here goes

Multitasking too much is not smart and, with food, really not smart

Multitaskers are not as smart as they think, according to Stanford researchers. Something I’ve wondered about for a while is: are people who meditate, who try to focus on one thing or on nothing at all the smartest of all?

I live in California and know that quite a few of my friends meditate. I once asked a colleague to recommend a book on meditation and she pointed me to a book I largely found discouraging in that it urged me to meditate with other people. Stubbornly, I tried to meditate on my own anyway.

I got out my carpet scrap and my kitchen timer and sat on the cement of my patio contemplating lichens growing in the shade for ten minutes every morning for a week or two. It seemed to help me focus, but I did not stick with it. When I have trouble sleeping, I still measure my breathing: 10 counts to inhale, 10 counts to exhale. That helps me relax and sometimes fall asleep.

The book, Meditation by Eknath Easwaran, suggested that to be present with each moment, we should only do one thing at a time. I find this impossible when it comes to eating. Ever since I was a young person, I would read when I eat. Now, I read books, watch TV, or read news on my computer when I eat. Even when I remember not to eat while doing these activities, I cannot break the habit. I still decide to eat while doing these things. Whenever I cannot just eat, it makes me aware of how not smart I am.

I would like to lose a few pounds and, frankly, I should cut back on what I eat and savor every moment of food. I should focus on how it tastes, how it smells, on the pleasure of the flavors and how food turns my hunger to satisfaction. I should do this because if I eat while distracted by other things, I eat too much. Not smart.

If I eat while reading, I barely notice the taste of the food and I feel I am lacking when the food is gone. This is especially bad when I eat a sugary treat while also occupied with watching a humorous TV news show. I'll think "That handful of Milk Duds did not last long. I scarcely tasted them. I will get another handful.” In the time it takes from one commercial break to the next, the box or bag of candy is half gone.

I don't know if meditation would help me not lose my focus when eating. I can try by going to Chozen-ji Zen center in Hawaii in November through my kendo dojo. I heard stories from people who took the trip before that they had to meditate for three hours each day and eat massive quantities of rice. The rice-eating would be difficult for me. Sitting and thinking of nothing for three hours a day for three days doesn't concern me. However, the idea of eating four cups of rice at each sitting worries me a great deal. I don’t care for rice and, sometimes, I have food sensitivities to it. I can just imagine myself with an allergic reaction clearing my throat all afternoon at a meditative retreat. That doesn't sound good.

Between now and the time to decide whether or not I will go meditate in November, I'll try to multitask a little less, especially where food is involved. It's too late this morning, but at lunch for sure.

Truvia! It's a bittersweet product launch

I think the new stevia-based sweetener, Truvia, is great. The Truvia product is granulated, has nearly the consistency of sugar, and is much more natural than sucralose and aspartame.  After all, stevia is a plant that originated in South America, not some chemical stew from Monsanto.

I've been using powdered stevia from Trader Joe's for years. The new Stevia is a much slicker product than the powder, which can be quite bitter and strong. It's a better consistency and flavor than the packets Whole Foods sells that is cut with corn starch. The producers have done a good job of enhancing stevia's sweetness while reducing its charactiristic bitterness. The logo is cute, too. 

It's unfortunate that Truvia is launching at such an inaspicious time. I hope the time comes soon when it dominates the market. Hang in there, Truvia!

Chilis bows to pressure

Earlier this year, Chilis made a fabulous showing with 3 entries in in the 20 Worst Foods in America. The 2nd worst food was the venerable Chili's "Awesome Blossom."

Now it's gone.

We tried to order on on Saturday night (May 3rd) and were told it had been discontinued on May 2nd!  Is it just missing in our market? Will we need to move to another market to find one, perhaps?

Granted, we only ever ordered it when we had more than 4 people.  Even so, we want it back.

Trendsetting in middle age

Young people, the people in their teens and 20s, don't get all the fun when it comes to trend-setting.  For instance, what's hot in retirement housing right now?  Your average 20-something probably doesn't have much influence about that.

