The Eugene Saturday Market

Two days after I moved to Eugene, my sister and I were driving around, and chanced upon a gigantic gathering of people. We parked our car, got out and asked someone what was going on. He looked at us as though shocked that ignoramuses like us had been let out of whatever institution we must have hitherto been locked up in.

"It's the Saturday Market", he said.

That was my introduction to the oldest weekly open-air market in the U.S. (see wiki page). I went a few times last year until it closed for the winter, and then I regretted not going more often.

It opened up for the year again today - the first Saturday in April. It was cold and wet, but I went, and am happy I did. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I did not. I bought hazelnuts and a large batch of Spring greens that you'll see in my salad pics all week.

My favorite part of the Saturday market, however is the food:

Leek and Onion Pasty at Cousin Jack's Pasties

Some kind of cheese and veggie thingy at a Mexican food stall. Tasty!

And local hazelnuts - wonderful to snack on!

Over the rest of the day, I also ate:

Broccoli-Potato Soup w. Blue Cheese and Sourdough Bread

Champagne - really fitting because I'd love to be in France right now!

Ave Avril

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
-------------------------------------------------------------Shelley



Last month, it was almost as though I took the month off from doing much that was worthwhile and disregarded the resolutions that I had made. I resolve to make this month better. In the last two days, I have already seen a return to old eating and exercise habits, and resolve to do them over.

1. Eat Healthily: I have come to the realization that for a very long time yet, I will have to make a concerted effort to eat the way I think I ought to. I will never be one who looks forward to eating small quantities of healthy things. But in order to lose weight, and keep diabetes and joint problems at bay, I need to. I will make an extra effort to eat well this month. I resolve to make at least one meal a day either a salad or a soup. I will also limit my snacking.

2. Exercise: What I said about needing effort to do what I think I ought to be doing is all the more true for exercise. I hate exercising, and every time I set out to do it, I have to battle the inner loafer in me. This is going to be a very busy month for me work-wise. I will start the folk dance class again, and will walk more. I will reserve more strenuous exercise for later.

3. Vocabulary: When I first came to the US, people remarked on the versatility of my vocabulary. Over the last decade, I have lost a great deal of the fluidity I used to possess when talking. I sound mundane and banal now. I hope this month to continue to put into use words I know that have gone into premature retirement.

4. Travel: I have larger trips scheduled in May and June. For this month, I restrict myself to: (a) A day-trip to Portland, and (b) A weekend trip to the Oregon Coast.

5. Busy-stuff: I have been postponing some tasks, and propose to do them this month for sure: (a) Help my sister with her business school applications, (b) Apply for licensure, (c) Finish what I need to do to apply for my belated graduation walk in May.

March Resolution Wrap-Up

This was a bad month for resolutions. I did not do almost half of what I resolved to do. And as a consequence, I did not blog as much. When there isn't enough to celebrate, I don't blog. Oh well... there had to be a bad month this year...

RESOLUTION EVALUATION

1. Eat Well: I did not do well on this goal at all. I had resolved to eat lots of Indian food, but only ate very little Indian food. And what I did eat was not all that great either.

2. Exercise: I decided to quit bootcamp after all. And I felt much better after I did. No more 4am waking up. And my knees are thanking me profoundly. I still do the push-ups in order to keep my arms strong, but other than that, I am taking a total hiatus from non-dance exercise for a while. In the meantime, I purchased a 1 mo membership at a gym that I will redeem sometime in the next couple of months. I also bought another bootcamp membership which I will redeem when the winter of this year rolls around. I am walking more. Exploring Eugene on foot is fun!

3. Detox: I decided not to do the raw-food cleanse, but picked a detox based on Fast Track Detox Diet. I started out strong eating liver and colon friendly foods, but halfway through, upon further research decided that the detox was more-or-less bogus. The recommended way of eating was good, but I doubt that I was ridding my body of any significant toxins. So, I ended up doing a half-measure detox. I will continue to eat lots of liver loving foods nonetheless.

4. Self-Care: I did not do any of what I resolved to do except socialize. I also purchased myself a 1-year membership to a fitness magazine.

5. Financial Goals: Check! I did my taxes! And I enrolled for retirement benefits.

Recap

I had fully intended to describe my detox in detail - and I have not followed through. I am still experiencing food-withdrawal and have had a few slip-ups. Not good. But today (Prequel Day #5) is better than Day#1 was. Two and a half days to go for my juice fast.

