Five things I am grateful for today

"We are hardly ever grateful for a fine clock or watch when it goes right, and we pay attention to it only when it falters, for then we are caught by surprise. It ought to be the other way about."
-- Philip Dormer Stanhope

I am making a point of recognizing things to be grateful for in my daily life. Today, these are some things that I am grateful for:

I have employment that brings the necessary finances for the things that my family needs
I am grateful for window glass, so I can see outside without exposure to harsh elements
I have fresh drinking water to nourish my body
I have this computer to use to share these things
God has ranted me with a marvelous and wondrous body

When I approach life with gratitude - deep, heart-felt gratitude - it is so much sweeter and richer.

Peace and love,
Charles

The Relationship Between Happiness and Beliefs

It's funny that I would read this article only a couple of hours after finishing my previous entry. Very nicely aligned.

The Relationship Between Happiness and Beliefs

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Attitude of Gratitude

I believe that being grateful for all of the things in our lives, be they great or small, widens the channels that more blessings are sent to us through. By being grateful we allow ourselves to receive more to be grateful for.

At this minute, here are the first five things that come to mind that I am grateful for:

1) I have a loving wife
2) I have an awesome son
3) I have a good roof over my head
4) The rain is bringing more life to my surroundings, and with it, more fresh air
5) I have a tranquil little fountain on my desk; it has a small zen garden that I like to gaze into from time to time

If we are not grateful for the things that we have in our lives, how can we consider ourselves deserving of receiving more? I encourage you to think for a moment and genuinely be grateful for the blessings in your life, great or small. I challenge you to start off every day by thinking about the things you count as blessings. Develop an attitude of gratitude.

I am grateful that you are here reading this message right now, and I am grateful for anyone that I have inspired to in turn be grateful.

You are welcome to reply to this post with the things you are grafetul for.

With love and gratitude,
Charles

Vegetarian Tasty Bean Burrito recipe

I dashed this one off at lunch today because I was hungry and it sounded good. The veggies come out with a delicious sweet flavor, owing to the use of a sweet onion and a well-ripened green bell pepper. In all, this is a well balanced meal. Hearty and satisfying.

Tasty Bean Burrito:

1 can Old El Paso vegetarian refried beans
1 vine ripened tomato
1 well-ripened green bell pepper (should start turning orange)
1/2 sweet yellow onion
2 Tbsp olive oil (for sautee)
4 of your favorite tortillas (I used Mission Life Balance whole wheat)
dried cilantro
dried powdered cumin
dried basil
dried parsley flakes
Tostitos salsa con queso, to taste (optional)
Low-fat plain yogurt, to taste (optional)

Directions:
Dice the tomatoes and combine the dice with basil, cilantro, and parsley in a small bowl. Set aside.

Chop the onion and set aside. Cut pepper into slices, removing pulpy white inside and seeds. Cut slices in half. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a sautee pan on medium heat. Add onion and pepper chunks to pan. Sautee until onions are nearly translucent. Remove from heat.

Heat tortillas in a large skillet until warmed.

Heat the refried beans in a microwave-safe container for one minute on high. Mix in cilantro and cumin to taste, return to microwave for another minute on high. Stir mixture thoroughly.

Serve prepared bean burritos or, if you prefer, serve family style from your favorite decorative dishes. Sure to please the family!

---
This recipe © 2009 Charles Scheidecker

Day 13 - almost halfway through the vegetarian experiment

13 days! That must be some kind of lucky number. Yeah, I know what you're thinking - 13 is bad luck. 13 has always been a good number for me. As a matter of fact, we are still trucking along with our vegetarian diet. No meat has been eaten for 13 days, and it has honestly not been difficult for me to stick to that. Why is that? I pay little heed to meat. I do not need it.

Today's menu included some tasty eggplant parmesan. It was my first attempt at making that dish and it turned out pretty decent. Now that I have a good baseline, I can add more seasoning to the batter to get more flavor. I got the batter recipe from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas. Good stuff.

