Much Better Now

The little bit of herbs and whatnot that I took must have helped, because I never did get really sick.  I still cough a bit at times, but only a few times a day.  I think there were only 3 nights that I slept propped up, so not too bad!

Only a few short days left of the 60 day challenge, which I miserably failed.  At least I'm not any fatter!  I think.  I'm kind of scared to weigh and measure myself again.  :P 

We've been milking a couple of goats and cows lately.  Not mine, so I don't have to milk them every day, even though I enjoy it.  There is SO MUCH milk!  And there are more cows due to calve soon!  We've been trying to drink/use a lot of milk, but we aren't keeping up very well.  I've made yogurt, cottage cheese, eggnog, ice cream, butter and buttermilk, and lots of chocolate milk, and yet the pigs still end up getting what gets too old to use.  I've even cooked our oatmeal in milk instead of water!  I'd like to learn how to make hard cheeses, so it could be saved long-term, but it's not something I want to tackle on my own.  I'd rather be an apprentice :)

We finally got around to painting the living room.  Whenever we find some trim, I plan to paint it bright white.  Painting the colors made it much friendlier and homey, but also much darker.  The couches didn't match, they were actually pretty horrid, so I used some white sheets to brighten up the room a bit and make it all go together a bit better.  I'm sure I shall rearrange things at least once a month :)

Day 40 and Feeling Like Cr*p

Here it is, about 20 days away from the end of the 60-day Challenge.  And I'm not doing a darn thing.  I fully intended to get busy, but then I ... got busy.  And I got sick.  So now I don't feel like doing anything.

I seem to have the annual tradition of getting a horrible cold.  It starts in my head, where I feel kind of "odd" for a few hours, then the congestion hits, and I start sneezing, coughing, and blowing my nose a lot.  And then it gets worse.

Back in 1995, when I was pregnant with my third child, I got really sick.  I tend to avoid doctors as much as possible, but when it reached the point where every breath was so painful I wanted to cry, I went in.  Turns out I had pneumonia AND pleurisy.  Not a fun combination.  I am pretty sure that's when this cold thing became an annual beginning-of-summer/change-of-weather tradition.  And because of that, it always ends up being a horrible chest cold.

In my experience, this thing always lasts at least 2 weeks and often 3, and I spend several days coughing so much that I think one of my lungs will finally come up my throat.  Sometimes I do cough enough to throw up.  I go through a LOT of tissues.  I start stealing and hoarding all the pillows I can find, so I can try to make myself a recliner in bed with which to sleep propped up.  I dose myself with Nyquil so I can actually get some sleep.

I'm now to the stage where the glands in my neck are swollen and painful, and I can feel the congestion settling into my lungs.  I'm really hoping this time around I can beat it, but we shall see.  I'm trying to take vitamins/herbs/supplements to counteract this nemesis, but I'm also pretty forgetful.  Some of the things I have been, or should be taking or using are as follows:

• Colloidal silver.  You can buy this at many places, but we actually make our own.  It's pretty awesome stuff.
• Vitamin C.  I was completely out and just bought some more yesterday, so now I have to remember to take megadoses of this wonderful vitamin.
• Immune supporting herb combination capsules.  I had a couple different brands of these, but they contain things like echinacea, goldenseal, myrrh, and other stuff that I can't remember right now.
• Herbal teas, made with things like yarrow, mullein, rabbit tobacco, mint, and whatever else I feel like adding to the mix.  Most of these are herbs that I wild harvested and dried myself!
• Garlic.  Like, a half a head of garlic to a pint of soup.  Yum!
• Broth.  Good, homemade broth, from whatever animal I've recently eaten; chicken, pheasant, goat.  I like to add onion, garlic, and ginger to the broth.
• Congestion rub.  Something like Vick's, but without all the nasty petroleum stuff in it.  I found a recipe online, and made some myself.  My husband said it needed to smell like eucalyptus, though, to be "real", so I added some essential oils to the finished product.

