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being thankful and thoughtul

11/25/2015

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By Norman Rockwell
If you're dieting, or experimenting with your diet, you may be thinking about how you'll handle Thanksgiving dinner.  I have some thoughts on that which I'd like to share.  I've tried many different diets at various times in my life.  For several years, I was vegetarian.  At Thanksgiving, I ate my mom's turkey without guilt or fuss or explanation.  Here's my take--diets that are adopted by choice are not religious observations. If you practice a religion that says not to eat pork, then by all means, skip the sausage stuffing.  Otherwise, lighten up!  I have friends who eat raw, swear by only organic or have become vegan, and listening to them yap away about how great (even morally superior) they are as a result of their diets is tiresome.  No one wants to hear it.  I think at holiday gatherings you do the best you can to be reasonable about observing your eating principles without turning it into a moral crusade.  Aunt Gertrude doesn't want to hear about how she'd lose fifty pounds if she put down the dinner rolls and Uncle Stan doesn't want to hear about how he could run a marathon if he quit drinking beer.  It isn't the time or place.  (And hey, vegetarians, really NO ONE wants to eat your Tofurkey or Seitan loaf). Holiday meals are a time to exercise flexibility, not to set yourself up as an example of dietary rigidity.  No one likes a militant at the table.

Now, that being said, there are ways to navigate the Thanksgiving meal that will result in less bloating, discomfort and regret:​
  1. Spend today and tomorrow eating lightly. Smoothies, soups, salads, cooked veggies. This is pretty easy.  On Thanksgiving day, just go with smoothies, tea and hot water up until meal time.  Get yourself in a place of hunger before enjoying a feast.  Go for a good long walk in the morning.
  2. Skip the dinner rolls.  Really, at a meal where you are likely eating more than normal filling up on bread is a waste of calories and carbs.
  3. Go for what you really love.  I love the turkey, my mom's stuffing (traditional) and the homemade cranberry sauce my daughter makes the night before.  I can eat sweet potatoes and other vegetables anytime.  So I focus on just those three things--nothing else hits my plate.
  4. Start small.  Yes, I like several portions/helpings--that's what makes it feel like feasting.  So I start off with a couple of bits of turkey, a tablespoon of stuffing and a couple of teaspoons of cranberry sauce.  I can fill my plates three or four times with that much and have eaten a normal-sized plate, yet feel no guilt.
  5. Skip the alcohol.  I often take flavored sparkling water with me so that I'll have something festive to drink.  This year, I'll probably go with pomegranate or cranberry or orange flavored La Croix.
  6. Skip the appetizers, unless you're nibbling on a few veggies, nuts or olives.  Nothing more.
  7. For dessert, consider eating just the pumpkin in the pie.  I love pumpkin pie, but with most of them, the crust is just a soggy holder for the pumpkin custard.  So just leave it.  No reason you can't just eat the filling.  
  8. Have a nice cup of tea to end the meal, no eggnog or coffee filled with cream and sugar. Save those calories for separate treats.
  9. Walk before the meal, walk after.  A great time for fellowship, contemplation and appreciation.  
  10. Regret nothing.  Even if you make a poor choice, practice self-love by not beating yourself up over it.  And take some alka seltzer with you.  I usually have one just as good form after a feasting meal.
Be thankful for your good bounty and for the ability to choose your foods.  Many don't have this option.  Most of all be thankful for the people in your life who make it all worth it!

​With gratitude--  Lisabeth
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dark time for the city of light

11/14/2015

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Many of us are sympathizing right now with the people of Paris and the pain and anger they are feeling.  It is hard not to feel outrage and hopelessness at such senseless violence and waste.  Paris holds a special place in my heart.  I've visited three times.  The first time I was doing dissertation research at the old Bibliotheque Nationale.  I rented an apartment in the second arrondissement, right around the corner from the library.  I had a lovely large room with lofted bed and sofa bed, a small kitchen and a bathroom.  All was simple yet pretty.  High ceilings, big French windows and window boxes with herbs and geraniums.  Over my month there I nursed them from looking sad and neglected to healthy vigor.  I enjoyed going to the outdoor market and buying fresh fruits and vegetables.  I particularly remember rosy tiny new potatoes and green plums that were incredibly sweet--I haven't had a plum like that since!  I ate my fresh mushrooms and salads and veggies and fruits with slices of dried sausages and goat cheese.  I'd buy women's magazines and sit in the park reading and trying to improve my French.  I visited a friend who lived in the South of France taking the overnight train.

