Whole 30 and the new grand experiment

So as we have established, keto was a bit of a bust. I did learn that bread/wheat/gluten might be a problem for me. The real problem is I don't know if I can cut it out of my diet completely.

The other day at BJs I ran across The Whole 30 - which is less of a 'diet' than it is an experiment with food and learning what causes you not to feel well. I was skeptical but I read the book and the things I like about it are these:

* Weight loss is not hyped - the book discourages before and after weighing and stepping on the scale at all

* It varies from keto in that the goal is to add foods back in after 30 days and see how they affect you.

* It is only for 30 days, and it's discouraged to make this a 365-eating plan

* There are no Whole30 prepackaged meals or bars that you 'should' buy. They're not selling chemicals packed as healthy foods like Atkins or Weight Watchers

* You're not encouraged to make cheater foods like faux brownies or eggless muffins, etc. The idea is not to 'trick' yourself into thinking you're eating something 'bad' when you're not

* Recipes and ingredients are simple

So I've decided to dedicate the 30 days of June 2015 to this new 'grand experiment' and see what happens. We're going down the shore in August, so by then I will have been able to add foods back in and see what that does for me.

The downsides: No chocolate.

This could be a deal breaker - but I'm willing to try it for 30 days. Chocolate will be the FIRST thing I add back in.

The rules are simple and yet impossibly difficult.

*No alcohol. [A cinch for someone who doesn't drink.]
*No dairy. [keto at least allowed cheese and heavy cream, but not Whole30]
*No sugar. [Yeah. Here's the kicker. If I can go no sugar I can pretty much fly.]
*No grains. [the bread thing]
*No soy, or legumes. [difficult but not impossible]

You can eat green beans and sugar snap peas though. Nuts and seeds are fine, but no almond milk that contains carrageenan which basically means no almond milk. No artificial sweeteners, but caffeine is ok. This means no coffee - another tough one for someone who went 46 years without coffee and now can't go for a weekend without it.

We'll see how it goes. I'm going to jump into it whole hog because for those few weeks on keto I actually felt great, and I'd like to feel great again. I'm also considering actually telling people about it. I know - I don't like involving other people in my dietary endeavors because A) it's none of their business, B) I'm not a walking advertisement for someone's diet plan C) I don't want to be accountable to anyone else for what I do or what I eat, but I think the key to this success will be not keeping it a secret. It won't be easy to eat like this, so I'm going to need help.

Wish me luck.

A shot of my jungle terrarium. 

Only if it's purple...

As promised, the desk accessories:

 

The washi tape accent really makes it.

 

 

I also redid some of my gardens:

 

Here are two red maple saplings I rescued from the front yard. I'm hoping to turn them into bonsai - my new obsession. The sweet little pot is from today's garage sale excursion.

I bought a sedum mat at Lowe's today and used pieces of it everywhere. A nice sized piece of it makes a fantastic ready made fairy garden in a glass ivy bowl.

The ivy terrarium was doing really well on my desk, but I just wasn't happy with it, so I replanted the ivy into an open jar and turned it into a proper fairy garden using some pink fencing I found at an estate sale and that cute little terra cotta pitcher I've had floating around in my junk box for years.

 

AND...

 

I've also discovered the Japanese art of Suiseki - or the contemplation of rocks. Of course real suiseki is one amazing rock, usually that looks like a landscape set in a custom made wooden tray. This is a set of rocks in a heart shaped wooden bowl, but you get the idea. I plan to contemplate them.

 

Over dinner we did a lot of talking about a major paint job for the basement...so it looks like in the next couple of weeks I'll be working on the faux rock wall along the basement steps.

 

I have to say that my guilty confession is I have let go of writing. I do still have to complete a novella, but I'm in no hurry. For the first time in about 10 years, I don't feel the need to write, or the guilt of not writing. I'm just living my life - and as much as writing has been who am for the last 38 years, I feel a tremendous sense of freedom in NOT having to do it. I'm sure I will go back to it. There are still things I want to write, but for now, I feel incredibly liberated and I'm enjoying so many more things now that I don't feel like every moment not spent writing is a moment wasted. Is that wrong?



Project salad

A little bit of everything...

My organization obsession is still in full swing.

 

 The Filofax and planner have their own drawer along with a cute little pouch to hold supplies.

 The garden is going along. Potatoes are taking over their pot, and the salad bowl garden is doing great. The cool weather has been nice for the lettuce and spinach. Carrots, radishes, beans, cucumbers and peppers are holding their own. Hopefully warmer weather will speed up the growth process because a lot of the plants seem like their in stasis, just waiting for more sunlight to kick start them.

Lastly, I've planted another DIY bonsai...

 

A little maple I found growing near the deck and some fern that was clinging to the barren eastern side of the house along with a lone moss patch. I'm still scouting for more bonsai pots - that's my garage sale mission for the summer.

 

Yesterday's project involved working on redoing my desk accessories. Pictures to come of the repurposed pen holder and the footstool shelf.

Filofaxed

Project FILOFAX is in full swing. I have prepared a repository of information that should be useful on day to day basis and in case of an emergency.

