Anastasia

Changing Lifestyles: A Healthy Eating Pattern

Insight every fat girl

There's a thin girl trying to get out

Sweet and sad and slinky

That nobody even knows about

(Fran Lanesman)

Interlaken, Switzerland - July 1978

In my early twenties, as a student in Switzerland, I was really fat. I could have been even fatter but I walked a lot and went horseriding 3 times a week. I didn't know how to cook, so I indulged in junk food such as burgers and pizza, sweets, chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks - not to mention raclette or cheese fondue! Within a year, I had forgotten all about my mum's healthy cooking based on the Mediterranean Diet . Consuming so many fatty and unhealthy foods for a long time took its toll and I had to have my gallbladder removed at the age of 25.

my favourite sweets

Since then, I've decided to adopt a healthier eating pattern. At the beginning, healthy eating made me feel depressed and unhappy. It was as if I were permanently on diet. I also gave up fizzy drinks - cola in particular - and replaced them with fruit juices and water. However, I've never been deprived of my favourite sweets, chocolate or pizza, but these were exceptions occurring only occasionally. After all, variety is the spice of life.

greek salad

Before I knew it, I started to feel healthier, stronger, happier and lighter! Adopting a healthier eating pattern and sticking to it involves changing lifestyles, and I was determined to change mine. So I took up regular exercise as well. It might sound hard to accomplish but, in actual fact, it doesn't really take a lot of effort - just an effort of will. To begin with, I did not starve to death or go on diet, neither did I ban fatty foods from my life. I just chnaged my methods of cooking.

grilled chicken burgers

fresh lemon juice

....and occasionally some french fries

In order to reduce my calorie intake, grilling or roasting my food - especially meat - was the answer. I've also replaced fatty sauces with fresh lemon juice or a little mustard. Steaming is a particularly healthy way of cooking fish and veggies while baking fish in the oven with onions, fresh tomatoes, a few drops of olive oil and lots of oregano is a delicious alternative. As for cooking potatoes, well, I know you can't beat roasting them or frying them There was a time when I had french fries with every meal. Naturally, I still eat chips but only once in a while. I usually boil or dry roast my potatoes using just a little olive oil and lots of spices and lemon juice. Stir-frying, especially vegetables, is another healthy way of cooking that appeals to me. This helps food retain both its taste and nutrients.

stir-frying vegetables

Judging from my experience, the bottom line is: a healthy diet cannot be imposed on anyone - it's the individual's choice.

Do you follow a healthy eating pattern in your daily diet? Did you ever have to change lifestyles in any way?

You might also wish to filll in the blank:

Healthy eating makes me feel _________________ .

Folders, Subfolders and Other Organisational Issues

It seems that my biological clock hasn't been set to summer-break-time yet, so I got up at 6:00 this morning, as I always do on Saturdays when I work. After a hearty breakfast taken on the veranda with Alkis, Alkis went to work and I was left to decide what to do with the rest of the day.

I decided to spend the day at the beach, but I suddenly remembered my long-forgotten "Things-to-Organise" list in My Documents. I opened the file and here's what I found:

THINGS TO ORGANISE  BEFORE SEPTEMBER 2011

• My Pictures
• My Documents
• File Manager on TypePad
• Categories on TypePad
• My Videos
• My Bookcase – dvds and books
• Kitchen cupboards
• Wardrobe(s) and Shoes
• Drawers in my study
• The wires in my study
• Drawers in general
• Store  Buttons and sewing stuff in ONE box
• My printed photos (must get a new paper photo album)
• My paper-oriented electronic diary
• Store shoe polish in ONE drawer
• Store keys in a box.
• Organise my beauty stuff in categories – eye shadows / eye pencils / nail polish etc

However good I am at organisational issues at the workplace, I'm rather negligent, in this respect, when it comes to organising my home computer and the house in general. I'm not trying to make excuses, but this happens because of the bulk of work during the school year. At work, everything is in the right place and I never have to hunt for it. If you could see my computer at the office, you would be impressed by my organisational skills in file management. Often one click is enough to find in a flash specific documents, students' files, homework assignments, absentee lists, teaching material, audio and video files, test / exam results and many more - all updated without delay. I've never taken up computer lessons - I sometimes wish I had - but learned the basics by clicking on Help or by asking questions online.

