Encounter with the paracetamol pusher.

First of all, I know I've already mentioned it in the comment section yesterday, but for those of you who've missed it, thanks for all the well wishes everyone! I am not jumping around yet, but I do feel a lot better (and I hate staying in bed) so, here is a little update.

Yesterday I went to see my doctor and that’s always a lot of fun (or a waste of time, whatever you like to call it), because most of the time you already know what he's going to say and what he's going to give you……that magical drug called paracetamol and it almost always comes with this advice: 3 times a day, for 7 days, and if that doesn’t make things better, make another appointment. So, let’s say you have done that and there is no improvement, on the 8th day you call his assistant to make a new appointment, which is always a pain in itself. She will reluctantly grant you a new appointment for the following week and tells you to keep taking the paracetamol (miraculously they always give you enough for 2 weeks). It’s almost as if they are thinking 'Hey, if it didn’t kill you the first week, it’s not going to do so in the second.' BTW, I always believe that the whole paracetamol run is some sort of test to see if you are seriously sick. But that’s how it usually goes. Yesterday was a bit of a different story.

I was lucky to get an appointment so soon, but that was probably because I’d thrown in a bit of chest pain. Nervously I awaited my turn. Not really sure why though, because I already had a vague idea what I had….a virus and heartburn and I actually did want him to give me something for the latter because the over-the-counter stuff wasn't working. I already knew you had to see a doc for the really good (or should that be bad) stuff.
Last June I had a bad case of heartburn too, at the time I actually thought I was going to die and that thought brought on a panic attack and I ended up in the emergency doctor’s office. Not nice, but quite an experience. Last week I had a milder episode, but last Monday it was back in full swing, pain in the breastbone area included, and the worst part….it wasn’t going away. Add to this all flu-like symptoms and there you have it ladies and gentleman….. a fine mess!

But back to the doctor’s office. Of course he wanted to send me away with just the paracetamol but I told him I was going nowhere until he gave me something else for the acids too, because it was haunting me like a terrible nightmare (or the bad Chinese food I had last Sunday). And strangely enough, it was almost as if someone flicked a switch, I had his full attention all of a sudden. OMG….how scary!
He asked me to tell him the full story and so I did. When I finished, he looked at his computer, typed a few things and stared at the screen for a very long time. All I could think was ‘is he writing me a prescription or is he just googling my symptoms?’ Because come on…..you never know these days! But, he actually was printing out some nice (not!) instructions and a diet list because he thinks I have some form of GERD. Oh jolly!

So here are some of the things I am not allowed to have over the next two weeks: coffee, tea, (oh, no coffee and tea….how on earth am I going to survive that…the horror!)
milk, alcohol, orange juice, sodas. There’s only one thing I can drink safely and that is……water! I can’t have chocolate, ice cream, salad dressings, cheese, anything with tomato (so no soup, pasta sauce, or pizza for instance), mint (he even suggested a mint free toothpaste), onions, garlic, pepper, (hot)spices, cabbage and cauliflower, milk, vinegar, fat.
Actually the list goes on and on, but I am not going to bore you with that. If I want to be safe, it’s best to stick to water and bread. Oh and let's not forget, I am allowed to swallow my prescribed drugs. Hooray!
Nah, it's not all doom and gloom, there are still a few things I can eat and drink; I just have to figure out which ones. And it’s not a life sentence (at least not yet) it’s just two weeks (I have to see him again).

Wish me luck, because I think I am going to need it.

Weekly finds.

A round up of strange, hilarious, interesting, boring, fun, or peculiar sites

The World’s weirdest weather
As if tornadoes, hurricanes and blizzards weren’t enough to keep us on our toes, Mother Nature occasionally surprises us with some truly odd weather phenomena. Take a look at their Top 10.


What does 200 calories look like? For those of you who are trying to lose some weight. Here is what 200 calories look like!

Activity Calorie Calculator
Need to burn some calories? This is the site for you! Just fill in your weight and the average amount of time you spend doing an activity and they’ll do the math and return an activities page personalized for you.

Strange faces.
Is it a man, or is it a woman? Not totally clear? That is not so surprising because all these faces are made from male and female parts. And that’s not all, you can create different faces by shuffling the face or fooling around by clicking on the eyes, nose, mouth or face. Just give it a go!

