Beyond Back to Normal

Four years ago, I was headed for disability. I mowed my lawn in sections over a period of days. I was so exhausted at the end of workdays that I held assignments until I could review them the next day. I often found mistakes.

Three years ago, I was up to rehabbing my garage, but after a few hours' work I felt like I'd been run over. Progress was slow.

Yesterday, though, I mowed the lawn, finished painting the fence, put up a trellis, planted a honeysuckle under it, put down two bags of mulch and two bags of top soil, fixed the gate, touched up the paint on that fence, and painted the Great Stuff on the house. This may be the most I've ever gotten done in one day. For the first time in my life, a long to-do list became a to-done list in one day.

The weather helped: it was 55-78 degrees and not very humid. I took a lot of breaks. But still--I got it all done. I am now beyond back to normal.

Regular readers know I follow Dr. William Davis's program over at DrDavisInfinitehealth.com. I credit his program for regaining my health. (I'm not an affiliate and don't get any consideration for sending people his way.)

* * * * *

Speaking of gardening, have you seen this year's Chelsea Flower Show? I don't think there's anything else like it: there are hundreds of elaborate gardens and displays in an area the size of eight football fields. A common theme this year is sustainability--or what used to be called weeds and junk. (They call wildflowers weeds in England, just like American lawn care guys do.) I love wildflowers and I'm all for reusing stuff. Keep this in mind as you look at the humble pictures showing what I've been up to this weekend. They might not be impressive, but I'm doing my bit for sustainability.

The fence I finished staining (it'll make it last longer); the trellis (old shelving that came with the house); a brush pile of twigs that won't go through the chipper (wildlife likes brush piles); and some old bricks around the new (noninvasive) honeysuckle. The neighbor's garage is painted to match mine with leftover paint. Tres chic!

The garden paths of cardboard, dried ornamental grass and mulch from last year held up pretty well. Today I made a bug net for my cabbage and zucchini so I don't have to spray them. Native roses have climbed up and over the fence. Three of the pots by the house contain native winterberries; two more have vigorous clematis that will hopefully climb the trellises and help cool the house. Biggs just wants to play ball.

My yard on May 27, 2019. I spent that Memorial Day weekend digging out landscape fabric (and a lot of weeds) along the fences shown. It wore me out!

Others might not like the amount of work it takes to keep up a house and garden, but I am very grateful to have the energy to do it.

Comments

Lowcarb team member said…

It does take time and energy to keep up a house and garden .... so pleased you are doing well.

Here in the UK, we've just enjoyed a lovely spring Bank Holiday weekend, the weather has been wonderfully sunny.

I haven't seen any of this years Chelsea Garden Show, I must catch up with it!

Enjoy the remainder of May, hard to believe it will be June on Thursday.

All the best Jan

May 29, 2023

Lori Miller said…

Hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend too, Jan.

May 29, 2023

Dana Carpender's Podcast; Dr. Davis on YouTube; Labor Day Sales

Dana Carpender, who's written several recipe books and other works on low-carb, has a podcast and is still writing articles at carbsmart.com. She's a terrific writer and amateur researcher (otherwise known as reading , as Jimmy Dore jokes ). I use her book 500 Low-Carb Recipes all the time and I'm looking forward to hearing more from her. I've embedded her podcast on my blog (click on the three lines at the top right if you don't see it, or go to Spotify or other podcast source if you're getting this by email). Carbsmart.com doesn't seem to have a blog feed, so if you want to see the latest posts there, you can sign up for notifications at their site. Dr. Davis has been putting a lot more videos on YouTube, so I've added his channel to the lineup. Click on the three lines on my blog if you don't see it, or go to his channel here . * * * * * Primal Kitchen is having a Labor Day sale-- 20% off everything. They sell high quality collagen powder, con...

Fasting blood sugar & insulin have crept up!

It's pretty bad when even conventional medicine thinks your blood sugar is high. I had lab tests done last week, as I do every year, and saw things were going in the wrong direction. Photo from Pixabay . Uh-oh. Ideal blood sugar is about 70-90. Your blood sugar can be high because you're stressed or ill, but I felt OK. I can't blame it on cortisol, which was smack in the middle of the normal range. And my A1c, which reflects blood sugar over the past few months, shows that whatever is going on has been happening for a while. My insulin is more than double what it should be. Oddly, my triglycerides, which typically indicate carb consumption, were good. I don't have an explanation for the triglycerides. I should have suspected something was wrong, though. I've felt very tired and a little sad for the past few months. Unlike many people with higher than ideal blood sugar and insulin, I had only gained about three pounds. Regardless of my good weight and triglyceride...

Interview: The Microbiome's Effect on Almost Everything

Mark L. Cannon, DDS, MS joins Bret Weinstein of the Darkhorse Podcast for a discussion about the oral microbiome and its downstream effects on everything from acne to Alzheimer’s. Dr. Cannon is a pediatric dentist and professor of otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat medicine). It's an hour and 44 minutes, but well worth your time. Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjkOgCXiMeE

Avoiding a Nightmare by Using Math

The answer lies in trigonometry. -Sherlock Holmes Don't worry if you never learned trigonometry--the answers here lie in arithmetic. Medical test results often come back positive or negative, as if the result were a certainty. Of course, there is the accuracy, but if the accuracy is 99% or so, what does that really mean? That you should get your affairs in order? Before you call your probate attorney, let's take an example from the book Calculated Risks by Gerd Gigerenzer. Let's say you're a 40-something year old woman with no symptoms of breast cancer. You have a positive mammogram. What are the odds you have breast cancer? Using some assumptions about test accuracy and rates of disease based on real data, the odds that you'd have breast cancer are one in eleven according to Gigerenzer. (If you were way off, don't feel bad--most of the physicians Gigerenzer tested were way off, too--and they had the data in front of them. Not that that's comforting in every...

Lousy Mood? It Could be the Food

Here's a funny AMV(1) on what it's like to be depressed, apathetic and overly sensitive. Note: explicit (but funny) lyrics in the video. Hearing this song brought a startling realization: I used to be emo, but with normal clothes. Sulking, sobbing and writing poetry were my hobbies. When I was a kid, my mother said that she wouldn't know what to do to punish me if I had done something wrong. And yet things got worse. Over a two-week period in 1996, my best friend moved away, I lost my job and broke up with my boyfriend. I lost my appetite and lived on a daily bagel, cream cheese and a Coke for the next few months. I had tried counseling, and didn't find it helpful; in fact, I found reviving painful memories was pointless. Not thinking about them, on the other hand, worked wonders. Later on, so did studying philosophy and learning to think through emotions instead of just riding through them. But what's blown away all the techniques is diet. Since I s...

Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Search This Blog