CHANGES….

It’s a Jazzy kinda day…

There is something about listening to jazz music and cooking.  The smell of onion, garlic, thyme, basil and tomatoes is lingering in the air and this makes me happy.

I had blood work done over a couple of weeks ago, my results are less than satisfactory.  My TSH levels jumped another .09 since my last test.  This has effected my cholesterol levels in ways that I found unbelievable.  I was shocked!    There has been a direct correlation in the last two tests. What does this mean?…..my thyroid is having a shit fit.  I am burnt out, actually my adrenal glands are burnt and my pituitary has malfunctioned.  I have been feeling crappy for a good couple years, but I had chalked it up to Peri-menopause.   So a girl thinks – this too shall pass.  NOPE!

Here’s the deal – many women in my family take the pill.  Not that pill, the synthetic thyroid med every day and they still haven’t lost weight, still are stress mongers and don’t feel like themselves.  I refuse to join in the party.  So I made an appointment with the husband’s nutritionist to see if there is anything I could do in order to not take the pills.  Everything I have researched over this week points to refined wheat, rice, barley (I love barley) well…. gluten being one part of the issue.   On Monday we started a no gluten, no refined , no preservatives, no nothing in the the grub change in diet.  We already do the last part but moving away from gluten is going to be interesting.  BTW this also includes sugar – the white stuff.

I read this blog called “Gluten Free Girl”, long before I started this blog – Shauna’s recipe for grilled/broiled peaches is divine.  Her blog is personable and the food that she and her chef hubby make has always been intriguing to me.  I never thought that I would actually be  making a life style change and the gluten free community is where I would need to turn to because let’s face it – I love bread, pizza, cake and all the other sins of baking.  I have no shame, and yes I love stuff I am not suppose to have.  I am human and not some saint after all.

You see I only weigh 104 lbs but I do love the goodies.  This simply goes to show that weight has absolutely nothing to do with health or how you feel.  I have no energy, doing a 4-6 mile hike puts me in nappy time mode.  I have no motivation, I push myself everyday to do what I need to do.  Might by explained by the lack of energy.  I go through phases of depression for no apparent reason-loathing the city I live in may be part of that, but still.   The light headed feeling I can really do without.  These are just a few of the many.  It’s all rather complex.  However  I really need to do something with stress I like to pretend that I don’t have.  We all have stress it just comes in different forms, that’s all.

So I am taking a couple supplements – made from whole foods to re-balance my pituitary which will filter down to my adrenal which will stop robbing my thyroid.  I already drink greenie (sea and land veggie + algea) smoothies for breakfast with hemp powder for almost a year now and I could only just imagine what my TSH would have looked like had I not.  I am 7 days clean from eating gluten and sugar and eat a very limited amount of carbs.   My body is too taxed out right now to deal with having too many carbohydrates to deal with.   What I have already figured out very quickly is that I do not eat enough food throughout the day.   I have to figure out how how to deal with this and now I understand why I seek out junk food.  My workplace is full of it, everywhere I look there it is, gluten and sugar.

What I find which has been interesting is since yesterday after 3.5 mile hike – very easy, btw – we ate, we went shopping and I was exhausted.  I took a nap – not unusual for me – and when I woke up I felt light heated, dizzy, floaty – if you will, high without the stuff.  Today I feel a little better.   The dizzy spells, much less than yesterday, are making me a little crazy.  I figure the best way to calm the crazies is put a little jazz on and start cooking hoping tomorrow will be a better day.

Six Weeks – Where has Time Gone???

Most projects at the rust belt came to a halt when the temperatures hit the high 80’s with a 90 plus heat index. The Husband was in the middle of re-staining the deck and newly just built trellis when all came to a stop. I stained all the frames for the couches finally – and people it was hot! When the stain/sealer is drying on the brush mother nature is trying to tell you something. Our deck at this point is 1/2 done. Don’t get me wrong I did some transplanting of plants that have been long waiting for their little roots to spread in the rain garden, but that has really been about it. It all just sucked – the weather that is and so at that point we stopped working and enjoyed life. Yes, you may say that I don’t do this hot weather thing real well which is why we don’t live in the south…oppressive, just oppressive heat can be.

Ahhhh living life…. there have been many parties and entertaining with friends and family. This is what we do when it gets hot. Perfectly made margaritas & sipping wine, swimming, awesome people and late nights. We have been planning for vacation in September – things we want to do – and planning out the use of The Back 40.

For those who don’t know The Back 40 is an area of our yard that is about 40 feet long by 59 feet wide. This became the holding area of all things in landscaping, the landscaping of the old front yard prior to basement rebuild and rain gardens. We like some of what we have done but the yard feels unbalanced – which is something I just can’t stand. As the process of redesigning conversations have come up, the husband and I have become aware that we need more space for veggies. We like to grow our own food and herbs. So in the new design of the Back 40 I need to design more area for veggie growing and herbs all the while still having a sense of a balanced yard – color and textures. It will take a miracle to pull this off and September is just around the corner when we are supposed to start this project.

Where in the hell has time gone?

Now I can Breathe Again

I have started 3 different posts in the last week and found myself so mentally wasted that all I was writing was a bunch of gibberish nonsense.

Work is one big brain drain at the beginning of the month. Everyone wants this, wants that, expects you to magically know all things about them and then some. I’m sorry my crystal ball is not back from the shop (is what I think) so you staring at me with that glare in your eyes isn’t really helping. Needless to say things didn’t get back to normal until this past Friday.

We had election primaries here, which were somewhat interesting and frustrating. We will wait and see who is walking the walk and who is talking a bunch of political-speak that results in nothing. Only time will tell, but I’m leaning towards the political-speak that results in nothing.
Nothing good that is.

Oh, an yes, they did get their renewal just like I said they would. If you want to get something passed – I’m telling you – the fear factor is one good way of getting it passed. It worked like a charm. A little threat of security goes a long way. We will see what the next couple months bring, for I think things are going to get rather interesting and someone is going to have a lot of explaining to do when the money runs out again. I’m betting they will be coming to ask for just a little bit more next year.

The husband and I went out last night and purchased a new PC. We really wanted a Mac but the funds are just not there to make that happen. I was really hoping that the computer would hold out until this fall but that grinding noise that it is making makes me think death is around the corner.

The monster tower has all our music files, other musicians music files from recording so getting new PC and getting the monster tower in the shop feels like a win, win deal. Now if they would only call so we can go and pick it up.

Even though I am not a Mom – I don’t think fur children count – I wanted to wish all the mom’s out there a happy mothers day.

Tomorrow I will be heading to hang out with my mom. My mom is a low maintenance kinda woman. (wonder where I get that from) So she and I are going to just hang out. You know do girlie kind of things like gossip about family members, drink tea and eat bon-bons.