Wellness Wednesday #24

Look what I came home to! It was like God knew I needed something special. It has been a difficult couple of weeks and my emotions are raw, I have a migraine, my period, my Hubby is gone six days a week the next 3 weeks (and I miss him!) and my weight was up 3# to 315# this morning. Last night this was a bud and this afternoon, God filled my heart with this joy!

Last night I wanted to just cancel plans for today and stay home. The only problem was that I was supposed to bring treats for ladies Bible study this morning. Circumstances beyond my control made it impossible to do what I wanted last night and I just know that it must have been a God thing...I woke up early, ground flour and made bagels, the kids cooperated and we got there in time. God blessed me for my obedience and I enjoyed the conversations and interactions with the ladies. We are studying the book of Mark.

Last week I made bagels with the hard red wheat. They were a little dry and the wheat flavor was strong, but we ate all 18 of them lickety split...okay that is not where the extra 3# came from! LOL (That was 4 restaurant meals in 2 weeks and anxiety chocolate bars- UGH! and birthday girl ice cream... things I am not repeating soon!) So, I tried another recipe and used white hard wheat. They were a little more bread like, but probably most people wouldn't notice because that's the way you find them in the store a lot of the time. But they tasted good to me and everyone had one at Bible study and survived! :o) The kids liked these better, so I guess next time I will make more. The bagel inspiration comes from Kimberly who has been making lots of great bread items with her kids lately. I took a bread making class in high school and made them and it was a lot of fun, so I have had it on my list of things to do but finally took the step after seeing hers. She was very adventuresome and tried lots of flavors. That will be coming soon. I need to blog more about this on my other blog, which I have been neglecting.

I have to say that I continue to be amazed at how awesome products are turning out using the fresh made flour, the right recipes and my DLX mixer (because it works the gluten better than I could with arthritic fingers). There is a faction out there that says you cannot make decent tasting whole wheat items without using vital wheat gluten (a highly processed product) or Lecithin and other dough enhancers/conditioners. While it is true that you do have to have the appropriate recipe or adjust a white flour recipe, it is not true that you need all those extra things. We have consistently produced good quality baked goods using fresh flour, whereas using store bought ww flour, items were dry, hard, chewy and sometimes came out like the proverbial "brick" instead of a loaf of bread. I guess I feel a little astounded because I bought the line that it couldn't work with whole wheat that you would have to use some white flour, but then when you think of it... white flour has only been around for about a century, perhaps a little longer. Certainly there are some things like sugar cookies that would taste much better with white flour, but amazingly once you start eating real food you don't miss those refined things as much. We still enjoy treats and chocolate continues to be a draw, especially for DH and DS, but we find that the things we make are pretty tasty. It's a little extra work for sure, but definitely worth it.


So, what did I learn in my foray into restaurant food and more sugar? Well my stomach doesn't like it for starters. Also several small patches of eczema that I have had for years, disappeared when we started making fresh homemade bread products and eliminated the last of our processed stuff. In the last two weeks they have come back!

I also learned in the last couple weeks that in spite of the numbers on the scale, I am able to wear my wedding bands whenever I want to. (I don't every day because I have an antique set which I was told would be quite costly to repair if the thin band on the back breaks.) Also, when we were on our trip for the girls' birthday, I was able to sit at a picnic table! This is a small thing for many people, but since having children I have not been able to sit down at most tables where the bench is fixed to the table. Last Thursday I sat down without thinking about it and I fit! Today I noticed that I fit more comfortably behind the steering wheel too. Yesterday I went to the physical therapist for my hip bursitis and received permission to start walking again, so exercise will be added back in soon.

Lastly (sorry I know it's long today), I wanted to finish up my impressions on Plenty, local eating, different eating and nutrition ideas.

I really loved hearing from all who commented or wrote me last week. The consensus is that eating food as close to how God made it, is the best, no matter where it comes from or how far it travels. Other good advice was avoid any food plan which eliminates a major food/nutrient. While many people have success losing weight on low carb diets or other fads and trends, the majority are not able to maintain this success or change their eating habits. Personally, I think if you do not have an eating disorder and you are needing to lose a small amount, some of these things are okay (though not optimal) for short term, but not for long term. Our body was made to use a lot of different sources for nutrients and eliminating certain elements outside of the case of allergies or certain disease processes, could set other unknown processes out of balance in your body.

Eating local and cutting down on the fossil fuel impact, our carbon imprint etc, is a good idea. But my feelings are like many of you, that certain things we do not want to eliminate. Since I received many interesting responses last time (thank you all!!), I am interested to hear, what things you would not want to eliminate from your diet. At the end of the post I will list mine. I did come to the same conclusion as James and Alisa at the end of their year of eating locally - it forced them to eat really good food and once you do that and reap the benefits, it's hard to imagine going back to how you ate before. The one area that the book challenged me to look at more closely, is being more creative in making meals that are not just the typical "meat and potatoes" fare.

So, for my list... many of these things are local for me in north central California by virtue of the agriculture here, but would not be local if I moved back to WA or somewhere else, so I will list what things I would prefer not to be without:

Salt

Herbs and Spices (some can be grown but not all such as cinnamon, allspice etc)

raspberries (local in WA but not in CA)

Peaches

Chocolate

Wheat

Spelt

Rice (local in CA but not WA)

Tomatoes

Sucanat/Turbinado sugar (used in some baking)

Grass fed/organic beef

Hmmm...the list is shorter than I thought it would be. Maybe I am forgetting something? I can't wait to see what you might add!