books, food, green, health, me
27 August 2010 | 1 Comment
Due to reading In Praise of Slowness
and some other thoughts that have been swimming around in my head lately, I’ve decided to go for a new goal.
My new goal is to cut out pre-made or over-processed foods. I guess I don’t know exactly how to define the type of food I’m talking about. I’m talking about things that people made from scratch 30 years ago but now we depend on mixes or frozen boxes for.
This isn’t a big leap for us; I already cook nearly every meal we eat at home and most of our grocery shopping is already from the perimeter of the store. I haven’t bought frozen pre-cooked chicken fingers or bagel bites since we’ve been married (5 months today!). Those used to be my go-to lunches, so if I can cut those out, it won’t be hard to stop the rest. I already no longer buy canned vegetables, they’re either fresh or frozen fresh, and we don’t buy pre-cooked meats other than pizza toppings. So for us this means no more Bisquick pancakes (I’ve made pancakes from scratch many times, so not a biggie), no more brownie or cookie mixes (everyone loves these anyway), and no more Kraft mac & cheese.
The last one will be the hardest, I eat mac and cheese for lunch all the time. Don’t get me wrong, homemade mac&cheese is no stranger to me, this is just one area where convenience has me so won over it will be hard to break the habit.
Thinking on this same topic last night I asked Shawn what he thought about getting rid of the microwave. I don’t think that idea went over too well.
family, food, green, health, me
23 August 2010 | 1 Comment
Oliver: our puppy is going to be very big—huge, the vet says. He has gained about 10lbs a month since we got him and still has a ways to go. We need somewhere to put him where he can play by himself other than our tiny balcony. We also need a place where we don’t have to worry about him trying to make new friends with people who really don’t want to be his friend when someone takes him out without a leash.
Money: payments for several of the houses we’ve looked at would be cheaper than our current rent.
No more elephants: I really don’t know how the people upstairs make so much noise.
Garden: I really want to plant a vegetable garden. Actually, I want to do this: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!
Buying the cow: We’ll have room (hopefully) for a freezer so we can buy a half of a cow.
We’re having a baby: Okay, the baby isn’t due until February, but I’m sure it would be a lot easier to make the move into a house before then than to wait until our lease is up and move with a 2 month old.
I’m pretty sure I had a lot more reasons than this when I first wanted to post on this topic, that’s what I get for being a slacker.
health, me
17 January 2009 | 3 Comments
I get these cramps sometimes in my feet or legs when I lay down to rest or sleep and sometimes when I get up. I also get random cramps in my hands throughout the day (not every day). This has been happening for a few months. So, I Google it, find out they’re referred to as nocturnal cramps.
What deficiencies can cause these cramps? B-12 or potassium. My multi-vitamin has B-12 but no potassium.
Research potassium and what foods are high in it. Get a website that also lists medications that can affect potassium levels – Prednisone increases the release of potassium in the urine.
Why hasn’t my doctor checked my potassium? I’ve had blood work done 3 times since I started Prednisone the first time, they never ordered a check of my potassium.
Tagged in blood work, cramps, doctor, potassium, prednisone
