Monday, February 25, 2008

Guava cake disappointment

Where are the trade winds when you need them? It was so voggy in the Hilo area yesterday that we decided not to go to the Hawaii Tropical Botanic Garden, which is one of my favorite Sunday-afternoon get-out-of-the-house destinations. (Nice thing about living here is we can always go next weekend.)

Looks like we're gonna be in a thick vog haze again today. Just after 9AM here this morning and my eyes are a little itchy. On a clear day there are lovely views of Mauna Kea from this area, but it's vanished behind a thick gray haze this morning.

I made the mistake, not long after we moved here from Maui a year ago, of thinking a voggy day was just a hazy afternoon and I ought to get a run in before it started to rain (which looked imminent, the day was so gloomy). That was a mistake, followed by three days of cold symptoms asmy body tried to clear inhaled crap out of my lungs and sinuses. Ever since then when it's voggy -- which fortunatley is not very often -- I feel it in my lungs, and even get a little short of breath just walking up the stairs that I normally run up and down dozens of times a day. >

These days, when it's voggy, I play it safe and avoid unnecessary exertion. Which means if we don't get a NE breeze by this afternoon I'll have to just do some gentle yoga/pilates instead of cardio or Bowflex. Which is fine -- I like yoga and pilates and usually feel I should be doing more of it -- but I can feel my period's on the way, and would like to get some effective workouts in before then... we'll see.

Sunday is "cake day" in this house, so last night hubbie and I finished up the last of the Guava Cake after dinner. (I'd made it for his b'day back in January -- T loves guavas -- and stuck leftovers in the freezer.) It was good, but not good enough to share the (experimental) recipe or ever make again. For one thing, the flavor was pleasant but just mildly and generically fruity. It didn't taste specifically like guavas. And it was a bit of a pain to make, since I'd started with the ripe fruit, which had to be peeled and pureed and strained to get the seeds out. Then made into a cake, with guava filling and a guava/cream cheese frosting. For that much work I want to go, "ummm, guava!" when I eat it, not just, "this is good; it's got a nice, sort of fruity, flavor." >

Final verdict: pleasant eating, but not a "keeper" recipe. I'll try again some day (not likely to be soon) when I'm inspired to make a major kitchen effort and we've got ripe guavas in the house.

So, the idea of this blog is that it will inspire me to get serious about fine-tuning the intake/exertion equation so I slim down a little. Seems to me that ought to start with some kind of "before" benchmark, with weekly weigh-ins and eventual reports of shrinkage.

Monday morning seems as good a time to weigh in as any, and I'm happy to report that I'm at 157.0. That'll be the starting point. Of course, half a pound is well within normal up-and-down fluctuation, so it will take more than that to feel like real progress, but down is down. Until it goes up again. Will try to avoid that. I guess I'll do the measurements thing today, too, at some point when I step away from the computer and locate a measuring tape.

Today's blog sucess: figured out how to include a photo and hyperlink.

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