I'm going to be running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon tomorrow so here I am at Disney at the Pop Century resort having this breakfast:
There's no way I'm going to eat all of that. The bagel's for tomorrow (when we have to get up in time to catch a 3:30 bus to get in place for a 5 AM start). I got this breakfast because I really wanted the biscuit and this was the only way. I wanted the eggs and bacon too - and I wouldn't say no to French toast.
Pete and I are here with my high-school friend, Kirsten, and her husband, Ben. It was Kirsten's idea to do this. She suggested it to me back in July when I was visiting down in D.C. I'd never imagined I'd do anything with the word "marathon" in it but it sounded fun and here I am. It has been fun, and very interesting, to train for this. More on that later.
For now, here we are at Disney World for the first time. It's wild here. In a way it's kind of like Vegas. Last night, inexplicably, we took a boat to Downtown Disney.
Disney's a whole other series of posts. You can't just call up, get a hotel room and come on down. There are Magic Bands and photo plans and Fast Passes and reservations and a whole bunch of research-ahead preparations to make that they keep e-mailing you about. I made as few as possible because I HAVE A LOT OF OTHER STUFF I HAVE TO DO just like most people. It's really as if you needs preliminary trip to Disney so you can plan your trip to Disney.
Now that we're here it turns out to be even HUGER than I'd ever imagined.
My plan for today is to head over to the Expo Center and pick up a bunch of pink sparkly swag then go on some rides I guess. Tomorrow I'll be running 13.1 miles dressed like a big, tall swig of sparkly Pepto Bismol - assuming there are no hiccups.
I will never be a "popular" blogger because I can't be bothered to take a pretty picture or gussy up the ones I take. Some artist. I'm supposed to be all about aesthetics. I am. Just not conventional aesthetics.
Any hoo, I'm all excited because I sent away for some fitness shake powder thingies and they came!
This is Skoop B Strong. It's supposed to speed recovery after a workout, among other things.
Since you never know till you try, I got a sampling of their whole line. It sounds like good stuff. I'm all about healthy skin, a healthy body, and plenty of energy. Why not give it a shot? Plus they donate a serving of fresh fruits and vegetables to school lunch programs for every portion sold.
Yeah, I got the mixing cup too. The sipper cap part clicks tightly into place which is good. I'm much less likely to spray my entire kitchen with soy milk and protein powder that way.
So how does this B Strong taste? It tastes gross! I've never been one to tolerate artificial sweeteners before. I HATE diet soda. YUCK! This has Stevia in it. According to the website stevia can support healthy blood pressure (which I already have) and, I guess do other things for me that I don't need.
I don't know, I'll choke it down. I might get used to it. If it helps me feel great I'll keep drinking it.
Of course the best way to take care of your health and have plenty of energy is to eat right and exercise regularly - which I do a pretty good job of lately - and GET ENOUGH SLEEP. I don't get enough sleep.
Holy crap! It's almost two! There's always so much stuff to do! That's why no one gets enough sleep. Gotta go! Later!
South End Open Studios is this weekend. I will be participating. I had planned to go down to our space on Monday and hang some kind of sculpture thing that I was going to make then and there. Instead I decided that the only honest thing to do would be to make meringues and chocolate éclairs and give them to people who come to our gallery.
I was partially inspired to do this by the random stuff being discussed on Facebook right now. I won't spell those things out as no doubt equally random things are being discussed on Facebook as you read this (unless no one Facebooks anymore and everyone's moved on to the next thing by the time you read this.) I was partially inspired by this guy, Tee Major. How did I get from a guy displaying his EXTREME fitness skills to making meringues and chocolate éclairs? Hmmm...
Long story short, nothing makes sense. The wonders of the world. All the bizarre and random things that happen every day, all the time. When nothing makes sense you can only do what makes the most sense to you. For Tee Major it makes TONS of sense to work out for thousands of hours so he can support his body weight on the tips of his fingers and do pushups during which he spins around in midair. I would say the vast majority of humans on this planet would have no need to use those skills but Tee Major WENT FOR IT. Dedication, determination, drive, practice, focus for hours and hours and hours. He can do Superman Push Ups. It's amazing. That makes sense to him and I respect and admire that.
On Monday I saw no difference between his drive to learn to master his body in that way and my desire to master making éclairs and meringues. You have to do what makes sense to YOU. That made sense to me.
