Road to Recovery

Life is funny the way it works. How one thing leads to another, and before you know it you find yourself somewhere where you never ever expected to find yourself. That's what happened to me, big time. Back in 2013 I decided to lose some weight and in order to fully commit myself to the project I challenged my coworker K. to walk 90 kilometres in a month. Little challenge never hurts anyone, right. I'm competitive like that and I like to win. It motivates me more than just trying to do something on my own, without real goal in mind.

What I did not know, back then, how it would change my life. How it would change K's life too. Because that little challenge wasn't enough for us. It was actually too easy. I  think we both ended up walking way more than just 90 kilometres. And that daily walking habit lead us to running. Why walk when you can run? And so we both picked up running too. I was little late to the party and didn't manage to run so much in 2013... but I started running as soon as it was possible the next year.

And last year, 2014, I started to run even more seriously. And I got better at it. And somewhere along the way my goal changed. I wasn't running to lose weight anymore, I ran because I liked it and I wanted to be able to run even faster. I think that for the first time ever I  exercised for other reason than just to lose weight. And it felt good. It felt healthy. It felt normal, like a natural thing to do. It was a start for something new, though it still took me a long time to get where I am now.

I wanted to get better at running so I decided I needed to build some muscles too. So I got myself a little 6kg kettlebell. And oh boy it was hard. But I did it, semiregularly. Didn't really manage to build any muscle during the running season, mostly due to my own laziness. But I got familiar with kettlebell exercising.

So to summarize the story so far: walking lead to running and running lead to kettlebell exercising.

Last year I participated in Helsinki Midnight Run. Talking about real goals here! I used to be a girl who didn't run, and who were probably able to run 10 metres. And then I became a girl who was able to run 10K, nonstop. Not super fast though, but hey, it was a big deal for me. I participated in a god damn race! But Helsinki Midnight Run also pretty much ended my running season. There was a lot happening during that time, I think my social life kinda got in the way of my running. No regrets though, I am more than happy that I decided to invest in my social life rather than running. Me having social life has lead to so many good things that there are no words to even describe them.

After my running season was finished, I drifted for couple months, not sure what to do next. I gained weight. Like crazy. Before I even noticed it myself  I was the chubby girl again. Something just had to change because the idea of starting the next running season from zero was killing me. I wanted to get better, not to start all over again!

So in November I finally picked up the kettlebells again. And since I wasn't running, they become my main focus. I trained several times a week. I got better, fast. What used to be too heavy for me become easy. I got heavier kettlebells. I trained harder and longer than ever before. But I saw no physical change really, I just got stronger. Which is not a bad thing, of course. After all it meant that somewhere under all the chubbiness I was building muscles. And the idea of having muscles, even invisible, was quite a nice one.

And that lead to my next major breakthrough. 

Apparently you need protein in order to build muscles. And to get protein you need to actually eat food. Which is something I have never really been good at. I used to be some kind of anorexic person when I was younger. And even though I have thought for years that I am no longer that person, I was. I wasn't eating the way I was supposed to be. I was eating, but I was still thinking that it's somehow bad and that it was holding me back. And I was eating all the wrong things too because I didn't know any better. I wasn't definitely eating much protein because I just didn't like meat. Never occurred to me that it's something you should actually eat if you don't get the protein elsewhere.

I've been on a very strict diet this year. And usually diet means that you eat less than normally. But I have been eating much more than usually. And there is a lot more protein in my diet than ever before, now I eat meat every day. And have I gained weight like one would assume considering how much more I am eating now? No. I have been losing weight, steadily. And my weight has stopped fluctuating, no up and downs anymore. I think I have finally realized why eating is so essential. It's not something you have to do, but something you should want to do in order to give your body what is needs in order to achieve the things you want to achieve. Can't build muscles without protein, can't get energy to exercise without carbs.

It's been a long way to recovery, but I am here now. And that's all that matters. And all this, exercising and eating right has changed the way I feel about myself. It has changed my standard of beauty. I no longer want to be skinny. Hell no. I want to be strong and fit. When I look myself in the mirror I want to be able to think "I worked hard to get here" and not "I starved myself for this". There's a difference, and it's a different look too. I now very much prefer the first look.

And working hard... actually makes me happy. I enjoy the things I do for myself now. Kettlebells make me happy, being able to lift heavier weights makes me happy, running makes me happy, eating makes me happy. All those things I do nowadays make me happy. And you know what doesn't make you happy? Not eating, Starving. Being miserable when eating. I know that, because I've been there. I have been the skinny girl and I think I have never ever been more unhappy than during those years. Yes, I was thin but I was feeling like crap all the time.

