Preparing for Detox

   As you know, we have been spending a month getting ramped up for our 4 week Detox program. Since starting, I have purchased the strangest array of foods and spices as well as a means to sprout, dehydrate or ferment foods.     

    I used my sprouter to create 2 kinds of sprouts. One was a french salad mix which was delicious. The other was a mix of peas that created a rather odd looking array of sprouts. They were a little getting used to but were great with the salad dressing I made. I found that sprouts do not last long. They need to be eaten within a few days. It makes more sense to make one batch and start the next batch a day or so before you are ready to eat the first. Having two at once provided more variety but we could not eat them that fast.

    My latest purchases include Umeboshi Plum paste. Yum. This is a pickled plum product that is rather sour but with the smooth fruity taste you would expect. I added some to my raw vinegar to may Umeboshi vinegar which I could not find in any store. This vinegar is a delicious base for salad dressings, or just simply sprinkled on food. I really have not found a purpose for the plum paste itself. As a fun thing, I found some rice wine with Umebosji plums in the container. The wine was surprisingly light and refreshing and it was quite a conversation starter seeing the plums floating on the bottom.

    The next item is Nama Shoyo sauce which is very similar to Soy sauce. It has no MSG and it is not as strong. I made a stir fry this week and used it but it can be used in place of salt on anything.

    Dulse is a dried seaweed product. you can eat it right out of the package and it is a little chewy like a fruit roll-up. Can't see eating it that way but cut up and added to food would be good. Seaweed is a very beneficial product to balance the thyroid. I aslo found a product called Modifian Brown seaweed extract. According to this product write-up, it can help to eliminate heavy metals from the body and aid in weight loss. I ordered some. Will keep you posted.

    I found a sugar called Lou Han that is 100% natural from a japanese fruit. It has 0 calories, no after taste, can be used in baking and finally, it has no affect on blood sugar. I is supposed to be 300 times sweeter than sugar but I think maybe 3 times is more like it. I was careful to purchase some with no additives as some makers temper it with glycerin powder to make it compare more to sugar.

    I found some seasoning that tastes exactly like Worchestershire sauce. It did not have the breakdown so I concerned that it has MSG. It was really good though on my portobella mushroom burger.

    Since finding out about Himalyan salt, I have purchased Himalayan salt in a fine powder, coarse crystals and then as a cooking utensil. Yes, I have a cooking grade 9" round slab of salt that can be used on my gas stove top to cook food. I haven't done it yet, but it will naturally "cure" fish that I simply lay on the slab. By getting it hot, I can grill the food. Anyway Himalayan salt is supposed to actually help with blood pressure. Hallejuah. Something I don't have to give up. I also find a wide array of salts, including some black salt from Hawaii. It is certainly not meant to be eaten as a table salt but it is quite showy and can be sprinkled on some foods for a great presentation.

   I mentioned fermentation. I have not purchased a crock but I am using a wide glass one gallon jar for my first experiment. I found a book called Wild Fermentation by Sandor Elixx Katz. His book is all about the benefits of naturally fermented foods and how to make them. He even includes some hooch recipes and stories about how he made hooch in prison. It is an interesting book to read. I was not aware that fermented foods should be a bigger part of our diet. For my first experiment, I shredded cabbage (of course), threw in some Daikon radish slices, Okra pods, a little red cabase, then immesed it in a brine of 1/ cup sea salt, dill, mixed color peppercorns and a little red pepper flakes. It looks like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie sitting on the counter. That might be why all of the crocks I found are not see-through. My husband says things are meant to ferment in the dark. Ok. Kitchen cloth to the rescue.

   We have been on this modifed diet for almost two months now. We feel much better. My cough is all but gone but I do still have a cough in the morning when I get up. Harry does not cough at all anymore. As for his hearing, he thinks Dairy is a direct link. Every day without dairy, his Tinitus gets better. It has almost disappeared completely. Then if he eats even a small serving of cheese, his Tinitus comes back slightly. The more dairy he eats, the louder it gets.