Like-a-local.
Are you going to visit Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium or the Netherlands this year? If so, why not do it like-a-local. Like-a-local provides the traveller with the opportunity to connect with the local life in major cities. You can live (like a local) in unique places, meet a local and be surprised by their secret addresses or dine (at home) with a local so that you can experience the local atmosphere!

Show me your shopping trolley and I tell you who you are!

I don’t know if I could actually do that, but I think the content of a shopping trolley can convey a lot about a person. You can tell if they receive a big pay check every month or are shopping on a budget. Do people lead a busy life, or not! You can find out if people cook, or not – the members of the microwave posse! You can tell if people eat healthy, or are more into snacks. And you can tell if people are on a diet or not. Oh, and of course you can tell if people are single or part of a (large) family.
Strangely enough I’d never noticed or thought about that before. I just recently discovered the pleasure of examening other peoples shopping carts…..call me weird ;)

On Saturday’s a lot of people do their weekly shopping (guess you already knew that), which automaticly results in long queues at the supermarket checkout (bet you already knew that too). So, if it’s at all possible I don’t go to the supermarket on Saturday, but most of the time I need to go and get something so, I will end up in the long queues :( In the past this could really ruin my day, but not anymore! First I changed the whole shopping experience by taking my iPod along (tip: make sure you have inspiring and uplifting music on there). I know it’s not very social, but this way I don’t have to listen to the screaming kids, arguing couples and sighing husbands. One note of caution though….make sure you don’t sing along and don’t, I repeat DON’T dance in the aisles, people will look at you funny. Oh, and don’t put Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake on it, it makes you walk like a catwalk model.

As soon as I enter the queue, I strike a relaxing pose (No, not a Vogue one ;)) and start people watching, still with the ipod on of course…..I don’t want to listen to all the sighing and complaining that’s going on! You wouldn’t expect it but the supermarket is a great place for people watching. When I get bored with that, I turn to examening shopping trolleys and it is astonishing what you can find there. So many carts, so many different items, and still so many trolleys that look the same. A lot of people seem to feel guilty when grocery shopping. On the one end of their trolley they have a lot of unhealthy food like: crisps, cookies, cakes, food that needs to be deep-fried, chocolate, pastries, ice-cream, softdrinks, candy bars, desserts, coffee and so on and so on. In the middle there is the stuff that everyone needs like: toiletpaper, dertergent, shampoo, bread, milk etc. Almost ¾ of most carts are already filled now, but there is a little bit of space left for the stuff that I like to call “make up for” food. The food that reduces the guilty feeling. In that section you are most likely to find some fruit, 1 or 2 kinds of (fresh) vegetables, cholesterol-lowering products (yoghurts, margarine, cheese etc.), artificial sweeteners, the light version of soft drinks, decaf coffee and bottled water. In my opinion people would not need so much of this stuff if they would only buy half (or less) of the bad stuff. But hey, I am not with the food police ……

Anyway, all this made me wonder about my own groceries. What do they tell about me? Hmmz… I don’t use a trolley but a basket so that would probably tell that I don’t buy a lot of groceries and that would probably mean that I am not part of a large family. My basket is usually filled with healthy food and necessities (store brands only), in small amounts, this most likely tells people that I am single, shop on a budget and don’t like junk food. Oh, and it would probably say that I do like coffee and tea because I buy coffee and tea a lot. So, I am curious, what does your shopping trolley (/basket) say about you?

Organize This turns into Organize That!

I was quite amazed by all the response I’ve got on yesterdays post. Apparently a lot of you are into cooking and want to share recipes. So, how are we going to do this? Are we going to:

• join Angela’s recipe blog (if she will take us),
• join yummy food stuff (if they'd have us),
• are we going to create a new team blog?

Suggestions are more then welcome!

Don’t you just hate it when food stares at you?

The other day DoGGa had this picture of a strangely shaped potato on his blog.

Yesterday I came across this one….

