The last of the summer breakfasts?

The weather has culminated in torrential downpours and a temperature of 10°C. Yes. 10. Degrees. Celsius. and here’s melancholy me in the kitchen attempting what could be my last sun-inspired breakfast of 2010…

But it brought back a smile, not least because it contains my hot-fave, Magerquark .

Final attempt at summer



200g pureed strawberries (defrosted or fresh)
½ organic lime zest and juice
200g Mager(=lowfat) quark
2 dessert spoons of sparkling mineral water
2 teaspoons of runny honey



Mixing the quark with sparkling mineral water turns it into an even smoother, creamier mixture (hard to believe I know but do try). Fold in enough lime zest and juice until it’s (your taste of) tangy and follow that with as much runny honey as you need to make it the perfect breakfast mixture. I prefer a not-too-sweet-not-too-tangy balance for breakfast.


Taste the pureed strawberries… too sour? OK, a pinch of sugar and pour over the quark.





Lava-inspired...  You could mix in some whole strawberries (or banana??)? I’ve always demolished the mixture straight off, so if you do try the extra fruit I’d love to hear about it.

The change in weather is not all bad, as I’m looking forward to attempting Diana's breakfast (see comments) of warm oatmeal with frozen blueberries.

Route 66

Experimenting with my morning routine calls for some serious background reading... bring on perfectly timed, inspiring book present:



No – it’s not what you’re thinking - no discussions on the top three tree poses; it's about the basic ideology behind yoga. I really took a lot from The Freedom of Discipline chapter which looks at, among other things, being able to live in the pause between longing (for a feeling of freedom) and actually reacting to that longing. Oh yeah, that requires discipline alright.

It takes 66 days to form a habit, according to Psyblog. So, theoretically speaking, any routine should be well and truly ingrained by December 2010…

The phases of the journey towards forming a positive habit can be found here. I’m particularly appreciating the ‘Be OK with the awkward phase’ and ‘Create systems to make yourself more efficient’ tips.

Have a wonderful Sunday evening, a great night's sleep and enjoy getting up tomorrow, as I'm sure I will.

Black and white and read all over

This is how I got dressed this morning for a relatively formal meeting during the working day.  Taking photos has already become part of the getting dressed process.  After these, I re-did my do and re-ironed the shoulders of my top.  It all helped in the 'leaving the house like a ray of sunshine' part of the routine.

Ray of sunshine working from home

It was really nice getting up and doing my 90-min thing before a day of working from home. Mentally and energy-level-wise much more productive than the pyjamas-until-lunch-time version.  I also felt at home with myself being at home in this get up.  (hyphens are under-appreciated)

Reflect

Meditate (intransitive verb): to think about something deeply.


To be really honest, it’s the NOT thinking that I was kind of hoping for… being at peace… a quiet moment… for 10 minutes... every day. I realize that there are many who have spent lifetimes trying to achieve this.

Interestingly, at dinner last night, one of our lovely guests was talking about the best way to start ‘meditating’. Her take on it was just to sit still and allow thoughts to enter and leave your head; the trick apparently is to observe these thoughts as they come and go, and to acknowledge them without trying to alter or force their patterns or appearance in any way.

The 10mins have been surpirsingly long so far, but I am learning more about my current frame of mind. And getting to know yourself better can only be a good thing, right?

Operation Getting Dressed

Being keen to create a stark impression on my first ‘getting dressed’ post, I went for a military-style look complete with an unintentional stand to attention.

Leibnizian optimism… or… ray of sunshine

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1714) was a German mathematician and philosopher renowned for, among many other things, his optimism. How cool is that? He concluded that our Universe is the best possible one that could have been created.

(OK, he also invented the binary number system and countless breath-taking notions way ahead of his time… but still managing optimism with all that responsibility on your shoulders?)

It is already time for a bit of inspiration. On day 3 of my morning routine, I struggled deeply with conveying the ‘ray of sunshine’ thing.

Galia Melon

The gorgeous Galia is a hybrid-melon developed in Israel around the 1970s. Honey melon had to be in the mix; walking past them at the market I nearly felt the need to lie down and properly appreciate their rich, smokey, honey smell.

Early-bit menu today: sumptuous Galia melon, mixed with German Heidelbeeren (blaeberries) and banana, topped with a smattering of ground pepper.

PS. Thus far, morning routines are seriously under-rated.

Frühstück: an early bit

Wake up with one foodstuff on your mind and simply nothing else will do. It had to be a boiled egg.

I’m sure it was my first in over a year.

And it was fabulous; complete with DDR (1949-1990) egg-cup and a German Doppelkornbröthchen-to-die-for, picked up from the bakers within my 90mins.  Note to self: calm down.

Consistent, simple, healthy, fulfilling morning routines

My current ideal of a consistent, simple, healthy and fulfilling morning routine would be… getting up 90 minutes before leaving the house; drinking adequate water; meditating for 10mins; eating a good breakfast; showering, getting dressed, realizing that I’ve done all of these things and leaving the house like a ray of sunshine (or indeed, if it’s the weekend, remaining at home like a ray of sunshine).


Ha! And my goal is to try this every day for 4.5 months – that’s the rest of August, Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec; calendar weeks 33 – 52; starting tomorrow.

Slightly embarrassing I suppose, writing about things like drinking water but hey, we can’t all be budding academics, religious experts and financial analysts (or even). No, indeed, I’m sure some celebrating-life’s-mundane-detail is called for, small pleasures and all that; it’s certainly something that could bring my own life into more balance.

Well, there we have it… A morning routine! What time to get up? Meditate (who)? Breakfast (is there any food in the house)? Will I even get to sleep now?