   I have noticed my blood pressure is better. I ran out of pills and felt rather light headed. So I took my blood pressure and it was 154 over 85. That is about what my blood pressure was running when I took the pills. It would have been 200 over 100 without them. Now with the pills I have gotten as low as 117 over 80 which I have not seen for some time.

  I suspect I was about to become diabetic if I was not already borderline. Excessive thirst (which is a good thing when I have to drink so much water), frequest bathroom breaks (not unusual with all of the water), but then a little dizziness and blurry vision from time to time. In any case, we have eliminated sugar. I am not really using the stevia or Lou-han very much either.

  My skin is much clearer, I don't seem to have the aches and oains I used to. I still get headaches but not as much. I have decided the headaches are related to blood pressure because I got them when I was out of pills. My attititude is better which was surprising since I did not realize that I was depressed and cynical. I would not have expected my diet to have anything to do with the way I see the world.

  Harry has lost about 20 pounds now. I have lost 12, but then it is always harder for me to lose. We cheated this week and had Mexican food at a restaurant. After all we will be in detox for a month starting Monday. We didn't feel so good after eating like that. It upset Harry's sytem for several days.

  I have to learn to use my Jack la Lanne juicer this week to prepare for my detox program. Luckily the first three weeks we get to actually eat food and only one week is all juice. I suspect we will see much better results.

Until next time.

Tinnitus cure?

    My husband Harry has had Tinnitus most of his life. He has no idea what the world sounds like without a constant hum in his head. It is comparable to sitting next to a refrigerator 24-7.

    In December the hum was so loud he could barely hear and he had awful pain in his ears. He also noticed he had very bad jaw pain as well. He had gone to the doctor so many times to no avail that he just suffered through it. He was completely deaf in one ear.

   He has valiantly been on this lifestyle diet change with me now for a month.

  Today he was jubilant. He said that hum is still there but barely audible. He actually has to be in a quiet room and listen for it to hear it. This is the first time he has had this relief since he was in his teens.

   To recap, no sugar, nothing with refined flour, no processed foods, so sodas, no milk and otherwise extremely reduced dairy. We have beef maybe once a month and 3 or 4 servings of chicken or fish a week. We have 6 poached eggs a week. I have switched to cooking with grapeseed oil because it can withstand higher heat than other oils. I use olive or walnut oil in my salad dressings. Every meal I make has at least 3 vegetables but usually more. Most of the vegetables are raw. If I boil them, I use the water for soup so we get all of the nutrients. We have several servings of fruit a day. Lately we have started the morning with a grapefruit or orange. I have added flax seed, sunflower seeds, nuts, and raw grains like barley, bulgar wheat and steel cut oats. We do eat a little bread, but it is the Ezekial sprouted multi grain bread. We also drink a lot of water. We try for 100 ounces a day and probably make it to about 75.
 
  The diet plan, or rather lifestyle change is what we plan to do from now on, with the occasional indulgence of some of my favorite recipes that are decidedly not within the plan. In the summer, I expect our diet will be about 70% raw food as it will be much easier then. Right now I can't help but want some hot meals.

  I had some blood work done over a week ago and got it back today. The doctor ran an extensive test to check my vitamin levels. My A and E were very high and I am not taking any supplements. My D was really low 3 months ago and is now mid level. I am taking 4000 IU of D a day and yes that is thousand, not hundred.

  For the record my cholesterol is 261. My HDL is 173 and LDL is 61.
  My glucose is 101, which my doctor circled. No doubt I was on the verge of diabetes.

  Noticing the changes to our health as we embark on this venture is really exciting.

