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In Which I Become An Active Amateur Nutritionist: A Story, A List, A Few Questions

/ Ally Bean / 219 Comments

Is this not so‽

DESPERATELY [SORT OF] SEEKING CALCIUM FOR STRONG BONES

You’re not a very good freezer spelunker.

Z-D said this to me when I couldn’t find a bag of frozen edamame, a bag that he found almost instantly after digging further down into the disorganized mess that is our freezer.

He was right about me. Our freezer is on the bottom of the refrigerator and looking down into it with my bespectacled eyes is the equivalent of 52 card pick-up. It’s a jumble of blurry stuff.

The thing is that prior to March 2020 in the Before Times we had an organized freezer. I had a place for everything and could quickly easily find what I was looking for.

However after March 2020 when Mr. Man began working from home all the time and we began making all our meals at home all the time I lost control of the contents in the freezer because, say what you will about Z-D, he knows food and likes to have lots of it on hand.

Nonetheless, getting to a point here, you may be asking yourself why was I searching for edamame?

Thanks for asking. Please allow me to explain.

• • •

Edamame, also called soy beans, are a good source of calcium which, as you probably know, is good for your bones.

If I am to believe the results of a recent DEXA scan that measured my bone density, I need more calcium so that my bones get stronger or at least remain as strong as they are now. I’m not into a full-on osteoporosis situation with brittle fragile bones, just a pre-osteoporosis situation that is called osteopenia.

There’s always some dodgy name for medical conditions.

And further if I am to believe my Primary Care Physician’s advice I need to eat more calcium in addition to taking a weekly little prescription pill called Alendronate.

My insurance company [inexplicably] covers the full cost of this annoying little pill. You take the pill on an empty stomach then without laying down you wait at least 30 minutes before eating or drinking anything. I’m a person whose digestive track is easily upset, so naturally the pill doesn’t play nice with my intestines.

There are issues.

Plus the ridiculous dosage regime means that after dragging myself out of bed to face the day there’s no coffee for me for a half hour. I resent this intrusion into my morning routine. Obviously this is not a good way to start my day and I’d like to get to a point where I don’t take this little pill even if it is weekly.

• • •

Admittedly I’m not thrilled with dairy products, a well-known source of calcium. I eat a few but to get the recommended amount of daily calcium [1200 mg] I have to think about taking dietary supplements &/or eating more calcium-rich foods.

Because I want to avoid the dietary supplement angle of calcium intake I’ve chosen to become the Queen of Non-Dairy Calcium Information. As an active amateur nutritionist I’ve researched the topic online, going so far as to put together the following list of sources of calcium-rich non-dairy foods that I would will eat.

I share it here because maybe you, too, are trying to eat more calcium because you, too, don’t like taking prescription medicine or dietary supplements. Thus without further ado I present for your edification this *at least it’s a place to start* list.

[Please note: the order of the foods means nothing more than how I wrote them down during my research.]

A NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF SOURCES OF NON-DAIRY CALCIUM

SOY FOODS

  • Edamame
  • Tofu
  • Roasted soybeans
  • Soy milk [calcium fortified]

NUTS & SEEDS

  • Almonds 
  • Brazil nuts
  • Pistachios
  • Sunflower seeds
  • Almond milk [calcium fortified]

VEGETABLES

  • Spinach [low absorption]
  • Black-eyed peas
  • Broccoli
  • Acorn squash
  • Butternut squash
  • Cabbage
  • Celery
  • Green beans
  • Radishes
  • Sweet potato
  • Tomatoes 
  • Zucchini

GRAINS 

  • Oats
  • Corn tortillas

FRUIT & JUICE

  • Rhubarb [low absorption]
  • Pumpkin
  • Dried apricots
  • Orange juice [calcium fortified]

BEANS

  • Great northern beans 
  • Lima beans
  • Pinto beans
  • White beans
  • Hummus

SWEETENERS

  • Maple syrup 
  • Molasses [blackstrap best]

FISH & EGGS

  • Shrimp
  • Canned sardines 
  • Salmon 
  • Egg yolks

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Is your freezer in a jumble or is it organized? If organized how do you keep it that way?

