Advent Calendar:27 Dec 09-The Third Day of Christmas: These are Some of My Favourite Things!

copyright Meady's Musings Production 2009

Most of the animals and people are now dispersing from Meady's Musings Production house catching their respective flights, donkey backs or simply on foot like the monkeys heading back to the streets...hopefully reformed especially after witnessing miracles! The purple elephant and little mouse have helped them secure jobs in some tea shops and other places...One of them learnt to be a barber while in the house (trained by a bear). And one decided to go off with the shepherds to help them herd their sheep! So the house is getting quieter and quieter...the baby that was born is still with us but word has come through the shepherds that they too should be on the move soon since people are looking for them!

So things are winding down here on the calendar but we are still celebrating the twelve days of Christmas as promised! So on today the third day of Christmas I share with you three of my favourite things that I've discovered this year relevant to each blog...

-On Meady's Musings:Three things to eat!
-On UCP:Three of my favourite carols/bhajans/chants!
-On Books and Films Corner:Two Books and a Movie!


THREE THINGS TO EAT!


1. Awfully Chocolate!- I found out about this as I got it for a birthday present yesterday! It was bought in Shanghai but seems that the store originates from Singapore! And it was awfully nice! You see I love dark chocolate...the one I got is a tin of tartlets it seems...see pic below...What I also like about the chain when I checked out their site is how they originated...nice story...or innovation! Check their site out on http://www.awfullychocolate.com

copyright Meady's Musings Production 2009


2. Lady Grey Tea- Now I'm yet to taste a cup but some friends have and say it is simply delicious...I was just pleased to find out about its existence this year! I had always heard of Earl Grey tea but never knew there was a lady to it! :) But with hints of orange in there some how I know I'll love it! Might have to wait for March to get a cup out of the UK but know it will be well worth it! :)


3.Vegan Foods!- And one of the last but not least important lovely things I learnt to eat this year are vegan foods! It was great to find out how easily I could live on them...and plan to be vegan again in Jan 2010 I think! :)

The End of My Journey Semirawkindarawveganforsure!

On the last day semirawkindarawveganforsure my Purple Elephant is really kicking his padded feet up all in an uproar trumpeting and dancing for sure! He says he is hearing the music in his feet and elephants from all over the planet…purple and not so purple…Indian and African alike are sending messages to him through the vibrations felt in his feet! He is no longer having those nightmares after seeing the movie ‘2012’ and he is just all happy! You see the messages he is getting are about the start of the Advent calendar from tomorrow on all three of these blogs:

 Meady’s Musings
 UCP-Universal Collective Prayer
 Books and Films Corner

Also The Purple Elephant considers himself to be a winner! And it’s another reason why he is celebrating. Here are some thoughts from The Purple Elephant and me at the end of my journey semirawkindarawveganforsure! :

I went into this experiment to look at my relationship to food and in particular to embrace the loveliness of fruits and veges! It was part of a side experiment kinda getting off the tracks for a bit and going off on a small expedition with the Intent to take the lessons learnt from it back with me as I carry on with the main journey. It is why I went so strong and intensely into it for a short period. So now the trick is to incorporate these lessons or findings back into my normal life…however as in the past if I go all crazy in my eating again I will have to take myself into a corner and do this experiment all over again! But our society is so results oriented...so let me also tell you some results of the experiment then…

RESULTS

I did not go into this with the Intent of any specific results but just to see how I felt and what I happened to learn. Also as I’ve said on previous posts I do not weigh so I can’t scientifically tell you that result however I can unscientifically do so though! And I believe in combination with my eating habits and my stepping with the lovely steppy thingy…Purple Elephant at my side!




I’ve lost well within 5 to 10 pounds. I know this based on my own feel and perception of my body. The necklace I wear daily with a pendant (given as a gift in UCP from a fellow blogger) feels much looser around my neck…like now it hangs a bit longer down. Also I can see it on my face and in the look and fit of my clothes and the springiness of my step!

Also out of this experiment I’ve learnt how to eat like this and combine my stepping…this is an upping of the ante from previous such experiments as back then I just was getting accustomed to the drastic change in diet! But this time I walked quite a bit and The Purple Elephant and I are proud to announce that just over this last weekend we amassed 6 miles of walking- 3 miles on Sat and Sun respectively!


So to summarize in bullet form as the engineer in me breaks through the results/lessons learnt were:

1. Weight loss: 5 to 10 pounds
2. A better ability to incorporate daily exercise routine into this diet.
3. A better understanding of my relationship to food:
-the amount I need to eat to simply live
-the loveliness of the taste of fresh fruits and slightly cooked veges
-my need or lack of need for dairy products: I can perhaps live without
butter and cheese but I really miss my milk! And sometimes I crave
chocolates and ice cream.
4. The importance of drinking lots and lots of water! So coke please don’t steal that supply from the Indian farmers again…be reminded!


