the beginning of a beautiful St. Patrick’s Day, 2019, on the farm
I was given a wonderful and unexpected gift…the gift of a second chance. Many of you know that early in February after doing morning chores, I took a serious fall on ice that was hidden under a layer of snow while I was out taking pictures of what I thought might be the final snowfall of the season. It was breathtakingly beautiful and although it was extremely cold, I was thoroughly enjoying capturing the pure white beauty against the contrast of the drab browns and grays of winter.
The lane behind the south pasture…one of my favorite photo stops.
As I was taking pictures from some of my favorite spots around the farm, my eye caught the beauty of a particular maple tree in the back pasture. I slowly and carefully made my way across the pasture to get “the perfect shot” and as I ducked under an electric fence tape (the one you see just head of me in the above photo), I took a nasty fall. Although I was seriously hurt and I knew it, I was mostly concerned that I had dropped my camera in the snow and that I hadn’t captured the much-desired picture of that maple tree. That last thought has haunted me all of these weeks!
the last photo before my fall. the illusive maple is just showing a few branches on the right edge of this photo.
So, on St. Patrick’s Day, with the temps at forty-one degrees, it started snowing. BIG. BEAUTIFUL. FLAKES.!! At first, it didn’t collect on the ground and then suddenly we realized it was beginning to collect and it was collecting fast. My husband suggested I might take this opportunity to capture some pictures of this wintry wonderland surprise, so I donned my barn coat, and boots and headed out with my trusted camera in hand.
this is what I saw when looking up into the snow as they fell on me and my camera
There are many beautiful places here on the farm to capture scenic shots, but guess where I headed? You guessed it..out to get that illusive shot missed several weeks ago because of my fall. The sight did not disappoint! It was like my maple tree was standing there waiting for me to capture her beauty.
the perfect maple tree dressed in white
This may not seem like a big deal to you, but it was a pretty big deal to me! Each time someone would ask me how I fell, I would tell them the story of the illusive picture and how I could still see it in my mind…the picture that got away. This haunting irritation can now be put to rest. I am quite happy and thankful for the unexpected opportunity for a second chance to capture the beauty of the maple’s last chance to wear her winter dress!
First, I want to say that I am no expert and I am not trained in any health or dietary profession. I only know from my own experience what has helped me to be healthier for now more than five years. For me, it was a decision I made based on my quality of life and my need to feel better.
I was having severe “attacks” which I came to discover were NOT gallbladder attacks as my (now former) mainstream, general health practitioner would have had me believe which would have led to my gallbladder being unnecessarily removed. Thanks to a wonderful MORE THAN CHIROPRACTOR (Dr. Keith Lewis, Healthy Life Doctors in Upper Arlington, Ohio) who really cared to dig down and find what was causing my digestive distress, I discovered I had a sliding hiatal hernia that was causing esophageal spasms when my stomach got caught in the hernia. It was so painful that I thought I was having a heart attack and even had the squad called for me when it happened in Whole Foods once.
My doctor gave me a list of anti-inflammatory foods and inflammatory foods to remove from my diet. He also gave me a list of acidic/alkaline foods to help me understand what foods to try to eat more of that would help heal my digestive tract. One thing I have discovered is that when you are contemplating a change, it is your motivations that will determine whether you are able to make those changes stick in your life. For me, my motivation was extremely high. While going through this period of time, my digestive tract and diaphragm were so damaged from the attacks that I was unable to lift a basket of laundry or a gallon jug of milk (this was before I had my own fresh milk), and I was unable to bend forward for just about any purpose including switching the laundry or picking up something from the floor. I felt so sad watching my children pick up the slack of the things I wasn’t able to do. I never knew when an attack would completely immobilize me. So, for me, having the map to wellness that these lists provided was like an answer to prayer and I was willing to give up almost anything just to feel better.
The first big changes were no refined sugar and no refined flour. These two food items are hidden in more processed foods than you may realize, and it is sometimes difficult to recognize them on the ingredients list due to the number of aliases companies now have for them), but that wasn’t the big challenge for me because I already did most of my food prep from scratch. I made homemade bread and rolls once or twice a week, homemade ice cream, baked cookies and cakes, etc. You get the drift! My cooking/baking was healthy in that it was organic and made from “real” ingredients, but was also full of refined sugars and flours.
