It Don't have to be All or Nuthin... the 80/20 Rule

My Kryptonite - Costco Chocolates
If you shop at Costco, you've likely seen these bags of chocolates... little tiny rectangles of pure goodness, particularly the dark chocolates! They are sooo good... and highly addictive. They're so small. It's easy for me to go... "I'll just have one..." and then one turns into two, turns into four, turns into eight... etc.

Costco's Swiss chocoaltes

Our massage therapist has a little tub of these at the reception desk. In the past, I'd arrive early for my appointment and help myself to two or three... and then after my appointment, I'd sneak a handful (five or six)... and my massage therapist would usually go... "Oh, take a few more!"... and I'd take another two or three... I'd drive home and have "just one"... but usually, by the time I got home... they'd all be gone!

On top of that... last year, I started managing our basement suite as an AirBnB. We thought it'd be a nice touch to offer little chocolates for our guests... one on each stack of towels. So I went to Costco and bought a bag of the milk chocolate variety. I kept them in my office closet at home... This past August, for whatever reason, I began to pilfer our stash. Just one... which turned into a dozen... every day. No wonder my cholesterol was through the roof in September! This is why it's not a good idea for me to have in-house access to chocolate!

But... things have changed... during our little 8 week sugar detox, I repeatedly had to refuse my massage therapist's generous offer of "take a few". And now... I might have one or two... but not a dozen. I try to follow the 80/20 rule...

Pareto Principle

Vilfredo Federico Pareto

Meet Vilfredo Federico Pareto (1848-1923). This Italian cutie wasn't just a pretty face... he was a pretty smart cookie: engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist, and philosopher. He came up with what's now known as the Pareto Principle - also known as the 80/20 rule.

Pareto figured out that 80% of Italians owned 20% of the land... and conversely... 20% of Italians owned 80% of the land. He got a bit obsessed and began to see that ratio everywhere... He realised that 20% of the pea plants in his garden produced 80% of the peas... And it wasn't just him... soon everyone started seeing the 80/20 rule in action...

• 80% of the world's wealth is owned by 20% of the world's population
• 80% of software problems are caused by 20% of software bugs
• 20% of criminals cause 80% of crimes
• 80% of customers used 20% of a software's features 
• 20% of drivers cause 80% of accidents
• 20% of employees are responsible for 80% of the results
• 80% of our clothes are worn 20% of the time
• 20% of our house gets used 80% of the time

And on it goes...  Basically... 80 percent of results are from 20 percent of causes.

Now... the 80/20 numbers aren't cast in stone... there is some flex and give there... sometimes it's 85/15... sometimes it's even 70/30 or 90/10... but the general idea holds.

80/20 Rule in Health
You'll also come across references to the 80/20 rule in health...

One version runs something like this: eat well 80% of the time and don't freak out if you fall off the wagon 20% of the time. There is more flexibility in this because... honestly... trying to be perfect 100% of the time is impossible. Soooo... a double chocolate fudge brownie on Saturday morning is NOT the end of the world. If it happens every day... then... there's a problem brewing.

Another version of the 80/20 rule runs like this: if you're trying to lose weight, 80% of your results will come from altering what you eat... only 20% comes from exercise. I totally get that. Fifteen years ago, when I lived in PG, a friend and I would go walking for an hour, twice a day, every weekday. We'd also go for long hikes on the weekends. She was pushing 260 lbs and was desperate to lose weight. Over the next year or so, she lost about 20 lbs but then stagnated. Why? Cause she was still indulging in Cheezies and junk food at home. If we're really committed to shedding the pounds... then 80% of our results are going to come from what we're eating. Simple as that.

To be fair, I'm not sure these are true examples of the Pareto Principle... I'm still trying to figure that out but... it's statistics after all, which makes my head hurt. But the 80/20 Rule is still a good rule of thumb to get started.

The idea of going 100% meat free might be a bit daunting... but maybe Meatless Mondays is more doable. And then Meatless Fridays... My nutritionist suggested that as we transition to a meat-free diet... we could go meat-free on weekdays and indulge on the weekends.

80/20 - a bit of indulgence

Or maybe it's following the Canada Food Guide and having meat only comprise 25% of the dinner plate (75/25 rule) instead of 50% of the dinner plate.

Or maybe it's indulging in a treat (or two) on the weekend and skipping them on weekdays. We had a little two week spate of the 80/20 rule back in late February. The Keg (carnivore paradise) is closing in our city and we had a $150 gift card to use up. Let's be clear... The Keg might have salads... but one does not go to The Keg for a salad. No... we went for the fresh sourdough bread... and the bacon-wrapped scallops... and the baked brie. Three times we went... and then the gift card was done. We won't be getting any more of those... sigh.

Sourdough bread at The Keg

A few weekends a go... we had dropped the ball on meal prep and caved in and ordered a pizza. In the past, we would have ordered the Hangover Pizza (pepperoni, ground ham, bacon, tomatoes,
mozzarella & tomato sauce). But... we made a conscious choice and ordered one with tomatoes, spinach, feta, pine nuts, pesto and onions. A little bit of feta and pesto wasn't the end of the world... At least not yet.

Mind you, there are some times when the 80/20 Rule does NOT work. For me... I know that it doesn't work with hot chocolate. I needed to go cold turkey on that one and stay off of it.

Overall, I'd say that we are OK with four steps forward and one step backwards... Some weeks we might take no steps backwards... and some weeks it might be two steps backwards. Overall... we are just trying to put one Small Step after the other...

Minefield of Distractions

Here's a secret... writing isn't always an easy flow. Some days it's a damn hard slog. And lately it's been the latter.

