So, I did not start yoga this last week. With the ice storm here in Atlanta, I was getting enough of a workout hauling water, shoveling ice off the driveway and practicing my ice walking skills where I couldn't shovel it off. (To illustrate, our house sits on a corner. The driveway comes up one side and wraps around the corner to go out to the other road. Additionally, it leads 100 yards down an incline to the barn (which I don't have use of- *grumble, grumble, gripe*- and down to the pasture gate).
Instead, I continued doing what I was doing with a couple exceptions. I quit the chamomile and valerian combo as I broke out into hives. Now, this could have been from a switch in hay from rounds to squares (TG! I couldn't have gotten a round into the pasture with the ice we had!). The squares are a finer, greener hay. They're different than the Bermuda rounds we had been feeding.
I will be testing myself over this next week to see if it's the hay causing hives or not. I've never taken valerian regularly so that could be it. Or it could be the chamomile. If I don't react to the hay this week (short sleeved, that is), I'll add in chamomile or valerian the next, watching reaction then adding the other. Pumping myself full of allergy meds is counterproductive here.
I did order this yoga dvd and will start using it this week. My understanding is that with daily usage, I should see improvement in my back pain within a month. If you don't follow my blog and already know, I was in a horrific car accident at 19, in which my head shattered the rear windshield of a hatchback (I was a backseat passenger, wearing my seatbelt) and f*ed up my lower back. I was so swollen that when the ER released me, they didn't know if my back was broken. And we never found out. Now, I have issues with my sacrum, which causes the ligaments that wrap from your sacrum, around your hips and go down your legs to become tight and painful. I am hoping, really, really HOPING this dvd will help A LOT.
Anyways, I digress.
For the most part, we eat very little processed food. Part of it is an effort to cut back on the grocery bill, and part is for health. We rarely eat fast food. But the other day, I had the weirdest hankering for Taco Bell. Now, we've been to Taco Bell exactly 3 times since we moved here nearly 7 months ago. It's far away, about 18 miles. We tend to forget it's there, even though we drive by at least once a month on our way to Tractor Supply. In Oregon, TB was our go-to place since there was something for everybody, including my vegetarian stepdaughter.
So, Bad Pants and I ordered our usual. Dude did too. However, Bad Pants and I quickly realized our food tasted like sheet rock. Yeah, yum. Dude didn't, but the pallet of a 9 yr old is circumspect anyways. Spiced sheet rock isn't very appetizing. YUCK! I am now cured from wanting to eat TB any more.
Soda was also an interesting adventure. I don't drink much soda as I found the carbonation leaves my insides hurting. But, I hadn't had soda in about 3 weeks. First I tried this lovely peach soda we like. It tasted salty to me. It had an aftertaste of salt. I attributed it to just having the tail end of a cold and tried a different soda a few days later. Nope. Same issue. Even though it was low in sodium, it tasted like salt and left me an aftertaste like I'd swished with salt water several minutes ago. Mind you, I quit drinking diet a year ago because aspartame isn't good for you. I spent about 3 days trying different sodas. Cans, bottles, fountain, all to the same effect. Salt. Yeah, not what I want.
I had planned on giving up soda this week since it causes me intestinal distress anyways. But now, I'm giving it up because it.just.doesn't.taste.good. If I want to taste salt in my drink, I'll drink salt water, tyvm! It's not just me either. Bad Pants noticed the same thing. So, why don't you try it? Go soda-less for about 3 weeks and then pay attention to the aftertaste of your soda. Generic, brand, the competitor's brand... It was all the same. Salt.
Sleep-wise, I am doing ok. Just ok. Without the valerian, I am apparently back to my wiggle, combine-like self. (It's BAD when you resemble a combine!) Bad Pants reports that a couple nights I whacked the wall behind the bed pretty hard a couple times. I have no memory of this, but it explains why my wrists hurt so badly the next morning. I am also waking up more stiff and sore than the couple weeks I took the valerian regularly. And I feel less rested.
My elbow has skin again. I'm starting to slowly get some strength back. However, there is tendon damage and I am using a tennis elbow brace as needed. Not constant, or I'll over-use my arm, making things worse rather than better.
I've remembered my vitamins most every day, only missing a couple days total so far. No giant burst of energy as the bottle promises, but perhaps my stores aren't built back up yet. Maybe in a few months. And I'm still juicing, when I remember/have time/feel like it. I'm also drinking bottled juice that doesn't have tons of chemicals in it. I've lowered my protein levels, so I'm not struggling to eat more protein. And this seems to be easier on me. I'm not counting the percentage, but I'm not forcing myself to try to get XX number of grams a day either. And lastly, we have decided to only make our own bread now, thereby avoiding most of the preservatives and chemicals we consumed before. And yes, it's white bread. I have a theory on that, but I'll share it another time.
