Monday, June 27, 2011

Drink, drink, drink. And then drink some more.

This past Saturday, I participated in a Big Brothers Big Sisters scavenger hunt with my 'little sister'. The two of us teamed up with another big sister/little sister match and ran around downtown Raleigh for an hour and a half, snapping pictures of various places and marking clues off our list. We learned a lot about the history of Raleigh and we had a blast.

But it was HOT. And while I was hauling around a couple of water bottles for the girls, I had foolishly NOT thought to bring some for myself.

BBBS of the Triangle had told us there would be a free pizza lunch at an Italian restaurant at the end of the scavenger hunt (that was really nice of them to do that for us!). But as the four of us wrapped up our picture-taking and headed to the restaurant, all I could think about was getting some WATER. I was parched! When we got there, I saw a cooler FULL of ice-cold cans of pop... but no water! I walked with the other 'big sister' in our group to the counter to ask for a glass of water; there, a grumpy waitress barked, "If I have to bring you out some water I'm gonna have to charge you for the cups." Okay, fine, just give us some water! She charged us a quarter each, and then proceeded to fill up regular washable glasses of ice water for the two of us. The other big sister and I exchanged bizarre glances... I guess WASHING your glasses is pretty expensive!

All that to say... it was worth the quarter. There is NOTHING better to drink than water, especially during the summer when your body needs to stay hydrated. I definitely got my refills on my 25 cent water glass.

I recently discovered that the best thing I could do for my body this summer was to ditch the old '8x8' rule (drink eight 8oz. glasses of water per day). Our bodies are 50-65% water (females on the lower end)... so a woman who's 5'4" and sedentary is going to need a different amount than a 6'2" landscaper who's out in the sun all day.

But before I explain how to determine how much water you should be drinking, I want to emphasize how badly we NEED water. Did you know that water is one of the best cures for common health issues? I had a friend who used to say, "If you have a headache, drink water! If you have a cold, drink water! If your muscles are sore, DRINK WATER!" Turns out he was right (this website has more info on that - it's fascinating).

Water also suppresses appetite and speeds up metabolism. (By the way, next time you feel hungry even though you 'just ate', try drinking a glass of water. We often mistake our thirst for water for hunger.) If you are trying to lose weight, your first priority should be drinking the right amount of water for your body and activity level. And then once you drink that much, drink more!

Water is the source of life. It cannot be substituted with energy drinks, diet sodas, milk, or juices. Just because something is liquid does NOT mean it is hydrating. Caffeinated drinks, by the way, work as diuretics... so when you drink your diet pop, keep in mind that not only are you consuming lots of strange chemicals, you are also prompting your body to lose water!

"But I hate water." I hear people say this, and it frustrates me. It's the equivalent of saying, "I don't like clean air" or "I hate having access to a flushing toilet." Well, that's unnatural. Your ancestors, who had nothing like your access to fresh, clean water, would be ashamed of you! Learn to like it! My mom, for example, doesn't like the flavor of plain water. While I think that's utterly bizarre, I applaud her for not switching to Gatorade or Diet Coke. She just squirts some lemon in it and drinks it down. Good for you, Mom.

Finally, the advice that some people give - "just drink water when you're thirsty" - is wrong. Anyone who's upped their water intake will tell you that the more water they drank, the more they were thirsty for it. We can't rely on our perceived 'cravings' to tell us what to eat or when to drink (remember how we mistake thirst for hunger? ...that's a prime example). I always have a large water bottle with me. It reminds me to drink, and I can easily remember how much water I've had.

OH YEAH! I almost forgot. The amount of water I've determined I need is at least 75 oz. per day. (To determine your ideal water intake, read this article, Fitness by the Numbers. On days that I exceed this minimum, I feel GREAT.

I'm telling you this because I care about you guys. So... drink up!


Thursday, June 23, 2011

My biggest, most top-secret kitchen secret.

In typing that title, I suddenly couldn't recognize the word 'secret'. You know how that happens? You say or read the word enough and then WHOA... trippy. What is that word I just typed?!