I'm sure there are other things I could be doing, but I can't remember any of them right now.  Oh yeah, SLEEP! I should be doing a lot more of that!  Like, right now, in fact.

Please add to my list in the comment section.  Maybe I'll actually try some of them!

Day 26, and a Cleanse

How am I doing on the Challenge?  Not so well.  I haven't been doing my T-Tapp regularly, maybe only a couple times a week.  The scales haven't moved.  My clothes don't seem to be any less tight.  I just haven't been consistent.  My own fault, completely.  Only a few days left of our small group challenge, but I still have another month of my own personal challenge.  There's still time!

A couple weeks ago I got a yeast infection.  I can't remember the last time I had one, but it's been a very long time.  Back when OTC "remedies" were the only thing I knew to use.  This time around I employed the use of garlic, tea tree oil, kefir, cranberry juice, and coconut oil.  I have had a mild case of athlete's foot for many years, and it occasionally goes beyond a couple small spots.  A few days into this yeast infection I realized that the yuck on my foot was (and had been) worse than normal.  Smack me upside the head - the two were connected!  Yikes!  I guess I figured I had a systemic yeast issue, but since it never really bothered me, I ignored it.  I am definitely a sugar addict, which hasn't helped any.  It was hard to stay away from sweets even for a day while fighting this thing!

About two years ago I read a great book titled Coconut Cured, by Dr. Bruce Fife.  I highly recommend this book.  In one of the chapters he writes about various fasts/cleanses/detoxes employing coconut in one form or another.  I knew that one day I would have to try the coconut oil detox (you can read that section here), but I kept putting it off for one reason or another.

Well, yesterday I did it.  I started the program.  My initial intention is to do seven days, so I can kill off the yeast.  However I am now wavering on that resolve.  I like coconut oil.  I have been known on several occasions to simply scoop some out and eat it plain, right off the spoon.  This is a little different, though.  This is extreme quantities of coconut oil!

I talked my best friend (my wonderful long-suffering husband) into joining me, for at least three days.  He reluctantly agreed.  He does NOT enjoy coconut oil, so I was grateful for this supportive gesture.  I was doing fine, though a bit hungry, mid-day; he was already complaining that he was dying.  By bedtime I was joining him with stomach cramps and nausea.  After visiting "the facilities" in the middle of the night, I felt much better upon waking.

Neither of us rushed downstairs to have "breakfast" today, and it was almost noon before we had our first dose of oil.  I broke down last night and allowed my dear husband to have his oil in chicken broth (homemade) so that is how he got his all day.  For mine, I heated the lemonade and let the oil melt in it.  I just couldn't bear the thought of eating it off the spoon again. 

We have felt tired most of the day, though the lawn did get mowed.  Having never done any sort of cleanse, I wasn't really thinking about the not-really-much-fun aspect of it.  I know it's good for me, but I'm not enjoying it, that's for sure! 

I tried the oil mixed with plain yogurt this afternoon.  It probably would have been okay if I had only put 2 Tbl of oil in, instead of 4.  Trying to get more in at one sitting isn't necessarily the best way.  Tonight I gave in and did the broth for mine as well.  Much tastier! 

We have one more day, and then I will decide how to proceed.  I'm not sure if I have enough coconut oil on hand to make it through the week, at the rate of 10+ Tbl per day.  I have an order coming sometime this week, though.  I am considering continuing to drink the lemonade and consume a lot of oil, but add foods like broth, yogurt, and scrambled eggs - things like that.

I'm not really sure how we'll manage tomorrow.  We have to be back to work in the garden.  Will we have enough energy to make it?  How will we manage to get the oil in throughout the day?  Perhaps we will only work in the morning.  I guess we'll figure that out tomorrow.

Oh Costco, How I Do Love Thee

One of my dear friends wrote a blog post this morning about Costco.  I started replying, but once my husband commented, "What are you doing?  Writing a book?"  I decided to write my own post.  :)

Costco is my most favoritest store on earth :)  My first experience was in 1984, when they opened their second store in Portland, Oregon, and until the past couple of years, I have been a steady and faithful member and shopper.  It is only because of moving FAR from any C. that keeps me away now.

