Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Go to my new blog!
I've started a new blog at denelow.com so come on over to that one. I'll be pleased to see you there.
Friday, February 4, 2011
My new ukulele
I've always envied people who can play the guitar. It just seems like magic to me. Unfortunately, my fingers are not strong enough and my skin is delicate enough that playing a guitar is not an option for me. However, when I was a kid, I had a ukulele and I knew 4 chords--enough to play a bunch of different songs. Recently, I made up a little song about punctuation and wanted to perform it, so I bought a baritone ukulele. The strings are easy enough to hold down that I could play it. Unfortunately, I only remember 2 chords. Fortunately, those 2 chords are the ones that go with my new song. So, I played my song for my class and I played it for a group I spoke to. I had them sing along with me and make sounds for the punctuation and we all had a lovely time. I may do it again.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
More tips and a yummy shrimp salad recipe
A dear lady, who shall remain nameless, thinks she is doing her family a favor by peeling the tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables she serves them. Even before I started researching nutrition, I knew from somewhere that sometimes the peels have nutritional value that the rest of the fruit or vegetable does not have. Additionally, raw foods are also better than cooked or processed foods because of the trace minerals, vitamins, and amino acids that are lost. Even so, I refuse to eat orange peels.
Tip #5:
Avoid sugar--white sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar--any sugar at all. If you must have sweetness, sweeten some herb tea with stevia or eat raw fruit. Sugar is easy to digest and so goes straight to the blood stream. It also stimulates insulin release to take care of the sugar. Sugar that isn't used is stored as fat. Also, stimulating the insulin release process too often can cause insulin fatigue where the body doesn't know when the proper time to release insulin is and can aggravate pre-diabetic or hypoglycemic conditions. When the body doesn't know when to release insulin, more sugars and calories are stored as fat--kind of a survival reaction. If you feel deprived, give yourself a sugar hour once a week and make yourself sick for just a little bit. Then drink lots of water. My grandfather, a doctor, said that you need to drink one full glass of water for each piece of chocolate eaten.
Tip #6:
Avoid drinking juices like the plague. Juices usually do not have the body of the fruit with the pulp and additional tissues that contain the good nutritional stuff and also slow the digestion of the fruit. Fruit juices are concentrated fructose that go right to your blood stream and trigger insulin release and fat creation. If you stimulate insulin release too often, you can create a condition called insulin fatigue which can lead to diabetes or hypoglycemia and obesity. The only exception is lemon or orange juice used in cooking because it is combined with other foods.
Tip #7
Naps are good. Getting enough sleep is good. There have been several studies on the effects of sleep or lack of sleep on dieters and most agree on the results: Napping and adequate sleep increases the likelihood of losing fat while dieting. Too little sleep is bad and can make you fat and stupid and can cause dieters to lose muscle mass and water instead of fat. The stupid part comes because the brain doesn't work well without sleep, especially the parts that have to do with reflexes and memory.
Fantastic recipe for Mustard Shrimp Salad
Ingredients:
4 oz. of cooked, deveined shrimp, tails cut off
2 stalks of celery, diced into tiny cubes
3-4 green onions, sliced into thin coins
3-4 leaves of dark green lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
Optional: chopped cucumber, chopped bell pepper
Dressing
Juice of half a lemon
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: If you must have oil, then add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
Combine all dressing ingredients (lemon juice, mustard, onion powder and oil). Toss with shrimp and let the mixture chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
Add celery, onions, and lettuce and toss with dressing and shrimp until everything is coated well.
Serve and eat immediately.
Tip #5:
Avoid sugar--white sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar--any sugar at all. If you must have sweetness, sweeten some herb tea with stevia or eat raw fruit. Sugar is easy to digest and so goes straight to the blood stream. It also stimulates insulin release to take care of the sugar. Sugar that isn't used is stored as fat. Also, stimulating the insulin release process too often can cause insulin fatigue where the body doesn't know when the proper time to release insulin is and can aggravate pre-diabetic or hypoglycemic conditions. When the body doesn't know when to release insulin, more sugars and calories are stored as fat--kind of a survival reaction. If you feel deprived, give yourself a sugar hour once a week and make yourself sick for just a little bit. Then drink lots of water. My grandfather, a doctor, said that you need to drink one full glass of water for each piece of chocolate eaten.
Tip #6:
Avoid drinking juices like the plague. Juices usually do not have the body of the fruit with the pulp and additional tissues that contain the good nutritional stuff and also slow the digestion of the fruit. Fruit juices are concentrated fructose that go right to your blood stream and trigger insulin release and fat creation. If you stimulate insulin release too often, you can create a condition called insulin fatigue which can lead to diabetes or hypoglycemia and obesity. The only exception is lemon or orange juice used in cooking because it is combined with other foods.
