Since there are some other folks here that read and like Robin McKinley, I thought I’d direct your attention to her blog, and specifically to her auction.
She is raising money for restoration work that needs to be done at her local belltower. For this, she is auctioning signed books and other whatnot.
http://robinmckinleysblog.com/
http://robinmckinleysblog.com/bells/
OK. Word has been spread. 🙂
When I talked to Ramona a few days ago she asked me if I had lost any more. I told her it had been a while since I had stepped on the scale because I was a little afraid of what I would see. I am still doing the vegetarian thing, but the longer I do it the more I figure out how. At first my refrigerator was not as well stocked and I was not as sure of myself when it came to picking out good things to eat so I ate less. Now days I am eating more.
But I have been thinking I should weigh in since that conversation. This morning I did. I am relieved to say that I am still losing, though, of course, not as fast. My weight loss, to date, is 40 pounds. 🙂
I just saw something on Nova Now that is so interesting I had to tell someone.
You are familiar with Cowbirds, I’m sure. They lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and the other birds raise their babies. This is getting to be a problem because the baby Cowbird is a big little guy and if the foster parents are small birds, they spend all their time and energy satisfying the large dominant bird and their own babies starve. Some species of small song birds are dangerously diminished in number because of Cowbirds.
A researcher noticed that a female Cowbird was frequently near a nest where she had laid an egg, and seemed to be watching the nest, but thought that was preposterous. Later he decided to remove the cowbird eggs from the nests of the birds he was studying so their own offspring would have a better chance. Then a strange thing happened. The nests that he had removed the Cowbird eggs from were trashed. The eggs were broken and the nest was torn up. Impossible as it might seem, it looked like vengeance for the missing cowbird eggs.
So he set up an experiment. He made many nest boxes with holes big enough to allow a Cowbird in, making them inaccessible to snakes, squirrels, and other possible culprits. When Cowbirds laid eggs in the nests, he removed them. Then, on half the nests, he slid in an insert that made the hole too small for a Cowbird.
All the nests that had Cowbird eggs removed that were still accessible were trashed. The ones that were not accessible were not. He mounted cameras and actually filmed mother Cowbirds tearing up the nests and breaking the eggs.
This gives a whole new dimension to why the foster families accept the baby cowbirds. They have learned that if they do not raise the intruder, there will be disastrous consequences. Cowbirds are not lazy bums, they are little winged mobsters intimidating other birds into raising their young.
I hope researchers and others who build nest boxes to attract certain kinds of birds start making the entry holes as small as they can be to allow the species they want using the nest.
Got on the scale this morning. I have now lost a total of 35 pounds.
I still like what I am doing. I still feel good. I am beginning to miss things, though. I miss Chick Fil A. Last night I had a bowl of vegi chili and I missed cheese. The other day, I missed chocolate (I can have chocolate, just not the things that are usually in it – I may see if i can find a vegan chocolate or a recipe that has minimal fat and sugar).
I was reading the other day that if i keep this up I’ll probably become lactose intolerant, but that’s acceptable.
All in all, I am still happy with what I am doing. I like that I can eat all I want. I have found some interesting new recipes. I am surprised by the variety of ways of putting plant food together. Since my meal planning focus used to be mostly on meat and I like my vegies plain, I put my creative efforts toward meat and added a vegie. Now, if I am to have variety in my food, I have to be creative with vegies. I am also eating more organic. Organic is pricey, but I figure if i am eating only plants it is important to have as many of them as possible without toxins.
An interesting aside: I made horseradish dill humus the other day and used the last of the dill i raised. It was very good. I made more, but had to use dill I bought. It was not as good. I was surprised by how different it tasted. Bought dill has a bitterness that my fresh dill didn’t have, not even the fresh dill I dried. I am going to have to get myself another dill plant.
I had planned to share the more interesting recipes I have found. I’d thought I would share by email, but I just remembered that there is a recipe category here… Hmmm
I started to post a little while ago and could not find the link to sign in. I noticed the link, bottom right, for Mom’s Dieting Effort (Which I may change to Mom’s Vegie Diet or something along that line). It has been so long I had forgotten about it. I have thought I should take it down, but I always change my mind. I clicked on the link. I still like the way it looks. Of course the wordpress version is very old. Maybe I should not use it… I don’t know. Seems like the worst that could happen is that i might get hacked.
Anyway, I posted my thought there. Go read the last entry and see what I am talking about.
After I posted in my old blog, I thought about going to “leave a comment” here and looking for the sign in link there. I found it, but then could not figure out how to make a new post. Finally I noticed the links at the top of the page. I guess the sign-in link is there too.
Now I have questions. I want to know what you all think, even if you don’t have an opinion one way or the other.
If I started posting my diet news in my old blog, would you be likely to read it? One reason I set it up was that i did not want to monopolize this blog and if i post often I would. I could be posting every few days! However, it is family stuff… and I want you guys to read what I write and i want you to read it fairly often.
Also, Chris, Is there a good reason I should not leave my pretty blog in it’s outdated form?
PS to my post over there…. I am now eating these yeast flakes by the spoonful. It’s like candy in that i am having a hard time not taking just one more. It leaves gummy stuff all over my teeth which should be disgusting, but it just means the flavor lasts longer while the gummy mess dissolves. I am going to have to stop. I wonder if bad digestive things happen to people who overeat brewers yeast.
Oh! I just read the back of the package to see if they said anything about overeating problems. I discovered that the reason these things are so good, the reason they don’t have that bitter aftertaste is that they are not brewers yeast. Brewers yeast is made through the brewing process while these things are grown in or on molasses. Interesting.
ok… if you haven’t read about the awesome dietary changes going on in the post below….stop, read it, then come back. 🙂
We’re all adults and all the cool toys we’d really put on a wishlist require small loans. So… just out of curiosity, if you were to wear something, would it be a hat? scarf? any color preferences? Please oh Please keep the wool away! ( ? ) (or cotton, or whatever?) Or might something a bit more fun be enjoyed, like a monster to live on a shelf?