In addition I decided to create a personal planner - but after weighing my options and searching on line for various templates I decided to make my own. Using items on hand I created a personalized 5-year month-at-a-glance calendar that should allow me to keep track of anything I want.

The ultimate cost was under $3.00 for binding the pages into a spiral notebook type document. Then I dropped some real money on a nice set of pens and some washi tape. That stuff is expensive!

Here's my stash - my Filofax and my Planner with accessories. The Filofax cost about $25.00 because I bought it at Mitsuwa - the Japanese Mall. Now to start the intensive work and personalizing the planner and actually using it.

Here's a view of the inside. To make my printing easier, I made a blank template that could be customized for each month. I'll add numbers, holidays and such later.

 

If I actually manage to make use of this for the next five years, then I promised myself I would splurge on a ream of colored paper and make myself a new one for the next five years.

Bonsai!

No, this has nothing to do with Buckaroo Bonzai being my favorite movie.

I love bonsai trees. Who doesn't? But they're expensive and easy to kill, so I decided to make my own invincible bonsai tree.

 

 

I used the small pot I had originally put my baby Groot in - since the clay Groot did not really turn out so well or last long because the air dry clay cracked. The pot was actually a perfect Bonsai pot and was probably the one my original bonsai came in years ago.

 

I took a cutting from the unkillable bush that grows next to the deck. I've been hacking away at that thing for years and it just keeps growing. I've cut branches from it that have started growing on their own a day later, so I realized, hey, this thing won't die. Cutting it down and sticking it in a tiny little pot won't hurt it. A short branch that already looked tree-trunky made for a nice bonsai starter.

 

I added some moss dug up from beneath the back step - also probably unkillable. I added some stones and put it all in a nice potting mix.

 

I figure I can trim this thing all I want, and it will just keep going like the Energizer bunny of Bonsai - unlike those frail but pretty little juniper bonsais that wither after a few weeks outside of the care of a seasoned professional gardener.

 

Just for good measure, I popped another cutting into the fairy garden behind it where I'm growing one of my mini-lawns. I figure I'll do the same with that one.

 

Stay tuned for pictures of my sproutlings. The lettuce, spinach, radishes, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes and beans are all in their permanent homes and starting to green up.



The Modern Grey Bedroom

It's done! And I think it turned out pretty good:

 

 

The only items that are real miniatures are the vase in the corner, the Buddha on the shelf and the books. Everything else is hand made.

 

The bed is balsa, foam core, quilting fabric and tiny bamboo-like rods that came in a potpourri bag.

The end tables and the dresser are balsa blocks with added drawers, painted black. The drawer pulls are beads.

The lamps are beads and pieces of the bamboo sticks.

The modern wall hanging is a jewelry finding/bead.

The chair is a craft cork covered in fabric, the backing is cut from a paper towel roll and painted black.

The floor is foam core and the rug is gray felt.

The comforter gets its drape from tin foil folded into the fabric.

 

Here's a closeup interior view that I think is really cool.

 

As far as project FILOFAX goes, I bought a B5 size loose leaf notebook with extra paper and dividers and I'm in the process of collecting all pertinent information. It's going to be a lot of work, but hopefully when I'm done, I'll have a central location for all valuable information, an emergency vault of info to be used by me or handed off to someone, I will have used up a lot of my office supplies that I've been storing long-term for 'in case I need them' and I'll feel less stressed by being able to clear out some clutter and consolidate my stuff.

Wish me luck!

 

 

 

Vacation epihany

I've had the week off from work. I planned this as a 'get organized' staycation which was to include:

Setting up the garden.
Replanting and repotting old plants.
Changing out my closet.
Going to the eye doctor.

All fine plans, but usually when I have a week off, I end up creating a new direction or goal for myself. Since the 'grand experiment' has proven, as I suspected, to be a bust, and I've reached a place in my writing where I'm no longer enslaved by it, I need something else to do.

My epiphany came yesterday when I discovered 'life planners' and 'filofaxes'.

Now, I have NO DESIRE to plan every second of my life. That's for SAHMs, and I'm not one anymore. I don't need a bulleted list to tell me to take a shower and planning 7 days of dinners has never worked out for me. BUT, I decided that one of the sources of my free floating anxiety has always been that I was too busy focusing on writing to be organized. I have a basic system for things, but I'm usually flailing a bit and whenever I need something in a pinch, it usually involves running around, digging up the information I need. I really need to make my life easier and reduce some of my stress, so my next project is an overhaul of my system and a consolidation.

I'm not going to start carrying a 'life planner' around with me so I can record bowel movements or how many glasses of water I drink in a day, but really getting all important information in one place is starting to sound really attractive to me.

Hence my next BIG PROJECT shall be called: FILOFAX.

In the mean time - here's my next miniature project. The Modern Gray Bedroom is shaping up to be pretty cool:

 

This one will have completely hand made furniture and will probably be the first of a number of rooms I want to make in these little wooden crates I found at A.C. Moore.

Off to get organized!