Modern Daisy Hippee

I had to share this story my boyfriend just shared with me about his trip to the grocery store with his friend.  His friend was getting some turkey from the deli and requested Boars Head.  The girl at the deli counter asked him if he was sure that’s what he wanted because it had no preservatives in it & would only last about three days in the refrigerator.

The key point here is that she asked if he was sure he wanted something that was JUST FOOD.  Ironic, right?  It usually seems like we have to search for items with no preservatives and that would be the “selling point”.  This girl thought it was a bad thing.

Interesting to see where our culture is.

Well, I had to start over with my starter.  I forgot about it for a couple of days and it grew fuzzy mold.  I’m on Day 10 of my second batches.  I made sure to put the glass jars someplace where I can see them more easily.  That way I’m less likely to forget about them.  I also thought about setting an alarm on my calendar.  I’m finding that unnecessary now though with where I put them.

I’m doing one with whole wheat flour and one with buckwheat.  I had thought I was overfeeding it by adding 2 Tb of water & flour, so cut it back to 1 Tb.  I just realized that was a mistake.  I also hadn’t been discarding any because I wanted it to build up.  Well, now I realize I’m supposed to be essentially doubling it (or close to it) at each feeding otherwise it may not work properly.

I assume as a result of that, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot happening with the buckwheat flour.  The wheat flour has been bubbly for a while now though.  I’m not sure if that’s because I thought I was actually under feeding it or it’s just taking longer.  It reacted right away the last time.

Today I took out some of the buckwheat starter & fed it properly.  I also took off the top layer of the wheat starter & fed it.  We’ll see what happens.

Clearly, I have no idea what I’m doing.  I’m in the trial and error phase of learning how to do this.  That’s fine because that’s how I like to learn things.  Hands on is the way to go!

Some people treat their cars better than they treat their bodies. You learn about how to take care of your car so it keeps working to get you around. You need to maintain it by having certain services performed periodically. This keeps the parts working properly and usually prevents major problems. You need to use the proper fuel for it to run. It won’t run if you just cram any old thing into the gas tank.

Your body is the vehicle that takes you through your life. It’s the only one you have. You aren’t able to go out and get a new one if the one you have stops working. The condition of your body also contributes to the quality of your life. If your body is not well maintained, it will not perform well and may not be able to take you everywhere you’d like to go. If it is maintained in optimum condition, you’ll have the energy and stamina to do much more.

Of course, most of us do the most basic upkeep of our “vehicle”, keeping it clean by using routine basic hygiene. Most of us do NOT give much thought to the products we use for this though. At least not in terms of how healthy or unhealthy it is. I’ve learned that most personal care products in the U.S. commonly contain ingredients that are banned in Europe. Apparently Europe has more stringent standards for deciding if products are “safe” than we do here in the U.S.

I suppose most of us figure we’re putting that stuff on the outside of our bodies, so what’s in it doesn’t matter as much as the things we put inside our bodies. We may think that if it doesn’t visibly harm our skin, it’s ok. Consider this though. Our skin is actually an organ and absorbs into our body, at least some of what we expose it to. It stands to reason that it would absorb into our body a significant amount of the things we rub onto it and into it every day. Some people say that if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t use it on your body. I tend to agree with that concept.

Obviously, what you are literally putting INSIDE your body is the fuel you use. If you want your body to function optimally, you’ll want to use optimum food. To me, what is truly healthy is REAL food. That means the way nature made it, as close to natural as possible. There are lots of things that are put into lots of our “food” products that are not, in my opinion and that of others, not actually food.

Dig a little deeper when you’re checking out the ingredients listed on some of the processed foods you use to find out what they actually are. (Better yet, stay away from those processed “foods”).  Some of those unrecognizable ingredients are controversial and suspected of dangers, to put it mildly.  Of course, with the whole food, I also believe organic is healthier. Not because it contains more nutrients, which it may. Instead it is because of what it does NOT contain… chemicals.