I remember the first time my sister and I went to do the grocery shopping alone, and when we got to the checkout we said, "Yeah!  We can spend $200, too!"  That was kind of the family joke about how much my mom always spent.  That was probably a fair estimate of how much I spent regularly once I had my own family, but it wasn't weekly.

I usually lived at least an hour away from Costco, so it was usually a once-a-month shopping trip, and we mostly stuck to the basic necessities.  But, like you, I know we succumbed frequently to something new or different.
I don't have records anymore of how much I spent there, but I do know that in later years especially, I definitely saved money by shopping there.  I had a couple "tricks" that helped me in that area.

First, I made a spreadsheet of all the grocery/household items that I normally keep on hand, and had columns for each store where I would normally shop.  I could then "fill in the blank" with the price at each location, either price per container, or per ounce/pound, etc.  I carried this master list with me at all times!  I could then compare prices at Costco with the regular prices in other stores to know if I was really getting a savings, as well as compare sales prices in the grocery store with C's basic price.  To this day I have a really hard time buying things like cheese in a grocery store, because I know it's about twice the price that C has. 

My other "trick" was to have a basic shopping list made out, that would cover our usual meals and keep us stocked up on all the stuff I needed on hand to change the menu occasionally.  It was for a month, and right before my shopping trip I could see how many whole chickens, bags of potatoes, #10 cans of green beans, olives, mushrooms, and tomatoes I needed, as well as the rest.  I had it divided into sections: baking needs (flour, sugar, spices, etc.), freezer, refrigerator, non-food (tp, pt, zip-lock bags, BATTERIES, etc), well, you understand.  I could then double check my cupboards for the essentials and make sure I bought them when I needed them, and where I knew I was saving money.

I also could hand out part of my list to the boys and send them to a section of the store with a cart and have them help with shopping.  Having extra hands does help :)  They knew we'd usually pick at least one thing to buy extra, whether it was something new to try, or an old favorite.

Costco's Food Court was also frequented by our family.  We could feed everyone for much less than two of us at a nice restaurant, and everyone liked it.  I once tried to estimate how many Costco hot dogs I've eaten in my lifetime.  I figured that I ate probably an average of one per month, for 20+ years.  I'll let you do the math :)

A few years ago I needed to purchase new glasses.  I checked the prices for exams, frames, and lenses at several locations, and even if I included the membership price as part of the cost for my glasses, it was still cheaper to go to Costco.

I have had probably hundreds (if not more) photos printed there, as well, and I don't remember a single complaint.  Once I finally joined the digital photo world, I loved that I could upload my photos at home, crop them or add borders or whatnot, and have my order ready at whatever store I would be at next.

The customer service is also wonderful, and I would compare it to that of Fred Meyer (where I worked for several years) and Nordstrom (where I shopped occasionally - from the clearance racks, naturally).

Costco is not only a wonderful place to shop, but it is also a great place to work.  No, I was never an official employee of Costco, but I worked at nearly all the stores in Oregon, as well as a couple in Washington, while working for different companies who were Special Event vendors.  I got to know some of the employees at a few of the stores, and it was always a pleasure to return a few months later for another Road Show.  My favorite stores were Hillsboro (the biggest Costco in the world!), Vancouver, and Clackamas (although, I always had a lot of jewelry stolen there).

If I lived near a Costco, and if I had money to spend :) I would definitely have a membership again.

Oh, and I didn't always spend $200 each time I shopped.  On at least one occasion I went in needing bananas and that is the only thing I came out with.  A whopping $0.97 spent.  I think that must be a record.

Day 8

It has been a week, and I've done my T-Tapp Basic workout 7 times.  Yes, I know that I should have done it 8 times, since this is the 8th day, but there's still a couple hours left in the day. :)  (Actually, I will be getting up and doing it once I'm done here.)

