Wednesday 27 October 2010

Getting annoyed

with job search. It has been a year now and I feel like it's sucking the life out of me. I get annoyed with everything that happens and I sometimes just want to turn around and leave, but don't know where to go to.

My parents are no help, just salting the wounds and my friends can't help me either (because they are leaving town or having enough troubles with their own families and worklife).

I feel like my life has been put on hold and while I needed this stop last year, I'm fed up with it this year. I'm an engineer, I'm young, I'm fluent in 2 languages, I'm creative, I'm free to move and I still haven't found a job. It just plain SUCKS.

Monday 25 October 2010

A change of heart?

I've decided to rename my blog since I'm simply not inclined to struggle. Yes, I want to finish an Ironman and yes I definitely want to finish Ironman Hawaii. But I want to enjoy this whole journey. I want to have fun in training and at races. So here it goes, new blog name new approach.

You might know Crossfit, which is something I'm heavily drawn too, since the training changes daily. As you all know, I'm getting easily bored and distracted and so I think crossfit would be a perfect fit for me. Unfortunately, Crossfit has not reached Germany yet. So for the time being I'll use something else.

Today I crawled, made front and side planks (my arms were shaking like a jelly after a few seconds, no strength this girl ;-) and did some burpees. I enjoyed it. Well, I'll see what I'll do tomorrow.

Foodwise: I'm back with the paleo lifestyle and I feel better with it, hooray. I still suffer from my low ferritin. I hope it gets better with time, I just need patience, which is something as we all know I don't have.

Lastly, I stopped reading "Born to Run" altogether, since I just can't bring myself to read on. Therefore I say this book is crap, at least in my opinion.

I wish you all a good start in the new week.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Sunday 24 October 2010

Taste Bud Adventures - Turkey Hen & Brussels Sprouts

Healthy and delicious. Just ate it and had to share it immediatedly, since it's absolutely fantastic and very Paleo.

Ingredients:

butter (Kerrygold)
shalot
Brussels sprouts
turkey hen cutlet
mascarpone

Additionally needed: some milk, freshly grounded pepper, salt and spices. I used a Wok but a pan with a cover is fine.

How to do it:
1) clean and dice the shalot, sprouts and cutlet.


2) Sauté the shalots in butter for a minute or two and then add the sprouts. Sauté them for 5 to 10 minutes until the sprouts are a little softer but still crunchy, stir throughout the sautéing and add some more butter if needed.

3) Add the meat, some freshley grounded pepper, salt and spices that you like. Sautè until the meat is white but not dry (takes only a few minutes, maybe 3 to 4).

4) Mix 1 tablespoon of mascarpone with some milk until its a fluid. Add it as sauce in the pan, when the meat is done and stir.


5) Put in a bowl and Enjoy.


For dessert some fresh fruit like grapes or a pear are a wonderful addition.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Friday 22 October 2010

Currently Reading: Born to Run

by Christopher McDougall

At the moment I'm in the third chapter and I don't like it so far (Druglords in a runners book?!). I'll read on a bit to see if it gets better, but for now I can't recommend it. And I'm really glad that I didn't buy it, but instead lend it from the library.

Food: I have to admit, that I ate some lebkuchen and waffles this week. Which is bad for my body as a whole and my skin. And through the hazelnut spread I was reminded that I'm actually allergic to hazelnuts when eaten in large quantities. Whoops. It's nothing bad like asthma, but my skin gets mad at me, so I'm stopping to eat hazelnut spread again, which isn't too bad since the glass jar is already empty and it is quite expensive. ;-)

Job: I did already send out four applications this week which is really good, and I've got a few more to go.

Congrats to BDD for becoming a Champion.

Have a great weekend everyone.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Wednesday 20 October 2010

My new style blog

Today, after getting several applications out (yes, 3!) I went to my hatter, to get some repair and improvement done. Since I'm so nice and love hats, I had looked on her website and came up with several ideas of how to improve it and getting her more business. One idea was a blog on hats, since this takes less work than the website, but she doesn't have the time.

Since I LOVE hats and they come back in style and I changed my clothing style to hat-compatible, I've decided to give up my old style blog and start a new one on hats and how to wear them.


It's online now and if you like hats have a look at it. (Just one post now. Nothing much to see.) the Link: http://hatsmakemehappy.blogspot.com/

On the food front: I still struggle with Elliott and eating too much bad carbs, but it keeps getting better.

