Wheat Belly no more.

Just before Christmas I purchased Dr. William Davis' book Wheat Belly.  I had been off of wheat before Christmas and wasn't losing weight but I was consuming high carb. flours such as rice flour, corn starch and some others to make biscuits.  From reading Dr. Davis' book I realized that there were a lot of things that I didn't understand about the whole going wheat free process to achieve optimum benefit.  So one day hubby and I were in Indigo book store to get some Christmas gift cards and I saw a whole shelf  Wheat Belly and decided what do I have to lose?  I decided to wait until after Christmas before I started because I wasn't sure if I could resist all the backed goods and sweets.   So yesterday when hubby and I were shopping I stocked up on healthy vegetables, nut flours, cheese, some items for baking wheat free and some raw almonds and some natural peanut and almond butters.

I have a bunch of recipes to make from the book including pizza, and lots of recipes for meals and lots of deserts like pumpkin spice muffins, cheese cake, etc.  I think I might go easy on the deserts at first so that my body knows it's going through a change.

I'm starting out at 172.8 pounds and will let you know how it unfolds in the coming days, weeks, months and  years.

On the search for the perfect heat source.

When we bought this house 9 and 1/2 years ago it had a wood stove and baseboard hot water heat heated by an oil furnace.  Our heat costs were high and getting higher every year.  Even the cost of wood for the wood stove was high and the oil furnace heated our domestic tap water as well so it had to run all year.  Then we decided to get an electric hot water heater to heat the domestic hot water so that we could save money in the summer months. 

Then Ron fully renovated the house putting in extra insulation and new windows.  We then took out the wood stove and replaced it with a pellet stove and last year we removed the furnace and put in electric heat as back up to the pellet stove.

Then a week or so ago our pellet stove went on us so we replaced it with two infrared heaters that should save us lots of money on electricity.  So contrary to the trend we are spending a lot less than we would have with all the other forms of heat that we have had in the past.  Life is good.

Back on Wheat

I had to go back on wheat for a month because I'm getting a scope done to test for Celiac disease.  I find I'm hungry all the time now and have a lot of stomach problems.  So on the 1st of November in addition to the gastric scope I'm having a bowel scope.  Talk about attacking the problem from both ends.  And on the 6th of November I go to Summerside to have a cat scan done of my pancreas to see if something is wrong there because my blood tests were off a bit and my doctor is very thorough and wants to find out what's causing it.

We're settling into fall now and our Maple trees are so beautiful.  

I continue...

I continue on my gluten free/wheat free way of living.  I don't want to call it a diet because it really isn't, it's a new way of ... being.. I guess.  I'm still struggling with the fact that I eat too many starchy foods.  I guess that will be ongoing.  But I haven't had any major gastric problems since I started down this path.

One thing I noticed the other day while taking Tinka for her daily walk is that there are so many more butterflies this year than in recent years.  I guess that is a good sign of the times???

I have gotten back into painting on rocks but I'm really not happy with the results.. but I guess I shouldn't expect too much when I've been away from it for so long.. I just expected to pick up a brush and paint and be able to recreate what I have in my head.. sort of in denial I guess.

Day 4  of going wheat free/gluten free.  I'm down 2.5 pounds and my blood sugars have normalized.   I feel tired but other than that my intestinal problems have pretty much cleared up.  The only thing that I have an issue with so far is an omelet with mushrooms, onions and cheese.  I'm not sure what of those is the culprit but might try eliminating certain items and see if one is causing the upset.  Hopefully it's not the eggs.

This change has been much easier than I had anticipated.  I was expecting wild cravings and slipping off the plan after a day or two.  But I'm not craving and am not really hungry much.  I just have to make sure that I'm hydrated and that I don't let myself get too hungry. So far I'm really impressed with how I'm doing because will power doesn't seem to be an issue yet.

Going Wheat Free/Gluten Free

As of yesterday August the 16, 2012 I have kissed goodbye to all wheat and gluten containing foods.  I believe that I'm in the first stages of having celiac disease.  I have been diagnosed with irritable bowel disease and had a scary bout about two weeks ago where I ended up in the hospital with severe abdominal pains [I had them for a week before I finally went into emergency].  They gave me morphine and ordered an ultra sound to rule out gall bladder problems.  Nothing showed up on the tests or the blood tests that they did the night I showed up in emergency.  So, while I was waiting to see my doctor next month for a follow up I saw something about a book called Wheat Belly [this link takes you to his web site] by a doctor Davis.

