Thistle Dew Nutrition

Please see my new site at LadyHawk

2007-10-03T11:34:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

Please join me at my new blog site. I've officially opened LadyHawk Nutrition and this has led me to start a new blog (still in Blogger) using that name.

Please read my new blog at: http://ladyhawknutrition.blogspot.com/

Please take time to visit me at my website: www.ladyhawknutrition.com

Thank you all for your support!

Maggie

Can't stop from saying "I told you so!"

2007-07-24T08:57:00.000-04:00

While sitting in my family room last night, doing Sudoku puzzles and watching the news I had this overwhelming desire to shout out “I told you so!”
OK, I know that’s just not nice, but I feel so much better now.
And here is WebMD’s report on the same, um, report:

July 23, 2007 -- Drinking just one soft drink a day -- whether diet or regular -- may boost your risk of getting heart disease, a new study shows.
That is because a soda habit increases the risk of developing a condition called metabolic syndrome, according to the new research, and that in turn boosts the chance of getting both heart disease and diabetes.
"Even one soda per day increases your risk of developing metabolic syndrome by about 50%," says Ramachandran Vasan, MD, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and the senior author of the study, published in the July 31 issue of the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.
To be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, three of five criteria must be met: a large waistline, elevated blood pressure, elevated fasting blood sugar, elevated fasting triglycerides, or reduced HDL or "good" cholesterol.
"This study adds to the wealth of scientific evidence that sugar-sweetened beverages increase the risk of metabolic syndrome," says Vasan. Already, he says, the rise in sugary drink consumption has been linked to the epidemic of obesity and diabetes among children and teens and to the development of high blood pressure in adults.
Even after adjusting for intake of fat, fiber consumption, total calories, smoking, and physical activity, he says, there was still a link between soft drink intake and metabolic risk factors.
To read the entire WebMD article please click on this link:

http://www.webmd.com/news/20070723/1-daily-soda-may-boost-heart-disease?page=1

And so many of you are wondering how sugar-free soda’s can affect these results? There are two theories that I know of, and probably more theories, and they might both be factors. First, as the WebMD article goes on to say (if you click the link and read the whole thing) drinking sweet beverages, whether they have calories or not, might condition the drinker to crave more sweet foods as well. This goes hand-in-hand with what Dr. Russell Blaylock writes about in his book “Excitotoxins”; that except in Type I diabetics Aspartame actually tricks the brain into telling the body to express Insulin even though there isn’t any sugar in the system, thus lowering your blood sugar and making you hungry and craving sweets to raise it back to normal levels again.

So what do we drink? The same stuff we’ve been drinking for a thousand years: water, beer, wine, milk, fresh juice (in moderation) and many different kinds of unsweetened teas.

It's a "dirty" job but...

2007-05-02T16:03:00.000-04:00

Well, I’ve been trying to climb the Mt. Baldy steps about twice a week, and I still have to get there this week and it’s Wednesday already! Actually, I thought today was Thursday until about 10:30 this morning and can you imagine my wide eyed disappointment when I was told it was only Wednesday? I just HATE when that happens.

Anyhoo, I decided that all of those steps were actually working on making my gluteus maximum more firm, if not smaller, and that I now needed to devise a similar (read “free and somewhat rewarding) exercise regimen for my upper body. I was provided the answer last night while I drove into my garage, where at the end of my driveway there is one very large pile of sand and another very large pile of black dirt that my Dear Husband had a friend deliver. D.H. said he was helping the guy out, and that the guy was supposed to return with a tractor of some sort to bulldoze and grade the sand and dirt into a lovely space ripe for gardening. This last part apparently never happened.

But there I stood last night, enjoying the spring weather, looking outside my garage door and admiring (cursing?) those two 5 foot tall x 10 foot diameter piles of dirt. Which needed to be shoveled. By my weak armed crooked backed body. Voila! There is my free and rewarding upper body workout!

I let the kitties outside and grabbed the shovel and panted and puffed for about 20 minutes and thought “Boy, that’s a great workout and I should be able to get these piles under control in about 20 more workouts!” Then I stepped back and took another look and realized that I might be more like 80 more workouts. Pumpkin and Scootie just ate grass and paid little attention to my efforts.

I hope I get done before it gets too hot outside in August.

On top of Old Baldy

2007-04-19T09:28:00.000-04:00

So I’ve been sitting on my fat a$$ all winter. I have got exactly NO exercise since November, and I enlisted the motivational help of my Very Good Friend Molly to help me. We made an appointment with each other to meet Tuesday night at 5:45 pm in Saugatuck at Mount Baldy. Mount Baldhead is a big white ball that we erected by the armed forces in the 1940’s (I think) as a radar and observation tower, and is today only used as a tower to house weather cameras for local television stations. Why did we meet here? Because there are 282 wooden planked steps to the top of the hill where the ball is perched, and it’s a serious workout with a breathtaking view when you’re done.

The 282 Steps of Doom!

The rewarding view of downtown Saugatuck and the Kalamazoo River from the top of the steps. Woo Hoo!

Tea Time

2007-03-27T09:56:00.000-04:00

You-all should know by now how I feel about soda pop. Nasty! And not the Janet Jackson kinda nasty, which is really a lot of fun. Am I showing my age?

What to drink instead? Tea! Chamomile after dinner, rooibos flavored with Jasmine, Green tea flavored with citrus or ginseng, gunpowder, dragon pearls, white Darjeeling, black tea with real dried cranberries, or my personal favorite that instantly transports me to a hot August day south of Tokyo, Japan: Hojicha.

