I love puffins

When I was little, I had a children's book that became very dear to me. It was a book about puffins. My parents bought it for my brother in Alaska before I was born. I had however never been to Alaska, nor seen a puffin, so they occupied the mythical creature category in my young brain. Right in there with unicorns and reindeer. (Don't get me started on reindeer.)

The first time I ever saw a real puffin was off the coast of Oregon when I was 24. I sat entranced on the beach like a crazy person, refusing to leave or let anyone take away my binoculars. The puffins, they are so silly in the air! They're not graceful at all, and they are easy to spot with their bright orange feet.

My husband and I went on a trip to visit family in France last month. My French is okay but my brain hurt from all the straining to understand. We were spoiled rotten by Alex's Aunt, cooking for us and even insisting on doing our laundry! (More on French food culture and eating habits later.)

On the way to France we had a layover in Iceland, and instead of just doing a regular short stop we decided to spend three days there. Well it turns out that 60% of the world's puffins are in Iceland! And June is nesting season! And there's this place where the birds are so protected that they're not afraid of humans! And you can get really super close to them!!! Okay BREATHE.

We were there less than a week after the summer solstice, which in Iceland means 20 hours of sunlight and 4 hours of dusk/dawn. The time we spent photographing was between 10 pm and midnight, although it's hard to believe it by looking at the images.

It was AMAZING. The puffins, I can't even describe how cute they are. But I can show you! All these photos were taken at the Látrabjarg bird cliffs, Wesfjords, Iceland. The outfit I'm wearing was kindly lent to me by Iceland Camping Equiptment Rental after our luggage was temporarily lost in Canada. 

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

Enhance!

 
 

This is proof that even the most beautiful among us can take a bad picture. 

 

 

Guest House Bredavik, where we stayed, about 30 minutes from the Látrabjarg bird cliffs. This place is only operational during the time of year when puffins are around, May-August.

This is by far the most remote location that I've ever been to. Iceland was like another planet. We drove for four hours without seeing another car on the road. At one point we were concerned that the road was going to end, even though the map listed that route as the main highway. Plus we almost ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere due to the stations being closed in the early morning. When we finally got filled up, I may or may not have hugged the station attendant. (Okay, fine, I did it. I hugged her.) But it was all worth it for this unreal puffin extravaganza! What an adventure.

Adventure!

My husband and I are currently sitting at the airport waiting for our flight. We're headed off on an epic three week adventure that includes Iceland, England, Belgium and France. Vacations and weight gain are synonymous for many of us, and truthfully my goal is to only gain three pounds while we're away. It will likely take me three to eight weeks to get it off again when we return, but that's the trade off! Being realistic about how long the recovery will take can help keep me from going too too crazy on crepes and croissant.

We will be staying with our cousin in France and we have been there before, so there are a few advantages I already know I have in my corner: The first is that we will walk everywhere, probably two or more hours of walking everyday. The second is that our family is not in the habit of snacking hardly at all. They usually have a very light breakfast of coffee or tea with milk and then a larger lunch and dinner.

For vacations in general, a few tips:

-Any plan is better than no plan. Paying attention to any aspect of your healthy living plan will always be better than throwing caution to the wind. If eating super healthy feels too hard, pick something smaller. You can drink a glass of water before every meal, right? Right.

-Utilize the extra time you have to go on adventures and get some activity in each day. 

-Think about your desire to feel good while on vacation and afterward, and notice how your food choices affect that. 

-Start each day with water and a nutritious breakfast to control blood sugar and cravings later on.

-Food should not be the central entertainment. The world has so much to offer, go out and explore!

Okay, confession! I have a little trouble with the last rule. It's vacation and I want fancy drinks and Belgian waffles and above all other epicurian desires, I want to search for the best croissant in Paris. I'm going to attempt to limit myself to the items I really want, and not waste calories on food I don't care about. And I'm going to take lots and lots of pictures of the things I eat and post them when I get back. Studies have shown that snapping a pic of everything we eat and drink can have a huge effect on helping us eat healthier foods and smaller portions.

In my absence, please enjoy this wildlife gallery by Massi Miliano, which includes a picture of my most favorite wild animal, the puffin. We're headed to a remote puffin photography location in Iceland, and I hope to bring back a few beautiful shots of these adorable feathered friends. See you in three weeks!

Update: Enjoy the puffin pics!

