Garin Wind

is contemplating life, and such.



I'm doing 40 things
 

Garin Wind's Life List

  1. 1. Travel the world
    15,343 people
  2. 2. Get back into my art
    2 entries
    4 people
  3. 3. Decide on a graduate school
    1 entry
    1 person
  4. 4. Find a job in Holland
    2 people
  5. 5. Adjust to Dutch life
    1 cheer
    1 person
  6. 6. Adopt some sort of health regimen
    2 entries
    1 person
  7. 7. Learn Dutch
    1 entry
    481 people
  8. 8. Get a tattoo in Amsterdam
    2 people
  9. 9. Begin a new photography project
    1 person
  10. 10. Read more
    1 entry
    6,286 people
  11. 11. Explore Holland
    1 person
  12. 12. Begin a new writing project
    1 person
  13. 13. Find myself
    1,475 people
  14. 14. Find happiness
    418 people
  15. 15. Fall in love
    21,168 people
  16. 16. Find my purpose in life
    647 people
  17. 17. Change someone's life
    1,126 people
  18. 18. Try LSD
    84 people
  19. 19. Break my eye open
    1 person
  20. 20. Skydive
    8,488 people
  21. 21. Fight for a cause
    20 people
  22. 22. Create something beautiful
    466 people
  23. 23. Get an EU passport
    1 entry
    12 people
  24. 24. Practice yoga
    3,575 people
  25. 25. Go to a rave
    443 people
  26. 26. Experiment with mixed media
    1 person
  27. 27. SCUBA dive
    1,833 people
  28. 28. Parasail
    258 people
  29. 29. Learn to throw knives
    85 people
  30. 30. Get a tattoo in Thailand
    1 person
  31. 31. Go on a roadtrip
    1 entry
    423 people
  32. 32. Learn to read palms
    413 people
  33. 33. Experience transcendence
    1 person
  34. 34. Learn to whistle
    485 people
  35. 35. Get a cat
    763 people
  36. 36. Figure out student loan repayment
    1 person
  37. 37. Paint a mural
    245 people
  38. 38. Study abroad(er)
    1 person
  39. 39. Learn to ski
    710 people
  40. 40. Become proficient in Adobe Photoshop
    2 people
Recent entries
Adopt some sort of health regimen (read all 2 entries…)
Twenty-nine healthiest foods: 2 months ago
  1. Apricots
  2. Avocados
  3. Raspberries
  4. Cantaloupe
  5. Cranberry juice
  6. Tomatoes
  7. Raisins
  8. Figs
  9. Lemons/ limes
  10. Onions
  11. Artichokes
  12. Ginger
  13. Broccoli
  14. Spinach
  15. Bok choy
  16. Squash
  17. Watercress/ arugula
  18. Garlic
  19. Quinoa
  20. Wheat germ
  21. Lentils
  22. Peanuts
  23. Pinto beans
  24. Plain yoghurt
  25. Skim/ soy milk
  26. Shellfish
  27. Salmon
  28. Crab

Adopt some sort of health regimen (read all 2 entries…)
Okay, let's give this a try. 3 months ago

First, the diet. I’m a lacto-vegetarian, and, although I’d like to eat as close to vegan as possible, the idea of giving up cheeses and yoghurts is an unbearable notion. I don’t drink milk or cream, as a rule, but since I do allow dairy products, I don’t make a fuss about koffie verkeerd or ice cream, though they are infrequent treats. If I were back in the States, I could easily stick to soy yoghurt and ice cream substitutes (never soy cheese, though … ewh), but finding them here is quite difficult. Perhaps part of my diet plan should be to wander the streets and internets in search of health-food stores so that I can find, for instance, quinoa, almond milk, and other vegan products. Nonetheless, for now, I’m going to stick with what’s available to me.