More and more trials and tests are coming out reporting on how healthy both black tea and green tea is for you. White tea and the specialty teas like rooibos are also great for your health, but they don't have the money behind them to sponser thoses expensive tests and trials. Who cares? We humans have been drinking tea as long as we have been boiling water!

Tea bags are easy and help to control the mess of loose leaf teas, tea balls work OK, but to get the most from your tea you should let the tea leaves “breathe” or rather, float around to their hearts content for a few minutes. A wonderful tea company called Adagio Teas has come up with the perfect answer; the InginuiTea. (Man! I wish I could come up with great names like that!)

For between 10¢ to about 15¢ per cup it’s so much more affordable than sodas or specialty coffees, is natural, some of them have a little natural caffeine in them, and they have many dozens of non-caffeinated teas to choose from. If you want more information here is a link to their website or else you can click on the box in the margin to receive a $5 coupon, which will usually more than pay for your ground shipping charges.

Enjoy!

Stop eating my herbs!

2007-01-15T13:52:00.000-05:00

There are two young female deer that live in the woods that my house is in the middle of. I don't call them "my woods" because I figure that the deer and the squirrels owned it before I did. They go by my front door every afternoon, then walk down my driveway.

This particular deer seems to have a fondness for my parsley and my sage. Notice how they are *MY* herbs. Luckily I grew enough to share.

The real reason for the poor economy

2006-11-10T13:29:00.000-05:00

I got Ron one of those big back-pack leaf blowers for his birthday last spring, and I love it! I think he's used it twice, and I use it all the time. I cleaned out the gutters last Sunday, then I "raked" the leaves off the deck, patio (under the deck), and all around the house in about 3 hours. It used to take me 3 weekends! When I was done all I could think about is how we are loosing jobs NOT because of outsourcing, but because of gadgets like this leaf blower. I imgined that when I'm old I'll probably still be using it instead of hiring a couple of neighbor boys to rake for me. Then I thought about how that stinking leaf blower is also probably the cause of the obesity problems we Americans are having. Blame everything on the leaf blowers!

Don't get me started on the ozone layer...

I crack myself up.

Transparency

2006-11-06T13:21:00.000-05:00

Transparency in science refers to proving that scientific studies are not paid for by companies that would benefit from the studies leaning towards their own gain. I know this is a long article, but it should be common knowledge and it isn’t. I have highlighted some of the most important notes.

11/6/2006 - In the food and nutrition world, science is king. So when journals do not force scientists to fully disclose financial support and potential conflicts of interest, they are not helping anyone.Science is an open-ended pursuit with hypotheses gaining or losing credence based on additional studies. But when journals publish articles from researchers who do not divulge potential conflicts, they are complicit in distorting the evidence and affecting the reader's ability to judge the reliability of science overall.

The seed for this comment was planted months ago at the announcement from the Journal of the Medical Association (JAMA) that all authors submitting manuscripts to JAMA are now required to report all potential conflicts. Such measures were already in place at JAMA since the early 1980s, but some researchers were not disclosing every little bit of information because they didn't think that their past and present funding from big business represented a conflict.
One such example that prompted Catherine DeAngelis, JAMA's editor-in-chief, to act was when researchers reporting on a potential link between migraines and cardiovascular disease (CVD) failed to mention they had received money from big pain-killer makers.

The authors, from Harvard no less, felt that previous relationships with manufacturers of products that are used in the control and management of migraines or CVD did not constitute a conflict of interest. DeAngelis rightly disagreed and the Harvard authors subsequently disclosed all non-federal relationships, which read like a who's who of the world's biggest chemical and pharmaceutical companies.

Such situations are also found in the food and dietary supplements industries.
Take the glucosamine/chondroitin sulphate study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in March that reported the supplements were effective for moderate-to-severe osteoarthritis pain, a point that was down-played by the authors and in an independent editorial by Dr. Marc Hochberg from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
NEJM requires full disclosure and we discover in the small print that both the authors and Dr. Hochberg have received money from pharmaceutical companies who produced anti-arthritis drugs. Is it any wonder that the findings that were played up were pharma-centric?
The other journals must now follow the full disclosure lead of these big journals and introduce such measures. Many already do, but many others do not.

Recently the Journal of the American College of Nutrition published a supplement on salt intake, with many of the articles down-playing the risk of excessive salt consumption. Supplements to this journal, we later found out, do not undergo normal peer-review proceedings. No conflict of interest disclosures were presented by the authors, although it turned out later that some have been or still are consultants to the salt industry.

No disclosure - Why?

It is outrageous that after all the knocks that peer-review has suffered in recent years - from made up results in The Lancet to fake cloning in Science - that the journals are not demanding full disclosure, whether they are in a regular issue or a supplement - they're still published under the name of the journal and therefore benefit from its reputation.

With so much research now funded by for-profit companies, industry has a key role to play in ensuring the integrity of publications, but the push itself, particularly when research in not funded by companies whose products are being tested, must come from the journals themselves.

Industry can help by suggesting that researchers presenting research funded by companies should be published in journals that demand full disclosure, or insist on full disclosure in other, less stringent, journals.

But transparency does go beyond the journals. Companies should also refrain from publicizing unpublished research, which undermines their credibility - why hasn't it been published in a peer-review journal? What's wrong with letting some other experts take a look at the data?
A survey released in July by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which found that one in six of the nearly 1,000 FDA scientists who responded said they had their work manipulated or suppressed in favour of industry. This is a massive problem and until it is addressed on a worldwide scale, the seriousness of some journals will remain questionable. It's time that everyone started cleaning up their act.