WAY FORWARD

Based on my findings I intend to:

1. Eat less from now on as I’ve found I was eating way more than I needed to…of course there will be the ups and downs (usually related to social events) and I won’t beat myself up over it! But perhaps try to walk more on those days.
2. Continue to eat fresh fruit and slightly cooked veges daily as they can really make up for a lot of my daily food intake without depriving myself in anyway i.e. no hungry feeling etc. Although now that I’m off the experiment I can eat other foods if I can’t get the fruits and veges but I have to keep remembering how good it was to eat them!
3. Start back dairy yes but minimize my use of butter and cheese. Also recall that if I could have had tea and coffee etc. without added evaporated milk for three weeks well I can skip it on some cups from time to time and still live! And if I could have done without chocolates and ice cream for three weeks surely I can have less of it when I do now!
4. I can do all of that and still try to walk 3 miles a day and if not at least 30 mins daily usually after dinner.

But remember what The Purple Elephant said to kick off this blog post!

Elephants world over are heralding the start of my Advent calendar here and on my other two blogs! So let’s get the party started…and yes there will be some fun ‘junk food’ on the calendar as there is simply no fun being a health buff all the time you see!

C’EST NOEL!

IT’S CHRISTMAS!

989D33JGPP2N

The Purple Elephant Vs. Non-Vegan Foods...and The Winner is...

THE PURPLE ELEPHANT! :)


Now I can't say the Purple Elephant has had much of a fight really I mean both events- the birthday party and the charity dinner were already vegetarian in nature. I thought I'd be side stepping paneer (a kinda Indian cottage cheese) at the dinner but none was served...so really at both events I was just knocking out cake,cookies and ice cream really! And well all the questions as to why? Or the confused looks when I kept declining the treats...or at the charity event when someone insisted I try the chai that was all brewed up already milk included! I just explained that I had tried the chef's famous chai at a wedding that he served it at prior to this event and so tonight was having the plain old Lipton tea! Of course I was also ducking from cream in coffee and tea and the likes but at the dinner there was even non-dairy creamer!:) So I made it through...although now I'm wondering if I won on a technicality as was that non-dairy creamer truly vegan? And these are the dilemmas I always face as a vegetarian so just now seeing the new frontiers of that dilemma when being vegan! The way I deal with it though is I try my best not to but if I do well I can't really hold Father Time in an arm lock so I just say what's done is done and move on!

Now remember my point was not to cross the vegan line especially at those events where I knew semirawkindaraw would have been too tough to pull off...but on the whole I'm trying to eat less and mostly be semirawkindaraw...and stay away from lots of sugar and caffeine and junk foods. But I've been having sugary things and some caffeine once in a while as long as they've not been non-vegan. I've also been having some carbohydrates-a bit of rice, roti and bread and on one very rare occasion a bit of pasta. But really I only have them when I can't get my hands on enough fruits (raw) and veges (prepared semi-raw) and I need to have some additional calories to make it through my day.

So sadly no chocolate although I've just had a cup of my favourite Cadbury's cocoa mixed into only boiling water...no richness of loads of cream and sweet like I'm going to be having soon for Christmas! :)But still a slight taste of cocoa for my nerves! :) But yes 'the where I don't cross the line bit' is on being vegan hence the 'veganforsure' bit I've put into the title to describe my current eating habits.

And again rounding to the last week of this experiment in eating I can say it's easy to be vegan I can see it being done and it seems to be a healthier step past vegetarian for sure! Will I become vegan fully one day? Dunno...for now I am looking forward to Christmas treats-cake, ice cream, chocolates...my favourite richly made recipe for Cadbury's cocoa...but I'm sure with time and working at it one can find vegan treats that will substitute...and it does feel lighter...I can't say I miss the cheese...I have more been missing chocolate and cream in my tea, coffee, cocoa etc...in fact thus far I've not had black coffee as I don't like the bitterness of coffee much anyway...so have more been having the green tea with the occassional black tea too...I think there are some rainy cooler times I crave cheesy pizza or some mornings butter on my toast or a bowl of Quaker oats made warm with milk...but is it these things I'm craving or the need for warmth, comfort and joy?

Well my purple elephant just trumpeted! :)He's getting all excited and restless these last few days...dancing as if in the circus as he can't wait for the Advent calendar...you should see how quickly he was walking when I stepped almost 3.5 miles today! :)

Oh dear! He has just tickled my ears with his trunk to say that after seeing the film 2012 he is a bit anxious as he had a nightmare after seeing the film. In the nightmare he is one of the pair of Indian elephants that made it onto that Ark so he is a bit nervous about how he is going to interact with all the other African elephants that he figures survived in South Africa as according to the movie...it seems the flood did not hit most of Africa and in particular South Africa for sure. Also in the nightmare while on the Ark he recalls he had a cousin (elephant) that went from India to the zoo in South Africa and he is hoping to meet him still...so there will be three Indian elephants at least in the new world...the nightmare has been reoccurring for my purple elephant after seeing the film...and he also cries heavily in it as he had to part with the little mouse that is always at his feet...they chose two American rats instead...so he had to leave his Trinidadian one behind...and he always awakes from the nightmare when the female elephant those American scientists tagged him with starts to nag him out of his wits! LOL!