SO...
I couldn't believe it was actually working! The batter was rising!
Would you look at that - they're browning and look like real éclairs!
Naked without their chocolate ganache.
Éclair pastry turns out to be pretty easy to make. You use a saucepan, a mixing bowl, and a wooden spoon. The batter is made of butter, water, sugar, salt, a little flour, and four beaten eggs. you heat the first four ingredients in the pan until the butter melts. You dump the flour in all at once and stir over the heat until the batter clumps into a dough and begins to leave a film on the bottom of the pan. Then you dump the dough into the mixing bowl and stir it to cool it for a minute or two. Then you add the beaten eggs in four parts, stirring well with your wooden spoon after each part. Bang - you got éclair dough. So simple no wonder I was surprised it worked. You can also make cream puffs and cheese poufs called "gougères" with this same dough. And believe me I will. Easy and like magic therefore fun.
Now the meringues. I used to make meringues all the time when I was a kid. Once our housekeeper, Sarah (who saved my life so many times in so many ways) showed me how to do it I never had a problem. Until this Monday (of course the last time I tried was possibly 38 years ago) Four disastrous batches before I got a passable one. Then these happened:
I might be able to use these failures for something.
These look horrible but they taste good. I used a recipe that suggested heating the sugar in the oven before you mix it into the egg whites to help it dissolve more quickly. I might try that again sometime.
Making my own superfine sugar.
The best way to have the sugar dissolve nicely is to use superfine sugar. I couldn't find any at the three markets I looked in so I tried making my own. It seemed to work. I never used superfine sugar when I was a kit though. Just normal eggs, normal sugar, and a normal handheld mixer.
One problem may have been that I tried using a carton of egg whites. You can buy a carton of just the whites. Don't do that for meringues. It's unreliable. The last batch I made with those whipped up beautifully. Nice and stiff until about two-thirds of the way through adding the sugar when the whole thing suddenly turned into soup. My worst batch yet. Down the sink.
Finally I did everything as super-right as I could. I separated my own whites (which I don't like to do because then you have yolks you have to do something with) let them come to room temperature, wiped down everything that was going to come in contact with the whites with white vinegar to eliminate any possible trace of grease (grease prevents the whites from whipping up) added cream of tartar, used brand new sugar out of a fresh box rather than the sugar I store my vanilla beans in (just in case there's vanilla bean oil?) and it worked perfectly. I don't remember having to be so fussy when I was a kid.
SUCCESS! This batch was a monster! It tried to escape from the bowl! Look at that glorious texture though!
I cannot tell you how exhilarating it was when the super-stiff egg and sugar batter started fighting me back! A delightful, white, fluffy monster! Trying to wrest the beater from my hands and to fling itself out of the bowl and all over the kitchen! So exciting! Maybe one day I'll figure out a way to just bake it all whipped in the bowl. Look how gorgeous that is!
Successful batch number two (out of maybe eight batches total) is pictured below.
Freeform
Piped
I wanted to make odd shapes and sizes. I made some big ones, maybe the size of a croissant, but I think I can do better with those so no photos. I want to make huge ones and ones in different colors. Pristine white was what I went for this time.
Now I'm absolutely exhausted and I'm going to bed late and I have to get up early so I can do more set-up stuff for this show. I still don't know how I'm going to display all this stuff or how I'm going to assemble the éclairs and get them down to the gallery on Saturday.
I'm not even sure this was a good idea or that I fully understand now what I was thinking when I chose this course of action. Gonna have to cross that bridge when I get to it. That is how I like to make art. It usually works out okay.
I have to say that I have never had this much trouble in the kitchen in my life. Never!
Uhm, I am wearing flip flops and I have coral color painted toenails and I LOVE everything because I went running this morning.
Here are some things I saw today:
A sea of jasmine
A beautiful view
Fuzzy, red, banana-looking flowers
A spacious view that came with a delightful-feeling headwind.
An almond croissant that my mom brought me.
Mom also put lilies in my room and they smell great! Thanks, Mom!
Yesterday I got in the hot tub. No doubt I will again soon. Not only that but I had an entire row to myself on the plane over! How often does that happen?
Today we will be celebrating Mom's birthday. It's a bit early but today we're celebrating. This means there will be cake. Dang good.