Why am I thinking about this now?  Well, lately my thoughts have been straying a lot to personal finance (long story, and unrelated to this current topic).  More specifically, I have been ordering a new favorite non-coffee drink from a major coffee chain lately.  All the baristas seem puzzled by my drink of choice these days -- strong hibiscus tea with a shot of caramel syrup. I think it is bracing and tasty and is packed with antioxidants.  I would like to start a trend by ordering it often (rather difficult when I only order it after I've had too much coffee).  If I order it more, perhaps I'd start a trend and the baristas wouldn't seem so confused. (Did you say caramel?  No, the syrup, please.)

Linguistically, there is a great word in Japanese I think should make the leap to English. I picked up a nasty cold during our holiday travels.  After I slept in this morning, I was considerably perkier toward noon than I was all last night.  W. said, "Wow! You're a lot more genki now!"  Huh?  Genki?

Genki means something like "lively and upbeat."  I like it.  It fits. I like being genki.

W. has also been bemoaning the disappearance of hats from everyday men's wear.  "Why not just start wearing hats?" I asked.  "You might start a trend."

When he objected that his personal style of dress isn't distinctive and bold enough to include hats, I countered that he should wear them anyway and perhaps he'd inspire someone else.

You never know where those trend-setting teens get their crazy ideas -- brimmed hats, genkiness, hibiscus and caramel.

Mr. Produce is a downer, mostly

So, every time "Mr. Produce" comes on our local radio station, I groan out loud.  The guy doing it is a bit on the mature side, meaning he's been around a while.  He's seen Silicon Valley go from a lush, fruit-producing valley, the valley of heart's delight full of fragrant blossoms in the spring and fresh, ripe locally-grown fruit in the summer and fall, to something else entirely, a place of traffic, smog, and asphalt parking lots.  He's a bit bitter about it, and also about trends in agriculture in general.

Usually, he says something like, "It's the apple season and the apples available now are just not what they used to be" or "It's the time for grapes, but the best, most tasty table grape varieties are no longer available because they have seeds, so we're stuck with these inferior varieties."  It's a real downer to listen to him go on and on about the good ol' days when the produce was more ripe, more tasty, more pure, more nutritious, and cheaper.

This week's program was something different. Mr. Produce was finally happy, in an unqualified and enthusiastic way, about a fruit product. Chestnuts this year, he said, are the best he's ever had.  So, you can eat roasted or grilled chestnuts now and know that you are getting a great quality product.

The problem is, I have never seen fresh chestnuts for sale in the refrigerated section (refrigerated ones have had proper care), in any supermarket ever.  I should keep on the look out for them, though.  Just in case.

The lure of the processed

Today I ran to buy things at the farmer's market that I normally just watch someone else buy.  W. and I started going to the local farmer's market everyweek so we could buy the vegetables we weren't buying through a weekly drop from a community supported agriculture group.

We have fallen into some very very bad habits.  I spend $53 at the market buying a couple weeks worth of food.  All but three apples ($2.20) were processed foods.  I got us five guilty-pleasure piroshkis ($10), three vegan piroshkis and an apple muffin ($13), six tamales ($16).

So much for adventurous chard recipies, or making something fun with okra (is that even possible?), or buying fresh chilis grown locally.  Where have we strayed?  Perhaps as the winter vegetables set in, we'll find room in our diet for butternut squash, spinach, apples, and especially sweet kubocha squashes. Where's the sense of adventure and working for a tasty reward?

Pomegranate wine, pleasure and politics

Yesterday, had the distinctive pleasure of having some pomegranate wine.  (I can't believe I spelled pomegranate correctly on the first try! My spelling is almost never right.)  The wine was concocted in 1998 and had been "aging" peacefully in a hard-to-reach shelf over my refrigerator ever since. When the friend who brewed it and gave it to us came over, he noticed almost right away that I had it sitting out on a counter.

He told us all the bottles he had attempted to age had gone bad, so he did not hold high hopes for our lone bottle.  However, -- amazingly -- it was still good.  By "good," I mean it was not soured or spoiled.  Pomegranate wine does not have enough sugar to keep the yeast happy, so it is by nature very dry and sour.