Watch out for words and phrases listed on the front of a package. Some may be misleading…  like “natural”. It really doesn’t mean anything, at least not at this time. Look at the ingredient list to find out what is really in the product. Another term to look out for is “natural flavors”. What does that mean anyway? I’ve learned that it could mean the product contains MSG, which is one of those controversial ingredients for a variety of reasons (which are far too extensive to go into here).

The bottom line is that your body is your vehicle for life. The way you treat it will be reflected in the way it treats you. Educate yourself about the things you choose to put in, on and around your body. Create extraordinary health to support you in creating your extraordinary life!!!

Have a beautiful day!

I’m on a mission to eat more naturally and get all artificial food additives out of my diet.  One of the most difficult types of products to do this with is breads, so I’ve been practicing with making my own.  When I was looking up recipes for English muffins, I found some that called for sourdough starter.  I already knew you could make sourdough starter because I knew someone a long time ago who did that.  So, I looked up how.

As usually happens, when I start something new, that lead me down another path.  I found several recipes or instructions on how to do this.  Some were more complicated than necessary.  I wound up simply mixing a small amount of buckwheat flour with an equal amount of water.  The simplest instructions I found called for rye flour.  I used buckwheat because I had that & didn’t have rye.  It seemed to be working.  I forgot about it for a couple of days and wound up throwing it out.

Now I’m starting over with more buckwheat flour and a second batch just using whole wheat flour.

Here’s the recipe:

2 Tb. flour

2 Tb. water

Mix in a glass container.  Cover loosely.  Feed every 24 hours.

“Feed” just means to add in another 1 Tb. of flour & 1 Tb. water, mix & cover loosely again.

I’ll get into more of the details as I go through the process.  Today is Day 2.  Apparently the starter will be usable in about a week.

Look in your closet, at the tags on your clothes.  Is anything made in the USA?  I decided I wanted to buy clothes that are made in America, by Americans.  Well, I haven’t had much success in doing that so far because everything seems to be made somewhere else.

Even at least some Harley Davidson jackets are made in China.  The American motorcycle company isn’t even making their clothing in this country?  Why not?

Maybe part of the reason is a forced minimum wage here.  I don’t think some teenager who wants extra spending money needs to get paid over $8 an hour to flip burgers.  I’m not advocating slave wages.  I just see that different jobs have different value to them and there could be a better system than the minimum wage.  That’s another issue though, so I’ll get back to the point.

I’ll be honest.  I used to think this was not a big deal.  I thought that if a company in another country was producing a superior product at a competitive price, that company deserves to get the business.  My thought was that would creative competition that would cause companies producing inferior or over priced products to adjust accordingly.  Instead, the products are simply not being made here and I guess most of that is because of cheaper labor available elsewhere.

I’d like to support my own country with my dollars when I buy clothing I wear every day.  It’s difficult to do that when stores don’t carry products made in the US.  It’s not even like the clothing made in other countries is less expensive, at least for the consumer.  As long as “we” are willing to pay the price these companies are asking for, even if they are paying much less for the labor in other countries, they will keep having the stuff made in other countries.

I want to buy clothes that are made in the US, by Americans.  Any recommendations are welcome.  I’d specifically like to find companies who make motorcycle gear, workout clothes, nice casual wear and business wear.

I am voting with my dollars as much as I feasibly can!

Here’s a video from www.minyanville.com

It’s about stuff you might think is Made in America.

Step One to getting my body back!!!

I cleaned out my pantry to purge any “bad” foods.  Mainly I’m looking at “toxic” additives.  Ideally, I’m looking to keep only foods that are whole or close to whole.  I want some convenience, so I’m not eliminating canned and packaged products altogether.

