Tag Archives: eating healthy

September 17, 2024 · 10:18 am

Goals

I don’t want to live to any particular age, but I would like to be as healthy as possible for as long as I can. I can’t control all of that, but I CAN control –

  • What I weigh
  • What I eat
  • How much exercise I get

As you know, I’ve been trying to lose the lard and move more. I’m about halfway to my goal now.

Eat Smart Move More NC

I started with a BMI of 34, which is labeled on the chart as “Obese.” Right now I have a BMI of 29, labeled as “Overweight.” I’m celebrating JUST being ‘overweight’ now. My goal is a BMI of 24, which is labeled “healthy weight.”

I’m eating a low-carb diet, trying to drink more water, and using MyFitnessPal daily to pay close attention to what I’m eating and drinking.

My moving more efforts include working in the yard, practicing ‘old lady’ yoga stretches, and various YouTube workout videos. I’m doing one now from Good Morning Fitness with stomach exercises done standing that don’t involve jumping. I also like a whole series with Mike from Australia. He has a website called More Life Health Seniors. I’m also trying to make myself at least walk around the house and out to the shop once a day.

I’ve started taking SuperFoodMD Fruits & Veggies supplements, a competitor to the much-advertised brand you see on TV. That one is too expensive for me, but this one costs less than half as much. (I put the two products side by side and they look like the same thing.) I eat basically the same thing for lunch every day, and we eat a somewhat limited number of low-carb dishes for dinners, mainly because my husband will only eat a handful of veggies. I hope that these supplements will help me make sure I’m getting what I need for good health.

Indian Hills Humor – Vince, the Sign Guy

Onward and Downward!

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January 9, 2023 · 10:58 am

Trying to Eat Healthy

Sent to me by my friend, Marsha

Two days ago I pulled a couple of salmon fillets out of the freezer. When I thawed them, I discovered I had FOUR, instead of the TWO I had expected. I went ahead and cooked them, serving them with some steamed veggies. I had never had salmon leftovers, so I looked on the net to find suggestions for using them. I hadn’t thought about making a salmon salad, like tuna salad, but I decided to try it. My husband was pleased with both dinners, and I got some other ideas of what can be done with the leftovers, so I’ll probably do it again – on purpose next time. :0)

My husband’s request is for spaghetti tonight. We used to enjoy a large pasta bowl of it with garlic toast. Now we eat in a much more careful manner, trying for moderation, rather than eating what probably amounts to 3 or 4 servings each at one sitting. Now I serve it in small bowls, with a salad on the side and maybe a dinner roll. I divide the leftovers into individual portion freezer containers, ready for us to heat and eat at other times.

I’m building a portion of cashews into my daily calorie count, particularly when MyFitnessPal.com concludes “I’m probably not eating enough” after I list my eating plan for the day.

We’re enjoying our lunches, comprised of fresh fruit, potato salad, a slice of ham or turkey, and maybe some cheese. It’s colorful and delicious.

I’ll get back to my exercising, warm-up and weights exercises online one day and my elliptical trainer on alternate days, plus my session of yoga in the afternoons – once my arm quits complaining.

I’m cooking more, but carefully, and am enjoying the ‘cooking once’ getting several meals out of each session.

And I’m hoping this, along with trying to drink more water, will result in a healthier, sassier me for 2023.

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November 22, 2022 · 8:59 am

Phase 1

Animal Comedy -Cheezburger

_____________

Phase I of my adapted eating plan –

I’m basically still eating in the Mediterranean style, with more veggies and fruit, but I’m making some changes that I HOPE will result in losing some of my lard –

  • I’m not adding salt to ANYTHING until further notice.
  • I’m eating HALF the amount of cottage cheese I was eating after my yoga practice, and I changed to the low-fat version.
  • If I eat anything else between meals, it’s baby carrots. That’s IT. (If I don’t want them, I’m not truly hungry.)
  • Yesterday I chose more carefully on what I’m including in my lunch, eliminating a few things.
  • Careful dinner. No dessert. Nothing before bed.
  • If I’m up in the middle of the night, I will eat carrots. :0)
  • I’m consciously drinking more water – at least a bottle before lunch AND before dinner.
  • I will eat Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners celebrationally – then back on Phase I.
  • I have asked my husband to help me by NOT bringing me ANY wonderful things to eat until further notice.

These changes, along with my daily exercise, should get me started.

DAY 130 on daily yoga practice. Held plank pose for quick count of 40 yesterday.

1st Weight Loss Goal – to get to my prepandemic weight loss amount. (That’s 6 lbs. – THEN I’ll make a new goal.)