If science is king, then transparency is the key to the kingdom.

Stephen Daniells is the Food Science Reporter for NutraIngredients.com and NutraIngredients-USA.com. He has a PhD in Chemistry from Queen's University Belfast and has worked in research in the Netherlands and France.

Diet is "Die" with a "T"

2006-11-01T14:26:00.000-05:00

Monday, two days ago, I found some health notes whilst perusing through my old Franklin Planner. I noticed that I weighed exactly 22 pounds less 10 years ago than I do today. Twenty two pounds! That’s a nice tidy 2.2 pounds per year average growth. I was not happy.

So yesterday I decide to go on a diet, and I’ve decided to slightly limit my carbohydrates and begin a serious exercise program. You-all must realize how much I hate to exercise. Truly. I hate going to gyms, mostly because it takes longer to change my clothes before and after working out than it take me to work out. Why do people do that? Also, I don’t ever want to spend $250 on a matching spandex outfit just to feel “in”.

I do have about $500 worth of equipment in a storage room in my basement, including Weider Universal Gym, a used punching bag, a stepping machine that I bought for $75 and isn’t worth $10 because I HATE IT but I refuse to buy a “good” one for $1000, and a Gazelle™ kinda-running machine that I actually like to use. I have one old paint-spattered radio with tape-to-tape recording capabilities that I listen to the local “old time” rock station on (read 70’s and 80’s, and even some 90’s rock). I keep thinking that if I put an old TV down there it would help, but I know it won’t.

Labor Day I did start climbing the 282 steps up a forested sand dune in a local park (Mt. Baldy to you locals) and it went great: I went at least 2 times a week for about 6 weeks. Then it stopped due to some consistently rainy weather. I felt great while I was doing it though.

If anyone has any helpful suggestions for exercise motivation I’m open to them all!

I probably should also confess that I have had no less than 4 meals today, and it’s only 2:00. I had cereal for breakfast (carbs), we had guests in the office today and they brought bagels (carbs), a baked potato and chili for lunch (carbs), and I’m eating yet another bagel as I type this (carbs). How am I doing? Don’t you dare answer that!

I miss my Vernors

2006-10-10T10:04:00.000-04:00

A while ago I ranted about how the potassium in soda is bad for you. I didn’t look it up, but I think I specifically stated that the phosphorus replaces the calcium in bones, making them weak. I actually didn't know that only colas had phosphoric acid, as explained below. Here is a study that I found at www.nutraingredients-usa.com that helps to prove my point:

10/6/2006 - Women who drink four or more cola beverages per week have a higher risk of developing the bone disease osteoporosis, finds a new study, landing another blow on fizzy drinks makers.Regular cola consumption was linked to lower bone mineral density in all women studied, regardless of other factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and calcium intake, researchers found.
Low bone mineral density increases the risk of osteoperosis, also known as brittle bone disease.
The news is another hammer blow to soft drinks makers, already struggling against falling fizzy drinks sales as consumers shift to healthier, non-carbonated beverages.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, used dietary questionnaires from more than 2,500 people who were part of an osteoporosis study in the US. Their average age was around 60 years.
The results were similar for regular, diet and decaffeinated colas. “The more cola women drank, the lower their bone mineral density was,” said Katherine Tucker, the lead researcher and from Tufts University.
Men appeared to be unaffected, despite drinking slightly more cola per week on average.
Suspicions on what may cause cola to damage bone density initially rested on an ingredient called phosphoric acid. Tucker called for more controlled studies on this.
“Physiologically, a diet low in calcium and high in phosphorus may promote bone loss, tipping the balance of bone remodeling toward calcium loss from the bone. Although, some studies have countered that the amount of phosphoric acid in cola is negligible compared to other dietary sources such as chicken or cheese."
Another reason researchers suspected phosphoric acid was because it is not generally present in non-cola beverages. Other fizzy drinks that were not cola-based did not appear to affect bone density, the study found.
Cola drinks Coca-Cola and Pepsi remain two of the biggest-selling soft drink brands in the world. Cola made up more than 70 per cent of fizzy drinks consumed by those taking part in the recent osteoporosis study. Consumption of carbonated soft drinks, although now stagnating in mature markets, rose by 300 per cent in the US alone between 1960 and 1990.

Pumpkin Update

2006-10-06T16:37:00.000-04:00

So I cleaned out the litter box this morning to get a good read on the status of poor Pumpkin’s bladder. Last night I could only find a bunch of little clumps that were made up of 2-3 drops of urine in the clumping kitty litter. Pumpkin’s little drops were very easy to tell apart from the almost half cup size balls that Scootie makes.

This morning’s “Pumpkin clumps” were now quarter sized, but not very deep: They were flat like pancakes (or quarters I suppose) instead of round like balls. Still! I’m delighted to get quarters out of her!

I’ll be keeping a close eye on her all weekend and let you know what happens. If everything turns out OK I would like to write it down in a letter and mail it to my vet for his reference in the future.

Animals Amaze Me

2006-10-05T14:46:00.000-04:00

I just am amazed at animals. Again. Last night I noticed my almost 17 year old female cat, Pumpkin, going in and out of the cat box. After studying this for about 10 minutes I realized that she had to pee, but only a few drops were coming out each time. I assumed she had a bladder infection.

