Category Archives: diet & nutrition

no carbs no booze – day 3!

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

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nocarbs-1courgetti with garlicky-bacony tomato sauce

Day three! Final day of PET scan prep and the no-carb-no-booze diet. And as you can see, I have been eating rather well. Wouldn’t want to eat like this forever, but I may start taking regular “carb & booze breaks” from now on. Or even just have the occasional no-carb-no-booze day. I actually had way more ideas for great non-carb things to make than I had time for.

nocarbs-3cheesy-eggy thingy

I only realized yesterday that I also wasn’t supposed to be drinking caffeine (!!) but apparently that’s more important during that last 24-hour stage, which is today. I certainly won’t make a habit of drinking green tea for breakfast, and a couple of times I would have LOVED a glass of wine (especially when out and about) but it really hasn’t been a big deal.

nocarbs-2chicken garam masala with lots of veggies

Anyhow, looking forward to having some toast tomorrow! The usual routine is that I get the scan done between 8 and 10 in the morning. Then I go for breakfast in the cafeteria while they check the images. Sometimes I have to go through the machine a second time, sometimes I don’t. After that, I’ll get my results. I’m so nervous! See you on the other side…

culpable cauli?

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in diet & nutrition, food & drink, home, homecooking

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cauli

On Sunday I made my first ever roasted cauliflower. As you can see, it’s not pretty, but man was it delicious. I roasted it with olive oil, garlic and black pepper, then tossed in some grated parmesan cheese. Served it with some short angel hair noodles. And I thought – hey, this is such a tasty way of having more veggies in my diet. Then a couple of hours later I doubled over in pain and ended up in emergency the next day.

Now I know the two incidents aren’t related (or are they?) but I think it’s going to be awhile before I dare to eat cauliflower again.

no cycling

03 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by in diet & nutrition, health & happiness

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no cyclingSo dammit! Years ago I used to run almost every morning. It was the only aerobic exercise that I enjoyed. Then when I reached 40 my lower back and hips gave out, so I had to stop. And so I bought a bicycle and took regular jaunts along the river (though it actually felt like more exercise lugging the thing up and down three long flights of stairs). More recently I’ve taken to riding the recumbent bike at the gym, where I actually get a good sweat going, usually riding for about an hour.

Then my left knee starting giving me grief, starting a few months ago, feeling all stiff and achy, especially on the stairs. I chalked it up to age & weight and just got on with things. Until the other morning. Somehow overnight the knee situation got serious and it was suddenly VERY painful. So yesterday I went to see Dr Agustín and he wiggled my knee around a bit and went “whoah, listen to that!”. “That” being a clickety-click sound that I’d been trying to ignore. Anyhow, it seems I have a bad case of osteoarthritis which, yep, is most likely due to age & weight. And apparently there’s not much (anything?) I can do about it, other than lose weight to alleviate the stress on the knee. Except I was told to stop cycling (at least until Dr A sees the x-rays I’m getting done next week), which will make weight loss even more difficult. *sigh*

not 5:2ing

16 Thursday Jan 2014

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cauliflower rice (1)
Who hasn’t heard of the 5:2 diet yet? For those who haven’t, it’s the latest fad diet that has now reached cult status, and is definitely making big money for some people. I personally think it’s mostly a whole new neurotic way of “dealing with” (actually obsessing about) food, but hey, whatever. It has also made me aware of something called cauliflower rice. Which is a nice thing! Check it out on my kitchen blog.

change ahead

21 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by in diet & nutrition, health & happiness, home, hope, sevilla, work

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Change-Ahead
Nothing like spending most of a week stuck in bed and feeling like crap to focus on… other things. And as 2013 is still young, it’s also a good time to think about change and goals for the year to come. My main goal, of course, is to stay cancer-free, though there’s little or (I think) nothing I can do about that. Next PET scan will be in March. Will she get another 6-month reprieve? Stay tuned folks.

In other news, I may have to move! Not because I want to but because I don’t think I can afford to stay where I am. When I first took this place with Peter two years ago the understanding was that he’d be paying half the rent and bills, but unfortunately this isn’t happening. And no, I’m not going to try sharing with a total stranger (been there, too old for that now) so finding a smaller place I can afford on my own might be necessary. It would mean “downsizing” considerably, getting rid of furniture and probably my books – at least two rooms full of “stuff” – but at this point I’m ready to do whatever I have to. My food tours are really taking off but, you know, I don’t want to work my butt off and then still end up going into debt just so Peter can have a roof over his head. And the truth is that I don’t use the upstairs room or terrace much, since I spend most of the day working in the “livingroom office”. Anyhow, I’m just getting myself psyched up for this in case I have to move. There will be no rash decisions. So again, stay tuned.

On the bright side, I discovered this morning that I lost 2.5 kilos this past week! Which more than takes care of the “Christmas excess”, and kinda inspires me to keep on with the light eating thing. I’m still not quite ready to get back to the gym but, considering I lost this weight while mostly being curled up in the foetal position, I’m beginning to think there’s something to the theory that exercise, while good for maintaining general health and fitness, really isn’t such a big factor when it comes to weight loss.

