A beautiful Sunday

The weather today is gorgeous!

I had an AVON delivery to do today down in Hickory Tavern, so we were out and about in it. We stopped beforehand, for lunch, at Mei Mei House in Simpsonville, and stocked my brochure rack there. It was nice to be able to go in (with my walker) and chat to Maggie, they are like family.

The drive down was nice, there was next to no traffic, sun was shining, we had the windows open and the air just blew through;  it mussed my hair up a bit, but no worries!

Hope you are enjoying a lovely day.

Family History Frolics

I do love "doing" my family history, or rather, exploring the people who came before me and whose blood runs through my veins. I find it so interesting, the digging, and definitely frustrating at times, but when you get a breakthrough it's a big YAY!!!!! Just makes my day.

I have just sent off for 2 more death certificates, one is my great-grandmother, and the other is her mother. They are on my maternal grandfather's side of the family, his mother and his grandmother.

It is sad that I had no connection with my father, as I have started working on his side and have found out quite a bit about him from my sibling from his marriage, but because I didn't know him or his parents, the interest is somewhat less than it is for my mother's side, the grandparents who raised me when I was young, and whose stories I listened to growing up.

This is one of my favourite pictures of my granpop, Edward Lewis, as a young man, with his younger brother, George. Despite having had the photo for over 30 years, the identity of the younger person in the photo was only discovered last year. I had always thought my granpop was the youngest child.

His side of the family history has always been quite private so discovering a lot of it was quite difficult, added to which the last name, Lewis, and first names of the children, William, John, Edward, and Matilda, that I was searching for. Such common names at the beginning of the twentieth century, and worse, so many families within the same area!

What I have discovered on his side, has made me more aware of the genetic influence on my health.

He died of an aortic aneurysm in 1978. As yet, I have not been able to identify his father's death so know nothing about it. However, his mother's father, George Burton, died of "cerebral congestion, 8 days" which, on further research, seems to implicate high blood pressure/stroke.

Unfortunately, on my grandmother's side of the family (his wife, Rose nee Poyser),  she died in 1981 of a haemorrhagic stroke, her father Samuel Poyser died of a heart attack and her mother (Mary Ann nee Hunt) "suddenly at home" so it seems cardio-vascular stuff isn't good on her side, either.

And then, her mother's father, Charles Hunt, had bronchitis, asthma and heart failure.  He is the first (so far) that I have found with asthma, which my mother, my son, my granddaughter and myself, have all suffered from.

Having my DNA tested also provided interesting information on the possible origins of my blood type. I am O Negative, and that seems to be more prevalent in an area in the Iberian Peninsula than anywhere else in the world, cementing that with the DNA areas that make up my ancestral origins.

Likewise, my red hair. Despite me being English born (English through and through, as I thought) 39% of my DNA is Irish and only 28% is from Great Britain, the rest moves off to the East.  I've always said we English are a bunch of mongrels, we were conquered by so many, Danes, Vikings, Gauls, Romans, Goths and Visigoths, and more than I can remember. All of whom raped and pillaged as they went.

Other interesting things that have come to light concerning my hair and blood group - red headed people tend to bleed more easily (explaining my haemorrhage after having my son) and also can have issues with pain killing meds (as I have done) whereby the drugs that work on others make no difference to my pain (one of the reasons I now use essential oils). It was quite fascinating, answering unasked questions but putting many things to rest with an "ahhh ok".

I've been delving now for 23 years, and still so much more to discover.

Enjoy your day

No, I am NOT on a diet!

Yes, I am losing weight, but NO! I am not "on a diet" nor am I "dieting". I am however watching the foods that I eat, trying to keep them within certain dietary guidelines and making better choices.

By it's very statement "going on a diet" seems to imply that, once the goal is achieved, one can go "off the diet" at the end of it, which really isn't true. In my case weight loss, but for those suffering from the other issue of weight gain, is a process of undoing bad habits and gaining better ones, learning about your foods and what they do for your body, and making decisions based on that. The plan is to change your way of thinking as well as being more aware of what you are putting in your mouth.

People's dietary needs differ, there are so many variables, height, weight, activity for starters but then, also, dietary issues where maybe certain nutrients that are good for most aren't good for someone else (potassium, for instance) or where certain foods really must be limited because of underlying conditions (diabetes, for example). Each person has to get to know their body, get to know its needs, and then work with it for nourishment, whether to maintain weight and physique, build it or to lose weight and tone up.