By then it was 6:30 at night and my Vet’s office is only open late on Tuesdays, so I called their number to get the number of the vet on-call, then I called that number which had an answering service that took what seemed like an hour to tell me everything I didn’t need to know, and finally gave me the cell phone number of the Vet on-call. So I called that number and got a very nice man who I swear was cooking something that sizzled in a skillet and probably smelled very good, and I told him that I was a client at the Animal Clinic, that I had a 17 year old female cat that was frequently using the litter box with only scant water, and should I bring her in or could it wait until morning? We decided that since her kidneys weren’t sore (I massaged her back around where her kidney were and she didn’t hiss or anything) and I couldn’t find her bladder, so it must be fairly empty, and she simply had an “irritated bladder” and it could wait until morning.

I called my Vet this morning and spoke with an intern or nurse about it and they suggested that I either bring her in overnight to try to get a urine sample from her, or I bring home a tin pan and some black plastic pellets for her to use as a litter box and I lock her in a small room until she pees in it to get a urine sample. People, I’ve tried this before and it don’t work. And why would I want to put an already sick old cat in a cage at the vets overnight, or in a closet for hours or days (because I’m tellin’ ya they never use that stupid fake litter box, they would rather hold it in for days)?

So I asked if we confirmed that it was a bladder infection would they treat her with antibiotics? Yes, they would. Well, the last two times I gave Pumpkin antibiotics she was cured of the first infection, but came down with a secondary infection that was worse. I decided that as long as it’s true that female cats almost never have a complete blockage, which both vets confirmed, I would try something else for a few days first.

So I fell back upon my herbal roots (pun intended). I looked up every herb that might help and wrote down a list compiled from three books that I keep in my office/office (not my home/office):
* Marshmallow
* Uva Ursi (a.k.a. Bearberry, I have some growing in my flower garden)
* Horsetail
* Asparagus (yes, the vegetable, and specifically the water left over after cooking it)
* Barley tea
* Corn Silk (yes, it actually is the silky tops of an ear of corn)
* Dandelion (Good for so many things)
* Catnip, but not very strong
* Couch grass (This is the thick clumps of grass that you pull out of your nice thin Kentucky Blue lawn)
* Parsley (I have this in my herb garden)
* Juniper (I can't imagine a cat eating something that tasted like Gin: yuck!)
* Chamomile

Also listed:
* Vitamin A and other antioxidants (Cat’s and dogs love Vitamin A soft gels because they are usually in fish liver oil. I'll give her some when I get home tonight; I snip a slit in one end of the softgel and she licks it as I squeeze it out. Don't give them too much, it is possible to overdose on Vitamin A)
* Magnesium and potassium

Next I went through our sample stock here at work and “borrowed” a sample of Uva Ursi and of Corn Silk powder, and I took them home at lunch time. I got home and first went outside to snip some catnip, parsley, and Uva Ursi leaves. I left these on the floor near the front door, but she wasn’t interested in any of them: even the catnip! Next I put some leftover onion and artichoke pizza in the toaster oven to warm up for ME, and ground up an old cranberry tablet one of the girls at work gave me, and put a pinch of it in their drinking water. I then opened up the bag of Uva Ursi and Pumpkin sniffed at it for a few seconds and turned away. Then I opened up the bag of Corn Silk powder and she lit right up! She actually licked it off of my finger! I sprinkled some next to her food dish and she licked it off of the surface until the dryness of it made her make funny faces as she licked the roof of her mouth. Even Scootie, my other cat, liked it and ate a little of it.

Woo hoo! Isn’t it amazing how animals know what is good for them and what they need? I’m so stoked! I’ll keep giving it to her as long as she’ll take it, and I’ll watch her cat-box habits very closely for the next week or so. If it works out very well I might write my vet and give him the suggestion of Corn Silk for urinary tract relief.

The Death of Twiggy

2006-09-13T13:54:00.000-04:00

I took the entire article below from CNN.Com:

MADRID, Spain (Reuters) -- The world's first ban on overly thin models at a top-level fashion show in Madrid has caused outrage among modeling agencies and raised the prospect of restrictions at other venues.
Madrid's fashion week has turned away underweight models after protests that girls and young women were trying to copy their rail-thin looks and developing eating disorders.
Organizers say they want to project an image of beauty and health, rather than a waif-like, or heroin chic look.
But Cathy Gould, of New York's Elite modeling agency, said the fashion industry was being used as a scapegoat for illnesses like anorexia and bulimia.
"I think its outrageous, I understand they want to set this tone of healthy beautiful women, but what about discrimination against the model and what about the freedom of the designer," said Gould, Elite's North America director, adding that the move could harm careers of naturally "gazelle-like" models.
Madrid's regional government, which sponsors the show and imposed restrictions, said it did not blame designers and models for anorexia. It said the fashion industry had a responsibility to portray healthy body images.
"Fashion is a mirror and many teenagers imitate what they see on the catwalk," said regional official Concha Guerra.
The mayor of Milan, Italy, Letizia Moratti, told an Italian newspaper this week she would seek a similar ban for her city's show unless it could find a solution to "sick" looking models.
Quality, not size
The Madrid show is using the body mass index or BMI -- based on weight and height -- to measure models. It has turned away 30 percent of women who took part in the previous event. Medics will be on hand at the September 18-22 show to check models.
"The restrictions could be quite a shock to the fashion world at the beginning, but I'm sure it's important as far as health is concerned," said Leonor Perez Pita, director of Madrid's show, also known as the Pasarela Cibeles.
A spokeswoman for the Association of Fashion Designers of Spain, which represents those at Madrid fashion week, said the group supported restrictions and its concern was the quality of collections, not the size of models.
Eating disorder activists said many Spanish model agencies and designers oppose the ban and they had doubts whether the new rules would be followed.
"If they don't go along with it the next step is to seek legislation, just like with tobacco," said Carmen Gonzalez of Spain's Association in Defense of Attention for Anorexia and Bulimia, which has campaigned for restrictions since the 1990s.

