Healthy Living – Living de Good Life

My Journey with Intermittent Fasting

I would like to share with you my journey with intermittent fasting and a low carb lifestyle. First, I would like to share a little bit about my history and how I got here. Please understand that I have NO MEDICAL DEGREE; this is my story, my experience and I am not in any way advocating that you, my reader, embark on this journey without careful consideration.

My History

As far back as my twenties, I can remember experiencing lightheadedness, brain fog and “hanger” when I went too long without eating. Honestly, I can’t remember now who advised me to eat every three hours to keep my blood sugar steady, but someone did, and so I did. I still ate sugar and simple carbohydrates, but I ate some kind of protein every three hours. If I did not, I suffered the above consequences.

Then, in 2013, I was diagnosed with a sliding hiatal hernia that at times would cause “heart attack-like symptoms”. My stomach would slide up into that hernia and get stuck. I would then experience excruciating spasms that ended me with the squad being called when I was in Whole Foods with my kids. Talk about scary!

I couldn’t deal with that. I was going to Urgent Care frequently enough that they actually gave me an anti-spasmodic cocktail to keep with me. My doctor, Dr. Keith Lewis of Healthy Life Doctors https://healthylifedoctors.com/ helped me to understand that my digestive system was so inflamed that I had to give it a rest. He put me on an anti-inflammatory and alkaline diet.

After more than a year, my incidents were becoming less frequent, and I could tell that the inflammation was lessening! In the process of eating more whole foods, no sugar and no white flour or flour products, I dropped more than thirty pounds!

Now, keep in mind, this was in 2013. There weren’t a lot of sugar-free, low/no carb options in the stores. I had to order most of my ingredients online.

More Recent History

Maintaining that weight loss for several years, I was healthy and happy! I gained a few pounds here and there but lost them when I put my mind to what I was eating. I continued eating every three hours “to keep my blood sugar steady”. And then…

Covid-19

Last fall, I contracted Covid-19. I felt miserable. I didn’t lose my taste and smell right away but did eventually. Nothing sounded and tasted good. When something did sound good, I ate it! Mashed potatoes, gravy with beef from Culvers was the first thing that sounded AND tasted good! I felt like I was starving. I ate the same thing for 3 days in a row!

Needless to say, feeling sorry for myself, I started relaxing some of what I knew to be healthy for me. Now, I didn’t completely go crazy. I still stayed MOSTLY away from sugar and carbohydrates but allowed some leeway in my diet. Can you guess it? I started putting on the pounds.

Atrial Fibrillation

Meanwhile, after recovering from Covid, my heart started acting crazy. One morning, right before going out to milk and do chores, I knew my heart was POUNDING! As a result of Covid, I had purchased an oximeter to keep track of my oxygen levels. I was in the habit of checking my levels every morning. This particular morning, I could not register a rhythm of my heart rate. I asked my husband to check, and he couldn’t find a rhythm either.

So, I did a quick search online and found that exercise was one remedy for “A-fib”. Out I went to do chores as normal and amazingly, when I returned to the house, my heart was back in rhythm. “No big deal”, I thought!

The problem is though that this began happening more and more frequently. So, I scheduled an appointment with a local doctor I had never met. My appointment was for the end of January. When I arrived at that appointment, and blood pressure and EKGs were run, I was immediately sent to ER. “Which hospital do you want to go to?” was the question I was asked. I was in disbelief.

I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. My heart rate and blood pressure were so high upon arriving in the emergency department that they almost made me stay overnight! But that was just the beginning.

As I began to monitor my symptoms, I realized that my heart had a reaction to eating carbs…even healthy carbs like sprouted wheat bread! I tested the reaction a few times and realized I wasn’t just imagining it. So, I decided I would eat a ketogenic diet (which I was a bit familiar with because my son and his wife were eating that way). No sugar and no carbs for a week, was what I decided. Guess what? NO reaction! My heart definitely was steadier.

Excess Weight!

