A Delicious Life

Here are some recent headlines and posts that caught my eye:

Food

Link between low cholesterol and cancer? A recent study shows that there may be a link between lower bad cholesterol levels and cancer. But, of course, they need to do more research. My question is: if there’s a link, could it be just because the people who have cholesterol problems are unhealthy in general?
Diet Soda and Weight Gain: The Wall Street Journal (subscription only) reports that a new study shows that people who consume diet soda have many of the same obesity-related health risks as those who consume regular soda. There is some controversy (of course) in the study about whether it’s diet soda or other negative lifestyle activities that makes someone more prone to illness. But the article does point to a study that indicates diet soda can make people crave sugar.

Career

12 Ways to use Facebook Professionally: While I’ve been a member of Facebook since it started, I just recently started using and updating my profile more frequently. There are many more features than I need or want on it, and I don’t have a lot of time to dig around to figure out what I should and shouldn’t use. This post from Web Worker Daily goes into detail about how you can use your Facebook profile for more meaningful connections and minimize the wasted time on silly apps that suck you into the site.

Relationships

Engagement: A guy wants to propose to his girlfriend but can’t afford the ring. If he gives her a fake, with the intention of replacing it, should he tell her? More importantly, if you tell her the situation, would she really care if her engagement ring was fake if it’s given with the right intention?

Exercise

Workouts that help burn fat: Forbes reports that a recent study shows working out in segments with rest periods burns more fat than a continuous workout. I highly recommend this type of workout - I have been using it in my own personal training, and it has worked well.

Spirituality

Commute as meditation: Can your drive to work promote calm and ease? This Atlanta study indicates the possibility. I suppose it’s in your mindset.

Have you ever surpassed thinking to go with your gut, only to find that you were right after all? Many CEOs think with their gut because not only do they not have enough time to look at all of the data, they also know that it’s not always worth their time to dig that deep, especially if they feel they have strong people working under them. And, they usually end up making the right decision after all.

When I don’t trust my gut, I usually end up regretting my decision. It has taken a long time for me to realize this, and I had to learn the hard way a few times. I still catch myself distrusting my own instinct sometimes.

About seven years ago, I went to a psychic for a reading. I was 27, I could sense in my gut that I was about to face a huge turning point in my life and I needed some guidance. I didn’t realize the extent to which my life would change until much later.

Before meeting me, the only information he had about me was my name and my phone number. He told me all kinds of information about my family and past, things that only I or my family members would know. He recorded the session on cassette so that I could listen to it later.

With these kinds of readings - psychic or astrological or whatever - the reader seems to always tell you what you need to hear. They give you advice, and then you take it or leave it. I’ve found, at least for me, that if I’m asking for advice, it means that I’m not trusting my own gut instinct (thus, I’m going for a reading).

I just listened to the cassette again a couple of days ago. With seven years of perspective, I can now hear things that I couldn’t back then - or, that I didn’t process because I was either unable or unwilling to understand at the time.

Back then, I didn’t want to hear that I was going to need to do a lot of soul searching and discovery before I would find my career. I certainly didn’t want to hear that I was a highly sensitive, intuitive artist that had the potential to blossom into her art if she gave it a chance. All of this information was way too scary for me to even contemplate. And it didn’t fit the mold that I thought everyone wanted me to fit.

Well, life unraveled for me anyway, as hard as I fought against it. Not trusting my gut (again), I moved to downtown Manhattan on Sept 8, 2001. Three days later, I was homeless. Three weeks later, I was single and jobless. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, I knew it was time for me to take a break from New York.

While I would not wish an unraveling like this for anyone, it actually helped me immensely. Stepping back gave me the perspective to see everything as it was. I got connected to my spirituality again and discovered the power of meditation. I learned how to define myself for me - not for others’ expectations of me. And I learned being selfish isn’t necessarily bad, especially if helps you become more selfless.

This post was inspired by a friend’s memory of things past.

There’s lots of great seasonal produce at the green markets now that it’s mid summer. This weekend, I’ll be doing a cooking demo and food sampling with some of the local produce in the market:

What: Cooking demo and food sample

Where: McCarren Park
Lorimer St. and Driggs Ave., Brooklyn, NY

When: Saturday, July 21, 2007, 10:30 am - 12 pm

Since it’s so hot out, I think it will be something raw. Stop by and say hi if you’re in the area.