Yet another nail in the soft drink coffin

2006-08-30T09:40:00.000-04:00

I'm just sayin'...

But I do realize that the big picture is that the pesticides are from local ground water. This means that all East Indians in the area where the companies are getting their water are drinking ground water that already has these high levels of pesticides. Sigh.

New Delhi, Aug. 9 - India's southern Kerala state on Wednesday banned the Indian subsidiaries of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo from manufacturing and selling soft drinks, news reports said.
Several Indian states have banned the sale of Coke and Pepsi at schools and colleges after a New Delhi-based research body claimed they contained high levels of pesticide residue, but Kerala was the first state to impose a ban on production and sales across the board.
Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan, the state's elected head, told reporters that the decision was made based on a recommendation of the leftist coalition that governs Kerala.
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) and PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) could not be reached immediately for comment.
Last week, the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi said last week that it found pesticide residues in samples of Coke and Pepsi that were 24 times above the limits set by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
The center said it carried out tests on 57 samples taken from 11 soft drink brands made by Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo India and found a "cocktail of three to five different pesticides," all apparently present in groundwater used to make the drinks. Both companies have denied the charges, saying the soft drinks they manufacture and sell in India "comply with stringent international norms and all applicable national regulations."
**********
Cochin, India, Aug. 23 - A southern Indian state said Wednesday it will not reverse its ban on the production and sale of soft drinks such as Coke, Pepsi and Sprite, even though the federal government has dismissed allegations that they are contaminated by high levels of pesticides.
Earlier this month, Kerala banned the production and sale of drinks made by the Indian subsidiaries of Coca Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. after the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi said the levels of pesticides in the drinks made them unsafe for humans.
But federal Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told Parliament Tuesday that his ministry found the center's data flawed.
Still, authorities in Kerala insisted the state's ban stands.
"Repeated studies have proved that the colas are not good for health. So we have banned them for people's welfare," said P. K. Sreemathi, Kerala's health minister. "Our decision is final ... We will enforce it strictly."
Six other states have banned the sale of the soft drinks in government-funded schools, colleges and hospitals since the center disclosed its findings earlier this month. Kerala, where Coca Cola and Pepsi both have bottling plants, is the only state to enforce a total ban.
Indian states have broad autonomy to make their own health and education policies, and they cannot be overruled by the federal government. Before the government said the center's data was flawed, Coke and Pepsi challenged Kerala's ban in the state's High Court. The case is scheduled to be heard Thursday.
These articles were taken from www.flexnews.com and they got them from Dow Jones Wires.

90%

2006-08-21T09:44:00.000-04:00

"Life is 10% of what is dealt to us...90% of what we do with it..."
Anon.

An old gentle woman who I met in St. Louis, Missouri once told me “You only regret what you don’t do.” I have applied this to every aspect of my life, and although I am exhausted as I am writing this, I am glad to know that I have really packed a lot of life into the past 10 days.

Do you have any regrets? Think about it. Are any of your regrets things you did, or are they only things that you didn’t do? Get out of the house, get out from in front of that T.V., go to the gym, write a book, take a class at the local community college or the local craft store, invite your friends over for dinner, Get your MBA, fly to a warm sandy place for the weekend, or spend the afternoon drinking tea in one of those over stuffed chairs at Barnes and Noble.

List of things to do before we die

2006-08-09T14:13:00.000-04:00

I’ve always had a list of things to do before I die, and in that light I am completing the below meme for your information. Go ahead and copy it onto your own blog, or better yet start you very own “List of things to do before I die”.

