Birdy Takes Flight

[Letha.]

Hi Birdy,
I’m so jealous of your green house. It’s on my wish list. Take some photos to post when it gets all built.
Letha

[Birdy]

Letha, I will try to post photos, but honestly, I don't have a clue how to do that. Will get my daughters to help me! The greenhouse is built but there is still work to do to finish making a planting bed along one side and then getting some slatted shelves to put pots and trays on. I also ordered a book on greenhouse gardening (I think I mentioned that before) and am still waiting for it to arrive. I want to plant vegies to winter over, such as swiss chard, spinach, kale, and some herbs. We'll see how it goes!

On a shocking note, the father of one of my daughter's friends had a heart attack this past weekend after being on the Atkins diet for several months. He's only 43 years old. It must have been a mild one, but still, it's a serious reminder of how toxic that diet is.

As I mentioned, I read a book about the DASH diet recently (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension is what I think it stands for). Buried at the end of the book it said that vegetarian diets are best for reducing blood pressure and preventing it from rising as one grows older, but the diet they recommend on their program was designed to lower blood pressure without having to tell people to become vegetarians!

My brother and sister-in-law arrive tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to seeing them and hearing the lovely Georgia drawl that I grew up with.

More soon.

[Anna Green]

Green house? I'm impressed! Pictures! Pictures!

Hey, when you talk about the green house, the delight and excitement I think about a conversation we had a while back and wonder if that's some of the younger you surfacing?

[Birdy]

Anna, I love the way you put that, "some of the younger you surfacing." Isn't it interesting how genuine joy and delight are always associated with life and the freshness of youth.

I got good news at the doctor's yesterday when my blood pressure checked in at 128/82! That's way down from what it was previously at 156/92. We'll see how this holds up in future measurements, but for now I'm impressed in what a difference the lower salt intake is making, plus eating veg and taking some herbal supplements. Whoo-hoo! She also took blood and is running a bunch of tests, including thyroid which was borderline 2 years ago although I haven't taken any medication for it. I'm curious to find out the results of that and cholesterol, triglycerides, etc. If the thyroid turns out low, that could explain a lot, including why I've had such a hard time losing weight. More on that later....

Still waiting for the greenhouse to be ready to plant.
Having a really wonderful visit with my brother and his wife.

[Anna Green]

Birdy, I truly don't see joy as owned in anyway by youth. I just remembered (I thought) something you said a while back about missing the way you were when you were younger. Sorry if I got it wrong. I really enjoyed hearing you talk about the greenhouse.

[Birdy]

Finally a calm quiet weekend! No company, no social commitments, no kids' soccer games to go to, etc. Down time can be really hard to come by! So, I don't plan to do much of anything except a few errands and putting around in the garden, probably help my husband get the planter box built in the greenhouse and, if I'm lucky, actually plant something in there. The nights have been getting really cold already - in the mid to low 40s and colder weather is predicted for the coming week.

I'm going swimming this afternoon and maybe going for a long walk tomorrow.

Lunch today: Mary McDougall's Quinoa Chowder

Dinner tonight: brown rice with greens and tomatoes from our garden

[Letha..]

Hi Birdy,
Since you are interested in greenhouses I thought I'd share my dream greenhouse with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7y8Xxaa4ic

[sksamboots]

Your weather is sounding great to me...Today it was over 100 degrees and counting. Enjoy your relaxing weekend

[Birdy]

Got the results of lab work yesterday:
Cholesterol 210
HDL 47
LDL 119
Triglycerides 179
Fasting Glucose 105
Vitamin D level 19 (normal range is 32-100)

Obviously, the cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose are all high, and the Vit. D level is (to me shockingly) low. I got lots of sun during the spring and summer, didn't use sunscreen and am still fairly tanned, and yet my Vit. D level is very low. I don't understand that. I'm going to review what Dr. McD has to say about Vit. D

Weight still at 157 pounds.
Waist 37"

I don't know what it's going to take to get me to wake up and change my diet. A heart attack or stroke?

