I write every night, but not on this site. I enjoy this page though, so here is some limited information from my experience on how to feel good when working:
Almonds are good for you. I like to keep some kind of nuts in my bag, a habit I developed in Japan when I would have long train rides between jobs, and I would often get hungry. It's also good to have peanuts. I practically grew up on peanut butter sandwiches, and still have them from time to time when I need a quick snack to hold me over for a little while. I've also been eating nut mixes with walnuts and cashews for a few years. Anyway, click the links to learn more from this excellent web site, World's Healthiest Foods. Many of the foods I already ate before I discovered this site, but seeing their list and researching more on the internet has made my menu larger and healthier.
I had some Kiwi earlier today, as part of a larger fruit mix with papaya, blueberries and raspberries. Other times I'll get one that has pineapple and various melons or grapefruit. I also love to eat oranges a few times a week.
This morning it was very frigid outside, so I was happy to have the holiday indoors and enjoy the warmth of my room with some yogurt, the non-fat Greek kind, with granola. That reminds me, I need to eat my daily apple. I already ate kale before a dish of grass-fed beef, 90% lean, with onions, shiitake mushrooms, organic tomato sauce, and 100% whole wheat pasta. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got from a college government professor was to always choose whole wheat when available. I also eat organic whole wheat bread most days, and oatmeal with buckwheat honey every morning for breakfast. About half the time I get the kind with flaxseed. As for other carbs, I often eat brown rice with my stir fries, and also some quinoa here and there, some barley, some rye, and recently I've really gotten back into cooking potatoes. I also like to cook other mushrooms, bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, and carrots, with as much variety as possible. Often I'll cook with soy sauce and/or lemon/lime juice. In the past year I've gotten happily and healthily addicted to beans and lentils, eating either pinto, garbanzo, black, kidney, or great northern on a daily basis. They are welcome supplements to all the tofu I've eaten for about four years now, that is, since I moved to Japan and taught there for a year.
As I've written before, I also drink various teas and herbal tisanes every day. Most mornings I commence the day with black tea, and then I'll usually have a cup or more of green tea afterward. Often I will also have a cup of white tea. A couple times a week I'll have oolong tea, and about once a week I'll have pu-erh tea. As for the tisanes, I'll generally have between one and three in the afternoon or evening, depending on what I'm doing, if I'm home, and how the weather is. I tend to have each of these at least once a week, and recommend trying them if you have stress or need something to help you sleep or digest: peppermint, found in the pyramids at Egypt and generally grown in Washington and the rest of the Pacific Northwest; chamomile tea, a flower found in many parts of the world, and often harvested for tea in Croatia; rooibos tea, also known as "red bush" tea, from South Africa, and probably the herbal I drink the most often, nearly every afternoon before going back to work each evening. I've been working a full schedule (39 hours of teaching each week) since the new year began, which has been excellent for the finances, staying busy in the evenings, and meeting more and more people while practicing endurance and being on my feet instead of sitting in a chair, which I do a lot of when I'm home and researching how to keep going the best way. With this process I've also learned about: hibiscus tea, a flower which grows around the world; ginger tea for the throat and the stomach; chrysanthemum tea, which I just drank, and means "gold flower" in Chinese; licorice root for the throat and stomach; ginseng; damiana leaf; and sometimes I even have some lavender mixed with one of the aforementioned, or passionflower tea, although they're both very new to me.
Of course, you need more than just teas, fruits, veggies and whole grains. You need protein, and there's more to explore than just beans. I've been eating tuna several times a week since I was five years old, and I just read that it's one of the healthiest foods there is. About six months ago I began to eat sardines for lunch more days than not because I'd read in Michael Pollan's Food Rules that it's better to eat the smaller fish because of over fishing in the seas and principles of nutrient retention on the food chain, or something to that effect.
After initially reducing my meat consumption drastically while living in Japan and then upon return to the U.S., I've definitely resumed eating chicken several times a week (although not quite as healthy as the kind in the link) and beef once or twice per week. Whenever I'm home I'm served plenty of turkey sandwiches and soups, along with bean soups and chili.
The other staple I've had my whole life, besides tuna, peanut butter and chicken, is the egg, or eggs, that is. I eat scrambled eggs (I usually get the kind that aren't in cages and are only fed vegetarian feed and so forth) on whole wheat bread more days than not, and have been for most of my life, although I usually ate them with toast, English muffins or a bowl of Cheerios growing up. I ate Cheerios consistently until about two years ago, I'd say, when I switched to other cereals, and I've been eating oatmeal for most of a year now.
Of course, I also love my sweets, chocolate chip cookies, which are a perfect excuse to drink plenty of milk, which I'm lucky to buy at a grocery store on the shores of the Hudson River yet produced upstate in a town several miles from where I grew up. I used to play them in baseball, football and basketball, but now I drink skim milk sold in Manhattan but produced by their farmers in Washington County.
Then, of course, what would life be without juices? I love grape juice, orange juice, and any blend of various fruits and veggies singing together in harmony manifested as juice that I'm drinking.
Tomato juice is also acceptable.
On top of that, I try to move around. This weekend I took a few walks to the park and the river, and as some sort of mid-hibernation restlessness steam valve, I ran along the rails of the river overlook, on the snow and ice, which was _______ awesome and made me very happy to be alive
Of course, all of these healthy explorations and additions and substitutions have been making up for the years and years of indulgence in sweets and salts and fast food and simple selections. I still enjoy many of the same foods (I happily enjoyed pizza, a gift of a doughnut from a student, and cookies this weekend), but I have also broadened my horizons considerably. A testament to mixed progress is the fact that some friends and I have realized that a certain Ethiopian restaurant has become our regular favorite.
