Tag Archives: mediterranean diet

Wednesday Thoughts

M D Parr-Getty Images-flickr.com – martinparrsnaturepics.com

We have gone from monsoon type, flooding rains (12 inches in one week) to ‘excessive heat warnings’ (heat index of 118) to regular mid summer temperatures and no rain here. The only thing is that summer hasn’t officially begun yet! Kind of impressive. I’m just happy we have air conditioning and can insulate ourselves from the worst of it.

I’ll go and get a haircut in about half an hour. Right now I look like a dandelion-gone-to-seed with hair everywhere. When Michael finishes with me, I’ll still look like me, but it will be obvious someone had a plan. :0) I’ll do a couple more errands and then come home in time to fix our lunch.

We didn’t catch a critter in our humane trap overnight, but ‘someone’ was eating sunflower seed, triggered the trap door to close, but didn’t get caught. We’ll reset the trap nightly until we get someone else.

I’ve been spraying weeds lately, trying to get all the super-growth of greenery due to the rains under control. I’m making slow progress since it’s so hot, but I’ll keep at it, a bit at a time. I’m going to check my tomato plants and my zucchini plants today to see if I need to do anything.

I’m feeling good about my eating plan now, including as many veggies as I can each day, enjoying some fruit again, and watching portions, trying not to snack. My scales showed some progress this morning, so that’s a step in the right direction, too. I’m reading my new Big Yoga book, too, trying to find poses to add to my regular yoga practice. I’m planning to do the short online videos (warm up, balance, and weights) today, too.

We’re hoping our good plumber will be able to make time to help us this week with a 2nd line in the well house so we can irrigate our front yard planters automatically. I’m watching my elephant ear plants in particular. I’ll need to take water out to them if our guy can’t get here in the next couple of days.

This week is flying by! It seems I was just talking about Monday of another week and we’re already to Wednesday. My too-long hair is blowing as the time flies past.

Enjoy your day.

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Filed under DIET!, exercise, Gardening, Mother Nature, Thoughts on a ________

Getting a Handle on It

Handles4U

Yesterday I finally made some progress in ‘getting a handle on’ how I can make the Mediterranean eating plan work for us. (This is complicated because my husband rarely meets a veggie he likes or will even consider eating.)

Yesterday we had a huge fight-with-technology trying to get a Mediterranean cookbook downloaded onto my Kindle. I hardly ever use it, preferring to hold real, treasured books in my hands, but cookbooks are a different ilk, as far as I’m concerned. There are usually only a few recipes I’ll actually cook in each, so I can download a cook book, use what I like, then decide if I actually want to add it to my collection or delete the book from my Kindle and try another.

Making a long story much shorter, we had to DE-register my Kindle because it was listed under my old email address, then RE-register it under my current email address. THEN call for technical help on getting ads off, THEN fight to get rid of ‘freebies’ I didn’t want. I was able to finally get the cookbook and read it last night. As usual, it focused on eggplant, kale, couscous, tofu, Brussells sprouts, cauliflower, chickpeas, etc. Even after more than 50 years of marriage, I know my husband would leave if I tried to cook these things for dinner.

I thought about it a lot, and finally came up with ‘doing my own thing,’ incorporating as many veggies as possible, concentrating on those to which my husband doesn’t object, and flavoring with meats he likes. That means veggie casseroles with chicken or beef or pork ‘flavoring.’ It also can mean stews of various kinds. And fruit as part of our meals and as snacks.

If I cook these, making enough for more than one meal and freezing the leftovers into individual servings for the freezer, I can have lots of meals both of us like, increasing the veggies and fruit I want in my diet and not causing a revolt-among-the-masses. I can also try the recipes that sound reasonable. If my husband doesn’t care for them, I can freeze any leftovers for ME to eat later when my husband is having a Lean Cuisine, Real Food, or Stu’s frozen meal on busy days. Not a complete plan, by any means, but a workable start.

I’m feeling better every day now, with my digestion getting back to normal. I’m now taking my thyroid medicine first thing, eating a small breakfast an hour or so later, then taking the rest of my meds with lunch. This is workable for me. :0)

It’s still rainy here, so the guy bringing us a truckload of chat for the driveway hasn’t called or come. Neither has the plumber, whose work will be outside in the well house. If we can go to town between showers, we’ll get another timer to join the one we just installed in the well house, to be ready when the plumber does his thing.

Meanwhile, my husband actually NOTICED that I had been working in the pantry yesterday! I’m making my way through the food side of the pantry, getting rid of a lot of stuff, cleaning, and then re-organizing. I may finish the main part by the end of the day today. It feels good to be getting things easily accessible, plus smelling the ‘clean.’

If it ever stops raining, I’ll need to get out to my tomato plants and my garden to catch up there…

I hope you’re having a wonderful Wednesday.

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Filed under DIET!, Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Mediterranean Eating Plan + Recipes, Organizing/DeCluttering, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Thoughts on a ________

Ugh

quickmeme.com via thriftyniftymommy.com

I had trouble getting out of bed this morning. I wanted to just pull the covers up over my head and stay there until further notice. I haven’t felt well for about 3 weeks now and it’s taking its toll on my ‘normally-bubbly’ personality.

I’ve been trying all the suggestions I can find about how to continue following the keto eating plan with my lack of gallbladder. I’ve found lots of suggestions, and I’ve tried every one I’ve found. The first time I tried keto years ago I found a wonderful medicine that was really helpful. I asked my doc to send in a prescription to our healthcare provider a couple of weeks ago. Finally, yesterday a representative called and said that the med wasn’t on the formulary anymore and that my part of the cost would be $181+. That was it. I can’t afford that, and I can’t afford not to be in control of my digestion, weight or no weight.

My friend Susy pointed me to an article on various diets and their ratings. I have decided to move toward the Mediterranean eating plan, with lots more veggies and fruit (a direction in which I was moving anyway to get more fiber). She then asked me why I thought my calorie limit should be 1200 calories a day. I discovered that I was stuck in the old food pyramid crap they’ve been spouting for as long as I’ve been alive and decided to research calories, carbs, protein, fats, sugars, etc. all separately and see what I could find.

This will be a work in progress, for sure, since my husband is NOT a fan of veggies, but hopefully, I’ll start feeling better soon and can find the combination that results in continued, albeit slow, success in my efforts to lose the lard. I’m enjoying some fruit for the first time in a long time, plus carefully chosen Healthy Choice frozen dinners for me while I’m researching.

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Filed under DIET!, taking care of yourself