Tip #7
Naps are good. Getting enough sleep is good. There have been several studies on the effects of sleep or lack of sleep on dieters and most agree on the results: Napping and adequate sleep increases the likelihood of losing fat while dieting. Too little sleep is bad and can make you fat and stupid and can cause dieters to lose muscle mass and water instead of fat. The stupid part comes because the brain doesn't work well without sleep, especially the parts that have to do with reflexes and memory.
Fantastic recipe for Mustard Shrimp Salad
Ingredients:
4 oz. of cooked, deveined shrimp, tails cut off
2 stalks of celery, diced into tiny cubes
3-4 green onions, sliced into thin coins
3-4 leaves of dark green lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
Optional: chopped cucumber, chopped bell pepper
Dressing
Juice of half a lemon
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: If you must have oil, then add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
Combine all dressing ingredients (lemon juice, mustard, onion powder and oil). Toss with shrimp and let the mixture chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
Add celery, onions, and lettuce and toss with dressing and shrimp until everything is coated well.
Serve and eat immediately.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
More lifestyle tips and a scrumptious recipe for poached halibut
Whew! The Christmas holiday is over and I'm facing the new year just like everyone else. We're also facing the dreaded tradition of making New Year's resolutions. Bah! Humbug! I believe that if you don't make resolutions, you can't beat yourself up for breaking them. That doesn't mean I don't want to become a better person, or healthier, or skinnier. I just don't want to stress over it or feel deprived. I guess I want things to be easy, but there are things that get in the way.
Here's a little story that illustrates the point I'm making. A few years ago, my husband and I went to California where we both grew up. We both love the mountains, but we love the beach and ocean, too. So, while we were driving along the coastal highway, we saw a sandy road leading to the ocean and took it. We could see the ocean in the distance, but the road wound among sand dunes for a while before getting there. One branch of the road that we took had deep ruts that slowed us down and at one point was blocked so we had to take a different way before we eventually came to the beach that we wanted to get to. I remember seeing the ocean in the distance and wishing we could get to it, but there were these roadblocks in the way.
The road to better health is often strewn with roadblocks that discourage us from traveling on it. Here are a couple of tips to keep you on the road:
Tip #3: To help you avoid sabotaging yourself, first thing in the morning fix yourself a plateful of peeled orange slices, apple slices dipped in lemon juice, cut up celery, baby carrots, strawberries, sliced cabbage, and anything else that is raw vegetable that you even mildly like to eat. Keep the plate on the counter or at your desk where it is easily accessible. The idea is that if you graze on healthful, raw fruits and vegetables, you won't be as easily tempted to go after the bad stuff. You also won't feel ravenously hungry later in the afternoon when those hunger pains are likely to sabotage your good intentions. Feeling full and complete for most of the day can make sticking to the best kinds of foods easier.
Tip #4: Hide the foods that are bad for you so you actually have to go hunting for them. Out of sight, out of mind actually works, especially if you have the veggie and fruit plate out in the open where you can satiate yourself on lower calorie, more healthful foods.
Tips #5: Drink lots and lots of water for two or three reasons: (1) Water satisfies cravings that mimic hunger and a desire for food; (2) If you drink a lot of water, your body will eliminate it more often so it flushes excess fluids, pollutants, salt, and even some fats that you take into your body, which keeps your liver and kidneys healthier and your ankles from swelling; (3) Sufficient water in your body hydrates your skin and keeps it supple so you're less likely to look like a starved turkey as you lose weight.
Here is one of my favorite recipes that is good for an HCG diet, regular eating, and is gluten free as well:
Poached Orange Ginger Halibut
Ingredients:
1-2 pieces of halibut, skin removed (frozen is fine)
1 orange
1/2 lemon
1" piece of raw ginger, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
Onion powder to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Place halibut in small frying pan that has a lid.
Squeeze the orange and lemon over the halibut.
Sprinkle the ginger, garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper over the halibut.
Put the lid on the pan and simmer the halibut until it cooks just until it flakes in the center. You may want to turn it over halfway through the cooking process.
Serve and eat immediately.
The poached halibut is especially good with a green salad.
Here's a little story that illustrates the point I'm making. A few years ago, my husband and I went to California where we both grew up. We both love the mountains, but we love the beach and ocean, too. So, while we were driving along the coastal highway, we saw a sandy road leading to the ocean and took it. We could see the ocean in the distance, but the road wound among sand dunes for a while before getting there. One branch of the road that we took had deep ruts that slowed us down and at one point was blocked so we had to take a different way before we eventually came to the beach that we wanted to get to. I remember seeing the ocean in the distance and wishing we could get to it, but there were these roadblocks in the way.
The road to better health is often strewn with roadblocks that discourage us from traveling on it. Here are a couple of tips to keep you on the road:
Tip #3: To help you avoid sabotaging yourself, first thing in the morning fix yourself a plateful of peeled orange slices, apple slices dipped in lemon juice, cut up celery, baby carrots, strawberries, sliced cabbage, and anything else that is raw vegetable that you even mildly like to eat. Keep the plate on the counter or at your desk where it is easily accessible. The idea is that if you graze on healthful, raw fruits and vegetables, you won't be as easily tempted to go after the bad stuff. You also won't feel ravenously hungry later in the afternoon when those hunger pains are likely to sabotage your good intentions. Feeling full and complete for most of the day can make sticking to the best kinds of foods easier.
