Wellness Wednesday

Hi Everyone. I don't know about you, but our household has been blogged down by September allergies. Pollen is racing around there with last ditch efforts to make a mark on the planet. It has not been a fun week or two and I have been feeling pretty overwhelmed and fighting off a migraine. At times like this, it can be difficult to keep motivated, so I have been working on doing some positive things.

Last Thursday I began physical therapy and have been exercising my knee and gradually testing the waters with more walking/standing. The scary thing is that after this, my knee hurts more. It's not the support muscles either, it's the nerves that get irritated by that torn meniscus. It's scary because I think this might mean surgery in the future. While it is safe and "easy" as far as surgeries go, I do not want to have any surgery unnecessarily. So, I will continue with physical therapy for now and see if this changes. Tomorrow I have physical therapy and I am so looking forward to massage and ultrasound of my thigh and hip because all of this has made my bursitis worse. (It's the same leg.) I am not giving up, but I am discouraged.

My weight is staying steady at 312#. I wish I could say it was going down, but with little exercise, how could it? I'll have to be careful though because this week I have done a lot of baking.

Monday I baked and made these. Last week I played with sourdough, which was fun and nummy. This summer I acquired quite a few new cookbooks geared towards healthy eating and so I am wanting to experiment with recipes.

After lamenting that I couldn't do the organizing I had planned on doing this fall in hopes of putting the trailer up for sale in the spring, Susan had challenged me to organize things that I could do sitting down. I took the challenge and have been traveling spot to spot with my comfortable folding camp chair, which is light enough for me to carry without hurting myself (since you use knees in carrying weight - which you don't likely know unless you hurt your knees!). So last week I organized my cookbooks, herbs and spices. Today I am cleaning a small shelf under the window in the living room that held knitting patterns I print off the net, magazines etc. I am putting all my cooking, health and outdoor magazines there as well as the stacks of magazines I have purchased in the last year. This is where I sit to knit or watch DVDs, so they are handy to pick up and sort through. Then I can put them where they belong, toss, donate etc. I am a magazine junky and need to work on this. I probably could save a minimum of $100 a year if I didn't buys so many impulsively and subscribed to a few that I buy repeatedly!

I know it might not sound like these things have anything to do with health, but they really do. It's hard to be happy and relaxed in a chaotic environment. My house is cluttered and I have CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome - I think this might come from FLYlady). This does not reflect my inner heart. And just like my body size and shape does not reflect my soul and my person, neither do my surroundings. Part of my journey to wholeness and wellness is to work on all these things. One of the ways I encourage myself in this process, is that I know when I do give up things, I am preparing to hopefully one day leave this little tin box we call home! :o)

Does anyone else do fall cleaning? I feel more incentive to do this in the fall than the spring. Maybe it's a way of fluffing up the nest in preparation for the winter!

Making Healthy Changes

I am sure that if you have seen any of the pictures of me on my blog, you know that I am morbidly obese. A lot of people think that if you are that overweight you must be sitting down stuffing your face 24/7. That's not really true. Yes, I have obviously eaten too much at times, otherwise I wouldn't be so big. My weight has ballooned since living in California because I am not as active outdoors secondary to increased asthma from the smog and allergens. And my body has changed shape drastically after having twins. It really is embarrassing. I have managed to take off 22# over the last year or so, but it does not even show. That is discouraging.

My weight problem began as a child and so did my dieting. Through the years the dieting has only made me larger and caused me more emotional distress than I care to explain here. But, as always, God is bigger than any problem I face and He has healed my heart of many sorrows and pain. Still, now I am left with this distorted body and a need to improve my health in all ways.

Instead of dieting, I began by eating only when I was hungry...seems obvious, I know. But years of over eating leads to unhealthy choices and sometimes I have been guilty of eating because it tastes so good and sometimes because the food makes me feel good. I do not want to pass bad habits on to my children. It's better to prevent problems than to have to fix them afterwards.