We're at my mom's house and boy, is her house full of great food. My breakfast has Uncle Sam cereal and yogurt under all that fruit. I could eat like that in New England too but it's much harder to come by fresh fruit of this quality there.
Food-wise I've been just barely getting by lately. I just buy the least possible stuff to feed my face healthfully. Pretty much all I buy at the market is kale (or Brussels sprouts or broccoli) dried beans, eggs and bread.
(What's the deal with this Oxford comma thing? My school was all hoity-toity, self satisfied about not using one. I distinctly remember my teacher's exposition on it. I don't remember which teacher it was so maybe I'm making it all up. "Ultimately it doesn't matter which way you choose to do it as long as you are consistent. We do not use one here at NCS." That's how I remember it.
I have very strong memories of learning punctuation. It must have been very important to me. I rember being very confused about commas and latching with relief on the takeaway: when in doubt, leave it out. I have a lot of doubt. I don't always leave it out.)
Two parenthetical paragraphs. Who am I? Mini David Foster Wallace?
Anyway, we were talking about food. I also buy bourbon and pickles but that should be obvious from some of my recent posts. (Looks like I should also be stocking up on matches, if you catch my drift.)
Maybe I'd buy a better variety of more interesting foods if I was concentrating on life's joys. I've really been focusing on the duties lately. It's fine. I'm healthy. I'm getting a lot done. I'm learning a lot which is something that is very important to me. I'm even enjoying myself when I can. It's a low-key satisfaction-with-being-relatively-competent-as-an-adult kind of enjoyment. Sounds fun, huh? Well it's different and I like variety.
I don't feel quite ready yet to go back to variety in my food buying habits yet. Grief brings out austerity in me I guess. I'm still finding my way through this landscape of absent things. I feel like I need to focus and not distract myself with strawberries. Chocolate and booze (in moderation - I'm a middle-aged lady and can't process the sauce like I used to) are okay though. Chocolate is actually a necessity.
For now I'm on vacation at Mom's and I'm so happy to take advantage of what she's provided. Thanks Mom!
My in-laws live in Florida. It's a blustery Christmas Eve here today. Pete and Marc have spent a pretty good amount of time outside today. They even went swimming in this ocean:
Me? I'm attempting to make bourbon balls.
I, crazy nut that I am, went to the first market I could find today (I don't really know where anything is in this town) It was bonkers in there with people doing their last-minute holiday emergency shopping. People were very nice though. I was able to park sooner than I thought I'd be and the folks milling around in the market were full of holiday cheer. Everyone was wishing everyone else a merry Christmas. None of this hippy-dippy "happy holidays"crap in Florida. Hey, I was raised in the Christian tradition so I'm not offended. I wished 'em all merry Christmas right back. Why not?
Then I went back to my in-law's rental condo where we're staying.
It can be funny to try to make things in other peoples' rental condos. Often times you can't find the equipment you need. I wouldn't dare to try to make cupcakes here. Marc couldn't find a frying pan here yesterday. No way there are muffin pans.
Bourbon balls do not require baking or any sort of pan. They aren't chemistry like real baking. You just grind up cookies and pecans and mix them with powdered sugar, bourbon and Karo syrup, wad 'em into balls and roll them in more powdered sugar. So I've been told. This is the first time I've tried to make any.
I used the blender that was really intended for mixing daiquiris to chop up my cookies (took forever) and my pecans (no trouble.) I found a large, plastic bowl to mix everything in. Miraculously I even found dry measuring cups (I'm completely shocked!) and measuring spoons. I got everything successfully processed and mixed. Then I ran out of time. The dough will have to sit for a while (which isn't bad - the flavors will meld better that way) until after Christmas Eve fancy dinner. Bourbon balls for breakfast? Could be. Midnight snack? Also possible. With picklebacks? I wouldn't put it past us, sadly.
So I'm getting a quick post in before I get fancypantsed-up. That could be interesting (to me) too - I packed the morning before we left after three hours of sleep. I don't know if my fancy duds will pass muster. Well, I brought what I brought and that's all there is to it.
Come to think of it, I should start getting ready now. We're expected at Pete and Marc's parents' in 35 minutes. Pete and Marc are still outside getting blown around in this weather. Perhaps we'll be late?