This has been an eventful past 12 months for me.

Beginning in September of 2016, my health took a decided turn for the worse.

Now, to many, my health may have seemed bad to begin with. Arthritis and osteoporosis have resulted in limited mobility, meaning I was spending most of my time in my bed, and needing to be pushed in a wheelchair if I went anywhere. Around the house, I used a Zimmer frame for assistance, or to get from my bed to the bathroom, I sequenced grabbing my cupboard handle to help me get upright, then held onto my bookshelf, the door handle, the sink and finally the bathroom shelf, to make it. Coming back, there was kind of a long falling onto the bed from the bookshelf holding, LOL.

Hereditary high blood pressure and high cholesterol are dealt with (unfortunately) with a plethora of meds, as is my underactive thyroid, however as far as colds and opportunistic infections, my doctor has always been happy with how little I seemed to succumb to.

Up until last September my blood pressure had been under control for about 10 years.

I also have issues with drugs, my body doesn't like them, so my doctor and I have had to carefully get me to where I was at, and work with my tolerances. My doctor is a darling, and a year ago we were happily discussing how we might be able to cut my drugs and utilize more natural methods (she knows I prefer natural).

What happened was that the insurance decided they wanted to take me off Crestor and give me a generic ... which should have been ok ... but wasn't. I started having issues, and my doctor said it was medically necessary for me to go back to the name brand. I expected that to fix the problem ... it didn't. My blood pressure had soared sky high and my doctor upped my meds for that. Then I started getting the racing heartbeat, and palpitations. She took my meds back down and I ended up on a heart monitor. I am now under a cardiologist for A-Fib, and am on blood thinners.

In all of this, I really started pushing to find natural things to help the drugs do their work. I already ate low sodium, but I started trying to find ways to cut it even more. I love fruits and salad veggies, and upped them too but that then caused me a drastic lessening of kidney function (down to 37%) due to the potassium in fruits and veggies, so I also had to look into eating low potassium and keeping track of it.

For me, all of these things are important considerations when I am choosing and eating a food.

For someone else, the considerations will be different. We each have to get to know our bodies and work with them, to better our health.

I have gone from this:

To this:

and my journey is not over yet. I still have a long way to go, but I am taking it slowly, and things have changed.

I am so much more aware now of the content of foods and yes, I will have a cheeseburger sometimes, a plain one or a kids size fries with no salt but when people with me are wanting the big Macs or Whoppers fully loaded, I am soooo conscious of all the fat and salt they are consuming.

I still eat the foods I love, just don't want some of them any more and don't miss them. I've found substitutes. I still eat chocolate (I freeze minis and fun size Musketeers and stuff like that) and I manage to eat some of the fruits and veggies that I love by making sure that, for the rest of that day, I am eating maainly foods with no potassium in.

The thing is "dieting' does not work. You have to change your way of thinking and change your habits, because this change is going to be lifelong. t has to be permanent. If you go "on a diet" and then achieve your weight loss and go "off a diet" and start eating the way that you used to, the weight is going to go back on.

Have a great day, my friends

Silver Linings In The Clouds, And Other Thoughts

So many times "stuff happens" and things get stressful, but today everything just went perfectly, even the bits I was dreading, and those I hadn't even thought about!

Hubby had taken his bike to work, and left me the car as I needed to be somewhere with my granddaughter. With my walking being so bad, without my walker, I dreaded having to get out of the car, open the gate, get back in the car and drive through, then get back out of the car to close the gate. I dreaded it on 3 counts, obviously the pain I experience trying to walk unsupported, also the fear of falling and being unable to get up, but #1 was the dreaded fight to get out the gate without our goat Sadie deciding she was going out as well. I cannot chase her down any more, so I was stressed at the possibility of her getting out and me not being able to get her back in.

I gave her some sweet feed at my front door, and I guess I gave her enough, as I made it out the gate without her even coming up there.

At my granddaughter's appointment, the nurse let me hop on the scale, and DESPITE wearing heavier pants, plus shoes, I had lost 1.2lbs since my doctor appointment on September 21st. Thirteen days! WOOHOO! That was a nice surprise.

With my faithful rollator, I managed to walk fairly well down the hallways. My posture is terrible, as I cannot stand straight up any more, but at least the legs were doing what they were supposed to!

