Ankles and Ank-ouches

Today is day two of me sitting at home with ice on my ankles. I don't know what happened. I didn't run this weekend and I don't think I did anything more strenuous then usual but here I am. They don't think it's MS related because it's both ankles but I'm not so sure. I know it's a slim chance that there would be bilateral (both ankle) pain but it just feels odd.

This puts a little bit of a damper on the running but in the long run walking without pain > running. So, I will rest and a be a good girl. Tomorrow I try to brave work and see how I fare with the pain. I hope by tomorrow the pain is magically gone! That would be amazing!

At least I get to catch up on DVRd TV shows (BIG SMILE). 

Oven Booby Traps

In my previous post I spoke about my new cast iron pan and how I had a great dinner with my sweetie. Let me now tell you what happened while I was trying to make this dinner.

I'm preheating my oven to 425 to pre-roast my chicken before I put it into my dutch oven. While I'm waiting for it to preheat I start chopping onions, bacon, and shallots. Then, I smell something odd...I open the oven and the first thought in my head was FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.

My mother (who I love SO MUCH) had put pans in the oven. Now, the pans are fine and the heat wouldn't have bothered them but the green plastic Tupperware container was not so lucky.

Oh yes, my 4 gallon green Tupperware bowl was in there (I don't know why I didn't ask) and sexily melting into the bottom of the oven. Sort of like a Salvador Dali "Melting Clocks" but much more ethereal and the smell was horrible. So, I'm yelling for help, which my mother ignores until I tell her the oven is on fire. This was not true but it got her moving!

It's a good thing that we have industrial fans in the house (we owned a dry cleaners for over 20 years - yes we're those Korean people) because the smell was insane. I really thought I was going to have to cancel dinner plans and just take my boyfriend out. Miracles of miracles though we got the smell out and after a lot of scraping and cleaning of melted plastic, I was able to put my chicken in the oven.

The chicken was fab, everything else I wanted to cook didn't work out so well, and I couldn't make my Quinoa salad (laugh). However, it was still yummy and my guy liked it!

Moral of the story? Don't store expensive plastic Tupperware in the oven OR let other people in the house know that you are storing expensive plastic Tupperware in the oven.

Le Cre what?

Le Creuset is a very well known name in cast iron. They are well know for it and have been manufacturing cast iron for decades. I was in the market for one of their enameled cast Iron dutch ovens and I was going to get one! I went to the local store and...after looking at and handling their product - I didn't see what warranted an over 300 dollar price tag.

Not ready to plop down that much money I walked away dejected. I started looking around at what people were saying about Le Creuset and other brands. Was Le Creuset really worth that price tag?

After reading many posts, comparisons, and opinions I realized two things: 1) People were very enamored with Le Creuset and had very good things to day about it. 2) Most of those same people said that there was lower cost versions that were just as good as Le Creuset.

These facts lead me to lodges cast iorn. I saw a side to side comparison of the two and honestly there was no difference in the quality of the food cooked in the pan or in the craftsmanship of the pan. This past week I bought a 6quart red enameled cast iron dutch oven from Lodges.

The first time I used it was this past Saturday. I made Coq Au Vin for my boyfriend and let me tell you, the pan is amazing. I had no problems with it at all and the food came out perfect.

I even made the meal all Paleo and my guy didn't even know (smile). For everyone trying to do Paleo and who like to cook, investing in a dutch oven is well worth it! The tastes brought out in the cooking were amazing.

I had a wonderful night with my honey and a great meal thanks to my new dutch oven! 

Paleo Diet for the Win!

For everyone who is not aware at this point - I have been actively doing the Paleo diet for about two months now. I have touted that I feel better, have more energy, and really enjoy it in general! For those who are wondering, no Paleo is not a re-naming of the Atkins diet. I recommend this website (and Mark's book) to get a better hold on Paleo if you're interested. Mark's site is Mark's Daily Apple which has a lot of resource information as well as Mark's blog.

As for people who don't believe Paleo works, here is a news report reporting on a study that compared the Mediterranean Diet to Paleo Click to see the news News Report. Here is a second report (same news station) that discusses Saturated Fat/Red Meat Saturated Fats!

