I had the oddest call from a very impatient woman. I work in the Campus Activities Board office at our university and she called and very impatiently asked if the annual attendance at our events is above 1500 or below 1000. Now, we're very short handed today and that is not information I have at my fingertips so I felt pretty inadequate. I looked in our brochure (no information on that) and on the website (no information on that) and asked her if I could take her name and number and have somebody get back to her - she just get repeating "above 1500 or below 1000", as if she thought I couldn't understand her. Finally, I just told her I didn't know. But I feel like I should have been able to give her a better answer - but why, if I offer to research and get back to her wouldn't she allow me to do that?

I wish I could find a way to make vegetables non-disgusting. Without the addition of cheese, that is.

Some vegetables, even cheese cannot redeem. I wish I could eat more fruit without feeling like I'm fermenting. I like fruit; it just makes me bloated and gassy. Does V8 juice really count as 2 servings of vegetables? Because I can do that.

very impatiently asked if the annual attendance at our events is above 1500 or below 1000

What if it was 1200?

Hee.

I wish I could find a way to make vegetables non-disgusting.

Join a CSA. I barely eat any veggies during the winter because the ones I get from Jorge during CSA season taste SO MUCH BETTER. Like actual food instead of something that's been sitting in a container ship being sprayed with ethylene for 2 weeks.

but why, if I offer to research and get back to her wouldn't she allow me to do that?

Because she's my annoying professor? Who, to update, called back twice more, with the second call to make sure I took down a message by hand for another librarian that she'd left on his voicemail, but she wasn't sure he'd listen to voicemail.

If she gets thrown off the plane, she's going to sue and make me do the research for her, isn't she.

Also, her sibling is a well-known TV journalist so I just know there would be a big stink.

If you could sum up a healthy eating philosophy in one sentence, something you could be mindful about without obsessing about each mouthful what would it be?

I've been thinking about this since the convo started yesterday, and I really like Michael Pollan's creed (very slightly modified):

Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants.

So that means I mostly avoid the processed, artificial stuff and try to eat mostly fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, eggs, and cheese. I don't eat meat, so I try to make sure to get my protein in other ways, but honestly, it's usually not hard. Breakfast is Kashi cereal with unsweetened soy milk; lunch is usually a pb&j sandwich and yogurt with honey (or TJ's curried lentils with yogurt, yum); afternoon snack is an apple; dinner varies but usually involves a decent amount of vegetables. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good.

I lost about 20 lbs four years ago and have kept it off by making some simple changes. I went fully vegetarian, I started paying more attention to portion control, I stopped eating dessert every night (though I still have it probably 2-3 nights a week), and I now look at ingredients and try to avoid products with sugar added. (My peanut butter does not need sugar!) I also get a good amount of sleep most nights -- we're usually in bed by 10:30 and asleep by 11. I could probably lose a little more with more regular exercise, and more importantly, it would help me feel better. But overall, I'm pretty happy with my body and my state of health these days.

Dr. Seuss does Star Wars

This is my fave [link] of Jabba and whatever his pet is called. Note the trap door.

eta: The Han Solo dialog on this is excellent: [link]

Do you guys really like the taste of diet soda? Because I don't know why it has Slurmlike addictive qualities.

I like Diet Dr. Pepper. Other diet sodas (and regular Pepsi) taste so bad to me that I'd rather drink water or unsweetened tea.

Lean protein and whole grains and snack on fruit?

This is me. That and portion control. I do like dessert, so I make a processed food exception for Jello dream mousse and have one of those most nights. Satisfies my sweet tooth and only 60 calories.

When I first started eating this way I DID have to think about food a lot, but once I settled in, I really don't. Even better, I don't have to worry about high blood pressure and feeling sluggish. I'd rather go through a month or two of feeling hungry sometimes and retraining my palate in exchange for not suffering from all the ills of the heart disease my dad had.