a peek inside the fishbowl

You know what is srsly awesome? We’re handing out our 100th grant of $1,000 dollars! Want to see what $100,000 of crazy, brilliant ideas looks like? Come celebrate with us on April 19th! Register here https://t.co/CLeaYxe22K #ottcity #awesome #Ottawa pic.twitter.com/QHzkb3r9cU

— Awesome Ottawa (@AwesomeOttawa) March 15, 2018

• When Twenty-Six Thousand Stinkbugs Invade Your Home, newyorker.com
• Letter of Recommendation: Candle Hour, nytimes.com
• How coffee shop redesigns address laptop loitering and wi-fi hogs, ottawacitizen.com
• Big Sugar Versus Your Body, nytimes.com
• What Happens When Moms Design A Lactation Room, fastcodesign.com
• Nothing Good Can Ever Come From Weighing Your Child, weightymatters.ca
• For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It, nationalgeographic.com

On the nightstand: Elephant in the Sky

Well, friends, we are just past the halfway point with the Whole 30 thing and I have good news and bad news. Bad news: I cheated. You are technically not supposed to weigh or measure yourself at any point during the thirty days, but I did. I blame Mark! He weighed himself and announced a small weight loss so of course I had to do it too. The good news: I’m down about five lbs., which means my pants fit properly again and my sports bra doesn’t feel like it’s trying to squeeze the life out of me.

Sidebar: Weight loss is not technically the goal of Whole 30 but the vast majority of people who see it through to the end do report weight loss. It is about rethinking one’s approach to food and hopefully creating better eating habits, and I know I am doing that.

If I had to summarize my Whole 30 experience so far I’d call it an ALL YOU CAN EAT DIET TO LOSE WEIGHT. That is, of course, AYCE meat and veggies, but I am totally ok with that for now. I can’t get over how happy and full my tummy is… all of the time! It’s amazing. I am so pleased that I ran out and bought a stove top egg poacher today. (Poaching eggs is skill I have not been able to master!)

By the way, if you are curious about what I’ve been eating these past two weeks take a look at this page. I update it during the day, mostly after meals.

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Have you ever been to the National Gallery on a Thursday evening? It’s free night (free admission to the permanent galleries as well as the exhibition)! Mark and I went to check it out, and we were not disappointed.

We parked in the Market (free street parking!) and walked over. I was surprised to learn that the windows are being replaced right now. That’s a lot of windows.

Mark and I joked that they should install plaques on the plywood and pretend it’s a new art installation. ;)

The other surprise: it was busy! I was so pleased to see so many people coming out on a chilly weeknight to enjoy some art. We had limited time so we made a beeline to the Canadian Biennial exhibit, which is only on until March 18. I wish we hadn’t left our visit to the last minute because I would like to have had a second wander.

There was so much to take in, and so many creative works. I really enjoyed the recreation of an authentic Quebec dépanneur… but there’s a twist once you step inside. I also loved Nick Cave’s, Soundsuit. It’s a mixed media piece that includes a gramophone horn, ceramic birds, metal flowers, beads, fabric, metal, and a mannequin underneath it all. My photo cannot do it justice. It is a sight to behold.

I wonder if they sell a life-sized poster of it?

The work on display for the Canadian Biennial exhibit is incredibly diverse and offers much food for thought.

The second exhibit we saw is called Gold and Silver: Images and Illusions of the Gold Rush. If you’re a fan of photography, you’d really love it too.

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Something else I am excited about: I have a new gig with one of my favourite Ottawa retailers, terra20! My first post on their blog highlights terra20’s organic, fair trade and vegan Easter chocolate selection. Do you buy chocolate for Easter? Plan an egg hunt? I’d love to hear more about your Easter traditions! I have a post coming up about our own traditions soon.

I should begin by saying that I haven’t fallen off the wagon or cheated. I’m still here; still going. (!) We’re almost at the halfway mark!

A lot has been written about sugar lately, and how it affects our brains and waistlines. I know for a fact that when I eat sugar I crave more sugar. (I really enjoyed this piece about sugar on the New York Times website. You might like it too.) The addition of sugar, in all of its forms, in All The Things, is stunning. A few of you Fishies may remember our family “Sugar Fast.” We cut out desserts and foods with added sugars in them for a week, and it was very hard to do, especially with kids who like ketchup on their meat and dressings on their salad. The big takeaway: it isn’t until you really read the labels that you realize that some form of sugar is added to almost every processed food. Case in point: I bought frozen shrimp the other day and was looking forward to eating them with seafood sauce… because seafood sauce can’t POSSIBLY have sugar in it, right? WRONG. So wrong. When I got home from the grocery store I checked the label, and sure enough, there is sugar in seafood sauce. I thought seafood sauce was just tomato sauce with herbs, spices, and horseradish?

So for the past little while I’ve been making my own mayo, dressings, dips, and sauces. Most of them have been pretty good too.

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I’m not having too many difficulties keeping this up but as I mentioned in my Whole 30 Day 9 update, it is a lot easier to focus on the foods I’m enjoying rather than the foods I might be craving or missing.

“You know what I’m craving,” announced my dear husband the other night (who is ALSO DOING THIS WITH ME), “a big cheesy pizza.”

Ha. Well. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to banish the thought of cheesy pizza from my mind for the duration. I’m choosing to REALLY enjoy and dwell upon juicy grapefruits, perfectly seasoned salmon, and ripe avocados, and reflect upon how fortunate we are to enjoy these fantastic foods.

Speaking of fantastic, I had ribs for breakfast the other day. Ribs! It is a bit unorthodox but when you need protein on your plate and there are ribs in the fridge, this is what one has to eat. I cut the meat off the bone and threw it all on the frying pan, along with an egg. As I was about to take my first bite I felt like I was really forcing the issue (“food is fuel!”) but then I relaxed and actually found myself enjoying the meal. Who knew?

Isn’t it weird that in North American society, the meal we eat in the morning consists of just a small group of foods that we’ve collectively decided to categorize as breakfast foods? Why bacon and sausage for breakfast, but not ribs? Why ham but not chicken? Why fried potatoes but not cauliflower? It doesn’t really make sense when you think about it, so I’m trying to get over these preconceived ideas of what breakfast is supposed to look like.

I’ve also thought a lot about the structure of our meals and why they look like they do. I suppose most of this falls under the category of cultural food traditions. Why do we feel we need to eat a big baked potato with steak? Why not just steak and vegetables? (Perhaps it’s because once upon a time, potatoes were considered filler, especially since the cuts of meat were probably smaller.) Why serve bread with a pasta dish? Who said there needs to be bread at breakfast, or at almost every meal? Who said there should be dessert every night after dinner?

I can make my own mealtime rules, ones that involve fewer calories and less sugar/flour/etc. and benefit me and my health. I certainly don’t need to follow a script. I can eat ribs for breakfast if I want to!