Later I traveled with a colleague and a school group, and another time I took my husband, daughter and my father.  It was a magical trip that we will always remember.  We delighted in walking the city and seeing the sites.  I'd found a charming boutique hotel near the Centre Pompidou.  We especially enjoyed the City Museum of Paris (free) with artifacts dating back to prehistoric Paris and the Archaeological museum that sits in front of Notre Dame where you can see the Roman remains of the city that have been excavated.  We could not have had a better time.

Paris is a city that has often been besieged with violence and bloodshed.  In the sixteenth century, the Seine ran red with blood as Catholics and Protestants battled over religious reform and freedom.  In 1572, the St. Bartholomew Day's Massacres started with an attack at the wedding of Princess Margaret and Henry of Navarre (a Protestant who converted to Catholicism so as to gain access to the French throne).  This led to days of slaughter in the city, with a couple of thousand Calvinists being killed, and weeks of fighting in the countryside.  Over 10,000 perished in these attacks though the two sides signed a truce, The Edict of Nantes (later revoked in the 17th century).  Of course, bloodshed and hysteria of a different kind would seize Paris in the 18th century with the revolutionary fervor of the "Committee of Public Safety" under the helm of the radical Robespierre.  He ironically fell victim to the guillotine himself, declared an enemy of the revolution he helped to usher in, but not before 40,000 people had been executed.  In the 19th century on more than one occasion the French people took to the streets to demand democratic rights--incidents made famous in "Les Miserables."  Of course, during World War Two, the Nazis marched into Paris and set up a collaborative government known as Vichy.  Jews were targeted and betrayed and many French were disgusted with the compromises their peers and politicians made to appease the voracious hatred of the Nazi regime.  In 1968, students and union workers took to the streets again to protest government policies and demand more rights and allowances.  As one French writer put it, "in the U.S. the people fear the government, in France, the government fears the people."   

All of the above history aside, Parisians and citizens of the world are reeling from this unwarranted attack on innocent people.  As a teacher and a historian, I understand the need to study cultures and traditions, however there is no excuse for the behavior the world witnessed yesterday.  If your religious values are so easily shaken by a satirical cartoon, then you need to re-examine your beliefs.  Of course there are larger issues as well, but it is tragic when the values of a few--values which are often based on misconceptions--impact the lives of so many.  Not only will the victims and their friends and families suffer, but so will many more who are caught in the crossfire of retaliatory military action.  How do we deal with such realities?  A few suggestions, offered with humility and hope:
  1. Religion should be personal and private.  Keep it to yourself.  The state of someone else's soul is their business.  Period.
  2. Believe it or not, the world has gotten less violent.  Check out Steven Pinker's Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence?language=en
  3. Hug your loved ones, be thankful for their safety.  My brother was set to go on his first overseas trip to London and Paris this weekend.  That has been put on hold.
  4. Soften your own edges.  It is easy to be hateful and rigid. Compassion and flexibility are much tougher.  Cultivate them. Rigidity makes for fanaticism.
  5. Read, watch, listen to something uplifting.  Some cool jazz from 1920's Paris, the Woody Allen "Midnight in Paris" or the memoirs of Julia Child.  Cherish what this city has fostered in terms of great music, art, literature and food.
Avec paix et amour (with peace and love)

​Lisabeth

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    Lisabeth Robinson

    I have been an educator for 20 years.  I create, I play, I guide and I grow.  I want to share that with you too!

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