I am well aware that we should never postpone for tomorrow what we can do today. So I finally abandoned my plans for the beach today, printed my list and got down to work. To begin with, I set myself the task of organising My Pictures. I have more than 10,000 photos on my computer and, although I created a folder per upload, I came up with more than 150 folders. More often than not, it took me ages to locate a certain photo - I often forgot where I had put it! Today, it took me only 2 hours to create folders and subfolders in such a way that I can now locate a photo...by the pricking of my thumbs!

Next task: My Documents. I partly organised my documents as you can see in the photo below, but I know I can do better! Any ideas are more than welcome.

Then I moved on to the File Manager on TypePad. It is in such a terrible mess that it will take me days to organise it properly. I guess most of you know perfectly well how to organise your File Manager, but assuming that some others might be new on TypePad or computer illiterate like myself, here's how to organise your File Manager efficiently as explained in TypePad for Dummies by Melanie Nelson and Shannon Lowe. This is by no means a sponsored post as I have purchased their book and found it extremely helpful.

A. To Create a Folder

• Go to the File Manager (in Library)
• Click in the textbox under Create a New Folder (in the right sidebar)
• Click the Create button.

B. To Create a Subfolder

• Click the folder you'd like to open.
• Click in the textbox under create a new folder.
• Type the name of the new folder.
• Click the Create button and you are done.

Having finished with the computer, I noticed that many of my books and dvds were lying all over the room. I had a coffee break, took a deep breath and ..tidied up the shelves of my bookcase.

Carrying my precious list, I went into the kitchen to organise my cupboards. As you can see, the cupboard with the glasses looks neat and tidy, but I made a mental note to re-arrange the glasses according to utility - a kind of ..."folders" and "subfolders" . For instance: wine glasses / red wine glasses / white wine glasses, then water glasses / juice glasses / soft drinks glasses and so on. See what I mean? I do hope I won't break any in the process!

Finally, I organised my wardrobe and one of the two places where I store my shoes. I put sandals and summer shoes on the lower shelf, so that I can reach them more easily and winter shoes on the upper shelf. But , to be honest, I envy my friend Bing's immaculate organisation of her wardrobe as described in her post Mission Organization and Surprise No2 . It was this post that reminded me of my "Things-to-Organise" list!

Most of the items of my "Things-to-Organise" list still remain unchecked. But I hope to check them all by the end of August - such as the drawers in my study  and the kitchen cupboard where I am supposed to keep pans, cake tins and various pots and dishes. I guess I'll need some kind of "folders" and "subfolders" in this area as well.

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS MIGHT CAUSE SEVERE SHOCK TO WELL-ORGANISED PEOPLE.

Are you organised or disorganised? Do you know where everything is in your house or do you need to hunt for it in order to locate it?

If you are in doubt take the following quiz and find out!

Are You Organized or Disorganized?

 

P.S ~  It's not like me to write such long posts. Hope you enjoyed it, anyway!

Relaxing in Protaras

Protaras is by far my most favourite summer resort in Cyprus and, more generally, in the eastern Mediterranean. With 300 days of sunshine, golden sandy beaches, clear waters, great hotels and a myriad of restaurants and bars, it's no wonder why European holidaymakers flock to Protaras every summer. For the party animals, Ayia Napa nearby (about 16 km) boasts the best clubs where you can dance into the small hours.

Situated at about 64 km east of Larnaca, Protaras is a tourist village - just a breath away from Ammochostos (Famagusta) - illegally occupied by Turkish forces for 37 years now.  Protaras occupies about 5km of the golden Ammochostos coastline. Having lost Kyrenia and Ammochostos - our two greatest summer resorts during the Turkish Invasion in July 1974, we had to do something in order to revive our economy which largely depends on tourism. Or else we'd die. The Greek miracle happened again and Protaras was created in the early 80s out of nothing in those difficult years following what I call "the war of the cowards." The Turks,you see, unlike Hitler, did not declare war!!!