This is your brain on Radiolab

A few weeks ago I posted about neurotransmitters and happiness. The whole time I was writing that post, I was recalling one of my favorite Radiolab episodes. Radiolab is a pop science and humor radio show that I absolutely adore. In this one episode, This is Your Brain on Love, which is about brain chemicals, each chemical has a super short song that goes along with it. So I’m typing away and my brain is singing, dop-a-mine, la, la! nor-ep-ineph-rine! This is a live episode which makes the recording quality not quite as good as the others, but it’s still an entertaining show.

When I was first introduced to Radiolab it became an addiction. I started wearing headphones everywhere. Every free moment of my life was spent listening. I went through dozens of episodes back-to-back and mastered multitasking. My husband assured me that I could not in fact rot my brain with science radio. Challenge accepted.

There’s something incredibly compelling and touching about each of these episodes. They remind me just how infinitely amazing our world is. The shows are available for free on the web and in the itunes store. Here are some things I learned from my very favorite episodes:

-People who are good at lying to themselves are happier and more successful. Deception

-Our rational brain is very easily distracted. Choice

-Hallucinating about zombies once helped a man win a cross country bicycle race. Limits

-Rats laugh. Laughter

-There is someone in the world who had the same dream every day for three years. Wake Up and Dream

-The memories we recall the most are the least accurate. Memory and Forgetting

-No one really knows why we have to sleep. (!) Sleep

-Rooting for an underdog carries fewer emotional risks than rooting for a favorite. Games

-Having a name for your medical condition, after spending a long time without one, can be incredibly empowering. Lost and Found

-Only 3% of CPR recipients recover and go on to lead normal, healthy lives. The Bitter End

-Numbers that are created by real-life sources start with 1 more frequently that numbers that are fabricated, and the IRS has used this fact to catch tax evaders. Numbers

-After being freed from a fishing net by divers, a whale swam to each diver individually and paused, as if to thank each person. Animal Minds

If you’re looking for a place to start, I say go with Limits, Animal Minds, and Numbers.

This is an unsolicited plug for WNYC's Radioab. You're welcome. Don’t stay up too late.

What a difference a month makes

My first summer harvest!

It may not look like much, but the last month has been great weather for my garden and all my food plants have exploded with life. Green beans, tomatoes, squash, and sweet potatoes are all on their way. I gambled a little bit with the weather by planting on March 15th, but it paid off. These pictures were taken one month and one week apart. Before:

and after:

Today, June 7, I harvested my first tomatoes of the season.

and very soon I'll have squashes too.

We recently had the gravel in our front yard removed so that I can expand my veggie garden! We hired people to take out the gravel but we rototilled and spread the new dirt ourselves. Now that was a workout!

Before:

and after:

From left to right: green beans, acorn squash, purple Okinawa sweet potatoes, and tomatoes.

Here's me all sweaty and working on planting:

Sweat is magic. Cover yourself in it daily to grant your wishes.

Transmit happiness

I’m having one of those split personality days where my brain says I should go to the gym and my body says I should really have a hot cocoa and a nap.

It’s funny, sometimes when I want to eat something I’ll think (defiantly), “I deserve this, I want it, I’m just going to eat it, I don’t care!” And then I’m wondering if I have multiple personality disorder because really, who am I talking to? It’s the emotional side of my brain talking to the logical side, telling it to f--k off. And then the logical side reminds the emotional side that we need to be a team and think about long term goals. And now I’m really crazy because I’m using the word “we,” except it’s just me.

I think a lot of us experience this struggle, we have competing desires. It’s hard holding contradictory ideals in your brain at the same time. It can be emotionally draining. So I want to go to the gym AND I don’t want to go. Right. Makes perfect sense. 

Today, science is going to help the emotional side of our brains realize why we actually do want to go work out. The reason is happiness. Good old sun-shining, music-playing, Richard-Simmons-style happiness. Because exercise is more effective at making us happy than the best anti-depressants medical science can provide. That’s right, with a little effort, natural body systems can pump out happy juice better than any pill on the market. And there are other benefits to going the natural way, like the fact that medication can treat symptoms but prevent overall recovery.

Food is the most widely abused anti-anxiety drug in America, and exercise is the most potent and underutilized antidepressant.

-Bill Phillips

Here’s a handy info graphic that explains how pounding the pavement releases neurotransmitters and hormones that can sugar coat our entire life experience: