Jake at 7 months

This was taken by my good friend Paula.  She takes awesome pictures.

all before 10 am

Planted:  ancho peppers, jalapeno peppers, lima beans, sunflowers, muskmelons, and watermelons

Harvested:  strawberries

Weeded:  Tuesday’s beds and some of Wednesday’s (just in case of rain)

Fed:  Jake, the black leghorns, and gave minerals to my sheep

Exercise:  treadmill 45 minutes, yoga 15 minutes

Ate Breakfast (6 am):  mega-green juice and an apple

Ate Brunch (9 am):  home rolled oatmeal, with vegan butter and maple syrup

Drank:  6 glasses of water, 8 oz each

Cleaned:  scrubbed bathroom, tidied bedroom, cleaned living room, tidied pantry/exercise room, ran 3 loads of laundry, and swept the whole house

This is pretty much what all my mornings look like.   I like to get the bulk of my day finished by 12 pm.

Following THM (Total Health Makeover), I eat only fruit for breakfast.  I always start the day with 2 glasses of water, followed by a glass of juice and whatever fruit sounds goods/looks good.  After cleaning the house and exercising I’ll eat brunch.  So far brunch alternates between home rolled oatmeal and toast with peanut butter.  I don’t require a lot of variety in the morning to make me happy.  As long as it tastes good, is good for me, and is quick –I’m happy.

Kim

what’s in the garden this week

Today I planted arugula, English sorrel, bush beans, cantaloupe, eggplant, basil, kale, and cucumbers.

The tomato seedlings are looking quite nice.  They aren’t so leggy this year.   I also didn’t plant them this year.  I put a couple of late season rotting tomatoes in a bed and left them last Fall.  This Spring I have been carefully watching the spots.  And last week I noticed a few plants coming up in clusters where the tomato had been.  It works.  Self-seeding tomato plants!

We haven’t harvested strawberries yet.  HM is going out now to look for ripe ones.  We noticed that Jake keeps coming in from the strawberry bed with a red face and sticky snout.  He apparently really loves fresh strawberries!  No wonder they look about ready, but are gone by the next morning.

Everything else in the garden is looking really good.  I still have 4 regular beds to plant and then the bed that goes across the entire back of the garden.  I’ll be growing watermelons, muskmelons, and more cantaloupe there.

eggs and sprouts

For some reason this did not get posted when I wrote it.  So a little belated, but . . .

Eggs and I do not get along well. I never knew this. I haven’t had an egg in about a month. Then I ate one. Shortly after I had the runs and then my fingers and toes started swelling. I’m sure it was the egg because it was the only new thing in my diet for the day.

Eggs are so NOT worth it!

Sprouts on the other hand . . . I have discovered a real love of sprouts. So far my favorites are broccoli sprouts. I have a batch of red clover that will be ready in 4 days. The only other ones I have tried are alfalfa. They are ok. Just kind of bland compared to the broccoli.

Sprouts are so worth it!

black leghorns

Today I picked up 4 black leghorn hens.  The bantams went to a new home close to our house.  They just weren’t working for us.  My reasons for getting them were good, but practically they just didn’t work out.

HM kept 2 hens and her favorite rooster–Linus.  The two hens now have a chicken coop all to themselves.  Maybe they’ll finally get enough peace to hatch some chicks.

We only have 5 chickens now.  I hope they’ll lay enough eggs for MA and CK.  HM and I don’t eat eggs.  Well, HM will occasionally have some French Toast.  They’ll be fed a diet composed of scraps, greens, and a little grain.

In other homestead news . . . we only have 1 female rabbit!  Yippee.  Things are getting easier.  Once she is ready we’ll sell her.  HM picked a little one to keep and wants to find some lops to keep as pets.  She’ll just get a couple.  We aren’t going back into the rabbit business any time soon.

I still have 1 adult ewe , 2 little ewes, and 3 little rams to sell.  They aren’t ready to be weaned yet, so I have some time before I need to think about that.  I just remind myself so that I don’t get attached to them!

