My Week On The Chopsticks Diet

Last week I read a diet tip from Jillian Michaels who advocated the use of chopsticks to reduce calorie intake. At first I laughed it off...and then I took it as a challenge. After all, how hard could it be to eat with nothing but chopsticks? Not to mention, some of the fattest countries use the knife, fork, and spoon. Some have said we are using our utensils as shovels here in America, so I decided to spend a week eating all of my regular foods, but with these unique eastern utensils. How long did I make it? Four days.

Breakfast really wasn't too challenging with the exception of being tedious. I don't always eat oatmeal but when I do, I wanna break my chopsticks in half and throw them across the room.

My only oriental meal. Costco sells these frozen vegetable/chicken pot-stickers, which are amazing but makes the house smell. I'd have to say this was probably my only meal where I didn't feel weird using chopsticks.

Grilled chicken with barbecue sauce. I spent some prep time cutting it into smaller pieces with a steak knife. I didn't consider it cheating because I wasn't using the steak knife directly.

Okay, this one was ridiculous. I don't even use American utensils to eat hummus and sugar snap peas, but in trying to keep up the experiment I used chopsticks anyways...and nailed it.  

Once again more prep work to eat with chopsticks. This culinary masterpiece is a cut up cliff bar and a plum. Not the easiest meal as plums can be slippery, but when you're pressed for time nothing beats a spoon.


So spending four days eating with chopsticks is definitely time consuming, albeit an eye-opening experience on how easy it is to rush through our meals. In fact many things in my life could probably use some chopsticks, like slowing down my days off. From now on I'm going to start waving my magical chopsticks around like a wand to improve mindfulness, which makes me wonder if in the 1700's we weren't burning witches at the stake, but people who were misusing chopsticks? As a final note (and probably what is in the back of everyone's mind), can you use chopsticks to eat gelato?
The answer is a defiant yes.

Daily Sparks...

• Lately I've seen a trend of people who are getting tattoos involving semi-colons. It's supposed to bring awareness to mental illness, but maybe it'll also bring awareness to people using improper English?

• Speaking of mental illness, I've completed my first week of abnormal psychology and have learned that mental illnesses are prevalent, treatable, and that not everyone is a serial killer. 

• My sister April is coming over this weekend for her birthday and I'm super excited!

• Currently I'm reading Fundementals of Photography: The Essential Handbook for Both Digital and Film Cameras by Tom Ang.

• Getting up at 4:30 in the morning for a photo adventure around Lake Stevens is just a little too early for going to bed at 10pm. I think on my next adventure I'll go to bed earlier.

Ground Control To Major Tom

This month marks the 46th anniversary of the first moonwalk (no not the Michael Jackson version); I'm talking about the Apollo 11 lunar landing. While some Stanley Kubrick fans may argue it never happened, the point is that outer space is fricken awesome! Here are 5 things that make the dark matter above us so impressive...

We found out where unicorns come from! Okay so not really, but at 5,200 light years away the Trifid Nebula has a striking resemblance to these mythical creatures.



It has been the backdrop for Star Wars since 1977.

This planet would be a girls best friend. Made up of a more than 30% diamonds, 55 Cancri e boasts a carbon-oxygen ratio that makes it a hot bed for manufacturing these gems. As a side note, its surface temperature reaches 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit and is 40 light years away, so don't expect mining anytime soon. 

For those into all things adventurous, Mars boasts the largest volcano and tallest mountain in the solar system (Olympus Mons), which is three times the size of Mount Everest so it's definitely not for the greenhorn hiker. If you thought Alaska was remote, try having things go south in outer space; the nearest rescue crew is a planet away. To see this play out, The Martian will be in theaters October 2nd.  

Hate constantly trying to beat the heat in summer? Although a lot more expensive than AC, a trip to the Boomerang Nebula (where temperatures get below negative 455 degrees) will definitely cool you down. 

Daily Sparks...

• I need to get my sleep schedule back on track; I make a terrible night owl.

• I'm itching for a photo adventure...Artist Ridge?

• Speaking of itching, I'm starting to get hives on my left hand now.  

• Painted my nails with China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy. It has a matte finish so I added a top coat to give it more shine, but let me warn you this stuff doesn't last long and chips off like crazy.