J, this includes you. 🙂 (although I might add that a previous conversation has been noted)
Ramona we’d love to get an updated email from you if we can.
OK I am going to document this in the family site. I wanted to see if I thought it would last first.
I was not sure, when I sat down to write, how long I have been doing this so I checked the television schedule to see when the program that started it all aired. It was on on the 19th in the evening so I started on June 20th. That was almost 3 weeks ago. I ordered the book and got it in late last week. As I read it and understand more, I am changing the plan. I’d call what I am doing a low fat vegan diet.
If someone had suggested I do something this drastic I doubt if I would have, but the speaker approached it as a way of beating diabetes, which I probably have by now. The last glucose tolerance test I had was a couple of years ago and I was so near the mark that makes it official that I agreed to start taking medication. The dr prescribed metformin which slows the rate that the liver releases sugar into the blood stream. It is hard on the liver, but my doctor said that high blood sugar was hard on everything and that taking the medication now might keep me from developing full blown diabetes.
It bothers me that I am taking medication that is hard on my liver. It bothers me that I need it. When this speaker offered me a way to beat diabetes by diet, and to possibly do so very quickly, when he talked about the way animal proteins and other things affect body, I was hooked.
At first I cut meat (except fish), dairy, and refined carbs. Later I learned that cutting animal protein means cutting fish and eggs too. I also learned that fat in all forms is to be avoided so I stopped cooking in oil, even that little bit of olive oil to brown onions, salad dressing, and, to an extent, nuts. I still eat nuts, but not near as many. I also eased up on the carbs. Sugary, highly refined, and airy carbs are to be avoided, but whole grains and dense carbs, like pasta, are ok.
You would think it would be hard to do. It surprises me how easy it has been. I know that most of what makes it easy is that I had that moment of decision that makes change easy, at least for a while. I am hoping that it continues to be easy.
The first things I noticed happened in about 3 days. I noticed that my digestive system was happier. I have long had a problem with, I assume, Candida. That was and is still gone. For the past few months I have been having pain in my legs that is different than any pain I have had before and seems to have no cause. I wondered if it was the beginning of neuropathy. It was becoming more frequent, almost daily, and lasting longer. After the first 3 days, I had 2 brief (maybe 5 minute) mild episodes. After the first 10 days, I have had none at all. Also, my joints don’t hurt. Even my knees, which sometimes hurt very badly, don’t hurt. I still have trouble walking and when I get up after sitting with them bent for too long, but they feel weak and compacted rather than painful, and they never throb and ache in the evening.
When I went to the doctor a week ago, I discovered that, since my last appointment a month before, I had lost 20 pounds. That may not all have been due to eating differently, but at least 10 pounds I have to credit to diet. I got on the scale this morning and was pleased to see I have dropped another 4 pounds. It doesn’t show. I weigh so much that 24 pounds is probably like a normal sized person losing 4 pounds. I can tell, though. I am wearing a cotton muumuu that was too tight a month ago. It is enough looser to notice.
So…. being a vegetarian agrees with me. Maybe I am all the way to vegan now. Not only does it agree with my joints, stomach, and weight, it agrees with my appetite. The change is hard to describe. I get hungry, but the quality of hunger is different. I even get munchy i the evenings, but the quality is different. I don’t think about food in the back of my mind all the time. I am hungry when I get up in the morning and I eat. But I used to have a hard time stopping eating, especially if there was a chocolate cake around. I used to crave chocolate so obsessively that I would go buy almond m&ms. I suppose I would still like chocolate, but I don’t crave it. I seldom even think about it. I forget about food. I mean, I really forget about it. I don’t remember the last time I forgot about food (unless I was very busy). I don’t mean forgetting about the time… I always forget about the time and have supper time slip up on me. But now I forget about food entirely, even when I am doing nothing at all. I will just become aware of hunger. And even then, even though sometimes I am really hungry, I may forget about it again… even when I am not that engrossed in anything. It is odd. Even when I was on the weight watcher diet, successfully, I seldom completely forgot about food. My body likes being a vegetarian.
Fascinating new idea from a new company that is developing a device that allows you to make a video of yourself by yourself.
The video about the idea: http://www.wimp.com/remarkabletripod/
The company website: http://www.satarii.com/
I know you aren’t that into video, but this looks so cool. I haven’t looked into it that much yet (I intend to read their blog) but I thought it looked interesting enough that you would like to check it out for yourself.
Well I finally bought my laptop… Lenovo Ideapad Z560 09143YU
After deciding I wanted one for general use, then a little one for portability, then big enough to handle anything, and back to little, I came full circle and decided on general use. 🙂 Learned a lot in the process. Hoping I made a good choice.
I bought it locally. A place had it on sale for 599. With tax I paid about what I would have paid at Amazon or newegg, but with the advantage that it wasn’t shipped, I have it immediately, and if i have a problem I can take it back for a little while. I didn’t buy the extended warranty so I can take it back for 2 weeks I think.
I have an iPhone. One of my favorite apps is called Star Walk. I put it on the phone one night while waking outside with the boy. He likes looking at stars and I wanted to be able to name some of them. Nowadays, I can actually name a few constellations without help.
But the really cool part was tonight. Whole family was outside and I noticed a light moving… but it wasn’t a plane. Christina whipped out my phone ( I had both kids, one per arm) and she pointed the phone with the app going in the general direction of our fast moving ‘star’ and said ” hey, that is the ISS!”
I’ve never actually seen it go by and known what it was; thanks to the phone and the app, I can now say that we saw the ISS go by one night.