Linkses

So I've been missing lately. Off on an "adventure". Or some people call it "working"..... most people even......... especially me. Anyway, I don't have any glorious food pictures for you today...."booo-urns", I know. I haven't been cooking lately. Actually, I HAVE been cooking, but you don't want to eat the food I'm making.

Despite all my better inclinations to do, say, and eat, as I please, I decided it was time for a diet. Personally, I don't like restricting my food options. I don't like being one of those people who has to carefully track everything they're eating, and I do NOT like worrying about my weight. For the most part I'm happy the way I am, chubby bits and all. The problem is, that the more I don't pay attention to what I'm eating, the tighter my pants fit. Ultimately, if I don't do something about it, I'll have to keep buying pants and, quite frankly, I'm not rich.

I don't metabolize foods right. I've eaten low fat, organic, mostly vegetarian foods for ages. I've tried to pick the healthiest options for everything I eat. I've tried working myself to the bone. Still I gain weight. I stumbled on something the other day that made me realize the one part of my food intake I haven't looked at....... sugar. I eat a LOT of heavy carb foods. Enough that my dentist was concerned I might have diabetes.

I LIVE for fruit, bread, potatoes, pasta and anything that combines the two, especially pastries. I dream about cake at night.

So against all my better instincts, I started a low-carb diet. Originally thinking I'd have to eat piles of steak and eggs, I was concerned. Turns out it's like every other diet, it's mostly about eating vegetables, with various proteins, and avoiding any kind of sugared or starchy foods. Then, after two weeks, slowly re-introducing starches and sugars until you reach the point where you stop losing weight.

Well, let me tell you, it sounds great, but I feel like a big bag of $hit. Both physically and emotionally. I don't eat eggs, so that's out. I don't really like to eat this much meat, makes me feel gross. I feel like I'm overdosing on vegetables that I'm forcing myself to eat. I feel cranky and deprived of one of my FAVOURITE foods (ice cream cake) that I'd been looking forward to eating for a YEAR now, and that I only allow myself once a year. Worst of all, the online "support" forum seems to contain a number of pretentious, egotistical, conceited people who love to tell people what they've "done wrong" whenever they ask a question.

At any rate, it also means that the stuff I'm cooking is sugar, egg, and starch free. So I made these flax muffins that everyone on the website seems to love. The S.O. and I tried them out. He's now calling them "The Lumpy Brown Things". They look like brown-green lumps of dirt, and they taste of fake-sugar chemicals and cinnamon....mmmm. So then I tried pumpkin cookies. Pumpkin being one of the vegetables on the "allowed" list. So, following the instructions to the letter, AND taking the cookies out 10 minutes early. The cookies were burnt on the tops and the bottoms. Were little round hollow balls of pumpkin coloured chemicals. They tasted AWFUL. They looked vaguely edible. Like edible packing peanuts.......but pumpkin coloured.

I'm not impressed. Needless to say, I'm not posting those recipes here. Instead I'm going to leave you with a few more links. The first is a fun little music discovery type of site. The second is arguably the MOST addictive game on the internet. I'm begging you to just try it once. you'll love it. The third is a link to a site that can warn you when interesting space weather is happening, so you don't miss out on meteor showers and northern lights.

Here you go:
www.musicovery.com
www.playauditorium.com
www.spaceweather.com