Lunch was a BK Veggie Burger (MorningStar Farms) with a value-sized fries. The sizing of the fries and drinks at fast food restaurants deeply disturbs me. I can't believe a 16oz drink passes for a small, and that the current value size fry used to be the small fry. The medium drink is 32 ounces! Crazy! Honestly, you're probably better off not eating at fast food joints if you can help it.

Today was also quite a productive day. I fit in the time to finish painting the ceiling in our spare room and got a new ceiling fan installed in there as well. It looks great. The room is a vibrant green with a dark chocolate ceiling. Think of it like an upside-down tree. It's very soothing and will also provide a great office environment at home.

As a side note, I have been reading The Secret
and I am finding it quite fascinating. It is a book about the Law of Attraction, which relies on the power of positive thought to alter your life circumstances. If any of you have experiences with the Law of Attraction, I'd like to hear about it.

Signing off for now,
Charles

Vegetarian Experiment - day 12

It's hard to believe I've already completed nearly half of the days of my vegetarian experiment. Based on my progress so far, I think I will continue to consume a vegetarian diet. I will also attempt to cut out eggs and dairy as much as possible. It will be hard to cut out dairy cheese and eggs for certain recipes; I will have to find suitable substitutes.

I expect that something similar to what I have already experienced with meat will happen. I occasionally crave the taste of charred meat, but I have not given into the temptation. In fact, these cravings only occur between meals when I am starting to need a small protein boost. Given that factoid, I still do not crave meat itself. The smell of fast food restaurants is losing its appeal quite rapidly. It smells like a cloud of grease hanging in the air. I believe eggs will follow a similar fate. I do not crave eggs, but until I am better educated on the alternatives, I don't know what to use as a binder in recipes. Does flax seed work for this? I believe potato starch is also an option.

I found a tool on the SparkPeople website that is quite helpful in determining the nutrition values of a recipe. You input the ingredients and quantities that are in the recipe, specify the number of servings, and voila - you get a report with the nutrition information. It was quite useful in determining the nutritional content of the TVP burgers that I made for grilling today. You can check out the tool here. I'll give the link for the TVP burgers when I find the site again. I printed off a PDF that didn't include the URL but it should provided the clues needed to find it again. I will say that Faythe and I both enjoyed them, and they were designed not to pretend to be a meat burger.

Today was a much better balanced intake than yesterday. I didn't go way overboard with any milkshakes, but I still got too many calories all at once. Lots of great fruit and veggie options were at the party we went to, so we stuck to those. The fresh strawberries were absolutely fantastic! There was also a great assortment of salads that were delicious.

So far, as a result of dropping meat from my diet, I have dropped about 5 pounds that were otherwise stuck. It's a great feeling knowing that this transition is unlocking doors for me.

I would encourage anyone reading this to embrace trying something new, something outside of your comfort zone, for a limited time trial. Make a commitment to do something healthy that you just couldn't imagine yourself doing. Commit to doing it for 14 days. If you like it, extend it to 30 days. 30 days is about how long it takes to form a new habit. This works best if the habit is something that must be done daily. Remind yourself that if you don't like it, you can quit when your time trial is over and go back to your old habits. Set yourself up for success.

Blessings,
Charles

Day... what? of the vegetarian experiment

It's getting a bit late and I honestly don't remember off the top of my head which day this is out of my 30 day experiment, but I will comment that everything it going well so far. We took a little family trip to the Mall of America and walked around the mall for a few hours. Also, we picked up a copy of EA Sports Active
! and I must admit after watching Faythe play it for a little bit that it looks like a worthwhile exercise program. I'm going to be playing it in a few minutes, so I'm just dashing off a quick entry here.

Here is a little inspiration for anyone following this blog: it's easy to fall down with your dietary choices, even when you've cut out meat. I had an absolutely delicious meal at Opa! Souvlaki of Greece in the mall food court. It consisted of a vegetarian pita wrap, Opa! fries (YUM!), and a pita with hummus. In all, about 1150 calories for the whole shebang. I should have skipped the fries, but they were so good! I don't regret that decision. Now, we come to the decision I do have regrets about. At the end of our mall adventure, we stopped by the Cold Stone Creamery on the 3rd floor of the mall.

