cookies for breakfast

Sometimes you just gotta have cookies for breakfast.  I have done well all week, then no plans for breakfast today and since I am doing intermittent fasting, when I work out and then wait till noon to eat - I was starving and they were just starting at me.  The plain old cheapo store bought sandwich cookies.  Very boring.  But I am one of those who hates to waste food, so I grabbed the 6 or 8 left and just wolfed them down.  Booooooooo.

At least I have a plan for dinner.  Fish and baked potatoes, veggies.  And I am using the left of the broth (frozen - defrosting now) from Thanksgiving turkey.  Will puree with some roasted red peppers and have a yummy soup with lots of vitamin C.

Yesterday I was planning to drive to city to see my sick uncle and my dear grandmother, but the forcecast is yucky so I postponed.  Since I had front loaded my workouts and chores early in the week, my husband and I enjoyed staying home and watching Downton Abbey movie.  It was good.  Now we are watching The Crown.

I hope you are warm and cozy where you are.  If you have been very good, enjoy a little cookie treat with me.  Here are my newest 3 dogs I am getting there photos printed to put on my shelf with my current doggie and my doggie Chico who passed in Oct.  The last one is Chico.

ct.  I still miss him.

Salad Day

Just took a break with a friend at work and there was a bunch of left over Greek salad/hummus in the break room - score!  The food was from Zoe's and I just love their Greek dressing!  It had lettuce, tomatoes, diced red onion, feta cheese and Kalamata olives.  So good.

Thursday, DH had an appointment in the city early Friday.  So his folks were going to run by and feed the dogs for us, he went to see Granny and I met him over there on my way out of town - to home.  We visited with her an hour and he went on north and I went on south.  He got home Friday after apt and playing golf with is brother.  I enjoyed my house just me and the dogs.  Was nice.  We watched TV in bed!

Then Saturday I went to my other friend who passed from cancer (in August) - to his celebration of life.  It was fun driving up with and visiting with my sister.  We took DH convertible.  We also got to see lots of our friends, but it was really draining.

Maybe that is why I am just feeling out of sorts.  Sluggish and lethargic.  Plus I am puffy and yucky from eating bad.  I am starting back over on the no sugar thing.  I had gone with out eating red met until Saturday on the way home I stopped for a snack and ended up eating fast food, yuck.  So starting over there too.  Had not eaten red meat for almost a month.  I don't know why I am having so much problem right now eating for wellness.  I went to yoga last night, other than walking and being really busy doing projects around the house (DH mowed without me Saturday - surprised me so much!) I had not worked out officially since last wed yoga - so I went last night and sweated like crazy - then came home - had a light meal and watched tv show - then bed.  I am tired of this schedule, in 3 more weeks I will give my 2 week notice - so 5 more weeks in total.

At least it is still in the 90's and hot!  It was good weather to stay in and organize...last weekend I organized and cleaned out my spice cabinet.  This weekend I cleaned out and scoured the freezer part of the fridge - I need to do free standing freezer next weekend.  And we have a nice 8 by 8 ish storage closet off our garage - I cleaned that out, organized and swept the floor/shelves and re-arranged.  Got rid of a carload of knick knacks...and DH is clearing out his giant collection of encyclopedias so we can offer then for sale at his sister's store and empty out several of our bookcases.  We looked at the small yard house(new house) once again and decided that the storage was just so lacking - we could not do it.  So, we are staying in our current house.  But, DH agreed that we could continue to purge.  If we actually considered this house - we must both be in agreement that we could do with less.  So, I am going to continue to pare down excess and DH agreed, because someday we will want to move and find house with smaller yard (and probably less storage).  Mainly right now, I get tired of cleaning around stuff!

And for my own part...I am going to store nothing in our attic except 4 Christmas and 2 fall totes.  I told DH I was purging down so much, that if/when we do move, I will easily be able to quickly look and decide what I do NOT need to keep.  Experience, not things is my mantra. 

I do not regret that I plan to finish a few cheap money/labor intensive projects around my house that we will get to enjoy and that will make our house and yard look great. 

Oh, I forgot to tell this...my friend at work brought me a bag full of pears.  They are really delicious green pears with a pretty thick skin.  I got them all up and put in bags in my freezer for smoothies because they are pretty small just to try to halve.  I made DH and I pear and spinach smoothies and my little $80 bullet from Walmart did great!  We did not detect the skins or the spinach.  I was very happy with my inexpensive blender. 

Then, Monday we had peach, apple and banana smoothies and they were yummy.  I am going to get another giant supply of apples this week and so I wanted my apples still in the freezer used up.  Hope you are reaping some great produce as this harvest moon approaches!

I can't believe it is the 18th already

When I posted I thought it was the 16th.  I stop all the time and have to really concentrate...what is the date today?  What day of the week is it?  We have been retired 2.5 months and are starting to see a natural schedule evolve.  But we wanted it to be organic and not something that we arbitrarily came up with out of fear or other weirdness out of our emotions.

I pray that I may not worry over the limitations of my human mind. I pray that I may live as though my mind were a reflection of the Divine Mind.
Hazelden Foundation

My emotions are tied to my past, I feel like.  So, since I have never been retired before, I wanted to approach it out of honesty and not a picture of what others had told me or what I felt was right because of competing emotions I might not fully understand.  After getting our house, finances, cars and paperwork like insurance, licenses, property taxes, bank accounts, address changes all sorted out...it has been our goal to take it real easy this winter.  Essentially work on our mental health...and physical.  DH has lost about 15 pounds and I have lost just a few, maybe 5 pounds.  But we are trying to focus on eating a balanced diet and not eating too much.  I specifically am trying to eat more vegetables.