The main reason why Protaras is my favourite summer resort in Cyprus is because it reminds me of my beloved Ammochostos where I used to spend my summer holidays as a child and as an adolescent. What's more, after a long school year and long hours at work, I took the time to relax and unwind and enjoy the sun and the sea and those gorgeous sandy beaches!

Changes

In the course of time and as we grow older, we change both physically and mentally. This is only natural, I think, as these changes are part of our evolution as individuals. We may dislike now things we used to love 10 years ago, we may adopt a different lifestyle or see things from a different perspective.

In the last 20 years, my life has changed in more ways than one. First of all, I used to have long, black hair but now my hair is short and blond. That was quite a change which occurred just before I turned forty! Apart from slight changes in colour, I haven't adopted any other ...dramatic hair styles. However, in my thirties, I'd adopt a different hair style every so often!

My lifestyle has changed a lot as well. I hate loud music and crowdy places - I'm not agoraphobic, though. I'd rather invite my friends over to dinner than hang out with them till the early morning hours as I used to do a few years ago. I'm an early riser now and I no longer stay out very late except on rare occasions. I also used to hate cooking, but now I really enjoy it! I find it very creative and, more often than not, I even invent recipes of my own.

Finally, I've recently realised that my tastes have changed too. Last week I saw on dvd a film I had already seen years before. That was "Decostructing Harry" with Woody Allen, who was then my favourite actor. When I first saw that film at the cinema, I loved it and couldn't stop laughing. whereas now I found it so very boring!

However, there are a few things that will never change:

• I still love Neil Diamond, Simon and Garfunkel, the Bee Gees,  the Beatles and Rachmaninov.
• I've watched "The  Sound of Music" 26 times so far and still love it!
• My incurable love for the sea is endless!
• Travelling and discovering new places or revisiting places I love.
• Playing board games such as chess, scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. They're much more fun than computer games!
• Belgian chocolate and French cheeses.
• My four favourite countries: Greece, Switzerland, France, the UK.

And last but not least

• my love for my husband
• some great true friendships

True friendships are difficult to find and it takes time to have a balance of give and take while building mutual trust. The type of friend you are may change. It often depends on age, background, commitments or priorities, yet true friends will love you for who you are.  I feel blessed to have a great marriage and a few, good friends who I love and trust and this is never going to change.

How has your life changed in the last 10 years or so?

Feeling Safe Online

I have recently discovered that two people on Facebook are pretending to be me! It may just as well be one person who has created two profiles using my name and surname. I really find it very unlikely that this is mere coincidence. To be honest, I thought that this type of impersonation happened only to celebrities so that some people could fraudulently add "fans" and receive comments. 

q

My first reaction was to report these profiles to Facebook.. I was required to provide my phone number and when I did so, I got the option "call me now" or "cancel". I clicked "call me now" only to get the following response: "too busy". I guess this must be an automated message. Not only has Facebook not taken any action so far but they haven't even sent me an email to let me know whether they intend to do something about it. What are Report buttons for then? I must admit, though, that Facebook's privacy settings are very good since you can choose who should see your content and personal information. But can they prevent people from pretending they are someone else? Are we really safe online?

The truth is I felt so frustrated and unsafe that on the spur of the moment I expressed my intention to close my Facebook account however hard it would be for me to give up my friends and all the content I have created over the years. Finally, having talked this over with Alkis, I realised that it wasn't worth giving up on my Facebook friends. Alkis said I'd rather ignore the impersonator and go on enjoying the interaction with my friends.  

Ignoring my stalkers was, after all, what I did four years ago when I was cruelly harassed on the old Yahoo360 by a group of people who took pleasure in attacking my friends, my country and me personally as a teacher and as a woman using hideous hate language. That was a horrible experience I really don't wish anhyone to go through online.

Have you ever been stalked or harassed online? How did you react? What did you do about it?

Summer Break

The school year may have already come to an end but I've still got work to do such as preparing final reports. This is the hardest time of the school  year for me as I need to be just and fair in my assessment of my students' performance. Most of them did well in their final exam despite the fact that they found the exam was much harder this year. My primary aim as an educator is to set high standards in the learning of a foreign language and I'm glad to see that this goal has been attained to a great extent. This inevitably leads to a feeling of satisfaction and contentment which can be so very rewarding.