I ordered a "Like It"-sized Creme de Menthe shake. Bad. Choice. 1160 calories for that behemoth, entirely from fat and sugar. Get this: 124g of carbohydrates and 67g of fat, about 2/3 of which was saturated fat. Ugh. But, its ok, even though I surpassed my calorie goal for the day even counting the three hours of light walking that we did today. I will pick myself up and forge onward with my goals of good health and vitality.

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramble.

Love and best wishes,
Charles

Making up for lost time - the Vegetarian Experiment

Woah! I missed a few days worth of updates here. No, I have not fallen off of the wagon and abandoned my experiment. I have been busy the past few days and have not made the time to make an update to my journal here.

This dietary shift has been an absolutely fascinating experience for me. I am climbing over the first small foothill - my body is detoxifying and this will take some time. My severe meat-eating ways surely must have built up a large store of toxins in my body! Already I am starting to feel more energetic and clear-minded.

I have to say that after a little over a week on this diet, I have consumed very little tofu. Most people think that by eating vegetarian, your only source of protein is tofu. This is patently untrue, as I have come to find out. Virtually every plant or fruit found in nature provides at least some small amount of protein. As it happens, the FDA guidelines provide for a very small amount of protein indeed. From their website:

Whatever the calorie level, DRVs for the energy-producing nutrients are always calculated as follows:

• fat based on 30 percent of calories
• saturated fat based on 10 percent of calories
• carbohydrate based on 60 percent of calories
• protein based on 10 percent of calories. (The DRV for protein applies only to adults and children over 4. RDIs for protein for special groups have been established.)
• fiber based on 11.5 g of fiber per 1,000 calories

Source: http://www.fda.gov/fdac/special/foodlabel/dvs.html

Let's extrapolate that into a real-world scenario. Let's say your daily calorie intake is approximately 2000 calories. This means you should only need a maximum of 200 calories from protein. One gram of protein provides four calories, therefore you need at most 50 grams of protein on a 2000 calorie diet. The FDA recommended daily value of protein provides quite a large buffer.

Another interesting thing I've learned is the importance of vitamin B12 - it is needed for blood cell production, heart health, and brain function. Here is some information about B12 so you can read up about it.

I've been interrupted about a hundred times while I've been writing this, so I'm going to take that as my cue to wrap up.

Wishes for a wonderful day,
Charles

And on the fifth day, there were more vegetables...

and he saw them, and they were good. Today was another good day in the dietary experiment. I think this is a sustainable lifestyle based on what I've experienced so far. I can honestly say that meat has not even tempted me, despite walking by counters full of fresh cuts while doing grocery shopping this evening.

Today I've noticed that I'm feeling kind of nasty, but I believe this to be a product of cleansing of toxins due to my practice of chi kung sped up by not consuming additional animal toxins. I don't feel any lack of nutrients since my body is quite good about telling me what it needs and I am good at listening to it. It definitely feels like the deep-seated "gunk" is being flushed out. It seems like a little breakthrough! I'm very excited about that.

I'd like to express my deep gratitude to my Sifu for transmitting the skills I needed to successfully practice Shaolin Cosmos Chu Kung. The Shaolin arts are, from my very limited experience, quite amazing. There's so much more to it than you see in the movies - it's not just Matrix-style Kung Fu. Traditional Shaolin arts cultivate the body, mind, and spirit.

Love and blessings,
Charles

Day 4: The Vegetarian Project

Today was another good day for my experimental 30 day vegetarian diet. I've noticed another interesting development which I believe to be a direct result of this diet: the circles under my eyes aren't so dark anymore. I've had dark circles under my eyes for as long as I can remember. After four days, that darkness is starting to fade. I'm sure my Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung practice is also speeding this progression along.