But right now, here where I am mentally, I wouldn't trade my body to be skinny, not in a million years. I rather be the way I am right now than skinny fat. So yeah, maybe I have recovered. Took me some time, but I got here. Now I just need to keep going to see how far it takes me.

This is just a start.

Papu's Piggy Treats

We are going to Viiala for the weekend, so we decided to bake some doggie treats for my mother's dachshund. Papu has eaten almost all the treats I baked her last time. I thought they were too hard, but after all they weren't. They were just hard to crack into pieces. I bought a smaller cookie cutter so the size shouldn't be a problem anymore. J.R. also rolled the dough thinner this time, so they should be easier to crack too. And now it seems that we have a perfect, simple doggie treat recipe, so why not to share it with you? Here it is:

Papu's Piggy Treats

Makes 25-30 small treats

List of ingredients:

• 30 grams of minced meat (that's not much)
• 1 tbsp of vegetative oil (quite optional if the minced meat is not low-fat)
  
• 0,5 dl of consommé (about 0,2 US cups)
  
• 1,75 dl of wheat flour (about 0,7 US cups)
• 0,75 dl of cooked rice (or barley or a mix of both) (about 0,3 US cups)
• 1 tsp of oregano

Doggie treats before baking.

Making:

1. Fry the minced meat.
2. Use a hand blender or similar to chop and mix the minced meat and consommé.
   
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Add the flour little by little until you think it makes a nice dough.
   
4. Roll the dough (0,5cm thick is OK) and cut the cookies.
5. Bake in 170°C (338°F) for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes turn off the oven, open it a little and let the cookies dry in the after heat.

If preserved in an airtight jar or similar, the cookies should stay good for months.


Doggie treats after baking. They still look the same, no surprises here.

They don't look so yummy to me, but Papu is crazy for them. Maybe she knows that we have baked them with love. They don't really smell that much, and I'm not sure if they taste so wonderful either, because I have not tasted them by myself (though I could, they're not poisonous).


She wants it. She wants it really bad.


Outside the picture Papu's tail is wagging like crazy.


FINALLY!

After these two experiences with DIY doggie treats, I'm very positive that I will bake them in the future too. Like why not? Papu loves them more than she loves her commercial doggie biscuits, they're cheap and very, very easy to do. Just make some Chili con Carne or any other food with minced meat and rice and take some aside and bake the biscuits later. So ridiculously effortless!

Magic Tea by Tefal

We decided for like ages ago that we need a new teamaker. Our old one was working perfectly fine but it had started to look disgusting. You had to wash it very thoroughly after every use, and still it was somewhat gross. But when we decided to get one, we simply couldn't find one. We searched through all the local shops (don't get fooled, we live right next to a very big shopping mall) but there was no sign of a tea maker. Only tea maker we could find was from a Finnish online store, but they had some serious delivery problems and the waiting time would have been insane.

Yesterday I was out of work while J.R. was cooking a dinner for us. Usually I wash the dishes while he cooks or question him about a book he needs to study for entrance examination. But yesterday I didn't had any dishes to wash and I only had few questions to ask, so I was quickly out of work. I took a random advert that was nearby and started to read it. And there it was. Our new tea maker. Whatever problem they had, it's solved. The "Magic Tea" tea maker by Tefal is available again!


Tea time every day.

It's even better than our old tea maker. This one is cordless and it has on/off buttons. It doesn't keep the tea warm forever like our old one did, but I guess you have give up something to get something better. And I bet most of the people don't forget that they've made tea... Anyway. If you like tea, like seriously, go get your own. It's a "must have". We bought ours from Anttila, but you can try other retailers too, such as KodinYkkönen, Citymarket, Sokos and ONOFF. (And no, I was not paid to write that.) If you're cheap, though, you can visit us and take our old tea maker. You can have it for free.

Tea bread... for muffin lovers

Last night I had a dream that J.R. wanted a bread machine. I guess I had the dream because we ate a super yummy baguette with tomatoes, pepperoni and cheese before going to bed... Anyway. Couple years ago my aunt gave me a silicone muffin tin. It was a very thoughtful gift, but after I tried it twice I decided it's no good for baking muffins. At the time I also liked to bake tea bread, because it was so easy to do. I didn't like its dryness though. No matter how I tweaked the recipe, it was always too dry for my taste. Until I tried to combine these two things... and later some cottage cheese too.

