https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/a-30-second-trick-for-taming-cravings
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190207142230.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190207142213.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190208082158.htm
This week, two people who are close to me were waiting for news about their health. They both got the news they were hoping for, and a few days later, my oldest friend welcomed her second child into the world.
Things happen all the time that make us stop and reconsider what we have. Sometimes the things we fear come to pass, and we find ways to move forward, to cope with them, to make peace with whatever realities they bring. Sometimes wonderful things happen, which help us to celebrate the abundance of life. Sometimes we’re caught between two possibilities, and the outcome that keeps us and our loved ones just a little safer is what happens. That’s what happened to me this week.
In all of these cases, it’s easy to pledge more appreciation moving forward, but it’s tough to stay in a heightened state of gratitude for very long. Life moves on, with all of its daily irritations and challenges, and we lose some of the perspective we’d gained. This is natural, I think, and maybe it’s for the best. If we were always hyperaware of the fundamental uncertainty of life and the preciousness of what we have, it could become crippling.
This week, though, I haven’t bounced back to where I was before my loved ones got their news. A sense of profound gratitude has hung around me all week, and it’s still with me today as I write. Plenty of stuff has happened in the last few days—some of it irksome, some genuinely difficult—and I’ve acknowledged it while continuing to feel a sense of bone-deep relief that, right now, things are the way they are. Not always easy and certainly never perfect, but full of blessings.
Such are my thoughts on this game day Sunday. If you’re watching the Super Bowl, I hope that it’s fun and full of tasty snacks. And no matter what, I wish you a week full of things to be grateful for. Here are some recipes and reads.
My friend Brandi has a knack for amazing vegan sauces (a knack for most every kind of recipe, actually), and her pimento cream sauce is definitely calling to me.
Amanda’s sesame Thai rice noodles are so colorful (and they look absolutely delicious).
I love the idea of tempeh taco meat.
Too late for the Super Bowl, but if I’d gotten it together to make something appropriate for the occasion, I’d have made these brown rice black bean sliders with basil aioli. Yum!
I’ve yet to make a vegan version of spaghetti carbonara. Jasmin’s version is simple and looks like a perfect bowl of comfort food.
1. I’ve both seen and diagnosed a lot of malnutrition this year at work. It’s shockingly common in hospital settings, and I’m glad it’s getting some mainstream coverage.
2. A new study suggests that vegan diets may help to boost beneficial gut hormones.
3. I’m a huge believer in the additive value of small, daily movements (chores, walking, cooking, even marching in place) and their contributions to overall health/well-being. I love this NPR coverage, which details new research that links such movements to better brain health among seniors.
4. A cool look at gynandromorphs, also known as “half-siders” among ornithologists, which is prompted by a recent sighting of a rare, half-male and half-female cardinal in Pennsylvania.
5. An interesting, provocative meditation on the way that human beings have conceptualized monsters and monstrosity throughout the centuries, and how that dialog is being affected by contemporary technology.
Happy start to the week, friends. It’s not in time for Super Bowl Sunday, but I do have a tasty vegan chili recipe coming your way.
xo
The post Weekend Reading, 2.3.19 appeared first on The Full Helping.
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/walnuts-fight-inflammation
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/weekly-horoscope-january-28-to-february-3-2019
I was so saddened to hear on Friday that Fatima Ali, a former Top Chef contestant, had passed away after a year-long battle with Ewing’s sarcoma. It’s been a long time since I tuned into Top Chef, but I’d learned about Chef Ali when she contributed this essay to Healthyish. She wrote it when her cancer had already been deemed terminal. It’s a funny, strong, humble meditation on how she intended to approach her remaining time.
The following quotation has been shared widely since Chef Ali’s death yesterday. I’ve been as touched by it as the many folks who have reposted or quoted it:
It’s funny, isn’t it? When we think we have all the time in the world to live, we forget to indulge in the experiences of living. When that choice is yanked away from us, that’s when we scramble to feel. I am desperate to overload my senses in the coming months, making reservations at the world’s best restaurants, reaching out to past lovers and friends, and smothering my family, giving them the time that I so selfishly guarded before.
