My horoscope is sending me messages again (and rambles about food).

[jamjar]

Poppy Folly, The Independent on Sunday.
Scorpio.

Lose weight. Or, if you're too thin, gain weight. You're too obsessed with mental things and you need to concentrate on your body. You mental obsessions include some very perverted sex (which you wrongly believe to be a physical obsession). Attempt a purely physical transaction next time and you will be rewarded with something you won't be able to remember (that's the problem with non-mental activity).


Y'know, it's taken me about a decade to get over my discomfort with weight loss. I associate it with negative things- possibly too much exposure to anorexia warnings and My Battle With Bulimia in teenage magazines, as well as the fact that when my mum gets depressed, she loses her appetite. I get great emotional satisfaction out of watching other people eat, and when I lose any weight, I worry that I'm not eating enough. My parents did not believe in the children's menu, so me and my brothers got appetizers and half-portions and bits from my parents plates when we ate out. Which happened quite a lot- big travellers and big foodies. My parents had one of those portable highchairs- you clip them to the table- so on holiday in Venezuela (where my dad grew up) my 15 month little brother would have a little food, then go to sleep resting his head one the table while the rest of the family finished eating.

Comments

[klgaffney.livejournal.com]

that actually works for me too, in a bizarre kinda way. mostly because i'm living in my own head again, as i usually do when the outside world gets to be a bit much. and i alternately refuse to be bothered with eating, or suddenly i'm starving; i stuff myself in record time and run off to engross myself in more purely mental crap. which would also include the pondering of what very perverted sex act my boys haven't done yet.

[jamjar.livejournal.com]

Y'see, now I'm torn between the feeling that any time you spend pondering the boys' perverted sex acts is good, and the desire to encourage you to eat. If I wasn't across the pond, I'd probably be sticking homemade chocolate and ameretti cake, or jars of celery-and-cashew-nut soup.

As it stands, I'm biting back the urge to flood your message box with my favourite recipes.

Ah, just one dammit. It's a good fridge recipe, because it can last a while, it's filling healthy and you have it cold- proper, fresh muesli:

Take a handful or three of oats, put them in the bottom of a largish mixing bowl, add enough juice (apple usually, but orange or cranberry or whatever else will do) to cover the oats, so they soak them up a little. Add a carton or so of yogurt- about 500g, to a kilo (this is one of those recipes you make to the limits of your ingredients, so the proportions don't matter). Add dried fruit- I usually just add a handful of sultanas- and some chopped nuts (brazil nuts if you're under the weather, since they're loaded with zinc and selenium). Grate about five or so apples, add them in, mix it up. If it's sharp- and it can be, depending on the yogurt and the type of apple you use- add some honey to sweeten it. Leave it overnight, so the dried fruit soaks up the juices and gets nice and soft.

It can last at least a week, but usually disappears by the next day.

My parents- while believing that low-fat was a crime against humanity- were also big lentil eaters. We got butter, but not ice-cream (at home, at least). The snacks I grew up with were things like this, or yogurt and peanut butter (which works really well, especially if you've got a sore throat). Healthy food, not low-fat. No fish-fingers, but still a proper big fry-up for breakfast on saturday. Not low-fat, but healthy.