud. 

The loop expanded beyond vintage vinyl, blueberry hill, and the amazing resale shops to cross over Skinker Avenue. An uncharted territory. Here is where the pageant venue, the moonrise hotel, and Pi settled. 

Amelia & [p]I.

Pi Pizzeria is a Chicago style deep dish set in the St. Louis area code (314).

Get it?        Pie?        Pi?        3.14?        …I think it may have even opened on March 14^th.

Coming from the windy city, president Obama liked Pi so much that he named it his favorite pizza.

Again, the Loop was proud.

And again, the loop renamed the street to “Barack Obama Boulevard.” 

…Making the academics proud. And I’m sure Nelly, too.

My favorite pizza is Lou Malnati’s. And Pi is like Lou’s but in the “Lou.” With a more buttery crust.

A friend of mine took me to Dewey's Pizza which was New York style in the “Lou.” It was awesome. He convinced me to do bacon on my pizza. I have pretty much avoided bacon since I wrote it off in second grade. Never cared for it. And it being closer to topping the ‘adverse cardiovascular events’ list, it really didn’t bother me that I wasn’t a huge fan. But being a tri-again-atarian, I caved. And let me tell you, swine with wine was really quite good.

When I made my first communion, in second grade, my grandparents flew in from Newark. We planned to meet them at their hotel for pie later that night. When we got there my grandpa was crabby (not really unusual for him) and he had bought several sodas. Not pops.

The soda set up and his irritability was caused from lack of dinner at 9p. When my mother asked why he hadn’t eaten yet, he stated he was waiting for her to bring the pie. Translation: pizza. He was made more irritable when he saw Baker’s Square boxes in our hands.

As I dug into a slice of French silk I recall some background noise… “Well what do you call pie on the east coast?” “You call it apple pie or cherry pie or…”

Since progressing past the second grade and through some of the stages of slashes above I have also renamed and re-evaluated my own tastes and preferences. It has been good to grow that food repertoire. It is something that I am growing proud of. And the Show-Me State has shown me that growing that repertoire has been as easy as [eating] Pi. 

How FroYo Turned into YoYo…Dieting

I went to FroYo today. It’s been one of my St. Louis staples for about 2.5 years now. FroYo was from the Loop…and it was proud. Then it migrated to the Central West End, to Chesterfield, and the rest of the nation under pseudo names like “Forever Yogurt” (lame) and YoYo (as in dieting?) and everything else you can think of.

Poor TCBY.

FroYo is a perfect example of my dietitian sayings.

1. Foods are not good nor bad

2. Dishes can be made healthy or unhealthy

3. Moderate your life

So FroYo is marketed under this false pretense that it is uber healthy. Possibly. I mean, it can be. But once you see the toppings bar, sometimes healthy is exchanged for tasty.

Saying 1: Foods are not good nor bad…

Depends if you go with non fat original tart and blueberry toppings,

Or…

A mixture of cake batter, New York cheese cake, and red velvet cake topped with cookie dough bites and whipped cream.

That second one wasn’t mine.

Fine. It was.

But it was mine after a 5 mile walk around the park in like the dead STL heat.

Saying 2: The same foods can be made healthy or unhealthy…

When counseling the important questions aren’t always what are you eating…but how.

How are you preparing your burger? Is it 3 oz of extra lean beef on an Arnold whole wheat bun or is something you see on the food network’s Diners, Drive-ins & Dives or that show where that dude somehow seems to put away like a half a cow every time and it also happens to be soaked in a gallon of sugary sauce or mayo…?

Saying 3: Moderate your life…

“I went home saw the cookies on the counter top, was too tired to make proper food, grabbed the bag, sat in front of the TV, looked down and saw I had finished a whole row of cookies, got depressed that I had finished a whole row of cookies and decided…fine, I’ll just finish the next row of cookies…”

At this point, I don’t think the obvious nutrition intervention is to say… “each cookie is 70 calories of fat and sugar and causing weight gain!!” Taking all those links and separating them into hows is more appropriate. How did you get home to find cookies on the counter top when you knew you’d be tempted to eat them? How did you let yourself get so hungry that you weren’t able to make food? How could you prevent that? How did you manage to finish a row without noticing? Is the TV a barrier?

It’s more like re-working those lifestyle skills. It’s the same problem that led me to realize there was no rule saying I couldn’t bring a regular coffee cup into the car with me on the way to work. 

Problem? 

Only if you’re in a hurry, don’t have time to drink half of the cup and proceed to spill hot coffee on your lap while slamming on the breaks.
Otherwise,
it’s perfectly fine.
In moderation.

Like when you yoyo with FroYo..

Crazies with Straws

My sister is going to change from Patti Murphy (or as I call her P. Murph) to Patti MacMillan come October (I will rename her P. Mac). I went home this weekend and collected an assortment of names and address to contact regarding bridal showers and inappropriate pre-wedding parties for brides to be.