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July 17, 2022 · 9:50 am

Today’s Harvest 7-17-2022

We had a nice harvest this morning, with more coming soon. The weather has started affecting the quality of the tomatoes with some breaks in the skin, a couple of bad spots, etc., but they still taste absolutely wonderful and we’re spoiled beyond redemption, shamelessly devouring some for both lunch and dinner daily while we can. :0)

Tenor

Tonight we’ll enjoy a “Main Meal Salad” (chef type salad) with added chicken from Lunch Bunch, so we’re having a nice, healthy day.

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April 27, 2021 · 9:42 am

Leave Room

etsy.com

So far, so good on my garden veggies. We are due for rain this evening-into THURSDAY, with some possibly severe, so fingers are crossed again.

This is the whole garden, except for the two brick planters of tomato plants on the other side of the house and yard.

As you can see here, the zucchini and yellow crookneck squash didn’t like the recent freezes. I’m hoping that the main plants are healthy and that they will put on more leaves now that we have supposedly passed the danger of freezes and frosts.

The spinach is happy.

Buttercrunch Lettuce
This is cabbage. I’ve never grown it before so I have no clue what I’m doing. I’m like a little kid watching a magic show.
Nook Tomatoes
As you can see, these tomatoes need to be weeded.

All appendages are crossed that all my sweet veggies make it through until Thursday afternoon, when the rains are supposed to be over for a bit.

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March 27, 2021 · 10:22 am

Open Mouth…

Food Network

Since I’m not having much success with not eating between meals, I’m trying to gather some things that will be better to snack on than others.

I cut up celery and radishes yesterday. I have baby carrots and some cherry tomatoes. I can make a pretty, colorful, healthy snack for myself now to enjoy with a bit of dip.

My husband and I usually have something before bed. I know we shouldn’t do that, but I feel really deprived if he is eating and I’m not. I got some Sweet Freedom No-Sugar-Added Ice Cream Bars that are doing the trick.

My eyeballs are floating from all the water I’m drinking each day, and I’m adding to that since I’m working outside now.

I’m hoping that I can report some progress soon. :0)

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January 10, 2021 · 9:33 am

Under Height

I’m doing well so far with getting serious again about eating right and exercising. My scales are starting to take notice and do something besides smirk. I’m doing my elliptical trainer in the morning and my yoga stretches in the afternoon and trying to concentrate on moving in-between. I felt bad Friday afternoon, but other than that have done well. :0)

Instead of a commercial weight loss program as we’ve tried before, we are enjoying frozen meals for dinner from Real Food and Stu’s Clean Cookin’ – both new to Greenwood, interspersed with my own cooking, the leftovers from which are stored in individual servings in the freezer with the other meals. This encourages paying attention to what a ‘serving’ is. Sometimes I fix an extra veggie or salad on the side, but most of the time, it’s just the meal.

For lunch we’re having homemade tuna fish salad – made from one small can packed in water for the two of us – sugar free jello, plus I have olives and my husband has sweet pickles. We are trying not to snack in-between meals or before bed.

I’m trying to drink lots of water.

I’m hoping to be able to report a good amount of poundage loss by the end of the month, but it will take as long as it takes. As long as the scales are showing a downward trajectory and my measuring tape is showing a bit of progress, I will be satisfied.

I will be delighted if I feel stronger, more flexible, have more energy, and feel fewer balance problems as I continue to exercise daily. I smile when I see the gold stars on my desk calendar. I will have earned 6 stars this week – and will have a chance to earn 14 next week. :0)

With so many things happening in the world over which I have NO control, I take comfort that THIS is something I CAN control.

TaoLife.com

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September 16, 2020 · 9:53 am

The Verdict So Far is “Delicious!”

“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

We have now eaten two frozen meals from REAL FOOD in Greenwood. 964 East Center Street, Greenwood, AR 72936.  (479) 414-6337.

We liked last night’s meal – “Home Fries, Roasted Chicken, Bacon and Cheese” even better than the first night’s, and that’s saying a lot. :0)

I have asked the owner if she would consider posting at least ball park estimates of nutritional information on the website so that we can try to plan around the one GLORIOUS meal we’re eating each day. (We are doing a combination of intermittent fasting and very light lunches.  If we have a snack, it’s a keto-type one.)  This afternoon the choices for the coming week should be posted.

I’m also going to concentrate on my exercising more, now that our weather is cooling off a bit. I’m aiming for elliptical trainer in the morning and yoga stretches in the afternoon, with as much walking in-between as I can get in.

 

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September 9, 2020 · 11:01 am

Can You Hear My Teeth Grinding?

“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

 

Today is the cutoff for making changes to our next week’s delivery from BistroMD. Until yesterday, my husband’s page still wasn’t showing that I had written and asked them to remove snacks from what I thought would be the final week’s order.

