bunsofaluminum's journal

[bunsofaluminum]

well, I think it may be cellulitis. after my shower today, putting lotion on my legs, my right leg definitely feels inflamed. DAMMIT!!!

I cannot afford this illness. But it might not be that, because the usual spot is on the calf of my right leg, and this feels more achey and even a little bit bruised, on the front of my right leg.

can't afford it to be an illness besides cellulitis, either...grrrr....

I'm going to stock up on AirBorne or Emergen-C and consume mega-doses today and the next few days. ugh

[Mrs. Doodlepunk]

Oh, Buns, I hope things are OK. It sounds like you've got experience with this and know your own body well, but also know when to get help.

[bunsofaluminum]

okay, I better get a plan for the day or I'll be in trouble come dinnertime.

for brekkie I had some of those corn tortilla/cucumber wraps YUMMY

Lunch will most likely be the same.

Dinner: vegetable soup. I'm going to make Vegetable Barley Soup.

snacks: either lo soup or more cuke tortillas.

keeping it simple.

and off towards work, with a stop at the store and buy some AirBorne. Gonna guzzle that stuff all day long.

thanks Mrs D...if it doesn't clear up today with megadosing on Vitamin C and a low energy day at work, I'll head to the doc for sure.

blessings, Heidi

[bunsofaluminum]

Yesterday was an okay day. I'm still sort of achey, though not as stiff getting out of bed as I was yesterday or the day before. I'm going to continue with the huge doses of Vitamin C (aiming for 10,000 mg today) and resting as much as possible.

Yesterday's food:

B: corn tortilla/cucumber wrap
L: corn tortilla w/black beans and fresh pico di gallo
D: Indian cuisine (off plan because it had added oils)
S: ??? can't remember

Dinner out was so nice, though. My sis and I went to a little restaurant new in town, that specializes in southern and northern Indian foods. We had Saag Aloo (spinach and potatoes), a red lentil stew over rice, and a soup (this had fish in it) ... so, a bit off plan, but the company was enjoyable and the food WAS delicious. Much more rich than I've gotten used to, though.

Today's plan:

B: fruit, plain oatmeal
L: big tossed salad with everything and 321 dressing; rice w/sauted zuke
D: Vegetable Barley soup (was planning that yesterday, but my sister called and asked me out, so...)

exercise: going to take down a monster rambling rose in the corner of my yard. It's completely overgrown and wrassling that will be as much as I can handle today.

Praying for this achiness and tiredness to pass.

blessings, HeidiW

[sksamboots]

Hope you start to feel better. I had to take 3 days off exercising before I felt like doing it again. Keep on keepin on

[bunsofaluminum]

Hi boots,

I sure hope so, too. Took a white willow bark pill and it knocked me on my butt!

but I got up enough gumption to make an aloo gobi for dinner, and here is how I did it: Not sure how authentic it is but it turned out yummy!

2 lb red potatoes, scrubbed, cubed, boiled. Save the water for veg stock.
1 head of cauliflower, caramelized*
1 onion sliced

Veg Stock
1/2 t curry
1/4 t fennel seeds
1/4 t cinnamon
handful of cilantro leaves, fine chopped

Start the cauliflower roasting (25 min) and potatoes boiling.(10min) While they are going, put the spices in 2 T of veg stock in a medium large saucier or skillet and heat until aromatic. Add onion slices and stir to coat with spices. Cook until translucent. The potatoes will finish before the onions are ready, so drain those. Set aside. Peek on the cauliflower, make sure it doesn't burn.

When the cauliflower is done, take it out of the oven and add to the onion/spice mix and stir to coat the cauliflower. Add the potatoes and stir. Let this all heat together for 10 min. Because the potatoes are pre-cooked, it doesn't cook in the pan as long. I added probably a cup of veggie stock as it heated through, just to stop sticking to the pan.

It smelled really good, but was a tad dry, so I threw in about 1/2 cup of classico spaghetti sauce LO from the fridge. It "finished" the dish.

*caramelized cauliflower recipe: http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13162

very, very delicious.

and I think I'm making a decision...but may indeed change my mind.

What I want to do is, explore Indian cuisine for a few weeks. Cook book, my daughter's boyfriend is from Bengal, and just begin to learn the skills of cooking Indian vegetarian food.

then, when I have a few faves down pat, go get me a cook book fulll of Mexican recipes and begin to learn Mexican cooking, too. Like, what do you do with tomatillos and cactus leaves? and those humongous chiles you see hanging in the grocery store?

after Mexican, maybe some Thai? or Vietnamese...with lots of wasabi? or, sushi!

there are so many nationalities that are chiefly vegetarian, with their distinctive styles of cooking and eating. I'd love to learn them! It could keep me interested and eating healthy for MANY years.

and I know McDougall has some adaptations of American food, like fat free brown gravy over mashed potatoes, and all those desserts, etc.

