Wow! ...or, Should I Say, "OWWW!"

Alright, "Owww" might be a little too intense to describe the current muscle soreness; I'm just somewhat surprised by how I'm feeling right now. "Why?" you say?

Well, I'll Tell You...

[music begins playing, the townspeople begin dancing and singing, "He's going to tell, he's going to tell!"]

...sorry for the reference to "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

On Sunday, a delivery was made to my front door... The source was Amazon - the person who ordered it is still unknown. In the box was a 7" Amazon Kindle Fire! Well, that was great! For no other reason, using the tablet meant that I could use my MacBook Pro a lot less! The only downside to the tablet - it doesn't use the Google or Apple app stores. Some of the apps that I would like to use on it just aren't available.

The Good Thing...

My 51st birthday - the first year of the second half-century of my life - was Wednesday, March 20. I decided to look into one of the things that I have wanted to do for a long time - yoga! For one reason or another in the past, I just never had the opportunity to really give it an attempt. Well, while browsing the Amazon app store, I discovered several yoga-learning opportunities. One of them - unrelated to the physical yoga - was 'Brain Yoga.'

"Well! That could be cool!" was my thought. So, I downloaded it. Today - Friday - makes the third day that I have used this app. I'm pleased with the app - even though I really haven't dug too far into it. We'll see how it goes...

Not meant to be my main focus, Brain Yoga didn't end my search... I also found 'Simply Yoga'. This had 2 versions - Free and Pro. While the Pro is only $4.99 and given my lack of experience with yoga, I didn't feel right - or, ready - to be going with the Pro version just yet.

Yesterday, I discovered that the app could be viewed on my Fire TV! This made it a lot easier to view the video while learning how to do the different positions.

The Results...

Well ...hence the title of this post... I AM SORE!

I started my day, yesterday, with free range eggs and grass-fed cheese to make my omelet. After doing some chores, I did some calisthenics like I normally do. I am always trying to improve myself physically.
After lunch of plain yogurt, Garden of Life Protein powder, chia seeds, and hemp seeds along with some KeVita water kefir, I decided the weather was not good enough for me to go for a walk that I wanted to do. As a result, I decided to give 'Simply Yoga' a try. I mean, why would I download an app if I was never going to use it?

I didn't very far into the 'work out'! Due to my current lack of physical abilities, I was unable to do the 'Sun Salutation' movement. I am just not that mobile to work my way from the standing 'Mountain Pose' through the 'Sun Salutation' and back to the standing 'Mountain Pose'.
The third pose - and, my main target! - was the 'Warrior II Pose'. As it begins from the Mountain Pose, I was all ready to go. This went really well - except for the shakiness in my hands by the end of the pose!
The next two poses were the 'Chair Pose' and the 'Deep Forward Fold'. Considering this was the first time for me, I handled them fairly well. I definitely need some work on them, though...
Sixth in line was the 'Tree Pose'. There were two reasons that I couldn't go through it, though. 1) This pose required me to stand, balanced on one leg, and 2) I was already too tired to even give it a shot!

We'll See...

As it goes, we'll see how much more I might be able to handle some of these yoga poses. I'll try to learn more and try to master the ones that I can do. Hopefully, my overall movement and abilities will improve.

A-Z Challenge - 'Y'

Yogurt is my topic for today - the second to last post in April's A-Z challenge. Yogurt plays a slightly smaller role in my journey to wellness now than it did even a couple of months ago only because it has taken a back seat to my homemade kefir (check out my post - Wouldn't It Be Nice - for the start of my kefir adventures). Like kefir, yogurt is a cultured milk product and is beneficial for digestion.

Early on my journey to wellness I attempted making yogurt at home with varying degrees of success. Yogurt doesn't take a lot of effort but it does take patience and warmth - and a little yogurt to get the process started. The only available heat source I have that suited my needs - well, the yogurt's needs - is my Crock-Pot. Sometimes it got too warm in the Crock-Pot for the culture and the yogurt didn't always come out right. At $7.50 per gallon of raw milk, I didn't really relish the potential of having a failed batch as a result of too much heat. As a result, I gave up on making my own yogurt until such time as I could acquire a yogurt maker designed for the purpose. They don't cost much, but kitchen space is a premium so I have held off on getting a new gadget. Making kefir is so much easier and requires no heat above room temperature, so that is now my primary source of probiotics.
The best commercial yogurt that I could find is from Stonyfield Farm though Deerfield Farm - the source of my raw milk - also makes yogurt regularly. When I get yogurt, it is from one of these two sources. In both cases though, the milk is pasteurized prior to being cultured.