I really don’t like it when food stares at me. It gives me the creeps;)

Mind, Body & Soul sessions (#12)

Stop Mindless Eating, Start Eating Mindfully

Do you find yourself continually reaching for that second helping, taking nibbles and bites while you are cooking, filling dinner plates to the rim, finishing leftovers, staring down the contents of your refrigerator waiting for something to beckon to you, or finishing meals in record time? If the answer is YES! Well then it is time to congratulate you, so here it is Congratulations, you are now officially a Mindless Eater. Hmm… congratulating you does not feel right; actually I should offer you my condolences. Mindless eating is bad….BAD, because mindless eating can lead to eating amnesia. This means you cannot accurately remember what and how much you actually ate. It’s hard to keep track of how much you are eating when you are doing something else like watching TV, cooking, reading, checking your email, or talking on the phone. Plus the kind of food that you can easily eat when you are multi-tasking is usually food you can pick up with your fingers. Unless you eat celery sticks or fruit, most finger foods are high in calories. And hey, just because you can’t remember what you ate and all those calories that came along with it, doesn’t mean they aren’t real.

A lot of our unhealthy eating behaviours are simply bad habits, inherited from our parents or influenced by our environment. But these little habits can have a huge impact on how many calories you eat each day and ultimately, how much you weigh.

So, maybe it’s time for a change and maybe it’s time to examine your relationship with food, which can be both enlightening and liberating. And maybe, just maybe, it’s time to end the mindless eating and start to eat mindfully.

Your task, if you want to change you eating behaviour: Dedicate this week to paying attention – and I really mean pay attention- to how you eat your food. That means no snacking because you're upset or bored, no eating while standing in front of the fridge or preparing your meals, no grazing mindlessly while staring at the TV or your computer screen and no turning meals into multitasking affairs.

Instead of wolfing down a sandwich at your computer, take 15 minutes to truly enjoy your meal. Sit down, push everything else aside, give yourself plenty of room and actually taste what you're eating. Think about the food you're putting into your mouth and consciously chew, take pleasure in every bite. Eat slowly and stop when you're comfortable. Remember that as your food reaches your stomach, you will feel full. Eating slower helps you eat less, by simply slowing down and taking the time to truly enjoy your meals, you can trim calories too (now, isn’t that a great plus :)).

So, in short, Eating Mindfully is all about paying attention? Yup, Eating Mindfully is all about paying attention to what you eat, when you eat, where you eat, how it taste and controlling what goes in your mouth when you're stressed, upset, or just plain bored. Sound easy enough! But still, you have to be smart and some tips might come in handy, so here are 3 tips that will help you during moments of weakness.

Plan Ahead – You can’t eat it, if you don’t have it: In a moment of weakness or boredom, there's nothing easier than grabbing the Ben & Jerry’s from the freezer (or your snack of choice) and devour it. But what if indulgences like that aren't in the house? If it isn’t there, you can’t eat. Stock your kitchen with fruits, vegetables, pudding cups, frozen fruit bars, and yogurt a.k.a healthy snacks!

Treat Yourself To A Treat from time to time: There's nothing wrong with an occasional treat, they often make eating healthy a little easier. Whether it's a small bag of chips, a handful of M&M’s during your favourite TV show or an ice cream cone on a warm day, giving yourself permission to eat it removes the need for secret binge sessions.

Stay Active During TV Time: Keeping your hands and head occupied can keep you from the television haze-induced snacking. This doesn’t mean you have to stay active all the time, but when you feel a snack attack coming on, don’t snack, do something else instead. For example: exercise, knit, or do a crossword! It doesn't matter what it is, just keep busy and keep your mind of the snacks!

Now go on……Eat, Drink & Be Merry, but above all….Mindful!!

Mind, body and soul sessions (#10)

Go for real Happy Meals.

No, no, no, I am not talking about McDonald’s Happy Meals here. I am talking about food that will make you feel good and happier.