It is not good to drink on its own, so we decided to use it in margaritas. The drinks I mixed and we enjoyed were some of the best and most unique drinks we've ever had.

I'm expecting my political campaign to be like the pomegranate wine, that is, difficult to take on its own, but quite a pleasure when mixed with other things.

To keep my sanity, I'm starting to plan fun times with friends who have absolutely nothing to do with my town or my campaign.  Sunday, I'm talking with an old college friend and taking my chiropractor to visit a coastal town she's never seen. Thursday, I'm going to see a play with another friend, a funny and controversial one.

Day by day, I'll get by, I think.

Strawberries and radishes

I have more fresh vegabables than I can eat by myself. Today, we received 5 boxes of strawberries.

It's after midnight, and I just put up the last of the radishes.

Before I began cutting the tops and bottoms off the radishes, I thought, "Time for a midnight snack.  Those strawberries look great! Must have a couple before I go to bed." 

Unlike the store-bought industrial strength strawberries, the flesh of organically grown strawberries are red. The commercially available one are white inside. How is that possible?  White strawberries?  This community supported agriculture will be an addictive habit, I predict, so long as we can afford it.

Did I actually eat one? No, I actually ate a couple of radishes instead.  Am I the only person who prefers radishes to strawberries?  How is that possible?

Another day of many firsts

Today was a day of many firsts, three that I'll write about. 

New thing #1

I had my first cortisone injection. For my ankle.  It was exquisitely painful.  Also, my youngish doctor does not have that clinical poker face down at all.  When I expressed suprise that pain shot up into my toes and the bottom of my foot went numb, he seemed not only intrigued, but suprised as well.  He assured me I had nothing to worry about.

My readers think differently on that point.  Thanks to P. for sending me a link to a James Mason movie, Bigger Than Life. It's like P. knows that it takes very little persuasion to get me to a James Mason movie.  I melt inside anywhere around the sound of his voice, even in Lolita.  P. said the movie depicts characters with cortisone-induced psychosis.  Sounds about right.  By the time my doctor prescribed it, I was indeed feeling psychotic.  I do not respond happily to chronic conditions.

New thing #2

What else was new?  I picked up our first order of food from the CSA group we joined.  CSA, or community supported agriculture, lets people buy shares of produce from local farms.  The farms set up distribution points for the fresh produce in local communities.  The idea -- and I think this is a good one esp. after reading reviews of TV dinners on metafilter today -- that buying local produce is better for the economy, the environment, gustatory exerience, and health.  The buyers benefit from consuming produce picked fresh from the fields that very morning.

New thing #3

I cooked and ate chard today. Chard was one of the fresh veggies we got in our share this week. I'm not at all crazy about chard. It burns my throat and leaves me a persistent oddly numb yet sore sensation.  Why anyone would it it in salads or as a side dish is beyond me. 

(The beets, carrots, romaine lettuce, strawberries, and leeks should give me a lot less trouble.)

New thing #4

Today was my first official coaching session. I hired a personal coach.  I don't have time to see my personal trainer because of 6 hours of physical therapy a week, but I do have time to talk to a coach every other week.  So, off I go to complete my assignments (or whatever they are called.)

Sweet as sugar x 100

On my wanderings around Northern California this weekend, I accumulated much knowledge and a 4-minute QuickTime movie of my own making. In addition to learning how to use Adobe Premiere, I also learned about a plant that is sweeter than sugar, stevia.

A couple of friends suggested we try stevia powder in our morning coffee. It was quite sweet and tasty and low-cal.

My mate and I asked ourselves, why did we not know about this herb before? Would the FDA squelsh knowledge about a plant whose easily-harvested leaves and stems are sweeter than sugar to protect food, drug, and chemical companies who invested many years of study in creating artificial sweeteners?

Apparently.

I mark the most profound shift in our lives after this weekend by the fact that we plan to shop at a health food store, but maybe when my own copy of Premiere arrives in a few weeks, that may change.