A-Z Challenge - 'F'

Fermentation is the topic of the day. When we hear the word fermented we tend to think of alcohol, but there are a couple of fermented beverages that have less to do with the alcohol and more to do with probiotics. Kefir, kombucha, and kvass are three that come immediately to mind (don't worry, I'll be covering at least two of these in more detail on 'K'-day). In addition to these beverages, many foods also gain some nutritional benefits when fermented. Cabbage, for instance, is pretty good as it is but when fermented - becoming sauerkraut - it can be quite a bit better. Personally, this is not a good example as I can't stand the smell or taste of sauerkraut - but most people don't even realize that it is just fermented cabbage.
I have fairly recently embraced fermented drinks as a part of my regular nutritional intake. I have definitely seen some benefits!

For more information on fermented foods - specifically lacto-fermented foods (using whey from milk as the catalyst) - check out the book Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.

Take a Chance

Why didn't I think of this sooner? I have started keeping and washing out the glass bottles that I have been getting my kombucha in. Until now, I have been making and storing my kefir in one quart mason jars. This is great for making it and even though I consume a quart of kefir in a couple of days, I haven't been too pleased with using the jars to store it. I don't have any lids other than the two-piece canning lids and these are just not ideal for kefir. Canning normally creates a vacuum that makes the metal lids perfect for that purpose. Kefir, however, builds pressure in the jar. This hasn't been a real problem - it just tends to be a bit messy. For the last two batches of kefir, I have used the empty kombucha bottles. Two of them hold one quart nicely! Also, I find it easier to drink the kefir directly from these bottles rather than pouring it into a glass from the mason jar.

I decided to Take a Chance on water kefir (song reference courtesy of The Steve Dunn Band with Take a Chance). The other day, I got a $25.00 gift card for amazon.com as a reward for completing a survey. Today, I used part of it to order some water kefir grains to complement my milk kefir. I am looking forward to giving this a shot. It sounds really easy to 'brew' water kefir and also really versatile. Besides that, it will be a LOT more affordable to make water kefir than it is to make milk kefir! I do intend to continue making milk kefir - I will just be able to make less.

Gimme Some Water (Kefir)

Yesterday was a pretty encouraging day. Each Thursday for the last several weeks we have been going to the local YMCA for an hour of pool time. We ended up getting there a little early for our scheduled hour, but they are not strict about our arrival time and let us in. Rather than heading straight to the pool, I took a side trip to fitness room and ripped off three 'supersets' of seated row and bench press. A superset is basically just chaining two (or more) different motions together with no rest in between. Commonly, the motions will work opposing muscle groups - back and chest, bicep and triceps, quadriceps and hamstrings, etc.. It is a good method to use when you are looking for a workout but are pressed for time. By chaining opposing movements together, you can reduce downtime. One muscle group rests while the other works.
I didn't want to take too much time in the fitness room, so doing a superset of exercises that I cannot easily do at home just made sense. I didn't pay much attention to the weight I was pushing (or pulling). I started with the seated row machine and did about 20 reps before switching to the bench press machine to do about 15 reps. In both cases, I would have been hard pressed to do another repetition without a rest. I could have physically done more, but I felt that I had already taken too much time.
In previous visits to the pool, I hadn't really done too much actual swimming. Mostly I just spent the time playing in the pool with the kids. This time (as I had done during the previous visit) I spent some timing swimming laps. While I had always been a decent swimmer, I am currently closer to a manatee than I am to Michael Phelps in speed. I am also more of a sinker than a floater.
Already tired from the supersets and the lap swimming, I wanted to see how long I could maintain treading water. I went to the break from the shallow end to the deep end - deep enough so that I could effectively tread water but shallow enough that I would be able to stand if I got too tired. I held on for about three minutes for my first bout - not spectacular, but I am not complaining.
After swimming and grocery shopping, we came home and I went online to do some writing. Recently I started writing on a site called List My Five. This site asks contributors to create a Top 5 list of anything they want. The goal for the contributor is to create lists about popular topics that will bring in readers and generate ad revenue. More readers = more revenue which gets shared with the contributors. As a result of my new venture, I have increased my presence on Twitter trying to draw in some traffic to my lists. This has also had the effect of drawing in new twitter followers.
One of those new followers asked me if I had ever tried water kefir and directed me to his website. While I have not yet tried water kefir, I am more encouraged to do so. My experience with milk kefir has been excellent and my experience with kvass has not. I just don't like it and I am not going to continue making it. I have decided to add what remains of my attempt(s) at kvass directly to my compost heap - I am just not impressed. I am giving serious consideration to brewing my own kombucha and now will likely add water kefir. I encourage you to check it out at Tom's site: usuryfreeliving.net.
As usual, I started my day with a packet of VIDACELL blended with a tablespoon of coconut oil. Because of my last cycle with the Master Cleanse, I have quite a bit of VIDACELL on hand, so not only did I start my day with it, I also ended my day with another serving. As I intend to do another cleanse in the next week or so, I will build up an even larger stock of VIDACELL (I decided to refrain from using VIDACELL during the cleanse). My plan is to use an extra serving or two per day until I start the cleanse.