Today's breakfast menu consisted of three whole-wheat "buttermilk" pancakes along with a single scrambled egg using rice milk and half a wedge of Laughing Cow herb & garlic cheese. I got the recipe for the pancakes from Nava Atlas' book, The Vegetarian Family Cookbook. They have a texture reminiscent of pancakes from IHOP, which is great, because IHOP's pancakes are my favorite.

For lunch, we used some Morningstar Farms original grillers crumbles to make sloppy joe's which we had with mixed vegetables. Delicious! Many tasty snacks also ensued.

And for dinner, we had some breaded tofu nuggets. This was my first experience with tofu, and I must confess that I enjoyed it! I prepared these from a recipe from the same book that I got my breakfast recipe. So simple and so tasty! The texture was a bit rubbery; I'm not sure if that is just because that's how tofu is when baked, or if I just didn't drain and blot the tofu well enough. Any thoughts on this one?

I know I said I was going to try something using TVP today, but that just didn't happen. The Morningstar Farms crumbles are essentially TVP that's ready to go, though.

I'm looking forward to seeing what other positive health effects this diet holds for me. Hey, maybe I'll even lose some of my excess poundage!

Day the Third of the Vegetarian Experiment

This experiment is going very well. I thought I was going to have a hard time meeting my nutritional needs but that has not been the case. I am using My Fitness Pal to track my food and exercise, and I am paying close attention to the signals my body is giving me. My main problem is getting enough protein without falling back to using dairy and egg products. I am trying to avoid using as many animal products as possible. Maybe I need to investigate more soy options such as soy milk. I am trying out rice milk and so far am finding its taste and texture more palatable than that of soy.

Breakfast consisted of two servings of Marshmallow Mateys
and a cup of milk. I have to tell you, I love that cereal - it's the best elements of Luck Charms and Cocoa Puffs in one cereal. Not only that, but according to the ingredients list, it is vegetarian-friendly. It's probably even vegan-friendly, but please don't take my word for it - check it out yourself.

For lunch, Faythe and I grabbed a pizza from Papa Murphy's. I opted to get a Veggie DeLite with all of the cheese on Faythe's half and all of the veggies on my half. I didn't think she would respond well to the vegetables on the pizza, and I was right. She thought it looked disgusting, but she has opted to try it with me next time should we get another take and bake pizza. I found the taste to be good, although I have to admit I did miss the cheese a little bit. I've never had a non-dessert pizza without cheese, but I did enjoy it. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find nutrition information for a veggie DeLite pizza without the cheese and with red sauce instead of white (garlic) sauce, so my calorie count is off. I'm realying on my body here to tell me its needs.

For dinner, we prepared some steamed fresh green beans along with chunked red potatoes skillet-fried in extra virgin olive oil, with some original Mrs Dash Original Blend
and Kosher salt. Delicious! Add to that a Morningstar Grillers original burger on Sara Lee 45 Calories & Delightful 100% Whole Wheat Bread with a Claussen dill pickle half, and I practically had a meal fit for a king or at least a lower prince.

I tried an interesting experiment. I found a recipe for a Vegan carob date brownie mix and decided to test it. The texture of the brownies was great - very enjoyable. However, I was unable to procure one of the ingredients - grain beverage powder? I think this is some kind of coffee substitute, but I'm not 100% sure about that. At any rate, I'm not sure if it was substituting actual coffee grinds for the coffee substitute -- I know, the recursion there may cause your mind to implode -- or if I am just bad at following directions, but I did not enjoy the taste of the brownies at all. It really reminded me of a scene from the movie Baby Mama
at the vegetarian restaurant. "What does the kelp pizza taste like?" "Oh, it's very nice, it's got a nice earthy, dirt flavor." That's exactly what these brownies tasted like. Blegh! The hyperlink has been removed to protect the innocent, because the taste of this horrible massacre was probably my own fault. The butchery of movie quotations is also my doing. I apologize for that.