Tip #4: Hide the foods that are bad for you so you actually have to go hunting for them. Out of sight, out of mind actually works, especially if you have the veggie and fruit plate out in the open where you can satiate yourself on lower calorie, more healthful foods.
Tips #5: Drink lots and lots of water for two or three reasons: (1) Water satisfies cravings that mimic hunger and a desire for food; (2) If you drink a lot of water, your body will eliminate it more often so it flushes excess fluids, pollutants, salt, and even some fats that you take into your body, which keeps your liver and kidneys healthier and your ankles from swelling; (3) Sufficient water in your body hydrates your skin and keeps it supple so you're less likely to look like a starved turkey as you lose weight.
Here is one of my favorite recipes that is good for an HCG diet, regular eating, and is gluten free as well:
Poached Orange Ginger Halibut
Ingredients:
1-2 pieces of halibut, skin removed (frozen is fine)
1 orange
1/2 lemon
1" piece of raw ginger, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
Onion powder to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Place halibut in small frying pan that has a lid.
Squeeze the orange and lemon over the halibut.
Sprinkle the ginger, garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper over the halibut.
Put the lid on the pan and simmer the halibut until it cooks just until it flakes in the center. You may want to turn it over halfway through the cooking process.
Serve and eat immediately.
The poached halibut is especially good with a green salad.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
New topics for discussion
This past year I've been trying to lose weight after having my blood pressure skyrocket to 245/140. Oh, and trying new meds. I lost 45 lbs. and the new meds are working, but oh, the agony and deprivation of the weight loss process. Being gluten intolerant doesn't help, either. I used HCG, which actually made my efforts work. But since weight loss and exercise and food are such a big part of who I am now, I thought I would share some things, such as diet and exercise tips and recipes that taste good and are gluten free. The first tip is using seasonings, herbs, and spices. I found some that really taste good and are good for blood pressure, too.
Tip #1 At least one raw fruit (preferably apples, oranges, and berries; no bananas or mangoes)and one raw vegetable (no peas or corn) at a meal.
Tip #2 Limit meat, but don't avoid it
Here's a weird but tasty recipe using cinnamon and yellow curry powder and ultra lean beef (hopefully grass fed, free range if you can get it).
Ingredients:
4 oz. thinly sliced sirloin or other lean beef
2 tsp. yellow curry powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped fine
1-2 tsp. onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of diced tomatoes, raw, salted and peppered to taste
1. Put the beef slices in a plastic bag with the curry, cinnamon, garlic, onion, salt, and pepper. Shake until the beef is well coated.
2. Pour spices and beef into a small frying pan with a lid. Spread out the beef so none of the slices are touching.
2. With the lid on the frying pan, cook on medium heat until one side of the beef is browned. Turn the slices over. Brown the other side, but not too long or the beef will be tough.
3. Immediately put on a plate. Cover beef slices with diced tomatoes. Eat immediately. Enjoy.
Note: This dish is especially good with fresh orange slices and a green salad.
3.
Tip #1 At least one raw fruit (preferably apples, oranges, and berries; no bananas or mangoes)and one raw vegetable (no peas or corn) at a meal.
Tip #2 Limit meat, but don't avoid it
Here's a weird but tasty recipe using cinnamon and yellow curry powder and ultra lean beef (hopefully grass fed, free range if you can get it).
Ingredients:
4 oz. thinly sliced sirloin or other lean beef
2 tsp. yellow curry powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped fine
1-2 tsp. onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of diced tomatoes, raw, salted and peppered to taste
1. Put the beef slices in a plastic bag with the curry, cinnamon, garlic, onion, salt, and pepper. Shake until the beef is well coated.
2. Pour spices and beef into a small frying pan with a lid. Spread out the beef so none of the slices are touching.
2. With the lid on the frying pan, cook on medium heat until one side of the beef is browned. Turn the slices over. Brown the other side, but not too long or the beef will be tough.
3. Immediately put on a plate. Cover beef slices with diced tomatoes. Eat immediately. Enjoy.
Note: This dish is especially good with fresh orange slices and a green salad.
3.
Thanks to Dragons and Fairytales
I was so sorry to learn that the Eagle Mountain Dragons and Fairytales Bookestore closed. Best wishes to Jaclyn and family in their new adventures. Here is a picture of me at the last signing I did there in November.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Dragons and Fairytales Nov. 16
Come to the Dragons and Fairytales Bookstore in the Eagle Mountain Ranches area on November 16 to meet me and other Utah authors. I will be doing a reading and signing books as well starting at 5:00 p.m.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)