When I went to the websites for each of us this morning, each said at the top, “No deliveries are scheduled.” I’m HOPING that means that our memberships are – in fact – cancelled and that we don’t have to pay for and receive another week’s worth, but it isn’t clear. At the beginning, the paperwork said we would have to get ANOTHER week when we cancelled. I’ve been on hold, and have given a call-back number several times, but haven’t been able to reach anyone yet.  All my appendages are crossed that we are finished with this company and can move on after we eat a few more meals from the first week’s order.

In the meantime, we checked out the new Real Food place in Greenwood yesterday. It was so clean it squeaked! There was a choice of four different prepared-by-hand frozen meals in the freezer, and all sounded good. The lady explained to us that now that they have an actual ‘store,’ they will move away from weekly pre-orders and will expand the offerings in the store as they can. This would be very convenient for us. I will need to check out the nutrition labels more carefully, but we could at least have some meals in the freezer for the times I go on strike and don’t have the energy to cook in the future.

I am ready to go back to our keto plan IF we are finished with the Bistro group. I think we have a day and a half’s worth of meals left from the first week, and then we can switch.

GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!   A customer service person from Bistro called me back just now. He confirmed that since it says “no deliveries are scheduled.” on each of our pages, that I cancelled the plans in time that we DON’T have to pay for or receive another week’s worth of food. HOORAAAAAAAAAY!    :0)

Now I will look at the Real Food website and see if they have choices listed for pre-orders for next week listed.

 

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September 5, 2020 · 11:14 am

BistroMD – First Impressions

Caught Red-Pawed – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

 

Our BistroMD first week’s food was delivered yesterday afternoon. The package warned of dry ice, but it was all melted. The food seemed to be good and cold, though.

One thing that is different from the other plans we have tried is that they want you to take out the food for the next day, transferring it from the freezer to the fridge to thaw slowly. I do that with meat, chicken, and fish, anyway, but this is the first time we have done it with frozen dinners.

Our first meal was dinner last night. My husband had “Beef Stroganoff” and I had “Broccoli Cheddar Stuffed Chicken.”   These are both from the Diabetic Menu, since we are both trying to avoid any added sugar.

We both thought our dinners were OKAY, and certainly better than the South Beach frozen stuff. (We both had really LIKED the “White Bean Chicken Chili” and “Cheeseburger Soup” in tiny bowls from South Beach for lunch and dinner, though, so we don’t want to rush to judgment. We may still be in withdrawal from finishing those.) This is more nutritious than what we have been eating lately, with the veggies being included in the meal, rather than depending on the customer to add good choices as a side. The Beef Stroganoff included mushrooms, and broccoli, with linguini. The Broccoli Cheddar Stuffed Chicken included carrots and a barley salad with spinach, red onions, and slivered almonds.

A drawback, as far as I am concerned, is that they did not have a keto eating plan choice. Since my husband has Type II diabetes, though, and my goal is to simply lose the lard in the most healthy way I can, this is certainly worth a try. It looks like they are arranging the day’s food to be around 1000-1200 calories.  I am hopeful these good people can help us lose the lard and eat healthy.

I was able to do my yoga stretching yesterday for the first day since I got bitten/stung by the ants last week, and I’m planning to do that, plus a good amount of yard work today as my exercise.

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August 2, 2020 · 11:06 am

Frustration

tvoydosug.com

We are about to begin Month # 2 on our South Beach Diet. We have not yet received notice that our orders have shipped. We are down to meat sticks and shakes, and we will use these up while waiting for our new food. I did the DIY meals in the program (2 dinners, 2 lunches, 2 breakfasts, 2 morning snacks and 2 afternoon snacks each week) but I will be doing a lot more until we receive the next shipment.

One good thing is that my husband appreciates my cooking even more now, since we are eating strangely most of the day. :0)

Another good thing is that I am VERY aware of portions. Example: I cooked Suzanne Ryan’s “Bacon-Wrapped Cheesy Chicken” (Simply Keto) last night. We each ate one half of one chicken breast and some fresh tomatoes on the side.

A third good thing is that my exercise efforts are going well. I have done my elliptical trainer every day this week, plus a session of yoga stretches. I will finish off the week today, earning two more gold stars for my desk calendar (a total of 14 stars!)

On the 5th I will post a progress report on my efforts to lose the lard. Hopefully, we will have our new food order, and I can post some good results!

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June 28, 2020 · 9:23 am

Motivation is Funny

Frans Lanting Photography-John Steed via Gitta Newman via Penny Yaffee Krakow

 

During the pandemic my husband and I have gotten lax about our keto eating plan. We are eating mostly that, but OTHER things come home in the grocery bags that “I” didn’t put in the cart. I’ve been cooking healthy, but have little will power when it comes to listening to my husband crunch fritos, Doritos, or potato chips, bagels, no sugar added cookies, etc. I also get cravings for starches – particularly rice. My husband won’t eat any of the substitutes, and usually that is fine. I have mine frozen in portion sizes and can just pull one out – except that I haven’t been. Excuses abound and the pounds gradually return…

On June 22nd we decided to get more serious before things got totally out of hand. Needing something to really get our attention, we ordered the South Beach diet program of prepared meals and eating plan. Our intention is to do this for two months. They include DIY breakfast, lunch and dinner two days per week, so I will still be cooking keto style, but hopefully, we will re-learn portion sizes, good practices, plus hopefully  a recipe or six that we like. I am hoping that at the end of the two months we will be back on track for losing the lard.

