Zero Carbs

Other than a short stint of avoiding processed sugars, I haven't really limited my food intake for quite a while. I consider myself a "compulsive overeater" or food addict. I've binged on things like cookies, fruit snacks, ice cream, popcorn, and even squash. Recently I've been admiring the LCHF (low carb, high fat) diet from a distance, but knowing myself well enough that reducing carbs would likely back-fire into a carb binge.

One of my favorite LCHF sources of information is DietDoctor.com, who sends me regular emails, informing and promoting their membership. On October 6, 2017 an email from DietDoctor included an article called "Zero carbs for ten years" (https://www.dietdoctor.com/zero-carbs-ten-years). I was incredulous, I thought that everything had carbs. How could someone survive without carbs? This someone, and many others eating this way, are not only surviving, but thriving on animal products alone, mostly meat, and only drinking water.

I continued to do research and joined a Facebook group called Zeroing in on Health which is dedicated to people who live, or are interested in, this "WOE" (way of eating).

On January 16th, 2018 I began my Zero Carb journey. Since the claims that I've read from people who have been eating this way for months and years are pretty incredible, I've recorded some of them here. Ultimately, I believe that every person needs to listen to their own body and decide what is best for them to ingest, Zero Carb is probably not for everyone.


The PROS of eating Zero Carb:

• Fat loss, muscle gain
• Eventual disappearance of carb cravings
• Reduction/correction/elimination of:
• inflammation
• swelling
• autoimmune disorders
• chronic body pain
• headaches/migraines
• diabetes
• "brain fog"
• Improved:
• energy level
• focus
• mood stabilization
• sleep
• libedo
• skin (clearer/softer)
• hair growth and color (from grey)
• general "healthy" feeling
• resistance to common cold/flu
• digestion/bowel regulation (and excrement reduction)
• No counting calories/macros or weighing/measuring food, no food journaling
• Ease of diet, food selection
• Urge to down-size/de-clutter in general

The CONS of eating Zero Carb:

• Approx 6 months for body to fully adjust
• Initial carb/sugar cravings
• Initial boredom with food, lack of variety, meat aversion
• Initial muscle (usually leg) cramping
• Crazy dreams
• Dry mouth
• Clean meat can be expensive
• Have to learn to listen to your body (be mindful)
• Possibly awkward social eating

The claim is that eventually, you'll reach a sort of "zero carb zen" and everything else that people eat won't even really look like food anymore. I'm certainly not there yet, and today on day 30, I gave up and gave in to my carb cravings...

Greenest grass ever

Background: the sprinkler system was broken when we moved into this house 3 years ago. At first, we would try to water and mow the yard, but we were fighting a losing battle and recently our yard has been more dirt than anything else. We really wanted grass for our kids to play in, so we got some landscaping quotes. 3 different companies came and gave us estimates for putting in a new sprinkler system and sod, so we could start the battle all over again. Then finally, we decided to see how much fake grass would cost. 

Low maintenance, never water, never mow, gorgeous all year round. 

We contacted a local company and had them come out to measure. The quote was over three times as much as the real grass. The more we thought about it, the more we liked the idea, so we asked them to remeasure and expand the rock edging to decrease the overall cost. 

For reference, there's a CAD drawing my husband made of the property. The little brown northwest corner is where we were considering having a sandbox, but decided against it. The light green is where the grass was to be installed. 

 

Here's the before and after pictures, in pairs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some panoramas of before, during, and after. 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first impressions of the grass:

Vibrant

Very green

Shorter than weeds

Uniform

Elevated mood by looking at it

Very hot in direct sunlight, but cooler in the shade

There's some loose strands of grass, which makes it looks more realistic

Pantry Project

We bought and moved into this house almost a year ago now and before we even signed the papers, we knew that we wanted to utilize the unused space in the kitchen, next to the fridge, for a pantry. In the blueprints for the house, the space was simply marked "vent", but looking at the structure of the wall, any vent within would have to be at the back of the space, leaving a decent amount of unused space, ripe for the picking.