Kim

finding triggers

THM has helped me to identify certain food triggers.  These are foods that my body doesn’t seem to like.  They either cause headaches, stomach aches, or joint pain.

I was able to find these triggers by keeping a careful food log, noting how I was feeling, and never introducing more than one new food at a time.  Some people call it an elimination diet, but it wasn’t quite as formal as some that I have seen.  It is important to note that a food trigger isn’t an allergy.  It is just a food that triggers my symptoms.

So far I have identified the following triggers:

1. Red Dye 40 and all its forms (causes massive, face numbing migraines)
2. cashews (head ache followed by swollen joints)
3. pecans (same as cashews)
4. walnuts (same as cashews)
5. bananas (headache, stomach)
6. plantains (same as banana)
7. corn (joints, stomach)
8. eggs (joints)
9. dairy (in all its forms — but I don’t eat that anymore with THM.  I can always tell when a food has hidden dairy.)  JOINTS!  Major Joint trigger

I don’t know about wheat.   If I eat more than 1 serving a day it seems to bother me.   I haven’t tried any other nuts.  I’m a little hesitant after the reactions to 3 other tree nuts.  I should try pistachios and almonds because I love those.  Peanuts (a legume) don’t seem to cause problems.  I’ve only tried them as natural peanut butter though.  I’ll buy a small can and give them a try next weekend.

my experiment–my success

If you look back at a post I wrote back on a March Sunday you will see a picture of me.    That is me at my all-time heaviest.   I won’t tell you what I weighed, but I will tell you I needed to lose 30 pounds.   Apparently I can carry the weight pretty well.  I look chunky, but surprisingly not fat.  No one thought I looked fat.

But a couple of weeks later I went to the doctor.  The number on the scale shocked me.  My blood sugar was high, my cholesterol was high, and my sed rate (checking arthritis) was high.  Of course the doctor’s answer was medication.  Now some of you know me well enough to know that I didn’t like that answer.  In fact, my doctor knows me well enough to know that was going to be a problem.

So we sent my labs off to a specialist who believes in a more holistic approach.  He believes in preventing and restoring (not just managing sympotms)  by combining faith, with nutrition, with lifestyle changes, and as a last resort medication.  He is  a real doctor, just a better kind of doctor.  He suggested a “nutrition book” and getting serious about exercise.

For the past thirty days I have been working  hard.   I’ve been using Marilu Henner’s Total Health Makeover.   The basics are:

• no chemicals
• no caffeine
• no sugar
• no red meat
• no dairy
• limited fat
• exercise at least 20 minutes
• sleep well
• properly combine foods
• and live with gusto!

It is actually a pretty easy system once you get the hang of it.   She has a web-site with very supportive coaches.  They have walked me through all areas of this change.  Encouraged me, rejoiced with me, and helped me see the long-term benefits.

Here are some stats at the end of the first month.

Sleep: I’m averaging about 7 hours a night. I don’t wake up, shoot I don’t think I even roll over, until morning. It is a huge difference. Before I rolled like a rotisserie chicken because the arthritis in my shoulders and hips kept me from getting comfortable for long.  Since I wasn’t sleeping well I was sleeping a lot.

Body Brush: A habit now. It hurt at first, but now I feels great. I gotta say that my skin looks great, younger and I don’t need lotion except on my hands after gardening.

Water: I’m getting 70 oz a day now. And . . . (drum roll please) I’m no longer running to pee every 30 minutes! I can hold it! In fact, I didn’t have to get up during Star Trek nor did I have to visit the potty after the movie. We just drove on home. MA was terribly impressed.

Exercise: I exercise 6 days a week (Sunday off).  I do an hour in the morning of cardio/treadmill (45 minutes, but sometimes and hour); M-W-F I do weight training, and T-Th-Sa I do yoga.  Then each day I try to do a few mini-workouts (about 5 minutes each).  I do 150 steps/stairs, 50 crunches, 2 min on the re-bounder, and a couple of short walks.