This is not your storybook Christmas. It's great though. We're all half-assed. It's nice that we agree about it. Hitting all the high spots and letting everything else slide. Ha!
Since I live in the politically correct U.S. northeast I will wish you all very happy holidays!
In honor of our friend who passed today, I post (again?) the recipe I use for for Cincinnati Chili, to which he introduced us (my comments in parenthesis) I'll likely be cooking up a big batch tomorrow.
Cincinnati Empress Chili
For the chili:
2 lbs. ground beef
1 qt. water (4 cups)
1 & 1/2 t. allspice
1 garlic clove (I used more of course)
2 bay leaves
2 diced onions
dash worcestershire
1 can (6oz) tomato paste
1 T. salt
1/2 t. cayenne
1 & 1/2 t. black pepper
3 T. chili powder (though I used less than 1T because I ran out and it still came out well)
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cumin
1 T. vinegar
spaghetti - make a pretty fair amount
Toppings:
orange cheddar cheese grated
kidney beans
chopped onions
oyster crackers
Tabasco sauce
Put the water in a large pot or hotpot. Crumble meat into the water (yes, raw) and add all the other chili ingredients. Bring to a boil then simmer at least one hour and for as long as three hours. Remove garlic and bay leaves. (or leave in the garlic and mash it if you’re me) Serve over spaghetti with your choice of toppings.
Halloween party preparations! I forgot how fun it is to make weird stuff!
Like these heart-shaped pickled beets I made to garnish spooky Bleeding Heart Martinis:
So fun to carve them into heart shapes. I don't remember ever making cooked pickles before so that was fun too. I hope they taste good! They're supposed to leach creepy red tendrils through the martini.
The BEST thing is the horrific mummy meatloaf I made. I can't even believe how well it came out. I have to show you the before and after shots so you can see that it really is a meatloaf and not a war atrocity.
See - bacon wraps. Onion eyes and teeth and tomato sauce glaze for an extra charred flesh effect.
The results:
True Terror! What a horrible nightmare! Complete, resounding success! Will anyone dare to eat this wretched thing? It's almost insensitive.
I put a ton of work into making these ridiculous, meaningless things. It was so much fun! Clearly I need to do even more stupid, meaningless things!
I had big plans this weekend. I always seem to have big plans. This time it went pretty well. As you may be aware, I can't shut up about my garlic. Garlic is so easy to grow that I kind of became hell-bent on getting some in this year. Below is yet another shot of the extremely neglected vegetable garden where I intended to plant the stuff.
Vegetable Garden, Before
I got a nice, early start by previewing the site and getting intimidated. Since it was a beautiful morning I thought I'd warm up by taking a look around. Some bright blue caught my eye and I was delighted to see that the equally neglected (possibly even more neglected) aconitum was still alive.
Heroic Aconitum (blue)
We still have honeysuckle. This variety smells like a trip to paradise. I have no idea what it is because I didn't plant it.
The hydrangea petiolaris looks very stately this year. I didn't get a good photo of its overall shape. Instead I tried to give you an idea of what it feels like to be standing inside it. A beautiful, golden, peaceful spot.
Hydrangea Petiolaris
We still have quite a number of raspberries. Still no frost by October 21! Unusual. I'm so glad for the fruit.
I spent the rest of the day working in my studio on a project which I will no doubt share with you later (unless I get hit by a bus or something)
After a number of hours in the studio I was relaxed enough to attempt the vegetable garden.
Part I
In about an hour I managed to make a pretty good first pass. It went far better than I'd imagined it would. The chipmunks made it easier by tunneling under all the weeds and keeping their roots loose. Thanks, little dudes! I rewarded them by eradicating their cover. Maybe they'll forgive me when I get the mulch down, hopefully next week.
After a surprisingly perfect day of accomplishing my goals, Pete and I had cocktails (well, Pete had beers) on the patio. The vegetables, except for the celery, are from Marc's garden. Pretty sweet.
The next day was, of course, Sunday. You don't get to stay in Vermont all of Sunday so you have to get a move on! I put a little bit more time in in my studio then headed back to the garden. The results:
About 100 peacefully tucked-in garlic cloves settling in for the winter. My ambition was to get them mulched on Sunday too but... No. Hey, you can't have everything. Most of the time. Sometimes you can. I think.