I was blown away by what he was saying about wheat being nothing like the wheat that we had growing up. So I decided to try giving up all wheat and gluten products until I get in to see my doctor.  I'm keeping a journal of all that I eat and will take that along as well.  I'm on day 2 and am surprisingly not having any cravings for wheat products or for sugary foods.  I'm also eating a lot less.  So we shall see.  Also, I'm hoping that my blood sugars will settle back down because they were starting to get a bit high.

I'm not looking at this as a temporary diet but as a whole new way of being.  I have an appointment with a dietician next month for one and one counselling and to take classes.  It's at the local Sobeys store and she doesn't charge for her services.  She also will take me around to show me the foods that I can eat and make suggestions on supplements I may have to take.

I decided today to get back to painting rocks..

I've been off work now for around 6 months and I've been drifting around, not doing much of anything, just being a lump on a log as they say.  I decided to dig out my paints and rocks and get at painting again.  My first piece is a raccoon.   He's a rather simple piece to start and I hope to improve over time.  I've been stopping and starting things at an alarming rate.  I had started this raccoon months ago but have left it sitting there with just the outline done.  Before that I had started a large painting of a horse which is still sitting there partly completed.  Also I started some counted cross stitching.. gawd, I'm so scattered I can't stand myself at times.  At least I can keep changing up my crafts and won't worry about not having something to do.  That's the curse of knowing how to do too many things.  I can't seem to stick to one thing to the end.  

Walk down memory lane..

On FaceBook I had a picture of my mother as my icon and it got me to thinking how we complain and bitch about how hard we have it when our lives aren't nearly as hard as trying to raise 13 kids in an age where there was no electricity until I was around 6 years old and I'm one of the younger ones.  My youngest sister wasn't born yet when this picture was taken.

My parents and siblings.. I'm the squished little girl in the middle.

I thought I knew myself...

I was at the doctor's office on Monday and the news isn't as bad as I had expected.  Although my blood pressure is up, my blood sugars are up [although still in the normal range but high normal] and my weight is up the doctor told me it's not too late if I apply myself.  I don't understand what's motivating me to sabotage my health at every turn??  I know what to do, I have the medications to do it and a year ago I had my life in control, the weight was coming off and my health was the best it had been in years.  Now, I'm in a pit I can't get out of it seems.  I put back almost 20 of the 40 or so pounds that I had taken off.  I have been sneaking junk food at every opportunity.  It's like a slow suicide and I  don't know how to snap out of it.  I'm in a constant state of indigestion because the medication I'm on to slow down my appetite is doing it's job but I'm  not listening to my body.  I eat junk food and I get extreme indigestion, then I snack on Tums at every turn instead of restricting what I eat and how much.  It's not rocket science.

Three months ago I was at the doctor for my check-up and was told I was doing so great but in my mind that was not how I was doing.  I had started down the slippery slope around Christmas time.  I was eating sweets multiple times a day.  I was depending on the medication to take care of my mistakes and apparently it was.  So I can actually remember thinking to myself that no matter how bad I treat my body, the medication will right the wrongs.  If that isn't a form of insanity I don't know what is.

So I thought that all the years of counselling, both private and group, and the introspection, picking apart my brain to see what makes me tick would yield some insight to my inner workings but it appears I'm as much a mystery now as I always had been.

I apologize to all of you that might have come to my blog looking to be entertained... hopefully I'll snap out of this funk soon and I can get back to being my positive, wise cracking self.

Mmmm I love the smell of cooked lawn in the afternoon

Since we can't use chemicals on our lawns I decided to use a two fold method to kill some weeds on our lawn. There is a weed that has a small purple flower on it that is in just one patch on our lawn but is slowly creeping out to infest the rest of the lawn.