The second step in this journey was to start eliminating processed foods. The first we eliminated was high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup. Next MSG. MSG is in almost everything and it comes under sneaky names.

The third step has been to begin replacing normal foods with organic alternatives. We are buying organic/hormone free milk and meat whenever possible. And we have begun buying organic fruits and vegetables. Some things taste the same but others taste remarkably better!

Recently I have come across two different articles on buying organic produce, one was in the June 2007 Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Both articles had a list of the same 12 items which are considered "worth" buying organic. The BHG article shared something that was shocking - you can wash non-organic strawberries 10-11 times and still find traces of chemical pesticides on them! Having worked in the health care profession between 1988-2000 I saw a lot of changes, particularly in children. And I am convinced that much of this is caused by all the chemicals that we eat in our so-called food. A lot of people "poo-poo" this idea. But I challenge to pick up some cans and boxes and seasoning mixes that you regularly eating and see if you can even identify or pronounce the ingredients therein!

At this point in time we are unable to have a garden. We don't even really have a yard, just concrete, rocks and some container gardens. Food can be container gardened but not well in the extreme heat we get here, coupled with the increased heat of being surrounded by asphalt, concrete and metal in a trailer park. I gardened as a girl with Grandma Hopkins and some as a young adult and I miss it. For now I am working on being content where God has placed me. It is our dream though to move and have a real garden.

You might think it is too expensive to buy organic foods. Yes, some things are expensive. But we are re-learning how we use meat, poultry and dairy products. And when you eliminate a lot of processed foods, you will have more money in your budget. Processed foods are not always cheap. I encourage you to look into it. Recently my friend and I were shopping at Safeway and the price for organic strawberries and tomatoes was the same as for the regular. And the organic strawberries tasted so good, like they came right out of your own garden. So there may be options. But here is the list of 12 foods that are important to eat organic because of how the pesticides are retained. It was also recommended that if you eat a lot of skin or leaves of fruits and vegetables, you should buy organic as well. The list of foods are:

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Pears
9. Imported Grapes
10. Spinach
11. Lettuce
12. Potatoes

All of those foods are pretty much staples in our household. So we will be making some more adjustments. We are very fortunate to have a lot of options here - Trader Joe's (often times their prices on organics are much less than other places), a food co-op, Whole Foods Market and several local grocery stores which carry health and nutrition items. Costco now carries organic, grass-fed, no hormone ground beef, which helps us too. The changes have not come overnight.

During this phase of change I have been experimenting with cooking more. One surprise is that by using organic spices and herbs in my cooking, I have been able to eliminate a LOT of salt! My husband, is what I consider a "salt-a-holic". I asked him tonight if he had noticed that I'm not using salt anymore in my cooking and he was surprised! Since we don't use seasonings packets I have been experimenting on flavors. For instance, we eat a lot of Mexican style foods. I use garlic, onions, peppers and Cumin for flavoring. I was noticing something missing but wasn't sure, so I looked at some true Mexican food recipes (as opposed to Tex-Mex or American restaurant Mexican food). I was surprised to discover that many of them used Oregano! I have begun adding Oregano and that has really seemed to make the taste complete.

This post is already growing long. One of these days, maybe I will do a post on some of the the foods I make now from scratch and my time-saving hints that are helpful for busy cooks.

I did want to end by saying that I am ready to get to the next step in becoming healthier. My husband and I are considering doing a cleansing fast in August. Naturally I hope to lose weight, but that is really not the purpose. He underwent radiation treatment last fall and I have "tummy troubles". We have heard some great anectdotal accounts from friends over the last several months. When it comes at you from several directions, you begin to think that someone is trying to tell you something! :o) After the fasting we hope to start back smaller and healthier in the food department and add exercise of some kind. We are older than most parents of young children and we hope that God allows us the privilege to see them grow up. However, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of what God has given us and thus we are making these changes.