Enough of my funky brain. You want to know the secretest secret of them all. Well, to be honest, I used to think this would be my ONE SECRET RECIPE... the one I would keep on file only in the deepest recesses of my brain, to be lost forever when I someday passed from this world to the next. When people would ask me what it was, I would smile mysteriously and say, "It's a family recipe."

But then I thought, what's the fun in that? Mysterious people suck.

So here it is: How to Make the Most Delicious Cookies Ever.

First, you have to read Part I of my method. You can find it HERE.

So, first of all, bake your cookies. Here I'm baking this recipe, with the addition of M&Ms. I've popped the frozen cookie dough right into a 400 degree oven for about nine minutes. They're still a little bit loose in the center now that I've pulled them out.

But you WANT them to be slightly underbaked. Pale. Wan. Anemic, colorless, pallid, pasty, weak.


"But those don't look too bad," you say. Ahh, you're right - I COULD leave them as they are and they'd be okay. But as they cooled, their beautiful volume would vanish! They'd flatten to a dense, doughy cookie, with no more flavor than the plain mix of butter, sugar, and flour. Not awful.... but not something that people will bite into and say of which, "This is the best chocolate chip cookie I've ever had!" Which has happened. Honestly!

While they're sitting on the top of your stove, (HERE COMES THE SECRET!) preheat your broiler for a few minutes until it's toasty hot.

And then broil those babies.

See them now? They might look burned or overdone, but they're NOT. Now, if you had let the cookies bake at 400 until they looked this brown, you'd get crispy edges and a rather crunchy cookie. But when you broil them for 30-40 seconds, you only caramelize the top of the cookie, leaving the inside soft. And let me tell you what: caramelization equals FLAVOR, baby.

The other thing that happens, besides the creation of a beautifully browned, crackly cookie top, is that the cookie doesn't SINK and become dense as it cools. The top stays rounded and high, and air pockets form around the chocolate chips. It's soft, crackly, and moist at the same time.

See that crackly top? It's delicious.

I dare you to click on this picture and then zoom in!

So yes, this is my secretest secret of them all. It might not seem like a big deal, but I dare you to try it sometime. Underbake your cookies, and then broil them a little. A little step, but it makes a BIG difference.

You're welcome!


Tuesday, June 21, 2011

A compilation of things I've had on my computer for about seventeen months.

This fabulous Tuesday Tip is brought to you by summer... the heat and misery of which has been surprisingly tolerable. So far.

How to Keep Parsley (and Other Herbs) Fresh

With a sharp knife, trim the bottom half-inch off the stems of a bunch of parsley. Stand the bunch up in a glass of water and store in the fridge. It will stay fresh and perky for weeks. I'm not kidding. Insane.


Of course, you won't want to be leaving The Wonder Wife without a few pictures of my dog. I will happily oblige you.

A rare still moment...

...and then he's off to chase something.

I like this one. He wants to be near Brian, so he grabs his largest toy and just parks his butt near the couch, staring at nothing with his jaw hanging painfully open.

(For the record... if I can avoid a reputation for obscene lameness... I don't really think you're dying to see more pictures of Bo. I'm really putting these here so that I can come back and look at them someday. I just don't want to store them on my hard drive anymore.)



Sunday, June 19, 2011

I'm baaack!

I know it's been a while. I never intend to have such long hiatuses (hiati?) but before I know it, a month or more has flown by and my poor little blog has been sitting in the corner, neglected and bare.

Sorry, blog.

So what's been going on with us lately? Well, we took a little weekend trip to our honeymoon location over Memorial Day weekend, which was wonderful. We swooped in on a B&B cancellation on the island, left the dog with a sitter, loaded the truck up with firewood for the beach, and jetted off, last minute, just the two of us.

Even with a little rain on Saturday morning, the weekend was perfect.

I also spent some time in Michigan at the beginning of June for my little sister's graduation. It was the first time in about 2 years that I had been together with my immediate family and my mom's sister's kids, too. Our two families lived within minutes of each other until I was about ten years old. All the cousins were the same age, and everyone had a buddy. Everything we did, we did with them. School, church, holidays, even vacations... we did it all together. But when I was ten, they moved to New York. One would think that we would have grown apart, but one would be wrong. All eight cousins have stayed the best of friends and even though we're gradually all leaving the nest, we managed to find ourselves in one spot for Erin's graduation. It was incredible to be with the whole gang again.

