Thank God For Bullies

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a friend from elementary school discussing the verbal bullies we had to endure.  It was heartbreaking and eye opening to realize the control these silly, random comments from immature, insecure children still have over us.

Through the decades we have nurtured and fed the bullies’ taunts as our own, forgetting who even put the original idea in our heads – never once questioning if they were ever fact-based.

Out of curiosity, I wrote down the ten worse things that happened to me in elementary school.

Sadly, I found that seemingly insignificant things, really humorous now, that were said or done to me forty years ago determined a lot of what I have done, or not done in life.

This is what socialization is all about: to mentally whack us around until we fall back into the timid flock.

Those who are original, those who destabilize the status quo, those are the ones who will be bullied. Consider it a badge of honor that you were bullied.

I hope you will soon feel free to say and do what you truly desire. 

"When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find that it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare the timid adventurers." Ralph Waldo Emerson

14 Kilometers -- The Farthest I've Ever Run!

A few weeks ago I signed up for the Paris Marathon.  April 11th.

Following my training schedule, I do the long run for the week on Sunday. Today Craig drove to Faroux to drop off Attila and me.  We ran back 14 kilometers to Lauzerte.  

I'm sore.  I'm tired.  But it wasn't as bad as I feared :)

Here are some photos.

5 down, 10 to go . . . don't know how to interpret Attila's gesture.

My coach, leading me up this honking hill.

Cute farmhouse.

The higher we climbed, the prettier it got.

Why There Are Few Cancer Prevention Drugs

There is a breast cancer prevention drug and a prostate cancer prevention drug that will cut a person's likelihood of getting those cancers in half, yet doctors don't prescribe them very often, and patients shun them for supplements that don't work.

Read this fascinating article from the New York Times:

Many Americans do not think twice about taking medicines to prevent heart disease and stroke. But cancer is different. Much of what Americans do in the name of warding off cancer has not been shown to matter, and some things are actually harmful. Yet the few medicines proved to deter cancer are widely ignored.

Simple Bread Making -- Morison's Oat Bread

Two weeks ago, I became an accidental bread baker when I made some dough for homemade pizza, had some leftover dough and threw it in the oven the next morning.  Wow was that a heavenly experience!

Now I've been baking bread almost every day and have been experimenting with different types.

A Scottish nobleman gave me some high-quality, finely ground, Scottish oatmeal and so I threw it in today's batch.

Here is a photo of the delicious oat bread that just came out of the oven fifteen minutes ago, and which will probably be gone in the next ten . . . and I'm home alone!!!!

Morison's Oat Bread

• one and a half tablespoons dry yeast
• three quarters cup of warm, not hot, water
• two and a half cups of whole wheat flour
• one quarter cup finely ground oats
• two teaspoons sugar
• one teaspoon fine salt
• tablespoon and a half of olive oil

 (If you want to turn this into pizza dough, leave out the oats.)

1.  Sprinkle the dry yeast into the cup of warm water.  You don't want it to be too hot as it will kill the yeast.  Let it sit at least 15 minutes until it starts bubbling.
2. In a medium bowl, mix one and a half cups of the flour with the salt, sugar and oats.
3. In a large glass bowl, take 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil and oil the inside of the bowl.
4. When yeast is bubbling, pour it into the dry ingredients with one tablespoon olive oil.
5. Mix with your hands (it's very fun) adding more flour as needed -- you don't want the dough to be dry, and it should be sticky to the touch, but you don't want it sticking to your hands.  Knead about two minutes.
6. Form dough into a ball and put in the oiled bowl. Cover with a clean dish towel then set in a warm part of the kitchen.
7. Leave dough unattended for two hours, then punch it down, and quickly form another ball by kneading for a couple of minutes. Cover and ignore for two more hours.
8. Punch dough down again.  Shape it into the desired form you'd like . . . little rolls, big loaf, pretzel shapes, etc. and let it sit out on your counter and rise for another hour.
9. Now you can bake the bread in a hot over, 210C or 400F until the crust just starts to brown -- or you can wrap it up and place it in the refrigerator, let it sit out for an hour in the morning, and then bake.