Life's to do list - Completed items are bolded

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink (there were only 6 people)
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive (I might have to add this one to my list)
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula (um... no)
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it (almost every day)
09. Hugged a tree (regularly)
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea (on Lake Michigan, same thing)
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg (I went swimming next to an iceberg. Darn tootin’ it was cold!)
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon (I do plan to do this someday soon)
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse (It was the dog races, but I’m counting it)
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight (I live in Michigan, silly)
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb – (I've held a baby horse -- does that count?)
33. Seen an eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking (still do)
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day (that would be really hard)
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment (this happens to me daily, mostly as a feeling of appreciation, not just happiness. I feel sorry for those who don’t.)
39. Had two hard drives for your computer (a few years ago)
40. Visited all 10 provinces or all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk (and it was reciprocated)
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country (In The Bahamas)
44. Watched wild whales (In Alaska)
45. Stolen a sign (no, but my brother has)
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing (But there is a wall downtown that I want to try before the end of summer)
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving (Aunt Lou prohibits me)
51. Visited Ireland (12 of the best days of my life!)
52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan (twice, once for 93 days, 3 days past my visa)
55. Milked a cow (would like to)
56. Alphabetized your cds
57. Pretended to be a superhero (I collected comic books since 1970)
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers (At least I don’t think so)
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business – (In process, and hope to have it done by early next year)
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites (In Ireland)
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for 6 hours straight (I only lasted about 3 hours)
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days (No but I’ve gone on a 3 day fast a few times)
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest (Won 2nd and 3rd many times)
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo (no comment)
81. Rafted the Dead River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand – (And I wasn’t drunk)
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship (I’m not really a cruise kinda girl)
94. Spoken more than one language fluently (Japanese, but not fluently)
95. Performed in aisles at Rocky Horror. (Put your hands on your hips…)
96. Raised children.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over (And to get away from a man)
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge (I walked the Mackinac bridge which is longer!)
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking (Again, almost daily)
103. Had plastic surgery (Again, no comment)
104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback (Mike Van Dis, sobbing, while having drunken flashbacks of dropping napalm bombs in Vietnam.)
108. Piloted an airplane (Co-piloted them though!)
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth (a horse)
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone (But I was too young to remember)
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced (but I’ve been considering it for years)
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (All three)
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild – (mmmm. Morel Mushroom and Swiss cheese omelets)
118. Ridden a horse -- and fell off (Broke an arm and got a concussion)
119. Had major surgery (Does a C-Section count?)
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (But I looked down over the edge at all the other nuts down there)
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents (on my list)
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat (No, but I've had Buffalo and Moose often)
127. Eaten sushi (about once a week)
128. Had your picture in the newspaper (A couple of times: it's a small town)
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about (They said I did but I’m not sure it stuck)
130. Gone back to school (Hope to have my Doctorates the end of this year)
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach (What?!?!?!)
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey (not all the way through)
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read their books.
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (Rabbit, duck, shrimp, dungeonous crab, and fish.)
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office (Also on my list of things to do)
140. Written your own computer language (but my oldest boy did/does)
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream (Easy to do once you figure out what your dream is)
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care (just a year ago)
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head (came close though)
149: Caused a car accident (and I don’t tailgate anymore)
150: Saved someone's life (but I have Red Cross training if the opportunity arises)

Vacation Reciprocal Theory

2006-06-28T16:57:00.000-04:00

It seams to me to be that we would be able to take many more vacations and much higher quality vacations if it weren’t for my Vacation Reciprocal Theory. This theory goes like this: When you have time for a vacation you seldom have money; and when you have disposable income you rarely have time to enjoy it in the form of a vacation. I have been pondering this theory for over a decade now and I have yet to find that we have both time and money to enjoy a vacation that is actually wanted. Usually we compromise, go for a long weekend instead of 2 weeks, go “up north” instead of Florida, and how many times have I promised myself “next year we’ll go to (fill in the blank)”.

Last summer my husband said that we were GOING to go to Colorado for at least two weeks in 2006, trailer our motorcycles (yes, I have my own) and ride around the Rockies until we just couldn’t take any more of the beautiful-ness. Now he’s building 3 houses and can’t go anywhere longer than a 3 day weekend until something like OCTOBER. Yup. Sure. I actually to feel quite sorry for him about this, because he is quite stressed, and could use a good respite.

You see, the Vacation Reciprocal Theory is rearing it’s ugly head at us right now, but for opposite reasons. He is working his tail off (no time for a vacation), busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest, and making a good bit of money (can afford a vacation). Me: not so much. It’s slow season at the cube pharm, (yes I mean Pharm, as in pharmaceutical company) so I have lots of time, but still not really a lot of money because we have it all put into a Spec house that we are trying to sell. Time for a vacation, no money, and no Honey to share it with.

Yeah, I know. You-all are feeling SO sorry for me right now.

Herbal Beers

2006-06-15T09:25:00.000-04:00

Please let me know your esteemed opinions on this most recent brain fart I’ve had. Really, I’d like to know if you think this is a good idea!

Herbal beer! Drink you way to health!

For instance:

Ginger beer, with just a bit of mint and maybe some lemon to help with digestion. This would be especially good to drink with a heavy dinner.

Mullein beer that you could drink when you have a chest cold because it might help break up the mucus.

Raspberry leaf beer, which we could also add some raspberry flavor to, and make in a nice light or white beer for ladies with “female problems”.

Bilberry beer for people who bruise easily, or have circulation or eye problems.

St. John’s Wort Beer so that we’re happy drunks! It would be especially good in January through March when the winter is getting us down. I wonder if we could even add a little bit of Vitamin D to it specifically for the mid-winter blues.

Echinacea Beer to help give our immune system a boost.

Yohimbe beer for male virility. We’d put that in a good porter. (That should be a top seller)

And my opus: Dandelion beer, because it’s used to promote a healthy liver! (HAHAhahahahahaha! I crack myself up!)

Snacks

2006-06-13T09:27:00.000-04:00

Snacks are snacks. Snacks are not meals. Think of snacks for what they are: a way to keep your blood sugar level nice and even, to prevent it from getting too low, so that you don't gorge yourself when you finally do get to sit down to eat a meal (preferably not sitting in a car).

Things happen when your blood sugar gets too low: your body starts pumping out glycogen (instead of insulin) which uses your storage spaces (fat) for the production of energy in your cells. At this point you’re probably thinking “cool!” But there’s more to it than that. Have you ever noticed that when you’re hungry, or even when you’re not really hungry, but you’re tired and you need a little boost, you are also kinda cranky and aggressive, and you can’t seem to focus your eyes, or you have the attention span of a gnat? It’s at this point that your pituitary and hypothalamus kick other glands into action, and they all work together to give us a kind of “fight of flight” mental attitude. This could have acted as a good response a thousand years ago, when a hungry man was exhausted, but he was ornery enough to hunt and kill just about anything that had the bad luck of crossing his path.