I had to supplement my day's protein with another glass of moo milk, but I have to admit I feel better for it. I could tell I needed the protein and the milk was a good quick-fix. Tomorrow I may be experimenting with TVP (textured vegetable protein)
. What an unappealing product name. At least they're not trying to hide what it really is. Call a rose a rose, if you will. From my understanding, TVP is intended as a replacement for ground meat in your dishes.

I have another suggestion as well. Yogi Teas are delicious. We picked up a box of
Mayan Cocoa Spice tea at our local organic and health food store. I found the flavor to be very mellow with delightful undertones of cocoa. It was a great way to wind down the evening.

On that note, it's off to bed. It is time for me to set forth the intention to remember my dreams. I would eventually like to enjoy some lucid dreams, but I've got to be able to remember my normal dreams first!

Until next time, many blessings and may your heart be warm and full of joy.

Charles

Episode 2: More Vegetables

Days one and two of my 30 day experimental change to a vegetarian diet have been very successful. Already, I have noticed some very welcome changes.

My energy levels have been much better today. Normally by around 3pm, my energy levels start to fade a little bit. I maintained a consistently high energy level throughout my day today. It's after 8pm and I'm a little tired now, but that's primarily due to my dealings with a cranky infant (Noah, my son) who needed a nap. Who knows, maybe it's also because I went to bed at 12am and got up at 5:30am...

My clarity of thought has also been elevated. I'm in a bit of a wind-down holding pattern right now, and I'm being distracted by AFV (America's Funniest Videos), but I had some good insights today infused with a bit of rapier wit.

I can honestly say I haven't missed the meat. The meals have been satisfying. Unfortunately, three of the four meals have been from restaurants but they all still were vegetarian. The night's fare was hibachi vegetables from the local hibachi grill, Tokyo Steakhouse.

In short, the change has been quite good to us so far.

Day 1 of the Vegetarian Experiment

Faythe and I decided to start our 30 day trial of the vegetarian diet today. We still have some ground turkey left, so I'm going to make some treats for our three cats and our dog. I'm sure they'll love it!

Our first meal consisted of Morningstar Farms veggie burgers from Burger King. I have to say, the taste of those veggie burgers has really improved a lot over the past few years. I remember the first time I tried a veggie burger. They tasted so bland and awful, I was disgusted. That was around seven or eight years ago. I tried again about three years ago, and I found the taste and texture to be flavorful and satisfying to my meat-loving ways. At that point, I was not prepared to go on an adventure into unexplored dietary country.

I should have skipped the fried potato sticks of death with my meal! They're sitting pretty heavily and greasily in my stomach. Faythe was smart; she ordered a side salad instead of fries to go with her lunch. We're trying to eat out less, but every other Thursday I get paid so we ran our little bank errand to get our grocery and spending money. Burger King is right across the street from our credit union, and we knew they had a veggie burger option, so yea verily - we chose that route.

Tonight we're planning on splitting a box of Morningstar Chik'n Tenders with some frozen veggies. I'm sure we'll need some other food too, but it's a good start.

Stay tuned for updates on the progress of our 30 day trial.

Update: I found a Vegetarian Food Pyramid (the "four new food groups") that looks like a great guide. You may view it at http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/food_groups.html

Preparation for a vegetarian diet

I am preparing to exerience the supposed health benefits of a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. Lately, my body has been telling me that it is preparing for a break from its dependence on meat and it wants my mind fo follow suit. I believe I should listen to this message. It is important to listen to what our bodies are telling us so we can keep ourselves fit and healthy.

At this point, I am in a stage of information gathering. I am have found some interesting information that should get me started down the path at http://www.veggie123.com/ - there is a useful e-book there that I am currently reading.

I believe my body's desire to shift toward a vegetarian diet is no accident nor a mere whim; it is the direct result of my diligent daily practice of Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung. I have been practicing "Plucking Stars, Changing Galaxies" at least once daily to work on my digestive health for the past month, and I can say definitively that the results have been positive. Although my body mass has not really begun to change much, I have noticed that some of my excess fat is converting into muscle and my food cravings have almost entirely disappeared. Smaller quantities of food are satisfying to me now, and I am actively seeking out a more nutritious thoroughfare.