So, yoga this week. Hay test this week. No soda.
That's all for now. Is there something I'm missing or something you guys want me to talk about more specifically?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Good for you on the no soda thing. I decided several years ago that the calories in soda were just not worth it.
I hope your ice goes away soon. I'd rather deal with a foot of snow than an inch of ice.
I love soda, or as we call it here - pop. I do try to limit how much I drink though.
Can't wait to hear the results of your yoga and for the reasoning behind the white bread.
CDN- (and I'm so used to chatting on FB now I almost used your real name!) There isn't a particular reason TO eat white bread. I just don't find a particular reason NOT to. It's not the only type of bread we eat though. Let me break my logic down for you:
-Americans lack fiber in their diet. Instead of eating more fruits and vegetables, Americans fill up on processed, pre-packaged crap. This has gotten so bad that now we have yogurt with fiber in it and even more added, dietary fiber in our cereal. More and more things are becoming enriched with fiber.
-Yes, whole grain bread has vitamins in it that you can't get from white bread. But still, most of the argument here in the US is over fiber. AND, if you're eating a proper, balanced diet consisting of mostly plant matter, you're getting those same vitamins elsewhere.
-My white bread doesn't have any chemicals or preservatives. It goes stale in 2 days. It only has 6 ingredients in it. Water, butter (not margarine- but that's a different blog entirely), flour, sugar (minimal, 1 TBSP for the yeast, actually), salt and yeast. I can pronounce everything that goes into my bread. I can readily identify it too.
I grew up calling carbonated beverages "pop" too. Then my (ex)husband went into the Marine Corps and they called it "soda". It was easier to go with the flow and speak Jar-Head Jargon. Here in the South, everything is called "Coke". Waitresses will ask if you want a "Coke-Coke, a Diet Coke-Coke, a Sprite-Coke, a Cherry Coke-Coke, etc".
AK- It has left enough that I was able to fill the trough today. That's a huge improvement.
Also, I used to drink diet soda like water. After having pneumonia a few years ago, I couldn't stand the taste any more. Then soda became a "treat" or a "when we're eating out" thing.
Yoga is something I have been wanting to try - thinking it might help my back. I just am waiting for my settlement to start it up.
I agree with the white the bread - if you are getting everything else that you need from your regular diet, and you don't like whole wheat then there is no reason to choose it over white bread. I am happy you are making your own bread again. I store mine in the fridge and that seems to extends its life a little bit enough to get me to the weekend anyway. I LOVE baking bread on Sundays - makes the whole house smell wonderful.
You could experiment with bread in ways I can't. I would be willing to bet you could make some killer bread with oat, sorghum, or buckwheat combined with regular wheat. You could have the best of both worlds. OH and potato bread (which doesn't work out that well gluten free) I totally miss that.
Kudos on giving up pop - i don't drink it anymore either. In fact it hasn't occurred to me to give it a try and see if I notice a difference in taste. Might have to do that - I haven't had a pop since July.
Just had to bring up Taco Bell huh? Now that's all I want for lunch.... but i can't eat there anymore. The only fast food place where i can eat are - Mustard Seed Noodles Express has ONE gluten free rice bowl I have, supposedly I can eat Wendy's chili and baked potato - but tried that fall and got sick, and there is a taco truck down the street from where I work that makes street tacos using little corn tortillas......and that's about it. So needless to say I don't "eat out" hardly ever.
Steph, you aren't missing out. You REALLY don't want sheet rock for lunch! I do plan on expanding to other breads and I do make a killer whole wheat and honey bread. It's not that I don't eat other breads. I'm just saying if you're eating properly, there's no reason you CAN'T have white bread if you're making it yourself. White bread is truly only bad because of the junk and chemicals that go in it. Or, if you're not eating enough fruits and veggies.
So I'm guessing Pepsi isn't very popular, or would it be a Coke-Pepsi? lol
I was under the impression that part of the problem with white bread was that the flour is bleached of all nutrition.
I guess though that all the commercially produced whole wheat breads aren't that good for a person either, with all the preservatives & crap in them.
It would be a "Pepsi-Coke", but as Coke's HQ are here in Atlanta (next to the Aquarium, btw), it's all coke products here mostly. Brand loyalty to those that employ a large percentage of the population, or did at one time.
Yes, white flour is bleached of nutrients, but then they're added back in. Most all-purpose flour and bread flour is "enriched". Short of grinding your own grain (Kitchenaid has an attachment for this!), it can't be avoided, even with whole wheat flour.
Post a Comment