What is your thinking when it comes to taking prescription meds? Or taking dietary supplements?

What is your opinion of dairy products in general? Do you like butter?

Do you love Steve from in_otternews like I do? Do his absurd thoughts, like the one at the top of this post, make you laugh out loud?

• • • • •

Discussing The Impact Of An Audience + Sharing My Summer Blogging Schedule

/ Ally Bean / 184 Comments

The Impact Of An Audience

a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing

AFTER I READ WHAT I read, I couldn’t stop thinking about the advice that many people found inspirational. Considering I had worked in a world where “know your audience” was the mantra, what I read seemed off-base.

Yet being open-minded I got thinking about it. Oddly enough it seemed like good advice and bad advice in one paradoxical statement. So in an attempt to get to the heart of what this advice meant I talked with a few friends about it.

We couldn’t agree about what to make of it.

So what, you might be asking yourself, did I read that lead to pondering and *perhaps* profundity? I read this brief article entitled: Amanda, There Is No Audience.

The title IS the simple advice that may or may not make sense to you depending on your personality and/or your idea of community. You might like or not like the advice depending on the context and/or who is saying it to you.

There are variables.

As best I can figure, and I’m sure you will tell me if I am wrong, the advice is saying that in order to not second-guess yourself, which is a positive thing, you have to not care about what other people think about you and your choices.

There’s a truth to that.

Don’t give your power away to just anyone or anything.

But how you use your own power seems to divide people in a philosophical way that reveals how you think about the people around you and any influence they may, or may not, have on you.

Anyhoo the issue, simplified, comes down to how the advice resonates with you:

• Do you, like Amanda, find this advice inspiring because by denying you have an audience you’re free from judgment and this allows you to do what you want to do unhindered? You are alone.

OR

• Do you find this advice unrealistic because to think no one is watching you is delusional, but in spite of that by ignoring what the audience suggests you are productive? You are indifferent.

Thoughts, anyone?

My Summer Blogging Schedule 

image via pagesbyleanne

LIGHT is my guiding word this year.

Thus in order to allow more light into my life, The Spectacled Bean will be on SPRING/SUMMER HOURS until further notice.

I’ll post here every couple of weeks, reply to comments, and check-in with you on your blogs every so often because I try to keep up with you, my bloggy friends.

Take it easy, everyone. Let the light shine on you.

Do good. Play nice. Be happy.

• • 😎 • •

Beep Beep! Roadrunner, The Coyote’s After You! 7 Random Things To Tell You On A Wednesday

/ Ally Bean / 203 Comments

~ • ~

1. I am agreeing. Social connectedness can take on many forms. I read THIS article about lively front yards that include any items like, but not limited to, garden gnomes, porch swings, plastic flamingoes, little free libraries, and assorted other decorative stuff. The conclusion was that: “residents who expressed themselves with items in front of their house reported feeling a greater sense of place.” 

2. I am enthusiastic. What beach reading books are to summer, ‘Bunny Rabbit’ TV Shows are to your mental health. Bunny Rabbit TV shows aren’t literally about rabbits, they are shows that give you a lift, not requiring more from you than your willingness to be distracted in a lighthearted way from your woes. I grok this term, enjoyed the article and the comments that followed, and haven’t stop thinking about which TV shows to put on my list since I read about this idea.

3. I am ditzy. In my ongoing attempts at being mindful of water usage, I pour the end of our glasses of drinking water onto the houseplants. Welp, in a moment of *duh* I poured the remains of a flavored club soda [San Pellegrino Dark Morello Cherry & Pomegranate to be exact] onto a large pothos. And within days the plant turned yellow-ish and began dropping leaves. Yes, I murdered a plant.

4. I am laughing. According to my results from the Pottery Barn Style Finder Quiz my decorating style is Farmhouse: “rustic woods, hardworking metals, and sprinkles of barnyard whimsy.”  Me thinks not. While the metals around here may be hardworking [not sure what that even means] the wood is refined and there is NO barnyard whimsy here. As if.

