In which I talk about five different things.

1. My diet, some thoughts on greens

It's been a week since I started keeping track of what I eat in a Google Calendar. I think I've been mostly successful at 1) eating more fruits and vegetables (and less meat), 2) eating smaller portions, and 3) eating more often. I have also been drinking more water, not that I've been drinking too little in the past. Now I haven't yet begun keeping track of my weight, and in any case I doubt a mere week would have had an effect already. 

One simple thing that really helps me eat more healthily is keeping some salad greens handy. At about seventy pesos per prewashed bag of mixed greens, it may seem pricey, but each bag lasts a long time (especially if you're the only one eating them!), up to a week. Beats the hassle of buying separate heads of different greens, washing them, making sure they don't wilt, etc. 

As to eating them, it's easy enough to toss together a salad, or put them on a simple sandwich, and so on. For instance, savory meat dishes such as caldereta, menudo, and the like go great with whole wheat bread, a bed of greens, and a drizzle of spicy vinegar. (Or am I just being weird?)

2. Exercise (or the lack thereof)

But I'm still not exercising. That first step in resuming exercise from a long period of inactivity is always the hardest.

3. Work (or the lack thereof)

Neither have I made much additional progress on my thesis (the first draft of which is due in seven weeks), or my seminar presentation (due in three weeks EDIT: two weeks!). What's worse is that I haven't been doing anything else. I don't have any justification for my lack of productivity except the rather thin one of having a hangover from the holidays. 

I haven't been doing anything but churning out those horrible money-grubbing articles every few days. I might not have done even that if they didn't have three-day deadlines, and without the looming threat of the thesis deadline to procrastinate about.

4. Patterns

Food, check. Lack of exercise, check. Lack of productivity, check. Now all this entry needs is a healthy dose of griping and airing out of frustrations, and I'd've covered everything I usually talk about!

5. Jose Saramago's The Cave

Oh, before I forget, I at least have the consolation of having read a good book recently: The Cave by Jose Saramago. On the surface, okay, it's an allegory of Big Capitalism trampling upon the aging Traditional Craftsman, but that's far from the main point. 

Saramago demonstrates here once again his grasp of the rhythms of dialogue and internal monologue as he employs his trademark page-spanning sentences and stream-of-consciousness prose to great effect. He takes the reader on a slow, sympathetic journey through an old potter, Cipriano Algor's, attempts to come to terms with life's inevitable changes. In the process we meet the few people (and a dog) that make up his family and small social circle, and are caught up in their concerns and relationships.

So, nothing much happens, but you do end up caring about how the characters handle and react to what little does.