My Pesto is the Besto

I had planned to make myself a sandwich for dinner and call it a night.  But as I was cleaning out my inbox and clicking through The Daily Green  emails, I came across some recipes for spring veggies.  I found an asparagus dish that sounded delightful, and since I had all the ingredients, I decided it would be a nice change of pace.

The Asparagus and Spinach Pesto recipe had directions to make your own pesto with a food processor.  I could have done that, but I also happened to have a jar of already made pesto lying around.  Pesto usually has parmesan cheese in it, but sometimes you can find one without it at Whole Foods or Swanson Health Products or another natural foods store.  The Trader Joe's pesto-- although fantastic-- has dairy in it.

This simple recipe calls for whole wheat spaghetti (or whatever pasta you feel like using), pesto (homemade or store bought), spinach, asparagus, olive oil and garlic.   While the pasta is boiling, I sauteed the asparagus with garlic and olive oil.  I threw on the spinach towards the end because that wilts pretty quickly.  Drained the pasta, tossed with pesto and topped with asparagus and spinach.  Viola!  Typically, when I cook for just myself I make too much food and end up eating it anyway.  This time, I made just the right amount... but I was craving more immediately after I cleared my plate!

Starve a Fever, Feed a Cold

Sometimes you can do everything right, but bad things happen anyway.  You can avoid smoking your entire life, but get lung cancer from secondhand smoke.  You can work so hard at the job you love, but become disposable overnight.  You can love someone as much as you possibly can, but might ultimately be left heartbroken.  And on a much more common note, you can protect your body and build up your immune system, but you will get sick.

I consider myself a healthy person.  I don't use drugs or tobacco, I drink on the weekends-- and even that isn't an excess of alcohol-- I am not obese or being considered overweight by doctor's standards or society's, and I eat a variety of healthy fruits and vegetables every day.  I'm not perfect by any means-- I do stray every now and then with a bag of barbeque kettle chips, or maybe a few mini peanut butter cups, and I frequently "forget" to go the gym-- but I don't abuse my body.   So it was a little bit of a surprise when the flu decided to inhabit my healthy body and set up shop there for a week.   But of course, I am not invincible.  And the flu doesn't discriminate.

I haven't lived at home in ten years.  Granted, where I live is my "home," but it's not where I grew up.  There is nothing like being sick and having your mother nurture you back to health.  (Sorry Dad!)  When you're young, you think of sick as missed school days, watching movies, and having someone bring you soup.  But when you're older, you're worried about missing work, you are bored with everything on TV, and most likely you have to heat that soup or pour that juice for yourself.  Not to mention, you are responsible for cleaning up after yourself-- disinfecting your apartment, washing the dishes, and making sure your sheets are germ-free for when you're feeling better.  Oh yeah, and also you're the one stuck paying for doctor's visits and medicines out of your own pocket.  When you're an adult, being sick sucks.

I am now on the road to recovery after  being sick for the past few days, and being cooped up in my dirty apartment.  And it's a road paved with Lysol.  Until today, there wasn't a single amount of counter space that wasn't covered with dirty dishes caked in half-eaten soup, bottles of Naked juice with straws tucked inside them, mugs stained with leftover green tea, and little orange medicine bottles that made my kitchen look like a pharmacy.  And that was just one small part of my apartment.  I had piles of dirty laundry and sheets and towels in my living room, and trash collecting in one corner of my bathroom-- in my defense, I had been afraid of getting sick while I was in bed, so I had hastily thrown everything out of the small trash bin so I could keep it bedside just in case.  Today, I tackled the apartment, even though all I wanted to do is sleep.  But it is the first day I've felt better in a week.

It started last week with fever, chills, body aches, headaches, nausea, and swollen glands.  It got a hell of a lot worse after the doctor gave me something that caused a major allergic reaction.  I immediately stopped using that, but am left with a leopard-skin looking, itchy rash.  (I typically try to avoid pharmaceuticals if I can-- that's a whole different story-- but in some severe cases, I get desperate and will try anything.)

When I get sick, I do the same thing: pump myself with vitamin C and echinacea.  My favorite cure-all is Bolthouse Farms C-Boost, but for variety I'll drink Naked Juice. I also consume a lot of green tea and veggie soups. I'm one of those people who seems to always have an appetite, and even when I'm not feeling hungry during sickness, I know I must eat something to get better.

If I can impart any bit of advice through all of this: it's to not take your health for granted, not even for a second.  Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure the saying "starve a fever, feed a cold" is bogus.

C'est La Vie

In a world with more than 6.7 billion people, its inevitable that there will be one who you do not like.  There's always going to be someone you seem to butt heads with.  There will always be at least one person who makes your life a little harder.  There will always be that one person who brings negativity to the table.

In the grand scheme of things, those people don't freaking matter.  When you look at the big picture, one negative person is so insignificant to all the positive people in your life.  Your well-being is more than just eating the right foods and avoiding chemicals in your diet and body products.  It's also about a healthy mindset.  Negative energy can cause stress.  Other people can cause stress.  And stress can cause a variety of health problems-- minor and serious, short-term and long-term.

The problem is that there are stressors around us everywhere-- most of which we can't control.   For those things we can control, we can only do the best we can.   For the ones we can't, we have to try to take a step back and breathe.  I remember how much Los Angeles traffic used to overwhelm me.  I would be stuck in horrible traffic, and a six-mile trip would take at least 45 minutes!  Nothing seemed to bother me more than sitting there in my car, anxious to get where I needed to be, worried that I was going to be late somewhere.  Then at one point, I finally realized that I was expending too much energy on being upset.  My father always says you can't worry about something you can't change.  And boy, is he right.  In this case, I couldn't make the cars move any faster.  I couldn't do anything about the situation.  If I was late, I was late.  It's not the end of the world.  So why was I so stressed out over it?  From then on I took that opportunity to connect with friends and family on the phone, or reflect on the day while listening to my favorite music.  It wasn't a solution to the problem-- the traffic was still there-- but it was the best way I knew how to handle it.

A bigger problem-- like the lack of a job or money, or a bad relationship, or illness-- isn't always as easy.  Some people like to dig their own graves.  As the problem escalates, they become more and more stressed.  I am guilty of this too, until I hit the breaking point.  It's never to late to change things.  If your job search isn't going well, try a different approach.  If you're in an unhealthy relationship, end it and move on.  If you're having health problems, figure out the best ways to look on the bright side, even when you're convinced there might not be.  Take care of your body, and be positive that you can overcome your illness.

As far as other people, singer/songwriter Bettie Serveert says it the best:  hell is other people.  People create conflict, wars, competition, and even diseases.  Sometimes we bring it upon ourselves.  Other times there's someone else inflicting that pain.  These people exist everywhere.  They're our friends, coworkers, classmates, family and even strangers.  My thoughts are this:  Don't waste one bit of your energy on people who just aren't worth it.  Be kind and polite, as hard as it might be.  No more, no less.  And don't wish anyone ill will; they'll probably bring it upon themselves anyway.

When it comes to the little annoyances of every day, you have to remember to put things in perspective  Are you healthy?  Are you happy?  Do you have a support system?  Do you have love?  Focus on what you do have, instead of what you don't.   And if you can change something, do it.  I'm a firm believer in change.  Change your job, your location, or your outlook.  Make yourself happy, because realistically, no one else will.