(no subject)

[cimorene]

The problem with treating seasonal depression with sun lamps is that you're supposed to use them near the beginning of your day - in fact I've read before people recommending not after noon - and this requires that you are awake in the morning.

• My current class schedule is only on T/W/Th, and



• waxjism is currently only going to her work practice placement, which is Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning, and skipping her classroom hours, which are currently focused on middle school level math.*
  
  *Literally. Like, converting percents to decimals to fractions and doing basic arithmetic with them.



• waxjism watches NHL hockey games live in the middle of the night every day and consequently sleeps all day every day except the aforementioned M/W



• Today, for example, the sun was up only between 9:06 (>30 min after my classes start, more than an hour and a half after I have to leave in the morning) and 16:21



• To throw my internal clock and my brain even more out of whack, I was sick for the last 1.5 weeks of class in December and the first 2 weeks of class in January as well as part of Christmas break. In that time I got behind my classmates, missed the essential orientation sessions for the new semester schedule, and failed to clean anything in the flat, which started looking EVEN MORE like the wreckage of a raucous party and/or small tornado than before.

So not only is it impossible for me to be awake in the morning of every day apparently, it's also impossible for me to even be awake at roughly the same times every day. If I imposed a strict sleeping schedule on myself of going to bed and getting up as if I had class every day I'd probably end up with insomnia in the four-day weekend part, and also I'd basically never see my wife.

If I sleep till the middle of the afternoon and then turn the sunlamp on for a few hours, I'm worried it will have me staying up even later.



And unrelatedly, eliminating milk from my diet has gone great EXCEPT that my parents sent a bunch of my favorite flavored cocoa mixes from the US in their holiday present packages, and even though they are the kind made with water and not milk, I have noticed stomach upset after drinking them - something that wasn't apparent before when I was consuming milk from other sources. Apparently the dehydrated milk in them retains the qualities that my digestive system dislikes. But giving up mint and raspberry cocoa entirely?!?!?!?!? - So it seems like the only alternative might be learning to make them from scratch so I can make them with a milk substitute, which is obviously much more trouble than making them from a mix. :(


But again unrelatedly, this time on a very positive note, my parents gave me a Crock Pot for Christmas! So now I need to get some recipes for it - I've never had access to one, and reason to acquire them, before now. Very excited. I only have one, which is my favorite chicken dish for Thanksgiving/Hanukka.

Comments

[devon]

If you're really serious about keeping milk out of your diet, you'll have to look at ingredients for whey, lactose, casein, and dried milk. Butter should be fine - most people are allergic to lactose (milk sugar) and/or casein (milk protein). I use soy milk (or rice/almond/coconut milk) when I need milk for cereal, and it also works great for recipes.

For your cocoa, I recommend getting some powdered sugar and some fine-milled cocoa in a tub and make your own. The cocoa tub should have a recipe. I'll bet that raspberry extract (which I have not seen) or peppermint extract (which is very common here) would be a great addition along with a few drops of vanilla extract. Or maybe you could make it from your own cocoa blend with non-cow milk and/or water and then add a spoonful of the flavored stuff your mom sent you.

Good luck!

[devon]

oh, they say the best cocoa is called "dutch processed", but I don't know what it would be called over there. I think any dry cocoa would be better than Hershey's syrup.

[bayleaf]

Dude, I loooove those flavored cocoas! (Raspberry and Mint are the best ones, too. I say, with absolutely no bias.) I was curious about lactose-free hot cocoa, so I went looking and turned up this recipe for dry cocoa mix that looks pretty delicious: http://www.effortlesseating.com/2012/01/dairy-free-hot-cocoa-mix/

Although it requires prep that the packets don't, at least you can prepare ahead.

Alternatively, if your lactose intolerance isn't too bad, you could always take a lactaid tab.

[krait]

Aaaahhh, crockpots are awesome! I love mine. :D

[cimorene]

Thanks! My current theory is that I'm allergic to milk protein. I haven't stopped eating yogurt or butter. I also haven't stopped eating pizza, but my digestive system seems okay with it. Otherwise I try to minimize cheese because an overdose of it has upset my stomach in the past.

There's at least some variety in cocoa powder, even fair trade organic cocoa powder here - I guess chocolate is universal - so I'm hopeful of finding something I like, but I'm still a little worried about the right recipe for preparing the cocoa. I can probably make raspberry syrup - Wax makes jam often enough and it doesn't look hard.

[cimorene]

Well, I can always make the cocoa with liquid coconut milk if I can't find it dehydrated. Not sure I've ever seen that...