We live in a fast-paced world; everything has to happen immediately, right now and quickly. Some of us don’t even take the time to enjoy a nice meal anymore. Eating has become something you do while you are doing something else. A lot of people eat while they watch TV, work on their computer or read a book. Where is the pleasure in that? How can you savour your meal when you are not consciously eating? Some people are so preoccupied, they don’t even taste what they eat and that’s a real shame. Food needs to be enjoyed.
There are even some people around who have never ever prepared a real meal in their life. Why would you, in this world where fast-food is widely available? Well, because it’s fun and relaxing and because you get to pick and choose all the ingredients yourself.
And of course there are people in this lose-weight-fast culture, who get caught up in the latest fashion diet. What’s going on here people? Why are we losing sense of what food is really meant to do? Food is not the enemy, food is our friend.

Every day we need good food to nourish and power every cell in our body. Just like a car, our body needs the right kind of fuel to function properly. Every cell needs a steady supply of energy to perform optimally and that energy comes from each bite we take. Sure our bodies can manage to survive on insufficient or mediocre fuel, but why not go for the best performance possible. Believe it or not, you are what you eat, emotionally and physically, so give your body the best fuel available.

To get you started, here are some nutrition guidelines to boost your energy levels and to make you feel better.

• Eat a combination of carbs, protein and fat at regular intervals to keep your energy levels high throughout the day.
• Eat healthy snacks every three to four hours to keep your blood sugar level stable.
• Drink water and keep water handy at all times. Dehydration cause tiredness and makes you feel hungry.
• Avoid caffeine, sugary sodas and sweetened drinks.
• Eat plenty fruits (or choose fresh juice if you don’t like eating fruit) and vegetables.
• Fried or fatty foods can make you feel lethargic. Choose natural and unprocessed foods.
• Choose whole grains and complex carbs over refined grains and sugars.
• Increase your sources of protein with nuts, seeds, fish, beans and tofu.

There are all sorts of rules and guidelines out there and some of them might work better for you then others. Give them a try and find out what works for you. To much trouble, try this. The most basic thing you can do towards eating better is to ask yourself at every meal, is this food going to make me feel better or worse? Try guidelines and think about how your body feels at the end of the day.

Savour every bite and enjoy your meal!!

Mind the ……..Mushroom!

I am one of those people who loves mushrooms. I am not talking about shrooms or magic mushrooms here (yeah, I know I am boring ;)), I am talking about plain old mushrooms, champignons, button mushrooms. I like them sautéed, in salad’s, on pizza’s, in soup and sauces etc..Yum, yum…..yummy!

Recently, however, I’ve discovered I sometime react very strange to mushroom. Yesterday I ate some creamy mushroom soup, store bought this time, accompanied by a French baguette with herb butter. Again yummy! But 30 minutes after I’d finished my meal the strange reaction kicked in. It all starts with feeling very sleepy and it’s a hard struggle to keep my eyes open. With a little help from my friend Mr. Coffee, I was sort of able to win the battle but not completely though. About 15 minutes later my brain just shuts down or something. I can function, walk around, read and do stuff around the house but it really feels like I am doing it like a zombie. The body is there, the mind is off somewhere else. You can compare it with zoning out, quite a freaky feeling. At the moment I still feel the same way but I know this will wear off during the day. About 24 hours later I’ll be back to my normal self. So, if this post is absolutely rubbish ….please, feel free to blame it on the mushroom.

But here is the thing I don’t get. Magic mushrooms contain Psilocybin which, among other things, can make you feel very sleepy. “Normal” mushrooms do not. So why does my body react to this soup as if I've eaten shrooms. Do they put magic mushrooms in store bought soups? Am I allergic to mushrooms all of sudden? Has anybody heard of such a thing? If you have, please let me know!

What else is seeping out of my body through my sweat glands?

Probably a lot of stuff I don’t want to know about, but I am suspecting that my inspiration is leaving the temple (a.k.a my body) through these glands too. I can absolutely not come up with any original blog idea. Sorry folks!! It’s another weather related post (or question in this case) and this time it’s about food.

What do you eat when temperatures are high?

I am always drinking a lot more when it’s hot and I eat a lot less because my appetite has almost completely vanished. This concept would be great if I was on a diet but I am not. I don’t need or want to lose weight, so I am force-feeding myself ;) No just kidding, but I refuse to skip meals….. people need to eat! So I treating myself to all sorts of salads, because a) they are cold and b) I like salads. But by now I’ve eating every salad (green-, pasta- , chicken- , fruit- , tuna- and salmon salads) I can think of but there must be more stuff I can eat without getting hot flashes (no, I am not “going through the change”….it’s the weather :)) after every bite. So my question to you: What do you eat when it’s hot?

