Just stopping in. Here are some things that make me happy:

This was me in Islamorada at age 6 months (ish). My parents went down to Key West on vacation and I’m pretty sure I loved it. We drove through Bobby’s hometown so we like to say that maybe we caught a glimpse of each other when we were babies.

Jamba Juice oatmeal:

They make the most perfectly cooked bowl of steel cut oats I’ve ever had. I was getting their $1 Wednesday breakfasts, but starting this week it went up to $2. Still a steal!

And I can’t forget salad…

This is from Chickpea, a cute little mediterranean place by my office. Their motto is: “always baked. never fried.” The layout is similar to Chipotle – you pick between a pita, a salad, a platter, or a hummus plate. I got the salad, topped it with original hummus, falafel (spinach flavor), my choice of 4 veggies (pickles, cabbage, black olives, and a cucumber/tomato mix), and tahini dressing. Yum!

Chickpea is located on 6th ave around West 23rd Street I believe. They do have other locations.

I’m out. What makes you happy?

Nope, I’m not talking about these lazy boys (cats… or as we call them: fats).

I’m talking about some new dietary things I’ve been trying. The changes involve fat and animals. Like steel-cut oats cooked in water and almond milk, then topped with organic butter and maple syrup:

(Please pardon the awful-ness of this picture. This is what I take food to work in.) Here is another, better picture of steel cut oats from the other day (this is after the butter had been stirred in).

I cooked (makes ~3 servings):

• 4.5 cups of water and almond milk (I did half and half)
• 1 cup steel-cut oats (the “serving size” is 1/4 cup)
• few dashes of salt
• cinnamon optional
• …in my rice cooker.

You have to watch this baby because it *will* overflow (unless your rice cooker is huge). What I like to do is let it start to boil (on the “cook” button), and then turn it to “warm” and let it sit overnight. In the morning you have creamy, chewy, luscious steel-cut oats. They’re just as good as Jamba Juice’s!

Or how about this guy…

Veggies cooked in 1-2 tablespoons of organic butter, topped with whipped full-fat cream cheese. I actually didn’t have this yet because my boss bought us lunch today (snow day!) – so I saved it in the fridge for tomorrow. It better be good.

I got most of my fat animal inspiration from Heather. She is awesome. I don’t talk about this much, but my body had a rather bad disagreement with birth control pills a while ago and I have been trying to straighten out my hormones ever since. Doctors say to go back on the pill… I believe this is a bandaid (Heather would agree! And so would many many others). You have to get to the root of the problem. I really strongly believe that diet is probably the most important part when you are trying to heal something.

What are your thoughts on diet and healing? Do you think that food can really have that much of an impact on your well-being?

Today was an interesting day. I woke up early-ish (for a weekend) and I had the urge to finish painting my bathroom… so I took my vitamins, had some chocolate, made some tea, and got to work.

One and a half hours later I stepped down off of the kitchen stool and surveyed my work. It looks good. Pictures may be forthcoming. I then assembled a bathroom shelf thing that has been waiting to be put up (waiting for me to finish the painting) and actually managed to screw it into the wall. It is not the fanciest of shelves, but it’s clean and simple and it does what I need it to do.

At this point I was pretty hungry, so I woke Bobby up and we ordered big salads from downstairs (Metro Cafe). Our salads always end up being complete opposites – but both are (I think) delicious (Bobby does not like my salads – too kitchen-sink-y). Metro is having a deal this month – unlimited topping salads for $6 if you order online.

After an hour or so of doing nothing, I got incredibly anxious. I avoided stewing in my anxiety by getting out of the house and going for a walk. It was terribly cold today, but the walk was just what I needed. I walked across Central Park South, up to 72nd Street, then back across The Park. I mapped it and it was about 3.2 miles.

Today happened to be the Winter Jam at The Park, which meant that there was music, a snowboarding show, and some free samples. I picked up a bag of apple slices and a lollipop (both given to Bobby) and I bought 4 Fuji apples ($1.50/pound) for myself. The apples are gone (oops).

We ordered Hawaiian for dinner and I supplemented with a big bowl of oat bran and oatmeal mixed together. I cooked it in almond milk and it was so creamy. Topped with maple syrup and more almond milk.

And I’ve been snacking on a bunch of fruit as well. And this kombucha tea (it was on sale for $2):

I’m working on this thing where I say, “wouldn’t XXX be nice,” rather than, “I WILL” or “I MUST” and so on. This is a recommendation from my acupuncturist to help me with my stress and anxiety. It’s kind of working. It will definitely take practice. It’s not something that can happen overnight.

What are you working on? Renovations on your house, in your life, physical, mental, whatever?

Let Your Voice Lead was the title of the intenSati writing workshop I attended today (@ Equinox). Bobby actually joined me; I was really happy he came.  The workshop was 2 hours and it consisted of an intenSati class (1 hour) and then a writing workshop about personalizing the intenSati affirmations (also 1 hour). It was led by Lindsay, who I’ve mentioned before.

We got there late (only about 10 minutes though) because Bobby and I are those perpetually late people that I actually tend to dislike myself. When I am left to my own devices I am usually early (too early), but when you put the two of us together I become unpunctual and laggy. I will change my outfit 5 times before we get out the door; I forget my keys; I can’t find my cell phone; I need to do my makeup one last time. I don’t think I’m alone here!

The class was great, of course. The affirmations were:

• I am powerful
• I am inspired
• I am confident
• I have desire
• I am ready to write
• I am willing to write
• I am able to write
• I am writing RIGHT NOW
• I am free to succeed
• I let my voice lead
• I intend to open my heart and grow; with courage and discipline I write what I know

Because we got there late I actually wasn’t that sweaty by the end but Bobby was sweating buckets. He thought it was pretty fun.

Then we did some writing exercises based on the affirmations. We did 7 minutes per exercise, and they were…

1. Write a story about desire. (I wrote about figuring out what I desire – happiness. Oddly enough, so did Bobby.)
2. Remember a time in your childhood when you felt confident. Be very detailed. (I had a lot of trouble remembering a confident time. I think I spent 5 minutes thinking and 2 minutes writing.)
3. Write about the affirmation, “I am free to succeed.” (I wrote again about happiness and doing things just for ME.)
4. “Let your voice lead.” Write a conversation that you have in your head with yourself (generally these are the conversations with the “devil on your shoulder”). (I wrote about my ED. I may post this conversation sometime because Bobby thought the ending was funny. And ugh – there was this clearly struggling girl in the class that I could not stop staring at.)
5. Write about how you can save your own life/make your life better. (This was pretty easy – we all have goals!)

My favorite fuel of the day was this hugastic (Bobby just made that up) bowl of oatmeal and maple syrup and almond milk. I always put salt in my oatmeal (think I’ve mentioned that before).

It was a whole cup of dry oatmeal and it could barely fit in the bowl. I am so glad that oatmeal is back in my life. I went for over a month without it for some reason. Never again!

This picture looks weird because I always let my oatmeal sit for about an hour before I eat it so that it gets nice and thick. This time I put in the milk before I let it sit so the milk got weird looking. If I don’t have time to let it sit, I will put it in the freezer.

I am off to snuggle. And then work. Happy Saturday!

Are you a writer? Does writing help you? Do you wish you wrote more? How did you get into it?