As it turns out, the pantry wasn’t too bad.  I had some crackers that, of course, had partially hydrogenated oil in them.  The surprise is that refried beans also have partially hydrogenated oil.  I’m not a big fan of refried beans anymore, however I used to eat bean burritos all the time.  They were convenient and I thought, healthy.  That just goes to show you that you don’t know what you don’t know.  Anyone can think they’re eating healthy and not be.  I’m thinking of all the bean burritos I’ve eaten and how that translates to the amount of partially hydrogenated oil I’ve consumed in my life.  Of course, I’ve eaten many other things that I’d consider pseudo-food because of this ingredient.

I have pretzels and dried fruits in my pantry also.  These were intended as healthy snacks.  I thought I’d find additives that are unacceptable by my new “whole” standards.  I was happy to find that they really aren’t too bad.  Especially the “Craisins”, which I love…  just cranberries and sugar!  Yippee!!!  I can still have those with no concerns.

Canned chicken broth is not ideal.  As it turns out, there’s a bunch of sugar in it.  In fact, it’s listed several different ways…  sugar, dextrose, etc.  Swanson’s adds claim there is no MSG in their chicken broth, however there is something listed as “chicken flavor”.  I don’t know what that means.  Usually when a label lists “natural flavor” or something along those lines, to my knowledge, it’s the same as MSG.  So, that’s a little perplexing and I’m going to look into it further.

The instant oatmeal isn’t too bad, however I want to use more whole products, so I’m getting rid of the last few packages of that.  The granola and breakfast bars are also going.  Some have partially hydrogenated oils, so that’s a no brainer as far as I’m concerned.  Others just have lots of sugar and other non-whole stuff.

So, if you’re wondering what the big deal is about “partially hydrogenated” stuff, I’ll write a separate post about that & link to it from here when it’s done.  For now, I’ll just say it’s what you might call a “pseudo” food and not “whole”.  The chemical structure of it is not compatible with our bodies.  It essentially becomes toxic.  Unfortunately, it’s in a LOT of stuff.

I keep saying that I’d like to look the way I did when I was 20.  In the past 10 years, I’ve put on a few pounds.  I’d say I’m still “average” and not visibly over weight by most standards.  I haven’t been happy with how I look for a while though.

So, this afternoon I dug out my old prom dress for someone to borrow for a theme party they’re going to.  I was curious to find out if it would still fit me.  Not even close!  It’s hard to imagine how I could have grown so much that I couldn’t even zip it.

It reminded me of a suit I still have that fit me only 10 years ago.  I’ve kept it because I figure it’s totally feasible to expect it will fit me again.  I pulled that out too so I could see how far I have to go before it will.  The skirt has such a tiny waist (26″), I find it hard to believe I ever actually fit into it.  Yet, I know I did.  And it’s not like I was a “child” at the time.  I was 30 years old!  There’s no reason for me not to be that size again!!!

Here’s the bottom line.  I have decided I am going to fit into it again and I’m going to do it by being diligent about going totally natural.  I’m also going to work out and be more active, of course.

I’ve been moving toward going more natural lately.  It’s much more difficult than you would imagine.  Part of the problem is that it’s actually hard to find anything prepared that’s all natural.  I’m talking about things like bread.  I can cook with fresh foods instead of processed.  I can find organic meat and veggies, with a little effort and I’m growing my own organic veggies.  It’s funny (ironic) that it’s so difficult to find food that’s actually FOOD.

The trick to succeeding at this will be to have a plan and making sure I always have the right kinds of foods handy, without always having to prepare and cook something.  That means planning ahead and preparing things ahead of time.  I especially need to be sure I have prepared some things for snacks.  You know, breakfast seems to be the most challenging meal.

I’m thinking one strategy I’ll use is to prep the ingredients for several entree recipes and assemble them so all I have to do is the cooking when I’m ready to go.  In the past I’ve done something like that, freezing meats in pre-portioned packages with a marinade.  That made it much more handy to fix dinners.  I’ll just take that to another level.

Things like bread and tortillas will be tricky.  I’ve done flatbreads and tortillas, which just never seem to turn out quite right.  Practice makes perfect though, right!

Well, that’s my general plan.  Hello 26″ waist…  Here I come!!!