Scoffing

What I will be eating now that I can eat what I want:

• A baguette with soft, salted butter
• Pizza
• Strawberry cake with cream
• Cadbury's Whole Nut or Ritter Sport Milk Chocolate with hazelnuts
• Chocolate hobnobs
• A banh mi
• Blackberry & apple crumble
• Pad thai and Mongolian beef with crunchy noodles
• Cold sesame noodles from Han Dynasty (handynasty.net - be very precise about that URL)
• Lasagne with garlic bread
• Scones with clotted cream (note the plural)

But... I am going to try to stick with the food ratio I've learned for most meals: 50% non starchy veg, 25% protein, 25% carbs/starchy veg. Because that makes me feel lighter (not weight wise but energy wise), better, and kept my moods more even (generally; my other half may have something to say about that).

Nurturing: February Update

The growth from friends' IG accounts to people I don't know has led me to identify several main pillars of what I choose to see. High up there are plant-based ones* - I love seeing greenery everywhere, and also a delight are those showing beautiful plant accessories, and I am obsessed with the cut flowers at Brooklyn Blooms, a gorgeous place near where we live.

The inspiration from seeing lush greenery hasn't quite led to that feel within the apartment just yet, but definitely played a role in my resolution to keep things green and alive this year. I have lost a couple of air plants, it's true, but it turns out I may have been drying their roots wrong - thanks to Houseplant Parenthood's timely tip, I've switched to drying them in bright light (i.e. the grow light that I finally invested in and have yet to affix to the herb-growing alcove where it will live). I'm hoping that this will help the rest survive.

More importantly, perhaps, I'm approaching this as a less static experience. I've somehow managed to start seeing this as an ongoing thing in my life, rather than a "leave them once I've watered them once" or even "I water them when I remember, every couple of weeks..." For example, the app I'm using doesn't seem to want me to water my golden pothos as often as the plant wants, so I have been keeping an eye on it and, as indicated by its leaves drooping, watering it when it tells me it needs the hydration. I'm checking the soil regularly. And I'm moving plants around - to where the shafts of sunlight are, rotating the airplants so they all get some exposure, trying to be more responsive to their needs. The app I'm using isn't super precise and doesn't respond to my needs without paying for premium, and I'm not there yet, but having the app has provided a base level of checking what's going on so that I have been freed up from that remembering portion and can be more actively involved in the plants' care. And this has been a real source of pride and delight thus far, which was sort of the point.

* Others: HAES and intuitive eating nutritionists along with food stuff generally; Bookstores, writers, and blogs; and makeup artists, which provides a great deal of beauty in my feed.

Nourishing

Gestational diabetes is a shitty thing. I'm really lucky to have great insurance and access to a wonderful doctor, so I'm in a good position. I was diagnosed at 31 weeks, not the 8 weeks that a neighbour got hit with. And diabetes has a lot of emotional resonance from the way my mum struggled with Type II Diabetes for a lot of her adult life.

Nonetheless, I have been able to treat it as a little bit of an experiment - what spikes my blood sugar (oatmeal, bread, alas), what works (POTATOES I LOVE YOU I KNEW THERE WAS A REASON I HAVE ALWAYS CHOSEN YOU*), and a whole new world of snacks and recipes. Things I've learned:

• Triscuits are awesome. Specifically, the rosemary and olive oil ones (but shout out to the black pepper ones, too). The plain ones are like eating shredded wheat. Which is not bad, but not what I want in a snack.
• Unsurprisingly, I have really, really, really enjoyed putting avocado or sour cream on everything to make sure I get enough fat to keep my blood sugar down.
• Side note: eat full fat! Full fat sour cream. Full fat mayo. Full fat cream cheese. JOY.
• My aim to reduce waste has been hit by my need for cheese strings and KIND bars, but these things have been necessary to my survival.
• KIND bars are... good? Mostly? Sometimes they are a struggle, but I generally like them. I've been allowed the nuts and spice variety. They're all pretty decent.
• This kale and sausage "lasagne" is delicious.
• Beyond Meat stuff is... pretty good. As are Alexia frozen rosemary & garlic & olive oil potato wedges.
• Blanched cauliflower lightly mashed with cream and black pepper is perfection.

Also: the placenta is an incredible thing that people don't really understand. One thing we do know is that it seems to bugger up insulin reception and so that's why people get gestational diabetes. There's a really big effort to understand it underway, which sounds like it's not before time...

* A question that will get you surprisingly high mileage in life: If you could have only one starch/carb for the rest of your life, would you choose 1) potatoes; 2) bread; 3) pasta; 4) rice; 5) another one that you can think of. And, for me, the answer is potatoes. Always. Even though I really, really, really want a baguette and a pizza. Anyway, tell them you heard it here first.