I have so much respect and admiration for all of you who have made great progress in losing weight and improving your health.

From this moment forward, I am making a commitment to myself to eat better. I'm going to try really hard to stick to a McDougall diet and to stop being confused about all the contradictory information, and also stop being swayed by everyone around me, family and friends, who eat SAD. On a positive note, I started walking and swimming over the summer, so at least I'm exercising.

[sksamboots]

I hope you get the Vit. D figured out. Just do what you know you need to do. Here to support you

[Birdy]

Letha, thank you for the YouTube link about the greenhouse. Ours is smaller than the one shown. It's made of aluminum, so I hope it will hold up. Also, we don't have hydroponics or a fan, but there are two roof sections that open. Boy, those hydronic plants look really healthy don't they?

It's after midnight and I should be asleep but it's so nice to get time alone - a hard commodity to come by around my house.

For dinner tonight, I made a nice stuffed acorn squash with wild rice, onion, mushrooms, a little tofu, a few toasted pecans, and some dried cranberries. There's plenty left over for dinner tomorrow night. I like a lot of the recipes for autumn and find many that are McD legal. On one of the health threads, there was a poll about the 10 barriers to success on this diet. I think one of mine is loving to cook!

I watched part of a video on the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii's website, but it didn't stream right and kept pausing every 2 or 3 minutes, so I quit viewing. It was a recent talk by Will Tuttle author of The World Peace Diet. He's very interesting and the book sounds great.

Good night all.

[bunsofaluminum]

mmm, that stuffed acorn squash sounds good. I may have to do something like it.

sounds like you're doing pretty good! keep on doing it...

[Letha..]

I watched part of a video on the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii's website, but it didn't stream right and kept pausing every 2 or 3 minutes, so I quit viewing. It was a recent talk by Will Tuttle author of The World Peace Diet. He's very interesting and the book sounds great.

Good night all.

Hi Birdy,
I’m glad you wrote about the ‘World Peace Diet’ book. After reading your post, I went to the website http://www.worldpeacediet.org/videos.htm and watched a brief video by Dr. Tuttle. He talked about his motivation for writing the book. He said he told his wife that he would like to read a book about veganism that went beyond discussing the implications on health, the environment, and animal cruelty, and addressed the spiritual implications and the way it impacts other problems in our society. She told him if he wanted to read that book he should write that book. That spoke to me because I also feel like I’ve read and understood the health/environment/animal cruelty impacts of meat eating but have read and heard much less about the spiritual and social impact. I also read a few reviews of the book on Amazon. Some said it’s a bit of a new age rant, which I might not care for, but for the most part the reviews were positive. So I checked my library on line and they had a few copies so I reserved one. If you read the book, please share your thoughts about it here. I’ll be interested to read them. Hope you are having a good weekend.
Letha

[Anna Green]

Hi Birdy, Good resolution. Keep posting. It helps me. Ok, with all my bad days I gotta tell you it would be way worse without the journal. Keeps me focused and it may you as well. Congrats on the exercise! That's all I got. You have a wonderful week.

[Birdy]

Yeah Letha, I was impressed with his manner in the brief time I watched him speak on Vegetarian Society of Hawaii. I also looked for the book in our library system, but couldn't find it. Maybe I'll do a bit more looking and, for sure, I'll let you know if I do read it.

Anna thanks for your comments. The exercise is coming along. I think swimming will help a lot over the dark rainy months here when it's hard to make yourself get outside to exercise. It's SO relaxing to swim. I love that about it. I agree with you that this journal does help. It's a good "go to" both in terms of the community here and internally.

So another bit of fallout from my doctor visit a couple of weeks ago: The bad news is, I have hypothyroidism (based on two different lab tests). The good news is it's mild and the low dose of medication, levothyroxine, has made me feel much better and way more energetic. So I've been very productive recently and am hoping it lasts! This may also explain in part why I've had so much trouble losing weight the past several years. We'll see.