Tonics and potions

{ Not exactly the potion I had in mind, but this works, too!  |  February 2013 }

As promised, a little peek at the nutritional extras I've been experimenting with lately:

Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega-D3

Natural Vitality Natural Calm

Bio-Kult Probiotic

Bernard Jensen Bovine Gelatin

+ Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega-D3  for reducing inflammation, a boost in building strong bones, and a little help regulating immune systems & mood / circadian rhythms.

I read good things about this company and the combination of Omega-3's + Vitamin D (necessary during our never-ending winter!) was a nice little dose of efficiency that I couldn't resist. While it's getting much easier to find good meat from local, sustainable, and gentle farms, fish still gives me problems. Either it's super expensive (which good meat can be, too), or, reports on the health of the fishery are conflicting. So while I am making more of an effort to scope out good fish, in the meantime, taking two of these a day cover me when I don't get enough. I mentioned before that I had noticed a little boost in energy when I first tried it, but as far as I can tell, no other clear effects (some women notice stronger hair and nails, which I haven't...although, my hair and nails are pretty strong already so who knows). Bonus: I was always afraid of taking fish oil because of the dreaded "fish burps" (eww!), but I haven't experienced any of that yuckiness with these at all!


+ Natural Vitality Natural Calm  for a direct boost of magnesium, which is an antidote to stress, improves sleep, promotes bowel movements, relaxes muscles, improves bone density, lowers risk of coronary heart diseases, regulates blood pressure and treats migraines/insomnia/depression.

Most people don’t get enough magnesium because the amount the body needs is greater than most think and many magnesium capsules and tablets are not completely absorbed. This powder, however, is pure, highly absorbable magnesium carbonate with citric acid—which creates ionic magnesium citrate, a nutrient that helps your muscles and nerves function properly, keeps your heart rhythm steady, supports a healthy immune system and keeps your bones strong. All of which means, if you want to sleep better and be less crochety (hi!), this seems like a good supplement. I've noticed a slight change in my sleep (a little deeper) and maybe in my mood (although I'm also making a conscious effort to keep work stress and personal stress compartmentalized), so I can't say with 100% certainty that the latter is thanks to this powder. But, I definitely know that a few spoons of this powder in water twice a day helps keep things moving (awkward...).


+ Bio-Kult Probiotic  for 14 strains of beneficial bacteria that help reverse the effects of poor diet, antibiotics, foreign travel, stress, aging and digestion issues.

I decided to try probiotics to see if they'd help with tummy problems when some gluten or more sugar than usual creeps onto my plate. I haven't really seen any huge effects, although Mexico was the first time in as long as I can remember that I haven't had my digestion basically shut down while traveling, so that's an improvement.


+ Bernard Jensen Gelatin  to support skin, hair and nail growth, keep joints lubricated, tighten loose skin, improve digestion, boost protein intake and build muscle.

I've been making more and more soup lately, reserving meaty bones from our dinners to throw in for an extra boost of gelatin and collagen, but I figured taking some direct gelatin wouldn't hurt either. I especially liked the idea of better skin, hair, and nail growth (specifically the skin bit), better digestion and help building muscle. So far, haven't really noticed any changes, though. To be fair, I also don't take this daily.

+ + +

There hasn't been any spectacular life-changing differences as a result of these guys, but there have been a few small improvements. I've also only been on this little "regimen" of mine for about 6 weeks, so I'm not ready to write anything off just yet. Maybe in another month or so I'll be able to make a decision about continuing or not.

Pitter-patter-y weekends

{  EEek! First big project!  |  May 2013  }

This weekend was one of those rare blocks of 48-hours that were entirely mine—all mine, mine, mine! With R working Saturday and Sunday, plus a nasty weather forecast, I gave myself permission to spend my weekend doting (almost) completely on myself.

On Saturday I cleaned the apartment, organized the fridge in anticipation of a huge grocery shop that I got to lovingly arrange the way I like (those first two might not seem very "dote-y", but I can't relax until everything is pretty and clean!), talked to my needy plants and fed them and arranged two huge new bouquets of fresh flowers (pink, lilac and white tulips in the living room and huge branches of stargazer lilies in our bedroom).

Then I spent a few hours of grumble-grumble-translating-grumble-grumble, followed by another few hours starting a new knitting project. This is my first "big" one (meaning, not a baby gift, winter accessory or home good), one that I had to measure myself for and poke at a calculator to figure out dimensions and gauge in order to not completely screw it up. I'm also finally starting to use the fancy yarn I bought back in March, but was too scared to use until now.

And that was basically the extent of Saturday.

Sunday I decided to completely give myself over to even more gluttony since I considered Saturday afternoon's annoying translating work to have infringed on my weekend of decadence, so I rolled out of bed and shuffled to the kitchen to concoct a ridiculous stack of almond flour + cacao pancakes, layered with alternating (so ridiculous) schmears of almond butter and cashew butter, with chunks of banana nestled in, too. A nice mug of coffee + cream completed the picture.

{  Almond flour, cashew butter, choco-banana pancakes + mug o'coffee  |  May 2013  }

Then, there was some reading of blogs, a little working out, talking with the family and more knitting (please note: the soundtrack to this entire weekend was nonstop episodes of an array of shows on Netflix + 1 movie). I also decided to make a nice dinner for R, which involved prepping a cute little chicken in the morning (I read that if you're roasting a chicken, you can get super crispy skin by salting the birdie and letting it rest uncovered in the fridge for as long as possible, up to 24 hours).

