bearing blog

bearing blog


bear – ing n 1  the manner in which one comports oneself;  2  the act, power, or time of bringing forth offspring or fruit; 3 a machine part in which another part turns [a journal ~];  4  pl comprehension of one’s position, environment, or situation;   5  the act of moving while supporting the weight of something [the ~ of the cross].

  • NYT article on soft pretzels.

    The elusive bakery item I always long for.  I'm telling you, they can NOT make them in Minnesota.  And I don't understand why not.  It's not like there aren't any Germans around.  Maybe they're all from the wrong parts of Germany?  Or corrupted by contact with Scandinavians?  

    Nuremberg is where “the pretzel madness begins,” said Tinka Bickel, a German marketing manager who lives in New York. South of that German city lies a distinct culinary, linguistic and cultural region where pretzels are much more than a desperation-level snack.

    Bavaria is part of this region; there, a classic old-school breakfast is a fresh pretzel — about as wide as a dinner plate — served with two weisswurst (veal sausages) and a dollop of sweet mustard on a plate. Even bigger ones are made for Oktoberfest.

    But now, Ms. Bickel said, young people in Munich, Bavaria’s capital, just grab a thickly buttered pretzel with coffee on the way to work.

    Wah!  I want pretzels and sausage for breakfast!  

    My homemade sourdough pretzels are pretty good, but someday when I don't have small kids around I'm going to start using a lye bath.  But in the meantime, I think I will start adding lard to my pretzels.

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    3 comments on NYT article on soft pretzels.

  • Camp du Nord in the Strib.

    Earlier this month, a profile of one of our family's favorite destinations, YMCA Camp du Nord, appeared in the Star Tribune.  Thought I'd share it here.

    Camp du Nord was founded in 1960 when the Greater YMCA of St. Paul bought a small camp with several circa-1930s cabins. Although the camp later was expanded, the concept remained simple and unique: Just as kids' overnight camps are as much about personal growth as archery and S'mores, a family vacation can move beyond the scripted opportunities offered at many resorts to become a catalyst for family reflection and spiritual discovery….

    The hallmark of the Du Nord program is Age Group, which is the chunk of the morning between 10 a.m. and noon when counselors take kids on age-appropriate adventures, from outdoor cooking to pirate treasure hunts to hikes in chest-high mud. Adults can also enjoy their own activities, including guided (or not) hikes, nature photography lessons and orienteering exercises. Or they can sit on the dining hall porch, drink a cappuccino from the trading post and watch loons land on the lake, their wings ruffling like a pack of cards being shuffled.

    Our kids love Age Group primarily for one reason: the counselors, many of whom return year after year from the end of high school though college and beyond. I'm not sure if what makes them so special is that the Du Nord staff has a talent for finding the most open-hearted young adults in America or that a summer immersed in nature sands the rough edges off any attitude.

    I had to laugh a little bit at the piece's author for sounding so… worried… about committing to a trip where she'd have to drink her alcohol inside her own cabin — but it still is a decent piece.  

    Our trip this year is to YMCA of the Rockies, but we plan to be at du Nord next summer.  Love that place.

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    1 comment on Camp du Nord in the Strib.

  • Before-after photos.

    This is meant only to be an easily accessible “before and after” post that I can refer people to.  No comments are being solicited 🙂

    2006 (160 lbs)

    6a00d8341c50d953ef0115707876df970b-320wi

    2007 (148 lbs)

    6a00d8341c50d953ef011570787729970b-320wi

    October 2008 (113 lbs)

    6a00d8341c50d953ef011570788ef9970b-320wi

    January 2010 (9 months pregnant and 153 lbs)

    6a00d8341c50d953ef0120a81810bb970b-800wi

     

     

     

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  • Update on menu request.

    Yesterday I blogged my day's eating, and a commenter mentioned tracking on SparkPeople, which I used to do regularly and really haven't since I got pregnant last year.  

    I already did half the work, though, in making the list, so I went to SparkPeople and typed everything in.  I made generous estimates of the food I ate, where I didn't measure it.