I've read enough about writing to now that I can't just write when inspiration strikes or when I feel like writing. Nope... writing means rigid self-discipline and sitting down at the keyboard each and every day and... writing. Even if nothing comes out... which is insanely frustrating... it's to just sit here and stare at a blank screen then. Eventually boredom will strike and I'll just start typing something, anything and... usually something cohesive comes out.

The trick is... stay focused because, honestly, there are sooo many distractions around! And my monkey mind just swings from one to the other at dizzying speed. Here's just a few that have gone by in the last 10 minutes:

• I should charge my iPod because I'm going to need that later this morning and I know the battery is drained... (I plugged it in)
• Oh, the phone just rang, let me get that... oh, my partner got it already...
• Crews digging up our street for water main replacement (watching trucks go by)
• Cat coming for cuddles (She wants here when I wrote that but... 2 minutes later... she's here... and wants to watch bird videos on this computer monitor - and yes, I could choose to close the door and shut her out and then listen to her pawing at the door but... today I chose not to. Sigh.)
• Piece of paper on my computer desk that should get filed (it's still sitting there)
• Desk that needs to get tidied up (not right now)
• Check the news to see if anything new has happened in the last 10 minutes (maybe there's inspiration for writing something?)
• Check my credit card statement to see if PC Express refunded me for the overcharge on a 600 gram chunk of daikon radish which got weighed in at over 10 kg (seriously - and no refund yet, after 2 weeks)
• Bird on a Wire outside my window (hummingbird - gone now)
• Partner calling out from kitchen and asking if that is rain outside (it might be)
• Trying to decide on the perfect writing music (YouTube cafe jazz not working...)
• Check email and debate whether to answer a few (nope...)
• Maybe I should have a shower and inspiration will strike (maybe, but then I won't be writing)
• Cat is shedding a lot, maybe I should look for the ZoomGroom brush and give her a grooming so I don't get cat hair stuck in my keyboard (not sure where ZoomGroom is...) 
• I could look for better music on YouTube but then there is always the deadly distraction of... gasp... cat videos!
• I need an image to go with this blog (Got sucked into Google searching for a "distraction" image to insert into this blog and then reading a few blogs about distraction... sigh.)
• Oooh... that image looks interesting... I wonder what a distraction journal is! (clicked on link and read about a distraction journal...)

And so it goes... not to mention all the other random thoughts that come into my head. About anything and everything... none of which is writing. But writing, like many things is one small step after another... Some days the small steps are easy and it all feels like a downhill run with the words falling on top of each other, faster than I can get them out through my fingers. Other days, it's an uphill slog and every word feels like a herculean effort. Not to mention forming coherent sentences.

I know that some of this is pandemic-related. It's hard to be productive and creative when there's so much scary news out there. I've made various resolutions over the past few weeks to stay off of the news sites (CBC, CTV, BBC, CNN) and Facebook and that lasts for all of one or two days and then... I'm back. I keep getting sucked into the trap of news consumption and that makes it harder for me to clear my head space and engage in some creative writing.

I also know that our minds love shiny new things and when I'm sitting here, in discomfort because the words aren't flowing, my mind is going to quickly try and swing to something shiny and/or new and/or easy...  like tidying my desk or... well... anything...

But, today, I managed to tiptoe through the minefield of distractions and emerge, more or less unscathed with some writing to show for it... albeit covered in cat hair and wondering if a distraction journal would help me...

Is Bread Bad? Or good?

Have you broken up with your bread before? You know, cause maybe you read that gluten is bad for you. Or maybe you figured you had a gluten intolerance or... well... something. Oh, I remember... bread is bad cause it's... gasp... a CARB!

Yeah, we broke up with our bread for a while. Out went the wheat flour and in came the weird things like oat flour, coconut flour and almond flour. Out went the bread and crackers and in came... well... no good bread replacement. Except Mary's Crackers which are amazing! We love Mary's crackers and the fact that they are gluten free is just a bonus.

Now, we didn't go bread free because of any allergies or intolerances... more because my partn... errr... one of us... had read on Pinterest that carb/gluten=bad. In case you missed it in an earlier blog post... Pinterest is NOT a reliable source for nutritional information. It's really more about click-bait.

I have to admit, I was a reluctant carb/gluten-free disciple... I didn't really see the whole hoopla about it. I did try to eat whole wheat bread not that [not so] Wonder [ful] white Bread stuff...

Now though... we are trying to eat a whole-foods, plant-based diet. Which means we should be eating around three servings of minimally processed whole-grains a day. Whole grains are a great source of protein, vitamins, good fats and... fibre! Oh great... more fibre for my little gut biome critters to munch on. Spoiler alert... it's not just beans that produce flatulence... unfamiliar whole grains do it too!

What is a "Whole Grain"?

Wikipedia - diagram of a grain

What exactly is a "whole grain"? Well, it's a grain that has all three components: the endosperm, the germ and the bran. Huh?

The endosperm is the guts of the whole grain, the germ is the embryo of a new plant and the bran is the outer shell of the grain. I can picture that better if I think of a kernel of corn (which is a grain)... like when you eat corn on the cob. The skin of each kernel, the bit that gets stuck in my teeth, is the bran. The juicy inner bit is the endosperm. And those little firm bits that usually get left behind as I munch along the cob... but which I usually come back and pick out... that's the germ.

No surprise that most of the protein, fibre and vitamins are found in the bran and germ... much of which gets eliminated when grains are processed into flour. The germ in particular, because it contains good fats, oxidizes and goes rancid so it's almost always removed.

Whole Grains: Common as Hen's Teeth
Sooo... all we need to do is find some whole grains. Sounds simple enough. We just go out and buy some at the grocery store... but... turns out it's not so easy. Try it sometime, go into your favourite grocery store and look for whole-grains. Not processed stuff... just... whole grains. Where would you look? They're not down the aisle with the legumes. They're not down the rice aisle. They're not down the flour aisle? Where the heck are they?