So I did that and set a proper table—baptizing the neutral-toned cotton napkins I knit for us after envying the fresh, nautical ones I made for my friend's birthday—and marinated some tomatoes and red onion for a burrata salad over mache.

When R came home I helped him out of his wet shoes and coat (totally unnecessary, but I figured he needed some decadence, too), shooed him into the candle-lit bathroom for a shower and then welcomed him to the couch for a cocktail (I had his whisky glass waiting) and chat before we sat down to dinner, and later, a movie.

{ Place setting with my new handknit napkins! }

{ Roast chicken + burrata salad }

Most definitely a delicious weekend—in every sense of the word.

Welcome back

{ Rebel  |  May 2013  |  NYC }

Yes I had a lovely vacation, but the city of New York made me pay for it this week with an onslaught of annoyances (minor one by one, but nasty all together). How you ask?

Well, let's start with the weather. From balmy, tropical 80F degrees in Mexico to windy, shivery, 45F'ish in New York. I had no choice but to rebel against the tyranny of Mother Nature with some summery sandals. Luckily, my insurrection didn't lead to a cold (whew).

Then, more dealings with the paperwork-inducing headaches of the Italian citizenship process meant lots of early mornings this week hanging out at the NYC Supreme Court and NY Department of State to stand in line and hand over some cash just for a civil servant to stamp my paperwork (at least the settings were pretty). No checking of signatures, no affirming anything other than that yes, I'm a slave to the system. But, at least I'm making progress—this weekend I'll be translating records and just hoping that I get my last two ASAP, since our appointment is coming up!)

(Meanwhile, no movement on the US or Sweden front...)

{ NYC Supreme Court  |  May 2013 }

{ Inside the NYC Supreme Court  |  May 2013 }

And lastly, for another posy in my bouquet of overwhelming-ness, the vending machine at my subway station yanked my $20 bill away and spit back my subway card with a $0 balance. I stomped over to the station agent to explain and she rolled her eyes and said I shouldn't have put my cash in the machine. Oh really, lady? Then WHY is there an option to add value with cash!? I had to go to 4 other stations and make two phone calls to the MTA to get some straight answers (which involved me mailing a claim form, my receipt and my sad little card back to them in the hopes that in 3-4 months they'll send me back $20).

I get it, New York. You really, really missed me.

But, the week ended on a high note—I had the apartment to myself last night while R met up with some friends from Sicily that were in town, giving my full reign to do my thing. Which can only mean a night of homemade spinach pizza + a banana / chocolate / cashew butter dessert + a girly movie and a few hours knitting (starting my first non-accessory, non-home-goods, actually-requires-measuring-of-my-body-piece!).

That's more like it.

Playing with pauses

{ A little Versace place-setting action at The Plaza Hotel  |  NYC  |  April 2013 }

I've been doing a little experimenting with Intermittent Fasting (IF) recently. May sound a bit nutso at first, but I did lots (and lots) of reading on the science behind it and the biologic and physical benefits that may come from it before I gave it a try. IF is the idea of giving your body a break from routine ("conformist") eating for a set period of time. The only "rule" you introduce into your daily life is choosing when to eat. If you already eat a clean diet, great, if not, well that's still okay—the only change you make is the times of day when you enjoy a meal.

[ This may seem faddish, but if you think about it, regular fasting is a way of life for many diverse religious groups (Catholics at Lent, Muslims during Ramadan, etc.), so it's not really a new idea. ]

There are tons of ways to do this, and naturally, many have created brands around their philosophies, e.g.,:

+ The Fast Diet / 5:2 Intermittent Fasting: Eating normally 5 days of the week and much less (i.e., 500 calories) 2 days of the week. This has taken off in the UK.

+ Eat Stop Eat: Eating normally apart from one or two 24-hour fasts each week. Doing this means you still eat every day, but the day you're fasting you don't have two meals, just one, i.e., you have dinner on Tuesday night at 7PM and then give your body a break until you have dinner on Wednesday at the same time. I like this premise because it means you don't go to bed on an empty stomach, which sounds like a whole lot of not-fun-at-all to me.

+ Leangains / 16:8: Geared toward athletic, muscle-building individuals and proposes 16-hour fasting windows and 8-hour eating windows every 24 hours. Followers also plan their workouts at the very end of their fasting window to break the fast with a feast right after intense physical exertion (the program also recommends specific ratios of macronutrients depending on your windows and workouts—it's a lot more involved than other "brands"!).  Most adherents eat their day's meals between 12PM and 8PM so this really just works out to not eating breakfast (or a different meal, depending on your "feasting" window).

+ Fast 5: Similar to Leangains, but they promote 19 hours of fasting and 5 hours of eating.

+ And then there are just people that listen to their bodies and eat intuitively, when they're hungry.

Lullaby oil concoction

{ via }

Even though the weather is warming up, I'm still hanging on to my spicy-scented winter oil concoction, although recently I've been doing it up with equal parts of coconut oil and raw cacao butter, which makes for a soufflè-like spread that goes on like whipped goodness and smells like yeasty, freshly-baked bread. The smell is seriously intoxicating.

But, I did mix up a new blend that I keep on my nightstand and smooth on before climbing into bed to moisturize my arms and neck and, theoretically, lull me to sleep:

+ 1/2 cup of coconut oil (or your favorite carrier oil)
+    5 drops of orange oil for cleansing and freshness
+    8 drops of lavender oil for relaxation and calmness
+  12 drops of vanilla oil for warmth, comfort and coziness

Slather on a bit and slip between the sheets!