Our problem NOW is that because of Covid 19, their staff is cut and they are behind on orders. We ordered on the 22nd and according to their website, our first order has not been shipped yet. I’m hoping the first month’s food will be shipping in the coming week.

A funny thing, though –

Since we made the decision, both of us have eaten more carefully – I guess in preparation for starting the actual program. I’ve lost 3 pounds and my husband has lost more than that. My opinion is ‘whatever works,’ but it’s funny – and GREAT – that the lard is starting to come off again.

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May 9, 2020 · 6:09 pm

Harvest 5-9-2020

These pictures seem like they are the same couple of pictures TWICE. Actually, they are two different batches of lettuce I harvested today. I took two views of each batch so you would get a good idea of how much the head lettuce is producing. This is one view of batch # 1 today.

 

A second view of the first batch.

 

 

Batch # 2

 

Batch # 2

I processed and washed 9 gallon plastic bags of lettuce leaves today. I am rich in lettuce!  Guess who will be eating LOTS of salads starting at lunch today…

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September 18, 2019 · 12:46 pm

Carb Counting

email from Marsha Koenig

We have been making a lot of changes in how we eat over the last year or so.

It started with wanting to lose the lard. We chose Nutrisystem and had some success, but got tired of them dropping our favorite choices and so wanted to try to continue on our own, eating more real food.  We are trying to cut out sugar as much as possible, mainly due to my husband’s Type II diabetes, but also just for general health improvement. We are also eating a LOT less starch, pasta, bread, etc. We are trying to eat more raw veggies and fruit, plus nuts.

For the past several months, I’ve been trying to eat Keto based low carb meals. We vacillate on how well we do. My husband is cooperating, but eats too much fruit, cookies, and other stuff,  and doesn’t really care about trying to get into ketosis, since he’s basically the weight he should be now. I’M the one who still needs to lose the lard, going for another 30 lbs or so.

The thing I used in the past with success is MyFitnessPal.com.

When I started doing keto, things got a bit confused for me. If I stay at the 20 grams a day level for carbs, the program says I’m not eating enough calories. I’m not really sure what to do about that. I can probably just continue to use it, record my eating to make sure I’m at the 20 carbs level each day and ignore the message. I would like to find a carb counting program that is more tailored to keto, if possible.

I have a great source of recipes, not counting the good sites online, and that is Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan. I’m re-reading the background material again, trying to get and stay motivated. The recipes are delicious. They’re not a whole lot of work and don’t require a bunch of ingredients that are difficult to find. I have truly never found a recipe book which has recipe after recipe we like.

Tonight I’ll make her ‘Sausage,Cheese and Egg Bake”

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July 22, 2019 · 10:16 am

Tomato Harvest July 22 – 2019

Today’s tomato harvest with more to come tomorrow!  We are truly rich in tomatoes this season. We’re enjoying them for lunch and dinner every day. From a really shaky start, when I thought that the long tomato planter’s plants would die when they suddenly turned yellow, and that all we would get was greenery from the plants in the nook planter, we’ve had a wonderful season.

 

This is what is in our fridge now. I will share these with friends this week. :0)

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June 16, 2019 · 11:35 am

We’ve Been Spiralized (if you’ll pardon the expression)

HungryGoddess.com

 

 

I’m probably the last person on the planet to spiralize a veggie. I’ve made cauli-rice and I’ve cooked spaghetti squash, but just spiralized my first yellow squash last night.

My sister-in-law, Mary Lou, told me that she had done it recently and she thought it was very good. Somehow, in my mind I was waiting to ‘process’ some and freeze it just to eat in place of spaghetti or noodles.

I used my spiralizer (above) for the very first time and it worked like a charm. I sauteed the squash in some olive oil, added some seasoned salt and pepper, and some garlic powder. It only took a few minutes to cook. My husband doesn’t like to ‘fight’ with spaghetti or anything like that, so I cut the ‘squash spaghetti’ into bite-sized pieces and served.   I put some on my husband’s plate, along with nice roast beef slices, and asked him to try it.

To my surprise, he said, “This is okay. What is it?” Around our house, this amounts to a judgment of ‘we can eat this again.’ (Not ‘YUMMY!” but it’ll work.) I can now look forward to serving this under recipes that call for spaghetti, angel hair pasta, or even noodles.