Suspicious about Dairy

    A few weeks ago a friend of mine sent me an email that said the Japanese do not eat Dairy. They also have the lowest cases of cancer. Later, I read where dairy products contribute to congestion and excessive mucus. Now Harry and I LOVE cheese. We have experimented with some wonderful cheeses. I had to admit, I could hardly eat a meal without cheese. My cholesterol was proof of that. Even though we were eating rather healthy, the cheese was probably contributing to a host of my problems. We cut back on cheese a few weeks ago to maybe 3 times a week rather than 3 times a day. Our congestion has improved considerably but we still have an occasional cough.

Yesterday we decided to have an omelet for breakfast since we will be eliminating eggs from our diet soon. I filled it with mushrooms and a jalapeno pepper and added just a bit of grated cheddar/jack cheese. For dinner, I arranged some rinsed Cannellini beans, roasted red peppers, thin sliced zucchini, tomatoes and fresh basil in a shallow glass dish and baked it until the vegetables were tender. Then I topped it with fresh Mozzarella cheese (also known as buffalo Mozzarella). It was delicious and filling. However when I woke up this morning, I was hacking up a lot of mucus. My cough and congestion was nearly gone but the addition of that much cheese brought it back.

No doubt about it, I think the cheese was a factor.

I am going to experiment with making seed cheese. That is made from seeds that are soaked a few days then ground up. Yum.

The start of this

   I have been typing my thoughts into a word document everyday. My wise daughter told me about blogspot and said I should share my experience. I am on a journey to recapture my health and hope I am rewarded with renewed health, weightloss, and the ability to throw out prescription drugs for several health issues I have had for years. So forgive me while I cut and paste what I have written so far.

9/27/2010

   I hit the big 200 recently. Actually 202.1 pounds! Time to do something! So I just joined Weightwatchers online and decided to start a blog.

  Eight years ago, I had gotten to 215 pounds. I was married to a man that preferred junk food and take-out. Even if I cooked a healthy meal, he was likely to just pick at it then go for a drive to get some “real” food.  On the day I hit 215, my company just happened to be starting Weight watch sessions, so I joined!

   I was not surprised when I lost 2 pounds on week one. My weight actually fluctuates about 5 pounds from one weighing to the next. My instructor explained to me that we should weigh once a week at the same time of day, period. That way, we really see progress and not the fluctuation. I was a little more excited when I showed a 4 pound loss on week two. By month end I had lost 5% of my body weight.

  With Weight Watchers, it was not so much that I learned how to eat correctly. I kind of knew already but just was not doing it. It was very difficult to eat right with that husband of mine. However, he was also working to slim down, so he was a bit more willing to eat what I put on the table.  By the time I lost 30 pounds, he decided to move out. Guess he really missed those take out burgers! Once I was able to eat they way I wanted, I quickly lost more weight. 55 pounds in 20 weeks. As for my ex, he had a heart attack a year later. He was jogging a few miles every day to keep his weight down but still ate the junk.

  So I learned how to eat right, and my NEW husband liked to eat good food. He had also gone through the Weight Watchers program shortly after we met, so he “got it”.

  So we both know how to eat right but 8 years later I am back at 200 pounds! What happened!!!

  Part of the weight just crept up. I was 153 pounds when I started dating Harry and 163 when I married him 9 months later. Over the next 5 years I gained a few pounds a year putting me at 179. Then I went to California for a two week business trip. I was literally at the mercy of my company for my source of food. It was like a two week version of Supersize me! Junk food every meal, high fat and sugar snacks everywhere. About the only think fresh I managed to find was an apple. I gained 10 pounds in two weeks. The following month, I went back to California again and gained another 10 pounds. I was right there between 195 and 200 and stayed there for the last year.

   It has to make me think that if I could not lose the weight I gained from 4 weeks of junk food after a year, what happens to the people who eat junk food every day?

10/4 Went to the farm this weekend. This is a rental property that we suddenly had to clean up and rent. It is in the country and 12 miles from the nearest anywhere. We drove to the house 2 hours away and had to spend the night there. There was no refrigeration, and it was an empty house. We took some ice chests and had to buy things we could microwave. The house was totally empty save for what we brought for ourselves.