Miss Brilliant (me) loves Halloween. Miss Brilliant thought it would be a great idea to have a Halloween party. Miss Brilliant ran this great idea past Mr. Brilliant (Pete, of course) so now we're having a Halloween party! All in the spirit (get it, spirit! HAW!) of trying to have some fun in the midst of difficult times.
Miss Brilliant neglected to take into account how exhausted and sad and frazzled and pressed for time she already felt and has heaped up some more big tasks onto her plate! Go Miss Brilliant! Mr. Brilliant agrees that he's in the same leaky ghost ship.
I don't want this party to be lame and suck. I want to have theme food and black vodka martinis and bloody poison punch and ghost cupcakes and whatever other horrific Halloween snacks a person can make for a good Halloween party. I want decorations! Spooky lanterns! 'N' stuff.
'N' stuff. Pretty good imagination there, huh? Must work on that.
Okay, my costume's almost all set. I'm pretty pleased with how that came out. No worries there.
I don't know how I'm going to prepare good, spooky Halloween food for a party on a Wednesday night. Planning, I guess. Lots of make ahead. Maybe I can get some people to show up a little early and help with the decorations? Maybe I won't count on that.
Mr. Brilliant and I will need to discuss some things...
Pete, Marc and I had dinner last night with our friend, Paul, at Marliave in downtown Boston last night. Wouldn't it be cool if I had a photo of Paul so you could know who I was talking about? I didn't take a photo of him though. I'm sure I have one somewhere but I don't have time to look right now.
Marliave is on one of those old, beat to hell Boston streets in Beacon Hill, one of the older neighborhoods. The sidewalks are paved with seriously irregular brickwork (impossible to clear completely of ice in bad weather) and lined with dumpsters and gaslights (or else, gasesque-lights - I didn't look that closely, I just let it wash over me in a romanticized haze) There is some decorative ironwork outside the restaurant and a neato little convoluted stone stair that leads down to the next street over. I told Pete it was kind of like New Orleans only it smelled better and the food was not going to be anywhere as good. I LOVE New Orleans.
At Marliave they have a dollar oysters every night before 6 PM. We each got a dozen. New England oysters are very different than the oysters you get in the southern U.S.. They are far brinier and more delicately flavored. These were extremely briny. I'm a salt fan but I found these oysters a bit of a process to get through. They were delicious but they didn't go down quite as fast as the usual, say, Island Creek oyster. Even the familiar Wellfleets were saltier than usual. Not a complaint, just an observation. We also had sliders and garlic truffle fries. The food was fine but nowhere near as good as what you get in New Orleans. I love you Boston but you have to admit, the food in New Orleans is really hard to top.
As you can see, the moon was shining bright when we left the restaurant and headed for the Park Street T station. It looked so beautiful with the Park Street Church steeple I had to take a picture. Okay, the food here is pretty good if you know where to go and they have the moon and scenic church steeples in other places but I like living in New England. It's my speed.
Oh yeah! Big doings today. I put my laundry away. Kewl!
I also went to Whole Foods today, like a maniac, because I realized that I will, after all, need to make some food for our Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow despite the fact that we are not celebrating at our house. Pete's brother, Marc, has invited us to celebrate at his house. You may remember Marc from other Thanksgivings such as this one, or this one, or this Halloween.
I will be making a side dish of farro, mushrooms, roasted sunchokes, pecans, dried cranberries, parsley and a bunch of other stuff that I figure will taste good (you know, like shallots, salt 'n' pepper, whatevs) While at the EvilEmporium, I mean, Whole Foods (it really is convenient - sorry) I whim-grabbed a frozen brie en croute. I'm pretty psyched about that.
Marc is providing fish he caught himself for dinner. I really appreciate guilt free fish because anxiety about overfishing has been known to keep me up at night. Fish are tasty but I fret about them. He's also making brussels sprouts.
And he mentioned something about football. So I should remember to bring my knitting. In truth, I like watching football from time to time. I love those exciting running plays and interceptions 'n' stuff. As with most sports I don't care much who wins. I just like to see people do things they're really, really good at. I suppose there will be entertaining ads too but if I hear the terms "Black Friday" or "doorbusters" one more time (and we all know I will) I may just have to scream really loud. Or drink. I could make it a drinking game.