Please don’t feel obligated to answer, but it would be great if you did though :)

If you want fast-food, go to Denmark,

because Danish fast-food contains less fat. Isn’t that strange?!?! Who would have thought?
Today I was reading an article which states that Danish fast-food is relatively healthy. In the USA, fast-food is the least healthy food choice.

A Danish University researched the amounts of harmful fatty acids in fast-food from McDonald’s and KFC. American French fries and chicken nuggets contains 10,1 grams of fatty acids. Would you buy the same combo in Denmark, it will only contain 0,33 grams of harmful fatty acids. So, it isn’t true that McDonald’s and KFC serve the same stuff all over the globe. Maybe the Americans should contact their Danish colleagues for some (healthy) advice :)

But hey, let’s be honest. We all know that fast-food isn’t the most sensible choice. Last year American research showed that fast-food is in fact super-unhealthy. People who eat fast-food on a regular basis are on average 5 kilos (or 11 pounds) heavier than people who rarely eat fast-food. So I’m not going to promote fast-food but if you really, really need to eat it, go to Denmark. It’s still not the most healthy option, but surely healthier :)

Mr. McDonald’s, please don’t ‘Super size me’

I finally got the chance to see ‘Super size me’, a great documentary!. I can highly recommend this movie if you are interested in nutrition, (fast) food or McDonald’s. I can also suggest it to people who want to lose weight. Watching this could be very inspirational and motivating :)

Summary: The latest statistics show that two out of every three Americans are overweight, and about one out of every three of those persons is obese. Morgan Spurlock, decides to eat three meals a day at McDonald’s for thirty days, to see how it will affect him. He must eat every item on the menu at least once during the thirty days, and he must super size anything he orders when super sizing is suggested by the McDonald’s employees. And the outcome is not a pretty picture :)

One other thing this documentary will do is change the way you look at McDonald’s marketing, health and fast food. And if the documentary doesn’t alter your view, the bonus material probably will. One of the bonus items is called ‘the smoking fry’. That’s sounds promising! They did a food experiment. In the office they had some glass jars with a lid. McDonald’s (and some regular) burgers and fries were put in separate jars and they were kept at room temperatures. The decay was monitored and of course things started to get mouldy pretty soon…… except for the French fries. After 10 weeks the French fries looked exactly the same as the first day. Now how freaky is that? Can you imagine having that in your system? That can’t be right, now can it?

Like I said, interesting documentary, it's an entertaining and thought-provoking film and leaves you wanting more…….more healthy food, that is!

Oh and that doesn’t mean that you should go for the new “healthy” salads. According to the documentary, their new premium ranch chicken salad with dressing delivers more calories than a Big Mac and 51 grams of fat, 79% of your daily fat intake.

Balance days

Wow, that almost sounds like a circus act doesn’t it? But it’s not! It’s just the new healthy advice the Dutch Nutrition Centre came up with. The Dutch Nutrition Centre conducts projects and campaigns to promote a healthy diet pattern.

So, how does the balance day work?
Quite simple actually. A balance day is a day ‘less’ after a day ‘more’. Did you eat too much yesterday, then today will be your balance day. A balance day is NOT a diet day. On your balance day you will watch what you eat and move/exercise more. That way, things will balance out and your weight will stay the same.

When will you need a balance day?
When you have eaten too much, you can feel overstuffed. Do you need a balance day? Probably not! It all depends on your normal eating behaviour. When will you need a balance day then? Example: Normally you eat 2 sandwiches and an apple for lunch. But today you want something different. You eat 2 rolls with brie and another cheese, a packed of crisps and piece of pie. Instead of walking to work, you took the car/bus. It’s clear that you consumed more and burned fewer calories then you would do on a normal day. Time for a balance day I would say :)

It’s your choice, your responsibility.
Take a balance day, or just leave it. A ‘more’ day is not always easy to recognize. It’s so easy to eat something extra: cake on somebody’s birthday, an extra snack/packet of crisps, candy bar or a few extra pints or glasses of wine. If it’s just every now and then, that’s okay…. But if it happens on a regular basis, you will gain weight because of all the extra calories. You are the only one who knows what you really ate. Take your responsibility and take a balance day!