So, I'm going to start with Indian food for at least the rest of September. I'll keep you posted here, and may just report on my regular blog, too.

[sksamboots]

Look at you, Yes indeed. You are doing great. Well your doing everything I wish I had the time and passion for. I love to throw food together really quickly so I'm a bad recipie follower. You keep doing what your doing, maybe one day I'll try one of the recipies.

[ncyg46]

italian and asian are my favorites...I keep trying new things but these are my favorites! Actually I hate american food except for the things i shouldn't eat anyway!

[bunsofaluminum]

Okay.

Benefits from this way of eating, after about two weeks. I thought my energy would be way up, but this whatever-it-is that's kicking me around has me feeling sort of lousy so I'm not feeling the energy.

However, I can report that my IBS symptoms are completely gone! yay! No more diarrhea AT ALL, but not constipated, either. No urgency, no heartburn. this pleases me

When I lost the most weight ever, it was 75 lbs, going from 275 to 200 in about 18 months or so, and quite a bit of working out...that was a high protein diet that actually exacerbated my IBS so that there were days I didn't dare leave home, because I needed to be near a toilet. And I'd get struck with "urgency" almost every time I was in Walmart (why walmart? I dunno)...I quit eating that plan when I found the calories to be way too low for my workout levels (lost muh appetite on that one)...and somehow I never really made the connection between eating that way, and my sufferings with my gut.

I started eating more variety and kept on exercising... but the weight did start creeping back...so every now and then I would try that diet again to see if I could peel off the pounds again. But I found I couldn't even eat that way for one day, without an onslaught of severe IBS symptoms. Cramps, gas, diarrhea, urgency...all of it. And heartburn most times. Eating that high protein way made me instantly sick, as it had made me very sick over the course of the year that I ate that way.

I even participated in an IBS drug study. The drug did alleviate my symptoms, and I got to take it for a year. but as soon as the study was over, the IBS came back. The doctor advised me to come to him and he'd give me a prescription for another drug that helps with urgency, but I told him "No, I think I want to see if a change in diet can do that for me"...really, I only lived with the IBS symptoms for a few months after getting off the study, when I took up the practice of eating a large tossed salad every day. That put a stop to the urgency completely, but heartburn was still an issue and the diarrhea was still present a lot of the time. Then, at the end of summer, I started McDougalling and today I can report that I have cured my own IBS with diet alone.

I've also lost two pounds so far. I know that will continue. Whatever I am going through physically, with the achiness and stuff, when it's done I'm confident that my energy will be off the charts!

I LOVE THIS WAY OF BEING! LOVE IT LOVE ITE LOVE IT! YAH!

[Letha.]

However, I can report that my IBS symptoms are completely gone! yay! No more diarrhea AT ALL, but not constipated, either. No urgency, no heartburn. this pleases me

Bunsofaluminum,
I’m so happy to hear of the end of your tummy troubles. That’s super!

I also like Aloo Gobi. You know, if you haven’t seen it already, you should look at the book 660 curries. Toadfood turned me on to it. Lots of really detailed information about the traditional use of various Indian seasonings and cooking methods. I checked it out from the library first and thought it was so good I purchased a copy of it.
Letha

[bunsofaluminum]

Woke up today not feeling icky. It's been a week of aches, grogginess, pain in my leg and general malaise. I uber-dosed with Vitamin C (taking 2 tabs of Ester-C, 1,000 mg each, about four or five times a day, for two days, seems to have had a good effect) and got extra sleep two days in a row...feeling quite a bit better now. My head is clear and I'm completely neutral inwardly and physically. At peace aaaah.

checked out a book on Indian cookery from the library and perusing the recipes. I think I'll make an Indian dish two or three times a week for the fall (like my "big green salad every day in the summer") Also found a book called SILK ROAD COOKING A Vegetarian Journey. It looks like an interesting read, as well as presenting many recipes from Asian, Middle Eastern, and European traditions. Turkish, Greek, Persian, Italian, Chinese, Indian...the text will be as fun and interesting as the recipes.

Today's plan:

B: cooked-not-instant-oatmeal w/chopped apple and spices topper; coffee
L: Leftover barley vegetable soup; corn tortillas
D: aloo gobi; large green salad; bowl of veg/barley soup

I will say, though i do think leaving salt out while food is cooking, is a good idea for the most part, oatmeal needs salt in it before it gets to the table

exercise: hm, believe it or not, I am not feeling much funky today. I'll probably get started on trimming the monster rambling rose in my yard. And I have "work" with a client today, which means going up and down stairs.

looking like a good day.