    I had the forethought to make a couple of salads and put some juices and ice tea in the cooler. Then I went to the store. I bought some Lean Cuisine Margarita Pizzas, some chicken on flatbread, and some egg burritos for breakfast. For a snack, I bought some cheese and wheat crackers. I also bought a couple of bran muffins and a few pieces of fruit, pears and plums.  It didn’t feel like much to eat for the whole weekend, but we got by. My husband bought some trail mix and I have to confess, I ate a handful.

   I got back from the farm and weighed myself on Monday. I had lost two pounds.

10/6 Tuesday’s are another challenge. We have our grandsons for a few hours with little time to prepare this time. They love macaroni and cheese and hotdogs. We had some lean roasted turkey meat. I asked Harry to make some plain white rice, then make a gravy out of low fat cream of chicken soup with some turkey chunks.  We also wash off broccoli and nuke it for a minute in a wet paper towel. I intended to eat the rice with a little of the gravy. I found that Harry had mixed it all together. So I ate mostly broccoli, some canned crowder peas and a little of the turkey and rice. The boys had hotdogs and macaroni!

 10/12 I weighed myself this morning and I am back up where I was, plus ½ pound. Then I remembered, Weight Watcher’s says not to weigh more than once a week. My friend has been asking me for my carrot soup recipe. I made her some last spring. Well I can’t find my recipe so I have to make some to test it out.  It is fairly low in calories and high in fiber. I make it is broth with a red potato to give it some heft. After I puree it smooth in the blender, I add a tablespoon of heavy cream and turn the blender on high. It thickens the soup and makes it really silky. I figured out it amounts to 80 calories a serving.  Not sure how many points that is.

I really need to down load the WW system to my black berry so I can enter points during the day.

1/3/2011

Yes it has been about 2 months since I wrote, or did anything for that matter. For the month of October, we were sick with a bad cough and upper respiratory infection. Nice. Not only that, my brother and son with his fiancée seemed to take turns visiting during the month. My husband and I had no time together, and what time we had, we did not feel like doing a thing.  Needless to say, it was difficult to stick with any diet during this time.

In November, we were still sick. This upper respiratory infection would get better, then worse, then better. We ate mostly vegetable soup. My brother stayed nearly the entire month. My son got married the day after Thanksgiving, in California. So my daughter went with me. We missed getting our “turkey fix”. I fixed a Turkey dinner with all of the trimmings a week after Thanksgiving.

The month of December was more of the same. My brother was with us the entire month and we were still sick with this stuff that will never go away. Still, we celebrated Christmas with my daughter, her husband and my two grandsons, and my brother. For Christmas dinner, I made a beef tenderloin with a peppery whiskey based sauce, horseradish cauliflower puree, green beans with grilled mushrooms, scalloped potatoes, cranberries with jalapeno, crunchy but soft yeast rolls and to top it off, a mixed berry tart. Not exactly diet food but it could be worse.

Two days before New Year’s Eve, my son and his new wife showed up. By this time, our colds had come back with a vengeance. On New Year’s Eve, my husband had made a commitment to dress as Elvis and remarry some of the neighbor’s at a party. We managed to go to the party, but I left after the ceremonies and returned home to cough my brains out.

Let me explain about my brother, son and daughter-in-law. They are all over the road truck drivers. They drive for weeks on end with no break then get a two to four week vacation (depending on what they can afford). They are all homeless in the sense, they have no physical address. They live in their trucks. New my brother knows a lot about nutrition and he and I grew up in a household where we appreciated vegetables and fruits. He is very opinionated about what we eat. “You shouldn’t eat cheese, it stays in your body for life. You shouldn’t eat fish, too much mercury. Lobster and shrimp are the cockroaches of the sea”. He is a joy to be around when we are trying to eat. My brother takes a lot of vitamins and swears they are the sole reason for his health. Then he blows it all by going out and buying himself a bag of donuts.