Hiking -- The Path to Love and Fitness

Here is an inspiring story about a man who finally got fed up with being obese and through hiking, and then changing his eating habits, he transformed his body and his life:

Four years ago, my brother-in-law, Tom Vance, weighed 361 pounds, had high blood pressure and sleep apnea and was miserable from a divorce. He's since used hiking at Bay Area parks to help turn his life around, including losing 115 pounds, and he has also remarried.

Inspiration

This mind-blowing video was brought to my attention at the beginning of the week. (Sometimes when this video runs, the first 20 seconds include Ms. Hunt and her horses . . . just be patient and the performance of Moorlands Totilas will appear.)

To my great surprise, it the most inspirational thing I have ever found to get me to go out and RUN!

This horse expresses the natural beauty and exquisite joy that is manifested from a fit body . . . and the great value that has to the being that possesses it.

Bruschetta A-Go-Go

Bruschetta A-Go-Go

Quick, Delicious -- Guaranteed to sate your pizza cravings in a healthy manner.

Serves 4 -- takes ten minutes from start to finish!

• loaf of crusty French bread
• tablespoon of sesame oil (or olive)
• three tomatoes
• one small red onion (or yelllow)
• two cloves of garlic
• chunk of Mozarella cheese equal to 4 tablespoons grated
• 4 ounces of smoked tuna
• high-quality Modena Balsamic Vinegar

1. Turn on  the broiler in your oven. Situate an oven rack within 6 inches of the broiler.
2. Finely chop the onion, garlic and tomatoes.  Mix together in a bowl.  Set aside.
3. Cut off two pieces from the French bread, four inches in length and then slice those pieces through the middle as if you were going to make a sandwich.
4. Place the bread on a cookie sheet, crust side down and brush the top side lightly with sesame oil.
5. Put cookie sheet on the rack under the broiler and bake just until edges of bread start to brown.
6. Grate the equivalent of four grated tablespoons of Mozarella cheese.  When bread is browned on edges, remove cookie sheet from oven and sprinkle one tablespoon of cheese on each piece of bread and return to oven.
7. When cheese is melted remove cookie sheet and bread from oven.
8. Place bread on plates.
9. Top bread with slices of smoked trout, then load with the tomato/onion/garlic mixture, and drizzle with a high-quality Modena Balsamic vinegar.  
10. ENJOY!

Cemetery Near Boulve

"Have the courage to live.  Anyone can die."  Robert Cody

Tales Of The Scale

I have a girlfriend who, after decades of struggle, finally got down to the exact weight she desired.

As soon as my friend reached her weight loss goal, and I mean within a month, she and her husband decided to divorce -- thankfully, it's going smoothly.

I know that she tortured herself for years thinking that the only thing missing from her life was being svelte. The irony is that she is now svelte, but the rest of her life is totally up in the air.

This isn't a bad thing.  My friend appears to be taking the divorce in stride, and I'm positive she'll soon be thriving without the ex around.  The divorce may be exactly what she needs to attain higher levels of success and happiness.

I see it time and time again with my clients, with my friends, and with myself.  We think that weight loss is the Holy Grail to happiness and contentment.  Our flabbiness is something we point to with the hope that when we get that last pound wiped off the slate all will be perfect in our lives.

When we finally decide to put ourselves first -- find joy in daily exercise, prepare our own meals and eat right -- we transform physically and mentally.  A lot of detrimental crap falls by the wayside:  the people that we permitted to keep us weak; the possessions that were of no comfort; the self-deprecating thoughts that were our jailers.

Losing weight will change your life for the better . . . but it may also bring a lot of initially confusing disruption as you start to discard all that is useless and detrimental to your health.

This is why some people will not be supportive of your weight loss efforts. 

Antoinette

"In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semi human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog." - Edward Hoagland

So what am I learning from Antoinette about becoming partly a dog? 

• Exercising in the rain is great fun.
• Life is very short so I need to make love and affection my top priority.
• If I don't exercise every day, I'll get fat.
• Running is more exhilarating than walking.
• I get a kick out of running through mud and puddles.
• Deer, chickens, ducks, cats, and hedgehogs are fascinating.
• I don't need shoes.
• A good friend just listens.