It's also not hard to eat or find things to eat with out all the processed garbage. Go to farmers markets, find local farms and producers of things like eggs and meat, and get moving. I feel better then I have in a long time and I'm enjoying the diet a lot (smile).

I *did* make some oatmeal raisin cookies last night but I made them to be given away. I ate one but I don't think that's going to off me anytime soon lol.

Redesign - Running

I think I'm going to redesign my little spot on the internets soon. I've got a few ideas that I believe will work out well.

My running training has been at a standstill. The same running every day for the month or so. However, my friend did a triathlon this past weekend and she inspired me. So, I'm mixing up my running and weights! Woo hoo for being fit and eating right! 

I think I'll be ready for a half marathon (why push it?) by the end of the year. So, I'm going to register for one and hell or high water I'm doing it! Wish me luck and stay tuned for my crazy blogs! 

Leptin Reset Week 3 and CPAP madness!

Well 3rd week on Leptin and really it's more of a way of life now. BTW I'm trying to find a good source for my chorizo habit. Any ideas people? I digress.I feel tons better and it's easy to eat this way but I didn't know how much it was doing until Sunday. 

I watched my friend do a Triathlon on Sunday - Well at least part of one. What this means is that was supposed to go in the am, my phone didn't alert me to her texts, then I got all of them at once (from her and the hubby). So, I quickly shoved some food in my mouth and ran out the door. 

This means I didn't get my allotted amount of protein and WOO I could tell. By 11 when we were getting food I felt like I could eat a horse. Then that evening I was so hungry I couldn't think straight! 

Leptin does something if nothing but keep me full!  

As for this CPAP Business - I'm not sure it's helping at all. From what I've heard most people report that it makes them feel better almost immediately. I haven't felt any better. I thought I did a bit on the first day but that's quickly gone away. Maybe this takes longer then I thought; or whatever other excuse can be thrown in here, but I'm not so happy with this crap. If it's not going to help me then I don't want to strap a mask to my face very night. 

Yes, I have been doing it every night religiously. Since my doctor decided not to share my results or talk to me about this "AT ALL" I don't know what the sleep study report said. I have to wonder how sever they think it is and if I even need this machine. 

I still haven't made my shopping bag. Even though I've been trying every night. Who can have hobbies when you have things like Triathlons and farmers markets to worry about (smile)?

CPAPs Are Us

So, I got my cool machine yesterday. I'd put a picture up but honestly I don't want to put a picture up of it cause I don't like it lol.

I have it all set up and I wore it last night. Let me say that I really dislike the fact that I have to use this thing. Have I said that before? As I was saying, I wore it last night and I was able to sleep. That means after awhile I will get used to it. I don't know if I feel better yet. I can't really tell.

Also, I haven't had time to make my bag but bag making is gonna happy TONIGHT! YAY! This means that hopefully I will have a photo to show you of my brand new farmers market bag later this evening.

I am MUI excited about this! A friend at work also gave me some material that he had left over (yes a guy go with it). I'm going to make a bag out of this as well! Yay!

Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage:

Saw this, loved it and decided to steal it. Thank you to Achariya for linking me to it (This is her Blog - Achariya Writes - Shameless plug!). It's copy written and I take NO ownership of this! This is just something I identify with! Enjoy it!


Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage:

I HAVE THE RIGHT...
Not to justify my existence in this world.
Not to keep the races separate within me.
Not to justify my ethnic legitimacy.
Not to be responsible for people’s discomfort with
my physical or ethnic ambiguity.

I HAVE THE RIGHT...
To identify myself differently than strangers
expect me to identify.
To identify myself differently than how my parents
identify me.
To identify myself differently than my brothers and
sisters.
To identify myself differently in different
situations.

I HAVE THE RIGHT...
To create a vocabulary to communicate about
being multiracial or multi-ethnic.
To change my identity over my lifetime--and more
than once.
To have loyalties and identification with more
than one group of people.
To freely choose whom I befriend and love.

© Maria P. P. Root, PhD

Domestic? MOI?!

I never bring plastic bags to the local farmers market. I have this awesome canvas bag from Whole Foods that I use. Well, I want a new bag! I was looking online and do you know for a bag like that it's expensive?! (mock shocked look on face)

This leads me to a project. I am going to make a couple of shopping bags! My mother has been a seamstress for over 50 years (not an exaggeration) and I can sew. Why I've never done it before? I don't know. My mother doesn't like it when I sew. I think she doesn't want me to be a seamstress. Which is fine, I don't want to be a seamstress either, but it can save money and the environment! So, this evening I will attempt to make a bag I saw a pattern for on-line.