The knee is misbehaving again, but it might be due to some food or shoe issues. And it's not the tendons, which is weird. Anyhow, training continues.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Monday 18 October 2010

Itadakimasu

My current obsession is Japan. I love their movies and dramas and food. So when I came back home for lunch (after the dentist and looking for lamps for my flat) and had no particular idea for what to eat, I prepared udon.

Udon are thick wheat noodles that are mostly served in a broth with some slices of fresh spring onions and maybe an egg for the proteines. There is a whole movie on udon.

Well, so I made it pretty simple. I took instant miso soup for the broth (I know, I know, but I can't use real miso until I move out, same goes for garlic. Just one more month and I'll have my own kitchen! Yeah.). Cooked the udon noodles for 10 minutes and while they were boiling I soaked some wakame, cut a quarter of a bell pepper into cubes and some smoked (almond-sesam) tofu too.
I grabbed a "big" bowl, put the drained(?) udon in, added the broth and the other ingredients. This is what I got:


Itadakimasu!

Delicious, but not paleo or primal. However I have to use up my asian noodles, before I move out. By the way "Itadakimasu" is also the name of an japanese cookbook, that I just got from the library. So stay tuned for some delicious, japanese cooking posts.

Since my lunch wasn't paleo, my dinner certainly is: 2 red chief apples (as you know my favourites) and hazelnut spread (from the whole food store, only hazelnuts, nothing else). Just slice the apples and put some spread on it. Yummy. Not a real meal you say? Wrong, hazelnut spread contains a lot of oil (good oil, Ladies, so enjoy) and some pretty awesome minerals and proteins. So, in the end you'll have a big grin on your face and feel satisfied (maybe Mick Jagger should try it?!). I certainly have a huge grin on my face now.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Saturday 16 October 2010

Making headway

Two steps forward, one step back.

Okay, so on the job front: I'm still searching, but at least I know that I came in second at the big company I had my interview in September. Which is really close to getting the job, so I know I'm on the right track. Good times. (They usually don't tell you this, but I pressured them since I didn't know what to do about my studio. Sometimes stuff like this comes in pretty handy.)

On the apartment front: I found mine!! And it's currently renovated, so I made an reservation and if all goes well I have my own place next month. It has parquet flooring in the living room, which is also the only room with windows, but they have a fantastic view. (9. floor looking on a park, how much wood you pay for this in New York? Muahahaha.)
Moving next month is exciting and annoying at the same time. Anyway, I go with the excitement and ignore the annoying part, and make sure that everything I buy is easily moveable, no built-in kitchen just some ikea Gorm shelfs. I've already planned the color scheme for bathroom (violet) and kitchen (green). Since I won't paint any walls and don't want to drill (I will have to in some instances), because I simply don't know how long I will live there, I have to come up with some funny solutions.

Food: I had some fall backs in old eating habits due to stress, but I'm back on the path to healthy living as of today. (Can't wait to move out, no more waffles in the night, Wohoo! Or binge eating on chocolate because my mom annoyed me. Ha.) I tell you on Christmas I'll be a new person. XD And this is necessary. Because when I ate some bread this Thursday my stomach got really annoyed. Good thing no one was around me at that time.

Tomorrow I'll do some much needed bike repairs and maybe I'll go for a sprint. I'll see and report.

Have a great weekend everyone and good luck to Molly who has her A race today!

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Wednesday 13 October 2010

I'm exhausted

Seriously, I haven't been this exhausted for months. And all this because of some hours "on the road". I tell you, this low level of energy due to the ferritin deficiency sucks.

First Chris and I had a look at a flat, which turned out to be absolut crap. Then we drove back to the city and did our marathon program: Looking at the photography exhibition in the adult education center, then going to the japanese store (which is really cool by the way), then to an interior design shop, then to the museum for another photographic exhibition (nudes through 150 years of photography, don't get me started on the crappy modern pictures), then we went to several more department stores and to the shop of a hatter, who is lovely. All in all this took about seven hours and now "you can smoke me in a pipe", I'm totally and utterly exhausted.

For dinner I'll have chinese pear salmon with pine nuts. A variation of yesterdays plum salmon which was incredible. Since I'm so beat, I just couldn't help it and ate some chocolate waffles.

Hope you feel better than I do. I have another flat to check out tomorrow. Hopefully this one's alright.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Amazing, isn't she?

This is Cathy and she's 56. She's my new rolemodel fitness and body wise. I'd like to have a body like this in her age (or even now for that matter).