First time I went looking, I found rice (white, brown, wild), quinoa and a tiny bit of farro. The rice was down the rice aisle (duh). But the quinoa and farro were with the noodle meal packets (things like Hamburger Helper). Interesting logic on the part of Superstore. But surely, there must be more whole grains than that?

Well yes... there are all sorts of wonderful things like: wheat (spelt, emmer, farro einkorn, Kamut, durum), rice (black, red and other colours), barley (hulled and dehulled but not pearl), maize (corn!), rye, oats (including hull-less or naked oats), millet, sorghum, teff, triticale, amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa and wild rice.

But where the heck were they? I paced through Superstore's bulk food section, studying each bin intently and eventually discovered they had buckwheat groats. Whole grains are sometimes called "groats" or "berries"... like oat groats or wheat berries. Since Superstore was a barren wasteland of whole grains... I tried other places.

I had more success at Bulk Barn and Country Grocer. There are options out there! Which is good because rice and beans was going to get really boring after a while.

So we have started dipping our toes into the whole grain palate... starting with farro (yummy) and buckwheat (interesting)... it gives us more options for spicing up various meals.

Fibre:Carb Ratio Trick

But... what about bread?? Leaving aside the whole gluten debate which, unless you are celiac, is really a tempest in a teacup... is bread a good carb or a bad carb? I went on the hunt and found a couple of helpful pieces of information.

The Harvard Health blog suggests looking at the ratio of fibre to carbohydrates by referencing the nutritional labels. They recommend that fibre should form 10% of total carbs at a minimum. I came across another site (NutritionFacts) where Dr. Michael Greger suggests making sure that fibre forms 20% of the total carbs. What does that look like in practice and how many breads make the cut?

White Bread

Good Carb Bread vs. Bad Carb Bread

Let's start with a pretty basic white bread... Dempster's White Bread. Nutrition label says... 28 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fibre. If we wanted to match the Harvard recommendation... the bread should have 28/10 or 2.8 grams of fibre. So white bread is not so wonderful. If we were following Greger's advice... a slice should have 28*.20 or 2.8*2 = 5.6 grams of fibre/slice. And it only has 1 gram of fibre. Definitely does NOT make the cut and gets the "Bad Carb" label in my books... It is primarily a carbohydrate which has lost all of its nutritional value.

I know this requires some math skills but I basically short cut it now and just toss a decimal into the middle of the carb number and make sure the fibre is more than that. If carbs are 28 then it should have more than 2.8 grams of fibre. Boom... done. If I use Greger's number, I toss a decimal in the middle of the carbs and double it. So... 28 goes to 2.8 and double it to 5.6.

Black Russian Rye

I had a bit of a field day in Country Grocery the other day taking pics of bread... trying to find "good carb/fibre bread". Some of the things I discovered surprised even me.

They have the regular processed, pre-packaged breads from Dempster's and Country Harvest and wherever... but they also have "fresh-baked" breads like Black Russian Rye and Canadian Harvest loaves. Turns out some of those "fresh-baked" breads fared worse than the pre-packaged ones!

Canadian Harvest Bread

Black Russian Rye has... 25 grams of carbs so should have 2.5 grams of fibre (Harvard) or 5.0 grams (Greger)... and it has... drumroll please... 2 grams of fibre. Fail! Definite Bad Carb Bread. It's dark colour is likely due to the Caramel Colour in it...

The Canadian Harvest bread has 30 grams of carbs so should have 3.0 grams of fibre (Harvard) or 6.0 grams (Greger) and comes in at 3 grams. Eh, makes the Harvard cut but not the Greger cut.

There were a few of the pre-packaged breads that did make Greger's cut... I grabbed a Stone-milled Country Harvest bread at random and...

Country Harvest - Stone-Milled

It had 18 grams of carbs which means its fibre should be at least 1.8 grams (Harvard) and preferably 3.6 grams  (Greger). This loaf clocked in at 4 grams of fibre (that's 22%)! We have a winner!! Hooray...

But... wait for it... there's even better bread out there... and I tracked down a couple of varieties at Country Grocery.

In Germany, they call this Vollkorn (whole grain) bread and it really does have whole grains in it... not just whole grain flour. You can actually pick out little grains of rye and wheat and what not from it... if you want. It is dense and weighty. No fluffy yeast loaf here. This is seriously chewy bread. It goes really nicely with steak tartare... sigh... those days are behind me.

Pumpernickel

Vollkorn bread is sometimes marketed as pumpernickel or rye bread and you'll know you have the right type cause it is dark brown and heavy.

This little version at right has 20 grams of carbs and so should have 2.0 grams of fibre (Harvard) or 4.0 grams of fibre (Greger). It comes in at an impressive 5.7 grams of fibre (28.5%)!

There was another variety, van der Meulen which came in at 36 grams of carbs and should have had 3.6 grams of fibre (Harvard) or 7.2 grams (Greger). It actually has... 10 grams of fibre (27.8%).

Van der Meulen Rye Bread

Right then... this is the bread I went with. It can be a bit tricky to find a good Vollkorn bread because it can go stale quickly. And stale Vollkorn bread is not yummy. I tried another brand from Buy-Low and... it was stale and, on top of that, spectacularly tasteless.

This van der Meuelen bread, however, is seriously yummy... it is fresh and has flavour! Trust the Dutch to make a good bread. It requires some serious chewing... and it's a bit of an adjustment to eat it with peanut butter (home-made) but... it is growing on me.

There is also something out there called Ezekiel Bread... I haven't been able to track down a loaf yet but... it is also apparently quite good in the fibre department.

