Chicago, briefly

From this angle, Chicago looks a lot like Houston.

In which I experiment with mobile blogging

Greetings from Houston Hobby, the first of my unexpected stopovers.  I was suspicious when nothing was listed for a 5 hour flight.   Can I just say that there's a special kind of misery in setting one's alarm for 3:45am?  The best thing about getting up so early is that it can only get less early from then on.  On to the next: Chicago!

What I have been doing lately: Feeding myself better

Don't buy onions at HEB

No, I didn't eat this weird onion. I actually planted it. It's still growing on my balcony, and if you ask nicely, maybe I will update you with a current picture! What I HAVE been eating recently is better. At least, I hope so. It started in January when I decided I was going to wise up and quit sitting around eating nothing but potatoes and take out Indian. I quit eating carbs almost entirely for a couple of months. Ok, that's not entirely true. I quit eating gratutious carbs. Which is to say, I kept eating the occasional whole-grain tortilla and I didn't worry about fruit sugars. This went pretty well, but in the meantime, I started running (more on that in another post). I don't claim to know much about nutrition beyond the obvious (as sick and tired as I am of Michael Pollan, I AM trying to live by "Eat food, mostly plants, not too much") but when I suddenly started asking my body to run, I decided maybe I needed some carbs back in my life. Plus, to be perfectly frank, I'm not entirely sure that a life without tater tots is worth living. So I started on what I like to call the "will it make me happy" diet. I'm perfectly aware that this is ridiculous. But it seems to be working for me so far, though I still have to make a conscious effort to eat more veggies. Mostly what this does is ensure that, for instance, if I'm standing in the potato chip aisle, I'll think "will eating these make me happier than not eating these?" Sometimes, the answer is "shut up and put them in the basket." With tater tots, this is ALWAYS the answer. But sometimes the answer is, "No, I would feel totally gross and disappointed if I ate that entire bag of chips in two days." It's like checking in with My Inner Nagging Self. WWMINSD? Not subsist solely on tater tots, that's what. FYI, I retain exclusive veto power over MINS. So I eat lots of beans and lentils, I take "breadless sandwiches" for lunch most days, cook big batches of chili on the weekends, and don't feel deprived of all things delicious. It's been a challenge to try to eat healthy without a strict game plan, and I'm sure I'm doing it wrong. But I'm trying, and that's something, right?