It’s pretty easy to say “no refined sugar” until you begin to realize the huge commitment that is. As alternatives, we began using coconut sugar which is higher in fiber and a lower glycemic index than sugar. We also increased our use of maple syrup which is packed full of minerals and also has a lower glycemic impact. We also use raw honey, which is a natural sweetener with health benefits of its own, but it has a higher glycemic index. I tried using various forms of stevia, but had trouble with the aftertaste, so my use of it was very limited.
As for cutting out the refined flour, I began experimenting with coconut and almond flours. Please keep in mind that when I began this journey, “keto”, “paleo” and “grain-free” weren’t popular catch words like they are now. Whole Foods didn’t even carry items that I could use for this journey. I frequented the customer service desk asking for various brands and items as I became aware of them and gradually Whole Foods began stocking some of them.
I also found that not all almond flours are created equal. Some aren’t as finely ground so the foods made with them don’t exactly have a palatable texture. Eventually I found some brands that worked for me and I began scouring the internet for recipes that would help me navigate this new nutritional journey.
I discovered many bloggers who had “grain-free, sugar-free” recipes on their websites and slowly made my way through them trying some of their recipes. Some FLOPPED badly! Micah still reminds me of the “foam chocolate muffins” I made one morning when my friend/pastor’s wife was coming over for coffee. Oh my! They had no taste, no texture, it was like putting tasteless, brown foam shaped like a muffin in your mouth. They didn’t even taste chocolate! How can you mess up chocolate? But I did find some bloggers/sites whose recipes were fairly dependably edible, even tasty. Over the years, I have compiled a list of websites and bloggers whose recipes were fairly reliable in producing edible grain-free, sugar-free foods.
Now, the next step in my journey was to realize that maple syrup, coconut sugar and almond flour, as healthy as they are, didn’t help me much in the weight department. Initially, after giving up grains and sugars, I dropped about thirty pounds, and I felt so much better as I began to heal. However, maple syrup still has calories that turn to fat, so as my use of maple syrup increased, so did my weight.
Enter Trim Healthy Mama. It was introduced to me last year by several friends all in the span of a couple of weeks, so I began reading about the plan. Part of what made eating sugar-free and grain-free difficult was my struggle to make meals that both I and my family could eat without necessitating the need for two meals to be made. The plan (which I will explain in a coming post), recipes and products of THM have been a life-saver to me and my family. Finally, I have the resources to eat how I need to eat to lose weight and maintain that weight loss and the recipes to prepare meals that both I and my family can enjoy.
Since being on the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan, using some of their products (their baking blend and sweeteners have made the biggest impact for me), I feel the best I have felt in years. I have lost almost twenty-five pounds since last July and I no longer feel like I am starving. I feel well and energetic and I enjoy trying the recipes in their cookbooks. I have been very pleasantly surprised with the ease of most of the recipes and with how they taste. The men in my life agree even though sometimes I need to add a few items to help fill them up. It has been such a blessing to me.
If you have questions or comments about going sugar-free or grain-free, please contact me. I would be happy to encourage you along your journey to get healthier and give grain-free and sugar-free living a try! It may feel overwhelming at first, but when you realize the benefits, it will become easier and easier to make that choice, one day at a time. Not all of you will want or need to be as strict as I am, but I never want to go back to the way I used to feel and that is my motivation to keep on track!
Watch for an upcoming follow-up post where I will make the anti-inflammatory guidelines as well as the acidic/alkaline foods chart available to you!
If you have followed my farm stories for long, you no doubt remember reading about our last calf who, when just hours old, bolted through several electric fences and crossed the road before Micah tackled her on the edge of the cornfields. If not, you can go back and read “She’s Here….And She’s Off” that was written last October. That same calf “Snickers”, when being carried to the barn shortly after her birth as we do with all calves born in the pasture, belted out the loudest cry I have ever heard on a newborn calf. She earned the nickname “Little Big Mouth” on that day and she has lived up to it many times in her short four-month life.
A week ago Tuesday, she said good-bye to her mom, Caramel, and joined her Aunts Hazel and Truffle and her Great Uncle Oreo in the pasture. Now, this isn’t the first time we have been through this process. Normally, in fact with all other calves before Snickers, three days has been the magical timing of when they decide their situation isn’t going to better itself and they may as well just shut up and make the best of their current situation. But, this calf again has made a name for herself and lived up to her nickname.
Snickers’ arrival in the pastureOreo, Hazel and Truffle watching in curiosity as Snickers joins the group
She mooed for a full five or six days and five nights….most of that non-stop! Caramel responded in duet with expected moos for three of those days, but conforming to our expectation that she would settle down in three days, she was contented after that. But, Snickers (LMB) kept it up…till she was hoarse! She would go over and eat hay with the other calves and then go back to the area of the pasture nearest the barn and start her complaining all over again.