If any of my readers are established vegetarians, I would love to hear about your experiences and also hear your pointers and tips about maintaining a balanced but varied and tasty diet.

Update 5/13/2009:
I have done additional research on achieving a balanced vegetarian diet, and it seems the primary fears are that of the paradigm shift. I've checked out The Vegetarian Family Cookbook, by Nava Atlas and it seems like a great place to start. I have the support of Faythe, my wife, and for ethical and dietary reasons we are going to make the switch together. At this point, we are going with a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. This should be fairly easy to accomplish. We are planning on the first full day of vegetarian diet starting on 5/15/2009, after we have used the remainder of our ground turkey supply.

Simple recipe for pure living

I'd like to quickly share with you a simple recipe to live a fruitful life. It is as follows:

1) Avoid evil
2) Do good
3) Cultivate the mind

If you can follow this simple recipe, you will find yourself changing positively from within. Your spirit will change and you will change with it.

It's time for a change...

I've been plumbing the depths of myself quite a bit lately, and I am discovering the primary source of my life's discontent: I am not doing the work that I am meant to be doing.

I am a "computer guy" - I'm pretty good at what I do, which is network and server maintenance. I keep the internet running for more than 8000 people in the small city I work in. Is it exciting? Well, maybe. There are regularly new challenges. There are always new technologies to research and deploy. Why is this dissatisfying to me? It is because I am supporting a product which creates "technology junkies" - people who simply "cannot live" without an internet connection. Imagine what happens when someone cannot log into their email account 300 times per day! Hell hath no fury like a customer without email.

For fun this morning, I did a little search to find out what sorts of careers would suit my personality type better. I came up with this little gem on monster.com.

Life as an ISFP
(Introvert, Sensor, Feeler, Perceiver)

People of this type tend to be kind, humble and highly empathetic; thoughtful, faithful and affectionate with those they know well; sensitive to criticism and easily hurt; quiet, soft-spoken and gentle; adaptable, responsive and curious; realistic and down to earth.

The most important thing to ISFPs is feeling peaceful and harmonious with the people and places that matter most to them.

Great careers for ISFPs

Here are just a few popular and often satisfying careers for people whose Personality Type is ISFP:

• Primary care physician
• Occupational therapist
• Designer: interior / landscape
• Massage therapist
• Customer service representative
• Fashion designer
• Chef
• Paralegal
• Surveyor
• Registered nurse
• Dental hygienist
• Travel agent / tour operator
• Home health worker
• Medical assistant
• Alcohol and drug addiction counselor

As you can see, there are no computer-related professions listed for my personality type. No wonder I'm not happy to be your company's computer guy! Three of these career choices have sounded great to me for a long time: massage therapy, chef, and interior/exterior design.

You'll also note the high incidence of medical professions. This is also no accident - I am keenly interested in promoting holistic health care. I am a practitioner of Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung, which at a beginner's stage (where I am at) brings fantastic health benefits. As my sigung (teacher's teacher) says - good health is your birthright. I will elaborate on this subject in future articles, as I gain more experience. For now, it is sufficient to note that I had been practicing from my sigung's books for about six months before formally learning from my teacher approximately one month ago. In that one month I have had excellent progress.

Welcome

Hello, visitors!

My name is Charles Scheidecker and you've landed at my personal blog. This is a playground for my ideas to run wild, where I will be embarking on a journey of self-exploration. I'll try to keep the standard "here is my life story" and articles to a minimum. Also, I will avoid the use of memes unless they really catch my attention.

I am also going to work on a more professional blog, to be announced in the future, where I will be offering practical advice on living sensibly. You'll also find food recipes that I find to be delicious - mostly vegetarian recipes and vegan recipes - and other goodies.

Thanks for stopping by!

May you have many rich blessings,
Charles