I found a first video of her and her family at Marksdailyapple.com, somehow I can't stop researching his site and as it looks I might end up buying his books. Good thing I still have an amazon gift coupon from my birthday.

Oh yeah I keep doing my burpees and planks and I finally have found the culprit for my tiredness, my inability to lose weight and to concentrate: low ferritin (iron storage). The range goes from 30 to 400, under 50 is problematic and full out trouble is under 30. (In Germany!) And now guess where my ferritin was in February this year? 31.6! I could've been already back at 200 or more if I had had the results black on white back then. But I only got those, when I got the results from my bloodwork a few weeks back and there I saw the mess yesterday, after I read an article on a german site and checked them. So right after finding out, I went to the pharmacy and got an iron supplement. Since it takes months to get the ferritin up, the feeling better might take some time. By the way, low ferritin also can be a cause for cold hands/feet and most of us ladies are too low on ferritin, because of the cycle and not eating enough meat (or nuts or eggs). The drinks with caffeine also prevent you from getting more iron, so don't take your iron supplement with coffee or black/green tea or cola.
So if you have any of my symptoms, go get your bloodwork done and ask your doc as to how much iron you need to supplement.

Okay, now I'm off to make my dinner: Plum-Salmon. Very paleo.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Monday 11 October 2010

Furniture Design and good moving on the right path

with a little stumble last night, but that's alright.

95% of the time my new mindset works out just fine, so I dare say I'm on the right way. I'm optimistic that I'm currently making a slow but steady U-turn for the right direction. It takes some time and a lot of work and discipline, but eventually I'll succeed. (Even if Elliott gets me to eat waffles at three in the morning and sits in the corner pouting all through the day. He has a hard time, poor little teenage dragon. Time to grow up Elliott.)

So lets get to the sport. Today I have my last physio after that I'm on my own. But I started out with "Yoga" yesterday evening and this morning and it does help. As soon as I have my new job, I'll go to a yoga class, because working with a book isn't the best way for me. Until then it's "Yoga" on my own. I've also done 3 burpees on Saturday and 4 yesterday. And I've done the high plank for the last two days too.

Food wise, except for the waffles and some leftover potatoes at 3 this night, I stuck to my "new" food lifestyle pretty well and feel good. I've had a lot of trail mix, protein, fresh veggies and fruit. I'll stick to it. And as soon as I move out, I won't have the waffle trouble anymore, since I won't buy any bad food (the waffles are always bought by my mom).

Apropos moving out, I'll have a look at two studios this week and if all goes well I'll move into my own flat by the end of October, which would be fantastic, since I really really really need to get out of here.

Which brings me to the furniture design. A couple posts back I told you that I had designed my bed since I can't afford a prebuild one that I like. (4000,-€ is just too much.) On Friday my Dad and I went to the home improvement store and looked for wood and asked what they can do at the store. I showed them my bed design, which looks like this:


Unfortunately I had totally forgotten, that I need space under the bed for my storage boxes for the sheets, spare blankets and so on. Additionally they couldn't do the cutting out, my Dad doesn't have the necessary electric tools and I won't do it with hammer and chisel or give it to a carpenter.

So on Saturday I sat down and designed a new bed. This new one makes use of the wood the home improvement store sells, the service of cutting it to the right lengths and some stuff I can do in my parents basement without special tools. All I need are a drilling machine, screw driver, sand paper, brush and glaze. Well, and the time to build it. Here it is:


All in all, the whole designing took about 8 hours straight, since I also did several special drawings (with the overall measurements and the special drilling measurements) and building instructions. There are now 10 sheets filled with drawings, plans and bills of materials.


Because, if I wouldn't have it planned all out, I probably won't have a bed but modern art. What do I mean with that? Well, my dad and I build my jewellery holder without proper drawings and planning and now I have this:


Well, it does it's job and is one of kind. But I don't want it to happen to my bed!

I also designed my nightstand, though I didn't do the building plan and measurement drawings yet.



Okay, this is it for today. Weather is great around here, though pretty cold. Anyway.

Have a wonderful new week everyone.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Friday 8 October 2010

Can you stray from a path for 2 years and

then get back on it? Well, I'm currently trying it out. But with a different mindset then when I tried to get back on it before. And so far it seems to work out fine. I can't tell you what this means for this blog (in positive terms) but I have some assumptions.

As for todays post I have this on sport and food to tell you:

Chris and I are already back from a 2 1/2 hour ride. It contained some short picture stops, so we were riding approx 2 hours of the time. We even saw several hawks, awesome birds, totally elegant in flight.

