July 3 - Pick Me Ups

  I was feeling a bit drained when I got home from work today.  I won't go in to the boring details but suffice it to say I was dwelling on an issue.  You know, the kind that the more you mull it over the more you just want to curl up on the sofa and suck a block of chocolate?  I logged on to a chat program and talked to Mr Smart.  As we were talking he asked if I'd been on the cross-trainer yet tonight and I confessed I hadn't yet.  It made me realise that getting on there and huffing and puffing away would actually help me clear my head and stop worrying about it.  So I did.
  It's weird how we put off exercising in spite of the fact that it generally makes us feel physically better as well as clear-headed.  And it's surprising how much I dread it at times.  At the moment I find it comforting and something I'm proud of, but I don't doubt that will fluctuate during this process.

  Guess I'd better do a run down of my eats today!

  Breakfast: The same yoghurt, berry, fibre toppers combination as yesterday though slightly smaller spoonfuls of yoghurt.  Also I mixed the berries and their juice through the yoghurt till it was bright pink and then poured the fibre toppers on top.  I couldn't help think that they looked reminiscent of my rabbit GoGo's lucerne pellets.

  Lunch: Vietnamese roll spread generously with a quarter of a hass avocado, then baby spinach, Virginia ham and half a tomato.  Followed up with a rippingly tart Minneola tangelo.  Did you know that a tangelo is the love-child of a mandarin and a grapefruit?  I didn't until tonight.
  Also, it's so much cheaper to make lunch!  This lunch was only $5.30 and I still have enough avocado, ham and tomato for tomorrow's lunch too!  For comparison, yesterday's sushi, $12.50!

  Afternoon snack: A Kiwi fruit with the skin on.  Don't sit there going 'blerg'! You get used to it, I've been eating them that way for years.

  Dinner: Homemade pizza. Khobz flatbread, Handorf kangaroo salami*, La Casa bambini bocconcini (tiny baby fresh mozzerella), broccolini stems and Mainland light tasty cheese.
  I think I overdid it on the bocconcini which is why the pizza looks so cheesey.  I was actually quite restrained with the shredded tasty.  It was delicious and the flatbread makes for a fantastic delicate crispy base, only takes 20 minutes in the oven at 190°C (375°F).  Perhaps not the absolute wisest food choice, but infinitely tastier and better for me than Dominos (barf barf).

  Dessert:  After all that pizza I really wasn't hungry anymore but due to the earlier mentioned work issue still rolling around in my head I had that desire to munch.  Funny isn't it?  An issue eats away at you which in turn makes you want to eat away at anything in arm's reach.  I compromised and fed my brain 10g of Lindt 85% Cocoa Dark Chocolate.  It can't really be called bittersweet, it's just plain bitter, but I love it all the same, and I certainly wasn't hungry after it.


  So that's it for food!  I realised as I was driving to work that I forgot to take my Ranitidine dose this morning.  I'll have to work out someway of working it in to my morning routine so that I can remember.  The trouble with my morning routine is that I'm half asleep for most of it and since having an instant hot water unit installed by the amazing Mr Darren Fleming, it is even harder to drag my butt out from under the shower!  Nothing quite as good as a long hot shower in the morning... except maybe a well made eggs benedict.
  So how am I doing for pick me ups?  Exercise, a cheap cheerful lunch, homemade pizza, chocolate as dark as a smoker's lungs.. oh yes, then there is books!
  I love reading and I love language, no surprise there.  I arrived home tonight to 5 of my 7 recent purchases from The Book Depository!  The arrivals were: "My cat likes to hide in boxes" by Eve Sutton (to read with my nephew), "How to think more about sex" by Alain de Botton and three series on CD of "Fry's English Delight" a BBC Radio 4 program by the inimitable Stephen Fry.

  Also in line with loving language, another great Tuesday pick up for me is the
Haiku Tuesday (Haiku Kayoubi) group on Facebook.  I really look forward to my Tuesday compositions.  Today's theme or challenge was to write "the ugliest, funniest, stupidest, grittiest cheese and onion flavoured Haiku" I could.  You be the judge, my entry today: 

Cold season is here.

Snot pours from many noses 

 and is horked from throats. 

  My other huge pick me up is music.  I love music.  I love singing.  It runs in the family.  My favourite artist of late is Newton Faulkner and my youngest sister Gub alerted me the other day that his new album will be out soon!  Sure enough.. Write It On Your Skin is due out in Australia on July 9th.  That's less than a week away!! I am also a big fan of Canada's Barenaked Ladies!
  Of course, one of the best pick me ups, is a good night's rest so you can get up feeling refreshed rather than zombiefied.  So that's the one I'm going to focus on now!
  Goodnight all!
  Jess

*Technically Handorf kangaroo salami is a mettwurst.  I buy it at the Queen Vic Market whenever I get in there (which isn't nearly often enough).  It's much lower in fat than salami, though still not exactly 'healthy'.