Silver Hills - Squirrelly Bread

The closets thing I've been able to find is... Squirrelly Bread by Silver Hills. They have several different flavours and this one had... 17 grams of carbs... so it should have more than 1.7 grams of fibre (Harvard) or 3.4 grams according to Greger. It had 5 grams of fibre (29%) which means it's even better than the Vollkorn bread!

Well... there we have it... some options for good breads... And while there is always room for improvement, I'll stick with my one Small Step in choosing Vollkorn bread to start with. This blog is about Small Steps... not Giant Leaps!

And sometimes... we just turn a blind eye to the fibre/carb ratio... like when we caved a few weeks ago and went to The Keg (steakhouse). We had bacon-wrapped scallops and baked brie... and of course their sour-dough starter bread with butter. Sooooo goooodddd... We had bigger issues that day than a fibre/carb ratio... bacon, scallops, butter, brie... sigh. Two steps forward... one step backward!


P.S. The fibre/carb ratio trick can also be used for pasta and oatmeal... (but that's another blog post).

Picking up the Threads of Life... or Not

Tim Horton's is opening up to dine-in customers... with social distancing measures in place. That was in the news a few days ago. Which means Stabucks won't be far behind.

And so I sit here at home and really think... if... when... Starbucks reopens to dine-in customers... will I be one of them?

There's a part of me that really, really, really wants to pick up the threads of my old life. I love going to Starbucks, plugging into an electrical outlet, connecting to WiFi and getting some work done. I love the ambience. I love seeing the regulars there, even if all we do is exchange a "Hello".

Starbucks seating in Korea - before Covid...
and during Covid reopening

Except... the virus isn't gone. Even though we've had no new cases on the island for several days... that doesn't mean there aren't a bunch of asymptomatic carriers out there who, with relaxed lock-down rules, will now come out of the woodwork and... infection rates could go up.

New studies have also shown that regular talking can leave droplets in the air that linger for up to eight minutes, particularly inside. Thinking of all those people in a Starbucks who might sit and talk or stand and talk and... even after they have moved off... their droplets might linger and... sigh...

This blog is all about small steps and... I don't think running back to Starbucks (or even the local independent coffee shop) is a "small step". Particularly without a vaccine in place. At this point, picking up the old threads of life seems rather irresponsible. To me.

It's been two months now since we started hunkering down and... it's kind of getting to the habitual stage. I am getting used to the idea of having my "Starbucks time" at home... even if I have to deal with feline interruptions.

And so... much as I have been dreaming of a return to some semblance of normalcy... it ain't here yet. Starbucks can open to dine-in customers... but I won't be one of them. We are going to continue to keep our circle small, our trips essential (grocery store, pharmacy and home/garden) and hunker down for the long haul.

Peering over Fences

There are times where I wish Google Satellite was real time instead of one or two years out of date. Something is going on in the yard of a neighbour... not a next-door neighbour... but the next door neighbour of our northwest kitty-corner neighbour. I'm thinking they are building a garden but... it's hard to see. It wouldn't surprise me though. We've been hearing a lot of shovels kicking into soil and skilsaw blades digging into wood around the neighbourhood.

For ourselves, we are building three new beds along the south side of the house. It's quite a narrow strip but... the stucco on the house makes it a very warm little ecosystem. The three beds are destined to be the homes of squash and zucchini plants. We're hoping these warmth-loving plants will take off back there. And... we won't have to deal with their vines trailing all over the yard! Just have to figure out a way to be able to water them consistently...

Possible veggie garden plots

To the west, our behind-the-house neighbours have been busily building garden beds and their aquaponics greenhouse is up and running. There's quite a bit of gardening chit-chat flying across the fence. We even donated some strawberries, chives and parsley to their endeavours. Although, at the moment... we don't even have to chat over the fence since the fence has disappeared. It has been on the verge of falling down for several years but with some judicious propping up, we've managed to coax it along. This year though, we happily agreed to replace it and foot half the bill. At the moment, it is just new fence posts and cross-ties but it is coming along. We can't wait for it to be finished as a number of our long-term projects have been on hold until the fence got "done".

To the north, our new neighbours, who just moved into the house in October, are busily building raised beds. They are gardeners from way back, having brought with them a bewildering array of pots and planters with various forms of greenery - flowers and shrubs mostly. Their yard is essentially a blank canvass and, as we've chatted over the fence with them, we've learned that they have big plans for the backyard. It's exciting to be able to watch the progress taking place.

A blank canvas yard

As we walk around the neighbourhood on our twice daily exercise beat, we see other evidence of gardens being transformed. It seems that a lot of people have an abundance of extra time on their hands and things are happening!

Even tenants are getting in on the gardening aspect. We noticed a house down at the corner (with no fence to peer over) where the tenants have been busily digging garden beds. They actually chose a good house as the previous elderly owner had several fruit trees, raspberry canes, a compost bin, and several raised beds. Interestingly, the tenants have decided to try sunken beds. They excavated the ground down about a foot and then filled their excavation with good soil. Interesting idea... although they now have several piles of very rocky soil sitting around their yard. Will be interesting to see what they do with that. Next time I see them out there, I might just go and chat them up, from a distance, and see what their plans are...

And... down at the cul-de-sac, there is a well-established garden, complete with deer fencing and a little greenhouse. Down the dead-end road, there might even be chickens in a coop, as well as a ramshackle greenhouse... and a new deer fence going up. That same dead-end street has a backyard with some great raised beds, one of which is dedicated to various herbs.

And... I did just do a little virtual fly-over of our neighbourhood with Google Satellite and there are actually several other yards with raised beds in the backyards that look like potential veggie beds. I'm thinking there are way more veggie growers out there than I first imagined!


There's a part of me that is tempted to deliver a little note to all the gardener-occupied homes in our neighbourhood and suggest a little plant-and-swap. Something along the line of "we'll grow zucchini, why don't you grow squash... and then, later, we can trade". Or something along those lines... I haven't gotten that far yet... small steps...