My son on the other hand, appreciates a good home cooked meal. He loves fried chicken, mashed potatoes or mac-and-cheese,  chicken pot-pies, roast beef and trimmings, and Mexican food. LOTS of Mexican food. He will eat a salad but only when it is drowned in Ranch dressing. He thinks he is eating healthy, but it is not much healthier than trucker fare and take out.

It does not help that I can cook outstanding Mexican food. I grew up in California and ended up in Texas. I have made frequent trips to Mexico as well and have enjoyed the authentic costal cuisine. I cook what I call Mexicali, which is sort of a healthier and fresher combination of authentic Mexican, and California style meats and seafoods. Regardless if it is not drowned in Chili or cheese, I can’t consider it low-cal cuisine!

I made my New Year’s resolution while Harry was down the street pretending to be Elvis with the neighbors. He made a real fun Elvis. We wrote the ceremony dialog based on some ceremonies that impersonators had on You-tube. We were in dim light and he could not read it very well so he had to improvise. It was hilarious and everyone had a good time. I left shortly after to go home and nurse my cold. I was tired of being sick, and I was tired of being fat with no energy. I was NOT going to make a resolution to go on yet another diet. I made my resolution to get healthy. I was still right at 200 pounds. Not bad for going through the holidays. At least I did not gain. Had I been healthy, I might have.

I found a book, Don Colbert’s Seven Pillars of Health. I quickly bought a few more of his books. As of 1/3 I started cooking more vegetarian and since we were sick, concentrated on soups and salads.

1/23 My son and his wife stayed until January 20. They had gotten very tired o soups and salads. By this time I was actually a lot sicker. I think it was because my son smokes like a chimney and my system was rebelling big time. His wife was ill too with a neck injury. That was actually the reason they were with us, so she could talk to some doctor’s. The doctor finally told her to wait it out. Harry and I were both barely able to hold our head up and my son expected me to get in the kitchen and make some macaroni and cheese.  I had made three soups a few nights before so I would not have to cook. He told me they didn’t like leftovers. I told him it was time to go. I was quite furious at him for that.

My husband and I had one night to ourselves. One night since October 1^st. Then my brother came back. We asked him to keep going but he could not afford to drive his truck a few hundred miles away then return for a delivery on Monday. So here he was. We condemned him to upstairs and fending for himself. On 1/22 we stayed on the couch and slept most of the day. We only got up to drink more water, feed our animals or eat soup. I read some of Don Colbert’s books in between snoozes. Then we went to bed. Of the whole day, we slept about 20 hours.

1/24 I went to my doctor to talk to him about a diet program we were going to start. It would take about a month to ramp up, then we would go on a strict diet of vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. In the mean time, we would eat very limited dairy (like a serving of cheese three times a week). I love cheese and it is the hardest thing to give up – next to butter and salt. We were already at a point where we ate beef once or twice a month. We already limited chicken and fish to maybe four times a week. 2-3 ounce servings for me and 4-6 ounces for Harry. No white flour products, no sugar. Our only allowed sweeteners would be honey and Stevia. We shouldn’t be having honey but I was fighting allergies here and local honey should help.  Oh and if not obvious, no fried foods! Only lightly sautéed or steamed.

I asked if he could help me ramp down from my blood pressure meds. Just so I could skip them during my month long detox.  I told him that I had skipped my meds during the week I was really sick and my blood pressure was 175/101 the one time I took it. It was 143/85 when he took it today so his answer was absolutely not!

He was really excited about what we were doing though and can’t wait until we come back in April.

He took my vitals and a complete blood work up.

1/28 We decided to try a new Thai and Japanese place. I was amazed but we were able to stay within our allowable foods. We also enjoyed some wasabi which is really supposed to help out cold.

1/29 It was the 56^th anniversary of some very dear friends of ours.  We ate out oatmeal for the morning but we ate what we wanted for dinner. The idea of this life style is that we can indulge from time to time. We both had chicken in a light Marsala wine sauce with sautéed haricot vert (green beans) and some polenta. The Polenta had parmesan cheese in it. We could not resist a small slice of garlic bread. We toasted the couple with a glass of white wine. Over all, I felt the meal was a lot healthier than most means you would expect at an Italian restaurant. I didn’t even consider the ravioli and that is a tough one for me.