I'm not going to weigh or measure until the end of 30 days.  I don't feel my clothes getting looser yet.  I don't feel lighter.  But, my legs aren't hurting as much the past couple of days when I do the moves.  Maybe I'm not working as hard?  Could be.  Or else they're finally (hopefully) getting used to doing something productive after a long period of uselessness, which is not the fault of my legs, by any stretch of the imagination, but mine entirely.  ;)

Day 4

April 10 was the start of my 60-Day Challenge.  My short-term goal is to lose enough to get down a size (okay, to get where my jeans aren't bulging and stretching out in all the wrong places).  I have a few longer-term goals, though, and I'm really hoping that the next two months will give me a good jumpstart into them.

1. Make exercise/activity a normal daily activity for me.  Except for a few seasons of volleyball and cross-country (Me a runner?  R-i-g-h-t) a century ago when I was in school, I just haven't led an active lifestyle.  I'm not getting any younger, and if I don't change my habits now, I'll regret it later.
2. Get back to my pre-baby weight/size.  Or close to it.  That's about 3-4 sizes, and/or 40-50 pounds.  I don't anticipate this happening in just a couple months, obviously, but it's a realistic goal for the next year.  Or two.  As long as I am making progress and don't start going the other way, it will be good.
3. Okay, remember that crack about me being a runner?  Well, I would like to eventually be able to run a 5k.  I don't care how fast I do it, but to get the stamina to run/jog/woggle (kind of a wriggly jog or joggly walk) continuously for that distance would be really awesome.  Also, when I do it, I want to do it barefoot.  

So anyway, I weighed and measured myself Tuesday morning and had hubby take pictures.  NOT happy with the numbers, and the view of me in super snug-fitting clothes wasn't too pretty either.  I'm going to spare all of you and not post those.  At least not now.  Once I have some noticeable progress, I'll reconsider.

How am I doing on the challenge?  I haven't changed my eating yet.  I'm not suddenly cutting out all sugar or drastically reducing my carbs, though I am trying to be good about limiting those to less than normal.  For me, I know that those are things I need to do, but my experience is that when I eliminate them and then decide to treat myself I binge and all the progress is quickly lost.  So this time around I'm not going to deny myself something if I really want it; I will just try to have a smaller serving or put it off a while and see if the desire passes.

I also started doing T-Tapp again.  I'm doing a Bootcamp first, which for me will be 14 days in a row and then every other day of the Basic (BWO) or Basic Plus Workout (B+).  I'm starting over with the Basic Instructional which takes about 20 minutes.  Tuesday I got it done in the morning, but the past two days it wasn't until right before bed.  It will probably be late tonight again.  I first did T-Tapp last fall, and this time around it is a LOT harder.  It could be because I'm bigger now, but I've also heard that the more you do it the harder it gets, because as you learn the workout you can start focusing more on your form.  Either way, my arms and legs were screaming at me to be done!  It's good that there are only 8 repetitions of each move.

The facebook group is doing just a 30-Day Challenge (and for any form of diet/exercise, not just T-Tapp), and so I will have to measure and take photos at that point, but I am going to do the whole 60 days just as if I were in the official contest.

Stay tuned!  And feel free to join me!

60 Day Challenge

About two months ago I wrote about my need to lose weight.  Sadly, I haven't done anything about it.  I gave up on my "mostly sugar-free" thing, because, dang it anyway, I love sugar!  Too much.  So hard to give up sweets.  Wouldn't be so hard if I had plenty of honey to substitute, but I don't.

Well, something is happening soon to get me going.  Again.  Running from April 10 to June 10 is T-Tapp's 2012 60-Day Challenge.  There are a few reasons for not joining officially, but many more reasons to join unofficially.  I'm hoping to write regularly about what I'm doing, to try and keep myself accountable.  Plus I'm in a great facebook group of friends who are all trying to lose as well.  Oh, and this isn't a challenge to lose weight, but to lose inches.  Because, really, isn't our size and how we fit into our clothes much more important than a number on a scale?