    It came out this way:

    Breakfast (veggie omelette, coffee):  200 calories: 12 g fat, 10 g carb, 13 g protein

    Snack + Lunch at McDonald's:  515 calories: 21 g fat, 57 g carb, 28 g protein

    Dinner  + dessert (chicken, corn, salad, asparagus, ice cream, chocolate):  1,003 calories, 81 g fat, 53 g carb, 32 g protein

    ____________________

    Total: 1,719 calories, 148 g carb, 87 g fat, 73 g protein

    ____________________

    My rough fat-carb-protein  goal is 50-25-25– this was 47-36-17.

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    1 comment on Update on menu request.

  • Menu request.

    I got a request for a day's dietary intake and the decisions and trade-offs I made.  I'm going to have to do this from memory, and I didn't measure, but I'm game.

    Yesterday wasn't exactly typical, because we were on the road home from Ohio.  We woke up in a hotel in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and drove several hours, having a fast-food lunch and stopping at the grocery store before going to the house.

    Morning

    I started my day with a bottle of water, a 40-minute treadmill run in the hotel fitness center, followed by a cup of decent in-the-room black coffee.   The all-you-can-eat breakfast included cooked to order and other things served buffet-style.  I am never tempted by restaurant pancakes, waffles, or French toast; my homemade ones are better.  I don't like pre-sweetened yogurt cups.   So the only choices I considered were oatmeal (the only whole grain around) or "fluffy omelette with choice of fillings."

    I asked the waitress if they were two- or three-egg omelettes; she said "The eggs are already mixed up and the chef uses a scoop.  He uses however much he needs to wrap around all the fillings."  

    I said, "OK, have him make me an omelette with lots of veggies, and the absolute minimum amount of egg necessary to hold it together."  Cheese?  "Sure, go ahead, cheese."

    The omelette was still too big, so I gave about a third of it to Mark.  I would have had tomato juice if they'd had it, but there were only fruit juices, so I stuck with coffee.

    Summary:

    • Omelette with about one egg, about half a cup of tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, and onions, and about 3 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese, plus whatever oil it was cooked in.
    • About 24 oz water
    • 3 or 4 cups black coffee.

    Midday

    We carried a small supply of snacks in the car:  my usual jar of almonds, a bag of oatmeal cookies sent with us by Mark's mom, a box of assorted granola bars, and a mini-cooler with grapes, string cheese, and a few apples.  When I opened up the cooler to fetch MJ a string cheese, I snagged a few ice-cold grapes to quench my thirst.  

    The children were restless, so I suggested to Mark that we stop for lunch at a McDonald's or Burger King with a play structure.   "We can eat while the kids play, and they can keep playing while you go to gas up the car, and then we can take their food with them in the car."  I declared it a No Fries Day and took the kids' orders as we approached Exit 65 (I have memorized the exits at which fast food playlands can be found all the way from Minneapolis to Cincinnati).

    I made my standard McDonald's order:  two side salads and a grilled chicken club sandwich, of which I planned to eat about half.  I ate the salads first and then opened the sandwich box to discover that they had given me a crispy sandwich instead.  It's possible I ordered the wrong sandwich by mistake.  I like that kind of sandwich, so I shrugged and decided to eat it instead of getting a different one.  I had about half the sandwich plus a couple of bites, and then put it back in the box and closed the box.  

    Mark didn't finish his salad.  "I forgot how big these are!" he said to me.  I nodded — that's why I get the side salads.  On the dollar menu, they are a pretty good deal.

    Summary:

    • 3 to 6 grapes
    • Ice water
    • Two McDonald's side salads, veg only, no croutons or cheese
    • About half of one packet of the low-fat balsamic vinaigrette dressing
    • 1/2 to 2/3 of a crispy chicken club sandwich — it's got cheese, mayo, bacon, lettuce, and tomato on it.

    Dinner and afterwards

    I was busy making a grocery list in the car, and I never got hungry for an afternoon snack.  We got to the grocery store about 3:30.   I had planned to have rotisserie chicken, salad, asparagus, and boiled new potatoes for dinner — that is my standard "we shopped right before dinner" dinner.  But the children clamored for sweet corn, so I told Mark to cross the potatoes off the list.  