Day #2
Breakfast
Moong Dosas, Mango Pickle, Blood Orange

Lunch
Oil-Free Rice Noodles w. Veggies and Lemon Juice

Snack
Apple

Dinner
Baked Lentil Crackers w. Tomato-Chilli Sauce
I made these crackers for snacks over the next few days. But they were so good, that I ended up eating them all - about 15 of them. The sauce had added sugar in it - not totally detox-compliant.

Sliced Cucumbers, Pecans, Pepperjack Cheese, Candied Ginger (more sugar)

Exercise
Square Dance class

Day #3
Breakfast
Blood Orange

Snack
Larabar

Lunch
Walnuts, Unphotographed Salad

Dinner
I went to watch The Fighter and snacked on a walnuts and raisins.
I also got an unphotographed carrot-apple-orange smoothie at the mall food court.
And finished the night up with another Larabar when I got home

Day #4
Breakfast
Banana, Carrot, Blueberry, Almond Milk smoothie

Snack
I went shopping and them watched The King's Speech. All along, I snacked on: Walnuts and Raisins.

Lunch-Dinner
Carrot/Brocolette/Lentil/Rice Stew (I got a second helping after this)
Quarter Papaya

Exercise
Three hour Contradance

Day #5
Breakfast
Carrot, Apple, Banana, Ginger smoothie w. OJ

Lunch
Salad w. Greens, Tomatoes, Strawberries, Walnuts, Chickpeas, Mozzarella

Tea
Roasted Green Tea, Walnuts, Raisins

Dinner
Quarter Papaya, 1/2 Baked Sweet Potato

Detoxing is Difficult

The title says it all. It is ridiculous how quickly I got "unused" to taking pictures of everything I eat, or else I could have documented all the crap that I ingested yesterday. Not good! I'm restarting the detox today. Starting with a salt-cleanse from the MC diet. I am not a big fan of a cleanse like this, but I thought I needed to give a boost to this new start.

I was supposed to eat a few portions each of a bunch of different kinds of food (recommended by Fast Track Detox. Although I ate most of what was recommended, I did not eat all. I did a pretty good (although difficult) job of not giving into my cravings. I was supposed to avoid all sugars, caffeine, alcohol, and gluten. I did this also, for the most part - I had some roasted green tea, and some honey with a fruit-dessert.

I weighed in at WW and lost 0.2 lbs. Which is amazing given that I was not at all eating what I ought to have been eating. This brings my weight-loss over the past four and a half months to 7lbs. Not bad, but could have been better. I wanted to do the weigh-in today because at the end of the detox, I want to see how much this has helped with weight-loss. The main idea of the whole detox is to cleanse my system, but it wouldn't hurt to shed a few pounds. :-)

I also did something feel good. And something slightly feel-bad. The bad first - at a dance last week, I met a really nice man who was very friendly. He was handsome, charming, and had the most penetrating pair of eyes I have ever seen. I left with a mini-crush on him. I was at the post office today sending off some tax-stuff when he popped up again behind me, and said hello. After an initial fluster and a really heart-felt smile, I had the awful realization that I was wearing the exact same clothes that I was when I first met him. Now, this ought not to have been such a big deal. I am sure that most people wear their clothes again and again. But irrationally, I clammed up immediately, blurted out something really stupid, wished him goodbye, nearly forgot his name in the process and made a rush for my car. I was kicking myself later for this. I am a world-class idiot!

Now the good. Since I have only recently moved to Eugene, I am still in the process of finding the service providers I will regularly go to. I was referred to a wonderful local firm of mechanics by a friend. They don't advertise, and don't even have a sign above their garage. I did not understand why at first, and when asked, they said they had more than enough customers and are not looking for more unless they show up like me, having been referred to them. And I can understand why! They are wonderful - a group of five men who are personable, charming, and wonderful mechanics. They fixed my car beautifully, charged me a ridiculously cheap price, and three weeks later gave my car a free follow-up check. I offered to pay, but they wouldn't take it. I have never come across a mechanics' garage that does that for you. That was about 3 days ago. Slightly before noon today, I took them a box of gourmet chocolates to thank them. I was a bit apprehensive - I don't know that gourmet chocolates are the best gifts for a bunch of male mechanics. I ought not to have worried about stereotypes though - they were like a bunch of little boys - enthralled at the gift. They assured me that the chocolates would not see the other side of one o'clock. That made me smile all day long.