Given yesterday's encounters with water, I am using Eddie Money's song, Gimme Some Water as the title of today's post.

I'm Not Crazy About It

While it is stated in the recipe to let the kvass sit at "room temperature for two days before transferring to the refrigerator," I gave it an extra day. As well, the instructions say that "when most of the liquid has been drunk, you may fill the container with water and keep at room temperature for another two days" for a 2nd batch.
I decided to pour off most of the liquid into new jars and refill them instead of waiting to drink it all. While it hasn't been refrigerated, I wanted to taste the 'brew.' Well, it tastes a little better than the store bought stuff, but I am still not crazy about it. (Song reference, Crazy by Seal). I am hoping that a little refrigeration will aid the taste. If not, I might try to tweak the recipe and try again. If after a second attempt it still doesn't suit me, I will just stick to the kefir.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

...but if you try, sometimes you get what you need. In all of my posts that use songs or song references as titles, I don't think that I have ever used a Rolling Stones song. It seemed about time and You Can't Always Get What You Want seemed the perfect one for this post. When I got the whey from Deerfield Farm last Wednesday, I was all excited to try my hand at making beet kvass. When I went to the grocery store on Thursday, I was fully intending to buy some beets for the same purpose. No luck - I couldn't get what I wanted. But I tried again today, and I got what I needed! So today, I started the kvass-making process.

Sally Fallon provides a recipe for beet kvass in her book, Nourishing Traditions. It is as follows:

• 3 medium or 2 large beets, peeled and chopped up coarsely (I cubed them)
• 1/4 cup whey
• 1 Tablespoon sea salt
• Filtered water

Add all of the ingredients to a 2 quart container (I used two 1 quart mason jars). Add filtered water to fill the container, stir well, and cover securely. Leave the container(s) at room temperature for two days before transferring to the refrigerator.
That's it!

I gathered all of the ingredients and got ready to put it all together. For a little variety, I added a couple of baby carrots and a celery stalk to the recipe. As I don't have a larger jar to use (other than a plastic container that I don't want to use as the beet juice might permanently stain it), I am using two of my 1-quart mason jars. The 1/2 gallon container to the right of center of the picture is the whey.

I cubed the beets, carrots, and celery (though the celery obviously didn't result in cube shaped pieces!). It is not recommended to shred them as that would produce too much juice and the fermentation would happen too fast. This would result in more alcohol and less lactic acid. It is the lactic acid that we are after, here.

I divided the vegetables equally into my two mason jars to which I had already added 1/8 cup of whey (half of the called for quantity in each jar) and 1 teaspoon of sea salt. From feedback that I have read, following the recipe as written results in a too-salty drink. Rather than using the full tablespoon of salt, I used only the two teaspoons. I am hoping that adding the carrots and celery might produce a somewhat sweeter tasting kvass.

Finally, I added the filtered water to the jars and screwed on the lids. The jars are currently sitting on the kitchen counter (right next to my most recent batch of kefir!) where they will remain for the next 48 hours.


According to Sally Fallon, after most of the liquid has been consumed, I can simply top off the jars with more filtered water to make a second, slightly weaker batch. So, at a cost of $2.49 for the beets I will have about a gallon of kvass when all is done. This is considerably more affordable than buying bottled beet kvass at retail!

