Tight Hips, Bad Knees, Can't Lose: or, How I Became a Runner When I Wasn't Paying Attention

What is the point where you can officially call yourself a "runner?"

Is it your first blister? Your first "run" where you actually maintain a jogging pace the entire time (rather than break into walking here and there)? The first time you run somewhere that seems far away in day-to-day life?

Thanks in part to my college friend who is, as I put it, a "real-sized runner" like me; to the inspiration of friends on Strava, the tool I use to track my runs and bike rides; and to the thought of my grandma and my aunt, outdoor enthusiasts who are dear to me but far away for different reasons, I've been running more and more frequently. And this weekend, after running to the Golden Gate Bridge with nothing but my own two feet, I think I'm calling it: I'm a runner.

(Sure, I planned ahead of time to run one way and take the bus home. But that just gives me a goal to work towards!)

I'm having a lot of fun using Strava because it "gamifies" the act of running and helps me compare my own run times, monitors my heart rate, helps me set goals, shows me how I'm doing against other people who have run the same places, and so on.



As I see it, running is 3 things (and I'm still working on the first): consistency, technique, and diet. At this point, just setting a goal of 5 miles a week is enough to get me pounding pavement. But I have flat duck feet and I'm awful at stretching, so soon enough, I'll have to consider my gear and my non-running habits, lest my already-bad knees go kablooey.

Do you run? If so, do you use a tracker or other tool? What are your running / stretching / other habits? I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments!

Halloween 2013; my well-laid plans were well-executed!

The pumpkin Matt and I carved together. We're calling it the Charlie Brown Pumpkin 'cause it's so ... unique.

Hoo boy, it's been a busy week or so. It feels like I've been underwater for days and my head just broke the surface! But today, I got to sleep in, I don't have any big plans, I just had my coffee and I'm sitting in front of our working fireplace (!) with a blanket on my lap and a dog at my feet.

Life is good.

So what was so hectic about this week, you ask?

The Easiest Way to Lose Weight Ever Is to Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day

When it comes to my thoughts about weight and dieting, I am really proud of the way that I've grown since high school. It used to be about the number, and now it's about what I can do and how I feel when I'm at various weights. I'm not usually one to try fad diets, or to go into survival mode to lose a couple.

I'm usually not. But you see, the other day I officially signed up to attend my high school's 10 year reunion on October 5. (WHAT? 10 YEARS? HOW IS THAT EVEN REMOTELY POSSIBLE!?) And I had a bunch of old high school-style insecurities wash over me, and even thought about doing a number of weird diets just to feel better about "my number" come the 5th.

I have been looking for an opportunity to reset my expectations about healthy portions, and this seemed like as good a time as any. So I'm using MyFitnessPal to track my calories, and I'm committing to drinking 8 glasses of water a day.

Tracking calories is important, but I think it's the water that is changing me for the better. Here are the pros and cons I've been experiencing:

Cons of Drinking 8 Glasses of Water a Day

• I have to go to the bathroom once every 1-2 hours (this never would have worked for me while I was working at Starbucks)
• I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom
• When I get my reminder to get another glass (I have it set up on my Google calendar), I usually haven't finished the last one and have to gulp it down

Pros of Drinking 8 Glasses of Water a Day

• My skin already looks brighter, especially under my eyes
• My mind is clearer
• I feel less sluggish, more energetic, even with the calorie-cutting I'm doing

It really feels like the easiest thing I have ever done to feel better immediately. So now I'm shouting it from the rooftops. Drink. More. WATERRRR!!

Being a part of a musical workshop

Me (second from the left) and the rest of the cast rehearsing The Fourth Messenger.

A few weeks ago, I got an email out of the blue asking if I was available to perform in a reading* of The Fourth Messenger, a musical written by Tanya Shaffer and Vienna Teng. Rehearsals would be less than a week, walking distance from my house, I'd be working with some professional idols, and by the way, I'd get paid too.

I said yes immediately, before they could change their minds!

The Fourth Messenger is a modern-day retelling of the Buddha story -- re-casting Siddhartha as (female) Mama Sid. It's already gone through a handful of readings and workshops in the Bay Area. And earlier this year, it had its world premiere in the Bay Area, a full-scale production mounted in Berkeley. Since then, Tanya, Vienna and director Matt August have been hard at work editing, polishing and revamping the piece.

