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 - 'R'

My journey to wellness is pretty much all about recovery, so guess what my topic is for today... That's right - raw milk! OK, so it may be cheating to technically talk about milk on 'r' day by tagging it with 'raw' but there really is a difference between raw and pasteurized milk.

A-Z Challenge - 'O'

I considered a couple of topics beginning with O for today's post. I decided on 'omega-3.' Prior to my need to walk on my journey to wellness - when I thought I was healthy - I had been researching omega-3s. A co-worker who suffered from bipolar disorder had been taking an omega-3 supplement to help with his depression. While depression was never an issue for me, I was interested in learning more about the benefits of omega-3s so I read The Omega-3 Connection by Andrew Stoll as recommended by my co-worker.
Omega-3 fatty acids are essential in our diets because the human body is incapable of making them. People consuming proper ratios of omega-3s to omega-6 fatty acids have shown improvements in overall health.
Unfortunately, while omega-6 fatty acids re also essential, the ratio of 3s to 6s is far out of whack in the standard American diet. As well, due to the popularity of the low-fat craze, overall consumption of essential fatty acids have also taken a hit.

Good sources of omega-3 fatty acids are flax seeds, grass fed beef and raw milk from pastured cows, and wild caught fish including salmon, anchovies, and tuna.

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.

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.

Talkin' Bout A Revolution

Today marks day four of my new year's revolution (song link this time: Tracy Chapman - Talkin' Bout A Revolution.  I have been preparing for my next session with the Master Cleanse.  I still need to get to the store to buy some lemons, but that should happen in the next day or two.  I already have a good supply of maple syrup - though I will need more by the time the cleanse has run its course - and I should have enough cayenne pepper, so it is really just the lemons that I am waiting on.

As of today, I am out of kefir.  In keeping with my revolution, I have been drinking about 6-8 oz. of kefir each morning.  I purposefully didn't make any more kefir, though, so as not to let it go to waste when I start on the cleanse.  I am also running low on milk to make it from!  I haven't been able to get to Deerfield Farm to get more.  As with the kefir, though, this has not been a priority.  I want to get enough for the family, but without me consuming any milk during the cleanse, our needs are considerably smaller.

As planned, I have begun each day with some exercise.  Prior to eating anything, I have been spending about 30 minutes following Dr. Mercola's Peak 8 principles - though with my own twist on it.  Essentially, Peak 8 is interval training - after a warm up, alternate 90 seconds of lower intensity exercise with 30 seconds of high intensity exercise for 8 cycles followed by a cool-down.  The principles are based on heart rate zone training.  During the high intensity periods, you push your heart rate into (or close to) the anaerobic zone.  As the session progresses, your heart rate will peak 8 times - hence the name - and recover somewhat between the peaks.  Though he uses a recumbent cycle for his program, Dr. Mercola doesn't specify any particular type of exercise for the Peak 8 program, just so that your heart rate is elevated effectively.  For my purposes, I am using the Wii Fit Plus as my activity.  One of the fitness 'games' is the 'free step' which can be set for 10-, 20-, or 30-minute durations.  This activity simply counts your steps on and off the balance board and keeps the pace for you.  You can select 80, 90, or 100 steps per minute as a pace.  Note that each footfall on or off the board counts as one step.  I have been using an eight pound medicine ball in addition to the 'stepper' program.  My routine has been to simply step for 90 seconds at the highest pace while carrying the medicine ball (after a warm up, of course) followed by a 30 second bout of faster stepping - out-pacing the Wii pace - while raising (above my head) and lowering (to my waist) the medicine ball.  I go for a full 30 minutes and complete anywhere from 8 to 15 cycles.
Tomorrow's session will be fun!  I found my heart rate monitor today!  I have actually acquired several monitors over the years.  When I worked for NordicTrack - before they filed for bankruptcy and were purchased by ICON Health and Fitness - I purchased one of the Polar heart rate monitors that we sold.  That was my first experience with heart rate training.  I used it religiously!  A good heart rate monitor is an amazing tool to use when exercising.  Though you can find companies that make/sell monitors that don't require a chest strap, I don't recommend them.  Using a chest strap frees up your hands to do other things.  As well, the chest strap will usually communicate directly with the equipment that you might be using for exercise.  Many treadmills, elliptical trainers, and stationary cycles have the heart rate technology built in.  Lacking a chest strap, you will need to grasp a handle on the machine to read your heart rate.  In the case of the watch that doesn't require a chest strap, you will need to touch the watch with your fingers to activate the reading.  Either way, your hands will need to otherwise be empty to get a reading.  This seems counter-intuitive on a machine like the elliptical trainers which are designed to incorporate your whole body in the motion - something you don't get when you are holding the stationary handle to get a heart rate reading.  Mind you, using any heart rate zone training is still better than not using it so if all you have access to is the hand-held monitors go ahead and use it!  You'll be amazed at how hard you are working when you don't really need to!
I am really looking forward to tomorrow morning!

