El Doose
Last weekend, Pavel came back from a week long trip to go visit his dad in Florida. I don't know if it's a Floridian thing to have Native American stuff or whatever (frankly, I thought most Florida stuff was Mickey Mouse, oranges, and alligators), but of the souvenirs he brought me back, he got me one of those Totem Energy Stone things, probably by the same maker as these, because the shapes are the same. The one he got me was a moose--I suspect mostly because he is Canadian, but he says it's because according to the card that says what all the totem stones are for, the moose is for self-esteem and spontaneity, both things I could probably stand to do with having more of. While he unpacked (I had picked him up from the airport), I started reading all the animal options for the totem and, having read them, noticed that my blue stone moose didn't quite look like the moose pictured. The conversation once I started looking at the moose image went something a little like this:
Me: "Huh, the moose on the card doesn't quite match the one on the card. He's sort of a cross between the elk and the moose... He's a melk."
Pavel: "Really? It looks like a moose to me."
Me: "Well, the moose image has it's head sort of pointed down, and the elk has his head sort of pointed up. The melk is just looking straight ahead."
Pavel: "...It's a moose. It took me a really long time to find, and I wasn't sure if I should get it because it has that little chip in the side."
Me: "Oh, that's fine, I'm just amused that the card shapes don't match the shape on the stone."
Pavel: *goes back to packing*
Me: "It's a deer!"
Pavel: "Wait, what?? No way!"
Me: *showing Pavel the card* "Yeah, see, that's the shape!"
Pavel: "Nooo!"
Me: *ROTFL, literally*
Pavel: "I looked through that whole thing of stones for a moose!"
Me: *still laughing* "He's a deer that thinks he's a moose, then. He's a meer."
Pavel: "...I tried really hard to find a moose."
Me: "It's okay, he wants to be a moose. Maybe he's a mooer. Or a doose."
Pavel: "A doose."
Me: "Doose!"
And so now I have the very unique totem stone of the doose :) Apparently he was also looking for a stuffed alligator, because I had asked about whether there were a lot of alligators where his dad lived (and he seemed perplexed by my perception of the place as swarming with enormous reptiles looking to bite your legs off), but couldn't find one--there apparently aren't that many gator problems in northern Florida. Instead, I now have the Batman Ugly Doll :P I guess they sell them in stores there!
In the mean time, the points-based "fitness" program provided to me by my employer offered to dish out points if people signed up for and kept a food diary (with some bonus points if we signed up for MyFitnessPal.com). I did, and I've actually been trying to continue keeping the food diary, which... is depressing, if we're going to be completely candid. If you told me a month ago that I'd become a calorie counter, I would have laughed at you, yet here I am. Counting. With dread. And hungry all the time :( I'm discovering that I eat quite a bit more than I should be, and that I really REALLY am going overboard on the sodium levels (several nutrients are tracked), and that I'm short on protein. The sodium thing stays--I love my salt, and my blood pressure is actually low. I hadn't really thought about being short on protein, perhaps partly because that's the usual thing people ask when they find out you're vegetarian, and the truth is, if you're eating in a fairly healthy manner, you're probably getting enough out of your beans/lentils, nuts, grains, etc.
But I'm dating Mr. Protein right now, who claims to need some ridiculous amount of protein per day for all that weight lifting (okay, I am exaggerating about the ridiculous part, but I'm positive he thinks he needs more than he actually does), so of course I figured I ought to take a gander at what I could be eating to get closer to the protein goals. He does read a lot of stuff about health and nutrition, so there's a chance he could be right about this whole needing protein business, even if I'm not athletic at all (so I have much less of a need than he does). The Google search lead me to this page on No Meat Athlete, and eventually through a couple of clicks led me to this page of warning signs of protein deficiency. Well damn, I actually have 3 of the 5 warning signs, and since I was never muscular, I have no way of gauging #3. (I also haven't been seriously injured lately, so I can't gauge #4 very well, either.) One alone wouldn't have meant much, but I really do get cold all the time and I definitely shed a LOT of hair and have brittle nails. Maybe all this lethargy I've been trying to fix through sleep doctor visits and vitamin D deficiencies is partly from protein deficiency. (I am a particularly unhealthy example of a vegetarian, and I habitually get much worse during times of stress where I don't have time to actually cook my own meals, and work keeps putting me through those.)
