Sat. June 14, 2008

Happy Flag Day!

On the lowcarb front:
I am having some blood sugar issues so at the moment I am using Atkins for Life until I can get a call into the doctor. In the past, my blood sugar has tanked on induction. I was hoping that wouldn't be the case this time, but I am noticing the signs - the chief one being extreme irritability. So I am taking it day to day to see how I will need to do things on lowcarb.

Here is my menu so far for today:

Breakfast:
Cafe latte
Mock danish

Lunch:
cheesy joe (velveeta and ground beef)
revolution roll
WW yogurt
BBQ pork rinds

Snack:
Atkins bar

Dinner:
Dixie Diner flax muffin with 1 T. peanut butter
1 oz mixed macadamia nuts and peanuts
1/2 cup Breyer's No Sugar Added ice cream.

Carbs for the day: 50 Calories for the day: 2180

There is a discussion going on right now on several forums about calorie counting on Atkins. Here is my take on the issue. I keep track of calories for this reason; as a compulsive eater, I am not able to "eat to satiety" as Dr. Atkins recommended. For the compulsive eater, there is no such thing as satiety. Most of us don't even know what feeling full or feeling hungry feels like. We never experience either one. We may eventually learn it, but in the weight loss stage we have to use numbers to impose limits. Using a calorie limit allows me to put parameters on my food intake. This may make no sense to anyone except another compulsive eater, but there it is. I do believe that a calorie is not necessarily a calorie when it comes to low carb, but I do think that there is a breaking point beyond which you can't go without gaining weight no matter how few carbs you take in. That breaking point is definitely higher on low carb than on low fat - at least in my experience.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I use a program called Diet Power to log my foods. Well, what do you know, the Diet Power people emailed me asking if they could use me as a testimonial. I said, "sure, but I have a really old version." They went nutso because I was using an outdated program. I have tried their upgrade, but since the version I have does everything I need it to do, I see no reason to pay for an upgrade. I set my own macros and input my own food. After 3 or 4 emails, I quit responding. I'm not saying that the new and improved version isn't good - I'm sure it is, but I am an old dog and I am unwilling to learn new tricks - especially if I have to pay for them.

On the home front:
This morning I discovered I was out of laundy soap. And I had a ton of laundry to do. But do not fear. I have been making my own laundry soap for quite a while now. I started out doing it because I thought it was kind of cool. I make soap and sometimes there is a batch here and there that isn't quit up to my standards to sell, or a scent might have disappeared in the saponification process but I can't sell it as unscented because the fragrance oil is in there. When I have a botched batch, I shred it and put it into a 5 gallon bucket. My plan was to some day re-batch the stuff so as not to waste my resources. Guess what. I discovered I don't have any desire to re-batch. So what to do with the soap shreds? I found a recipe on the net for making my own laundry soap.
Here is the recipe:

1/3 bar of Fels naptha shredded (I used 4 ounces of my own handmade soap shreds)
1/2 cup washing soda (NOT BAKING SODA)
1/2 cup borax
1 T. body safe fragrance oil (optional)- I use oatmeal, milk & honey
3 gallon bucket (I use an old Sun powdered detergent bucket

Melt the soap shreds in 6 cups of water in a large saucepan on the stove.
When melted, stir in the borax and the soda until dissolved.
Remove from heat
Pour 4 cups hot water in bucket
Pour in the soap mixture
Stir well
Add another gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.
At this point I funnel the mixture into old 110 fluid oz detergent jugs for easier pouring, but you may leave it in the bucket and just scoop it out.
Let mixture sit for 24 hours. It will gel into a kind of gloppy substance - not a solid gel and, no it ain't pretty but it does the job. It is not a high sudsing soap, but suds aren't what clean your clothes anyway.
I use 1/2-1 cup of this per load depending on the size.

Besides being cool, homemade laundry soap is economical. I figured up the cost for making a batch. The most expensive ingredient for me was the washing soda because I can't find it locally any more. I ordered 14 pounds off of Ebay and paid a total of 33 dollars counting the shipping.

I figured the cost at about $3.50 for a batch that does 64 loads if I use 3/4 cup (2 of the laundry jug capfuls) per load. That's about 5 cents a load. Not bad. And I can make it smell any way I want. It's a good soap to use for anyone who has allergies. Makes me feel like Ma Ingalls.

Now, for a good cheap fabric softener - take a jug of vinegar and add 1 T body safe fragrance oil. I fill the fabric softener dispenser cup or one of those Downy dispensers.

later . . .

