February is a short month with two festivals : Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day.
Chinese New Year Eve, we had a lot of dishes for the two of us with leftover enough for the remaining week. New Year Day, we drove to ChinaTown and served ourselves vegetarian dish. This tradition is hard to keep up in America, but we tried as much as possible. Near Valentine’s day, we did a date-night cooking class with a 3-course meal and a creme brulee dessert.
Many days in this month I suffered from stomach bloating. My gastroenterologist suggests the low-fodmap diet (FODMAP = Fermentable Oligo-Di-Monosaccharides and Polyols). In simple terms, this diet contains a long list of common foods suitable, such as rice, banana, lactose-free milk products, a variety of vegetables and fruit), and also a long list of common foods that need to be eliminated.
Over the years, my stomach complains once in a while. There was a period when I was a teenager that my mom cooked “bird-nest” congee which was considered very good for stomach. Believe it or not, it was cured and did not come back for years. This stomach issue came back a few years ago, and was cured after some months of controlled diet. When I shared my health issue, the most frequent reactions from others have been “are you stressed?” In my experience, the causation effect between stomach issue and stress has not been as obvious, though the health issue creates stress when the bloating pain can come anytime and is sometimes limiting the day-to-day activities.
My theory is that when the stomach is at a sick state, even if it is the same food that uses to cause no problem, the stomach would randomly complain about. I have this personal challenge to put the stomach back to a healthy state, so that it is not as sensitive to what gets in it. Coincidentally, I read the “miracle of mindfulness” for inspiration of mindfulness, just in case some relaxation can help along the way.
The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
I read this after the award winning book “The Emperor of Maladies” by the same author. A small book, written years earlier, when Siddhartha was a young, exhausted and isolated medical resident. In this book, he identified the three key principles that govern medicines.
- A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weak test.
- Outliers teach us laws
- For every perfect medical experiment, there is a perfect human bias.
I am not giving the book away. Siddhartha has the talent of telling stories and explaining principles that makes his book memorable. This book is a must read, whether you are in the medical field or not.
Sometimes Brilliant by Larry Brilliant
Larry has been selected as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. He was the inaugural Executive Director of Google.org,[1] the charitable arm of Google established in 2005. He became a co-founder and chairman of Seva Foundation, an international, non-profit, health foundation which has given back sight to more than 3 million blind people through surgery.
Decades ago, he went to India as a spiritual seeker. His guru Maharaji called him “Doctor America” by his Maharaji, urged him to join WHO and prophesied the eradication of smallpox. With an unwavering belief in the prophecy, Larry started this impossible adventure, which took him to WHO. In this book, he chronicled how the team overcame the relentless social/political/business challenges to finally eradicate smallpox. It is not only a victory of medicine but also the discovery of himself along the journey.
This is a book filled with words of wisdom from Ms.Fong (方太) and it inspires. Everyone in Hong Kong knows 方太. She has been appearing on TV shows to teach cooking in the seventies or eighties. She became an icon and has been the first generation of housewives sharing recipes and cooking tips with millions of other housewives. 
This book was recommended by a panelist in a career conference that I recently attended. The panelist looks super contented as a person, and seems to know exactly what her purpose of life is. Who would not admire having a North Star in a life journey? 
My third book on running, after “What I talk about when I talk about running” and “Born to Run”. Unlike the other two, this one is more a “how to” book from a Boston Marathon Champion.
aside the loss of my mother. I had to deal with the heart wrenching moments 
2017 has been filled with unusual events. I experience in first person how losses stick in our mind so much more than gains. 2017 will be remembered as a difficult year of loss and injury after some personal loss and trauma in 2016. When life is at a low, it can actually go lower and then lower; even in very low moments, there are a long list of valuable things that cannot be taken away. It is such a reminder for us to treasure all the things around. The near-miracles witnessed in the world of tennis unexpectedly give us hope that anything is possible.
oliviatamccue 