5. I am enthralled. I’ve learned that after soccer, badminton is the most popular sport in the world. Who knew? As such there is scientific research about which shuttlecocks, also known as birdies, are best: ones with duck feathers or ones made of nylon. Learn more HERE about findings that “may represent a new arc in the history of the beloved sport.”

6. I am indulging. I decided that I NEEDED something sweet to eat, something devoid of nutritional value. So I scrounged around online and found this Strawberry Rice Krispie Treats recipe that adds freeze-dried strawberries to the classic recipe. Divinely delicious.

7. I am entertained. I stumbled over this website, MovieGrid.io, that offers a daily online challenge about movies. Titles of said. Dates premiered. Stars in movies. You have 9 chances to answer 9 questions correctly which, if you do, creates a completely filled-in grid of 9 movie posters, NOT like what you see immediately below.  

~ • ~

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

What gives you a sense of place? Is having one important to you?

What’s on your Bunny Rabbit TV Shows list?

If you take the PB style quiz, what style do they say you are? Do you agree with the results?

When you want something sweet to eat that is devoid of nutritional value, what do you turn to? Are you on Team Rice Krispie Treats with me?

~ ~ • ~ ~

The One About Spring Cleaning, Taking A Tumble, And Discussion Of Said

/ Ally Bean / 248 Comments

The Spring Cleaning Part

Last week we decided to do a proper spring cleaning on the first floor of our house. It’s almost all wood flooring, the outliers being the powder room and the laundry room that have tile floors.

As you can imagine cleaning and waxing all the wood floors means moving furniture, rugs, plants, lamps, decorative items from one room to another; then moving them back from whence they came.

Please note that we’re not obsessive about doing all the spring cleaning in one day, like we were when we were younger and working and being social butterflies who had places to go, people to meet.

No, now we go with the flow and take our time.

Over a few days.

The Tumble Part

Well, we’d done the floors in all the rooms except the living room. And I suppose I was feeling a little cocky about how efficiently we’d moved furniture and such around the first floor, like pros.

But pride goeth before the fall, people. [No pun intended but it is one.]

So as we were carrying the rolled up 8′ x 10′ heavy wool rug + pad back into the living room preparing to place it just so, I lost my balance on the slick clean waxed floor and dramatically, albeit slowly, fell down, KERPLUNK.

At this point, if’n we were a younger married couple, my true love would have rushed to my side making sure I was uninjured.

However as a much older married couple my true love knows I’m clumsy as all get out, so he just looked at me in a heap on the floor and said: “it’s just a few more steps to get the rug into place, you gonna help?” 

Thus prompted by his *concern* I stood up, doublechecking the knee on which I’d fallen to see if it still worked. And it did. As did my toes that had gotten twisted around and smashed when I sat unceremoniously on them.

No harm, no foul.

The Discussion Part

Now the foregoing isn’t meant to be a motherly warning against wearing only socks on your feet when you move heavy items around on wood floors, which I think we can agree might not have been, in retrospect, a good idea.

Instead think of this tale as the precursor to the conversation that followed in which we discussed what I could/should/might say to our primary care physician when I go for my annual physical checkup wherein she’ll ask: have you fallen in the last year?

The answer to this question is, of course, dependent upon how you choose to define “fall.” To wit:

Is a fall any incident wherein you find yourself unintentionally down on the floor/ground despite the unusualness of the situation? Such as what happened to me while helping with the rug, something that might be classified as a minor mishap, merely a slip.

OR

Is a fall specifically when you lose your balance unexpectedly whilst doing something normal like walking around your house, your neighborhood, a store, a park, wherever? Such as tripping over something, or having a stroke-like moment, resulting in a serious keeling over out of nowhere. 

I await your insightful comments, my little moonbeams of good health. Trust me when I say this has been an ongoing, unresolved, conversation here at Chez Bean.

What say ye?