That being said I’d like to get back to the “snack is a snack” thing. If you eat the average maintenance diet of 2400 calories a day, then each of your meals should be around 800 calories. That’s not a lot of food, but keep in mind one crispy chicken club sandwich at McDonald’s is 680 calories. (I looked up a Whopper, but Burger King no longer makes it easy to look up nutritional info. If I remember right they were over 800 calories). A Snicker's bar is 280 calories. Anywho, what I’m getting at is DON’T make your snack a meal. Make it just enough to “tide you over”.

ALSO: healthy snacks take forethought. I know it’s easier to go to the snack machine and grab a bag of chips, but that’s 85¢, and the apple in your desk drawer cost you a quarter. I’ve tried to keep the fact that the items below need to be taken to work with you, so I’ve included as many as I could that don’t need refrigeration. You may also want to invest in some reusable little cups with snap on lids, you know, like Tupperware or something. This will prevent you from eating a whole bag of something by limiting your snacks to what can fit in the little cup.

Here goes:

If you’re craving salt:
Olives
Pickled asparagus out of the jar
Artichoke hearts on rye crackers
½ cup Guacamole or salsa
Any nut butter, including almond butter, cashew butter, hazelnut butter, and macadamia nut butter. Go ahead, eat it off the spoon.
Crabmeat salad (please make sure it doesn’t have sugar or MSG)
Salami, summer sausage, or similar Italian meats

If you’re craving sweets:
Grapes and Stonybrook vanilla yogurt (any fruit except bananas can be used)
5 Panda brand black licorice chews
3 “coins”/pieces of Droste’s brand dark chocolate Pastilles®
A cup of applesauce or fruit (not fruit "in syrup")

Other good stuff stuff:
Cole slaw, preferably fresh.
A big chunk of hard yellow cheese.
A hard boiled egg.
A Wasa cracker with either nut butter or hummus spread thickly on it.

The best tip of all: NUT’S a.k.a. You are what you eat. Always keep a bag of nuts in your desk drawer or locker, or even your car. It doesn’t matter what kind of nuts, don’t get caught up with how many fat grams are in those cashews. You’re only going to eat a handful anyway. Get them in the shell (so they are fresher and you eat them slower) or shelled, raw or roasted, salted or unsalted. Just PLEASE don’t get the flavored or honey roasted kind since these usually have a lot of hidden sugars, artificial garbage, and MSG on them.

Try to mix it up: have yogurt this week, almonds next week, hummus the following week, licorice the week after that… etc. I’ll try to post other snack ideas once in a while as I get inspired.

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it!

2006-06-02T11:07:00.000-04:00

I’m supposed to get my order of organic live herb plants today. I ordered them from this place: http://www.greenmountainwebworks.com/weedfarmherbs/index.php and I’m gonna have so much fun this afternoon and tomorrow figuring out where to plant them all. Woo hoo! I got full sun plants, and part shade plants, and tall and short plants, and I think I’ll have to move the iris’ from the middle of my little flower garden to that I can put my giant purple thistles there instead, and… well, you get the picture.

I’m so excited I could almost pee my pants. Work? Today? No, I think I’d rather go blogging to take up the time.

Start the day off right

2006-06-02T10:33:00.000-04:00

Eat Breakfast. You’re mom and grandma were right. If you want to lose weight and be healthy eat breakfast. If you eat breakfast you’ll have the energy to make it through the gauntlet of work to lunch without any physical or mental breakdowns; you won’t be as likely to have a sugary snack mid-morning, and you won’t feel like gorging yourself when you finally do make it to lunchtime.

Here is a list of good breakfast choices:

Cold Cereals:
My favorites: Nature’s Path ® brand Optimum Zen with cranberries and ginger.
Kashi ® brand Autumn Wheat.
Other lower glycemic cereals:
Kellogg’s ® All-Bran ®
Muesli
Kellogg’s ® Special K ®
And pretty much anything made by Kashi®

Tip #1: Eat it with whole milk, not 2%, low fat, or no fat milk. The Whole milk will satiate you better and longer without many more Calories or much more fat. We’re all about satiety here!
Tip #2: Eat it out of a coffee cup, not a bowl. A serving size of cold cereal is ¾ to 1 cup, so if you’re filling a huge bowl with 2+ cups of cereal it’s cheating.
Tip #3: You know better than to put ANY sugar on your breakfast.

Hot Cereals:
Oatmeal. Now the question was asked if there was a difference between instant oatmeal, 5 minute (regular) oatmeal, and the little packet of flavored oatmeal. Well, ask and you shall receive, although you may regret it. The glycemic index of old fashioned oatmeal is 58, steel-cut oatmeal is 52, and instant 1 minute oatmeal is 82! That is when you have the actual serving size, and make it with water. What about those cute little packets of instant oatmeal? All the sugars and flavorings of the little packets drives the GI number for those easy gems right through the roof. My GI Values book didn’t even list that one.

Eggs: Eat eggs every time you can. Eat them for breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, midnight snack. They are GOOD FOR YOU, they will NOT raise your cholesterol levels, they might even help lower your bad cholesterol, they are an excellent source of protein, minerals, and enzymes.

Cooking a two egg omelet is quick and almost as fast as cooking two eggs over easy. Just whip the eggs in a bowl with a fork, throw in a pan with a little bit of butter, wait 30 seconds, which is enough time for you to get any of the following out of the fridge to put in your omelet: black olives, chives, mushrooms, avocado, and/or cheese. I plan to post more omelet suggestions on my recipe blog soon.