As far as our new ‘son’ (we’re hosting a 16-year-old soccer-player from Italy for the next school year, starting in August), I’ll ask him to try it. If he likes it, we’ll all try it with spaghetti and meat balls or a stir-fry. If he doesn’t, it won’t be a big deal to make some actual spaghetti for him.

Tonight I’m trying zucchini!

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May 6, 2019 · 10:42 am

Chicken Recipe is “YUMMY!”

I really like Karly, of ThatLowCarbLife.com.  I’m finding more and more recipes my husband pronounces, “YUMMY!” from her website.

In a post here recently, I told you about her “Easy Baked Chicken Parmesan.” 

This time I tried her “Creamy Lemon Chicken with Garlic.”

 

Karly Campbell – ThatLowCarbLife.com

This is a different flavor than we usually eat, but my husband kept remarking about it as he took bite after bite. :0)

We buy a big tray of huge chicken breasts by Tyson. The first thing I do when I bring it home is cut each breast lengthwise because a whole one is too much for either of us to eat at a meal. I then put 4 halves into a freezer bag, label it, and put it in the freezer. One tray gives us a freezer full of chicken for lots of meals. Then it’s easy to thaw what we need for a recipe, actually making enough for two meals for us. :0)

I go to Karly’s website regularly now, having bookmarked it on my computer.  I like the fact that she uses easy-to-find ingredients. Her directions are clear, and her recipes don’t take a lot of time, and yet you end up with a meal that brings compliments!  Check out ThatLowCarbLife.com if you want to try some YUMMY food!

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May 5, 2019 · 5:07 pm

Ready to Plant More!

This picture gives you a good idea of how our raised bed, square foot garden is set up. You can see the six boxes. Each is 4 foot square. Each has a sprinkler in the center with hose connecting the boxes to one master control that irrigates the garden each morning for 10 minutes. Each box is divided into ‘squares’ by running wire in two directions. You can also see that there is fencing around the garden to keep out large critters. It also has chicken wire running around the bottom for little critters.

The rains lately caused an explosion in the garden. The plants were spilling out of the top over the sides. I couldn’t see the squares anymore. It took me three days to get things harvested, washed, and either put in the fridge or distributed to friends. I finished cleaning up the garden this morning so it’s ready to plant some new things. My husband and I will see what is available in the coming week that looks interesting.

We have about 5 heads of lettuce that might still make. The green part of the onions is over my head. :0)

I think this is zucchini squash. I also have some cantaloupe plants.

The jury is still out on whether sweet little plants like these that are dotted around the garden are weeds or spinach. I’m hoping for spinach. Time will tell.

This sweet little guy is celery, transplanted from sprouting in the kitchen. I cut off the end of some celery I bought at the store and put it in water. It’ll be fun to see what happens.

I keep telling you about Mel’s Mix, the soil alternative I use instead of real dirt in my garden. I buy peat moss, vermiculite, mushroom compost, barnyard compost, and cotton burr compost from the local co-op and put each ingredient in one of the garbage cans. I then put the ingredients in the correct ratio into our portable concrete mixer.

This is easy to use and mixes things SO much better than I was doing before with a shovel in my wheelbarrow. When mixed, the mixer will move down to dump the ingredients into a bucket, the wheelbarrow, or whatever, and I transfer it to the garden boxes.

I’m hoping we’ll find something fun to plant next week. Fingers crossed!

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April 22, 2019 · 1:21 pm

Today’s Planting

Michigan State University

We looked for spinach plants at four different places while we were out, ASKING at each place. The consensus seemed to be, “We have seed, but no plants this year.”  I have officially thrown in the towel on getting spinach plants, just hoping that the little sprouts in the middle of several squares in my garden are, indeed, sprouting spinach seeds.

We got zucchini and cantaloupe plants today and I’ll plant them in just a few minutes. I’m not sure how I’ll do this because both of these would rather be on the ground in a place where they can spread their runners wherever they want, but I’ll give it a try. If I’m successful at all, I’ll use my spiralizer gadget to make zucchini noodles for myself.

My husband looks appalled when I mention zucchini or yellow squash ‘noodles,’ cauli ‘rice’ or ‘mashed potatoes,’ or spaghetti squash ‘spaghetti,’ so I’ll make these for myself and make him regular pasta, potatoes, or rice rarely. He does love cantaloupe, though, so I’m especially hopeful I can get some of these to grow well. Fingers crossed.

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April 21, 2019 · 4:36 pm

Garden Progress 4-21-2019

I now have enough of OUR fresh grown broccoli to make some soup!

 

And this is the lettuce I harvested. I could have brought in lots more. We eat salad each night, but I’m not sure we can keep up with all we’re growing this time.