God bless the troops

Weigh-in - June 8, 2008

On the lowcarb front:
I am down 1.8 for the week. That is not a stellar loss, but - hey - a loss is a loss. Since I was supposed to be doing Induction, I had hoped for more. As I said yesterday, I found several errors in my implementation of Induction. I think for this week I am just going to limit carbs to under 30 and then begin Induction again next week when school is out. I will have more time to concentrate on what I am doing and more time to plan out Induction menus. I want to do things exactly as Dr. Atkins wrote them so that I will have a benchmark to work from. One thing that irks me to no end is when people take liberties with Atkins and then blame Atkins when they don't lose. I do not want to be one of those people.

One thing I will not do this week is throw the whole Atkins WOE out the window. I have felt way too good this week. And this is coming from someone who is in the throws of hot flashes and the weather has been hot and we do not have air conditioning in the house. I have been pretty even tempered even while phasing off of some of my meds. Some of the foods I will be using this week are not approved for induction and they need to be used up. DH dropped a package of Dixie Diner/Dobie muffins out of the freezer and I stuck them in the fridge because we were going out the door and we were late. I have to use those up this week. I also have some yogurt that needs to be used.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I use a program called Diet Power. I love it. It keeps track of all kinds of things that I don't have time to put into spreadsheets. It also gives a projected progress line which keeps me motivated. I have tried lots of other programs, but I keep coming back to this because it is so user-friendly.

Today's menu:

Breakfast:
Mocha latte
Dixie diner/flaxmeal muffin
1 T. Smucker's natural peanut butter

Dinner:
Romaine and spinach salad
Omelette with cheese, sour cream, and salsa

Supper:
Not sure yet -

On the Flylady front:
I absolutely am chomping at bit the for school to be out. Clutter has been building since I got behind at Easter. The house is driving me nuts. The laundry room is torn up in anticipation of a new window being put in. That hasn't happened yet because of the whole well pipe leakage problem. Remember the cubby I had to clean out? Well that stuff had to go somewhere so at the moment I am suspending Flylady's zones in favor of getting rid of some of the junk I have accumulated. I found a whole box of floppy disks. Does anyone even use these anymore?

On the home front:
Today we celebrate our son Sam's birthday. He is 26 and the youngest of our four kids. Where on earth did the time go? It seems like just yesterday that I was 26. We will be celebrating at Sam and Kelli's house tonight - our family and Kelli's family. I love it when both sides of the family get together. Kelli's family is great and they love Sam. Warms the heart, it does. It's been a long year for Sam. He has been trying to build his business (he owns a collision shop and does auto body work) and he had a lot of zoning and legal hoops to jump through. On the one hand, I am glad that those hoops are there. Sam's business is on his property which is out in the country.

Farm folks have a vested interest in keeping country looking like country. Sam is a farm boy so he is heartily in favor of keeping the ever-shrinking rural areas in the hands of the family farmer. All the same, when you are young and trying to get started, it can be frustrating. Kelli's folks and all of us were at every zoning meeting cheering Sam on. My sense was that the zoning board and the planning commission were very much on board with what Sam wanted. However, as the head of the zoning board said, "it's never about the guy sitting here at the table. It's about keeping the language clear so that other's can't come in and put up a Walmart." Well, he didn't say Walmart, but you get the drift.

Now let me make one thing clear, I have no issues with Walmart. I am a capitalist. It does make me sad to see acres and acres of farmland transitioning from agriculture to urban growth, but Walmart is not the one forcing the family farmer out of business. It is other farmers - huge corporate operations that are contributing to the decline of the family farm, but I won't get into that particular rant today.

Farming used to be more than a way to earn a living. It was a lifestyle. There were trade-offs. The average farmer was not rich in the way that CEO's of large companies are, but there are other sources of wealth. There is no price you can put on the view out your kitchen window on a snowy winter morning, or the wonderful life that country kids have. I grew up in the city - a suburb of Detroit. Having that vantage point, I am extremely grateful that our kids had the opportunity to experience life as part of a farm family. I work in a school and I will tell you that I can spot a farm kid a mile away. They are just different. The work ethic is unique. I remember when Sam was on his high school wrestling team. He quit his job on a dairy farm to give his all to the team. Unfortunately he had a coach who didn't appreciate the sacrifice that Sam made. That coach could have taken Sam's strong work ethic and team loyalty and really used it to the team's advantage. But he didn't. Too bad for Sam and too bad for the team. Well, enough of that for now. I have to get ready for church and another Sunday hangin' out with the family. Does life get any better than that?

Later . . .