While I was in the 'creating' mode, I decided to be experimental with my smoothie for dinner. I used my standard 1 cup of frozen mixed berries (Trader Joe's Very Cherry Berry Blend) as a starter. To this, I added whey, kefir, some milk and raw honey, and a couple of prunes. For the experiment, I added a celery stalk! I wasn't sure if my blender would do a decent job of turning celery into a puree, but it worked. I was really surprised at how good it tasted. The celery was evident but not overpowering. Adding it is going to be a regular thing.

No Easy 'Whey' Out

The title for this post was an easy one for me, yet contrary to the title I did get an easy 'whey' out! So, the song may or may not be obvious to you but it has long been one of my favorites. It is 'No Easy Way Out' and can be found on the soundtrack from Rocky IV.
We were running low on milk, so I made a call to Deerfield Farm yesterday to reserve 3 gallons for today. I was surprised when Melynda answered the phone as I usually get the answering machine. I was further surprised when she told me that she had some whey for me! While I had inquired about having them reserve some whey for me when they made cheese, we hadn't been able to coordinate it up until today. Now I am the proud owner of a half gallon of whey! Well, it is now slightly less than a half gallon as I added some to the smoothie that I had for dinner...
As I haven't made my own yogurt in quite some time, I really haven't has any whey to use for other purposes. Unlike making yogurt and cheese, making kefir doesn't produce whey as a by-product. Now that I have a decent quantity of whey, I plan to make some kvass even though I wasn't terribly impressed by the taste of the kvass that I purchased. I plan to pick up some vegetables on our grocery shopping trip tomorrow so that I can try a couple of different blends in making my own kvass. I don't plan to make too much as I am not sure that I will like my own 'brew' any better than the purchased variety.

Changes

I admit it, I was having a really hard time coming up with a suitable song link for this post.  What I really want to talk about today is a trio of probiotic, fermented beverages and I just couldn't find a related song, band, or album to go along with them.  One possible link was The KKK Took My Baby Away by the Ramones, but only because all three of these drinks begin with the letter 'K.'  While I mention that song here, I decided against using it as the reference for this post.  Instead, I decided on Changes by David Bowie.  This is because adding these three drinks to my daily diet definitely (how's that alliteration?) represents a change for me.

So, what are these drinks?

First, I want to talk about kefir.  I am still not quite sure of the proper pronunciation of this word.  I have heard it pronounced as 'key-fur' as well as 'keh-fear.'  Either way, this is great stuff!  Kefir is primarily found as a cultured milk product.  I mentioned my then-new project of making my own kefir in a previous post - Wouldn't It Be Nice - so I won't go into too much detail about that here.  According to kefir.net, kefir is:

"a cultured, enzyme-rich food filled with friendly micro-organisms that help balance your “inner ecosystem.” More nutritious and therapeutic than yogurt, it supplies complete protein, essential minerals, and valuable B vitamins."

Since I began making my own kefir a couple of months ago, I have been drinking it almost daily - except for the duration of the master cleanse.  At first, I wasn't quite thrilled by the taste but neither did I hate it.  Now, I actually like it.  For that matter, I am also enjoying the taste of plain yogurt now though I really couldn't stand it when I first tried it.  My taste buds have definitely adjusted to a lot of foods that I never used to like.  While I haven't seen any major improvement in my health since I started drinking kefir, I know that I am better off because of it.  As with everything else, healing takes time.  While kefir is available at the grocery stores, I have yet to find any that is made from whole milk and doesn't contain undesirable additives.  Plus, all of the bottled kefir that I have found is pasteurized.

Next comes kombucha.  Kombucha is a fermented tea drink.  It is essentially made by using a kombucha 'mushroom' or 'mother' to ferment any variety of tea.  Because of the fact that it is made from tea, it can come in many flavors.  I have only been able to find one brand of kombucha locally, though I haven't exhausted all possibilities.  Neither Stop & Shop nor Trader Joe's carry it.  I am told that Whole Foods sells it, but I don't get out there very often.  As of now, the only place I have been able to get it is It's Only Natural so I am limited to what they carry.  Today, I picked up some Botanic No. 9 and Gingerade varieties.  I had previously tried the Multigreen flavor but I am not too thrilled with the taste.  It wasn't bad and I would drink it if the others weren't available, but it wouldn't be my first choice.
I am tempted to try to make my own kombucha.  The start-up cost is a bit higher than it was for kefir, but it seems like the ongoing costs would be less.  Rather than using raw milk that I pay $7.50 per gallon to make kefir, I would be using tea and sugar.  One gallon of sweetened tea costs a lot less than $7.50!  In addition to the mother, I would eventually need to buy some larger jars to make the kombucha in.  I currently use the one quart mason jars for kefir and I could start with them, but given the fact that kombucha takes longer to ferment than kefir, I would want to make larger batches.