No gourmet chocolates for me. This is what I ate today:

Breakfast
Mooong Dosa w. Sambhar, Blood Orange, Unphotographed Orange Juice

Lunch
Salad w. Greens, Plum Tomatoes, Strawberries, Carrots, Mozzarella Cheese
Homemade Orange-Balsamic Dressing w. Olive Oil

Tea
Walnuts
Unphotographed Roasted Green Tea

Dinner
A decidedly Asian Dinner -
Persian Sabzi Polo - leftover from Nowrūz celebrations
Indian Bottle Gourd Dal w. Tomatoes
Carrot/Green Onion/ Brocolette Stir-Fry

I made the Stir-Fry using the Bragg's Seasoning sent to me. Yum!

Banana w. Walnuts and Honey. I also had this after lunch (unphotographed).

Hiatus Recap

Hello Readers! I'm kidding myself that there are any readers, but still...

Life got really hectic over the last few weeks. Unsurprisingly eating got out of control too. There is simply too much to record here about all that has happened food and fitness wise. So, I'll note a few key things:

Firstly, bootcamp is over. I completed five weeks at the rate of 2-3 days/week. Not bad. I raised the number of pushups I did in 2 minutes from 16 to 50. (I was driven to it by someone yelling over me. On my own, I'd probably do about 30). And I raised the number of squats in 2 minutes from 52 to 115. I love squats. Unlike pushups, they are delightful. Overall, bootcamp was a very unpleasant experience with some really good results - I feel like I have increased my upper-body strength. I haven't lost too many pounds in weight, but my arms have definitely toned down a bit.

Secondly, I overcompensated for the exercise I was doing by eating out of control. I went on a few binges and made not so healthy choices in food on a regular basis. There is not much more to say about this - a uniformly stupid and embarrassing thing really!

Thirdly, given all the crap I put into my body over the past two weeks, it is a good thing that I had resolved to do a detox this month. I had initially planned on doing a 3-day raw food detox. After some research, I decided not to do that, opting instead for a detox inspired by Dr. Gittleman's Fast Track Detox. This is a liver and colon detox that involves:
* A seven day prequel where I eat liver- and colon-friendly foods
* A day-long juice fast
* A three day sequel where I eat probiotic foods to enhance digestion

I am excited about this. I started today, and already feel cravings for "tasty stuff" which translate to sugar- and oil-laden things. GRR!!!

First, memorable pics from my hiatus...

Indian Taco at a fundraiser for the Native American Students. It was divine!

Starbucks coffee w. the date from hell. I cried after leaving.

Then I called my girlfriends and went to get tea and recap my shocking date story.

My first McDonald's meal in about 6 years. Fruit and Maple Oatmeal. This was surprisingly good.


Detox supplies for the week.

3.21.11

Breakfast
Unphotographed Orange Juice and Flaxseed Meal

Lunch
Salad - Mixed Greens, Tomato, Carrots, Strawberries, Mozzarella
w. Olive Oil and Orange Juice Vinaigrette

Snacks

Cashew Cookie Larabar - my favorite!

Walnuts and Tamarind Pistas - I ate a lot more than what was photographed

Strawberries, Kumquats

Apple

My new favorite - Rice cake w. Labneh & Chilli-Garlic in Oil

Dinner
Stir-fried Brocolette, Labneh

Bootcamp Bowling

Blah day today. Nothing new or particular to report. I did not go to bootcamp. My thigh hurts like crazy from yesterday's workout. I tried to take my weight off my damaged knee as I did squats and other stuff - using my thigh muscles instead, and they ache like billy-o! I did go to a bootcamp social gathering thing - bowling with other bootcampers. It was fun.

One of the things I do not like about this bootcamp program is that there is a lot of emphasis on social gatherings outside of class. You are expected to go to some. And much as I appreciate the idea behind building a support system for each other within the class, I wish they would appreciate that some people (like me) dislike the idea of turning down five invitations a week. I am going to quit next month anyway - and this is not the smallest of the reasons why. Bowling was fun though!

I endeavored to start my "Indian month" today -

Breakfast
Moong Dosas w. Sambhar; Blood Orange

Lunch
Lemon Groundnut Rice (this is what I binged on last night)
Unphotographed Apple and Blood Orange

Dinner
So much for homemade Indian food!
Banana-Pear Bread w. Maple Syrup

Post-Bowling
Medhu Vada, Blood Orange
Two and a Half Girl Scout Samoas