It's The Same Old Song . . . Unless

The other night at dinner, I found myself, at the prompting of my husband, rattling off a haggard story of my youth.

Later, I promised myself that I will never tell that story again.

I understand that the story has absolutely nothing to do with me now.  It is a long gone wisp of a cloud that passed over decades ago.  Totally irrelevant.

It is a story that makes me look good, in which I triumph, but the characters in it are all dead and gone . . . even though we're all very much alive. 

Such an emancipating Epiphany! I now realize that if the good stories I tell aren't relevant any more then the bad stories, the ones I never divulge, aren't worth clinging to either.  Every one of them had an impact on me, but none of them define me.

We boost and handicap ourselves by the narrative we create, fertilize:), and prune.  

Every work, every action is either positive or negative, moving forward or clawing backwards.  Every moment we have the power to turn the tables and go where happiness resides.  

Move out from under the shadow of the past, relish this new moment.

City Walker

You can find beauty and joy wherever you walk.

Click here to watch an interesting interactive from the New York Times about a young woman that walks 90 miles a week in New York City.

Weight Loss -- Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I'm training for the Paris Marathon, this coming April 11th.  I'm a hiker not a runner.  So while I'm in good physical shape and have lots of stamina, I have found this first week of training to be very challenging.

I've been keeping a diary of what I weigh, eat, drink, and how many kilometers I cover each day using the run-walk method of training.  I run one day, and hike the next.

The three dogs run with me.  At the beginning of the week, I found their antics annoying: the puppy comes running at Antoinette, who is usually at my side, so that they both knock into my calves.  I was getting angry with them and stopping to chastise them, until I had a conversation with a friend who was telling me about his marathon running experiences.  He said that the most difficult part of the marathon is staying on your feet and not being tripped up by the thousands of runners that jostle you for position or the endless sea of plastic bottles and cups that litter the road in front of the water stations. 

Now I view the dogs as wily trainers who are teaching me to never lose my balance -- even when being bludgeoned in the calves by furry, 45 pound battering rams.

At Camp Biche, we don't weigh the clients when they arrive or depart, or anytime in between.  I'd rather clients use a tape measure or their own clothes as a guide.  For as my diary has proven this week, even when you're doing everything right, low calories and lots of exercise, the scale doesn't tell the true story.

The daily weigh-ins have made me psychotic about my weight.  I can see why people give up dieting and exercising after just a couple of weeks if they are using the scale as their measure.  Since the beginning of the week I've progressively gained five pounds, and now with one day to go before the week's out, I've come down 2.5 pounds!

That's crazy.

On the other hand, I feel fantastic . . . enervated, brimming over with confidence . . . and my clothes are fitting ever so slightly better.

Throw away your scale . . . it does not reflect improvement in fitness nor health, and it often is a discouragement in your quest for well-being.

Getting fit and losing weight do not happen in neat linear progressions.  If you apply yourself, to eating healthier, eating less, and exercising more, you'll get where you want to go . . . but on your body's own timetable.  Often you must take the inevitable one step backwards in order to go two steps forward.

Breathe in acceptance.  Breathe out acceptance.

Elegant Broccoli-Apple Soup

Here is a broccoli soup that is light, elegant, and delicious. The broccoli is so subtle that you can serve this to a broccoli hater and they will become a convert.  This is a broth soup, not the usual much heavier cream of broccoli soup to which many of us are accustomed.

Broccoli-Apple Soup

• makes six large servings
• quick, inexpensive, with vegetarian/vegan adaptation

1.  Peel and coarsely chop three shallots.

2.  Peel and coarsely chop three cloves of garlic.

3.  Wash head of broccoli, discard long stems and leaves, and coarsely chop.

4.  Peel, core and coarsely chop a medium-sized apple -- preferably tart.

5.  In a large soup pot, heat one tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat.  When hot add shallots and garlic, stirring over heat for about two minutes.  (You don't want to brown them.)

6.  Add broccoli to pot and stir all three ingredients over the heat for two minutes.

7.  Add apple to pot and stir for a minute.

8.  Add the juice of 1/2 of a lemon along with one quart of water and 4 chicken (or vegetable) bouillon cubes, a teaspoon of ground pepper, 1/4 teaspoon celery salt.