Tonight we presented the updated work to a conference of Zen Buddhists at the San Francisco Zen Center, which is pretty much the most relevant audience you could think of for this subject matter.

Being a part of this was a total blast, and both the subject matter and the process were utterly fulfilling. It really gave me a jolt of "what am I here to do and how can I use my talents to do that?" at a time when I was really flagging creatively. I'm riding a high of purpose and gratefulness and serendipity, and I look forward to seeing where it all goes.

Meanwhile, it sounds like there are plans to eventually make a cast recording of The Fourth Messenger. Fingers crossed, maybe I'll get to be a part of it! Until then, I'll continue to make my own opportunities and enjoy what comes my way.


* Yup, just like Smash. Workshops and readings of plays and musicals really happen! It takes a lot of work to build a musical to its "best self."

3 Ways To Distract Yourself From Morning Coffee

I take my coffee with 2% or nonfat milk, no sugar. How do you take yours?

Coffee is starting to run my life.

I've been through this cycle before, and it goes something like this: at first, coffee is a nice pick-me-up. One cup a day to start the day is a nice treat.

Then it starts to become a habit that I get crabby without. Then I start to have multiple cups, maybe even a cup in the afternoon. My cup goes cold at my desk and I drink part of it anyway. (Ew.) My sleep becomes affected, and I start to drink a beer or a glass of wine most nights just to help myself wind down.

Don't get me wrong. I love a drink here or there, of the alcoholic or caffeinated varieties. But I don't want to be controlled by them. So, here are 3 things I'm doing to slow my caffeine intake.

Cooking Food In The Dishwasher: Challenge Accepted!

Italian author Lisa Casali demonstrates her dishwasher cooking method.

Are we all aware that dishwasher-cooked food is a thing?

I just learned about this via the NPR food blog, The Salt. When describing it to my husband, he called it (this is why I love him) "a poor man's sous-vide." Which obviously means I want to try it.

The NPR article linked to an Italian cookbook called "Cucinare in lavastoviglie: Gusto, sostenibilità e risparmio con un metodo rivoluzionario" (Cooking in the Dishwasher: A revolutionary method that's tasty, sustainable and thrifty). The author, Lisa Casali, is an Italian environmentalist and blogger -- click here to check out her blog (also available in English).

I studied some Italian in college, so I just might be able to read, translate, and recreate those recipes! (That opera performance degree just keeps on being useful in the most interesting ways!) Provided I can snag a copy of the book, I'll be posting those recipes along with my attempts, Julie & Julia-style.

Last call, back to school, Labor Day blowout

This weekend was just one big slothful celebration of the last days of summer before school.

I mean, I'm not actually going back to school -- but remember the old days? The last hurrah of Labor Day weekend? Playing ball in the neighborhood yard? Accidentally hitting your ball into the neighbor's yard and freaking out over his part-dog, part-who knows monster thing guarding the backyard? (Wait, this is just the plot of The Sandlot.)

Anyway, I'm not a student and I don't actually go back to school anymore, but my sister is a middle school teacher, so I get to live vicariously through her. And this year, we had a last days of summer blowout that involved both old traditions and new:

30 Day Challenge: 30 days of lists!

My Sunday morning set up: coffee, laptop, notebook & pen.
Outside the frame: my husband at his desk & my lab at my feet. 100% domestic perfection.

As a self-described list-writing control freak, the moment I saw the "30 Days of Lists" challenge put on by Kam and Amy, I knew it was for me. I signed up, like, August 5 and got mentally excited. Check out the first list prompt (and my first list) below!

New Weekend Feature Idea: Weekend Wellness Roundup!

Internetlings,

I've been hit with a sudden lightning bolt of purpose. (Amazing!)

I am walking a meandering path towards spiritual, emotional and physical wellness, and I want to meet my fellow travelers.

So, I'm trying something new -- I'm going to host a weekly roundup of blog posts, and your experience is most welcome and worthy. Won't you join me by adding your voice to the chorus?

Everyone is welcome and anything goes. I only ask that your post relate in some way to your wellness journey, whether that be spiritual, emotional, or physical.

More details on how to join below (or just click the 'Add your link' button to share your post!).