In March, I began to realize how much weight I had put on. I was afraid to get on the scale, so I began to do some research. I was already eating a ketogenic diet, but I was still eating every three hours “to keep my blood sugar steady”. Again, I began to do some research as well as talk to my Dr. Lewis!

He suggested intermittent fasting. I feel kind of bad at how quickly my response to him was “I can’t do that. I need to eat every 3 hours!” He also, after looking at some test results, said that my blood glucose was too high. He labeled it as “insulin resistance”. OUCH! Now I had something else to research!

You won’t believe what I found out! I did this to myself!! By eating every three hours for YEARS, I was dumping glucose and triggering an insulin response so frequently that I had overloaded my cells! And what is the ONLY remedy and means of reversal for insulin resistance (and even diabetes type 2)? Intermittent Fasting! At this point, I was motivated to try it. I read that it probably would take up to 8 or 9 months to reverse the insulin resistance, but that seemed doable to me since it had taken me years to get to this point!

During that visit with Dr. Lewis, he suggested I watch some of Dr. Fung’s YouTube videos on the subject. So, I did! Here is a link to the first one I watched. https://youtu.be/r0d5lJzMXnM. I also had followed Dr. Berg on YouTube and he was in agreement with Dr. Fung. Here is that link: https://youtu.be/pxl8hhyN6AQ. I watched every video the two of them had on the subject! I was on a mission!

Intermittent Fasting

Since both of these experts as well as my own expert, Dr. Lewis, agreed, I was convinced that this is what I had to do. I began my intermittent fasting journey in March with fasting twelve hours: from 6:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. Gradually I increased it on both ends to 14 hours fasting and a 10-hour eating window, then to 16:8 and then to 18:6. This has worked well for me. I have even completed a couple of twenty hour fasts with a four-hour eating window.

The Ketogenic Diet

There are many who lose weight with intermittent fasting without giving up sugar and other foods they want to eat. But since my main goal is to reverse my insulin resistance, I can’t eat sugar and simple carbohydrates, as these are the foods that cause an insulin response.

Results!

It is now the first of August. The change has been slow, but I am not worried. I can tell it’s working! I told you that in the beginning, I was afraid to weigh. After I could tell by my clothes and see in the mirror that I had lost some weight, I got on the scale. That was my “starting point”. I have now lost 6 pounds from that point and more than five inches off my waist. I know I have lost more since the beginning of this journey but have no way to measure it since I was afraid to know how much weight I had gained.

DISCLAIMER:

Again, I want to emphasize that I am not a doctor. I have no formal training! However, I DID follow the advice of Dr. Lewis! This is a simple documentation of my own journey with atrial fibrillation, insulin resistance and weight loss. Please do your own research!

Recipes and Websites

My “PART TWO” of this post will include websites of “ketogenic cooks” and their recipes that I have found to be reliable. There are definitely some unreliable sites out there that have resulted in wasted ingredients and nothing edible for dinner, so I hope to be able to prevent you wasting your time if you choose to try a ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting to regain your health and bring your blood sugar levels into control!

Thank you for reading!

Please contact me if this has been a help or encouragement to you, or if you have questions that perhaps I can answer!

Life Lessons Learned on the Farm – Part Three

MAKE THE MUNDANE MAGICAL!

I’ll be the first to admit there is nothing magical about mucking a stall or milking a cow. Neither is there anything magical about cleaning house, or picking up your toys (if you are a child), UNLESS you make it magical! Remember the old Disney song “Whistle while you work”… I’ll bet you can hear the tune in your head just by my mentioning those four words!

Life can be more enjoyable if we learn to enjoy the things we HAVE to do…if we learn to find the magic in doing them…the spark! I will give you a few examples:

1. try making a game of picking up toys with your child or grandchild.
2. put on some music while you are cleaning house or doing dishes…maybe even dance with the broom.
3. play a game while traveling…alphabets on signs, state license plates and a U.S. map, find a red-colored car…etc., you get the idea.
4. take a walk in the rain (WITHOUT an umbrella!) and splash in the puddles!