So the thought is that I may need to experiment with hiding protein powder in foods for a bit and see if that helps--and if it does, then I need to think up a more sustainable solution. The goal is to start by the beginning of February so by around March I'll have some idea of whether this is starting to have any effect or not. On the one hand, this would be awesome if it gave me some of the energy I appear to lack all the time, but on the other hand... I'll be a little miffed if all the "but where do you get your protein" questions were actually right :( I wasn't always this unhealthy about what I ate, dammit!
Me: "Huh, the moose on the card doesn't quite match the one on the card. He's sort of a cross between the elk and the moose... He's a melk."
Pavel: "Really? It looks like a moose to me."
Me: "Well, the moose image has it's head sort of pointed down, and the elk has his head sort of pointed up. The melk is just looking straight ahead."
Pavel: "...It's a moose. It took me a really long time to find, and I wasn't sure if I should get it because it has that little chip in the side."
Me: "Oh, that's fine, I'm just amused that the card shapes don't match the shape on the stone."
Pavel: *goes back to packing*
Me: "It's a deer!"
Pavel: "Wait, what?? No way!"
Me: *showing Pavel the card* "Yeah, see, that's the shape!"
Pavel: "Nooo!"
Me: *ROTFL, literally*
Pavel: "I looked through that whole thing of stones for a moose!"
Me: *still laughing* "He's a deer that thinks he's a moose, then. He's a meer."
Pavel: "...I tried really hard to find a moose."
Me: "It's okay, he wants to be a moose. Maybe he's a mooer. Or a doose."
Pavel: "A doose."
Me: "Doose!"
And so now I have the very unique totem stone of the doose :) Apparently he was also looking for a stuffed alligator, because I had asked about whether there were a lot of alligators where his dad lived (and he seemed perplexed by my perception of the place as swarming with enormous reptiles looking to bite your legs off), but couldn't find one--there apparently aren't that many gator problems in northern Florida. Instead, I now have the Batman Ugly Doll :P I guess they sell them in stores there!
In the mean time, the points-based "fitness" program provided to me by my employer offered to dish out points if people signed up for and kept a food diary (with some bonus points if we signed up for MyFitnessPal.com). I did, and I've actually been trying to continue keeping the food diary, which... is depressing, if we're going to be completely candid. If you told me a month ago that I'd become a calorie counter, I would have laughed at you, yet here I am. Counting. With dread. And hungry all the time :( I'm discovering that I eat quite a bit more than I should be, and that I really REALLY am going overboard on the sodium levels (several nutrients are tracked), and that I'm short on protein. The sodium thing stays--I love my salt, and my blood pressure is actually low. I hadn't really thought about being short on protein, perhaps partly because that's the usual thing people ask when they find out you're vegetarian, and the truth is, if you're eating in a fairly healthy manner, you're probably getting enough out of your beans/lentils, nuts, grains, etc.
But I'm dating Mr. Protein right now, who claims to need some ridiculous amount of protein per day for all that weight lifting (okay, I am exaggerating about the ridiculous part, but I'm positive he thinks he needs more than he actually does), so of course I figured I ought to take a gander at what I could be eating to get closer to the protein goals. He does read a lot of stuff about health and nutrition, so there's a chance he could be right about this whole needing protein business, even if I'm not athletic at all (so I have much less of a need than he does). The Google search lead me to this page on No Meat Athlete, and eventually through a couple of clicks led me to this page of warning signs of protein deficiency. Well damn, I actually have 3 of the 5 warning signs, and since I was never muscular, I have no way of gauging #3. (I also haven't been seriously injured lately, so I can't gauge #4 very well, either.) One alone wouldn't have meant much, but I really do get cold all the time and I definitely shed a LOT of hair and have brittle nails. Maybe all this lethargy I've been trying to fix through sleep doctor visits and vitamin D deficiencies is partly from protein deficiency. (I am a particularly unhealthy example of a vegetarian, and I habitually get much worse during times of stress where I don't have time to actually cook my own meals, and work keeps putting me through those.)
So the thought is that I may need to experiment with hiding protein powder in foods for a bit and see if that helps--and if it does, then I need to think up a more sustainable solution. The goal is to start by the beginning of February so by around March I'll have some idea of whether this is starting to have any effect or not. On the one hand, this would be awesome if it gave me some of the energy I appear to lack all the time, but on the other hand... I'll be a little miffed if all the "but where do you get your protein" questions were actually right :( I wasn't always this unhealthy about what I ate, dammit!