In the News - The Dangers of Dairy

Did you know that there is pus in our milk? Yep... do a bit of digging into the dairy industry and how milk makes its way from udder to glass and you might never drink milk or eat cheese again.

Goodbye hot chocolate (already done)... goodbye Four Cheese Pizza (sigh)...

If that weren't enough... there is growing evidence that drinking milk contributes to a host of health issues, including increased risk of Alzheimers, heart disease, cancers (breast and prostate) as well as Type 1 Diabetes.

I'm not a doctor, even though I have a doctorate. So, while I can't argue the evidence, I can understand it... and it is eye-opening!

Dairy & Breast Cancer
The first link is a CTV news article which indicates that just one cup of milk per day is associated with a 50% increased risk of breast cancer. That doesn't mean if you drink one glass of milk, you have a 50% chance of getting breast cancer... it means if a non-dairy drinker has an 8% chance of getting breast cancer, a dairy drinker would have a 50% greater risk - so a 12% risk. Which isn't high but... if there is already a high risk of breast cancer due to family genetics, something worth paying attention to.

This study landed in February 2020 and there were a lot of cautionary follow-up articles from dieticians trying to stave off the freak-out fits. Still... if you dig deeper... you find that there are more issues with dairy than just a 50% increased risk of breast cancer.

If you're interested in more... I suggest watching Forks over Knives on Netflix. It does a very good job of explaining the dangers of dairy. Or, take a look at the website of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and what they have to say about dairy.

The latest issues I've come across, which is quite mind-blowing is this...


Bovine Paratuberculosis as trigger for Auto-Immune Diseases
Recent studies suggest that paratuberculosis cells in dairy milk may trigger Type 1 Diabetes. The link above is another video from Dr. Michael Greger which was scary enough. But... here's another one from NCBI (National Centre for Biotechnology Information) which has a Microorganisms journal article.  The title of the article is quite evocative: Cows get Crohn's Disease and They're Giving us Diabetes. But that's not the end of it... in their conclusion, the authors note (I added bold emphasis):

Sufficient evidence points to the fact that until MAP [Mycobacterium avium ss. paratuberculosis] is eliminated from the food chain, it may continue to be said that cows get Crohn’s disease and they are giving us diabetes, multiple sclerosis, sarcoidosis, Blau syndrome, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, lupus, Parkinson’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Scary, no? By the way... Crohn's Disease in humans can also be linked back to MAP in dairy. It's interesting to note that all of those diseases are auto-immune diseases, where the body starts attacking itself. I have an aunt with Parkinson's disease and two of her adult daughters both have Hashimoto's disease. Did they drink more dairy than my uncle and the two sons? Interesting connection though.

Just in case we're wondering how prevalent MAP is... in 1996, the herd-level prevalence of MAP infection in US dairy herds was 21.6%. By 2007 (11 years later), that number had risen to 91.1%. So 91% of herds in the US were infected with MAP.

But what about Canada? A 2018 journal article tested 362 farms across Canada and found the prevalence of MAP was: 66% in Western Canada, 54% in Ontario, 24% in Québec, and 47% in Atlantic Canada. If you're going to drink dairy or eat cheese... it would appear Québec might be your best bet.

But it's not just in North America, global dairy herds are seeing a huge increase in MAP and this is showing up in dairy products (MAP survives pasteurization) around the world. If that weren't enough... MAP can show up in the meat of diary cattle as well since MAP is shed in feces. And, if you've ever watched what goes on in an abattoir... feces can get everywhere during slaughter. They are also finding MAP in beef cattle as well... not just dairy cattle.

Why don't we hear more of this? Do a google search and there are literally hundreds of articles about MAP in dairy herds and outlining the possible risks to humans. But... remember... the dairy industry is subsidized by the government... and the whole mechanics of going from scientific studies and theories to firm results can take a while.

Maybe less so during this time of pandemic when hundreds of litres of milk are being dumped due to the closure of high-milk consuming industries like restaurants and coffee shops.

Canada's 2019 Food Guide - make water your drink of choice
(not milk...)

Oh... and just in case you're wondering... MAP can live in soil and water for a loonnggg time... so manure lagoons which leach into groundwater and streams and rivers are a problem. As is excess milk that is poured down the drain... or onto the soil.

Long story short... dairy (be it milk or cheese) ain't nature's best food for humans. Plus, it isn't even necessary... we can get enough calcium from plant sources (kale, spinach, water cress, other dark leafy greens, almonds, tofu, beans).

But I get it... milk is a habit. Plus, it's been sold to us by national Food Guidelines for decades... until recently. Note Canada's latest Food Guide at right... water is now the drink of choice. Not milk. Much to the dismay of dairy farmers...

2019 Food Guide of the United States

Compare with the United State' My Plate Food Guide... See... still recommending dairy as the drink of choice... The Harvard School of Public Health as something to say about the US plan... and it ain't pretty...

Milk is a habit... and it's going to take a while for us to get over the hump of changing that habit... Until something happens that makes it untenable to continue in that habit. That point will come.

Oh... and FYI... MAP can spread to sheep, goats and pigs as well as deer and wild rabbits...

MAP... coming soon to an animal protein source near you... dairy, beef, veal, pork, mutton, venison, rabbit... off the table.

Want to ditch the dairy habit? Start with switching to a plant-based milk - soy, oat, almond... so many options. Experiment a bit and find a flavour that you like... start small... but start.

Dodging Decision Fatigue

Decision Fatigue - it's a thing. This is why Steve Jobs and Barack Obama always wore the same outfit day after day. Well... not the same pieces of clothing... they changed their clothes. But they had the same style of clothing in their closets. Jeans and black turtle necks for Jobs. Same style of suit and tie for Obama. Why? Well... they made so many decisions in a day, they didn't want to waste any of their decision-making power on deciding what to wear. Smart.