I play this game with my granddaughter when it’s time to go in the house after playing outside. She never wants to go in. She loves playing in the back yard…but I have no issues getting her to come in if I say three simple words: “I’m gonna win.” With that, she is off and running for the back door and there are no tears about leaving the “playground”, as she calls it!

So, we have a barn, obviously, right? We have a radio in the barn that plays a local country station (shout out to @WCOL 92.3 Columbus!). There are a few songs in particular that make me want to dance and even if I am milking, I struggle NOT to get up and dance. One day I was either getting ready to milk or had just finished when one of these songs came on and I DID IT! I DANCED in the middle of the barn!

Oh! I got the looks and not just from the cows but from my husband who happened to walk back into the barn just as I was getting started…but I didn’t let that stop me. I just enjoyed myself!

There are lots of ways to make the mundane magical. Just try looking at the world from a child’s perspective. The buds on the trees and the new blooming flowers, a robin’s nest with brilliant blue eggs in it, a flock of geese flying overhead, the delighted squeals of children at a neighborhood park…all of these things are magical, if you just take the time to appreciate them.

When you look at the world with fresh eyes, you not only can enjoy the ordinary and the mundane, but you can appreciate the blessings you may take for granted every day! There are lots of things out there to make us grow up too fast, or make us forget what it was like to be a child of wonder! When you have the chance to live a little, let your hair down and dance with the mop, or dance in the barn or whistle while you work! Whatever it might be, DO IT! I guarantee you won’t be sorry…and I’ll bet the people around you will notice and you might find that familiar lilt in your step or a more frequent smile on your face!

On Love, Hearts and Valentine’s Day

I’m sure you are aware that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Different people have different thoughts about this day. Some people say “It’s just another Hallmark holiday designed to get you to buy cards and candy.”, but still they participate. Other people get very serious and take the opportunity to show their significant other special love in the form of a card, flowers, candy or a dinner out. Still others feel it is just another day and allow it to pass without much fuss or fanfare. Where do your thoughts fall?

Personally, I would love to have my husband acknowledge it and make me feel special in some way, but that’s just not who he is. I normally don’t get cards for other special days, so I have learned not to expect one on this day either. Oh, yes! At first, I was hurt and disappointed, but as the years have passed, it’s just one of those things I have gotten used to. I do feel kind of jealous when my friends get flowers, candy or jewelry, etc. from their husbands, but I don’t allow myself to dwell on it.

So, what is love? In the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter thirteen spells out some of the attributes of love: patience, kindness, not envious or boastful, not arrogant or rude, not self-seeking, not irritable, not keeping a record of wrongs, rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and true love never ends. In other Bible passages, it indicates that humility, seeking peace and looking after the interests of another are also indications of love.

Through the years, I have heard other definitions: “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” (Robert A. Heinlein) And, according to the Urban Dictionary, love is “giving a person the power to destroy you, and trusting them not to.” WOW!

I have always been a person who has had high expectations and that personal characteristic has caused my heart to break many times. So, I have learned a couple of things in order to protect my heart: 1) Expect nothing, then anything is a nice surprise; and, 2) Turn it around and instead of focusing on myself, make someone else feel loved.

Other factors that can affect how we give and receive love might be “Where did you learn to love?” or “Who taught you what love is?” I grew up in a loving home with two parents who TO THIS DAY still are “in love” with each other! They will celebrate 65 years of marriage next month and it is obvious to me by how they talk to each other, how they talk about each other and how they treat each other that they are still “in love”! How precious that is!

Not only do they still love each other, they love their four kids, their four kids’ spouses, their eight grandchildren and their six (soon to be seven) great-grandchildren! Often, my mornings are blessed with a message like “Good morning, precious daughter” from my dad or “Good morning, sweetie” from my mom!

I grew up watching my mom exhibit her love to her family by DOING…cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, etc. You know what I mean! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!! Now, as a mama and nana, I find myself showing love in some of the same ways! We definitely learn what love is and how to express it by watching those we grew up with.

