Welcome 2009

It has indeed been awhile. Oh well, here's a bit of a catch up of the things I'm thinking about lately:

* Holistic health: I've always been pretty health conscious, but after getting married and committing to a strict budget, often price and convenience sideline health. Then there was the chocolate. I felt like a Cathy cartoon how chocoholic I became, eating it to get through the afternoon slump rather than as a special treat every once in awhile. This past winter I became reinvigorated to take care of myself. Stress, cold and a cake competition I'm still determined to win contributed to bad skin and just feeling very blah- the perfect recipe for change. I read a fantastic book called...wait...What Would Jesus Eat? and it's amazing. I'm not so theologically zealous that I feel I need to literally eat like Jesus did, but I do appreciate that what people ate 2,000 years ago was much healthier, whole, and less processed. It showed me just how much crap I eat without realising. So my new year's aim is to cut out all the refined and processed garbage from my diet and focus on eating as whole wheaty, brown ricey, EVOO- filled, and fruit and vegelicious as I can.

* Fish: One thing's for sure, Jesus sure ate a lot of fish. As a pescetarian, you'd think I'd be a fish preparing master, but in fact I find cooking them daunting. So this year my goal is to cook more fish. I started with salmon - the one fish I know how to cook, and have gone from there. Last night, cod baked with olive oil, lemon and rosemary. Hopefully it will be a slippery slope to mastery from here.

* Detox: To celebrate the Chinese year of the OX I'm considering this my personal year of the detOX. I'm learning about all sorts of detox plans and plan to do one soon hopefully. Any tips welcome.

* Pilates: Amy, whilst she was in London (sigh) signed up for weekly (?) pilates courses. It's all about core strength and being more aware of your body (I think). I'd be there in a heartbeat if it wasn't so pricey. My credit crunch solution was to raid the local library, where I picked up every sort of pilates for dummies book on the shelf. For now I'm feeling really good just reading about how great pilates is. Hopefully soon I'll find out if doing it for real is even better. Yes, I am obsessively thinking about health at the moment. But I think it's important to go through seasons like this to remind you to be healthy. I don't think organic brown rice or pilates should just be posh novelty; how you treat your body impacts on every other part of life.

* Threads: OK, aside from health, I'm thinking about sewing and knitting. I got a sewing machine for Christmas and just need to sit down and figure out how to work it and avoid sticking a needle through my finger - a real fear. I'm also going to start to learn to knit, just to really even out my domestic pursuits. Expect to see some scarf work and simple bags coming soon.

* Travel: Got some big ol' plans coming up. First to the US of A in February for work, hitting up the East Coast for a week. Then in April to Los Angeles, Seattle and New York with Dan (!). Then hopefully going to Central/ South America with work. Just checked out some travel books at the library today to get clued up on the region. My thoughts now are either Honduras or Peru/ Bolivia. Any thoughts?

* Ethiopian food: Sorry, back to food. Not sure how healthy it is but Dan and I have really fallen for it. If you haven't had it, go find some some. If you have, then you know my joy. Having gone through a Mexican food withdrawl since moving the the UK I am happy to have found a cuisine I love just as much. Indeed, I'm about to go have some for dinner.

* Mudhouse Sabbath: Read this book over Christmas and it's fab. Lauren Winner is kind of my writing hero. She converted to Christianity from Orthodox Judaism and in this book outlines 10 Jewish practices that she finds lacking in Christianity, and describes how to translate them in her spiritual life. Need more books like this. The next book on my list is O2 by Jenny's pastor Richard Dahlstrom. Will let you know...

Well, that's kind of me in a nutshell for now.