In loving-kindness,
Helen

An InLinkz Link-up

My first adventures in juicing

My name is Helen, and I'm a juicer.

Last week, motivated by the CSA-box-worth of greens we're getting on a weekly basis (and not finishing), and a few friends' experiences with juicing, I decided to get a juicer on a whim.

I got a Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juice Extractor, which from my research seemed like the best-performing juicer under $100. But if you really want to fall deep into the world of juicing, juicers and educational materials about said topics, my sister recommends (too late for my purchase, unfortunately) the juice man. Specifically she said that he's "omg the happiest man on the planet," which is high praise coming from her.

Not knowing where to start, I asked friends for recipes, and I made my first drink out of everything left from the prior week's CSA box: beet greens, carrots, chard, kale, red cabbage, romaine.

It looked like sludge and tasted like a 20 oz wheatgrass shot, but I powered through it like a champ.

And you know what? Placebo or no, I swear I felt a euphoric lightness after drinking that stuff. Maybe it was just the relief of being done with the glass, but I wanted to feel that way again. I realize that's the way most people would describe their first taste of a drug -- but if the drug is vegetables, is that so wrong?

Out of curiosity, I started to research various juice cleanses, reasoning that I could make that stuff at home for half the price, if that. I ended up zeroing in on the Blueprint Cleanse, gathering copycat recipes around the web and organizing them here. I find the version of the green juice here too tame, so I'll be fine-tuning it over time.

Some things I've learned so far:

• Strain that juice. The juicer I bought leaves a lot of pulp and froths up the juice as well, so I strain that all off. Personal preference.
• Choose sweet apples over tart ones. I've tried Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples so far, and much prefer the sweet to the tart. Tartness masks all other flavors in the drink, and if I'm doing the work to juice all those vegetables, I want to taste it!
• The colors of fresh juice are wild. Just look at the picture at the top of the post!
• Fresh carrot juice tastes creamy. So crazy, and so delicious!

A complete account of my Lasik experience

Friends and internet-dwellers who are interested in hearing the complete process of my Lasik adventures: here is a complete account of my experience, from choosing the doctor to details of the surgery itself (with a warning for the squeamish).

Choosing a Doctor
I went with Dr. Scott Hyver, because of name recognition, recommendation from my husband, and his success rate. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, chances are you've heard his radio spots. The man has literally become an institution (his 3 Bay Area locations are called "ScottHyver VisionCare"), and your interactions with him during the process are fleeting -- once during the sale/evaluation appointment, and then on the operating table on surgery day. Otherwise, you are working with nurses, auxiliary doctors, and a personal sales rep.

If you like your doctors touchy-feely, this may not be right for you. For my part, I didn't care about learning much about Dr. Hyver himself; I just wanted to know that the surgery would go off without a hitch. And the ScottHyver group made me feel that way throughout the process.

Because their offices go through so many patients, they have everything down like clockwork. Each incoming patient is presented with a blue baggie of eye drop medications for their recovery. The somewhat complicated medication instructions are boiled down to their essentials in an idiot-proof chart. The day-of 'what to expect' FAQ is laminated so that it can be re-used for hundreds of patients. Because Dr. Hyver himself doesn't have to bother with the prep work, he remains in the operating room and can do (I estimate) two dozen surgeries a day.

Some people may be turned off by the feeling that they're just another pair of eyes getting churned out by the ScottHyver machine. Honestly, I found it very comforting to know that I was nothing new. The procedure, my extreme nervousness, any inane question I had -- they'd seen and heard it all before.

Evaluation Appointment
I went into the offices exactly twice: once for my eligibility evaluation, and once for the surgery. I did not need a hard sell since my husband had already gotten the surgery.

At this appointment, they did the following:
1. Got a rough digital reading of my prescription using one of those "look at the house" machines;
2. Fine-tuned that reading using one of those "A or B" machines you're used to using at your normal eye doc;
3. Compared that reading against my contacts prescription and my glasses prescription;
4. Checked the health of my eyes using various eye drops and implements (nothing beyond what my normal eye doc does);
5. Numbed my eyes with some drops and then touched a device to my eyeball to measure corneal thickness (this was mildly disconcerting: while I couldn't feel it, it caused a 'ripple in the matrix'-like visual effect).