After leaving St Francis, I had a couple of errands to run. One was Publix in Mauldin. As I pulled into the parking lot, there were no handicapped spots open. In fact there were no spots open back around 7 or 8 cars back, next to the cart area. I was feeling optimistic, so I parked and tottered over to grab a cart and used it like a walker to head to the store. I did have some achy hip misgivings about half way, when the distance to go was beginning to feel like I'd over-estimated my ability but I tottered on and made it to where the ridearound carts were, and plopped into one, most wearily. I swear, you'd have thought I'd run a marathon or something. I was chuffing like the Little Engine That Could.

But hey, I did it. Definitely something to feel accomplished about!

That was a silver lining out of the cloud that had been no handicapped parking spots available.

It has definitely been a satisfying day, that's for sure.

Today's going to be a good day!

Today I  get to see my grandson again, for the first time in a couple of years. I am so looking forward to it. He joined the Army at the beginning of the year, and is now en route to his first "real" assignment after basic training and Medic school. I'm so proud of him and can't wait to get a hug!

I'm praying for him to have a safe trip down from New York (where he went, first, to see his dad) and plan on making sure he's well fed while he's down here before heading to Tennessee to see his mum, brother and daughter, Zayleigh.

What a beautiful Labor Day

Happy Labor Day!  Hubby and I are enjoying ours. 

We took a drive to Cedar Falls, my favourite local place down by the river, my "lower-the-blood-pressure" retreat. We packed up a "pick-a-knick-basket, Boo Boo" with sprouted bread meat and cheese sarnis, philly cheese cheesecake desserts and lower sodium potato chips, took my trusty ridearound, and off we went.

We parked up by the main picnic area, and hubby walked/I rode down to the lower area by the water. We settled on a bench in the shade to eat, and were surprised to see my friend Dimple and her family pull up. We hadn't seen each other in a while, so I got a nice hug, and met her mama and the 2 family four-leggeds.

After we'd finished eating, Mark and I went towards my favourite spot. The ridearound precluded me from getting to the area where I normally sit awhile, so I stopped a short distance away, still with a good view upriver and the rocky shoals area.

I just love that place. It is so peaceful. so beautiful.

After we got home, I labelled AVON brochures so that we could restock my racks at Ingles in Mauldin, and Mei Mei House in Simpsonville ... and when we stopped by Mei Mei house we grabbed some teriyaki beef on a stick (they are delicious!)

I guess the heat got to me a bit as my blood pressure went up, so I ended up having to take my emergency pills and am now just taking it easy.

Have a wonderful evening, my friends :)

A lovely weekend

It's definitely been a lovely weekend! The weather has been gorgeous, we've been able to have the AC off and just fans on, with the doors and windows open. The animals are loving it, and I'm enjoying the fresh air!

My beautiful baby, Sebastian, went to his new owner yesterday. He was my AVONmobile for many years. I hope they get many years of joy out of him. I know I did.

Yesterday afternoon was my massage appointment with my darlin' Roger. As always, my inabilities provided us with lots of giggles as we first got me positioned ON the seat, and then had the fun of trying to get me back OFF it afterwards. I am soooo thankful that he is such a laid back person, methinks a more uptight one would bar me from coming back again!

After our appointments, hubby and I had dinner at Hu Hot. Our waitress, Maya, was lovely and had a beautiful smile. She got flustered when she brought our rice and caught Mark's drink, spilling it all over the table, and I told her not to stress. I helped her mop it up with napkins and got her smiling again. She said she was having a bad day and that was the second time, that shift, that she'd done that. I tipped her well at the end of our meal, I figured maybe that would start the rest of her shift off, better.

Today, we grocery shopped, twice. LOL. The first time, the motorized cart's battery was dead, and I sat waiting on it charging as hubby got all the animal foods and his drinks for the week. I sat 30 minutes and it still hadn't moved off the red! So he paid for the stuff he already had, and we went home, unloaded that and fed ye four-leggeds, and then went back out to the other grocery store on Highway 14, and their carts were ok, so we did our fresh fruits and veggies, refrigerated, and frozen goodies, there.

I've just finished batch cooking a "sort of" egg roll filling type mix of cabbage, carrots, onions, ground  beef, chicken, rice and a ginger/curry sauce, and bagged 8 portions from it that are cooling ready to go in the freezer. I popped another portion in a tortilla and it was good!

Now just relaxing. Tomorrow, hoping to go to Cedar Falls for a "picnic", going to take a lunchbox and ice pack with sandwiches and drinks, LOL. I just want to enjoy watching the river, its one of my "peaceful" spots.

Have a wonderful Labor Day.