My mom is in serious “clean out the house and prepare for bridal showers/wedding guests” mode. Her famous words as of late are “I’m going to tackle the…(fill in any closet, crawl space, window well you can think of).” I didn’t know that my mom was going to offer the wedding visitors the window wells as a place to rest their heads after the shindig.. 

So when I was home, mama murph “tackled” the upstairs, front hall closet. That is truly the name the Murphy’s give said closet. 

Ie: “mom! Where are you?” “I’m putting towels away in the front hall closet!” “How are you putting towels in the front hall closet? It’s so packed. It hasn’t been cleaned out since you built the house in ’84?!?”

Fascinating stuff. I know. 

Anyways, while mama murph was “tackling” this poor, helpless closet she discovered several buried treasures. One such one being her own wedding veil. Due to the nature of the event she decided to put it on. I found her looking like this. Crazy:

She asked my opinion on several closet treasures that were being set aside for Goodwill depending on my emotional attachments. She did not ask me how crazy she looked in her wedding veil. 

Two bed sheets given to me by my grandma ended up in the “ask Meg about these before giving to charity piles.” They instantly triggered thoughts of illness. Growing up, when I got sick I had the “fun” bed sheets laid out on the family room couch and got to drink soda out of a crazy straw- somehow making sickness more enjoyable.

But now looking at the sheets brought back not-so-enjoyable memories. I opted out on keeping the colorful sheets patterned with Raggedy Anne and Kittens playing with yarn balls. 

Just how these bed sheets were saved for “special?” occasions, crazy straws were also rare finds unless feeling sick. Once, when feeling well, I stumbled upon a crazy straw and got so excited to use it as a healthy child. I put it in my drink and began to drink and drank throw up that had not been removed by the dishwasher due to the craziness of the straw’s design. Needless to say I never drank out of a crazy straw again, healthy or sick.

 

Once done with the closet, mama murph went down to prepare dinner looking like this:

 Crazy.

I hope her next venture is to clean out the kitchen drawers and cabinets to eliminate any crazy straws that may be lurking within. She can keep the crazy. Just not the straws. Because who knows, after the inappropriate pre-wedding festivities and wedding night shindigs, visitors may feel sick…and if they reach for a soda and a crazy straw to feel better, they may feel worse. And if you give a visitor a crazy straw you’re going to have to find an old towel to clean up more messes. And mama murph donated all of those to Goodwill.

Crazy.

I'm Art-i-Choked Up About This Table Art

What is this you ask...?

 

 ...Umm

 

My new obsession. 

How            kitchen            table            appropriate.

 

I'm thinking apples with apple scented candles come fall.

Cooking with Carolyn 101

I was actually nervous. Carolyn was actually nervous too. How funny. Something we both love and want to do more of, we both were nervous to do around each other. Me, because I thought Carolyn would judge how bad I was. Carolyn, because she doubted she could teach me anything new. We were both wrong. And it proves that Carolyn’s first rule (I was wrong about the rules and order of the rules) is true. “Cooking must be fun!!!” 

The rule includes three exclamation points. It does. Really.

And it was fun. And we were both wrong. Carolyn taught me many things and I, well, I wasn’t as amateur as I thought.  Maybe I’m not very experienced, but I understand. That’s the whole thing with cooking; I just need repetition and confidence. And Carolyn was there to give that, with awesome tips along the way.

How did I know that I (somewhat) understood? Because the words that surrounded our cooking lesson without explanation were: 

Reconstitute(d).

Gelatinize.

Coagulate.

Hydrate (okay, that’s kind of self explanatory).

Mince, Chop, Dice, toast…etcetera.

We made mushroom risotto. Oh so good.

It started by toasting Arborio rice. Adding olive oil, salt, pepper, diced onion and minced garlic. Gelatinizing slowly with half cup servings of chick broth & reconstituted fluid from the sun dried tomatoes, porcini & chanterelle mushrooms. Adding those hydrated beauties. Coagulating with Parmesan cheese. Polishing off with truffle oil. And topping with parsley flakes.

It was earthy and rich and tasty.

What were some of the most important things I learned from the lesson?

That functional kitchens and multi-purposeful culinary tools are important. I was mentally making a list of items to put on my wish list. My apartment has no furniture and here I am putting “kitchen tongs” ahead of “couch.”

 

But according to Carolyn: Kitchen tongs (without plastic, possible melting tips), Kitchen scissors (only to be used for food), and wooden spoons (at least two) are invaluable. And rules like “cooking must be fun,” “cooking for friends is always better then cooking for yourself,” “you should have your beverage of choice within arm's reach,” and “follow the recipe at least once, until you make your own” are equally important. 

And I agree. 

And we had so much fun. Cooking for each other. With beers in arms reach. While following a Carolyn memorized/altered recipe. 

And I am so glad I took the nervousness over the never trying. So the rule I am adding to the list is stolen from a Bright Eyes song: “…And your eyes must do some raining if you are ever going to grow…” 

Unless of course you take into consideration another one of Carolyn’s rules-which is, throw the onion in the freezer ten minutes before chopping so the juices freeze enough to prevent the raining.