Finally, kvass is another beverage that has been around for a long time.  There are a couple of different ways to make kvass.  One uses stale rye bread while another uses beets.  Kvass is really new to me.  I read about it in Nourishing Traditions, but have only recently tried it.  It was sitting in the cooler at It's Only Natural right next to the kombucha with a big sign: "If you like kombucha, you will LOVE KVASS!"  Well, I figured that I would give it a shot...  So much for truth in advertising!  While I do like kombucha, I certainly do not love kvass - at least, not the variety that I tried.  The flavor that I purchased was ginger-carrot kvass.  My guess is that instead of using beets to make the kvass, they used ginger and carrots.  It wasn't great but neither was it horrible.  Today on my trip to I.O.N., I decided to give it another shot.  This time I opted for the beet kvass (as I write this, the kvass is sitting in the fridge while I am drinking Gingerade kombucha).
Kvass seems to be a lot easier to make than kombucha - similar to kefir in complexity and time.  It does, however, require whey as the fermentation agent - at least, for the first batch.  Fortunately, whey is easy to acquire - I can separate some raw milk on my own or get some from Deerfield Farm when they make cheese.  While the jury hasn't reached a verdict on kvass - maybe it is just an acquired taste - I am thinking that the relative ease of making it and the ability to customize the taste by using different vegetables will make kvass a staple for me.  We'll see how that goes, though.


Without actually doing the math, it is obvious that making/brewing my own probiotic drinks is a lot more cost effective than buying them retail.  Of the three, kombucha is the most labor intensive having to first brew the tea, add sugar and the mother, and allow to ferment for 7-10 days.  Kefir simply requires the addition of the grains to fresh milk in a loosely covered jar (I use a coffee filter over the mouth of a mason jar secured with the mason jar ring) with an occasional stir during the 24-48 hours of fermentation.  Kvass seems to merely require cutting the vegetables into cubes, adding them to a jar with whey, sea salt, and water, and allowing the fermentation to occur at room temperature for 48 hours.

It will be interesting to see how it works!

Feelin' Groovy!

"Slow down, you move too fast..."  How true.  The lyrics, of course, are taken from Simon & Garfunkel's 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy).  When the song was originally recorded in 1967, there was no such thing as the internet, cell phones, microwave ovens, and while McDonald's existed, their drive-thru service had not yet been born.  Things were still moving relatively fast in 1967, but no where near the speed of life that we see today.

We are constantly looking for ways to speed things up, to be more efficient, and to earn more money while spending less on necessities so that we can spend more on frivolities.  What are we doing to our quality of life - not the superficial, material quality but the emotional, physical, and spiritual quality - with these pursuits?  People are behind the wheel of their car while talking on the cell phone and eating that fast food meal that they picked up at the drive-thru.  I am all for multitasking, but that is just dangerous in more ways than one!

