Happy New Year

I haven't posted since October. It just seemed like life got to be too much. When that happens you know - something has to go. Unfortunately, I dropped yoga and Poppies. Not so sure those were the best things to let go of, but those went and I can't change it now.

What's great about the New Year is not the raucous night of partying but the whole "Happy New Year" thing is a free pass - A RESET! And who doesn't like to start over? With this said "reset" we can focus on the things we CAN change.

I'm not big on the resolution thing because I never keep them for more than three days. So this year I have committed to "Tiny Tweaks 2014." There are several things on the list some of which include:

• drink at least 60 oz. of water per day
• try to dissipate guilt 
• take vitamins daily 
• commit to yoga once a week
• journal daily
• have consistently healthier eating habits

In eating a consistently healthier diet, I know that as a grown female human, for optimum health (weight maintenance, muscle recovery, hair/nail strength, 15% increase in metabolism) I should have at least 100 grams of protein a day.

So I baked high protein, whole grain bread. This little loaf packs a wallop! It's about 12 servings and each serving of bread is only 80 calories and 6 grams of protein. Plus it's fatless and filling! Served with  mascarpone and pepper jelly I also made today - it's out of this world!

High Protein Whole Grain  Bread

3/4 C Rye Flour

3/4 C Whole Wheat Flour

1/4 C Rolled Oats

2 1/2 Cups Chobani Non-Fat Yogurt

1 tsp. baking powder

Bake in a baking sprayed bread pan at 400 degrees for 1 hour.

Pepper Jelly in the pan.

Pepper Jelly in the Jar.

Pepper Jelly on the Mascarpone on the High Protein Whole Grain Bread.

Yum.
May all your hearts desires be granted in 2014.
XO

Birthday Girl - The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On from poppiesandpaperbacks on 8tracks Radio.

Geek Love

My friend Amy is my own private Book Critic. Because of her I have read some of the best books ever. Some of them include: The Monster of Florence and The Lacuna just to name a couple. But the best so far is hands down "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn.

If the world is a carnival, then we are all side show pass-arounds. After all, when each of us arrived on the scene, naked and covered in blood and goo, we were unique specimens. But soon after our births, a member of The Cult of Normalcy gave us a pamphlet and offered us the opportunity to blend in with the rest of society. Most of us accepted the offer. Loneliness is a scary thing, after all. So here we are trying to live our lives like everyone else, constantly checking the mirror to make sure we look like everyone else, and taking some time out of our day to laugh and gawk at those who have failed miserably at our collective endeavor. If what we see in the mirror doesn't reflect the rest of society, we do things to fix ourselves. It's exhausting work, trying to be like everyone else, but it's worth it because we're not alone and that make us happy, right?

I love Geek Love for reminding me that I'm a freak. I am the only person who popped out of my mother's womb in upstate New York.  There is no one else in this world that has my brain, my heart, and my soul.

I'll finish with a great quote from the book:

There are those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape it. They affect flamboyant behavior and claim originality according to the fashionable eccentricities of their time. They claim brains or talent or indifference to mores in desperate attempts to deny their own mediocrity...

Then there are those who feel their own strangeness and are terrified by it. They struggle toward normalcy. They suffer to exactly that degree that they are unable to appear normal to others, or to convince themselves that their aberration does not exist. These are true freaks, who appear, almost always, conventional and dull