Bully*3

As I mentioned in my previous post, I purchased three bullworker type items.  Why?  Good question, if I ever figure out the real answer to that, I’ll let ya know.  For now, here’s my after the fact rationalizations  :)  sorta, lol.

There are two main sites that sell the bullies.  one is www.bowproducts.com the other is www.bullyxtreme.net (no e in extreme for the address).  The bow site sells two brands, the regular sized one which is comparable to the bullyXtreme and a shorter version with 3 springs for different ranges of compression called the Steel Bow.

Now, being weak and fat, I wanted the shorter version, the Steel Bow.  But upon reading a bunch of mostly repetitive sites, I learned that the steel bow is limited in some of the exercises such as the rowing exercises that one can do with the larger bow.  I’ve always wanted a row machine, but the price and the space it would take up…*sigh*.  And I haven’t yet found public access to the nicer lake of the area I live in, so haven’t bought a canoe or such yet.  (it would be just a seasonal thing, and little chance of storing it if we move).

Anyways, so I debated with myself as to whether to get the steel bow or the regular sized one, and if I got a regular sized one which company would I purchase from?

But finding any real info on either company was a massive undertaking it turns out.   They seem to have a war going on between each other and at least one of them seems to use multiple names to sell his product.  Either site you go to they each have at least one page dedicated to bitching about the other company.  It was nearly enough to make me say screw you both.  Though, to be fair, it’s the xtreme people (person) that seems to take it to…well…extremes.

This is NOT something that I, as a customer, want to deal with.  So I’ll state right here before I go any further, if either company comes to my blog and attempts to give a sales pitch or use my blog as a battle ground *glances at the extreme side*, their comments are subject to either editing out the sales pitch and battle cries OR flat out deletion if there is nothing left over.  Period.

Now with that done, on with the rationalizations

Both sites seem to use models that don’t use the bullies at their sole/primary item.  So what can one really expect from a bully?  I have no idea.  Can’t find any before/after pics other than the one of the bow owner’s.  The extreme site seems to use random pics thrown in in odd places, such as chest pics when talking about abs, and vice versa.  That site seems to be marketed to guys who get hard-ons for muscle pics.  Crass of me, I know, but that’s what has me laughing each time I go there.  Kind of like a playboy but with muscles instead of girls.  Worse, it’s obvious that these pics aren’t of actual results from using a bully.

On the other hand, the bullworker site had the owner’s pics and two male models, and a female model.  I have a very difficult time seeing the female model’s body as being from using the bully, and her boobs seem awfully big for having such little body fat elsewhere on her body.  Despite that, this woman obviously takes good care of her body.  I just don’t believe that her body came from using a bully.  So again, no help in finding out what to expect from the bully on a female body.

The bow site’s males however might be truer to form for the use of a bully.  The owner’s is the only before/after pic on that site.  Makes me wonder why there aren’t more.  There was, however, something distinct about his after pic that I haven’t seen elsewhere.  Here’s his before/after pic:  http://www.bowproducts.com/testimonials/testimonials.php The guy is obviously leaner than he was, lost quite a bit of fat and his muscles aren’t hugely bulked out.  The look, well, normal.  But the thing that really stood out to me was his chest.  Now, I admit that I’m not familiar with the types of body builders.  I’m currently under the impression that there is the ones who do massive weights and massive bulks, and others that are more into a lean muscular form, and others into a show form.  But one of the things that I’ve always associated with men and muscles is their boobs.  I used to think “man boobs” referred to those large boobs men get when they do a lot of body building.  You know, the ones where many women look at it and then compare their own and feel incompetent?  (I’ve since learned that “man boobs” refers to the fatty boobs overweight men get.)  But still, those massive muscular men have bigger “breasts” than some of my female friends.

But the bow bully guy I just linked you to doesn’t.  In fact, the angle of the muscle development seems different from those “muscle boobs” I generally see.  Now, maybe it has to do with him not being so bulked up.  Perhaps leaner bodies don’t produce muscle boobs.  But then I’ve seen thinner, hard, leaner guys developing small muscle boobs from whatever it is that they do muscle building wise.  Whether my thoughts on this are accurate or not, it had me wondering if this particular chest development style stems from using the bully.  The other two models of the bow site also have that chest development and are bigger than the owner.  Does the bully encourage that style of chest development?  I’d be interested in knowing that.  And how would that translate to a female’s body?  Curious.

The bullies market themselves as items that can be used for developing muscle (aka lean body mass) without worrying about weights and storage and can be done even if sitting in a chair.  With my back issues, that last part looked to be a definite bonus.  There would also be know constant bending and lifting weights nor constant changing of weights.  Supposedly I could sit in my chair (keep the weight off my lower back) and develop some lean body mass.  And then shove the item under my bed when the family gets home.