    This had to be a simple, quick dinner.  At home, I tossed the asparagus in olive oil and put it in the oven to roast.  I cut up the chicken, sneaking just one bite as I transferred the pieces to a serving dish.  I rinsed the salad (a bag of hearts of romaine plus part of a box of arugula) and sliced tomato and lettuce.  I cut the ears of corn in half and set them steaming.  We had a bottle of dressing that everyone likes pretty well, so I just used that.  We opened a bottle of wine and sat down to dinner around 5:15.

    Originally we had planned to go to a 9 pm Mass, but two of the children had run a fever in the past 48 hours, so we didn't go.  I was kind of relieved not to, honestly.  I was tired and glad to be home.

    We have sundaes on Sunday for bedtime snack.  Afterwards I wanted more chocolate so I got myself some.

    Summary:

    • 1 rotisserie chicken thigh, with skin (yum) plus that bite I sneaked
    • 1 big bowl of lettuce-arugula-tomato-cucumber salad with Brianna's "blush wine vinaigrette" salad dressing
    • Half a plate of olive-oil-roasted asparagus
    • Half an ear of sweet corn with butter
    • 1 glass late harvest Riesling
    • 1 small scoop vanilla ice cream with about a tablespoon hot fudge sauce and a generous sprinkling of chopped almonds
    • 1 square Ghirardelli dark chocolate bar with sea salt

    I said it wasn't a typical day but in some respects it was entirely typical:  spur-of-the-moment decisions for breakfast and lunch, a planned dinner, children to feed, occasional detours.  Anyway.  That was yesterday.

    I've sort of lost touch with whether that seems like a lot of food or not.  Does it?

    (update:  calorie totals here)

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    8 comments on Menu request.

  • Life in the fast lane.

    I'm all for having easy, quick, natural childbirths.  But I like to take them a little slower than this one:

    A Minnesota mother and newborn are doing fine after the mother delivered the boy while driving, the father steering from the passenger's seat.

    Twenty-nine-year-old Amanda McBride felt labor pains at work last week and rushed to her car. She picked up the baby's father, staying in the driver's seat because he has a history of seizures.

    She drove to the hospital experiencing mild labor pains. Suddenly her water broke and the baby "just slid out."

    Yow!  It doesn't say whether that was her first baby…

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    2 comments on Life in the fast lane.

  • Means-centered affirmations.

    I have been maintaining that the secret to eating moderately for weight loss is to desire the new behavior of eating moderately for its own sake, instead of trying to desire weight loss strongly enough to overcome daily temptations.  Often I've wondered if it's possible for people to make themselves want that:  to teach them to desire the means instead of the end.

    Because it's obvious that "wanting to lose weight" often isn't strong enough.  Commonly, weight loss pundits advise the dieter to write down all the advantages of losing weight that she can think of, either in a long list or individually on cards.  Then, she is supposed to renew them regularly, every morning or however often as necessary to keep them front and center in their priority list.

    So, you'll see suggested advantages like this:

    • I will be able to shop in regular stores.
    • I'll be able to sit comfortably in an airplane seat.
    • I'll be less likely to suffer from diabetes…

    All of these reasons are extremely attractive and I think it is interesting that
    even though they are so attractive, many people have to deliberately place them
    before their minds on a daily basis so that they can overcome the temptation to
    make better food choices.

    And that got me thinking… if people with really attractive reasons to lose weight still have trouble keeping themselves motivated… but if reviewing those reeasons daily really helps them remember why they want to lose weight…

    …could people use a similar method to teach themselves to want to eat moderately for its own sake?  To desire the means, and not just the end?

    Here's my idea for a set of means-based affirmation cards.