And now for the moment of shame: I bought a pumpkin pie. I admit it. I did. And - ugh - whipped cream in a spray can. I didn't want to have to bring my mixer to Marc's house for the whipped cream. We're having a laid back, bacheloresque Thanksgiving. So I bought a pie instead of making one. I may still make a tarte tatin though. I haven't decided how I feel yet about only having one kind of pie on Thanksgiving. We shall see if my inner Martha Stewart kicks in or if I can lull her into passivity with brie en croute.
So! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving then Happy Thursday to you! If I am wise I will remember to post what I am thankful for tomorrow. Best of luck to us all! MWAH! MWAH!
Hey NaBloPoMo people! I'm in CALIFORNIA where it is not 12:35 AM on 11/19/12 but 9:35 PM 11/18/12! I posted today! C'mon! Count me!!!! In fact I posted this for the first time at 9:00 PM pacific time but spent the last half hour trying to correct my time zone. Seriously! Help a gal out!
Long time no blog. Mea culpa. Life ate my life (again) and I've just been tweeting and Facebooking. Effing Facebooking. What a waste of time! Oh yeah, and Pintrest too.
Enough about that. I'll try to remedy the situation by doing NaBloPoMo next month (which is tomorrow) There's lots to catch you up on but I won't do it chronologically. Disorder is how I roll. That's one area in which life and I are in agreement.
To start on a positive note and in keeping with this blog's theme, here are some shots of something I finished making this summer: my first lace shawl.
I loved making this thing. The lace looks pretty intricate but it was in fact an easy pattern to keep track of. The yarn was so beautiful: lovely colors and a delicious texture. It's the Jambo Shawl made with Curious Creek Meru yarn. Such a pleasure to handle and look at for hours. It gave me something with which to occupy my hands and eyes while traveling too. This is also the first knitting project I've ever blocked. Wait, that's not true, I blocked a tam o' shanter. If you don't block them they just look like blobs. But this shawl was really rewarding to block. I used lace blocking wires and pins from KnitPicks. It came out looking really pro. Do I wear shawls? So far no. I am hopeful though. I'm really proud of this one.
Now I'm working on a cowl made out of Noro Ayatori which I'm not sure I'm going to love (I love the yarn, I'm not sure I love what I've done with it) and another cowl in a fishnet lace pattern made with Madeline Tosh Merino.
In the last few months I've made countless salads, cookies, bread, brownies, tarte tatins, a pot pie, some installations and a whole bunch of other junk, some of which may appear in later posts.
As far as new art goes, I'm working on a mythology of my own. But there'll be plenty of time to talk about that in later posts. Hopefully it will be more interesting than knitting and salads. If everything goes well I will have photos of myself dressed as one of my characters for Halloween tonight.
In re-reading this I see that this is not the most lucid writing I've done. I had a couple of migraines last week and it appears my brain isn't one-hundred percent back to normal. Maybe we can watch this improve over the next month.
Now I'm starting to remember how frigging long it takes to blog. No wonder I like tweeting so much.
I might have hurt myself today. I like to work out with video games. I still love "Yourself!Fitness" for the old Xbox but there are a couple of Wii games I like too. I played them both today. I hope I can move tomorrow.
I really like "Gold's Gym Cardio Workout," a boxing training game. As far as I can tell your avatar never hits anybody (except a bear in a side game. Poor bear) Still, all that punching nothing is really fun and great for stress reduction. There's footwork too - you're sort of bouncing back and forth, stepping side to side, ducking, weaving and all that jazz. I find myself so engaged and distracted by trying to follow along that I don't notice until afterwards that I'm sweaty and winded. Fun! And, of course, sore the next day - in a good way.
The other is "NewU Fitness First Yoga and Pilates." I have yet to encounter any Pilates. I wonder if I have to get to a certain point in the yoga before Pilates is available? Maybe I have to change my "goals" settings? Whatevs. The yoga is pretty good though. Definitely challenging. I do the "quick class" most of the time. It seems to go on forever and I'm wiped when I'm done with it. Maybe if I did it more often it wouldn't be so difficult? I'll try to work on that.
So, I guess if you're thinking you might need to move yourself around those are two fun and productive ways to do it.
And now, time to make my new favorite home-made supper: hot dog slices and kale. Yup, you want to take fitness and diet advice from me!