However, in the same way, I have friends who didn’t grow up with this kind of demonstrative love and they have struggled to find their own way of expressing love…what it is and what it isn’t. Their love is no less genuine or heart-felt, I think they have just had to learn how to express it without the guidance of those people in their early lives.

So, what says love to you? Here are some of the things that say “love” to me, in no particular order:

use words and tell me that you love me and that I’m important to you.;
be kind to me, and not just on a particular day;
be interested in my day…ask me!
surprise me with something nice once in a while, and it doesn’t have to be big or expensive!
be happy to see me
look into my eyes
be deliberate about engaging with me
do something with me: take a walk, window shop, go get coffee, watch a movie, etc.
miss me when you don’t see me and tell me so
hug me
be deliberate about spending some time with me
give grace to me
maybe DON’T say everything that comes into your mind
forgive my mistakes

So, if these things feel like love to me, can I use any of these things to make someone else feel loved? Or, better yet, you know your special someone: what would say “love” to them? For some people, it’s having a day to themselves to do what they want to do. Now me? That’s not EVER what I would choose. On my special days, I want to be surrounded by those people that I love. But, you get where I am going with this. Take the focus off of yourself and focus on making someone ELSE feel special!

Take the chance to grow! Don’t wait for someone to hurt and disappoint you. Flex your “love muscles” and do something nice for someone else; help someone else feel loved and important! I guarantee you it will warm your heart as well as the recipient of your loving actions! And, it will take your mind off of what is or isn’t being done for you!

Have a great day and week and MAKE IT a Happy Valentine’s Day for yourself and someone you love!

From Despair to Hope

I use this photo as a real life example of the contrast of death of a dream and the beauty of the small gifts in life.

We all deal with disappointments in life. Sometimes it feels like some of us have to deal with more disappointment than others. There are many things that can disappoint us. Our lives might not be turning out how we had envisioned they would. Perhaps, a devastating blow comes out of nowhere, like the loss of love, job or another sudden loss. But, I believe there is one truth about disappointments that we all share: How we view life’s disappointments will determine how we recover.

This post is kind of an “aside” to my previous post “Death of a Dream” Parts 1 and 2 and yet it is also a continuation. Death of a dream is one cause of disappointment, as it has been in my case. However, there truly are many causes of disappointment, some of which I have named above, but I know there are probably as many causes as there are people out there!

But, whatever the cause, disappointment left unchecked can lead to sadness, depression and despair. However, disappointment can also spur you on to a new vision, a new plan, and a new hope. It’s all in how you see it and your determination not to live there.

Now I know that some disappointments are much more difficult to deal with than others. The disappointment that led me to write my “Death of a Dream” posts was devastating and life-altering to me. It caused me much pain, many tears, and a feeling of hopelessness.

The sunset, depicting the end of one day…with the hope of a new day just hours away.

Thankfully, that sadness and hopelessness has worked its way into the ability to see and develop a different dream, or many dreams. One way that happened for me was to take the advice of someone very near and dear to me. In general terms, their advice was to accept what is and not expect anything more than what is. For instance: a dog will always act like a dog and never like a bird; a cow will not act like a horse, and a bull will never act like a kitty cat. So, I had to see my situation for what it was and learn to accept what was.

This was not an easy task. The dreams of “what could be” will linger as long as you give them life. When I determined that the dream of what could be was truly dead, it then freed me up to accept what is and to make a new dream based on that reality. I suppose that is survival mode kicking in?

There has been a running joke with some people who know me. My blood type happens to be B+…and it has been the joke how perfect that is because I have a “be positive” personality…most of the time. However, when my dream of what could be died, I felt no positivity…only sadness and disappointment.

But, being who I am, I could not live there. First, I am a daughter of the King of Kings and I believe in His sovereignty. This means that I believe He loves me and that He has a plan for me. His Word tells me that He will work all things together for my good and for His glory (Romans 8:28). So, when disappointment comes…and it will, I am human and must process it with my human emotions. However, my human emotions are not the last word.