1/30 A few days ago we went to Whole- food’s. It is a grocery store with very healthy and organic foods. We bought barley, oat bran, steel cut oats, almonds, pepitos, flax seed, macadamia nuts and Himalayan salt. I read where Himalayan salt will actually help lower blood pressure. We also bought some green phyto-nutrient powder. Anyway it was the weirdest basket of food we had bought in a long time. I intend to add these ingredients into our diet to replace some of the others we are used to. It is difficult to give up “crunchy” foods like crackers. I found a raw food recipe book (can’t call it “cook”, cause it is RAW). Anyway it has a recipe for a crispy cracker type food made out of all of these seeds and nuts that I cannot wait to try.

1/31 I read where Himalayan salt crystals can be melted in water and the salt water can be used to salt food. I love my salt it is a big no for high blood pressure. I read the Himalayan salt water can actually help reduce high blood pressure. There should also be a 3 to 1 ratio of potassium to salt. Since I have eliminated processed foods and most store bought condiments and salad dressings, I should not be getting the hidden salt and be able to control my salt intake better. Anyway, I melted them and put them in a spray bottle that once held white balsamic vinegar. They did not melt completely and the sprayer clogs up. However, I can add a few drops to my food and I am happy.

I weighed 192.1 today.  Officially that is 10% of my body weight and I lost it in one month.

2/1 Harry and I are both really missing “crunchy stuff”. He is much more of a cracker and chip hound than I and can eat a bag in one sitting if I don’t stop him. I don’t think there is anything much better than a properly made potato chips, or toasted garlic bread. Anyway, I found a recipe for some crisps and made them.  I started with 1 ½ cups of dark flax seed (yes they come in brown or gold), put them in a bowl and covered them with about 2” of filtered water. A few hours later, the seeds had absorbed all of the water and were somewhat gelled. I had no clue they would do this. To the seeds I added ¼ cup each hulled sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds (green pepitos), and white sesame seeds. Then I added a tablespoon of black sesame for contrast. I seasoned it with cumin, garlic, cayenne pepper and Himalayan salt.  I spread this out on a silicone mat on a cookie sheet and made it as thin as possible. I don’t have a dehydrator so I turned to over to 170. Got them started for about 10 minutes then opened the door to the oven for the rest of the time. After about 4 hours I turned the seeds over by simply flipping the mat and removing it. This recipe yielded some very nice and tasty “crackers”. We both ate them up.

2/2 After going to the bathroom about 5 times, I did some more reading. Flax seed is a great cure for constipation. So was the oat bran we had yesterday morning and the barley we had in the soup last night. I don’t think I have to worry about my Diverticulitis ever again if I stay on this plan. So I made some more crisps. This time I used Chia seed instead of Flax. I used the same seeds as before and added some chopped almonds. I seasoned it with fresh finely chopped rosemary, garlic powder, pepper, red pepper flakes and salt. They were delicious as well.

I made a nice Tagine meal for dinner. I started out with one large chicken breast and seared it on one side (in 1 tsp grape seed oil).  To that I added broccoli, cauliflower, thinly sliced celery, onion, carrots and Moroccan spices. When the vegetables were almost steamed I added capers and preserved lemons. I would usually throw Kalamata olives in here but I was out. I could have thrown in some dried fruits but I already had a date with almonds and dried coconut earlier as a snack. The Tagine is a wonderful device. Really easy to cook in. I could cook in the vessel without any fat at all and just use water but I wanted to brown the chicken a bit.

We followed out meal with a glass of red wine. Haven’t given that up yet but we have cut down from what we were drinking.