 

This photo shows many of our lettuce plants, plus you can see the onions in the rear of the picture.

 

This is the second row of planters. You can see the broccoli plants and some of the radish sprouts.

 

I planted several squares of radishes. I eat some raw every day at lunch, along with carrots, cherry tomatoes, and celery.

I have all appendages crossed that this is one of several sprouts of ‘something’ I HOPE is SPINACH!  Time will tell.

 

Close up of one of the lettuce plants. This is ONE plant taking up a whole square. It’s HUGE.

 

This isn’t a garden plant, but I’m so pleased with it this year. It’s a perennial ‘something, and it has had only weak blooms each spring until now. I just love it!

More work tomorrow, but it’s that time of year! :0)

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April 17, 2019 · 3:10 pm

First Harvest of Spring 2019

My broccoli is a bit scraggly-looking, but it should be tender and flavorful. I’m going to use it to make soup.

 

Unless something bad happens, it looks like we’ll have the best lettuce ever. This was harvested today – the outer leaves from just three of our plants. This filled two gallon fridge bags. We’ll sure enjoy some of this for our main meal salad dinner tonight!

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April 8, 2019 · 11:57 am

Square Foot Garden Progress April 8 – 2019

Inhabitat

 

Here you can see four of the six planting boxes we built. The wooden ‘boxes’ are supported on metal table-like structures that allow me to do most everything chest-height, without having to bend over or get down on my hands and knees. I really love it.

Other than the lettuce and red onions you can see here, I have broccoli plants, plus radish seeds and spinach seeds. (The spinach seeds in the greenhouse aren’t doing anything and I can’t get any spinach plants locally this year, so I just planted some seeds directly in the garden and will let you know if anything actually comes up.)

 

Here are the broccoli plants. I have things really spread out. He suggests one plant per square, but not next to each other, to discourage pest problems and disease.

I do follow his suggestions that you keep track of where you plant things each year, and the next year plant them in different squares, a crop rotation thing.

 

Here’s a close up of one of the broccoli plants. See the baby broccoli head?

 

Here’s a close up of the lettuce. This says, “Head Lettuce”, but I harvest leaves for salad as it grows and either produces a small head, or doesn’t. My love is the fresh lettuce leaves each night!

Although Mel suggests planting 4 lettuce plants in the same square, my results are better when I spread things out.

 

This is an 8-foot brick planter on the opposite side of the house from the garden. We converted it to a square foot planter, emptying out all the top soil and filling it with Mel’s Mix (mixture of peat moss, Vermiculite, and as many different types of compost as you can find.) I’m using barnyard, mushroom, and cotton burr, plus any compost I can make from our scraps.

 

This is a second brick planter that is about 4 feet wide that sits in a nook created by the back of our house and the screened back porch. The tomatoes are more protected here, and usually survive better than the ones that are more susceptible to the wind.

I read a good article on growing tomatoes lately. It suggests planting them deeper than I have been, and then pinching off some of the ‘arms’ that sprout, as well as pinching off top leaves to keep the plants more compact, rather than allowing them to grow as tall as they like. The article says this encourages more fruit rather than so much greenery. Since fresh sliced tomatoes is one of our very favorite things, I’m going to try this, hoping for a great harvest.

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February 28, 2019 · 11:15 am

The Long and Short of It

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

The short answer is 43 pounds lost and 44.2 inches lost to date, since my ‘heaviest and lardiest.’

The longer answer is we’re trying to take care of ourselves, now that my husband and I are getting ‘long-in-the-tooth’ and would like to maintain or increase our quality of life for as long as we can, enjoying our lives to the fullest.

Since we both have health issues, my husband gave up added sugar and I gave up added salt. We are limiting our red beef, concentrating more on chicken and fish, veggies, fruit, and nuts. We’re both trying to drink more water. I’m trying to exercise. My husband said, “Now that I turned 75, I don’t HAVE to worry about exercising.” – as if he ever has. I am exercising more than I ever have, with the exception of when I was teaching swimming every summer and working in a restaurant part-time to help pay my way through college.  I continue to encourage him to exercise.

I’m concentrating on stretching, balance, core strength, and reaction time. Basically just trying to consciously move more. I’m doing a combination of yoga, abdominal exercises, walking, elliptical trainer, dance, and Wii Fit Plus each week. Sometimes I’m successful and get it all in, sometimes not. I’m trying to pat myself on the head (and give myself a gold star on my desk calendar) when I do well and not beat myself up when I don’t.

The same on eating. My husband is almost where he needs to be on weight. I still have a lot to lose to get to my goal of being in the healthy range on BMI and insurance charts. We’ve been on Nutrisystem, but are on hiatus now, trying to eat our way through the remaining food while not having more sent. In May we’ll probably change to A LA CARTE. We are doing our own thing a lot of the day and are needing the packaged stuff less and less. I’m substituting healthy recipes we really like for the entrees.