Then one night, after she had begun to settle down, a neighbor’s dog evidently got bitten by our electric fence late at night and was yelping so loudly I could hear it through my closed window. Well, Snickers decided that was her cue to begin her song of woe once again. Thankfully, when the dog quieted down, eventually she did as well.
The other funny thing that has happened in the pasture since she arrived is the older calves have each “adopted” one of the calves as their protector/babysitter/trainer. When Hazel joined them several weeks ago, I expected her sister, Truffle, to take her under her wing and be her buddy/surrogate mom. However, it was big, sweet and gentle Oreo who became his niece’s buddy and babysitter.
When Snickers joined the calves, I was also hoping that Hazel would be a comfort to her because they had played together in the corral quite a bit and seemed to really enjoy playing with each other. However, Hazel stood and observed this noisy little creature with near disdain and a quizzical look as if to say “WHAAAT IS YOUR PROBLEM???? This pasture was a pretty peaceful place before YOU arrived!!!” It was Truffle who then seemed to have the patience and desire to help with Snicker’s acclimation to the group. Several times I have gone out to the pasture and they were standing two and two…Truffle and Snickers in one place and Hazel and Oreo in another. There are times that all four of them are in one place, either around the hay bale eating, or in the shelter for the night but this pairing up has surprised me.
Snickers, enjoying stretching her legs and running around in the openness of the pasture
I think she is slowly becoming one of them but Oreo, as sweet and as gentle as he is, still finds ways to let Snickers know he doesn’t really appreciate all the chaos she has brought to the pasture. I have observed him several times chasing her away from eating near where he was eating. As much as I don’t like this, I have come to realize it is part of how the calves establish the hierarchy of the pasture and I must allow them to work it out, as long as someone is still able to eat, drink and sleep without being bullied. Sometimes I wonder if somehow Oreo knows that Snickers is Caramel’s daughter and is paying her back for how Caramel bullied him when she was at the top of the heap in the pasture. If you remember, he was the one who broke through the fence and happily ate from the neighbor’s clover field when Caramel kept chasing him away from the hay. Guess what goes around comes around!
I am sure you have heard the phrase “spit in your eye” or “here’s spit in your eye”, but have you ever LIVED it, bovine style? Normally that phrase means something derogatory or disrespectful but not in this case!
Tonight, after milking Mocha, I went around to all the stalls to strain the hay out of their water (a long story…) and when I went in to strain Mocha’s water, she swung her head around toward me just as she hawked her throat…and PLOP! In went her spit right into my eye! Imagine the timing and the perfect placement for that to happen!!!
Now I don’t know if you have any idea how slimy bovine saliva is…but let me say I could tell there was a film on my eye that needed windshield wipers to clear it off! Had it been an animal other than one that I am totally in love with, it might have really bothered me….but if you have been following my stories very long at all, you know that Mocha is my favorite cow on the farm…probably my favorite animal, so I immediately dismissed it as just one of those hazards that comes with working with animals and not an overt, disgusting, deliberate act toward me!
I have to say that I have encountered, accepted and even become accustomed to many things that my before-farmer-self would never have dreamed, but this was not one of the events I could have predicted! Manure, yes! Smell/odor, yes! But never would I have guessed getting spit in my eye by my favorite girl!
I will admit that I am a storyteller. Ask anyone who knows me! I love giving lots of colorful details about the fun and funny (and sometimes not so funny) things that happen here on the farm. However, it was suggested to me that there may be ways I can help you! What??? Yep! So, I am going to ask you to give me some feedback and let me know what kinds of topics you might like to read about or learn about.
Some of the topics I’ve come up with that might be interesting or helpful to you are: Chemical-free Cleaning; Kicking Sugar to the Curb; Instant Pot or Not?; Re-training Your Sweet Tooth; Fast and Filling Meals. If any of these topics interest you, let me know! I’d love to hear from you! Or, if you have topics you’d like to know more about or questions that I might have the answers to, please comment and let me know.
Some other things I know a little bit about are The Ins and Outs and Dos and Don’ts of Breeding Dogs; Homeschooling; Essential Oils; Natural Wellness; and of course this Homesteading/Farming Adventure we are on. I’m here for you and plan to be more present in your lives, so, let me help you! And, if you find a topic particularly helpful, please feel free to share on your favorite social media site by using the icons at the top of each post.
Being a help to you and writing about something you would like to know would thrill me! Hope to see you here again soon!