A neighbour suggested using vinegar on it [her lawn is infested so I suspect that she hasn't been following her own advice].  But this morning I thought, what the heck, and proceeded to spray the weeds with the vinegar.  Being the impatient person I am I struck on the idea of using our steam zapper machine to literally cook the weeds so I spent the afternoon steaming the lawn.. the neighbours were looking at me kind of strange but it seems to have done the trick.  Since it's supposed to rain for the next few days I won't be able to get back to do some more until the weekend.

Mollys Routine

This is Molly's routine every morning.. she has it down to a science.

Molly and Tink playing .. they are such good "sisters"

Molly the kitten may be small but she managed to get Tinka in a head lock a couple of times and she gets her little sharp claws into Tinka's lip a couple of times as well.  They keep each other amused most of the time.

Accident averted..

I stumbled into the bathroom half asleep this morning and just as my butt was lowering to the toilet seat I felt fur brush against it and stopped myself just before pussy met pussy in an unpleasant manner. crushing weight meet teeth and claws.. both are gonna hurt big time.

More flowers.

These are my other flower beds [I have 4 in total].  *Click the photos to enlarge.

The first two photos are of my front flower bed.  The red plants are my Peonies and they bloom a beautiful deep pink.  I'd love to have them in a light pink as well.  

There is another dollar store decoration, the little bee with the flower. 

Lilies and Peonies.

Peonies

These next are photos from my two side flower beds.  This first, I believe are Lilies or they could be Iris, I'm not sure...

Side garden

Here are some of my tulips and my little piggy that made it through the winter unscathed.. lol  The next few pictures are of my early tulips.

here is another dollar store find, a whirly gig..

And another one.

It's raining.. finally, thank gawd.

It's been raining the last few days which is a relief because it's been so dry but it can stop now.. lol.  I've been weeding my final garden and it's never ending.  And now that it's raining not only the flowers are growing but so is the grass, in the garden, where I don't want it to grow.. arrrgghhh... Here are some pictures of my flowers that I took yesterday.  My Crocus are all gone now and the Hyacinths are in full bloom.  My tulips are ready to bloom which seems early to me but I can never remember  from one year to the next when things bloom.  First off, these are pictures of my heart shaped garden which is at the side of the yard.

*Click on the photos to enlarge for detail.

This is my heart shaped rock garden that I've been working on weeding for about a month now.  It seemed a good idea at first to have all those rocks in the garden but now that it's time to weed and pull grass from around all of them it's not such a smart idea after all.. lol

Heart shaped rock garden in progress.

These next three pictures are of my Grape Hyacinths.  They are lovely flowers but my asthma kicks in if I use them as cut flowers in the house because of their heavy scent.

Large Hyacinths

These are my poppies, so green and healthy looking.

Poppies.

These are various flowers coming up in between the rocks.

Some little Violets, they are very invasive.  So I have to pull most of them every year.  They are pretty though.

Violets.

The dollar store is a wonderful place.  I got this welcoming stepping stone from there.  I don't know how long it will last but for a dollar or two I'm not really concerned as long as it lasts the summer.

Welcome to my garden folks.

I'm not sure what these two flowers are but the smaller one in the back gets lovely purple flowers.  This time of year it seems that all my flowers are purple.. lol

I've changed my Tarot cards a bit...

These are my redesigned cards, I figured they would look better with the border around them and a redesigned name tag as well.

Our crazy weather ...

We went from record high temperatures to a snow storm on Easter Sunday to very warm temperatures again today.  At least the snow didn't do my crocuses any harm.

This was taken today.

And this was on Easter Sunday.

Spring Cleanup

It's amazing the amount of garbage that people throw out of their vehicles.  How can someone do that, I mean, seriously?   Once the snow melted we could see the amount of garbage the accumulated under the snow, it's shameful.  In fact Ron took some garbage bags on his walk and was able to gather up a few dozen bottles that we can take in to the recycling center to get the deposit amount.  Granted, since we no longer have glass bottles the amount of the deposit it extremely small but that shouldn't matter.  Where is people's pride in their province?   Soon it will be the roadside cleanup and the ditches will be clean again for another little while, but why should we have to clean up other peoples discarded bottles, coffee cups and even used diapers??!!!  Do we go into their homes and throw our garbage around?  Well enough whining from me.. lol.