We’re giving ourselves permission to eat out when the mood strikes – a quality of life issue for us. Last night we ate dinner at The Dari, one of the new restaurants in Greenwood, Arkansas. Last night we got a seafood platter and two plates. This gave each of us plenty of food without overeating. We enjoyed our splurge/treat without breaking our diet. I made it a point to ask at the front counter who was responsible for the seafood. Several of the cooks raised their hands. I gave them a two-thumbs up, a big grin, and told them they were WONDERFUL.

I have to get a blood test on the 18th of March to see if I’ve improved in a couple of areas. Fingers crossed.

 

 

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February 7, 2019 · 1:37 pm

The Verdict is In

My husband gave it the Basic Broccoli Soup a try and doesn’t care for it. I think it tastes really good. If you’re interested, here is the recipe –

Basic Broccoli Soup – Dr. Kris Verburgh, The Longevity Code

Basic Broccoli Soup 

¼ cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves, chopped  (I used minced garlic from a jar)

4 cups water

1 pound broccoli, chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 vegetable bullion cubes (I used chicken)

Pepper

Finely chopped fresh parsley

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes. Pour the water into the pan and add the broccoli, bouillon cubes and pepper. Simmer for about 40 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and blend the broccoli with an electric mixer or immersion blender to puree. Serve with parsley.

Tip –

You can also add 1T dried basil, 1 bay leaf (removed before blending), and 1 small, chopped onion, for extra flavor. (I did this)

You can also make the soup thicker by using more veggies – for example, substituting 1 lb 10 oz of veggies for the water. ( I’m thinking I’ll add spinach leaves to this next time.)

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October 13, 2018 · 11:56 am

Progress in the Greenhouse!

I found these suckers on a tomato plant and replanted them in the greenhouse. I’ll be trying to get lots of others started, as it’s too cool outside now for the tomato plants to create ripe tomatoes. I’m HOPING that I can either have tomato plants ready to replant in the planters in the spring, or even have a ripe tomato or two to enjoy! So far, these seem to be doing well.

Yesterday I turned off the second fan and closed the greenhouse door. The exhaust fan is still hooked up and will turn on if the temp gets over 80 degrees in there.

 

These are the really small lettuce plants I planted about a week ago. They’re still alive, but aren’t having an explosive growth.

 

I took TWO shots of the ‘leggy lettuce’ I planted several days after the small ones. Here you can see how large they are compared to the smaller one on the right.

 

If they continue to do this well, I’ll start carefully cutting larger leaves to include in our dinner salads!

I also have several celery plants I’ll bring out to see how they do. :0)

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May 23, 2018 · 12:55 pm

Yesterday’s Harvest

I’m grateful for the harvest yesterday. In the picture above you can see that my spinach plants are not enjoying the heat. Lettuce and spinach are cool weather plants and I usually enjoy quite a harvest before the too-hot begins. I’ll harvest as much spinach as possible because I can freeze it.

 

The head lettuce leaves are still okay, but looking a bit stressed. These plants are happier than anything else, with the exception of the radishes, in the square foot garden right now.

 

I’m sad because the really hot-too-soon in the season weather we’ve been having is causing the romaine lettuce to bolt. I’m not sure how much more I can harvest before the leaves taste bitter and I have to compost the plants.

 

We’ll enjoy the fresh lettuce and spinach for salad each day for as long as possible. I’m not sure whether I’ll get more broccoli, but the hope is that I’ll get more from the shoots from the main plant after the center has been harvested. The radishes and onions are doing fine, although some of the green tops of the onions are shooting up and trying to make seeds. The tomato plants on the other side of the house are growing rapidly. They like the heat. I have a few blossoms, so I’m hopeful we’ll enjoy a nice crop this year.

 

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May 14, 2018 · 1:24 pm

Ready for Another Harvest!

Our raised bed square foot garden is doing well so far this year. We have six 4’x4′ boxes on metal ‘tables’ at about my chest level. I can just walk up to them, planting, weeding, or harvesting without having to get up and down from my knees or bend over double – a thing I can’t tell you how very MUCH I appreciate!

 

We are growing iceberg head lettuce, romaine lettuce, sweet onions, radishes, spinach and broccoli. We have two converted planters on the east side of the house with tomato plants.

 

I’m going to go out and harvest some things today, but I wanted to show you how nice the plants look before I do.

 

 

 

I have some celery started in the kitchen that I’m hoping I can transplant to these empty squares soon.

 

 

On the lower right, you can see the start of radishes in the square.

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May 4, 2018 · 6:24 pm

Confusion Re NutriSystem Solved

urbclekki.wordpress.com

Yesterday I happily started Week 2 of our Nutrisystem plans, carefully having made note of Powerfuels (and lists of) and SmartCarbs (and lists of), as well as what each of us was to eat at the various times of the day.