2/3  I got up late today. Fitful sleep.  We watched a movie where some skiers got left in the lifts for the weekend. One of the skiers jumped from the list and promptly broke both legs. A pack of wolves soon descended on him and I kept drifting back to that movie. Not something I usually watch but the effect on my sleep was obvious. Maybe I was relating to the hungry wolves.

I really have not been hungry on this change. I think it was an easier transition because we seldom ate takeout and I used very little processed foods. I have a weakness for Ravioli and it is way too easy just to open the can and have all of that sinful goodness three minutes later. Instead I made a beautiful salad plate.  Two fresh lettuce leaves, 1/4 avocado, About 3 inches each of a cucumber  and Daikon radish,  One Roma tomato, Two quarters of an artichoke, a serving of shredded raw beets, 5 olives, 5 almonds, parsley, an onion slice, 5 asparagus spears (lightly cooked) and a poached egg. All of this was artfully arranged and topped with some of my lemon basil salad dressing. It looked  like a lot of food and it was very pretty and satisfying.

Eventually I have to completely give up the eggs for a month. It will be difficult. I need to gear up on the grains and beans for protein.

Let’s see. How am I feeling today? My congestion is almost gone but I still have a cough now and then to clear my throat. I was using a store bough saline nasal spray and read the ingredients. After that I decided just sniff salt water then rub my nose with coconut oil. It helps. I feel more alert. I did not have a headache today like I usually do. My skin is clearing up but now going the other way and looks very dry and not very firm. Need to drink more water.

Drinking half my weight in ounces of water is my goal but very hard to do. I always want to drink water with my meal, but my guide says I can only drink 4 to 6 ounces of room temperature water with meals. The no water for at least 1 ½ hours after a meal. So I drink 12 ounces in the morning, 24 ounces before lunch and 24 ounces before dinner. Unfortunately we eat fairly late and we should not drink water before bed. But we do. I usually drink 12 to 36 ounces of water some time after dinner and overnight. I am still about 36 ounces short most days.

I sliced some sweet potatoes very thin, tossed a little oil on them and seasoned them with chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Then I put them in the oven on 170 to de-hydrate them. They turned out like crunchy potato chips and were wonderful.

I weighed 191.2 today.

2/4 Since I seem to be using my oven to dehydrate food to make crunchy snacks, I bought a food dehydrator today. I also bought a seed sprouter, some Tulsi tea, Nigella seeds and black seed oil. I heard about the Tulsi tea on TV that it helps the immune system, especially bronchial inflammation. About a year ago I ran across the benefits of black cumin. It is supposed to cure everything but death! There is a myriad of information on black cumin, and it does not help that the product goes by 20 different names. Actually I am not so sure they are all the same thing, just people wanting to sell their stuff and claiming the product is something it is not. Nigella seed is supposed to be one of the alternate names. Actually I found a web site that describes the black cumin seed and the Nigella seed and they are decidedly NOT the same. Nigella is supposed to have an interesting flavor and it makes a pretty blue flower when planted. So I bought some. I also managed to find a place that had the black seed oil so I got that too.

I decided to quit Weight watchers today. I really was not working the plan. I am on to something else! The concept of WW is great. You can eat what ever you want, you just have to assign points to the food and stop when you reach those points. You learn to eat right because the only way you can get full is to eat low calorie foods like vegetables. When I was on it before and reached 153 pounds, I needed to drop down to 21 points to lose any more weight.  I felt I was already eating like a little sparrow as it was. Literally I would have a poached egg and piece of dry toast in the morning. Then a salad for lunch. At night I would have a piece of goat cheese, some tomatoes and basil with balsamic vinegar for dinner or something like that. I always ate one walnut and two dates every day. Still do.  It was hard to stay on, especially when I met Harry. He ate like me for a few months except more quantity and lost about 20 pounds in two months. Basically we could not sustain it. It is really hard to eat that little food every day. Blowing it once a week was enough to ratchet our weight back up over the years.

I think the plan to eat mostly vegetables and fruits  is working for us.