This project started in early February when we went to the local Re-Store and purchased a used 18"x80" door and frame for $10. Before this point, we had only used a stud-finder, marked on painters tape, to figure out where we should start.
Originally, I thought we should try and preserve the dry wall so that it could be used on the inside. At some point into cutting the wall, we figured out that we weren't going to add drywall inside the pantry and that made removal of the old drywall much easier!

Removing the existing studs ended up being more troublesome than removing the drywall because there were some places that they were triple-stacked. We also noticed a place where someone must have stepped though the ceiling, which was patched from the top down, but looked pretty awful on the inside. We decided that to protect the food in the pantry from any potential heat coming from the vent pipe, we would build a ceiling vent into the pantry that would allow for air flow through the hidden back area where the pipe was. We also build a vent into the bottom of the back wall for air intake. Then we put a 2" think piece of blue Styrofoam in between the pipe and the back wall of the pantry. 

Getting the door frame installed ended up being more troublesome than we expected, especially getting it level and then allowing the door to close freely without catching. This required several re-adjustments throughout the project. We decided that we wanted a push-button switch in the door frame so that the lights would come on when the door was opened.

In order to get electricity into the pantry, we originally considered plugging an extension cord into the extra outlet behind the fridge and running the cord, through the wall, into the pantry. Later, we thought better and decided to splice a new power cable into an existing power outlet that was on the back side of the wall, near the vent pipe. This proved to be pretty straight forward and we installed an electrical box in the middle-front of the pantry with two separate power outlets, as we were planning on plugging in 3 lights. There was definitely some white-board drawing to figure out how to wire the switch into the power outlets properly, but it actually worked out really well.

We went back and forth about what the shelf supports should be, but with some counsel from my mom, we determined that the shelves weren't going to be wide enough to really worry about sagging so much, especially if we used a thicker wood for the shelf. So, we went with only having braces on the sides and using 3/4" thick oak plywood. I really like the grain of the wood after it was stained.

Then I started wiring up the lights, which we got from Ikea up in Denver. They were really bright and pretty easy to work with. However when we saw the plugs in the outlets, we decided that it didn't look very good, so then we cut off the plugs and hard-wired the lights into the electric box. In order to make room for the wire nuts, we removed one of the power outlets and had to order a special face plate that had one hole and one side covered. We wanted to put one light bar in the center, on the under side of each shelf, so that there was sure to be plenty of light.

The trim that we selected for the outside of the pantry had grapes and leaves, which we thought would be appropriate for a "food" theme. We actually bought several paints, trying to decide if we should color in the grapes and leaves, but in the end, decided that it would look better and match the color of our kitchen cabinets better if we just left it the original color and varnished it.

The paint on the front side of the door is several coats (ended up being the whole can) of metallic primer and topped with black chalkboard paint. We wanted it to be a surface that the kid(s) could play on. The surface of the door ended up not being as smooth as it should have been, probably because we didn't sand off the original paint, so the magnetic pull is unfortunately pretty weak.

Once we got the trim installed, I didn't like that you could see the white inside the door frame, so we painted the edges of the door and the first part of the door frame black as well. Gerry got some varnish trim to cover up the front edges of the shelves, which actually worked really well. We had to go to the thrift store and buy an old clothes iron, even though we next-to-never use our current iron. ;-)

I'm not sure that the floor is the "final product" because right now, it's just a rug that we got from Ikea, folded so that it kind of fits. We might end up cutting a rubber mat to size later, if we get ambitious.

This project took us about 9 weeks, but that's because we decided to take it nice and easy, mostly only working on it on the weekends, and usually that was only about one day of the weekend. It was fun and I'm pleased with the outcome. Now, on to the next project...

Watch for Lessons

I am a watch wearer. I know many people aren't, but if I own a decent watch, I usually include it in my daily jewelry attire. For the past few years, I've worn a silver watch with a round, blue face, and a band that I appreciated because it was solid near the face, which would discourage the watch from rotating to the bottom side of my wrist.
Aside from the underside of the band tarnishing, the watch was functional, until about a month ago when the battery died. My husband took this as an opportunity to buy me a new watch for Christmas. He went to the store with two criteria in mind: 1) silver, 2) solid band near the face.
While I was mostly aware of the purchase of the watch, I did not actually see it until I opened the gift on Christmas. I wish I could say that I reacted with love, appreciation and enthusiasm, but I don't believe that would be accurate. As I recall, my reaction to the watch prompted my husband to say, "If you don't like it, we can take it back and exchange it for another one." A proposition I accepted. You see, the watch was pink and it had hearts, both attributes I wouldn't normally seek out.