    • If I eat less food, there will be more food available for other members of my family.
    • If I eat less food, I'm acting locally to reduce global grain prices and help reduce hunger worldwide.
    • If I eat less food, I can cook less food; if I cook less food, I can buy less food; if I buy less food, my grocery bills will go down.
    • If I stop wasting extra food in my body, then my family wastes less energy, less agricultural land, and less clean water.
    • If I eat less food, I can choose better-quality food. I can enjoy expensive imported cheeses in small amounts, instead of abundant cheap grocery store cheese; I can enjoy local butter from grass-pastured local cows; I might be able to afford organic fruit and humanely raised meats; instead of bags of cheap milk chocolates I can enjoy a square of the good stuff that's eight dollars a bar.
    • If I order small meals at restaurants, I will be using my money to encourage restaurants to offer options with smaller portion sizes.
    • I will never worry that people are judging me because I am eating so much.
    • If I regularly eat lightly, then I will not feel panicky on religious fast days; I'll be able to concentrate on God instead of on my fear and my hunger.
    • When I go to a party, I will be able to talk with people and enjoy the company instead of worrying about what I will eat.
    • If I take small bites, slowly and graciously, I can keep up with the conversation without being caught talking with my mouth full.
    • It will be easy to model gracious dining behavior to my children.
    • Because I won't be worried about not getting enough for myself, I will easily be generous with what I have.
    • When I order a tasty sandwich, often I'll get to have the other half that I've saved for the next day.
    • Eating slowly reduces my risk of choking.
    • Eating lightly will help keep heartburn at bay.
    • Eating less meat means I'll get less meat stuck in my teeth.
    • If I regularly get hungry between meals, I will not FEAR getting hungry between meals.
    • If I spend less time eating, I'll have enough time to cut up my children's food
    • If I eat small meals, I will never feel uncomfortably stuffed.
    • If I take time before picking up my fork, I will never again burn my mouth on hot food.
    • If I eat carefully and always use knife and fork, I won't spill food on my clothes.
    • If I let myself get hungry between meals, my food will taste wonderful when I sit down to the table.
    • When I go to a buffet, I won't have trouble juggling an overflowing plate because my food will fit beautifully on it.
    • If it's true that transportation represents 12 percent of the energy costs of food production, then by eating just 12 percent less I can cut my "carbon food print" equivalently to growing all my own food in my back yard. (I'm a low-ca-vore!)
    • Because I don't eat EVERYTHING EVERY DAY, I can enjoy ANYTHING on ANY DAY.

    All these are affirmations of the advantages of moderate eating — not of the advantages of being thinner.  I wonder if writing them on cards and reviewing them daily could help train people to want to eat less for its own sake — which is so much more powerful than wanting to be thin and having to eat less to get there.

    Can you think of some more? Add them in the comments.

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    4 comments on Means-centered affirmations.

  • The $8.49 rebozo.

    Check it out:

    0519101537-00
    It's a linen-rayon "fashion scarf" off the sale rack at Old Navy.  (Full price $12.50).

    I don't know how durable it will be, but it just goes to show that babywearing does not have to be expensive or complicated.

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    5 comments on The $8.49 rebozo.

  • Typeface.

    Several people have complained to me in the past month or so that my blog's font is too small to read.  Nobody ever complained before.  Is it the tipping point in the advent of mobile devices with tiny screens?  Are you all getting old and nearsighted?

    Regardless, I can't change my default font size without either paying Typepad more money, or changing my blog's appearance to an entirely different theme.

    I fear change.  And yet I am considering it, so that you all don't strain your eyes.

    What do you think?  Go with something close to the classic pale blue bearing blog theme you've known for so long?  Or strike out with something totally new?  (Either way with a bigger font)

    I'm keeping my cactus flower photo.  I like it.

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    15 comments on Typeface.

  • Pickiness.

    One problem with being “on a diet” in America:  It tends to make you an aggravated, and possibly aggravating, dinner guest.

    This is where the habit of gluttony* really shows its true colors, and in so many different ways.  Our cultural expectation of overeating as part of a celebration — and I don’t mean ordinary, natural festive feasting food, I mean really overstuffing — tempts those who would like to remain temperate; and it causes people to take offense when a dish is declined, however politely.  

    One of the more insidious ways, though, is that the dinner guest or houseguest  “on a diet” often can see no way to limit her eating, except to fall into another kind of gluttony:  eating “too daintily.”   That is:   “being a picky eater.”  