I guess this is me getting domestic. Not sure I want to be domestic...

I will show you the results. Mwhahahahaha.

Apnea and You (well me really)

If you have been reading my recent posts you know that I've been talking about the fact that I have sleep apnea in weird little blurbs. Only blurbs because I was a little annoyed, upset, pissed, bitchy about the fact that I have sleep apnea. Yeah I admit it!

For the past year and a half or so I have been refusing a sleep study when my doctors bring it up. This is because I have MS and one of the HUGE COMMON SYMPTOMS of MS is fatigue. Also, the more I exercised the better I felt. This is very common with fatigue and MS. Exercise helps the fatigue a 'lot'. Well, I've noticed for about six months now that I have been really fatigued which I talked about in a previous blog post No I'm Not Tired!

Well my doctor starts getting on me about doing a sleep study. To shut them up I agreed to wear a pulse ox, which is a little machine that measures how much oxygen is going through your body, while I sleep. I've never thought about sleep apnea for other reasons, such as I don't snore, I don't fall asleep during the day (Cept that one time) and no one has ever commented that I stop breathing when I sleep (shout out to my sweetie). Well that little thing showed that my oxygen levels were dipping a bit too low. Which lead to a REAL sleep study in a strange place and all that jazz.

Fun information I didn't know. There is something called central sleep apnea. Which happens with people who have MS (rubbing my eyeballs). Central sleep apnea is when you repeatedly stop breathing during sleep because the brain temporarily stops sending signals to the muscles that control breathing (robbing my eyeballs harder). SO, I have sleep apnea. Which I can add to the long list of "Shit that Annoys Me" and/or "Holy Shit I Wonder How Big My Medical Chart Can Get". As a side note I love Jackie Chan. I may go to hell for using that image on my blog because I am Asian but that's OK. LOVE YOU JACKIE!

Back to the story - On Wendsday I have to go to the cool "Get your breathing shit here" store and get fitted and learn how to use my machine. Let me tell you THAT is gonna be a BLAST. I may feel amazing when I get it through which would be great! I will let you guys know how it goes after Wed!

What's Worse - No Work or to Much Work?

Would you rather have no work and just float through the day or to have so much work you can't breathe? I like work! Work work work work. I'd rather the day fly by then have no work and sit here and count the ceiling tiles.

BTW the ceiling tiles in my build are 28 X 19 not taking into account beams and quarter tiles.

I'm not sure if this is from the MS or if it's just me but I get tired, and when I have nothing to stimulate my mind, I get really tired. This leads to me wanting to put my head down on my desk and take a nap! We can't take naps at work.

I mean I guess I could nap but then I wouldn't have a job. Which leads to bad things like no house or food. I want to avoid that at all costs. I like buying my artesian sausage like a bourgeois hippy thank you! Yes I know what I am!!

Where to get Natural, Local, Clean Foods in the Orlando Area

This blog is going to be an informative one!

What I wanted to do here was post a list of farms, vendors, local butches, and other links to help people around the Orlando area get some good stuff!

I've decided to eat clean, natural, and local as much as possible. I'd like to encourage everyone else to do the same. So here is a list of some places I've found that I love!

Lake Meadow Naturals - This is a local farm and I get all of my eggs here! They're a little low on beef right now because their cow's aren't ready but they have a lot of Berkshire pork and goat at the moment! I haven't had any of their chicken because they only sell whole chickens so I can't speak to that. I can say that everything else tastes great!

The Butchers Pantry - Recently found these guys at the Winter Garden Harvest Festival. Great local butchers making some amazing things! Their Texas sausage was PHENOMENAL.

Big Wheel Provisions - Not only a food truck but SO MUCH MORE. Bought some bacon from them this weekend and I am in love!

Wild Ocean Market - Fresh fish farmed out of the ocean here in Florida! Their shrimp is great and I am so excited to have a great local seller of FRESH fish.

Winter Park Dairy - Raw cheese maker here in Central Florida. Great stuff if you love cheese!