All of the preceding was done by nurses and a doc who was not Scott Hyver. Next I was brought into a room where Dr. Hyver himself explained which procedure(s) I was eligible for, based on the tests. (In short, comparing current prescription to glasses and contacts shows whether your prescription is stable and therefore worth permanently implementing into your eyeball. Corneal thickness helps indicate whether you're eligible for Lasik vs. PRK.) Again, since I was already sold on the procedure, I didn't need him to say much, but he answered all the questions I had.

Finally, I was brought into a sales rep's room to talk about pricing and payment options. Although prices change somewhat depending on your vision insurance and the type of procedure you're getting, a good ballpark figure is $5K. That's for both eyes, and (in Scott Hyver's case) "lifetime upgrades" in the event that your eyes change prescription over the course of your lifetime. At 25 years old, that amount of money seems worth it, given that I will no longer have to spend $500/year on glasses, contacts and their maintenance.

Between Appointments
I walked out of the evaluation appointment with a script for antibiotic eyedrops, to be started 24 hours before the surgery. Because this meant dealing with Kaiser Permanente's pharmacy, this was actually the most annoying part of the whole experience.

Surgery Appointment
I was incredibly nervous for the surgery, because you have to be conscious and actively involved, training your eye on a green dot. Before the actual surgery, they did the following:
1. Had me sign a form verifying the type of surgery I was having (Lasik vs. PRK; one eye vs. both eyes);
2. Handed me the pouch of post-surgery medications and walked me through them;
3. Re-tested my prescription, both digitally and then using the "A or B" machine;
4. Put some numbing drops in my eyes and offered me a valium for nerves (I did not hesitate to accept);
5. Gave me some stylish booties and a hairnet.

Then a nurse walked me into the surgery room, where there was Dr. Hyver and two additional nurses. I lay down on the surgery table, and they asked me to verify my birthdate and surgery type. (I appreciated this; a last-minute triple-check to ensure they were burning the right prescription into my eyes!)

Warning: a description of the surgery as I remember it follows. Lying face-up on the table, a few inches over my head was a green LED light. They flooded both my eyes with numbing drops, then put a patch over my left eye. They then used tape to open up my right eye, then used a device to make it stay open -- no blinking. I have no idea what the device looks like, but in hearing about it before the procedure, I kept thinking about the torture devices from A Clockwork Orange.

Then, the most painful part of the procedure: Dr. Hyver took some clear plastic (through which I could see the green dot) and pressed it against my eye, hard enough to immobilize my eye and keep it from twitching. My job through all this was to stare at the green dot with all my might, but as the pressure got more intense, basically my vision blacked out until all I could see was a night sky full of stars. Then the plastic stayed in place for a few seconds while I imagine they cut the corneal flap.

Then the pressure was released and the green dot came back. For a second or two, Dr. Hyver manipulated my eye in such a way that it caused the green dot to go streaky, sort of like a barista making foam pictures in a fancy latte. I imagine this was the point where the corneal flap was lifted, because when I saw the green dot next, it was far less in focus. Imagine the halo you can sometimes see around a street light -- that's what the entire green dot looked like. (It was a little scary knowing that my eye was currently that much out of commission!)

Then, the most anxiety-inducing part of the procedure: I was supposed to watch the center of the green dot ("even if it moves") as closely as possible while a laser burned my prescription into my eye. The "even if it moves" warning made me wonder if it would bounce around, but I didn't really sense it move much if at all. So for the good of my future self, I stared at that green dot with as much intensity as I could muster. The laser itself was painless and took a few seconds.

Then Dr. Hyver announced he was going to put in a drop of saline, during which I think he also flipped the flap back over, because the green dot suddenly came back into focus. They took off the eyelid holder and tape, and started on the other eye. The whole surgery (both eyes) took under 5 minutes.

After the Surgery
Immediately after the surgery, they gave me a pair of sunglasses and suggested I keep my eyes closed as much as possible for the next 6 hours. My husband drove me home and I sat in a baseball cap and sunglasses in our den with the blinds down. I listened to an audio book and tried to take a nap. By the afternoon of the surgery, I was on the computer without a problem, and my husband and I watched a movie that night.