I believe that if my God allows something in my life, even if I don’t know the purpose for it, I must trust Him. I must believe that He knows what He is doing. I can’t, as a mere human, see all that He is working on and I have to leave “being God” to God!

So, how do I do this? First, I fill my mind with Truth that reminds me that this was allowed into my life for some reason. It is what it is and so I must now find a way to move on. That “moving on” can take a short amount of time, or it can take a very long amount of time. But, my mind is key to my recovery. Philippians 4:8 puts it like this: “...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think on these things.”

Sunrise…the hope of a new day has dawned…however, what will be is still a bit foggy…

Once my mind has settled on the fact of what is…I now move to the “what can be” stage. In my situation, the death of one of my dreams was quite devastating to me, but as the weeks and months have passed, I have found a new way to live without that particular dream. It has freed me up so much to see little things as blessings….little individual dreams, if you want to see it that way.

Another much lesser example has happened this week. Besides being a writer at heart, I am also a photographer. Perhaps this is because I would describe myself as a visual person. Anyway, I often give photographic gifts to those I love.

I had a particular gift in mind and in order to make that gift I needed to locate some pictures I had taken in 2012 (not only 8 yeas ago but 3 computers ago!). I have searched through every device I have looking for these six photographs. Today, I finally had to come to the realization that I was not going to find them. So, now what?

I decided that I will just have to go to the places I took the original photographs and retake them…and then I thought, “Who knows? Maybe the new photos will even be better than the originals.” And then, hope dawned! It occurred to me that I could expand on what I had done in the past and even perhaps this could turn into a project that others might like to own as well! Amazing! Now instead of thinking of the drudgery of having to recreate something I had already created, I am excited at the prospect of creating something MORE than I had originally created!

That’s how HOPE works, at least for me. It’s a strange journey from sadness and despair, past anger, through mourning, to acceptance, and eventually to a new plan with new hope!

I hope in some small way, this post has been an encouragement to you. If it has, please comment below and let me know! That will be an encouragement to me!

Chaos in the Barn

This precious little kitty caused a whole lot of chaos this morning just trying to get back into the barn after a night of carousing in the nearby fields and tormenting the field mice that live in them! The morning was going pretty much the same as the rest of the mornings usually go. I headed into the barn, got my milking supplies in order and headed into the stall to clean Jersey first.

When I was finished with Jersey, I left the stall and was preparing to head into Mocha’s stall when I heard a strange noise. I looked and saw that Gandalf (our sweet barn cat pictured above) had jumped up from the outside of the barn and had come through the barn window in Jersey’s stall. As I was standing there being amazed at his agility, Jersey reacted in a big way!

His sudden presence in the window scared Jersey so badly that she jumped! Not only did she JUMP, but she was determined to get as far from that window as she could get, so she side-stepped– first, away from the window toward the stall door. In side-stepping, she stepped on the bucket I sit on to milk…and needless to say, her weight totally obliterated it!

[If you will look in the picture, you will see the window is slightly open but it is barred. From the early days here on the farm, Gandalf has been an expert at coming and going through that window whenever the “man door” was closed. However, I am not sure that Jersey has ever been in the stall when he has done that.]

Thankfully she didn’t fall, but it took her a few determined steps to clear herself of the bucket and free herself into the main part of the barn! If the big barn door had been open, she would have “flown the coop”! Thankfully, it was shut which stopped her in her tracks, but I could tell she was still actively looking for an escape route!

Then, I glanced over at Gandalf. Jersey had scared him so badly with her reaction that even though he had landed safely inside the barn, he was now frantically trying to climb back up the barn wall to to get back to the safety of the window! When he finally did, he just sat there, unsure of what to do! Seeing his dilemma, I went outside by way of the front door and called to him, and then left the “man door” open so that he could enter by that door and not have to attempt the window trick again!

I went back into the stall and kicked the broken bucket out of the way so it wouldn’t prevent Jersey from getting back into her stall and so she wouldn’t trip on it. Then I realized that there were blue bucket pieces all over her stall. I couldn’t leave them in there so I scooted them with my boot over into a pile and out of the stall (I have been dealing with a flair up of my sliding hiatal hernia, so bending over is OUT OF THE QUESTION!)