Keep eating what you love. I hope we find some more favorites to explore
Almonds are good for you. I like to keep some kind of nuts in my bag, a habit I developed in Japan when I would have long train rides between jobs, and I would often get hungry. It's also good to have peanuts. I practically grew up on peanut butter sandwiches, and still have them from time to time when I need a quick snack to hold me over for a little while. I've also been eating nut mixes with walnuts and cashews for a few years. Anyway, click the links to learn more from this excellent web site, World's Healthiest Foods. Many of the foods I already ate before I discovered this site, but seeing their list and researching more on the internet has made my menu larger and healthier.
I had some Kiwi earlier today, as part of a larger fruit mix with papaya, blueberries and raspberries. Other times I'll get one that has pineapple and various melons or grapefruit. I also love to eat oranges a few times a week.
This morning it was very frigid outside, so I was happy to have the holiday indoors and enjoy the warmth of my room with some yogurt, the non-fat Greek kind, with granola. That reminds me, I need to eat my daily apple. I already ate kale before a dish of grass-fed beef, 90% lean, with onions, shiitake mushrooms, organic tomato sauce, and 100% whole wheat pasta. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got from a college government professor was to always choose whole wheat when available. I also eat organic whole wheat bread most days, and oatmeal with buckwheat honey every morning for breakfast. About half the time I get the kind with flaxseed. As for other carbs, I often eat brown rice with my stir fries, and also some quinoa here and there, some barley, some rye, and recently I've really gotten back into cooking potatoes. I also like to cook other mushrooms, bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, and carrots, with as much variety as possible. Often I'll cook with soy sauce and/or lemon/lime juice. In the past year I've gotten happily and healthily addicted to beans and lentils, eating either pinto, garbanzo, black, kidney, or great northern on a daily basis. They are welcome supplements to all the tofu I've eaten for about four years now, that is, since I moved to Japan and taught there for a year.
As I've written before, I also drink various teas and herbal tisanes every day. Most mornings I commence the day with black tea, and then I'll usually have a cup or more of green tea afterward. Often I will also have a cup of white tea. A couple times a week I'll have oolong tea, and about once a week I'll have pu-erh tea. As for the tisanes, I'll generally have between one and three in the afternoon or evening, depending on what I'm doing, if I'm home, and how the weather is. I tend to have each of these at least once a week, and recommend trying them if you have stress or need something to help you sleep or digest: peppermint, found in the pyramids at Egypt and generally grown in Washington and the rest of the Pacific Northwest; chamomile tea, a flower found in many parts of the world, and often harvested for tea in Croatia; rooibos tea, also known as "red bush" tea, from South Africa, and probably the herbal I drink the most often, nearly every afternoon before going back to work each evening. I've been working a full schedule (39 hours of teaching each week) since the new year began, which has been excellent for the finances, staying busy in the evenings, and meeting more and more people while practicing endurance and being on my feet instead of sitting in a chair, which I do a lot of when I'm home and researching how to keep going the best way. With this process I've also learned about: hibiscus tea, a flower which grows around the world; ginger tea for the throat and the stomach; chrysanthemum tea, which I just drank, and means "gold flower" in Chinese; licorice root for the throat and stomach; ginseng; damiana leaf; and sometimes I even have some lavender mixed with one of the aforementioned, or passionflower tea, although they're both very new to me.
Of course, you need more than just teas, fruits, veggies and whole grains. You need protein, and there's more to explore than just beans. I've been eating tuna several times a week since I was five years old, and I just read that it's one of the healthiest foods there is. About six months ago I began to eat sardines for lunch more days than not because I'd read in Michael Pollan's Food Rules that it's better to eat the smaller fish because of over fishing in the seas and principles of nutrient retention on the food chain, or something to that effect.
After initially reducing my meat consumption drastically while living in Japan and then upon return to the U.S., I've definitely resumed eating chicken several times a week (although not quite as healthy as the kind in the link) and beef once or twice per week. Whenever I'm home I'm served plenty of turkey sandwiches and soups, along with bean soups and chili.
The other staple I've had my whole life, besides tuna, peanut butter and chicken, is the egg, or eggs, that is. I eat scrambled eggs (I usually get the kind that aren't in cages and are only fed vegetarian feed and so forth) on whole wheat bread more days than not, and have been for most of my life, although I usually ate them with toast, English muffins or a bowl of Cheerios growing up. I ate Cheerios consistently until about two years ago, I'd say, when I switched to other cereals, and I've been eating oatmeal for most of a year now.
Of course, I also love my sweets, chocolate chip cookies, which are a perfect excuse to drink plenty of milk, which I'm lucky to buy at a grocery store on the shores of the Hudson River yet produced upstate in a town several miles from where I grew up. I used to play them in baseball, football and basketball, but now I drink skim milk sold in Manhattan but produced by their farmers in Washington County.
Then, of course, what would life be without juices? I love grape juice, orange juice, and any blend of various fruits and veggies singing together in harmony manifested as juice that I'm drinking.
Tomato juice is also acceptable.
On top of that, I try to move around. This weekend I took a few walks to the park and the river, and as some sort of mid-hibernation restlessness steam valve, I ran along the rails of the river overlook, on the snow and ice, which was _______ awesome and made me very happy to be alive
Of course, all of these healthy explorations and additions and substitutions have been making up for the years and years of indulgence in sweets and salts and fast food and simple selections. I still enjoy many of the same foods (I happily enjoyed pizza, a gift of a doughnut from a student, and cookies this weekend), but I have also broadened my horizons considerably. A testament to mixed progress is the fact that some friends and I have realized that a certain Ethiopian restaurant has become our regular favorite.
Keep eating what you love. I hope we find some more favorites to explore
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