about me

my avatar

It occurred to me that every blog in the whole world has an "about me" page except mine; so here you go!

I have both fatigue and pain issues that are ongoing.

Some days, you'd hardly believe I was disabled at all, I do things just like a normal person, running around in the garden, mowing the lawn, cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

Other days, I need assistance getting dressed and can sit for several hour thirsty, too tired to get up and get a drink.

When I first became disabled, it was very confusing for me. I'd have a good day and assume I was getting better and make all these plans for what I'd accomplish in the next week. Then the next week would come and I couldn't do half of what I planned and would get discouraged.

It was confusing for my husband also. One day, I'd yell at him for being patronizing and trying to do things for me that I could do for myself. And the next day I'd be in tears because he wasn't helping me and I needed it and didn't he realize how hard it was for me to ask?

Dealing with Disability... or Just Life

Over time, I came to realize how variable my disability is - that what I can do today is not something I can count on being able to do tomorrow. I have to plan for the bad days, not count on the good ones. I have limited time and must find the "lazy" way to accomplish every task to fit into my life. And I have to just get over myself and ask for help!

I don't think this is just relevant to people who are older or disabled. There has never been a time in my life when I prepared 3 meals a day from scratch like my mom did.

In my twenties, I was a single mom in college and graduate school, cooking occurred on weekends, and it wasn't because I was maximizing nutrition so much as because I was just too poor not to cook!

In my thirties, I was less poor but nearly as strapped for time, working at a "salaried" job 60-80 hours/week; I could afford to buy precut chicken instead of whole, but still had to cook it on the weekends if we were to eat during the week.

There has simply never been a time in my life when I was preparing and eating grass-fed meat and organic vegetable meals three times a day, and I don't think it's very likely it will ever occur unless I win the lottery and hire a staff.

I don't live in a real food nirvana, but in the ordinary real world.

I don't think we talk about this enough - that real life has both time constraints and financial constraints and we can't all be devoting our entire lives to eating well. Food is not an end in itself, we eat well to nourish ourselves and our families, to heal, to *do* things with the strength and healing we achieve through nutrition.

Life is not about food; food fuels life.

It seems to me that the guilt falls most heavily on mothers, who desperately want to do the best for their children. Well, the best you can do is the best there is. There is no better. It's not just "good enough", you give your kids the best you have to give. No one can ask more, not even you.

So... this is what I want to write about on here, how to do real, nourishing food in the laziest way ever.

For me, it is a half-joke that I am "lazy" about cooking, as my fatigue leaves me not just incapable, but also bored. My personality doesn't have a "lazy" bit, I had to learn!

So... this blog will largely be tips and thoughts from a Type A personality forced into laziness against her will!

What's with the avatar?

The labcoat is because I used to be a biochemist, so when I became disabled, I dove head-first into PubMed trying to figure it all out. Many of my posts are full of science and research links; what I know to be true based on the current state of research.

However, I haven't been a biochemist in some time. Immediately before I became disabled, my goal was to get a cow. And maybe a couple pigs. We had chickens and my primary hobby was gardening. The vast majority of "chemistry" I did involved cooking; hence the apron.

My avatar, wearing a labcoat over an apron, is intended to express my goal in ALL my online activities: to provide real understanding of what is known about nutrition and practical methods of incorporating that knowledge into life.