So it looks like another day mostly at home, although it’s very blue and shiny out there and I’d love to get out. But I now have The Cough (which apparently happens around Day 6) and my chest feels like a fat dwarf – or Loki – is sitting on it. And without warning I start hacking away, which I do my best to stop, and have been pleased to discover that by careful breathing I’m actually able to stop it a lot of the time. But sometimes not and it feels like I’m going to turn myself inside out. A friend told me he coughed so bad during the Coughing Stage that he pulled a muscle in his armpit! Anyhow, I have two meetings tomorrow morning and am giving a friend a blog class in the evening, so I reckon another day at home is prudent.

What’s new with you guys? Have you got any plans happening?

take three cats…

21 Monday May 2012

Posted by in animals & pets, cancer, cats, diet & nutrition, health & happiness, home

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… and call me in the morning.

What a crazy 48 hours it’s been. On Saturday evening I was suddenly not feeling well so I decided to go to bed early. A couple of hours later I woke up feeling awful and spent the next eight hours with violent vomiting and diarrhea and worried that I was going to end up back at hospital having more Surprise Surgery. But as there wasn’t any serious pain involved I just rode it out. Felt somewhat better yesterday morning but obviously couldn’t go out for my Sunday afternoon tapas tour, so Peter took that one (and they wrote back later saying they’d had a great time!). I stayed in bed ALL DAY, which is something I don’t remember doing other than when I was on chemo. Although the vomiting, etc had stopped (guess it sort of had to eventually) I was feeling very weak, feverish and achy. Have to say that Azar has been totally loving all this Extra Bed Time with me. And I finally got to use the bedroom tv that I installed last November. I knew it would come in handy some day.

Today has been a bit better. I actually got up for a few hours, but don’t feel well enough to venture outside. Which is a shame because it’s a gorgeous day out there. But I should be back to normal(ish) by tomorrow and am thinking that this might be a good time to start a diet…

How are you guys doing?

no tengo cancer

07 Monday May 2012

Posted by in cancer, change, death & dying, diet & nutrition, friends, health & happiness, hospitals

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Four years ago today I wrote this blog post about doubling over in pain and ending up at the hospital, only to be told I had gas and be sent home again. Well, most of you know the story by now. After two more emergency hospital visits they finally admitted me for testing and then raced me over to the general hospital for a life-saving operation that involved removing an obstruction and about half my colon.

And that wasn’t the end of the story as I ended up having two more operations and being on chemo twice, finishing at the end of July 2009. Since then I have been miraculously cancer-free according to the PET scans I’ve been having twice a year. The next one is due in September. And for the most part I feel good, though I still get abdominal discomfort from time to time. Oh, and there was also that freak emergency op last summer, which thankfully didn’t end up being cancer-related.

And so I wonder why I am still okay while my friends Pat and Jed are not. And I wonder how long I’ll be okay. Four years ago I’d gone to the Feria in Jerez the weekend before all this started and saw this graffiti on a wall near the train station that said “I have cancer”. I don’t know what moved me to take a photo of it, but here it is again, slightly – but importantly – modified. I hope I never have to remove the “no”.

comfort food

01 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in cooking, culture, diet & nutrition, food & drink, health & happiness, home

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Today I made this very comfort-foodie dish based on having tried it a few times elsewhere. It has some of the usual comfort food ingredients (potatoes, eggs) as well as some chorizo and spicy pimentón thrown in for good measure. And most enjoyable it was too!

Here is the recipe: huevos rotos

But as comforting (and delicious) this late Sunday lunch was, when it comes to comfort food I’d probably say my favourites would include cheese. Like, mac & cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches.

What’s your favourite comfort food?

red meat kills!

14 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in cancer, death & dying, diet & nutrition, food & drink, health & happiness, wtf?

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First of all, read this very silly article – supposedly Health NEWS – from the BBC:

Red meat increases death, cancer and heart risk, says study

Now I ask you… who out there with even half a brain doesn’t know that eating a balanced diet is the healthiest option? Who hasn’t heard (all their lives) that it’s best to eat red meat in moderation? Same goes for fried food, rich sauces, bacon, butter, pâté, fatty cheeses … you know, all the good stuff. And so when I read that a study of over 120,000 people over almost 30 years “suggested red meat increased the risk of death from cancer and heart problems” I clutched my head in despair. In all seriousness, there is probably more “risk of death” every time you cross the street. And, although I don’t eat much red meat myself, I still ended up with colon cancer. So go figure. I honestly don’t see how articles like these are beneficial to anyone – must’ve been an especially slow news day at the BBC.

Meanwhile, that tasty looking dish up there is a divinely decadent combination of perfectly fried eggs (with slightly runny yolks), grilled spicy chorizo Ibérico and potatoes, topped with thin slices of gorgeous jamón Ibérico. But as delicious as it is, I wouldn’t dream of eating that every day. Why? Because I’m not stupid.

I still can’t believe that after years and years of going to the Vineria San Telmo I only tried that dish for the first time during my marathon tapas tours the other day. It truly is to die for. So to speak…