Having a family that you love is such a blessing. I cannot overstate how much of a blessing it is. And when I am tempted to travel down into the dumps, feeling sad that we all live so far apart, I instead decide to be thankful that I have a family I wish I could live closer to! (What a nightmare it would be to wish the opposite.)

Other than that, Brian and I have really gotten more serious about our diet and fitness. Well, actually, I can't say that. Brian is always serious about his diet and fitness. I, on the other hand, have (since Thanksgiving) apparently been trying to set new personal records for the amount of crap I can eat in a day. And surprise! I had gained weight and was constantly feeling like crap.

So one day in May, something clicked, and I decided to get serious about my diet and fitness.

(This is much easier to do in the summer, when the threat of a swimsuit is looming and produce is vastly abundant.)

Typically when I diet, I either take a counting-calories approach or try the 'no sweets, no snacks, no seconds' method (the No-S Diet). Both are fine. But in an effort to find meal ideas that would increase my protein and vegetable consumption (without wrapping them up in a sandwich), I stumbled upon the primal/paleo diet.

The basic concept of these types of diets is: don't eat processed food. More specifically, don't eat grains and don't eat sugar. In summary, eat food that you could kill or pick from a plant (I suppose eggs don't fall into either of those categories, but those are fine too).

When I told Brian about this approach, he shot me a pointed look and said, "Yeah. That's the kind of food you're supposed to eat. I've been telling you that for five years."

(I guess my homemade bread was too good to resist, then, because he was definitely eating it.)

Anyway, I guess I'm rambling, and you could go google primal/paleo eating for yourself, but my typical day's menu now looks like this:
-Breakfast: vegetable frittata w/ sliced tomato and avocado, coffee w/ whole milk
-Snack: cut-up vegetables, fruit, occasional peanut butter
-Lunch: Cabbage/vegetable stir fry w/ venison
-Snack (if hungry): more vegetables, extra meat if following exercise

-Dinner: Protein (grilled venison, chicken, or fish) with various vegetable sides

A menu like that, combined with drinking a TON of water, has done wonders for me. I am so excited about the difference it has made in the way I feel. When I started the 'diet', my primary goal was to lose weight. But it wasn't long before I wasn't waking up nauseous anymore... I wasn't going through the day on the verge of falling asleep at my desk... I wasn't dreading my workout. I felt so much stronger, healthier and more alert... and what's even more interesting was that I could actually feel my body doing things more efficiently. A woman's cycle of hormone shifts and reproductive functions is like a finely tuned orchestra, and when I was eating crap, it was like I was rolling a giant bowling ball into the middle of the strings section and screwing it all up. Now that I was giving my body good fuel... lots of protein, fat, and produce... it was performing amazingly!

I didn't notice these changes until I went through about a week of eating the way I used to eat... lots of refined carbs (pizza, pasta) and sugar, and few vegetables. Almost immediately, I wasn't sleeping as well, I was waking up in the morning feeling miserable and sick to my stomach (how had I gotten used to that for so many months??) and I was downing coffee all day but desperately exhausted at the same time. Yet the funny thing was, the next day I craved only more crap. It was a strangely addictive cycle, and it was easy to see why it had been so easy to gain weight and be lethargic for so long.

When I switched back to my 'diet' after a week of all that (I'm putting that in quotes because I really think this is going to be a lifestyle change) the positive difference was immediate. I have to say, I am so excited. I feel healthier than I have in a long, long time.

(And grocery shopping is way, way easier. Just a visit to the produce section and the meat department, plus a stop to grab some eggs, and then I'm done. And it's cheaper, too, because I'm not buying lots of lunch meat for sandwiches, various cheeses for recipes, and different processed foods.)


Anyway, those are a few of the things we've been up to. I'm looking forward to cracking the whip over my blogging chariot again. Hope you can hop on for the ride.

I'll end with a few pictures of my cute dog. I'm sure you've missed him.

Sniffing where Brian spilled the bag of grass seed under the deck. : )

Playing at the lake.