Most of us make an average of 35,000 decisions in a day. That's a heck of a lot of decisions... most of them flying beneath the radar, because they are so miniscule, you're not even aware you're making them. But... pay attention and... we all make tonnes of decisions in a day.

It's no wonder then, that often, by the afternoon or evening, we reach decision fatigue. What to have for dinner? Ahhh... let's just do take-out. What should we order, from what restaurant? Ahhh... let's just do pizza. What sort of pizza? Ahhh... let's just go for the carnivore, meat lover! This has happened in our household...  Maybe it happens in yours too....

And even if we have the most impeccable self-control and willpower, decision fatigue can do an end-run around that soooo easily. I mean... in the face of 35,000 decisions in a day... anyone's self-control would collapse at some point. Because our decision making power is kind of like a battery... it gets charged up by sleep and rest and food. When we wake up in the morning, we wake up fully charged... usually... and then, as the day progresses, our decision making battery drains.

When we pay attention, we can see decision fatigue everywhere.

This is how clutter accumulates. We don't know what to do with something, where to put it, whether it will be useful, etc... and so we postpone the decision. Or so we think... because in actuality we are making a decision to keep the thing!

 We have incomplete projects around the house... well... I have incomplete projects around the house! And a lot of them are stuck because they need a decision to be made... Should I put the old baseboards back on the walls after the kitchen reno? Or should I put on the new ones? But... if we get new flooring later this year (who knows with Covid19) or maybe next year or the year after... then we'll have to rip off the new ones and since they are MDF, they'll be ruined sooo... is it better to put the old baseboards on... or just no baseboards? Argh...

But... there is a trick... it's called habits. Not bad habits... but good habits. Once something becomes a habit... you don't have to think about it anymore. It just happens by itself. Like brushing your teeth in the morning... or getting dressed in the morning. Of course, now with Covid19... it is also relatively easy to get out of the habit of getting dressed every morning... and just stay in pajamas. Which is why the shrinks are offering all sorts of sage advice on how we can best maintain our mental health. And a big part of that is sticking with a routine... and following those long ingrained habits of getting up, having a shower, getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, etc.

Rest and food can boost our decision making battery

These are all the little decisions that can drain our decision-making abilities. And we do have to make important decisions in a day... like at work... or with our kids.

The trick then, is to automate as many little decisions as possible to leave us with enough willpower to make good decisions... even at the end of the day.

I know all of this very well myself. For a while, when looking after my Dad, I had zippo routine in my life, and it showed. I wandered aimlessly through my days waiting to react to a call from Home Support or Dad or some other care-related thing. Recovering from that extended period of aimless wandering took a lot of work. Because, left to my own devices, I fall afoul of all sorts of cognitive biases.

Like this... I wake up in the morning, lie in bed and think, "Should I go for a walk this morning? It sounds like it's raining. Maybe I'll just skip today".

And so I skip a day... and then another day, and then another, because the same conversation happens every morning.

The trick to success became when I made it a habit... there's no ifs, ands, or buts... every morning I get up, get dressed in my walking clothes, brush my teeth, take my vitamins and get out the door. It might only be a short walk but... it is a walk. Then I come home, feed the cat, meditate, make and eat breakfast and then sit down at the computer and hammer out a blog or two. Without fail. There are no decisions to be made... just a routine to be followed. And it is working.

Part of my problem is linked to my never-ending to-do list and... my former tendency to sit down and look at the list in the morning, after writing, and try to decide what to do next. "I don't feel like doing that. I don't have what I need to do that. I can't decide what to do with that... or how to do that..." And so the conversation goes with very little of any significance getting done. Which is why the new method of actually sitting down and scheduling things ahead of time... not the morning of... seems to be working. The task is ready and waiting for me to work on it... no decisions need to be made... it just needs to be started.

Now... this morning, I was scrolling through my list of draft post ideas and couldn't decide which one to work on and... voila... here we are at decision fatigue. Seems kind of appropriate.

Grieving the Old Normal

Küble-Ross Grief Cycle

Grief is messy. I learned that when my Dad passed away last year. I always thought grief was like... you know... sadness and crying. But it's way more than that. And it's freaking messy.

Oh sure, I knew about Kübler-Ross and her five stages of grief, so nice and neat and compartmentalized:

• Denial
• Anger
• Depression
• Bargaining
• Acceptance

This cute little diagram makes it look sooo tidy.

• Denial - when I got the phone call while out of town - "No, he can't be dead!"
• Anger - at my job for taking me out of town, at the care home for not saying "We think he is dying when they phoned the day before"
• Depression - really blah feeling for weeks/months
• Bargaining - digging myself out of the hole
• Acceptance - moving on (whatever that means)

Messy Stages of Grief

 Yeah... not so much... or rather... waves and waves of grief, the cycle just repeating itself week after week... although the amplitude did lessen over time... But, I really think that this diagram is a far better representation of what happens...

It at least shows the messiness of it! I didn't make the diagram so "My Experience" is not my experience... and yet it is... All over the map. Back and forth, up and down. Some good moments, some bad moments...

All of this is just a prelude to this: the entire world is grieving right now. Grieving what we have lost. Our normal world. Whatever that looked like. So many things we have lost:

• family time
• jobs
• security
• stability
• routine
• haircuts
• massages
• stress-free grocery shopping
• trips - short and long
• camping
• going out when we want to
• dining out
• money
• Starbucks time

I put that last one in there, because every time I wake up in the morning, I am sad that I can't go to Starbucks. It was my routine every morning. I'd get up before my partner, get myself ready, trot out the door and happily spend several hours at Starbucks basking in the white noise of espresso machines and customer chatter and write. But those days are gone... for six weeks now. And I miss it.