Today I have already spent quite a bit of time on 'slowing down.'  For almost a week, I have been working on making my own kefir.  Each morning, I have been straining raw milk to recover the kefir grains that have been soaking for the previous 24 hours.  The process of revitalizing the grains in order to produce kefir takes 5-7 days.  This morning started in similar fashion. 
My next project was to make my own peanut butter.  On Wednesday, I had purchased some raw peanuts at It's Only Natural and started soaking them in sea salt and filtered water.  After suitable soaking time, I transferred the peanuts to the dehydrator and started soaking the raw filberts (hazelnuts) that I had also gotten at I.O.N. with the peanuts (did you know that shelled, raw filberts float?).  When the filberts were done soaking, I added them to the dehydrator on a second tray.  I suppose that the difference in density between the peanuts and filberts is the reason, but both were completed drying yesterday.  I pulled out the food processor and loaded the peanuts into the bowl and stored the hazelnuts in a container for snacking.  Along with the peanuts, I added a Tbsp. of coconut oil and a dash of sea salt and turned on the processor.  Once the peanuts started to turn into a nice, creamy butter, I added a Tbsp. of raw honey and some flax seeds and let the processor run for another 30 seconds to mix it all well.
The third project of this morning was to transform two avocados, onion, green pepper, sea salt, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper into guacamole.  Only as I type this do I realize that I forgot to add cilantro to the mix.  No problem, though.  I can always add it later...
Fourth project - to make some more vegetable stock.  Actually, I was somewhat efficient on this project.  While dicing the onion green pepper for the guacamole, I also chopped the onion and green pepper for the stock.  I filled the Crock Pot with filtered water and turned it on while preheating the oven to roast the onion and green pepper.  To the roasting vegetables, I added some coconut oil and sea salt.  While they roasted, I coarsely chopped some cabbage, carrots, and celery and added them to the Crock Pot.
Time for clean-up!  With these projects, I certainly created a fair amount of dirty utensils so while the onion and green pepper roasted, I cleaned up.  Having just run a cycle, the dishwasher was full of clean dishes.  Rather than waste the electricity to have the dishwasher dry the dishes, we simply let them air dry before putting them away.  As the food processor parts would present a bit of a challenge for the dishwasher anyway, I decided to hand wash everything that I had used.


Out of all of these projects, the guacamole took the least amount of time from start to finish.  Had I been responsible for growing the ingredients, that would have been a different story.  The kefir project began almost a week ago and still isn't completed.  The peanut butter (and hazelnut) project(s) began on Wednesday and was completed today.  The vegetable stock project began today (aside from shopping for ingredients) and will be completed on Tuesday.  All of these things take time but the benefits far outweigh the time spent completing them.


To paraphrase the song, slow down, don't move so fast.

Wouldn't It Be Nice...

OK, I will shamelessly admit that I lifted the title of this post from a fictional blog mentioned on a TV show last night.  I was watching Chase and one of the characters posted to her blog named for her mother's love of The Beach Boys.  Given my own desire to name my posts with titles or lyrics from songs, I couldn't resist.  So, I thank both The Beach Boys and Chase on NBC for the inspiration.

The song, 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' seems to be the perfect choice for this blog.

Wouldn't it be nice if:

• We could all be disease-free!
• We could all be out of debt.
• We could all have access to truly healthy food.
• We could all have the ideal home life.
• We could all live in a world without hatred and war.
• ...  fill in the blank with your own hopes and desires ...

Certainly, I am working towards at least a few of the ideals in the above list.  My most recent step on my journey to wellness is to attempt to make my own kefir. Kefir is a fermented milk product - though I have learned that it can be made from other things as well - that is similar to yogurt.  One of the primary differences is that the milk does not have to be heated at all in order to become kefir.  Yogurt, though the milk only needs to be heated briefly and incubated at 110 deg. F for a period, does require the milk to be 'cooked.'  Cooking anything can have the downside of killing off the beneficial bacteria and enzymes present in the food.

The Maker's Diet recommends kefir as one of the food choices.  Unfortunately, all of the kefir that is available from nearby stores is made from low-fat, pasteurized milk and has several undesirable additives - namely sugar - so I have yet to add it to my diet.  A couple of weeks ago, I went to It's Only Natural with the intent to purchase some kefir starter so that I could make my own from the raw milk that I get from Deerfield Farm.  Unfortunately, they only had one variety of starter 'grains' and the instructions required that the milk be heated.  Not being sure if this brand of kefir starter would work without heating the milk, I opted to pass.

Fortunately, I was able to find a brand of kefir starter online that does work without heating the milk.  My order arrived yesterday!  The Milk Kefir Grains from Cultures for Health LLC come in dehydrated form and need to be revitalized over the course of 5-7 days before they will start producing kefir.  I started the process this morning, so I will hopefully be able to enjoy some kefir next week.

During my failed quest for kefir starter at It's Only Natural, I did pick up a jar of coconut oil.  While I have been strictly using olive oil or butter for cooking, I have been reading more and more about the benefits of coconut oil.  While olive oil is great, it is not truly suited for high heat cooking.  I am not opposed to butter, but the benefits of coconut oil are too great to be ignored.  I have had a couple of opportunities to cook with coconut oil, but it is far too early to notice any results.  I will keep you posted.