Here's the recipe:

Tea bread for muffin lovers
(no baking skills required, makes about six large muffins)

Mix these dry ingredients in a bowl:

about 2 dl of wheat flour
about 2 dl of oatmeal
about 2,5 teaspoons of baking powder
about 2 dl of cottage cheese (and some grated cheese too if you want)
(a pinch of salt if your cheese is salt-free or if you just like salt)

Add these ingredients to the bowl too and mix:

about 35 grams of melted butter (or little less or little more depending on how your diet is going)
about 1,5 dl of milk

Make about six muffins (use the silicone muffin tin, duh?) and put some grated cheese on the top. Put in the oven (225°C) and let them bake for 15 minutes.


Ready to be eaten by J.R. He loves these.

Unlike regular tea bread (= made out the same recipe without cottage cheese), tea bread muffins are very moist and cheesy. And they taste perfect with... tea. Who wouldn't have guessed. Anyway. If you don't have cottage cheese, you can replace it with regular grated cheese (the muffins will be less moist then, though). And if you don't have a silicone muffin tin, you can make just one flat bread (pat it flat with your mealy hand and poke it with a fork) on a tin. Or if you're on a diet, use skim milk and cut down with the grated cheese... You simply can't go wrong with this recipe.

Learning by doing some other stuff

I was really ill yesterday. First my eyes started to ache and I decided to take a little nap. I slept for few hours and when I woke up I had the most terrible headache. But I took a pill and ate some banana cake that J.R. baked and I started to feel better. Though I'm not sure if it was because of the pill or the delicious cake. Anyway.

J.R. and I spent the last weekend in Viiala. This time we had no particular reason to visit my parents, I just wanted to visit them and J.R. had no better plans either. OK, we had this one reason: my mom wanted to take J.R. to pick mushrooms with her. I had to go with them too, though. My rubber boots were too big and they make my toes ache. I didn't complain much, though.


And now our fridge is filled with trumpet-shaped chanterelles.

And my sister commented my weight. She said that I should watch what I'm eating because I'm getting chubby. She's so polite, isn't she? She's right though, I'm getting heavier. But in my opinion I'm just getting healthier. Couple years ago I was like anorexic. I wasn't eating much and I lost a lot of weight in a short time. It's good that I'm actually eating nowadays and it's only good that my body is taking its natural shape again. I was not born to be thin and it doesn't suit me. My current size is OK and I hope my sister stops makings comments about it.

I thought that I should write something about my school too. I have now studied three weeks in Laurea University of Applied Sciences and I'm still not sure if it's what I really want to study, but it's not bad either. For example we have had some interesting data network architecture lectures. And our school is actually quite nice looking in the inside:



Laurea has this fancy thing called "learning by developing". It means that we are forced to work in groups. A lot. And I'm not a fan of group working so it might become a problem. Our last project was ten page report of the history of the telecommunication. I wrote about smoke signals and homing pigeons and stuff. It was actually quite interesting. And today we gave a short presentation of the subject to the rest of the class. I think our presentation was the best of the bunch. There were better performers but their presentations were too long and too heavy in the details. So I could congratulate myself for doing a good job.

Much ado about T

This morning at work our black cleaner saw me washing my mug. He asked me if I drink coffee but I said I only drink tea. He got all excited and asked me what tea I prefer. Since I hate speaking English (no one ever understands what I'm trying to say) I only said "black" with a big grin on my face. I guess he got the joke since he answered "You know what I like, I like white tea".

My tea closet was running out of good loose tea so yesterday I bought some more. I used to think that tea bags are more handy than loose tea, but it depends on how you make it. Tea bags are easier to use if the other choice is loose tea and a tea pot. But this is how I make loose tea:

1. I measure the right amount of water: about 5dl for two drinkers
2. I measure the right amout of loose tea: one tea spoon per 2dl and one extra.
3. I plug-in my tea maker:

And it couldn't get any easier. And the tea always tastes good. You just can't go wrong unless you measure the tea very wrongly... But let's just keep this long story short and move on. Please meet the new members of my tea closet family:


This is what you get to drink if you visit me

I have started to drink my tea without milk. I realized that as long as I drink my tea with milk and sugar it will taste like milk and sugar. And it's about time for me to grow up and start tasting the tea in my tea.

How to make candy cookies

You know you're a bit nerdy when you bake cookies and take pictures of it... and later turn your kitchen experience into a tutorial. But I simply couldn't resist.