Sausage, bacon, ham, etc.: The protein and fat in these breakfast meats won’t go to your hips unless you eat them with carbohydrates (hash browns, toast, croissants, etc.), so their good in a no-carb low GI way. But remember that they are chocked full of sulfites and sulfates, and ultimately these things are bad for you. My suggestion: It’s fine to have them once a week or so, especially if you’re not having sulfated meats at other meals.

Next we’ll discuss tips on healthy snacking at home and at work. I know; I’ve been promising this for a while now, but I’ll really try to get it done soon.

Why Artificial Sweeteners Don't Work for Weight Loss

2006-05-18T10:57:00.000-04:00

Why are artificial sweeteners bad? I won’t go into a tirade on how they are synthetic, and I won’t cite all the reports on the internet from people who blame any number of their ailments on them. The problem with artificial sweeteners is that they MAKE YOU HUNGRY. Yup, it’s true. And here’s why:

Every time you eat any kind of carbohydrate your blood sugar goes up. This tells your pancreas to make insulin to bring it down. Although artificial sweeteners don’t have any calories, they do trick your pancreas into making insulin, which brings down your blood sugar.

Case in point: It’s 3:00 in the afternoon and you’re starting to drag, and instead of grabbing a Snicker’s bar (or insert your favorite afternoon snack here) you grab a diet pop, or a stick of sugarless gum, or some sugar free Jell-O, thinking this will tide you over until supper. The reason you got the mid-afternoon munchies is likely because you had a high carb lunch, let’s say Sweet and Sour Pork, and your pancreas has been working on that since noon, and has completed it’s job (maybe too well). So right then your blood sugar is a little low and you drink that diet pop. This doesn’t raise your blood sugar one bit, but it does signal the pancreas to get to work, which sends insulin into your blood stream lowering your blood sugar levels even more. Then you wonder why you’re so tired, hungry, and cranky when you get home after work, assuming you didn't break down and have that Snickers bar after all.

FYI: Type I diabetics don’t have to worry about this effect of artificial sweeteners because their pancreas is incapable of making insulin at all.

I’ll write on some snacking alternatives for you-all in a couple of days.

2006-05-01T16:20:00.000-04:00

I've said before that knitting is cheaper than therapy. Well, kitties are also cheaper than therapy, as are pets in general.

Here is a gratuitous cat photo, case in point.

I just noticed the similarities between the words "knitting" and Kitties". Very interesting...

Forgive me.

2006-04-07T10:16:00.000-04:00

I know! I know! It’s been like two months since I’ve had time to post. So spank me. Please?

Really though, I work at a company that imports vitamins and “stuff” (yes, I’m a legitimate drug importer), and December thru May is our busy time. Why? Because people don’t eat as well in the winter time, they get less exercise, they eat and drink too much during the holidays, and want to diet after New Years’, and it’s cold and flu season. All good reasons why we sell more vitamins and “stuff” in the winter.

So I’m sorry, but I just haven’t had enough time to sit at my desk, eating my leftovers, and write you love notes. I do have lots of things to write on, including: water, arthritis, asthma, and massage. So please be patient with me.

Thanks!

Cheaper than Therapy

2006-02-09T09:21:00.000-05:00

There is a book that I want to read. It’s called “Cheaper than Therapy: Joy, Healing, and Life Lessons in Fiber” by Annie Modesitt. I want to read it, but I have class books to read first. I now have a stack of books that I want to read as soon as my schooling is done, but that’s a year away and the books they are a-stacking. This particular book teaches us that knitting, crocheting, and other yarn/fabric/needlework is good for our heads. It’s good for our hearts too.

I find myself pacing the house looking for something to do in the evening. I can’t read anymore, my eyes are tired, my soul is tired, but I’m too antsy to sit and watch TV. So I try to watch TV, but at almost every advertisement I get up to wash the dishes or fold laundry or clean a spot on the floor or write a shopping list…

In years past I have learned may hobbies to help me unwind: crocheting, card games, crossword puzzles, needlepoint and cross stitch, stained glass windows, Tae Quan Do, motorcycle riding, painting, among other things. They keep me sane, especially in the winter time. I learned how to knit last summer and now I can sit through a whole hour of CSI while knitting a scarf and matching hat for my favorite waitress, or while knitting a teddy bear for my co-worker who is due in a month. I am then calm by the end of the night, and I have a feeling of accomplishment.

I have always believed that hobbies are an important part of everyone’s life. I never trust somebody who tells me they don’t have any hobbies. Watching TV is not a hobby. Raising children (or raising husbands) is not a hobby. Drinking is not a hobby. A hobby is something that puts you into a different part of your head than you are usually in at work. If you’re a contractor you shouldn’t have woodworking as a hobby. If you’re a mother of teenagers then Soccer shouldn’t be your hobby.

And the best hobbies, in my not so humble opinion, are those that allow you to create something; have something to show when you’re done. Playing cards, gaming, and crossword puzzles don’t give you anything to hang on the wall or give as Christmas gifts when you’re done. Hopefully they do get you interacting with other people, which is good, but all you have to show for yourself at the end of the day is that you’re a winner (or a loser).

And not all hobbies are expensive. It can take less than $10 to start knitting:
Skein of Red Heart Yarn: $1.99
Pair of nice bamboo #8 needles: $4.50
Having the old lady in the yarn department of your local Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or small town yarn store show you how to cast on: Priceless.