I got to the point of adding dinner into my NuMi tracker records and discovered that I was going over the calorie limit at the top! I had thought that one of the perks of the Nutrisystem plan was that you didn’t have to count calories, but it was clear that I had messed up in some way. I deleted the veggies I had planned to eat and the snack I had been looking forward to eating after dinner, staying under the calorie limit.

I contacted one of the nice people connected to Nutrisystem via the live CHAT today – one of the great parts of the program, in my estimation. She said that I needed to switch to “nutrisystem’ instead of ‘turbo 13’ as the current stage of my program. (I had thought that when the NuMi page congratulated me on finishing the Turbo week, they would make any changes needed.) The kind lady switched my program stage for me and I was off to the races again.

We ate our first FLEX meal (meals eaten off the plan to teach you how to cope with the real world and not break your new eating plan). We’re supposed to eat one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, and one snack as Flex meals each week, preferably not on the same day. We ate our regular Lunch Bunch with our good friends, not wanting to change our cherished time together. My husband had his loved chicken fingers and I had a big salad and a hard boiled egg, figuring I was eating two servings of veggies and one powerfuel.

We are delighted to be eating FRUIT again!  We haven’t eaten fruit in maybe over a year, due to my husband being a type II diabetic and our trying to eat low carb. It’s such a treat! My husband’s blood sugar number yesterday was the lowest it’s been since we have been monitoring it!

We are making changes to our next order on almost a daily basis, finding things we don’t particularly care for, and other things we really like and want more of. The website makes it easy to do that.

So, my confusion and upset from yesterday was solved today. I’ll happily dive into the freezer this evening for a nice entree for each of us and probably an ice cream sandwich!!!

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April 27, 2018 · 9:46 am

Whisper

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We made it through Day 1 of Nutrisystem. We have to say that they have improved a lot since we tried it years ago. I am eating and drinking out of the ‘magic red box’ (Turbo 13) in the Uniquely Yours for Fat Ladies program, and my husband is in the Diabetic Uniquely Yours program. His reaction yesterday was, “This isn’t half bad!”

Honestly, we were so busy eating or drinking at the proper times we hardly had time for much else. :0)  We weren’t hungry. We did have a pang after dinner when we would usually have an ice cream sandwich or an orange dream bar, but we can have an after dinner snack NEXT week.

I drank the 64 oz of water, plus a couple of cups of coffee, so I got my exercise running to the bathroom during the day and four times last night…

We have Lunch Bunch today. We’ve done this for a hundred years or so, seeing good friends and catching up, and we’ll continue doing it regardless of what eating program we’re on. Starting next week, we can have Lunch Bunch be our flex lunch, as we’ll have our ice cream after bowling be our flex snack. Today I’m going to have a salad and write it up as the one I would have had with my lunch later, as one of my 4 servings of veggies per day. I’ll try to keep my husband on track for the rest of the day, but he’ll make the decision whether to cooperate or not.

I’ve started losing the expected water weight, so my body is recognizing that things have changed. Good start!

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April 15, 2018 · 10:02 am

Square Foot Garden After Storm

We had bad storms with a strong cold front Friday afternoon and evening – including tornadoes, damaging winds, rain, hail, and flying hair balls. I was worried that my fledgling square foot garden plants would get battered.  Yesterday and today we’ve had cold temperatures for April in Arkansas – barely 40 and gusty north winds.

As you can see, the garden is doing fine. WHEW!  Thank  goodness these are all cool weather plants!  I may lose some of my tomato plants, but the rest of the garden is good.

 

 

Broccoli

 

Iceberg Head Lettuce

 

Romaine Lettuce

 

Spinach

It’s almost time to start snipping!  I can gather the outer, larger leaves of the lettuces and the spinach soon. As soon as it warms up a bit, I’ll get some radishes started.

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March 26, 2018 · 10:03 am

Believing in Tomorrow

Audrey Hepburn via GrowingBolder.com via Cathy Ruggiero

 

tomato plants

“It was such a pleasure to sink one’s hands into the warm earth, to feel at one’s fingertips the possibilities of the new season.” ~ Kate Morton

Raised Bed Planters – Row 1

“My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant’s point of view. ” ~ H. Fred Dale

 

Raised Bed Planters – Row 2

“In every gardener there is a child who believes in The Seed Fairy.” ~Robert Brault

We’re due for rain starting this afternoon – going from “Thunderstorms,” to “Heavy Rain,” to “Showers,” to “A.M. Showers,” to “Thunderstorms” through Monday of NEXT WEEK! My biggest concern now is that my sweet plants will come up out of the ground and flow out of the squares and boxes and end up on the ground below…

“You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt.” ~ Author Unknown

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