So, my mornings for the last 4 days have looked like this:

• Walk Ginger - due to the temperature, this just consists of letting her take care of 'business'
• Exercise
• VIDACELL
• Kefir
• Breakfast

What is different now when compared to 2010 is that I have added in the exercise step where I would previously have gone back to sleep.  After walking Ginger, I would usually do some deep breathing which, more often than not, would lead me to fall asleep.  While I realize that I generally fall asleep because I NEED sleep, this kind of sleep is not terribly beneficial.  Now, I am making better use of that time and improving my sleep cycle.  I have known for a long time that it is more beneficial for me to exercise in the morning than at any other time of day.  I have always been interested in fitness though I was never truly fit except for a relatively brief period in my life.  It was during this time when I was getting out of bed at 5:30 AM and jumping on my NordicTrack skier with my heart rate monitor.  I used my skier so much that I actually wore it out - twice!  It actually would have cost me more to repair it the second time than it would have to replace it.  It was due to 'right-eating' (or, at least what I believed to be right eating at the time consisting mostly of highly processed 'health' foods) and proper exercise at the right time of day for me.
It is never too late to learn and grow.  As such, I am always open to learning new things.  This time around (revolution), I have learned more about what 'right-eating' really means and I now have the stamina for the first time since the onset of my symptoms (March, 2006) to go back to what works for me - early morning, heart rate zone training before breakfast.  Sure, things are not quite the same as the first time around - I have limitations that I didn't have and no longer have my NordicTrack - but I have no doubt that I will see some amazing results.  Weight loss is still not my primary goal.  There are many other benefits to be had that I am focusing on.  Better health and being symptom-free are at the forefront of my mind.

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.

Rattle and Hum-mus

If you have known me for any length of time, you should realize that I make a lot of references to music - though looking back in this particular blog I only see a couple.  Of course, the title of this post - Rattle and Hum - is a reference to U2, though the post has absolutely nothing to do with the band.  It is a particularly fitting title, though.  The reason being that after a little rattling of some garbanzo beans and a few other ingredients in my food processor, I have made some hummus.

On Wednesday I made my trip down to Deerfield Farm to get my raw milk.  On the way home I decided to stop in to It's Only Natural and pick up some other things that I had run out of along with a sprouting jar.  Actually, I had planned to pick up just the strainer lid, but the only size they had didn't fit the mason jars I already own, so for only a couple of dollars more I got the complete set - a quart size mason jar with a variety of strainer lids.  Sprouting seeds or grain involves a 3-8 hour soak (depending on the variety of grain/seed) followed by several rinse and aerate periods.  The sprouting lid is designed to make this an extremely easy - though still relatively lengthy - process.  Simply add you grain or seed to the jar, fill with filtered water, and screw on the lid.  Allow for the required time to pass - not an exact science here, but a good rule of thumb is that larger grains/seeds need a longer soak - and invert the jar to drain the liquid.  Because the lid is perforated, there is no need to remove the lid or to employ a separate strainer to catch the seeds.  The kit I bought has three lids with varying sizes of perforations to accommodate a wide variety of seeds - from tiny quinoa and sesame seeds up to monstrous garbanzo beans - without worry of losing them through the mesh.  After draining, simply rinse the seeds with fresh, filtered water.  Drain the rinse water and lay the jar on an angle to allow for excess water to slowly drain and air to circulate.  To accomplish this, I simply took a bowl from my cabinet and placed the jar in it so that the jar lays at about a 30 degree angle with the top lower than the base. 

Here is a picture of my sprouting jar that is currently being used to sprout some wheat berries.  I soaked them all day yesterday.  They are already starting to sprout, so I will probably get the Cuisinart out later today and grind them into flour.

The garbanzo beans soaked for about 8 hours and were ready to use yesterday.  I could have waited longer to allow for larger sprouts, but that wasn't the goal.  The simple act of sprouting adds considerably to the nutritional value of our grains and seeds.  Depending on the intended use, the sprouts can be allowed to grow larger or used at the first sign of sprouting.  As my intent was to make hummus, there was no need to allow for more growth.  After giving the beans a final rinse, I set to peeling them - a process that would likely have been made easier had I let the sprouts grow a bit more.  Just like peanuts in a shell, garbanzo beans have a 'skin' that can be removed.  While it is edible, it is not entirely palatable.  Having learned from a previous attempt at making hummus, I decided to remove the hulls for this attempt.  It took me a little while, but I got the job done in fairly good time.  After peeling them, I set the beans to cook.  Brought to a boil and reduced to a simmer, I let the beans simmer for about two hours.
Once done, I drained the beans and allowed them to cool a bit before adding them to the food processor.  I gave them a pulse or two - causing the 'rattle' - and then added my seasonings; some sea salt, toasted sesame oil (less than 1/4 tsp.), some garlic, some flax seeds, and some lemon juice.  I ran the processor for a minute, scraped down the bowl, ran it again and ended up with the 'hum'-mus.  It came out wonderfully.  My only complaint is that I should have been a little more generous with the seasonings as it is a little bland.  Easily corrected for the next batch.
Oh, and I didn't peel all of the beans.  Instead, I kept out a couple to see if I might grow my own!  The sprouting beans are currently sitting in a bowl on my kitchen counter awaiting planting.  I think that I will plant them indoors until they are a little more established.

I already mentioned today's goal of grinding the wheat berries into flour.  I might go one step further and make some crackers to use with my hummus!