Think Thin Tuesday: Spasms & Skyr
Well it appears I spoke too soon. You know my post from yesterday? Well really I wrote that back on Friday of last week and lo and behold, I found the bottom drop out from under my feet this past weekend. Sunday I was laid up in bed all day in the most miserable pain imaginable from an inflamed trapezius muscle. As far as I can gather I injured my shoulder doing some weight exercises Friday. Just a minor pinch and I didn’t think anything of it since 99% of the time those go away. Saturday morning I went to Bikram. Now what I have learned is that for tendonitis you need to avoid heat for the first 24-48 hours after the injury. The heat inflames the tissue and causes swelling to get worse. Bikram Yoga is 105 degrees and all about stretching. Whoops. Again I felt fine most of Saturday and just a little sore. I spent the night in the kitchen whisking up some cranberry curd (delicious delicious delicious by the way) and that probably didn’t help my injury either. Then Sunday night, giving my body a chance to “Catch up” to itself lead to widespread inflamation and pain. To the point that I literally could not lift myself out of bed for a portion of the day.
The experience of this has been terrifying. I’ve now discovered my ultimate fear, yes even greater than nomophobia, the fear of getting injured and winding up paraplegic. After spending almost my entire Sunday in bed, frozen unable to move so much as my fingers without pain shooting through my body, I have regained appreciation for my otherwise normally healthy body. I do not know how people manage to face life so well without the use of their legs, much less so those who can do nothing from below the neck. Sure the pain I was/am in is awful and debilitating, but the mental torture of being unable to do anything? That was the worst part. That was the part that set me off into tears all morning. I have become such an active person and this? This was the worst kind of torture anyone could imagine up for a person like me. I know this is going to sound melodramatic but I came to a realization throughout this: if I ever wind up paralyzed, I mean fully from the neck down paralyzed, I would want the ability to end my life. I don’t know that I could be strong enough mentally to handle that kind of reality. I am in awe of the people who do but it’s not something I think I could handle. I’m weak. 
I also revealed to my friends just how much of a baby I am when I’m sick. I called my friend Dallas in tears at one point in the middle of a total panic attack and he calmed me down. I don’t know why I have such kind, patient friends but I’m grateful that I do. I’m also grateful that on a normal day I have a healthy, strong body. I learned my lesson universe okay? I’ll stop whining when good things happen. Please just take this pain away and let me get back into the kitchen so I can make things.
In the meantime obviously I can’t get cooking when I’m laid up in bed. So today for Think Thin Tuesday I’m going to do another product share with you. I’ve been wanting to write about this yogurt for a while now but figured I’d save a non-recipe post for a day when my kitchen blows up or something to that effect.
Siggi’s Yogurts are hands down now my favorite, best brand of yogurt and the only one I will eat. Why? It’s insanely good for you and yet incredibly delicious and as thick as ice cream. Seriously look at how my spoon, my metal and heavy spoon, can stick straight up out of a container of the stuff!
Siggi’s yogurts are an Icelandic style yogurt known as skyr. It’s strained several times to really concentrate out the whey. How strained? You use 4 times the amount of milk to make this stuff than you do a traditional yogurt. As a result you also get 3-4 times the amount of protein.
15 grams in a single serving to be exact versus an average 4-9 grams in major brands of competing yogurts; lower fat yogurts are similarly concentrated and that’s where you find the upwards of 9 grams a serving. Still 15 versus 9 in a 6 ounce cup? That’s a huge difference and it’s one that you can taste as Siggi’s yogurt coats and clings to your tongue like a rich cream but without any fat.
I prefer the plain Siggi’s which comes to about 80 calories in a single container. I really don’t think it needs any sugar to sweeten it though on occasion I sprinkle in some stevia or a few raspberries. Milk sugars are sweet enough to satisfy me when I eat something so rich and seemingly decadent as this stuff.
If you absolutely need flavor the line has a huge array of options. My favorite is grapefruit because it has a pleasant tang to it but there’s also: vanilla, orange ginger, pomengranate passion fruit, acai mixed berry, blueberry, peach and strawberry.
Did I mention live cultures? A LOT of live cultures. You know those fancy things all the yogurt companies, an health food folks are peddling at you these days? Well they aren’t lying to you on this account. Getting healthy, helpful symbiotic bacteria (probiotics) and food that can feed them (prebiotics) really are good for you. This is the Siggi lineup which boasts more strains than I’ve typically seen and with the highly concentrated nature of this yogurt, I suspect you get even more than you normally would from others. Greek yoghurts (h intentional) feature a number of cultures too but one complaint I always hear is that greek yoghurt is too tangy. Siggi’s is much sweeter and not quite so…lip puckering. So if you find that you dislike the Greek variety, give this one a try.
CULTURES:
B. Lactis, L. Acidophilus,
L. Delbrueckiee Subsp. Bulgaricus,
L. Delbrueckiee Subsp. Lactis,
S. Thermophilus
Not only are these a great skinny snack that taste like you are eating something completely indulgent, you are flooding your body with helpful bacteria to ward off infections and maintain a healthy body.
Aaaand finally the coup de grace that really cemented my love of this company? The source of the milk are small-scale farmed cattle raised on GRASS not grain and entirely hormone/antibiotic free.
Siggi’s is widely available on the east coast and to a lesser extent in California. If you are intrigued and a Californian your best bet to locate these will be Whole Foods or Raley’s markets. Nugget might carry them as well.
Today is my only free Monday for the summer. It’s the first time in weeks I haven’t had classes to worry about (well aside from worrying about finals scores) and will be the only Monday I’m not getting up to go to work. I had all these plans, wanted to get up early and enjoy the day…then what do I do? I sleep in until noon. Oh well. Today’s Monday muffins are a “take two” on my whole wheat, fat free recipe from a few weeks back. This time I added in a half a cup of buttermilk so they aren’t entirely fat free but at 3.5 grams for 12 muffins total, it’s pretty much negligible. If I wanted to really amp up the nutrition value of these muffins I’d find local, raw honey rather than processed.
Zucchini Muffins
Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add in the mint leaves and reduce the mixture to a simmer for approximately 5 minutes until the sugar dissolves. Let the syrup cool to room temperature.
Are you ready for this?
Gently fold in the pears. I kinda of wished I’d had some cranberries too but I made this during a weird time of the year here where the weather is 70 degrees one day, 50 the next and winter fruits are lingering but spring fruits are starting to come in. So while pears were still sort of in season, the cranberries were nowhere to be found.