I have also made 2 "burpees" today. Don't know what the hell a "burpee" is? It's one of the workouts/exercises of CrossFit. And it's pretty awesome and I love the name of it, "burpee". Here is a vid on how to do them:


(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MGljX4bbps)

Mampf Diary:
BF: 1 chocolate protein shake, 1 mug of black tea and 1 mug of green tea
Lunch: (Now its getting weird but healthy) A few slices of hungarian salami, 1 cup of trail mix, 2 "christmas" apples (I call them christmas apples because when I was a child they were only sold on christmas. The real name is red delicious or red chief.) and one boiled egg.
Dinner: Haha, not tellin' ya. (Mainly because I don't have a clue what it will be. ;-)

As for that, have a great weekend.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Post 222 - and two good things happened today

First and most importantly Aurora's (my bike) gearshift is finally fixed. Turns out it was the levers at the handlebar. The click that's showing the shift had gone missing without me noticing it. Now it clicks again and so I can shift up again. Wohoo.

I also took the time to have a look around the bike shop (bikes and helmets and clothing, sigh) and inform myself on the roll and aerobars. They also had a really cool secondhand time trial bike! Which I would have bought on the spot, when it would've been my size. Good thing it wasn't or I would've been back in the reds. Bad thing it wasn't, because it only cost 600€. Argh.

So for the next few months I have to cope with my bike envy which is getting worse training ride by training ride.

Secondly I had an awesome lunch. I made pasta with tomatosauce. Sounds bland? Well, it was organic pasta made from brown rice, pumpkin and ginger, which is totally yummy alone. But the tomatosauce included sautéd shallots and bell pepper, tomatos, the freshly squeezed just of a lemon, hard boiled eggs and fresh mozzarella. It was delicious and really really healthy and gluten free.

On the job front, one company still leaves me waiting for my second interview. Well, I apply for other jobs in the meantime and look for a flat too. So nothing new on this side.


I just got back into reading again and found a "new" and really interesting author: Haruki Murakami. I'm currently reading my first book of him and as soon as I finish it I'll write a review for you. Could be interesting for you, since he runs and did Triathlons too. And I also found a book on running that sounded pretty interesting: it's called "ChiRunning" by Danny Dreyer. Has anyone of you read it? What do you think? Not that I haven't got enough training literature waiting in my to be read stack already.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Saturday 2 October 2010

I'm not talking about it

My mood has slightly improved for several reasons, those are:

- I finally send out another application, though it wasn't the one I talked about for weeks. I applied at a Federal Office, because I had the qualifications and ... why not? I haven't got a No until today, which is a surprise. When I applied for another post last year, I send out my (paper) application on Monday and had it back on Wednesday (the same week)! This time it was an online application so they could've have been even faster.

- The weather is better, which lead to a lot of outdoor activity. Outdoor activity = mood improvement.

- I've read some pretty awesome stuff in a mag, in some essays and a book.

- I'm back in the black. Phew, going to interviews is expensive. Good thing I get the money back, can only take a few more weeks. Big corporations are way too slow with stuff like this.

On BDs comment to my last post:
"Taking care of yourself is work, alot of it. It sucks alot of times."

In my opinion this is the wrong approach. I really think I shouldn't see it as work. This goes for the so called "work-life-balance" too. What "work-life-balance" implicates (and this is something I read somewhere on the web, just don't remember where.) is that you don't live while you work, that's eight hours and more each day, adding approximately 6 to 8 hours of sleep and you live only through a third of a day. So when I add up the time I need to do the other things, like laundry, taxes and (after your approach) caring for me etc. I'd live only one hour or less a day. This sounds absolutely horrible to me.

So NO. Caring for me is supposed to be something that I enjoy, every day. Same goes for work. (Okay, taxes aren't something I can enjoy, only when I get some paid back. ;-)

"Thats why, I sign up for a race, then post that race date through out the house, a constant reminder of why I am doing what I am doing, its a nice reminder to keep moving forward. I suggest maybe the same for you, signup for a race and post it and work towards it."

An approach I've tried time and again. And then I failed it time and again. Or did I run Leipzig marathon this year? Or write this darned application to CERN? No. This is not how it works for me. It's fine when it works out for you, but I learned in the last few months that this is not my way. There is a really cool talk about this on TED.com and it certainly makes sense for me. So I keep my mouth shut from now on.


So this weekend I will... not talk about my plans. Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy your life.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!