[bunsofaluminum]

Nancy, I've been trying to think what IS American cooking, anyway? We're such a melting pot of cultures...we're influenced by a lot. So... New England Boiled Dinner is essentially Pot Roast, with beef as the centerpiece. Um...Philly steak samwich, Chicago deep dish pizza, oooh. There's cajun cooking and creole in the south. I wonder if there are vegetarian dishes in that cuisine? Like a veggie gumbo or something

Hm, navajo fry bread...Baja, Tex Mex

In Utah, we have Green Jello! hahaha! and Funeral Potatoes. Minnesota has wild rice which has lots of good nutrition...

I think America doesn't have a vegetarian cuisine of our own, unless the native Americans...In the West, anyway, their main form of calories was the pinyon...

hm. We do have MSG added to almost every convenience food, and in restaurant foods, and GMO corn and other crops growing in the fields.

okay, semi-rant over. I think we could invent an American vegetarian tradition, based on plants that are indigenous to the Americas.
Until then...

~~~~

Good day today. I did eat two handfuls of roasted salted cashews, but other than that, it was MWL all day long. I even took a bite of a "granola bar" (that is, a Chex turtles bar) and it tasted so bad, I spit it back out immediately. I mean, it was just yucky. Dunno why I took the bite to begin with, after all the de-toxing I've been doing this past week. Just goes to show, I guess. "One little bite won't hurt. I've been so good"

But my taste has changed so much I couldn't stand to chew and spat it out. Yay!

tomorrow is my day off, and I'm going shopping...Asian store in town, to see if they have any simbar powder or asafoetida, and the tamarind that I want can be found in the Mexican section of any store, in the form of dry tamarindo pods...which can be processed into tamarind paste. And that is an ingredient in many Indian dishes.

gonna cook Indian style! yah!

[fluffynotfat]

Hi Heidi I just read your journal. I like to read them before I reply so I know about the person. It really helps me seeing how other people are doing. Sounds like you are really into the exercise. I am only walking now. I just got off the high protein thing too. I never really felt bad on it but my Chol was terrible and Doc is going to put me on meds if I don't get the numbers down. So doing internet searches I came across MLW and Furhmans eat to live. Finally decided after hours of research that no fat high carb was the way to go. I have only been on it for 3 days and I feel fine. In fact I feel like all I do is eat. I hope I will lose weight but I really want to get the fat out of my arteries and bloodstream. I had to google cellulitis (never heard of it) My hubby always has aches and pains arthritis in his elbow back and heal and high blood pressure but he eats a very high fat read meat ice cream you name it he eats it and he has not one ounce of fat on him. So any way I keep trying to get him to eat anti inflammatory foods but I am having no luck. Oh well I'm just going to focus on myself and maybe eventually he'll get on board. Top anti inflammatory foods are Kale Cooked Spinach Sweet Potatoes Garlic Spice Turmeric Broccoli and Red and Yellow Peppers are really good. I weight 200 pounds and am only 5' 2" and for some reason I never have any aches or pains but I do try to eat several of these foods everyday even when I was on high protein. Question do Ibruprofen or Advil stop the pain? If so I would think it was inflammation of some sort. Just my two cents. You do exercise really heavy so it just could be from the exercise. When I lose 50 pounds to reward myself I am going to try to get my daughter in laws personal trainer to work with me if I can afford it. Of course she' not overweight but after 4 months she looks great nice arm muscles. I hate my arms I'm apple shaped and besides looking like I'm nine months pregnant after I went through menopause I guess the fat had no where else to go but on my arms. I am 52. It sounds like you do great with the food. I'm trying to keep my food simple until I get this plan down right and then will start looking for some new recipes. I really am not obsessed with food I just stuff anything in my face to get it over with so I can do other things. But I guess I am going to have to plan and prepare so I know what I am going to eat everyday. Please respond back on my journal if your would like to keep in touch and share this journey together. I can't check everyone's journal so I think it is easier to return post on each others Wish me luck. I have at least 80 pounds to lose and it's going to take persistence and just doing this day by day. I hope on Sunday when I weigh myself I have at least lost something. Please write Back Paula

[Tina]

Interesting thoughts on "American cuisine." Hopefully someday we'll have a good solid vegetarian tradition to call our own. Take care, and keep up the good work!

[LauraA]

Hi Buns - I'm glad that you are feeling better! As for American cooking, we are a big country, and quite a melting pot. We call Paul's Two Cup Veggie soup a Southern Veggie Soup - I guess because of the okra. The south is also known for grits. I guess Boston would be the spot for beans. Then, I'm visiting Kansas City now, and here the big deal seems to be Barbeque (well, not for us! ) Take care, LauraA