Note:
A balance day is not a diet day. So don’t skip meals! Eating very little is also out of the question. Just make healthy choices, do an extra workout or take a longer walk then usual.

Oh… and it works! I’ve been doing this for a long time now (so, it’s not as new as the Dutch Nutrition Centre thinks) and my weight is always the same…..well, almost always; the holiday season doesn’t count ;)

A vegetable is just a vegetable.

A lot of people think that biological/organic vegetables are healthier then normal vegetables, but that’s not accurate. The Dutch Consumers' Association did some research and as it turns out normal grown vegetables are just as healthy.

The Association compared fifteen different organic vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes and lettuce with their regular counterpart. They tested the levels of vitamin C, iron, calcium, fibres and anti-oxidants. Of course there is more iron in one vegetable and more fibres in the other but overall there is no difference between organically grown vegetables and its regular counterpart, so spinach is just spinach! However there is one difference: the levels of used pesticides. Duh… Consumers' Association! I always thought that people ate organic produce because they don’t want to absorb all those pesticides :)

Warning! Don’t let this spoil your appetite.

I watched a Dutch consumer program on TV the other day and I was really grossed out. They had inspected the buffets of nine first-class all-inclusive hotels at the Turkish Riviera and the results were staggering. The food in 8 of the hotels is evidently a health hazard.

In 5 food samples they found fecal bacteria. These should not be in, and can not exist in properly cooked food. Are you grossed out yet? Yes, stop reading then. The lab who tested these samples tried to copy the results but it was impossible. It was just too disgusting, even for them. To imitate the results they would need to have poop on their hands and who would want that…. Well, I guess Turkish kitchen staff certainly doesn’t have a problem with that. Never heard of washing their hands, I guess.

Further testing showed that 4 of the 9 hotels also served decayed/rotten/bad food. Food is considered rotten if there are more then 10 million bacteria’s per gram. In the Netherlands a restaurant is closed down if there are 1 million bacteria per gram.

They tested the buffets at the following hotels :

Joy Long beach,

Ardisia,

Riva Diva,

Lares Park,

Lara Falcon,

Hillside Su,

Cesar’s,

Club Nena,

Delphin Park.
None of these came out of the test with flying colors but the last two are certainly the best choice if you want to stay healthy and not want to spend your whole holiday in the bathroom.

New recipes.

Yesterday I was skimming through some magazines and found two new recipes I really want to try this week. So, I gathered some pen and paper and started writing my grocery list. I was really amazed by all the stuff I needed for just two dishes but, hey I can’t have every ingredient of the world stored in my cupboards, now can I? If I had, I would probably live in a supermarket :) Or not, as I discovered today. I only needed 15 things so that shouldn’t be much of a problem; I just had to go to the largest supermarket in my area. Armed with my big shopping bag and list I set out for my great adventure.

As it turned out the largest supermarket wasn’t the right choice. A lot of the things I wanted were not restocked yet, suggestion of one of the guys there: You can always come back this afternoon. Hmmmz… I don’t think sooo! I left the store with only 6 of my things, bummer! Other supermarket, same problem! Only this time I left with none of the other required 9 items. Third store then? Fortunately this store was restocked fully but their assortment isn’t that big; I left the store with another 7 items. I was almost ready to do a happy dance but I still needed two items. Store number 4 then?

Hmm.. I had to think about that first, so I went home and had a little break and drank a large cup of coffee. I needed some caffeine in my system before I could set out again. I already decided that I wouldn’t go to a fifth store. Luckily store number 4 had the last two required items, man I was so happy, I almost did a happy dance right there in the store! But I could contain myself and yelled ‘Yes!’ instead. People looked at me strange and probably thought I was a bit crazy or a weird eccentric person. I’m so glad I didn’t do my happy dance; they probably had me admitted or something.

On my way home I was thinking:
These dishes better be real tasty or else I’ve been on this whole shopping expedition for nothing. Well, I guess I can also see the bright side of this….I had a busy morning for a change :)