When we forget what we already know, life reminds us

It had been a habit of mine to keep some food in my back-pack for emergencies, usually some dried fruit and nuts. Then if something happened and I was away from home for too long I could eat something anyway. During my year and a half in Milan I rarely went anywhere during my days in town, and the habit gradually switched to "bring food with me when traveling because you never know when food will otherwise be available" (being a fussy eater who won't eat most commercially prepared food buying it while out isn't always an option). I kept some food in my office, and brought more food with me every morning, and should all of that run out I needed only walk back across the street to my apartment to get more food. There was no need, most days, to keep food in my backpack.

When first I arrived in Sweden I was traveling, and we started my time here as a 10-day road trip. Since I was in travel mode I kept food in my backpack, and nibbled some of it on regular intervals. However, after our trip to Tromsø last weekend I washed and put my little plastic bowl with lid (in which I carry museli while traveling) that lives in my pack when in travel mode into the kitchen cupboard. For that trip we brought enough food that it had its own dedicated bag, and none of it was in my backpack. Therefore my backpack had no food left in it. All week long this wasn't a problem--the only places I went were a short walk away, and for short amounts of time, so it was easy enough to return home when I wanted food. On the Friday we drove to archinonlive's parent's house, where they fed me often. We returned home Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning I packed food to take with me to fighter training.

I spent the morning being very active, both doing unarmoured sword training, but also doing silly people tricks (I finally managed to do a shoulder-stand upon archinonlive's upraised hands whilst he lay upon his back on the floor (thanks aelfgyfu for sharing the link that showed me how!), and, of course, I took regular breaks to nibble upon the food I'd brought with me. Was hungry again when I got home, and cooked up a bowl of lentils, artichoke hearts, and home made noodles (a combination I'd not thought to mix before, but strongly recommend now that I have). Once I finally typed everything into my food log I was surprised to see how much more food I'd already eaten compared to a normal day. Consequently I didn't bother to pack any food when we left the house at 15:45 for the folk music session. Besides, the last several weeks I wasn't hungry again during the evening music and dance sessions. I'm not certain if it was just the very active morning, or if it has something to do with the fact that it is now still light out at 16:00, or if perhaps it is that time of the month, but despite having already had more food than usual, I was feeling a bit hungry during the music session. By the time it was over and we were getting ready to start the folk dance class at 18:30 I was not only hungry but feeling a bit light headed.

Often archinonlive packs a bowl of left overs and heats it up in the hall kitchen between music and dance but this time he ate before we left. Usually the husband of the dance teacher does the same (he being the only other person to attend both the music and dance sessions usually), but this week he didn't. The lack of food really got to me this time--I had trouble learning even simple dance steps and was not as coordinated as I usually am.

It actually strikes me as odd though--my body habitually turns off its interest in food in the evenings (the exact time it does this varies widely, but usually sometime between 15:00 and 20:00 I quit eating for the day, and never get hungry again, even if I stay up till 04:00. However, once I've gone to sleep it re-sets and I wake up starving. I tend to want food during the day every hour or two, and can get grumpy if it isn't available (which is why I tend to keep some with me). Why, when I can go for hours and hours without food in the evenings did I crash so hard from not having food between 14:40 and 18:30, when the amount of food I'd had was already well in excess of what I normally eat during the course of a day?

I'm also looking forward to seeing if my eating patterns change now that I'm in the north again. I didn't *notice* my disinterest in eating in the evening until I lived in Tasmania. Thinking back on it I can recall spending hours sitting at 24 hour cafes in the US talking with friends while they ate food and drank coffee and I had water, but at the time I was aware that "I'm not hungry" largely meant "I'm not willing to spend what little money I have on restaurant prices". But I don't really recall if I never at at night when I was younger, of if I only avoided doing so if money would have been involved. How much of my eating pattern is related to day light? Now that the sun is returning to the north lands will I want more food in the evenings? If so will this result in there being more of me, or will I instead start spacing the food at wider intervals so that I still eat the same amount over the course of the day?

Either way, I have learned my lesson, and my backpack is once again equipped with some dried fruit and nuts--next time I'm trapped away from home and feeling hungry I will be able to do something about it.

Raspberry Ice Cream #1

After folk dance class tonight we decided to mix up ( a raspberry ice cream. )

Saturday's ice cream never really thickened up in the ice cream maker--even after a hour it was only kind of freezing, but it was also the first batch we'd made and we weren't certain what to expect. This one froze, in only 35 minutes it was quite stiff and sort of forming a ball around the center of the beater bar. This seems to have resulted in a much better texture ice cream, though it being rather late now, I'll have to wait till tomorrow to be interested in having a bowl full. I did, however taste it tonight to see what I think of the result. This batch used less than half of the sugar as Saturday's batch (unless you count the fact that berries have their own sugar, but even so there was probably less sugar total), and as a result tastes much better. Both archinonlive and I don't care as much for sugar as we do cream, so while this one might be right, we are also willing to try it with even less sugar some other time. The creaminess of this one is, unsurprisingly, quite nice. The proportion between berries and cream seems good. Perhaps we should try blueberries next time, just to see how it goes.