    Allergies excepted, it’s indeed gluttonous to ask that your host conform the dinner to your imagined dietary requirement.  What’s that?  Did I just say “imagined?”  Yes, indeed.  There are no dietary requirements over the time scale of a single meal that are not imagined.  There may be dietary exclusions — allergies and true food intolerances, as well as religious and philosophical taboos — but no requirements.  Many exclusions are imaginary, too.  It will not kill a low-carb eater to have a polite quantity of rice or pasta or potatoes.  White flour may not be good for you, but it is not poison in small quantities to most people.   An entire dinner of deep-fried food, with nary a fresh vegetable to be seen, will not destroy a low-fat dieter.  But it is so tempting to sit unhappily at the table and think “Don’t they know I can’t eat all this stuff?”  Or to conspicuously peel the skin and breading off your chicken and leave it in a sodden pile on your plate.  Or else to become the Guest from Hell — “Do you have any plain vegetables?  What’s in this salad dressing?”  Even following the best advice — bring a “safe” dish of your own to share — often carries a subtext of “You make the WRONG food and I am trying to show you what is the RIGHT food.” 

    Look, I’ve been there.  I’ve done this. I spent several years trying to eat low-carb, which is one of the worst offenders in terms of diets for turning its proponents into picky eaters, certain that one bite of dessert will send them out of ketosis and derail them for the next 3 weeks.   I am keeping my fingers crossed that my in-laws and friends don’t invade the comboxes and say “Come on Erin, you should talk.”  I’m trying to be better!  I swear!

    I’m bringing this up trying to make a plug for simple moderation of quantity as a dietary tactic.  Since I stopped following strict dietary regimens and started “not eating so damn much,” I find it’s a lot easier to be a dinner guest.  There’s nothing I can’t accept on my plate graciously:  potatoes, bread, meat, dessert.   If there are plenty of vegetables around, it’s not hard to fill my plate up with half veg as I try to do on a daily basis.  But even if there aren’t,  so that I must subsist (for just this one meal!) on high-calorie, low-nutrition stuff, no one can stop me from taking servings that are small enough to get the right amount of calories at least. 

    You know the phrase “I’m saving room for dessert”?  Use it.  Really do save room for dessert, by eating a right-size portion of everything you’re served.   You do not have to clean your plate.  Use “No, thank you” as many times as necessary.  And then when dessert comes, rave over it.  And then, if you like, stop before you’re done and proclaim yourself too stuffed to eat any more. 

    It’s as simple as that.  And you can do it without explaining to anyone that you’re on a diet, or have special needs, or are… “special.”  You can just concentrate on being a gracious guest and having a good time with the company.

    Reality:  You may not be able to consume a perfect meal, or even a “good for you” meal, when you are a dinner guest.  But you can always reinforce anti-gluttonous habits.  That includes pickiness.  Cheerfully accepting what’s served to you and eating a moderate portion of it — meaning that the only control you choose to exercise over the menu is self-control, i.e., STOPPING when you have had enough calories — is part of being a gracious guest, and also an important skill that I think many of us have not developed and that transfers to lots of other eating situations.  And when you leave, you can reflect with pleasure on the habits you have reinforced — making good choices (not just biochemically healthy choices, but charitable ones) in a situation where choices are, as always, limited.

    [Editing note.  Years and years later, I wish I’d done a better job distinguishing gluttony from other problems with food, like clinical eating disorders and other kinds of compulsiveness.  

    I want to emphasize that, whereas I identified some behaviors in myself that probably qualified as self-centered gluttony in the technical sense, I am not and never have been qualified to make that distinction for anyone else.

    I hope to add some commentary to all the posts that have this problem as I find the time to review them.  Here’s a more recent post where I acknowledge some of the problematic material I wrote and set new ground rules for myself going forward.]

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    12 comments on Pickiness.

  • Seasonal counterscape.

    Seen on my mother-in-law's countertop yesterday evening:

    0517101749-00

    Those are fresh-baked shortcakes, my friends, and fresh-picked strawberries from the garden.  Truly I have married into wealth beyond my wildest dreams.

     

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    8 comments on Seasonal counterscape.

  • Friend of the family receiving Sacrament of the Sick, possibly last rites, at this hour (5 pm Sunday Eastern time). If you catch this message, prayers urgently requested, esp. Divine Mercy Chaplet. Patient's name is Dave. Thank you and God Bless.

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