I am trying to work from home but it can be more challenging to carve out that time. I tend to get up later now and that throws my whole schedule out of whack. I am having to make adjustments and that makes me angry... Then I get sad again. And this is just losing Starbucks time! But really... it's just the tip of the iceberg. Everyday we come face-to-face with everything that we have lost... and the horrible thing is... we don't know when... or IF... we will get it back. We have no idea what a New Normal will look like. Or if we will like it.

Several provinces are easing restrictions in the coming weeks but... people... until we have an effective vaccine... this is NOT going away anytime soon. There will be more peaks and there will be more lock-downs. Normal life is not resuming. It is gone. Like... gone... In the past. And it can't be hauled back into the future. Whatever the New Normal will look like... it's not going to be the old normal. And... we're back to grieving.

Seven Stages of Grief

All those protesters demanding an end to the lockdown... denial and anger. All those people whose mental health is tanking into anxiety and... depression. Not to mention bargaining... Not sure we're at Acceptance yet... Cause acceptance is always a tricky one. I don't want to accept what has happened! But... there's a nuance... accepting that I can't change what has happened. It is what it is. Nothing we do now can change the past. It's gone. The virus is here and we are left to handle it. One step at a time.

This all helps me to have some compassion for myself and for others. We're obviously not all at the same stages of grief... and if we're bouncing around like a pinball between sadness and anger and denial... well... there's a lot of room for misunderstanding. Sooo... one step at a time. For me, I am trying to create a new routine, one that keeps me anchored in the present, something to cling to when the world is going sideways. Something to bring with me into a future that looks really uncertain. No one knows what the future is going to look like... only that it ain't gonna look like the past. That means jobs aren't going to look the same. Or schools. Or even the economy. The not-knowing is not nice... and we generally don't handle uncertainty all that well. At least I don't....

And so... I write... and I garden and build things like fences (to keep the deer out) and new vegetable beds. Small steps in making a difference...

The Insidiousness of Single-Use Plastic

It is sooo hard to be eco-friendly sometimes. So hard.

I was in Starbucks the other day month (before covid19), in Victoria, and decided to have a double chocolate chunk fudge brownie. Just cause. I don't need to justify it, do I? No... once in a while is OK... right?

Anyhow... I ordered it warmed up "for here". It comes on a sturdy little plastic plate but then there's a hiccup.

You see a warmed up chocolate chunk brownie gets gooey and is hard to eat with your fingers. Very messy... and dry napkins don't cut it.

The baristas obviously know this because they gave me a fork with my brownie. A reusable plastic fork? No. A reusable metal fork? No.

I received an individually wrapped, flimsy, black, single-use, disposable, plastic fork. There is so much wrong with this... on so many levels.

• Individually wrapped - little sleeve of filmy plastic which instantly gets ripped off and... tossed.
• Flimsy - it's not a fork that I could take home and put in our picnic or camping kit. It can barely handle a succulent warm brownie
• Black - even if it had a recycle logo on it, which it doesn't... black plastic is virtually impossible to recycle at this point in time because the sorting machines can't read the logos.
• Single-use - as noted above, this is a flimsy fork. It is not designed to be reusable. It is designed for single-use.
• Disposable - yep, no dishes to wash, no cutlery to sort, just pure convenience. Disposable convenience.
• Plastic - yup, plastic. They have all sorts of reusable things here... ceramic mugs, sturdy plastic plates, why not metal cutlery?

Camping Cutlery

I got irked and sent in a suggestion to Starbucks. If we are trying to move away from single-use plastics... then the individually wrapped plastic forks have got to go!

I stewed a bit more and then thought... what can I do?

Well... I could pack my own cutlery. Enough of this disposable convenience. I've got the disposable cup thing handled but... now we're into cutlery.

I do have a metal camping spoon, knife, fork set somewhere in the camping gear. They click together and come in a little sleeve... I could dig those out and carry them around in my backpack for just such a moment.

Or... I think we have sturdy plastic camping cutlery somewhere, maybe slightly more accessible... in the laundry room? Let me just go and dig them out... ***10 minutes later*** Voila. Done. They are now riding around in my backpack in a reusable ziploc bag (yes, we wash and reuse our ziploc bags).


It's one Small Step in the fight against disposability.

P.S. Whilst finalizing this blog for publication... I googled "starbucks disposable cutlery" and came across this Globe & Mail article. They are phasing disposable cutlery out this year! Hooray!!!

Where's the Beef?

Meat panic buyer's shopping cart

Did you hear about the BC couple who cleaned out the meat section in a Kelowna Save-on-Foods?

Yep, they went into the store in mid-late March with two shopping carts, pushed themselves in front of other customers trying to decide between strip loin or sirloin and put every single package of meat into their own buggies. Then apparently laughed as they went through the checkout that they had "cleaned house" and not left anything for other shoppers. Charming.

Needless to say... after that little episode hit the airwaves around the world, Save-on-Foods immediately put a limit on how many items a customer could purchase from each department.

As for the meat hoarding couple, they are now rather scared because they are getting death threats. They admit that they were motivated by fears of Covid-19 and did some panic buying. They likely aren't the only ones... just the most extreme ones. Note to self: if you want to panic buy, don't be conspicuous and clean out the entire department...

A month later... and we're hearing that meat processing plants in BC, Alberta and the US are shutting down, or going on reduced schedules, because Covid-19 is doing a number on their staff. Which might explain why, when I was in Costco the other day, I saw not a few people who had stacks and stacks of meat packages in their shopping carts. Maybe they have a big family. Maybe they don't want to go shopping every week at Costco - I sure as heck don't!

We're constantly being told that the food supply chain is fine. There's nothing to worry about. And yet... walk into any grocery store and you'll still have trouble finding yeast, frozen berries and/or toilet paper.