For a week now, after we drink our coffee we don't eat till 11 or 12.  Look up the effects of intermittent fasting on our bodies and how we make more HGH if we stop eating at night and don't eat again for 12-16 hour later.  I swear this is helping us immensely.  DH and I both have inflammation type chronic conditions.  I have researched vitamins, herbs and minerals I have been so sick in the past during my working years that I did not know how I was going to keep working. 
Vitamins, minerals, herbs, smaller meals, no dairy and at times full elimination diet have turned my health around.  I take a very expensive probiotic that made the biggest single impact.  I also take a digestive enzyme.  DH does not take this, but he eats more veggies than I ever have and he is taking cod liver oil, vitamin C and D with me and he is seeing results in his cholesterol and has stopped the omeprazole.  Thank you Jesus.  That stuff is linked to many issues and they are even saying possibly dementia.

It is nice to be able to make a fresh home cooked meal at leisure at least once a day from fresh ingredients.  Yesterday I roasted in the oven 1 large butternut squash, 2 acorn squash, 2 onions, 1 sweet potation and 1 regular potato.  I spread out about 6 - 10 garlic cloves and drizzled with olive oil.  Sprinkle with sea salt.  Bake at 400 for 45 - 60 min.  I also separated all the seeds and roasted them with salt and pepper.  Then I let the vegetables cool slightly, scooped all the insides out, put it all together in a soup pot and simmered with about 6-8 cups of broth.  Then I added sprinkle of cayenne pepper and double sprinkle of curry powder (not sure how DH would like this) and some black pepper.  Then I pureed it with my immersion blender.  I use this gadget all the time.  mostly to blend soups.  But you can also whip cream, make pudding and smooth gravy with it.  He LOVED this soup!  We did garnish with the toasted seeds and some vinegar

Just holding steady is a victory for me, given my activity level and stress are way down.  But this will be 3rd week of 2 yoga classes and I will be golfing today.  I used to just force myself to do yoga or workout classes right after work.  It is much harder going after a day relaxing at home.  But I am adapting.

What are you going to do today to take care of yourself?

Temptation

Whoo weeee.  I w as so tired from 2nd power yoga that I went to bed early and slept late!

So, I better walk the dog before it gets yucky.  Supposed to be yucky for 3 days.  I switched out our 5 bulbs master bather 100 watt equivalent led.  Is bright!  That helps.

I need to watch my eating little better.  Gonna focus on really enjoying my smoothies for dinner for at least a week. Pretty much eat what I want at noon.

"I pray that I may be prepared for whatever temptation may come to me. I pray that I may see it clearly and avoid it with the help of God."
   -Hazelden Foundation

Well, the pup is waiting!

C for Choices

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/?m=1
I got my labs the weekend I was out of state for a wedding.  My numbers all look really good.  It made me think about personal choices.  I have been improving my eating slowly and sometimes too slowly, out of a desire to be more healthy and stay trim, but also because of all my stomach woes.  In my search to find answers about my stomach problems, I fluctuate between the hope that I can find medicine that helps and being able to find a lifestyle/eating formula that helps.  If medicine helps, then I don't have to be personally accountable and I don't have to feel like I have failed.  But, the longer I travel this journey, the more I am understanding that what I put into my body affects me, just like it affects anyone - our health.  But almost immediately I can feel horrible and be sick for hours or days.  So, I keep trying to tweak it.  My cholesterol, good and bad are good, my glucose is good.  My blood pressure good.  My vitamin D still on track going on 2nd year in a row.  My weight is good.  I am going to keep trying to put one foot in front of the other.  After all, isn't it better that I do have accountability and realize how I feel is in my own control and directly related to the choices I make?
Here are some of the changes I have made over the years to improve my health.  I exercise (walking and yoga).  I eat at home mostly.  I limit carbs and processed food.  Carbs i eat are potatoes, quinoa, rice and home made bread/biscuits.  I eat more vegetables, fruit and lean meat.  I have pork or beef maybe once a week.  I cut dairy 2 years ago.  I limit sugar, but when I have sugar I have a small amount of what i crave.  I eat my potatoes i love, but switch to sweet potatoes half the time.  I stopped drinking soda 2 years ago.  No artificial sweetener.  I have been doing intermittent fasting since Nov and feel it is working for me - i skip breakfast.  For the past year or so, I have been eating very small evening meal - sometimes broth (google bone broth) or smoothie only.  In my smoothies I put bunch of spinach, ground flaxseed/chia seed, vegan protein and fruit.  I blend with almond or coconut milk.  Only caffeine is 2 cups of coffee in the morning.  i put a mix of nutrients in it that include cacao, lacuna, collagen, maca and coconut sugar - along with spices like nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom.  I enjoy it so much, it has helped me cut back to almost no more artificial powder creamer (i know, i know).  Every day i have 1 green tea and take vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements and after much research and trial and error, have found a combination that helps me feel my best (including vit C, vit D, B chewables, probiotic, digestive enzymes, fish oil, calcium, zinc, magnesium and special eye supplement).  On Friday and Saturday I pretty much eat what I want.  The rest of the week is pretty regimented. 
What are you doing to be healthy?