My main nutritional concerns as someone with a restrictive diet are (1) B-12, (2) iron, (3) protein, (4) calcium, and (5) fiber. (1) Although some cereals contain B-12, I think it’d be my best option to pick up some vitamin supplements. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a multi-vitamin or multi-mineral as I used to; I just need to make sure that B-12 is an active component of whatever I choose. I should try to find supplements that cover as many of the aforementioned as possible, actually. (2) There aren’t too many iron sources beyond meats and eggs, which is likely why it is the most common deficiency in vegetarian diets (not protein, as many believe). Spinach and swiss chard, dried beans, and dried fruits are some natural sources, however. (3) Whole grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts all contain protein. However, soy and quinoa are each complete proteins, meaning they contain both essential and non-essential amino acids and can, thus, be the sole source. I drink soy milk, but I need to start eating more tofu again. I love tofu with all my heart. (4) Our bodies need much more calcium than most believe. Supplements are rarely enough. Fruits, green vegetables, and some soy products are all good sources, but the best source is low-fat dairy products like cheeses and yoghurts. This is where the ‘lacto-’ comes in handy. (5) Good sources of fiber include bran cereals, dried legumes, dried fruits, whole grains, and nuts.

So I need to step up the following in my diet:

  • Legumes and beans (soya, kidney, chick peas, black, pinto)
  • Variety of fresh and dried fruits
  • Variety of vegetables, many green
  • Assorted nuts (almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pine nuts, pecans)
  • Whole grain and bran cereals, oatmeal
  • Low-fat yoghurts, possibly soy
  • Tofu, tempeh, and other soy products
  • At least 1,000mg of calcium
  • Multi-vitamin and mineral supplements
  • Fiber-rich carbohydrates, grains, cereals
  • Brown rices and risottos, whole wheat pastas

I also need to make sure I keep up on drinking excessive amounts of water, favoring coffee over tea, and avoiding junk foods, snackbars, fried foods, refined sugars, soft drinks, and chocolate. I’m pretty stellar at all of these, but I’ve indulged a bit with chocolates and ice creams lately, and it’s certainly not healthy.

From an exercise perspective, since I’m not allowed to run or work out, I really need to get on starting up a yoga regimen. I’d like to find some cheap yoga classes in the City, but I doubt I’m going to find free studios as the ones I used to go to in Manhattan. I really can’t afford structured classes, so if I can’t find anything cheap (and in the mean time), I’ll need to work on an hour-long exercise. I’ve taken some tai chi and pilates, so maybe I could work it all together. I’ll do some research and design something I can commit to. I’ve been feeling pretty soft and squishy lately, and I don’t want to let my heart condition get in the way of maintaining my health. Furthermore, I need to increase my strength and stamina a bit. When I used to exercise and run, I had so much energy, and being thin wasn’t so much of a hassle. These days, I feel like my muscle has completely melted away, and even carrying a duffel bag is exhausting. I need to step it up, especially considering the traveling I’ll be doing over the next few years.

So I need to keep doing what I’m doing but kick it up a few notches. I need to make myself eat at least two meals a day, and I need to stick to nutritious, not just filling, foods. I need to research, develop, and implement an exercise plan, and I need to fucking stick with it. I should start going for progressively longer walks every day, as I used to do back in the day without the running part, haha. I need to find vitamin supplements, seek yoga studios and health-food markets around the City, and start taking better care of myself. In some ways, I’m healthier than I’ve been in a while because I’m eating more. But, in other ways, I really need to get back into the game.


Read more
Renewed ambitions. 3 months ago

Since I’ll have so much free time this summer, I’ve decided to read at least one book per week over the next few months. That’s a minuscule commitment to make; I used to read three or four times that often. But, alas, my mind has grown slightly lazy. Or perhaps my attention span. Either way, I have a collection of books in New York and another in Detroit; I always leave books behind when I move, for obvious reasons, but I never give them away for in each of my clusterfucks is a pile I’ve yet to read. Nonetheless, somehow (as I always do), I’ve managed to start a brand new pile here in Holland. For the purposes of the summer, I’ll surely start with them. The following are books currently in my Dutch possession which I either haven’t finished or haven’t begun:

  • The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson
  • For One More Day by Mitch Albom
  • Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
  • The God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
  • The Art Of Thinking by Vincent Ryan Ruggiero
  • Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
  • The Undiscovered by Carl Jung
  • Forgotten Truth: Common Vision of World Religions by Huston Smith
  • An Introduction to Political Philosophy by Jonathan Wolff
  • The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom
  • Authentic Happiness: Positive Psychology by Martin Seligman, PhD
  • The New World Order by Mortimer Sellers
  • MARX by Peter Singer
  • Universal Human Rights: In Theory & Practice by Jack Donnelly
  • The Photograph As Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton
  • The Roots Of Radical Islam by Gilles Kepel

That should be a nice start, n’est-ce pas?


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