I'd like to believe I am health conscious. And I wish the same upon others. I weigh the same that I did when I showed up in this country. That is no small achievement. Exercise, food and sleep are the basics you have to stay cognizant of. I am capable of going for long walks. And the primary motivator for me there is what I see, not the muscles I exercise, although those walks always lead to good nights of sleep. Similarly the apple for me is the good taste. I don't think of it as a prescription drug. As in, it is good for me, so I should eat it. I do freehand exercise. Long walks are for when I feel the strong urge to see. And the vastness of
Queens speaks to that urge. Used to be The
Bronx, but I took care of that weeks ago. I camped out at a friend's for a few weeks and walked all over The Bronx. Now Queens is the borough I have seen the least. And the borough is just so big, and most parts are far far away from train stations. I sleep plenty. I think that is key. For the past few weeks I have been eating a lot of uncooked food. There are people who eat out, they don't cook, they eat out. I have been experimenting with the cook as little as possible thing. But for me the fill in the blank has meant a lot of uncooked food. Like apples, for example. No, I don't eat it every day, not several times a day, not for meals. No. But the dependence on uncooked food means the apple has to be a ready snack. An apple can be a great snack. For one, it tastes so good. For me it is about the taste. It also is good for you. That's there. There must be something in the apple that you get an immediate boost, you get uplifted, you feel fresh. Maybe it reminds you of cold climates or something. You end up feeling fresh. Oranges are good too, as are carrots. And I grab cooked, packed vegetable dumplings from a nearby Chinese store. You put it in boiling water for a few minutes and they are ready to eat like instant noodles. And I get to put hot sauce all over it. There is no limit to how hot I can eat. Recently I cooked chicken curry into which I put a whole bunch of green chili, the Indian, hot kind. I have not cooked rice at home in months. There's a food cart a block away where I get some lamb over rice when I feel the urge, which might happen every few weeks. But rice has been displaced by whole wheat pita bread. When you eat it you feel like an Afghan.
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeI meant to show up last year but for some reason the event fell through the crack of things. I am so glad I got to show up this year. If you could go to just one event in December, it would be this one. And there are some great Holiday parties in town this month. 