Well, I don't imagine many people read this whole post and that is okay. Mostly I want to document for myself this new phase in our journey of health and wholeness.

Grandma Hopkins

Today would have been my Grandma Hopkins' 101st birthday. She lived to be almost 96 and really it feels strange that she did not live longer. I have talked about her a lot on my blog because of the great influence she has had on my life. We had some rough times...I think I shared that as an adult I discovered that some of her criticalness towards me was that we were so alike, I believe she saw things in me that she did not like in herself. I share this because I realize that the way I talk about her at times may seem that I have her raised on a high pedestal. Fear not! It is just impossible to overestimate the value of her influence in my life. So I encourage you Grandmothers reading...God has a plan for you and has always meant for generations of families to live together, help each other and for older women to teach the younger women and children (Titus 2). It is a blessing. You may not see all your rewards this side of Heaven, but you will be rewarded for the love, care and instruction that you give your grandchildren.

Cooking is one of the many ways my Grandma Hopkins influenced my life. She really was a woman ahead of her times in many ways. She knew so much about health and nutrition. I was often her guinea pig for new recipes and ideas, new techniques and interesting foods. She was cooking and using healthy foods that some people are only learning about now and advertising their health benefits as if they were "new discoveries"! She even taught a Wok Cooking class for community schools when they needed an instructor and taught her own style of "Western Wok Cooking". I remember helping her run her mimeograph machine and collating and stapling together copies of her recipes and handouts! LOL Wow! What she could have done with a computer. If you took one of her classes, you definitely would not have left empty handed. I have a stack 6" deep of her handouts that I want to go through and scan and save.

The good thing about Grandmas is that they don't have to worry about all the things that parents do. They are free to hang out, experiment and do things that parents would probably nix because of the mess, time restraints etc. One of the first things I remember learning how to cook at Grandma's was homemade tomato soup. We also made "French Toast Turkey Sandwiches" which was one of my favorites. Basically it is a turkey sandwhich dipped in egg and milk (not really French Toast...no cinnamon and vanilla) and fried. I have since modified it to do the bread that way and add the turkey meat after. This is my favorite Thanksgiving leftover...sounds weird, but it tastes great!

Grandma always made interesting things with her raspberries, which she grew in her large garden. We made smoothie style protein drinks back in the early 70s...like I said, things that people think are "new" now. It was fun to grind grain in her small mill and I loved making her beet bread which was modified from a recipe in The Ten Talents Cookbook, a 7th Day Adventist cookbook with healthy and vegetarian foods. Beet bread doesn't taste anything like beets and has the loveliest raspberry colored dough. A lot of people were afraid to try it but I liked it. She made large batches and shared with everyone. We even made bread in tin cans and experimented with shapes.

I might have shared once that Grandma would say that she had a "surprise" for us and us kids would get excited because most Grandma's would have surprises that were toys or candy or something like that. Not my Grandma. Her surprises would be things like, "Guess what? I got this fabulous new tool that will make the garden much easier to weed." GROAN! Just what every kid wants to hear, right? Well, one of these "surprises" was that she decided to build an outdoor brick/concrete block oven. She often had these ideas. She would get very excited and all into something, full boar. Sometimes they were good ideas and sometimes not. When they flopped, she would call those "Holly's Folly"! Every once in awhile I will find myself saying, "I thought this would be a good thing when I bought it, but I think it's really a 'Holly's Folly'"! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree! Or like my Mom says, "We're all becoming Mother!" LOL

Anyway, we had fun with this outdoor oven/stove that was really a homemade BBQ that burned wood. She bought me and probably my cousins a copy of Roughing It Easy which was a big hit in the 1970s. I still have mine somewhere. From the book we learned how to cook a lot of things in tin cans, tin foil and other homemade from recycled materials, cooking devices. We used it in Girl Scouts too.