District 4's Seaweed Bread

When I decided to start this project, I knew District 4's seaweed bread would be one of the first breads I'd try. The book describes it as a "salty," "fish-shaped loaf tinted green with seaweed." My first thought: Er. Seaweed??

I'd never cooked with seaweed before, and I'd never even heard about a bread with seaweed in it. I thought at first that I might be able to slip in the seaweed unnoticed, as a powder or something. But as I continued to research, I found a great recipe for Irish soda bread with dulse -- aka seaweed. 

I felt like I had stumbled upon greatness. My educated guess put District 4 in either the Pacific Northwest or the Mexican Gulf, but with a tribute named Finnick Odair, I've always wondered about the district's potential Irish roots. This recipe honors that, and it lets the seaweed shine through too, instead of being surreptitiously added as a powder.

Although the book describes the loaf as tinted green from the seaweed, I didn't get much tinting, and I chose not to add it artificially. If you want to, add a little bit of moss green food coloring to get a green tint.

District 4's Seaweed Bread

Ingredients

1/4 to 1/3 oz dried dulse (you can find this at a specialty store like Whole Foods)

2 cups plain white flour 

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt 

3/4 cup buttermilk (No buttermilk at home? Add 1 Tblsp lemon juice to 3/4 cup milk & let sit 5 minutes.)
Egg white

Instructions

1. Preset the oven to 400 degrees, and put a baking sheet inside to let it warm up.

2. Soak the dulse in water for 5 minutes, then strain water out and break leaves into small pieces. I tried the dried dulse before soaking it, and it tastes like an accidental mouthful of ocean -- almost caustically salty. After a soak, the taste is remarkably different.

3. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl, using a sieve if you have one. If you don't have one, use your hands to aerate the flour.

4. Add the buttermilk and gently fold it into the flour mixture using your hands or a wooden spoon.

5. If you have a fish-shaped cookie cutter (recommended), roll out the dough so that it is approximately 1 inch thick, then use the cutter. If you have no cookie cutter, break the dough into 4 pieces and shape each one into a fish. (Be forewarned, your biscuits will lose some of its shape as it bakes up, so your fish may end up looking wonky -- like mine did!)

6. Take the warmed cookie tray out of the oven. Place the biscuits on the tray, then brush the tops with egg white and sprinkle with some salt.

7. Put in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Once they're ready, enjoy with some seafood!

I'm gonna make some watermelon pickles!

Inspired by one of the characters in Parade, I decided to try making "watermelon pickles" -- apparently a Southern favorite. They are supposed to have a sweet-and-sour bread and butter pickle taste. I will know soon!

Making the pickles is a multi-day process. This evening I peeled and cut up two small melons. I ended up with 4 quarts of peeled rind (currently soaking in salt water, as shown on the left in the picture above) and a large Tupperware container of ready-to-eat watermelon triangles (my inner 5-year-old is bouncing up and down).

As I usually do, I looked around at various recipes before finally settling on the one I'm following. Traditional recipes suggest removing all signs of pink from the rind, but that doesn't work well with the seedless watermelons most stores carry these days. (Somehow the seedless-ness also causes thin rinds.)

I'm hoping to hand these out to the cast and crew of Parade, so I will probably can these in decorative 4 oz jars to yield ~30 jars.

Good Night, and Good Luck

George Clooney has impressed me in the last few months, first with Syriana, a well-done look at the overlap between middle eastern (and american) politics and the oil industry. It also managed to reference some of the problems and realities facing working-class citizens of said countries. With portions of the film in English, French, German, Farsi, Urdu and Arabic, both I and a friend who'd studied Arabic found the movie particularly good.

Yesterday I saw Good Night, and Good Luck., Clooney's sophomore directing effort and first writing credit. The movie, a historipic about CBS's Edward Murrow and his efforts to speak up against Senator Joe McCarthy, made clear and deserved remarks against blind patriotism and loyalty driven by fear. David Strathairn's Murrow had a strong take-home message: though McCarthy (or, implicitly, any single person/group in power) was surely in error for his actions, the American people themselves were at fault for the frenzy that followed. Their apathy (even aversion) towards unpalatable news and their complacent loyalty were exactly the reason McCarthy was able to go unchecked for so long.

The movie itself is an independent one, back in small theatres in big cities because it's been given an Oscar nod.