Finally, Jersey calmed down enough to realize she was safe and went back into her stall. And then, guess what?? Jeff came back in from doing his chores totally oblivious of all that had just transpired! HAHA! Timing is everything! O well. “All’s well that ends well”, they say! Gandalf was in the barn. Jersey was back in her stall. I hadn’t reinjured myself and no one and nothing was worse for the wear…well, nothing except the bucket!

“One Bad Day”

This life we’ve chosen isn’t an easy one, but as you know if you’ve followed my posts for any length of time, that it is a good life! Not only is it a good life for the humans here on “de Good Life Farm”, but we do our very best to make sure it is a good life for the animals we care for here on the farm, regardless of how long they are here.

Last night we loaded up the meat chickens we have been raising for a little more than seven weeks. Now, I am not really a fan of these chickens, other than for dinner, but I have taken very seriously the care I give them. Each morning after milking and other chores are done, it’s time to move them to a new spot of pasture. We have done this from their very first day in the pasture, so by now they are used to the routine.

Now, I say that I’m not a fan, but I absolutely love chicks! They come to us in the mail, in a box, only one day old! Their cute fluffiness is irresistible to me! We carefully count each one and introduce them to feed and water and settle them in the brooder box with a heat lamp since they cannot regulate their own temperature and they don’t have a mama to sit under to keep warm. They are so adorable as they begin to examine their new surroundings.

They grow and change very quickly. Within a week or so, they begin to get their adult feathers and get very adept at running around the brooder box and over and on top of any other chick that might be in their way! They have voracious appetites and are so much fun to watch! As they begin to “feather out” (get their adult feathers), they become less cute, in my opinion, but it is a rather quick metamorphosis.

By the time they are three weeks of age, they are feathered out so that they no longer need the heat lamp and can be moved to the pasture and this begins their daily routine of fresh pasture grass and learning to walk with the chicken tractor each day.

Micah gets the tractor and fresh water and I get the feed and we meet at the chicken tractors. It didn’t take very many days before the chickens recognized that the sound of the tractor meant it was time to get fed. You see, we put the feed in the feeders, remove the waters and hook up the chicken tractor to the tractor and start moving. They are so interested in the feed that they compliantly walk along as the tractor moves the pen. When we have moved one section ahead so that they have new grass, we stop, unhook the tractor and put the fresh water into the pen. This has been our routine every day for four and a half weeks, until yesterday.

Since yesterday was the day they were to be delivered to the butcher, we did everything the same except that after we moved them to new grass, we removed their food, per instructions from the butcher. They had fresh water and fresh air and fresh grass. It was a pretty nice way to spend their last day. Then, last night, we loaded them into crates and took them to the butcher.

The chicken tractors seemed so silent where just hours before they were bustling with chickens looking for their next meal. I have to admit that it pangs my heart a little bit. I don’t think you can care for something, even for as short a time as seven and a half weeks, and not feel somewhat emotional when you know their lives are over, even when it’s been planned from their hatch date.

Now mind you, I am not crying. I am so thankful that they will provide healthy and delicious meals for our family and for other families who choose to buy from us, but I recognize that creatures that came to us just a day old and lived a good life here on the farm, had their one bad day and are now in our freezer. Just one bad day! That’s actually a pretty good life, don’t you think?

Maybe I just think too much, but I think all life is valuable. They were hatched to be raised, to be butchered for our food, but I do feel somewhat pensive and so very thankful for their sacrifice! But, in the meantime, I will completely enjoy the delicious nutrition they will provide for us!

“Living de Good Life” by Eating Healthy and Feeling Better

“Living de Good Life” is not just the name of my blog…or the name of my farm…or the name of my online presence….although it is all of those, it is more. SO. MUCH. MORE! “Why?” I hear you ask? Because, there are many things that contribute to living a good life.