Shortly after we returned home from the holidays, we made a trip to the store he bought the watch from and I looked in the case for one that suited me. I tried on two and chose one that was simple and professional. Turns out it was also almost double the price of the original watch, which had been on sale, but no matter, if it was in deed the watch that I wanted. The heart watch was returned and we left the store.
I believe it was in the parking lot that the thought first struck me that the entire exchange had been not entirely thought through before it took place. When we got home, I was a bit overwhelmed with the idea that I had acted rather petty in my desires and not very grateful at all. This thought brought me to tears and my husband held me while I cried.

I think both of us were hoping that I would move on, it's only a watch after all, and I wore the new watch to work the next day. However, that morning another thought stuck me, and proved that my guilty conscience had not let go of my actions. I imagined a future child of mine, drawing me a picture and proudly presenting it to me, upon which my response would be "Aww, thanks, but could you draw me another one with less hearts?". This idea struck me so hard that my husband started down the path of wanting to get the first watch back, a path I readily followed him down.
After only wearing the second watch for only a couple hours, I took it off, to prevent damage, in the hope that it could be exchanged. A couple of days later, we went back to the store and they had, in fact, re-stocked the heart watch on the shelf. We purchased it, this time without the sale price being applied. My husband insisted that I keep both watches for a few days to make sure that I ended up with the one that I wanted. For those few days, I wore the heart watch, and grew to appreciate it more. I appreciate what it means as much as it's appearance and function.
Tonight, we returned the second watch to the store and I am satisfied with the outcome. At one point in this drama, I asked my husband if it had hurt his feelings that I rejected his initial gift and he said that it had, but he was trying not to show it. I told him I hoped that learning this lesson on him would help prevent me from learning it again from our children. And now, the lesson has been recorded, so I can look back and remember again. Not to relive the discomfort, but to remind of the choices we have in life.

Directionless

I feel like I've entered the phase in my life where I'm no longer waiting for life to happen to me, but starting to make life happen. When we're children, so much of our lives is dictated to us. In young adulthood, we start making more decisions, but somethings are still left to time and chance, such as getting married and finding a good job. Of course, there are opportunities throughout that time for us to figure out who we are and some of the things we want from life, but we're never really forced to. Especially when we get out of high school, many of the activities and hobbies fall away as we discover that we're not as into them as we thought we were when there was an organization spoon-feeding them to us (music, drama, art, etc).

Now, I find myself in a place where I wonder what my interests really are and what I really want to accomplish in life. I can tell you that I used to be interested in music and playing interests, but I don't play/practice them very much currently. Does that mean that I'm not interested any more, or that I'm just not forced or motivated? I'm certain that I have unreached musical potential, but do I care enough to dedicate my time and energy to reach it, or at least approach it?

It seems like I should have a passion in life, something that I look forward to, other than my family and my job. My fear is that if I continue living "comfortably", I'll not be really living, but just surviving. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that my life is going relatively well currently, but given that it is going well, shouldn't I be utilizing this time do become something better? Maybe I just need to take up crocheting again!

Burning Barn - 1974

This is a story that my dad told me recently on the phone that I hadn't heard before, so I wanted to share it in case anyone else would be interested in the story. This was about 1974, which means that dad and mom were still married, Randy would have been about 3 and Diana would have been 1.

The family was living in a little house in Meridian on Ten Mile road. This was the first house that mom lived in, in Idaho and the house that they brought baby Diana home to. The house had a little land with it and in the back was a small livestock barn. Mom and dad had bought some calves and one of Aunt Barbara Ann's kids had caught a pig at the fair, but didn't have any place to raise it, so that was in the barn too. They had bred the pig and she was pregnant.

One day, dad was burning some weeds in the back and after he had finished, he went to work (his second job). He had a night job of cleaning the floors at a grocery store. What he didn't know is that there were some boards nearby that were still smoldering from the fire and unfortunately they caught on fire and were near enough to the barn to catch it on fire as well.