There were some of Grandma's cooking experiments that were pretty disgusting, especially as she got older and would leave things in the fridge far too long. Those were the times that I would say, "Oh I'm sorry, I just ate on the way here" or "I'm on a diet!" Usually I was a good sport and at least tried.

Some people are born teachers and she came out of the womb as a teacher. She was the oldest of four children and I'm sure she was a bossy big sister! :o) My Aunts probably wouldn't appreciate me saying that. However, as the mother of three children and as someone so close in personality to my Grandmother, I'm pretty sure I can say that with certainty! LOL I didn't inherit all of her teaching genes, but I did inherit her love of learning. Yes, I was born a "nerd". I have never walked in step with the time and I've always had my nose in a book. Early on I became an avid notetaker. Children do, afterall, learn by example. Grandma would watch an information show about cooking or new ideas and she would take reams of notes. She would often order books to add to her extensive library after watching shows because she never lost that desire to learn new things. I have often said that if Martha Stewart had been on during my Grandma's days of watching the television, she would have filled bookshelves with reams of notes she took while watching her show. I think in some areas Grandma could have 'out-Martha-ed Martha'! How's that for a word?! And you should see the sermon notes I take...just the same as Grandma.

One nice thing about her being a prolific note taker is that there is so much of her writing to read. She wrote down quotes, ideas for teaching in almost every subject and had a hobby of "collecting names". She wrote those in her notebooks too and she liked to look up their meanings. She did all these things up until about the last year or so of her life. Well, everyone has to slow down at some point in time.

I feel so blessed to have some of her hand written recipe cards and I was able to scan her handwritten cookbook which my Aunt Marilyn owns. I own some of my Grandma's cookbooks too...they are always an adventure to read! She followed the Levitical food laws, so if there were ever any "unclean" foods she would cross them out of the recipe and if some recipe or article caught her attention and got her thinking, she would brain storm there right on the page, filling it up with ideas to improve or add to the recipes and different ways of making it. She always said she was NOT a perfectionist, but an "efficiency expert". It may sound crazy but some of the precious markings in her books are the squiggly pen lines which are where she dozed off with her BIC pen still in hand and it wandered off along the page in haphazzard fashion. They are precious because they are her and they bring such vivid memories.

The pictures above...yes I'm finally getting to the point, but I'm really writing this post for my own benefit anyway...are from Grandma's cooking. The first is a scanned page from her cookbook. It's for the recipe that she used for bread when her children were at home. Marilyn made the bread and she still is a wonderful bread maker. The second is a piece of junkmail envelope. She never wasted anything, having been a young bride in 1930 at the beginning of the depression. She saved all her junk mail, slitting open the envelopes so they lay flat, making a full page of paper and keeping any sheets from letters which had writing only on one side. These were stacked neatly in a little telephone table that sat beside her TV and held her pink dial-up phone. Whenever we wanted to draw as kids...we always knew where to go for paper! "Waste not, want not"! Anyway, this is one of those sheets of paper and it is an example of how she would start reading a cookbook and would write down everything she wanted to make and all their variations. Some things I think she wrote down just because she liked the sound of the name.

I know I'm rambling on with my own memories, but even though I have written much...this is just the tip of the iceberg of what I could write about this fascinating woman. Many years I had to share my birthday celebrations with her, feeling like second fiddle at times...now I wish she was here to celebrate with me every year. I am so thankful to God that He chose her to be my Grandmother and thankful too that I learned to appreciate her before she died and that I absorbed so much of what she wanted to teach and pass on to me. What a jewel she was and there is so much every day with my children that I would love to share with her as she loved children so much and taught for so many years. These things will have to wait until Heaven. In the meantime I will have to be diligent in passing these things down to the next generation.

If I ever catch up this week, I will have to post some pictures from the air show that happened here this weekend. I feel like I will never catch up though! It's been a long time since I've had any knitting to share...sorry, not much knitting in this time and place in my life. I do have some things planned for this summer though and will write about them soon.