I’ve always had a nervous relationship with time. When I was younger, I journaled and kept a diary not for fun, but because I had a deep fear of allowing time to pass unconsciously. Time scarcity has remained one of my biggest sources of anxiety as an adult. To some extent the origin of this is an awareness that time is precious and finite, which is true enough. But “selfishly guarding” my time is too often my recourse, and Ali’s essay is a good reminder to let go, remain open, and allow time to flow.
The DI has had a good effect on my relationship with time. I’ve got a lot less of it (time, that is), but in many ways this is encouraging me to treat my free time more joyfully than I did before. As I mentioned last week, I’m learning a lot about how not to waste time with overcommitment and over-doing. I’m using free moments to communicate with people I love. I have less time for writing and cooking, but when I do them, I do them with a newfound appreciation and consciousness.
As is true on many weekend mornings when I sit down to write this post, I’m “behind” where I hoped to be this weekend in terms of tasks accomplished. And I feel more rushed than I’d like to be on a Sunday. But I have a sense of forgiveness and acceptance about all of this. Approaching my days and moments will full appreciation and awareness is not easy work for me, but I’m getting better at it all the time. The more attention I pay to what I’m actually doing (versus what I think I should be doing) the slower and more deliciously time seems to move.
Sending loving thoughts to Chef Ali’s family as this new week gets underway, and feeling grateful for the thoughts and words she left us with. I’ll indulge in the experiences of living as much as I can this week. And I wish you that same indulgence, too. Here are some recipes and reads.
I love roasted beets, and this is a particularly delectable-looking version, courtesy of Alberto and Iosune.
Ellie’s hearty black bean waffles are reminding me that I gotta start doing more creative things with my waffle maker!
Winter isn’t exactly zoodle season, but these zucchini noodles with arugula alfredo, courtesy of my friends at Sprouting Zen Eats, might encourage me to make an exception!
Another winning recipe from the lovely Sophia: an avocado kale salad with butternut squash for a little heft.
Finally, a perfect appetizer for parties or protein component for meals: crispy, firm orange chipotle tofu skewers.
1. An inspiring story of one girl’s fight against gender exclusion in the school system fifty years ago. I was struck by Alice de Rivera’s courage and tenacity as a young woman, but I’m equally impressed with her self-awareness now. Rivera didn’t actually attend Stuyvesant, the competitive New York City school where she fought for entrance. Of this choice, she says:
When you are trying to do something, you could go overboard…The alternative path allowed me to explore alternative parts of myself: outdoors, politics, poetry, things out of the limelight. Possibly, if I had been in the competitive culture of Stuyvesant, I would have been a different kind of doctor.
We can never really know what life would be like had we taken the paths we didn’t take, but there’s so much to be said for acknowledging what our choices have given us.
2. This New York Times op-ed on the power of contentment, especially as it relates to the physical changes associated with aging, is a few months old. A friend sent it to me this week, and it’s given me much to think about (my own relationship with contentment included).
3. Interesting reporting on how the immune system can often work against targeted gene therapies—and what might be done to help these treatments circumvent our antibodies.
4. These microscopic photographs of herbs are mesmerizing!
5. Finally, if you haven’t read it, Fatima Ali’s thoughts on facing the end of this life.
I meant to post a simple, skillet-made lentil and rice dish last week, but, you know: life. That recipe will go up in a couple of days. For now, friends, happy Sunday.
xo
The post Weekend Reading, 1.27.19 appeared first on The Full Helping.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190124124737.htm
One in 5 LGBT adults has avoided medical care for fear of discrimination, according to a recent survey, and 80 percent of physicians surveyed say they feel "not competent" to treat LGBT patients.
(Image credit: Mengwen Cao for NPR)