I’ve spent a long time looking for that perfect job that would satisfy my longing for work that I love. I’ve worked at big, old companies and small startups. Multi-million dollar operations and bankrupt firms. Freelance, full-time, part-time, and temporary. I’ve been a hot dog vendor, frozen yogurt artist(?) (barrista?), waitress, journalist, editor, marketing writer, project manager, telemarketer, sales representative, teacher, coach and entrepreneur.

The search has been worth it, to be sure. For every misstep that I took, I learned an important lesson - about who I am as an employee, what I like to do, with whom I like to do it, and in what environment I prefer. And while it’s true that I can be whatever I want when I grow up — that is, it’s possible for me to do lots of different things — I excel only at those things that I truly enjoy.

Positive Sharing is a blog all about loving your work or finding work you can love. Chief happiness officer and author of the site, Alexander Kjerulf, has just written a book called Happy Hour is 9 to 5 (I love that title). I’ve browsed through the site and the book a little bit, and there are a lot of good, thoughtfully-written pieces. Check out the most popular articles section - I like the post on cool workspaces

(Found via Thought Press.)

To help Fire the Grid yesterday morning, I arose early and ran over to the park. I started by practicing several sun salutations while facing east, and then moved onto meditations - sitting, reclining, and walking.

It’s interesting to do walking meditation in a city like New York where you always feel like there’s somewhere to rush off to, or some thing to do. As I walked, the more I focused on gently stepping on the earth, the more I could feel myself slow down and just be. Nowhere to go, nothing to do.

I felt very calm and light afterwards. And I realized that exercise is not just to heal the earth, but also to heal yourself. When you are whole, and you can raise your own consciousness, you have more power to heal others, including the earth.

I’m out in San Francisco this weekend. The weather is beautiful and cool, and I’m having a great time seeing the sites. I will be posting more updates early next week.

One reminder: Fire the grid is set for Tuesday, July 17 at 7:11 am ET - will you participate? What would you do to heal the earth? Let me know by leaving a message here.

Make better first impressions: Great article about how Toastmasters can change your life - from Lifehacker.

High-tech health counseling: Japanese people who want help with their diets can get their food analyzed by experts by sending a mobile photo of their plate to a remote nutritionist. The nutritionist then provides them with feedback on calories and how to balance their plate for optimal nutrition. (ed. - I offer phone counseling to people all over the country, but not with photographic analysis.)

Act Local: Live Earth has come and gone, but what are you doing about protecting the environment? Are there environmentally-conscious events happening in your hometown? If not, you could start your own. Get some ideas from Stop Global Warming or Treehugger. Personally, I want to start my own indoor composting worm bin (classes in NYC listed on the Lower East Side Ecology Center website).

Need more veggies in your life? Try out some crunch salad.

I’ll try to write out a recipe (I just made it up at the time, so bear with me):

Ingredients:
1 cup sprouts
3-4 celery stalks, sliced
2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced into half moons
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced

Combine vegetables and toss with homemade health vinaigrette:

2 parts olive oil or flaxseed oil
1 part apple cider vinegar
pinch of sea salt
cayenne pepper to taste
sprinkle of turmeric powder

Whisk ingredients together. Taste and adjust spices if necessary. Pour over salad.

I sprouted the beans in this salad - they’re mung bean sprouts. If you live in an apartment without a yard like I do, it’s fun to try gardening experiments like sprouting. It might make you feel a little closer to nature, and you get to eat the results.

How to sprout your own beans: You will need whole, dry beans for sprouting - split ones will not grow. Cover them with water and soak overnight. Drain and rinse in the morning, and then let them sit for a few days - damp, but not in water. Some people use sprouting jars - a jar with a lid that has holes poked in it so that excess water can escape - but you can also just let them sit in a bowl. They don’t need to be in the sun to grow, but they should be rinsed once or twice a day. Place them in a sieve and rinse, then put them back in their sprouting vessel. Eat when sprouted.

The New York Times Magazine ran an interesting story this past weekend about do-it-yourself butter. About 6 months ago, I actually made my own butter using cream that was leftover from the holidays. Here’s how it turned out:

I made it the way that I learned in grade school - put cream in a jar with a tight lid and shake shake shake. I recommend making it this way only if you have a lot of extra time on your hands and need a good workout.

I didn’t know that I could have used the buttermilk in other recipes (so I tossed it), and I also didn’t realize I could knead it to get even more liquid out of it. Even though it took a while and my arms were tired, it was totally worth it - the butter was delicious.