Amoena's Candy Cookies
(level: amateur, time: ~15 minutes, cost:~2 euros)



To make these delicious cookies you will need some hard sugar coated chocolate buttons (about 100g is enough).



Smash about 2/3 of your chocolate buttons. If your buttons are small, here's a tip: save the original plastic package, throw few buttons in and use an end of a rolling-pin to smash them one by one. Otherwise you can just smash them as you like.



Turn on your oven when you have finished with all that smashing. Go up to 175 degrees.



Now it's time to make the dough. You will need:

1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 and a half cup of wheat flour
half teaspoon of baking powder
50 grams of margarine

One cup is about one deciliter.

First mix sugar with margarine. I recommend you use an electronic mixer for this since it takes less time and effort.

Then mix your baking powder with the wheat flour.

Now mix everything including the smashed chocolate buttons. It should look like this:



Use two spoons to pick cookie sized portions of the dough to a cookie sheet. Leave lot's of space around the cookies because they flatten in the oven. You don't want to end up with one big cookie.



Bake the cookies for 15 minutes. And let them cool before you eat them!

Yes. They look weird. But I tested them on my aunt, my uncle and on J.R. and they all said they were delicious and I believe them.

The timeless Peach Mango Tea

I wrote earlier that my aunt gave me some tea. She knows how much I love to drink tea and how I like to have a good variety of them. By the way, it's quite awesome that so many of my friends are eager tea drinkers. Like who needs coffee?

So my aunt gave me some tea. And as J.R. quickly noticed, the labelling was quite confusing. The package itself screams "NEW". You see, on the corner, blue background, yellow text. You simply can't miss it.



But on the top of the package...



...there is a sticker saying "poistuva tuote". I don't know what´s the direct translation, but it gives you the solid idea that the product is so old that they're not even producing it anymore. I'm not sure if it's true but that's definitely how it sounds.

Anyway. That Peach Mango Tea has been around like forever. I remember that I drank it for the first time like five years ago. It used to be one of my favourites back then. But doesn't calling it "new" after all these years like harm their credibility? How long can they claim something as a new product? Seriously?

Amoena discovers theDailyPlate.com. Unfortunately.

Ever since I switched to Ubuntu I have also been a subscribed reader of UbuntuHQ. It's kind of a blog that collects Ubuntu related articles. Anyway. I don't normally read it so carefully, but this title totally got my attention:"Open source makes a healthy site for healthy eaters". And that's how I learned about theDailyPlate.com.

TDP helps people keep track of their eating habits by providing nutritional information on thousands of different kinds of food, and provides the calories per hour burned by doing various kinds of exercise. Registered users can create a profile that saves the information they have logged and creates formatted reports to track weight loss and gain or body measurements. (from Linux.com, click the first link to read more)

Of course I registered instantly. And now I know that I shouldn't have. When I wrote here that I'm not a "skanky anorexic bitch" I was lying a little. I'm not skanky, and I'm not anorexic. But for the last two years I have been playing with food in a way that is not exactly healthy.

And I blame Aleksi for this. I was completely happy with my weight. OK, I probably wasn't but I never thought that I should actually loose some. Until one day after a nice salad Aleksi basically said that I have got fat and that I should eat more salads. And instead of smacking him I decided he was right and I should do something about it. And I didn't eat for months. And I lost eight kilograms. And I was underweight. And extremely miserable even though I loved when people started to notice my weight loss.

I have started to eat since, obviously, because I still exist. But I only got half of the lost weight back. Now that I have seen the dark side, I don't want to go back to the state I now call "chubby". So I struggle to keep my weight low enough. And it means that I still see food as an enemy, that I still skip meals, I still fast. But I'm not obsessed. It's not controlling my life. I think myself as an unhealthy eater, not sick in any way.

I registered to TDP so it could help me to eat more healthier. That it could help me to eat without feeling guilty. But it turned out to be the opposite. I have been registered only for like three days and I have already started to eat less and less. And I'm way too excited over the fact that I have lost weight because of it. I have even found myself thinking how low I could get my weight this way, simply by not eating so much. And even I know it's not OK.

I don't know what to do. I really like the idea of TDP and I don't feel like letting it go. I wonder if I could force myself to eat all the 1,576 calories a day... It sounds a lot even though with that calorie intake I should still be loosing two pounds per week (according to TDP). But I have cracked my metabolism and I know that with 1,576 calories my weight stays the same.

Anyway.

If you're planning to loose some weight, then try out theDailyPlate.com. It's free and very easy to use. But if you're like me, STAY AWAY FROM IT.