Principles In Practice

Dropped everything and went to Pierce County Feast, where there was a potluck. I hadn't prepared or brought food, and even though I had some pea soup before I left, by the time consultation was over I was hungry. Every entree had chicken or beef or cheese in it, but I picked at a few tablespoons anyway. Meanwhile I was telling the hostess, since she asked, about the Plant Based Nutrition online eCornell course I'm taking. I got all the way through my China Study Conversation, and suddenly she jumped up. "I forgot! I need to put out the whipped cream for the pie!"

Later we went to Ruby Tuesday where I ate a salad without dressing for the first time in my life, counting various "diets" in the past. I also ate a half baked potato nude except for salt. [It's going to take awhile to get rid of the salt.]

We went grocery shopping, kind of dicey this time as circumstances have made me low in cash. I bought an entire shopping cart full of groceries for less than $100 because, with a few exceptions, I was buying all dried beans and oats, etc, and vegetables. It reminded me of when I was Pearl's age and I rode my bicycle, tricked out with folding pannier grocery baskets, to the neighborhood market and kept a running total of my purchases as I selected groceries, because I was paying with cash.

I'm planning to try out ground flax seed on my oatmeal instead of crushed pecans. The soy milk stays, for now.

Where's My Mind?

My mind these days is generally absorbed by two things: working 3 12-hour shifts per week, and studying my online eCornell course on plant-based nutrition. It is supposed to be able to be absorbed in 3 hours a week, but really there is too much information for me to truly assimilate that fast. Also the discussions are extensive.

I'm in the middle of the middle class, "Diseases of Affluence," and the course content is getting pretty serious. Read up, if you will, on Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and his work on reversing heart disease through diet. Heavy stuff.

Anyway, I don't have so many neurons available for blogging. Bear with me.

Plant-Based Nutrition at eCornell

I'm taking my first online college course at eCornell, Plant Based Nutrition based on The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. There are recorded lectures by the author, which so far have covered the same material as the book. The great, stimulating part of the course are the online discussions. Whoo! It's exciting to read people's history, many have been eating just plants for a long time and have lost a lot of weight, reversed diseases, e.g. migraines, and so forth, and are very fit.

I feel kind of bad that I'm kind of fat and slobby in contrast, but that's where I am. I did have an agency nurse that saw me for the first time in several months notice weight loss I hadn't noticed. The concensus I'm hearing is that the more you avoid certain foods such as meat, dairy foods, and fats, the more you lose your taste for them, and that they can actually be physiologically addictive.

Great quotes: 1] "Spaghetti is easy. Cancer is hard." Dr. Michael Greger. 2] "You don't see a lot of lions sitting around eating canned rabbits."--Emel, class participant.

We See Vancouver

My husband and I drove to Vancouver, BC Canada Sunday and drove back Monday evening, partly so he could buy the ultimate Persian-to-English dictionary and better translate his poetry, and partly to visit his cousin Mitra and her husband Zia. We had a great drive up to North Vancouver Monday and a ramble through a Persian-type store neighborhood, visiting an Iranian market where two years ago he bought two hundred audio cassettes of Persian music.

Next we walked up and down the sidewalk in the rain to find a second-story Persian bookstore. Too hard to find it from the car, as the sign was small and in Farsi script. But what fun when we found it. Books, CD's, santurs and Iranian guitars. Let's just say, Enayat's upcoming birthday is covered. I wish some time we could spend more time with leisurely shopping in various neighborhoods.

The drive home in the rain, with several multiple lane closures on the freeway, was grueling. What finally saved the day was Enayat singing his songs, many of which are my favorites although I do not know the words, and him tapping and snapping his fingers on the wheel, and me trying to get him to keep his hands on the wheel . . . I'm just glad to be home again.

Tomorrow I start my eCornell online course on plant-based nutrition, based on the China Study.