I highly recommend the book Willpower by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney. It contains many psychological experiments scientifically proving the existence of willpower and how it affects us. The good news is that willpower is like a muscle, it can be strengthened through training; the bad news is, perhaps, the training is not easy to maintain, and that’s why most people fail. But without doubt, if you train yourself for smaller things, your willpower is going to be stronger, and you will find it easier in other aspects. I think this is what is meant by discipline leading to great character; a concept that was mentioned in the Bible, but I never understood it fully until now.

I have definitely felt the benefits over the past two weeks. I resolved to get up at 6:00 am every day and do a work out, and I did. At the very beginning it was a struggle to get up as I felt so sleepy. But after a few days, I found myself getting tired earlier in the evening so I go to bed earlier, and in the morning, I wake up right before the alarm clock beeps. It is amazing!

One of the things mentioned in the book is dieting. Actually short-term dieting doesn’t really work, and people have to use a lot of willpower to resist temptations when they’re on diet, and once they break the rule, it is easy for them to go on a binge and destroy all the effort they’ve put in previously. The correct way, is to target your craving and feed your body nutritional foods instead of stimulating foods. Stimulants are short-lived; however nutrition will provide you with a steady and long-term power fuel. And nutrition comes from the right kind of food, be it fresh, whole, or plant-based food, as organic as possible. The best way would be to gradually change your eating habits, by adding more and more healthy food into your diet, until you don’t need to remind yourself what to eat and what not to eat. Just like when people ask me, how I resist the delicious fried chicken drumsticks? My answer is: “They’re not food to me, I won’t eat it as I won’t eat plastic.” So, why don’t you start with small things, like adding this simple salad to your diet, as small changes will become big changes later. ;)

 

The fall is finally here and pomegranates are freshly available in the fruit stores. In China, we’re taught to suck the juices out of the seeds then spit the stones out. The same with watermelon, and sunflower seeds with shells, the common Chinese snack, and grapes. I just think it’s so gross to spit all the time that is why I always hated eating fish when I was young, because you are supposed to figure out all the tiny little needle-like bones hidden in the fish with your tongue and spit them out. I often ended up swallowing the bones and they gave me an awful hard time by sticking to my throat. >.<

Nowadays we know that seeds contain valuable nutrition, and they’re antioxidants so we should actually eat them. The only thing is that you need to chew them more, and you might not be able to break them all down. This is where the blender comes to your rescue. When I blend the pomegranate, I find it less dreadful to eat, haha. By the way, I also found those fresh dates, they’re not as sweet as medjool, but they’re equally fresh and tasty. I either eat them raw or blend them into smoothies, both are palate pleasing to me. :D

Israeli salad is probably the easiest salad in the world. The two main ingredients, tomato and cucumber, are widely available in most parts of the world. Sometimes onion and parsley are also added. The salad dressing is made up of lemon juice and olive oil, making it a very fresh and light summer salad. I heard it used to be a dish on a traditional Israeli breakfast table, but now it has disappeared as Western cereals have invaded Israel. What a shame! This one is a much better choice for morning fuel!

The key to this dish is to chop the vegetables into finely diced pieces. I found using fresh and firm tomatoes and cucumbers helps a lot, also using a serrated knife works better too. But of course, if you can’t chop them nicely, dicing them into any kind of chunks is fine as well. The most important thing is to enjoy a fresh simple salad. ;)

 

I adore Sweden. I started to take a keen interest in this country when they set up a Chinese site promoting their culture. Sweden emphasizes its progress on human rights, equality and sustainability and I am really interested in those aspects. I immediately fell in love with it and wanted to learn more.

In Chinese we have a saying – 爱屋及乌 — which means, when you love the house, you even find the ravens on the roof of the house lovely. So my love for Sweden not only led me to learning the language in order to better understand their culture, but also an interest in their people, customs and food.

The first Swedish food that I learned to make is probably also what every Swedish child learns to make when they start their adventures in kitchen. It is called chokladbollar, which means chocolate balls. It’s made of very simple ingredients, and is very easy to make; you don’t even need an oven; a mixing bowl and your hands would be enough. Of course, since it’s a hot summer right now, I prefer not to use my hands.

 

In professional Chinese cuisine emphasis is placed on knife skills. Armed with just a chopping board and a cleaver, chefs can create various shapes out of the same ingredients, a skill which I admire. I haven’t been trained to use knives to that extent, so I rely heavily on kitchen gadgets. Of course there is nothing wrong with this, one downside though is storing all those tools, not an easy task in the Chinese kitchen. :P

The other day I read a friend’s blog describing how to cut this dragon-like shape from vegetables. At the beginning I thought it was complicated, but after I tried it a few times I found it fairly easy. The trick is to use a sharp knife and take care not to cut it all the way through each time. This method of cutting has the added advantage of letting the sauce soak into the pieces; distributing the flavor evenly over the dish. Just try it, I am sure you will have some fun creating a dragon out of a cucumber. ;-)

I had a lot of fun eating this cucumber dragon, ha ha!

 

I was so delighted to meet my friend QW again. We got to know each other through my Chinese blog. We are of a similar age, and are both open-minded to new cultures and experiences, so we became very good friends almost immediately. When I first met her she was quite depressed because she wanted to go back to Norway but her visa was not approved. She worked in Norway for a year and was fond of the country and she dearly missed her friends there. I was sad for her, but there was nothing we could do. Eventually I encouraged her to move to a big city where she would be happier than living in the small city in the north-west China, where her parents are. She did eventually move and was happy to start a new life.

