Light-skinned-ed Girl

On Missing Bread

So, I finally got serious in the last two weeks with the exercise and weight loss regimen again.  (It is so much easier to focus on healthy living when my days are regular and I'm off the road.)

I have been missing bread doing my low-carb diet.  But I have found a wonderful alternative and a great recipe for a low-carb grilled cheese sandwich.  True, it doesn't look like much, but this little sandwich makes me happy and it has only 5 net carbs.

The "bread" recipe is inspired by the muffin in a minute recipes (muffins that are made in the microwave).

1/4 cup milled flax seed

1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 of a 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp butter

1 egg

Stir the dry ingredients.  Then add butter and egg.  Mix well.  Pour in microwave safe dish (square if you can).  Cook in microwave for 1 minute.  Slice bread lengthwise and continue with the regular grilled cheese making steps.  (Except I don't use any more butter.)  I also use fat-free cheese and add chia seeds to the mix as well.  I'm going to try a version with just egg white to cut down on the fat as well.  Try it.  It's actually pretty tasty.

 

Bryan Stevenson: "We Need to Talk about an Injustice"

I posted this on my Facebook and Twitter accounts a couple of weeks ago, but it's so important and so moving and absolutely transforming--that I had to post it here too.

This is Bryan Stevenson's TED Talk on injustice, his grandmother, and the importance of sharing the truth of one's identity to help others.

 

 

Adrienne Rich, Visionary, Rest In Peace

I was lucky to take a course taught by Adrienne Rich while she was at Stanford.  It was a literature course focused on "outsider women" -- I can't remember what it was called.  But it was then I was introduced to the very amazing work of Lillian Smith, Audre Lorde, and Frida Kahlo among others.  I will never forget hearing--for the first time--the song Strange Fruit.  This was back in the day and the class crowded around a boombox at the front of the room.  We were transfixed.  Here we were--mostly women--of all stripes and polka dots feeling the pain of the story Billie Holiday was singing.  I can't explain the power of that moment.

About three years ago, I found a collection of Rich's I wasn't familiar with: A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far.

from "For Memory"

Freedom.  It isn't once, to walk out

under the Milky Way, feeling the rivers

of light, the fields of dark--

freedom is daily, prose-bound, routine

remembering.  Putting together, inch by inch

the starry worlds.  From all the lost collections."

It was one of those days when I found exactly what I needed.--Strangely, only a few weeks later I saw Rich at a restaurant in New York City.  She was gracious enough to let me interrupt her family meal to say hello.

I learned so much from Adrienne Rich's poetry. I learned so much from her vision.  She will be missed.

The Way Shame Works, The Way it Stops Us

Last year, a friend introduced me to the original TED Talk by Brene Brown--The Power of Vulnerability-- when I was going through a difficult time. I immediately bought Brown's book and found some comfort and wisdom from it--and have revisited it a few times since then too. 

Here is a follow-up TED Talk that was recently posted on the way shame works in our lives, "the unspoken epidemic in broken behaviors."

 

Write a Letter a Day Challenge

The last few weeks I have finally found a measure of peace in organizing my office: new file cabinets, new storage, new label maker, and at last I have a clutter-free desk!  

Part of the clean up involved going through old journals and letters.  I used to be an avid letter writer, and I had a great correspondence with a few people over the years.  I started writing letters as soon as I knew how to write.  I loved stamps, and saved my money to buy more stationery.  I was a weird kid.

I continued to write letters through college, and law school and well into the late 1990s when email was more common.  There is a wonderful intimacy in reading about a friend's adventures in Panama, or a friend's excitement over a new love.  I miss my pen pals!

So I was excited to see this challenge: Write a Letter a Day in February.  (Perfectly timed for Valentine's Day!)  I'm going to take the challenge.  How about you?  

Oh, and if you'd like to send me a letter, you can find my address on my website contact page!

Oh, Etta! You Will Be Missed!

Etta James died.  I adored Etta James.  It is a sad day indeed.  

I fell in love with her music kind of late.  I knew of her, but it was her albums of jazz standards that made me fall in love with her voice.  I could play her version of Someone to Watch Over Me all day long.  It is my all-time favorite song.

I first saw her in concert at the Hollywood Bowl a couple of years later.  She was Ray Charles' opening act and I was in the front row of box seats (my summer intern treat!).  I didn't know what an extraordinary performer she was.  Wow!  I saw her at least half-dozen times in concert after that--the last time was a couple of years ago again at the Hollywood Bowl.  She was still and again amazing.