Kefalonia 2008

Alexandroupolis 2010

Skiathos 2005

Hopefully, my well-deserved summer break which begins a week today will be just as rewarding. With temperatures going up - we had 32*C / 90*F today - it's high time I thought about going to the beach and planning what I regard as the ideal summer holiday. Both Alkis and I feel that the ideal place for a summer holiday is mainland Greece or a Greek island. From the enchanting writings of Homer to the celebrities of Greek mythology, Greece has touched the lives of us all whether we realise it or not. The Trojan War, Helen of Troy, the first Olympics, Alexander the Great, Plato, Aristotle, the Biblical city of Ephesus... the list is endless.. And of course, virtually everyone is familiar with the Greek gods and goddesses -  Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Hera, Aphrodite.... Greece is magical like no other country in the world and only when you go there can you really feel this air of enchantment.

Rhodes 2006

What's your ideal kind of summer holiday?  What do you most enjoy doing ? A favourite destination?

What do you really like doing on a summer holiday?

Cat's Life

Second only to dogs, the most common pet in Cyprus is the cat - most often the common moggy. The Greek Cypriots get their pet cats from all sorts of places: some people choose their cats from pet shops or friends. Others prefer to adopt feral cats or strays.

It seems that something in the flowers caught Michel's attention.

Life for the domestic cat is usually very pleasant - regular food, a warm place to sleep, pet humans and freedom provided by the catflap. It's a pity that there is no such expression as "it's a cat's life", meaning a life of luxury! However, this is only one side of the story.. The petshop kitten takes pot luck when it is bought and taken from the pet shop. The incidence of discarded kittens and puppies is rising, These abandoned animals are often found in rubbish dumps, on the side of motorways or on  waste ground. They are usually put there by the caring humans who bought them in the first place. But having realised the true cost and effort of day-to-day pet care, they suddenly lose interest in the new pet and find it less appealing.

Michel posing for a photo in his favourite basket

A few years ago, I adopted a kitten whose mother had abandoned him when he was only 5-6 days old. I took him home, cleaned him and gave him some milk using a syringe until he was old enough to eat kitten food. Michel soon grew into a beautiful cat that was well taken care of. He'd often sit with us at the table, patiently waiting for his meal. His basket was his favourite place to lie in on sunny days while his catflap, equipped with a soft pillow and a blanket, kept him warm in winter. But one day, Alkis dared him with his toy ball and, playful Michel scratched him badly. The doctor said Alkis was very lucky not to get an infection because Michel had already been given his yearly vaccination jabs. Since that day, Alkis and Michel had begun to dislike each other so much that we eventually decided to give Michel away. Of course we didn't abandon him but gave him to a friend who lived on a farm in the countryside and took care of other cats as well.

Michel - patiently waiting for his breakfast

What's the most common pet in your country? Do you have one? How do you take care of it?

TV Commercials

In recent years, the amount of advertising on television seems to have increased dramatically. As a result, many people feel that their enjoyment of the programmes has been spoilt due to the constant interruptions by commercials. They also believe that advertising on TV should be banned or, at least, reduced in quantity.

Although I seldom watch TV mainly due to lack of time, I completely disagree with this suggestion. In the first place, let us not forget that TV channels rely on the income from commercials to pay for the programmes, otherwise they'd go out of business or would have to depend on government subsidies - like our national channel CyBC (Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation) . Almost invariably, this leads to political control over news and current affairs - not to mention the poor quality of most programmes. Secondly, advertisements increase our knowledge of different products and this enables us to make better choices as consumers or even learn about new products. Well, that's how I found out about Vanish .! Finally, tv commercials encourage competition amongst manufacturers who each try to produce the best quality products at the cheapest prices. Consumers would have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn't create mass markets for products.

What's more , some TV commercials can be fun to watch and others can raise awareness on various human issues such as the Coca Cola Commercial 2011.

 

Do you watch TV commercials? Do you think TV channels should cut down on them?