Hiya,
Welcome to another edition of Digestable, the short, weekly email where I share information, ideas, and what’s new with me. This edition was sent to subscribers on June 15th, 2021.
Here’s where my mind has been lately:
- Meal Planner We’re Trying: The Paleo Plan Meal Planner. Though we don’t follow a “paleo diet”, we draw inspiration from paleo diet meals since we know they will include adequate protein, moderate/lower carbs, promote whole food, quality ingredients, and limit refined sugar. We’ve liked many of the PaleoPlan.com recipes so decided to try a 14 day free trial of their meal planning service. From my personal nutritionist, Amanda, here’s what is attractive about it for our family:
- You can see both this week and next week’s meal plans.
- You can customize how many meals per day you want.
- Each week’s meal plan comes with a corresponding shopping list containing all the items you’ll need to buy at the store for the upcoming week.
- You can flag ingredients you want to avoid or swap out entire recipes via a customizable meal plan feature. The changes you make in the meal plan will be reflected in the corresponding weekly shopping list.
- The plan builds in uses for leftovers so you aren’t cooking so much or wasting
- 450+ easy and delicious Paleo recipes (comment from Amanda: I can vouch for this – I make nothing that is complicated and it has to taste good!).
- Free MovNat Edmonton Workouts Are Back! After a government-mandated COVID hiatus (which I protested here), the fun has resumed on Sunday mornings at 8:15 AM from the Ritchie Market parking lot. Shoot me a note if you would like to be added to a WhatsApp thread for these social workouts with good people in the Mill Creek Ravine.
- Grit of Women: I found a hardcover of the, “Works of Jack London” (1876-1916) at the Wee Book Inn on Whyte Ave this spring and have been reading his short stories to wind down before bed. Here is a lovely bit of prose from the story, “Grit of Women”, these are the words of Passuk to her husband Charley, as she lay dying of starvation in the frozen north:
“And I was with you when you did bold deeds and led great ventures, and I measured you against the men of other breeds, and I saw you stood among them full of honor, and your word was wise, your tongue true. And I grew proud of you, till it came that you filled all my heart, and all my thought was of you. You were as the midsummer sun, when its golden trail runs in a circle and never leaves the sky. And whatever way I cast my eyes I beheld the son.”
- Quote I’m Pondering: “Seekest thou great things? All around is passing through a sore crisis, and canst thou expect a better lot? It is no time for personal ambition, when the very foundations of the state are crumbling. In all places whither thou goest.” This stunner is from the Bible commentary, “Pulpit Commentary”, in reference to God’s seemingly-harsh response to Baruch’s seemingly-legitimate complaints to God.
Baruch was the student and scribe of the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. Baruch had the unpleasant task of “speaking truth to power” in a time when doing so put your life on the line. He was to read Jeremiah’s apocalyptic announcements in public -even to the government officials directly – with the intent to rally the people to surrender to the Babylonian empire led by King Nebuchadnezzar. This was in direct opposition to the public messaging approved by the ruling elites, which was: God is on our side, stand firm against Babylon, our victory is assured.
Baruch understandably thought, “Woe to me! The Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest.” God’s cold, but true reply delivered through the prophet was, “I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth. Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them.”
Baruch’s situation has been serving as a reminder for me to put the good of the whole ahead of my personal ambitions – particularly during this time of social upheaval.
Thanks for reading. If you know someone who would like to receive these types of updates I’d appreciate it if you shared it. Should you come across anything noteworthy this week please send it my way!
Yours truly,
Jeff
P.S. Here are some teasers of our oldest son Ariel‘s recent grad photos by “Aunty Linda”:
Jeff Sutherland 