Archive for Health

Revelations of Rice

{ August 14, 2008 @ 6:55 pm } · { Food, Health, Personal }
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Needless to say I have a love/hate relationship with rice. I hate carbs and have been trying to do away with them completely but it’s not just that my favorite foods are carbs (mainly cereal). It’s that they’re filling, a crucial detail that’s missing in most low-cal, vegetarian menu plans.  I can eat very little and plan healthy, no carb choices if I know I can come home to a bowl in the evening. I love rice not only because it complements anything, and I mean anything, it absorbs flavors and fills me up like my once a month, comfort food indulgence: oatmeal. It’s soothing, smells wonderful, and takes me back to my study-abroad term. I know it’s a carb–and white at that–a double evil but all of Asia lives on it and they don’t have serious dietary complications as a result. I can’t live without it–maybe it’s the Chinese in me and the fact that I watch TV-Japan everyday but it’s just….wonderful!! The same inexpressible joy I get from miso shiru–it’s hilarious but look up food blogs related to miso and you get the same euphoric descriptions: “Earthy, wholesome, delicate aroma, buttery texture, warming…” I don’t know why but Japanese food really gets to the core of who I am and helps settle my mind after a long, hard day. Maybe that’s just an excuse and for some reason I never really ate rice until this year but now I can’t seem to live without it. True, I never eat mixed-rice, couscous, tortillas, or pasta fan but white sticky rice…*sigh* It’s like the smell of freshly baked rosemary bread…irresistable!

Living to 100….or maybe just 94

{ August 6, 2008 @ 7:31 pm } · { Health, Life, Personal }
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livingto100.com–an amazing site that calculates approx. how long you’ll live. I try to avoid carbs–especially the unhealthy white kind like potatoes (I love Japanese food so I occasionally eat white rice), go on a run at least 3 times a week and do light workouts and strength training every day, and I’m a vegetarian but still eat fish for those essential Omega-3s.

What’s taking away from that golden 100? 6 years due to stress, people smoking outside at work, indulging in sweets everyday (a piece of chocolate, nf frozen yogurt), not going to regular checkups, and not taking vitamins. I know, as a woman and a vegetarian, I should be conscious of missed minerals, especially calcium since osteoporosis runs in my family but I hate being so dependent on pills. I need to get better about chewing tums though and taking an aspirin everyday (does that really factor into lifespan??)

Some of these things I can help, some I can’t, and some are my ways of living life fully by allowing a little guilty indulgence (just the sweet part XP). That only takes off about 1/2 a year, so I don’t feel too bad. But I definitely need to restrict sugar intake–I never drink soda and live on water and carbonated flavored water–no sugar. But sometimes after a long day, primarily due to stress, I need something sweet to jump-start my system. I never drink caffeine–a little bit a day is actually supposed to be good for you studies are now saying like a glass of red wine. So I tried a diet caffeinated Pepsi the other day and was almost giddy from the rush. So I don’t think I’ll be drinking coffee anytime soon. But red wine might be fun to try on a regular basis…