On top of that, the head of Tyson Foods, one of the meat processing giants, warned that the "food supply chain is breaking". With reduced meat processing plant capacity, farmers have nowhere to send their market-ready animals. Which means that millions of cows, chickens, etc will be "depopulated". A rather interesting word which basically means - slaughtered and their lives wasted. Which will lead to a shortage of meat in grocery stores and higher prices, etc. etc.

Which is why some of the news articles are suggesting that Canadians start experimenting in their kitchens with beans, lentils, legumes and tofu... all of which are produced in Canada. Welcome to my world!

Six months ago... the only thing I really used pulses for was chili, burritos, hummus, pea soup and making my Mom's world-famous (OK... family-famous)... lentil soup. [N.B. I keep having to add items to this list because apparently we used more pulses in my meat-eating days than I thought...]

I wasn't really a big fan of pulses... legumes... call them what you will. But... having left the animal protein world behind us (meat, dairy, eggs)... and embraced a whole-food, plant-based eating plan... legumes are my new friends.

Ever had a bean burger? They are actually darn yummy! And this is a home-made bean burger... not one of those Beyond Beef Burgers that are stuffed with all sorts of weird things. It's all about finding the good recipes... and there a lot of them out there... it just takes some experimentation. We're still working on tofu though... it's a texture thing for us... ick.

All pulses are legumes... but not all legumes are pulses!

OK... I need a digression here. Is it legumes or is it pulses?? I came across this little chart and it helped me get the distinction...

So... legumes are soybeans, peanuts, fresh peas and fresh beans AND pulses... which are the dried versions of beans, peas, chickpeas and lentils. Got it... Basically all pulses are legumes but not all legumes are pulses! I'm gonna try and keep this straight and use the terminology correctly! But forgive me if I slip back into legume territory...

Now... despite the fact that Canada is one of the global leaders in producing legumes... err... pulses...

Another aside.... Did you know Canada is #1 for dried peas and lentils, #9 for chickpeas, #27 for dried beans? Apparently Canada (Saskatchewan mostly) produces 95% of the world's lentils... whaattt!! Did you know we produce 150 different varieties of legumes? Who knew there were that many?? I mean... I kinda always thought Saskatchewan was purely grain farming... it's not!

Anyhow... despite the fact that we are a primo pulses producer... there is a limit to how much stock is on hand. We're tapping into pulses grown last year... and once that stock is gone... well, it's gone. Pulses producers have seen a 500-1000% demand in pulses from grocery stores. Which is crazy. But... what's not to like about dried legumes? They are are cheap, don't take up a lot of space in the pantry and have a long shelf life. Canned legumes are more convenient by far but not as cheap, and they take up more space. On the other hand... neither dry nor canned legumes need to be kept in a freezer, like a stockpile of meat.

Oh, and if that weren't enough... legumes pack plenty of protein and fibre. It's a myth that you need to eat meat in order to meet [hah!] your daily recommended intake of protein. Most North Americans get more than enough protein... but most don't get enough fibre. Cause meat don't have fibre... only plants have fibre... and your gut biome loves fibre... So legumes really tick a bunch of boxes...

Superstore's regular dried legume section... cleaned out.

Now... confession time... back in January, when we went meat free... we still had some meat in our freezer. Some pork back ribs, a salmon, ground chicken chubs, chicken breasts, a few roasts and not a few packages of bacon. We were debating giving the meat to some friends when Covid-19 hit... and so the meat is still in our freezer. Kind of a back-up plan I guess... in case we ever need to trade a package of bacon for a package of toilet paper or something... here's hoping it won't come to that...

In the meantime, I buy a couple of packages and/or cans of pulses every week... when we can find them.

Superstore's regular legumes - 900 gram packages

Superstore is our usual stop for shopping and... the regular pulses section (in the Canned Vegetables aisle) is kind of hit or miss. One week they have nothing... the next week they might have dry kidney beans but nothing else.

 So I buy what I can find. But here's a little tip... around the corner, in the International aisle... go and look for this brand... Suraj...

Suraj brand legumes from
Superstore's International aisle
(1.8 kg package)

They come in 1.8 kg packages and are usually much cheaper than Superstore's regular stuff. And way cheaper if you can get them on sale (anything under $5/package).

A few years ago, this brand used to be super cheap... like $4/package (the same price as the regular, smaller, dried legume packages) but then... they figured out that this stuff was flying off the shelves and... the price went up. Still... you can sometimes find it on sale.

Superstore's International aisle - dried legumes

On top of that... last year Superstore rearranged their International aisle (I hate it when they do that!) and drastically reduced their selection of Suraj options. Nowadays you can maybe get 4 or 5 different types of pulses. Still... if you're looking for chickpeas, red lentils and sometimes split yellow peas... Suraj will be on the shelf, even if the regular pulses are cleaned out.

You can also try Bulk Barn... most of their stores are still open although it is a bit trickier. Ours only has online shopping since they have reduced staffing levels. Place an order online... get a phone call that it is ready to pick up, drive down, walk in and pay for it. Other Bulk Barns have escorted shopping trips - go in and a staff member will walk around the store with you and scoop your selections into bags. The prices aren't that far off either. For pulses, anything around $0.30/100 grams is a good deal.

Another option is an international food store... I've never tried any here in town but a friend in the UK says she found rice in a small international shop (Thai, I think) when the local Tesco was sold out... I imagine it would be the same for pulses since they are a staple of southeast Asian (particularly Indian) cooking.

Oh... and check the expiry date on your bag of pulses. While they do have a long shelf life, it isn't forever. We have first hand experience with using pulses beyond their expiry date. They are most definitely al dente and no amount of pre-soaking or cooking will soften them... Be warned.