One of those things that may seem illusive for some people is really feeling good. Feeling good…healthy…energetic and happy are things that are easy to take for granted until you don’t feel well, aren’t healthy, have no energy and are discouraged! I have had my share of years feeling well but when I turned 50, things seemed to take a downward turn. I severely injured my knee and discovered after a delayed visit for an MRI, that I had torn my meniscus. I had definitely taken being able to run and play with my kids, jog and walk down the street, and even go up and down the stairs doing laundry for granted!

Finally, with fear and trembling, I scheduled surgery. The recovery was rough for several reasons but the effects were much longer lasting that I expected. Possibly due to the pain pills I was given, and possibly due to years of stress and anxiety, mostly of my own doing, I developed a sliding hiatal hernia in which my stomach would slide up into the hernia and get caught, causing esophageal spasms which were described online as “pain like a heart attack”. Yes! It was! The pain was so severe that I ended up passing out and having a seizure in Whole Foods with my children present. It was frightening for them as well as for me!

A “chiropractor” (and I put it in quotation marks because he is so much more than a chiropractor) was recommended to me by a friend when my then family doctor interpreted my abdominal ultrasound as gall bladder disease and instructed me to call the surgeon and have it out immediately! I knew from doing research that my symptoms did not line up with gall bladder symptoms, so I was thrilled when Dr. Lewis was willing to take a look at the test results.

He said my diaphragm and digestive system were so inflamed that the inflammation and resulting distress was causing the recurring issues and severe pain attacks. He immediately put me on an anti-inflammatory diet* which in essence cut out all white/refined flours and sugars and listed other inflammatory foods to avoid. He also put me on an alkaline diet with a chart* of acidic foods to avoid, as well as some natural supplements to help me heal. This was turning point number one for me!

Immediately my system began healing. At the worst of it, I couldn’t even lift a gallon of milk because the muscles in my stomach and diaphragm were so inflamed. I had to be careful not to eat too much at a time and not to bend forward after eating so that my stomach wouldn’t slide up into the hernia. This meant no bending forward to do laundry, let alone lifting the laundry basket. My poor boys! They learned to do a lot of things they had been sheltered from doing. But, I did heal!

I began this regime in spring of 2013 and by mid 2014, the esophageal attacks were only a bad memory. I was beginning to get my life back! I began using natural sugars like maple syrup, coconut sugar and flours like almond and coconut. It was a challenge to learn to eat and cook a new way, but for me, it was well worth it to not have the pain and suffering I had endured.

With this new way of eating, the pounds began to fall off. I again felt like exercising and was able to lose more than thirty pounds. I was thrilled and felt like I had a new lease on life. However, even natural sugars will put weight on you and eventually, I realized I was gaining some of the weight back, even though I wasn’t eating white sugars and flours.

I tried eating more protein as in shakes and yogurt but for the most part felt like I was starving. My family really couldn’t eat the way I felt I needed to eat, so either I made two meals or tried to modify what I made for them so I could eat it but, what usually happened is that I made a meal for them and I ate next to nothing, rarely feeling satisfied.

Enter Trim Healthy Mama, at the suggesting of several friends. This was turning point number two for me. The books were gifted to me by friends as well as some of the special ingredients. Again, it took some time for me to absorb the concepts of separating fuels but what was so life-changing for me was that the sisters’ books included recipes…LOTS of recipes. I tried a few and they were delicious! My family was even willing to eat them and liked them!

Now, almost a year later, I have lost twenty-five pounds, feel like a new woman and now have a new way of eating that sustains and energizes me! The recipes are delicious and most are fairly easy to follow. You can choose not to buy special ingredients but even the few that I buy have enhanced my feeling that I am not deprived and I finally have good food to eat! I am so thankful for Trim Healthy Mama and the friends that pointed me in this direction!

This is now a way of life for me! And, (ok…you know I had to say it…) it’s such a good life!

Please comment below if you would like to know more about Trim Healthy Mama. I would be happy to share with you what I know!