In the middle of the night, someone noticed and started beating on the front door of the house telling mom that the barn was on fire. Mom called dad at work and he put away the floor buffer and came home, but by the time he got there it was too late. The pig had started giving birth that night in barn, but just before she had the last piglet, she broke out and had the last one outside the fire. All of the calves and all but one of the baby pigs died in the fire. The mother pig was so traumatized that she wouldn't feed the one baby that survived and mom tried to bottle feed it, but to no avail, the final baby pig died.

Unfortunately since dad left work before his shift was done, he was fired from that job. Also when the landlord found out about the barn burning, he evicted the family. They ended up having the mother pig butchered because they had no place to keep her. After that they moved into the first 14' wide trailer they lived in, which was actually a much nicer house than the old one.

Here is a picture (taken in 2012) of the house. When they lived there, there was open fields surrounding the house with only one house to the north and now it is almost exclusively housing developments. There were out building that they used for storage and a chicken coop that are still there, but the garage and barn are gone now.

Such A Pleasant Day

Today marks 3 months into our marriage and we decided (a few weeks ago) to celebrate Valentines today as well. One of our wedding presents was a gift certificate to probably the most high-end spa in the area: the Broadmoor. I had never been to a spa, but it certainly sounded enticing.

We decided to get a "couples" massage, which means that we would each have our own masseuse, but would receive the massages in the same room at the same time. The "couples" aspect was a bit lost on me, as I was either face-down or eyes-covered for the entire massage, but it was nice knowing he was there. I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, when you get there, they take you into the locker room, with customizable pin-entered lockers, which leads into the aroma therapy room, dry sauna and eucalyptus steam rooms. Outside of that, was a small room with a fire place and dried fruit (from locker-room to fireplace area is girls only). Down the hall, is the mountain-view room, which is co-ed. Every room has soft music playing and everyone is walking around in fuzzy blue bath robes and rubber sandals. In the mountain-view room, is fresh fruit, citrus or cucumber water and several kinds of fresh tea. Not to mention the cushy chairs, blankets, newspapers and magazines.

Once you're all settled in, the masseuse comes to take you to dream-land. I've had massages before, but never with this much pamper involved. The massage table was heated, the oil used was aroma therapy, during part of the massage I had my feet wrapped in hot towels and my eyes draped with a cool compress, not to mention that when I flipped over to my back, the massage table could raise at the head and knees, like Craftmatic adjustable beds, but on a smaller scale. Not to mention that she could also raise and lower the whole massage table at her whim.

This woman was incredibly thorough in her massage and made sure to focus on the problem areas I told her about before (low-back and hips). I melted under her touch and was hesitant to leave the room when our session had ended.

After the massage was steam-room, using the iced towels provided. Then a further relaxing shower, with a temperature gauge for the water. Followed by a minute in the aroma therapy

room and a few minutes in the sauna. Afterward, I decided to check out the complimentary hair care area.

This room was larger than most walk-in closets I've been in, with three different counters, each equipped with blow dryer, curling iron, hair spray, gel, spray deodorant, magnifying and lit makeup mirror, cushioned seat, and sanitized hair brushes and combs. Also available throughout the locker room was lotion, tissues, q-tips,

mouthwash, and single-use razors. I have to say though, after the massage and the shower, all I wanted to do was cuddle up and take a nap.

One final feature that I have to cover about my trip to the spa was the toilet. Hopefully it's not TMI, but you can skip this part if you want. First of all, the seats were heated - very nice. However, they also had something I had never tried before: bidet capability. Yes, it gently sprays water on your nether parts, once you're ready. And the fun part is that you have options, such as location (front-back), pressure, style (pulsing, stream, spray), etc. And once you're finished, it will even blow your bum dry. Though a bit odd at first, this is now something I want. Why has this country not adopted these things as a standard yet??

When we finally convinced ourselves that it was probably time to leave, we luckily hailed a shuttle bus to the parking garage and nearly floated home. Beautiful. Being relaxed doesn't make me any more sane, it just makes me more okay with my insanity.