Designing a new Tarot Deck.

I'm designing a new tarot deck.  I wasn't completely satisfied with the last one because I rushed through it, also I didn't have enough content for Poser in order to design all the cards with a cohesive theme.  So far I have two cards designed.. the High Priestess and Strength.  I decided to make the background in behind each card a different colour according to the suit.  For the Major Arcana I'm doing purple as you can see from these two cards.  And for the suits they will be: 

Pentacles = Green 

Rods = Yellow

Cups = Red

Swords = Blue.  

Here are examples of the cards that I have finished.. 

Wanting to become self sufficient...

We want to become self sufficient as far as fresh vegetables this summer.  Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.  We have a nice lot here in the country and we have two farms down from us that will provide us with horse and cow manure for fertilizers.  We plan on renting or borrowing a tiller to get our garden ready to plant in the early summer.  They say not to plant until after the first full moon in June, or at least that's what I remember them saying.. [whoever "they" are.]  If anyone knows of anything different let me know.

I have to know if I'll be consistent in maintaining the garden before we invest in a tiller.  Would hate to pay $200.00 for one only to not use it after the first year.  If anyone has ideas on what we should plant let me know.  I'd like to have one or two tomato plants, some carrots, maybe zuccini, we could try broccoli [I remember growing broccoli years ago and how delicious it was right out of the garden] and plan on planting some herbs.  Any suggestions?  I guess it's best to plant what we would like to eat because, after all, it will be us eating it.. Ron was saying it would be a shame to plant a garden and let it go to waste but I say if it only costs for a few packets of seeds and my time and effort and we only get a few meals out of it then it will be worth it.  [Plus my sister Callie is giving me some seeds so it probably will cost us nothing the first year].  I will be on the lookout for bottling recipes in the fall to preserve the produce to make it last through the winter.

You win some.. you lose some..

Being that we had such luck with the pot roast the other day we decided to make a ham and scalloped potatoes last night.. that was a complete flop.  The potatoes never did completely cook and the ham was so so.  I decided to take the left over ham and make a barley and dried peas, etc and ham soup.  The recipe I have makes a ton of the stuff so I'm hoping it turns out well and we can freeze some of it for later.

If you're out there...

I see from the map thingy at the side [I have two actually because I'm an overachiever] that I have been having a lot of hits on my blog.  If you drop in please leave a comment so that I know that people are still interested in my ramblings, even if it's just to say, Hi!   I'm hoping that Blogger hasn't put my account to where I have to approve comments because I'm basically too lazy.. lol.

My Belly is Happy

We had a very delicious meal this evening.  We slow cooked a roast of beef in the slow cooker for most of the day, had mashed potatoes with gravy  and green beans... mmmm.  It was the best roast of beef that I've had in a long time.

Our New Kitten

We have a new member of our household, a kitten named Molly.  She's energetic, wily, strong-willed and in love with our dog, Tinka.  What more could you ask for?  Here she is acting as a draft stop for the door.. Ron made her a scratching post house that she loves to go into when Tinka gets too rough.  And She's showing off her monkey hands techniques with the empty packet of sweetener that Ron shares with her every morning.  The last photos is of pretty poor quality but it's Molly and Tinka making all lovey dovey.

Our Crazy Weather

Today was a gorgeous day.  I couldn't believe how warm it was.  Yesterday was just as gorgeous once the day got going.  Both days I worked on my flower beds [which seemed like a good idea when they were created but have proven to be a pain to maintain] I just have one more flower bed to go and that one is the most difficult because it's on a slant and so I can't really use my seat to work in it like I can the other flower beds.

My bum arm and sore back have caused the task to be more of a pain than necessary so it's slow going especially on one half of the front yard.  And I'm sure I'll be paying for it in the days to come.  But it had to be done and now was the day to do it.

This summer I'm considering putting in a vegetable garden, just a small one.  We were thinking of borrowing a neighbour's tiller to get the soil ready.  We need to see if I'm going to stick with it before we consider investing in a tiller of our own.  I'm all excited about it now but we'll see once the real work on it starts this summer.  Being retired hopefully will keep my motivated.