Courageously Creative

Be more creative in your own way

Food

Food

Live Longer by Eating, Drinking and Relaxing: 2 Books 2 Save Your Life

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No time to be a crab.

John Belushi, Jim Morrison, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vincent Van Gogh… unfortunately the list goes on and on – what else could they have created if they had lived longer? If you cut out some of your vices, does life become longer or does life just seem longer?

Today, the number of centurions is growing by 7 percent a year. Will you be one of them someday? For a living history, talk with one and learn how they adapted to a world that changed from long trips on horse and buggies to long waits at the airport, from silent movies to cell phones with streaming ads, and from deciphering Morse code to miscommunicating by SMS texting.

The greatest innovations weren’t air conditioning, TV remote controls, or microwave popcorn as many suspect, but instead came from improved health and nutrition that actually kept us alive and increased our life expectancy.

Thankfully, we no longer have to worry about being eaten by dinosaurs, falling out of chariots or freezing in an ice age, and OSHA standards have reduced workplace accidents to mostly paper cuts and burning our lips on coffee, but will our life expectancy continue to increase with our seemingly poor diets and increased stresses? While technology focused on making things convenient, and marketing focused on making things affordable, has anyone been concerned with our well being?

Sometimes we have to take matters into our own hands. Although they are no spring chickens themselves, here are two books that can help you to live happily ever after. the Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson M.D., shows how an easy to learn and simple to practice form of meditation can reduce your stress and reduce a host of nasty physical ailments.

The second book was given to me as a present and became a true gift. In general, the medical community has a predisposition to prescribe drugs and the Department of Agriculture has a mission to promote farmers. Who has the incentive to promote your longevity? Not the governments who pay out entitlements, the answer is YOU. In Eat Drink and Be Healthy
by Walter C. Willett, MD, the author provides practical advice about remaining healthy that is designed to enrich your body instead of enriching special interests. Both books have a long shelf life and I won’t spoil the endings.

When I was packing to move to Hong Kong, I sent thousands of my books into storage, but these are two books I brought along. What books would you bring to a tropical island?
What books will you share that you think could help others stay healthy?

Andy Warhol’s Very Questionable Taste

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Imagining Outside the Box of Soup

Imagining Outside the Box of Soup

“Follow your passion” is good advice for anyone and so is: “do what you love to do” and results will follow.

Andy Warhol tasted, smelled, spilled, and painted what he loved, and what he loved was canned soup. “Warhol said that he painted it, not because it was a modern icon of capitalism, but because it reminded him of his past – as a child he had eaten soup every day.” So he got to knew his subject in the most intimate detail, but he was clearly no foodie.

Like many people, I used to believe there were things I didn’t like such as: Thai food, wine, green beans, spinach, or soup. What I didn’t realize is that I just didn’t like bad Thai food, bad wine and green beans, spinach or soup from a can.

So many of us have been raised on canned soup and without singling out any brand, none compares to what can be freshly made – and it’s so easy. Making soup is as difficult as boiling water and throwing vegetables, plus it can be made by the gallon and frozen into individual portions. Ask any soul to compare canned chicken noodle to homemade chicken soup. Other favorites such as Hungarian goulash, the dreaded mushrooms with wild rice and turkey, gazpacho, acorn squash/yams and my newest hot&sour (with secret ingredient Chinkiang vinegar) are so basic, you can find good recipes with Google.

The point is if you keep an open mind keep, reassess past assumptions and reframe the question, you may find that soup can be a meal. Are you sure you don’t like onions? Are you sure you can’t draw? Don’t like classical music? The challenge is to think outside the metal can and try again. With a more adventurous palate what would Warhol have created?

Adventuring in the International Aisle

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dry food market

Moveable feast

Many of us prepare the same rotation of meals week-after-week and order the same menu item from the same restaurant. When was the last time you tried an entirely new food?

At best, it can be an opportunity to find a new regular and at worst can help you to appreciate your old favorites. When living in Asia, I had the fortune and necessity to try lots of delicious and unidentifiable foods. If you ask what you are eating and are told, there is no English translation; you probably don’t want to know. The Mexican buffet in India was an obvious mistake as were the eggs scrambled with what seemed to be worms – they happened to be very tasty and the Chinese waiter assured me they were “small fish” – my fever broke after only five weeks.

Why are small fish more palatable than worms?   Reframing questions and being open to new experiences leads to creativity. In Hong Kong on each trip to the market, I would buy at least one new ingredient – then Google the name to figure out how it could be used. Some of the foods I adopted can’t be easily found in the US but here are some less exotic ones that can:

Pomelo kind of like a grape fruit but not as sour, great in salads with feta/lime/peanuts

Miso Paste – for sauces.

Edamame beans in shells – steamed with a shake of salt.

Daikon radish – shredded raw or boiled for turnip cakes.

Kaffir lime leaves – For Thai food – Remove leaves before serving.

Rooibos – Caffeine free tea from South Africa.
Try a new restaurant, and new menu item, or a pick up a new ingredient in the international aisle of your local market. What is the most unusual food that you like?

Spend less than you earn – eat less than you burn: Creative ways to lose weight

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Going into the holiday season, it’s a good idea to preemptively get into shape since we are going to see lots of people and will have opportunities for lots of good food.

Weight management is like the opposite of  your budget and savings, To save  you have to spend less than you earn. To lose weight, you must eat less than you burn.  Here are some creative lifestyle changes that will not change your life and allow you to loose weight.

1) Order a glass of wine instead of a hoppy micro-brewed beer.

2) Water at meals instead of soda.

3) Salad/fruit substitution instead of  french fries.

4) Skip the candy bar: calculate how long it takes to run on a treadmill to burn off a fun sized bar.

5) Limit the snacks that are visible in your life, try to keep your home snack free.

6) Instead of melting a pound of bland cheese like mozzarella on your meal, sprinkle little bits of Parmesan or sharp cheddar or other flavor intense cheeses.

7) Cook at home during the week and save going out to dinner for weekends.