In my novel, Etta James actually plays a pivotal role. When Rachel, the main character, goes to see Etta James in concert she is profoundly changed.  She says:

"Etta James is stuffed together like Grandma--a big, squishy capsule--and she's light-skinned like me.  She's got the gravel to her voice when she sings the loud parts (and the parts that are kind of nasty too).  She also has that soft spot in her voice when she sings songs that are about being lonely and sad.

The last song, which is an encore, is a long, slow song.  I clap and clap.  And stand and clap.  I want to say this the way Grandma would if she agreed: I like me some Etta James!  It feels like it's the only way to say it to make the meaning good."

I should have written: I LOVE me some Etta James.  Oh, Etta!  You will be missed!

A New Year, A Nice Vacation

I am happy to report that this report comes from the Riviera Maya in Mexico.  It was raining when we arrived in the late afternoon yesterday.  I'm talking biblical kind of rain.  And it was so chilly that I wore my New York City winter coat to dinner.

It was impossible to enjoy the scenery because it was already dark, but what a wonderful view I woke up to.  Nice, right?

I've had the most relaxing of days: coffee, my morning pages, and NPR; delicious buffet breakfast overlooking the pool; a massage; a spa pedicure; and now a glass of wine before heading off for dinner.  My goals for the next two days: 1) enjoy another massage; 2) walk on the beach; 3) read on the beach; 4) rest up!  Ah . . . more soon from the other side of relaxation.

One Book Turns Into One Awesome Winter Hat

Last Spring, I was traveling home from Portland, and noticed a woman knitting a gorgeous looking winter cap on the flight.  It looked just like my beloved cap that I lost last winter in a cab.  I was bummed out for several days about losing that cap--not just because it was blue and green (the perfect colors), but a family friend knit it for me shortly before she died of cancer.

It became clear to me that I had to have the hat the woman on the plane was knitting. 

"Hi," I blurted as we got off the plane.  "Can I buy that hat from you?"

She laughed and said she didn't sell her knitting.  I explained how much the hat reminded me of one I had lost that meant a lot to me.  Was there any way she could make an exception?

Well, in that case, she said, the hat was mine.  She'd send it when she was done.  What was my address?

How happy was I?  Ecstatic, but felt like I had to give her something.  So I signed a copy of my book and gave it to her along with my mailing address.

I hadn't thought about that encounter since--until I got a package in the mail last week.  My hat!  With a lovely note from Sara (I didn't even know her name), and a beatiful bracelet she made too.

She still isn't selling her wonderful work.  Don't you think she should? 

Thank you Sara!  You made my week!  And your hat will keep me warm all winter!

 

My CNN Red Chair Interview

Remember back in August when I did the CNN Dialogues panel hosted by Wolf Blitzer? Well, that same trip I got to sit for a CNN Red Chair interview (watch the video it really is a red chair) -- CNN Red Chair feature is a newsmaker series that has featured the likes of the current crop of Republican presidential nominees, Chaka Khan and George Clinton, and now me. You can check it out here:

The Regimen Has Begun: Dieting Before the New Year

I will confess: I let it all go while I was on the road for the last few weeks--heck, I let it all go for the last couple of years as I toured.

I can say that I didn't meet a plate of french fries, or a plate of pasta I didn't like since 2009.  And then the workouts: well, let's just say that even though I brought that awesome foldable yoga mat with me everywhere as well as my workout wear . . . those things didn't often get used.  It's a hair thing too.  I like to travel with my hair straight so I don't get that bird's nest of matted curls when I'm on the plane (not to mention traveling with wet hair); and if I sweat, well then my hair isn't straight and then . . . -- well, as you can tell I had a bunch of "reasons" that I ended up packing on the pounds.

This week, I think I have broken the cycle!

1.  I am officially "off the road."  Whew!  As much fun as it was, it was impossible to stick to a good diet and exercise regimen on my hectic travel schedule.

2.  I have gone low-carb (this is day 4) and I think I can stick with it for a few months with some new additions to my diet.  (E.g. Harmonized Protein Powder in iced coffee; Pasta Slim noodles; and more water than I am comfortable drinking when I am on the road if you know what I mean!)

3. I'm getting almost as intense a workout as I would working out with a trainer.  I bought a timer app for my phone that allows me to do Tabata intervals.  (More about that in another post.)  The timer does a visual countdown, but also has a voice prompt that says "Ready?"in a really energizing way and then the bell rings for the next round.  I'm getting my butt kicked by a timer voice!  It's great!

So wish me luck on this journey.  I'm looking at Feb. 1 as my goal weight deadline.  Yup, I said it out loud: that means accountability.  See you in the gym!