Bear Wolf Ranch - All Chicken all the time! They sell whole chickens as well as cuts of chicken (Breast and Thigh).

Farmers Market

Audubon Park Community Market -  Most of the people up there (pointing up) are here every Monday night in Down Town Orlando off of Bumby. I suggest you check it out!

Winter Garden Farmers Market - Small, local, and so worth it. Near and dear to my heart (smile).

There are more places but I only want to talk about places I have personal dealings with! Once I try more I will post more!

Leptin Reset Week Two

Here I am two weeks post starting the leptin reset and I am happy to report a few things.

First off - I haven't had a craving for carbs at all. Now when I say that you must understand how amazing this is for me. Previously I could eat a sack-o-peanut butter cups. Not a joke a whole SACK. I've had a compulsive eating problem most of my life that I have slowly gotten control of. However, I still struggled with some trigger foods now and then. Such as peanut butter cups! But who can deny themselves of peanut butter cups and ice cream forever I ask?!!

If there was a peanut butter cup in my house (or ice cream) it would be eaten with a flourish of nomnomnom. Now, not only have I no desire to go buy some peanut butter cups but I have four pints of ice cream sitting in my freezer. Two I'm not sure how they got there and I'm contemplating that there is a literal ice cream fairy leaving ice cream in my fridge. The other two are the new Ben & Jerry's frozen Greek yogurt that I've wanted to try. I bought them and I've had no desire to eat them.

This is akin to blind people being able to see again in my weird compulsive overeating mind.

Second awesome thing is that I feel 'amazing'. Other then the fact I have MS and I suppose sleep apnea (mumbling and that will be another post) I feel amazing. The food is doing something. If it's the lower carb count that naturally happens or the fact that it's not as processed, I don't know, but I feel better.

Here's a fun little story. Friday night I was tired and didn't want to cook. Work has been stressing me out lately and that makes me very tired. So, I come home tired and my mother wants to order food. I make a compromise and get some chicken and pizza. I figure I can eat the chicken without to many issues and she can have some pizza.

Now the pizza had cheese, sausage, onions, and bell peppers on it. I picked off some of the cheese because I wanted to try it without eating any crust. Pizza is always one of those things I eat just because it's full of grease and pizzay (the fast food type like Pizza Hut at least. There are some great artesional pizzas out there that are amazing!). The toppings I picked off tasted horrible. The chicken was even worse.

For those of you who think there is no taste difference in free range chicken and grass fed beef, you are mistaken! I was absolutely shocked at how horrible this was. I had to throw it away I couldn't eat it at all.

I took a trip to the farm on Saturday and decided not to waste my money anymore on food delivery!

Week Two of the leptin reset has gone well and whatever is causing the cravings to go away, leptin or not, it's a great side effect!

I must say that I'm loving this and I'm feeling great! Week two has been a huge success!

Ghee!

Well peeps I have been buying ghee (clarified butter) to cook with since doing the paleo/leptin foodie thing. I am a bit lazy so buying was easier. I was told by this cool new app from Nom Nom Paleo that making ghee was easy! SO, I put my big girl pants on and decided to make some!

I get my butter! 2lbs of it to be exact! Go large or go home! (No, I don't eat the rice that's on the table or use the PAM spray. My Korean mother does though! I'm surprised there isn't a can of spam there...) 

2lbs of butter is a lot of butter (yeah the pictures suck but I'm using my iPhone sue me). So, I cut it up into slices like a bread loaf! 

And put it in the pan.

I also get my cheese cloth strainer and huge measuring cup! Thank you again Nom Nom Paleo app! If you look close you can see my new name and enough spices to kill a small village of people. 

Look we have bubbles!

Lots of foamy stuff happens (shocked look). You can't see it in this photo but once the little milk soilds get brown they start to float to the bottom. Then you know you're done! Soooo, I strained it! 

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. This is after i strained all of the nasty out of the butter.

















AND we have ghee!! IN a jar...next to a pink flowered rice cooker. TADA!

It took maybe an hour. I was thinking it would take less time but I didn't take into account I was melting 2lbs of butter. It really was easy if not time consuming. I also was scared that I would burn it so I may or may not have sat on a stool next to the stove for an hour texting people and posting on facebook. 

Time for me to go for a walk in this 1000 degree Florida weather! Will blog more if I live!