Thursday, July 21, 2016

hot, hot summer

...After a chilly spring....

Not much is going on with me, except an ongoing war with the squirrels in my garden!  The bunnies seem to be stymied by the raised beds and knee-high fence on the side they could access, but the squirrels have stolen three or four ripening tomatoes.  I daren't poison them, because if they die in the yards to the east or west of us, dogs might suffer.  So we've bought some "critter barrier" netting and stakes, and will try to fence THEM out, too.

Not a single word of new information is coming from the nutritional world, that i've seen.  Of course, there continue to be BS articles and studies reported by corporate media, and the slap-downs from our favorite researchers, physicians and journalists.  There are also confirmations of things WE were convinced about a decade ago -- that's great for people just making up their minds now, but the rest of us are yawning.

My husband has independently discovered the efficacy of 2-5 intermittent fasting.  He is becoming pretty consistent about designating Mondays as fast-days, and extending it at least until Tuesday supper, and is getting good results from it.  I join him for Monday, but i usually have to start eating again at lunch-time the next day;  individual tolerance of fasting is obviously quite variable!  It works quite well for us to do it this way, though;  the rest of the week, he eats pretty much whatever he wants, and i'm more liberal with myself than i might be otherwise.

The light-triggered not-really-hypomania-but-something-similar, which i noticed in the late spring, is getting better.  Interestingly, i never noticed it before this year!  I've been controlling it with valerian, and keeping dark chocolate at my bedside to help me get back to sleep if it wakes me up.  I've cut back on caffeinated coffee some days, too (and i don't allow myself caffeine or nicotine after 4 in the afternoon, either).  I'm inclined to hypothesize that the insomnia many older people face is because of a dysregulated stress-hormone system.  Valerian seems to help control its secretion.

Self-awareness is truly the key to health when it comes to our diet.  I've gotten to where i can tell what macronutrient i need, if i sometimes feel unsatisfied in the evening.  I can tell when i need more B12 or iron, or magnesium, or salt -- definitely!  I can tell when i've taken in more carb than my body prefers.  Younger women with very-busy lives probably aren't going to be able to do it -- they're paying attention to too many other things to be able to devote attention to subtle physical clues, on top of their constantly-fluctuating hormonal balance.

You bet your ass, i wish i had learned 30 years ago what i know now, but i recognize how unlikely that would have been.  ;-)

Enjoy the sunshine, friends!  It won't be with us ALL year!

12 comments:

  1. Well, the sun is with me most of the year...Florida! And we have our own squirrels, some of them are politicians! ha ha!
    I had to go pull all the fried garden remnants this past week. It was 93-95 F down here and something had to give. I have been over indulging on wine and have gained 4 pounds. So, I am cutting back to zero and replacing my drug of choice with writing. I don't know where this will take me. Who knows maybe I have a novel inside!
    Glad to read your blog again. Lauren

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    1. Thanks, Lauren! :-) To be absolutely honest, we do have our share of sunshine during the winter, but it's not a pleasant idea to lie out in it with a lot of skin showing -- our sunniest winter days often go along with the coldest temperatures!

      Alcohol is definitely a tricky article -- Mike Eades once called it the gateway drug to carbs. During the summer i usually stick with white wine, as it's more refreshing (cold) and has fewer carbs than red or champagne. Moderation is DEFINITELY our friend in the case of liquor!

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    2. Oooh, and please keep us posted about your writings -- i'd love to be one of your first customers!

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  2. Squirrels are my menace too. While I don't grow a vegetable garden any longer (fighting floridian pests is too frustrating), I still have fruit tries in my backyard which I planted when our house was bought. Squirrels eat 99% of nectarines and all peaches and heavily damage pomegranates. Citruses are well protected with own fragrant oils from being eaten by animals. Somehow humans love what squirrels hate.I also don't see a lot of deer in Florida despite huge forest areas being green for whole year, I speculate that the reason for that - many plants are fragrant and it is not beneficial for plant-eating animals. Tess, if you find what works to deter squirrels, please, let me know. Nets I didn't find effective enough, squirrels were very creative going around nets, and they managed to knock down fruits inside nets anyway. I even placed habanero peppers close to fruits I wanted to protect in hope that after trying unpleasant hot things squirrels would stay away from the rest, but apparently either their memory was poor or their hunger too strong.

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    1. I have a neighbor who swears by two things -- putting her own hairbrush-debris on tomato fruits, and making a hot-pepper spray, and squirting that on. I tried the hair technique and it didn't seem to work, but i haven't tried the pepper yet. My husband bought a few ornamental-pepper plants, and i read that they're hot but not very flavorful, so i think i'll use them for this purpose.

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  3. I always think squirrels look so cute ... but yes they can cause havoc ... especially when you've carefully planted out your summer bedding flowers and they come and start digging up where they buried their nuts!!! Grrr !

    Eddie and I continue to enjoy our LCHF lifestyle and tonight it's salmon with pesto ... and possible a glass of chilled white wine ... actually it's definitely a glass of chilled white wine. Well it is Friday isn't it!

    Enjoy your weekend

    All the best Jan

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    1. It's amazing to me, how much wildlife we have in the city! Besides the squirrels and rabbits, there are some hawks that have a gigantic nest in a tree two streets over (easy to see in winter), LOTS of mourning-doves, feral cats, mice of course, and even racoons. At least, we don't have the deer problem people struggle with, a few miles west of us.

      Most of the time we eat low-carb, too, but being so busy and active this spring, we got into the habit of having more rice and potatoes than we can get away with in the winter! :-) Then, too, on really hot days we are less interested in cooking. Your dinner sounds delicious -- i've never paired salmon and pesto, but i really ought to try it!

      Hope you have a great weekend, yourselves!

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  4. Some of my coworkers use firearms for squirrel control, as did my father. My doctor said one of his colleagues used potassium--in a high enough dose, it's deadly. (The doctor called him a very strange man.) I don't have any ripe tomatoes yet; I'll have to see whether squirrel here eat them.

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    1. :-D Even though we occasionally hear gunshots at night here, i think we'd get unwanted attention if we tried to clear out the squirrels that way! How did the doctor administer the potassium, i wonder!

      Good luck with your tomatoes -- hope the squirrels don't find them!

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    2. Oh, I don't know, I didn't hear someone being shot on the next block last weekend.

      It sounded like the doctor laced some goodies with potassium.

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    3. Squirrels indeed don't like to be fired at, however, it is not easy to kill a squirrel. My son shot one from a borrowed air riffle(I skinned and cooked it), the rest kept away for couple months. I am sure several squirrels were just injured, and in my opinion, injuring a wild animal is more cruel than a killing. They just can't stay away from a peanut butter. If somebody wants to get them a poison, PB is the substance to use.

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    4. It really is cruel to just wound an animal (or to kill just for sport, or kill a mother with a nursing baby). My dad had his faults, but he was buggo on all of the above.

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