Chemicals, Caffeine, Dairy, Sugar, Red Meat are out! Almost 100%.  I’ve replaced most of the major temptations with healthy alternatives.    I still get a wee bit of sugar in my Dove Dark chocolate, but soon I will be replacing that with a vegan version that uses evaporated cane juice.   I also find hidden dairy in things like crackers, bread, etc.  I am working hard to develop a list of brands that I can find locally that I can trust.  It isn’t easy.

Weight: I’ve lost 11 pounds this month. I’ve lost so many inches that it seems like I should have lost a lot more. However I am building muscle and that is heavier than fat. It also burns more calories. So the weight loss should continue.  I had to buy new underwear, new bras, a couple of new t-shirts and capris.  I’m melting . . . in a good way.

My mobility range has dramatically improved.  I am no longer a walking barometer.  I used to be able to predict a storm based on joint pain and headaches.  In fact, I don’t even have headaches anymore.  It has been 26 days since I had a headache.  Whoohoo!!!

Fasting Blood Sugar: Was 140, now 99. (Goal is 85)

Cholesterol level dropped by 20 points.  It needs to come down 5 more points to me “normal.”

Sed rate was dropped into the normal range.  Still on the high side of normal, but normal.

If I can show progress again this month, I won’t have to lab work for 3 months.  If that goes well, I can go back to yearly check-ups.

So there you go.  Now you know why I have been sort of quiet lately.  I have a new beginning and I’m working hard to make it a lifestyle.  A lifestyle that should let me keep active, healthy, and happy.

Here is my 30 day anniversary picture:

Be well — Kim

today . . . just me

Today was a beautiful day.  The weather was perfect.  A little nippy this morning followed by clear skies, sunshine, and 71 degrees.  A great day to get some gardening done.

I weeded all my Monday beds.  The squash are all up and some have their first set of true leaves.  I weeded some of Tuesday’s beds — just in case of rain.  The peas haven’t come up.  I’ll give them a bit longer and then replant.  Radishes, kale, spinach, chard, and all the lettuces will be ready for careful  harvesting late this week or early next week.

I walked around and looked at strawberry plants.  We’re probably going to have the first of the strawberries later this week.  The orchard plants look pretty good.  No fruit there yet.  It is still too early.

I spent some time chasing the lambs out of the garden.  Each year about this time the lambs decide to escape.  They are just big enough to want some independence, yet small enough to slip through the fence.   By next week they will be too big.  The little ram lambs are starting to show their horns.  It is adorably cute.  I’m glad we aren’t keeping them, but they are cute.

The chickens and the rabbits are thriving.  They are eating enough and get fat and sassy.  Eggs production still isn’t great.  I guess that is a drawback with the bantams.  The eggs are so tiny.

Today was also a strange day.  CK left for work at 7:10 and will be home in a few minutes.  MA left for work at 7:10 and got home at 5:30.  HM left for work at 10:30 and got home at 5:30.  That means I was home alone almost all day.   It felt a bit strange.  I’m used to HM’s chatter.  It was quiet without her here.

I got 18 shirts ironed.  Plus all the garden work.  I watched the Shuttle Atlantis launch.  I love that!  I read a little.  Trained the dogs.  Ate a solitary lunch.  Checked in with my forum.  And then wondered what to do.  Thankfully by then it was time to get the kids.

HM will be home tomorrow and the house will be filled with her joyful chatter.  I can rest a little easier knowing I don’t have to keep myself busy and entertained.

In the garden

This week we didn’t get much planted.  It has been raining–again.  I have managed to stay one step ahead of most of the weeds.  There are a couple of beds that are going to need some serious attention!

We replanted zucchini, yellow squash, and patty pan squash.  I added a few more rows of snap peas.   I also planted some broccoli seeds.  My lettuces are doing very well.  Almost everything else is coming up.

I will be planting the bulk of the garden over the next couple of weeks.