*I am happy to make these charts available to you. I have a chart for anti-inflammatory foods and I have a chart for acidic/alkaline foods. Please leave a message below if you are interested in receiving either of these charts to help you heal.

Chicks Have Arrived!

Our broiler chicks have arrived! They are so cute and noisy at this stage of their lives! They were hatched just yesterday morning and shipped via the United States Post Office. “How can they do that?”, you may ask. The expert at Meyer Hatchery says that they absorb the yoke while they are in the egg and that nutrient-dense meal sustains them for seventy-two hours! It truly is amazing!

So when they arrive, they are typically twenty-four hours old (occasionally they won’t arrive for another day but that hasn’t been our experience) and are huddled all together in the box. We ordered fifty “straight-run” Cornish Cross chicks. “Straight-run” means that they are not sexed at the time of hatching. “Cornish Cross” is the breed, known for being a fast-growing, fast-feathering meat bird.

They are extremely “talky” on their trip home. Usually there is one peep that is louder and more demanding than the others. Often, this turns out to be a male. (No kidding!)

It is extremely important that they stay warm, which is one of the reasons they are shipped in such tight quarters. They huddle together to keep warm. Our job, once we remove them from the box, is to create a warm environment which enables them to be under the heat lamp if they need warmth, but also gives them access to feed and water.

Our routine when we take a chick out of the box is we gently “dunk” their beak into the water and then into the feed and then set them down. This helps them know there is food and water but by doing it in this order, the water allows a little feed to stick to their beak which entices them to find more. When we set each chick down, we call out the next sequential number. The hatchery from where we order them, usually sends an extra couple of chicks in case one or two don’t make it. We have had some years where all 52 made it and some years when we lost three or four. If we lose more chicks in the first couple of days than the extra chicks the hatchery included, they will replace them, so it’s important to know how many we start with.

Micah introducing them to their water and then food.

Gradually as they mature, they will need the heat less and less and when they are about three weeks old and feathered out, if the weather permits, they will be transferred to chicken tractors in the pasture and have access to the nutrients the pasture grass and the sun provide. A chicken tractor is basically a bottomless chicken pen that gets pulled around by the tractor to new pasture grass. This way, the chickens have new grass every day.

three week old broiler chicks just put into the pasture (2017)

These chicks will be ready for butchering between 7-8 weeks. Their “one bad day” has already been scheduled for the second Saturday in June. Because they are meat chickens they will mature more rapidly than laying breeds and they will be nicely filled out by that time.

Meat chickens in their chicken tractor almost ready for their “one bad day” (2017)

So for now, we keep their brooder box clean, fresh water (with electrolytes) and feed available and make sure the temperature is right for them. The first couple of years, I was out there with a thermometer checking the temperature frequently. However, now I know that I can tell by their behavior whether the temperature is right. If they are frantically huddling together all the time, then it is probably not warm enough. If they are scurrying to get away from the heat, sometimes going to the extreme of the opposite corner of the brooder box, then I know they are too warm. What we have found is that at this stage, they will want to be under the warmth of the heat lamp but will run/hop out to get food and water and then back to the warmth. This behavior indicates that they are fairly contented with their environment.

One of the wonderful things about the way we farm is how the animals here nurture the ground as the ground nurtures them. The chicken and cow manure, because they are raised in the pasture, provides nutrients to the ground to make the pasture healthier. Likewise, the grass in the pasture, because it is so high in nutrients, gives our cattle and chicks the healthiest diet which in turn, enables them to grow strong and healthy. There is a beautiful order to the way God created His world!

We didn’t raise meat chickens last year and I have really missed having my own delicious, pasture-raised chicken. In my opinion, there is nothing as delicious as a chicken raised here on the farm. I am really looking forward to reaping the rewards of raising these chicks in the best and healthiest way possible so that they can provide health for our bodies as well as for other families who choose to purchase chicken from us.

If you have questions or comments about this post, or any other post, please feel free to comment below. If you have enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my blog.

Grain-free and Sugar-Free Living

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!

Help Wanted?

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!

Category: Healthy Living