9. Cover pot. Turn heat up to high and bring liquid to a boil. Then decrease heat to low, and let pot simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.  I left and went jogging.

10. When broccoli is tender, put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until there are no chunks . . . you might want to add 1/4 cup of low-fat milk at this point . . . but it's not necessary.

11. You can serve the soup by itself but I made little whole wheat dumplings with flour from a local farmer. It would also be good with wild rice for something truly upscale.

It's frothy from the blender.

Super Garlicy Potato Soup

Super Garlicy Potato Soup

Fast, Easy, Low Calorie, Low Fat, Hearty, Can be Vegan

4 generous bowls

• one tablespoon of olive oil
• 4 medium potatoes, skins well-scrubbed, and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• two whole HEADS (not cloves) of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• one stalk of celery, washed and finely diced
• one large yellow onion, peeled and finely diced
• 4 chicken or vegetable bouillon cubes
• 1/4 teaspoon of thyme

1. In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add diced celery and onion and cook, stirring occasionally until onion is tender.
3. Add the chopped garlic to the mixture and stir for two minutes.
4. Turn heat up to medium-high, add potatoes, and cook for five minutes, stirring now and then.
5. Add 5 cups of water plus the bouillon cubes and thyme. Cover.  Turn heat to high.
6. When soup starts to boil, turn heat down very low to let the soup simmer. 
7. You can eat the soup when the potatoes are tender, but the longer it simmers the better the soup will taste. . . . This soup will really change character depending upon how long the garlic is cooked . . . the longer, the mellower.
8. Season with ground pepper and salt.

Storm Lifting Over Montcuq

"Let the rain kiss you.  Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. 

Let the rain sing you a lullaby."  ~Langston Hughes

Roasted Eggplant Soup

Roasted Eggplant Soup

Serves 6

Ingredients

•  4 medium eggplants
• 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large tomatoes
• 2+ cloves garlic, peeled
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• salt and ground black pepper

Step 1.  Preheat the oven to 400F.  Slice the eggplant in half lengthwise and place on a baking sheet.  Score the flesh of each half with a sharp knife in 5 or 6 places.

Step 2.  Brush the flesh with about 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until tender and golden brown.  Set aside to cool.

Step 3.  To blanch tomatoes, score an "X" on the bottom of each tomato and place in a large pan of boiling water to blanch for 15 seconds.  Remove tomatoes with a slotted spoon and plunge them into a bowl of cold water.  Then peel the tomatoes.  Squeeze out seeds and coarsely chop.  Mince the garlic.

Step 4.  Scoop out the eggplant flesh and set aside.  Heat remaining oil in a heavy, 3-quart saucepan over moderate heat.  When oil is hot, add the garlic and tomatoes and saute for 5 to 6 minutes.  Add the eggplant, stirring to combine.

Step 5.  Add the chicken stock.  Reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.

Step 6.  Using a hand or stationary blender, process the soup until a smooth consistency is reached.  Season with chopped rosemary and salt and pepper to taste.  [I like to roast pumpkin seeds and sprinkle on top.]

From the incredibly informative cookbook, Cooking at the Academy, California Culinary Academy

Breakfast at Camp Biche

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast."  Oscar Wilde

Autumn is upon us and now we eat breakfast with a fire roaring in the cast-iron stove while it's still dark outside.

It is both humbling and awe-inspiring to start the hike as the sun is rising.  L'aube is French for sunrise.

The Road To Lauzerte

"The long and winding road that leads to your door

Will never disappear

I've seen that road before, it always leads me here,

Leads me to your door."

Paul McCartney

Pumpkin Soup

Craig didn't have a blockbuster garden this year.  Here is the lone pumpkin he grew.

Pumpkin Soup

from the book French Cooking in Ten Minutes, Edouard de Pomiane

Take the skin off 1/2 pound of fresh pumpkin with a potato peeler.

Cut the pulp into pieces the size of a walnut and put them into a pot.

Barely cover the pumpkin with boiling water.

Let it boil for 6 to 8 minutes, then mash up the pumpkin.

Add salt and pepper, and a cup of milk.

Bring to a boil and serve. 

If you like, you can add a little sugar to the soup before serving.