She was in my area to attend a meeting, so we managed to meet for a brief time in Shanghai, before she flew home. She’s a lovely lady, and we happily chatted about what’s been going on in our lives lately. Knowing that I am a great fan of northern Europe, she brought me a pack of Ragsticks which are a type of flat, dried crackers. We talked about the beautiful cool European summers.

Because there are so many fresh berries this season I am going to make this smoothie featuring fresh organic blueberries. It makes a perfect breakfast along with the Ragsticks and lingonberry jam. The additional açaí berry powder makes it an extraordinarily powerful anti-oxidant drink, which helps keeps you looking and feeling younger. ;) This is my way of celebrating the northern European cool summer while in hot humid Shanghai. :P

I also made some blueberry and grape popsicles. It’s very easy, just drop 4 blueberries into the popsicle molds, fill them with red grape juice and freeze over night. Great to enjoy on a steaming summer day!

 

When the weather is hot, I really crave a cold salad. Some people think salads contain no protein. However, this is not true. Firstly, in most vegetables, there are some proteins inside. Secondly, salads don’t have to be just lettuce and tomato, they could be created with grain and nuts as well. For instance, quinoa is a super grain that proudly presents a complete protein profile and also contains lots of valuable minerals and vitamins. It has been one of my favorite staple foods since I was first introduced to it. It is also an ideal source for nutrition after a workout, as it contains lysine, which is an essential amino acid that helps with growing and repairing body tissues. With extra nuts and seeds, this is a yummy dish to have during summer days. ;)

 

My roommate’s bedroom is connected to a nice balcony, which has a beautiful view of my favorite mini garden in our compound. She initially thought that when weather got better she would relax there, so as soon as we could, we cleaned it up, and now that it’s summer the balcony is ready for complete relaxation. Unfortunately, as we live in Shanghai, the weather suddenly jumped to very typical hot and humid Shanghai summer, 35°C in the daytime. At night it cools a bit with a little breeze, if you’re lucky, but you can’t really relax in this kind of humidity. :-(

Normally in this kind of weather, I don’t have the desire to stay in the kitchen for too long. I just want something to refresh me and that’s raw and simple. So I decided to make some raw sushi. It does not look fancy like the traditional ones with cooked rice, but it’s super easy and fast. :-)

 

I used to really hate sports, and thought if I ate the correct foods I should be fine. That is OK when you are younger, but as I get older I certainly find eating the right foods is not enough. You will never be obese being a healthy-eating vegan, but your body might not be in the shape that you desire. I enjoy dance (though I can’t really dance…unfortunately), I always admire the tight muscles those dancers have. That led me to Pilates, which is widely known and practised in the dancers’ circle.

Unfortunately, in China where yoga is more popular pilates still remains one of the luxurious sports and so far it is not yet available to the general public. So I decided to buy a Winsor Pilates workout video and start doing it at home. It works well, the only problem is that I sometimes come up with lame excuses not to do it, however, I did set a goal for myself to achieve this year, that is to gain more weight and reduce my BFI (Body Fat Index) by transforming the fat around my belly into tight muscles. I also joined the World Health Store fitness challenge this year, which offers various fun classes for challengers to sample.

Zumba was one of the classes that I tried. It’s a type of cardiovascular exercise combining fun Latin music and various kinds of Latin dance moves. Our coaches Siri and James were really good, always smiling and cheering us up, keeping us sweating through the class. Sometimes, when we failed to follow certain moves we laughed out loud. I think James appeared particularly funny, he was such a muscular guy having to do all those sexy feminine moves in front of all us ladies. :P

Normally during those type of sweating exercises it’s necessary to replenish yourself with water regularly. So I made this delicious, high-quality sport drink. I don’t care for the commercial sport drink, as it’s just artificially flavored sugary water with synthetic vitamins added. My sport drink is easy to make at home, even though it costs more, the benefits are great and you know what you are putting inside both the drink and you!. Try it, you totally deserve this while working that hard. :-)

I highly recommend this wooden lime presser from Myanmar, it works like magic! I happily juiced all those limes from Yunnan (that’s why they became yellow because there is no express delivery in the town where my limes are from >.<).

It even produced those cute little lime “caps”! Even though they’re just waste, you can still place those in your fridge as deodorant. ;)

 

I love berries; they’re such cute tiny little things. Their different shapes and lovely colors make them an ideal decoration on desserts, and they are better for you than butter cream frosting, as I know they not only look good but are also good for your body. Most berries are full of anti-oxidants, helping to fight against free radicals which are one of the causes of ageing. Unfortunately, we don’t have many berries in China. The most common is strawberry, and occasionally, in early summer, I may see mulberries in the market. So I used to just drool over the beautiful pictures I found on the internet of gooseberries, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. :P

Lately, other fresh berries have started to emerge in markets in Shanghai. Blueberries from Peru are available in normal fruit stores, not just from expensive supermarkets selling imported products. Then I found the yumberry being sold almost everywhere. I have known about yumberries since I was young, but I had only ever tried the dried ones. So I happily bought a big bag of fresh yumberries. The fresh ones tasted much better! Another good thing to know is that yumberry trees have a high tolerance to pests and diseases, so they are often grown organically or with few, if any, pesticides applied. They don’t last for long though, so I decided to make the extra yumberries I had into ice pops and sorbets. I personally prefer a sorbet as it has a higher yumberry content, but if you prefer a lighter taste, you can try the ice pops instead.