Notice that nothing I’ve said suggests that I think it will be easy.  I’m prepared for some work and soreness.  I just need something that will work with my back and my carpal tunneled wrists.  Body weight exercises aren’t going to work for me, not with these two issues.  Perhaps after I’ve lost the 61 lbs of fat then I can do some body weight exercises.  But for now, I’d like to keep what little wrist and back usage I do have.  And I hope that the bully can help me do that, and also help me build some lbm.

Anyways, what would it hurt to try it out?  Other than my pocketbook.  But anyone who knows me knows that I’m not to careful with that anyways.  *blush*

I decided to get two bullies.  The shorter one which looked great for the upper body as well as for motivational purposes.  (some people had gotten demotived by not seeing the springs compress at all or barely)  If I can see the spring compressing, and eventually move up to the 2nd level spring, then that would help with the motivational part.

I also decided to get the longer one because it seemed to have more leg type exercises and was the only one that showed the capacity for the rowing type exercises.  Besides, Richard might prefer the longer one than the shorter one, or perhaps both.  Who knows.  I like options.  Having one of each size maximizes my options!!  I’d rationalize nearly anything as long as I got my options.

But who to purchase the larger one from?  (only the bow site sells the shorter one)  I wanted to get the larger one from the extreme company.  Plus, that would allow me access to two “programs”, and thus possibly some exercies that one has that the other doesn’t.   But the extreme company had gotten a LOT Of bad reviews regarding customer service and delivery.  People waiting months to get it, and not even living out of the usa which is the base of operations for the extreme site.

So I wrote to the extreme site, asking them about their shipping times, that i had read bad reviews on it and while i wanted to order from them, if it would take a while before it got shipped, then i would order theirs at a later time and get the other one sooner so i can start using the bully workout.

I was so downhearted about the reviews, that I didn’t anticipate getting a response from them.  And I’m such a “I want it NOW” kind of person, that I went ahead and ordered the two bullies from the bow site.  Within half an hour of ordering from them, I got an email from the extreme site letting me know that they process orders within 2-3 business days and to expect the item within 3-5 business days after that.  This email is dated 9:38am.  At 9:56 am I got the order confirmation of the other site.  Go figure!!  See what impatience does??

Anyways, so I went ahead and ordered the extreme.  Why?  Guilt I think.  And then I rationalized it that that way I could compare the two items.  Yeah, that’s a lot of money for curiosity’s sake.  Nothing new for me.

I got the receipt from xtreme at 12:17pm.  Due to the negative reviews, however, I hadn’t expected that. But the receipt vs shipping is a different story, right?  But, again a surprise to me, at 1:14pm I got a email from the xtreme site giving me a FedEx tracking number.

Now, I know that just because you get a tracking number doesn’t mean that the item has actually been given to the shipper.  My understanding is that they call it in for pick up, and are then given a tracking number.  Sometimes this number can change, sometimes it might take a week or more before the pick up happens.  So who knows what to expect.

In my next post I will cover their forums/groups, etc.

61 Weeks (aka xmas 2010)

The past couple of days I have been gathering some information as well as working out some ideas.  I’ve made the decision to spend the next 61 weeks to get into a healthy shape.  Why 61 weeks?  Because that’s approximately how long it will take for me to lose 61 lbs of fat at -1 lb/week.  I chose -1 lb/week because I have no intention on starving myself, and the less I have to deal with hunger issues, the better for me all around.  Another benefit is that it will hopefully give my skin some time to adapt to the changes and hopefully reduce just how much floppy skin I’ll have.

I’m still working out the program into such a way that I can write about it here.  And the rest of this week will be spent making up the tracking charts.  For now,

• fat loss plan:  WHtR<50%; BF%<30%; which translates into -1lb/week &/or -1/4″ belly/week ; inch loss is more important that lb loss; build lean body mass (see “fitness” below); increase my NEAT (non-exercise activity)
• nutrition plan:  ordered the “Eat for Health” set of 2 books from http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Health-Weight-Younger-Longer/dp/097996671X/ (author is Joel Fuhrman); the goal is to develop meals around nutrient rich foods
• fitness plan:  since I can barely walk (having to use crutches/canes) this one was a bit difficult for me to figure out.  However, today I purchased 3 items that are basically the same, but I’ll get into why I purchased all 3 in a different post.  They are the Bullworker’s Steal Bow and Classic, and the Bully eXtreme.  Basically, use of these will help me build lean muscle mass, at home here, without taking up much space, and can hopefully be used to work around my back and carpal issues.
• tracking:  trend weight will be tracked using http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/online/hdo.html and calculations for body fat %, etc will be done using http://home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/ (it says bmi in the address, but it has calculations for weight-height ratios and bf%)

The fat loss project will be my primary project for this year.  I have a horrible tendency to get sidetracked very easily and never finish anything, so hopefully by making it my primary project for the next year, then I’ll reduce chances of getting sidetracked.

On the plus side, working towards increasing my NEAT each day seems to encourage me doing stuff around the house such as …cleaning.  *look of horror*  However, cleaning house and decluttering are NOT an actual project.  At most they will be a side effect of increasing my NEAT.

By focusing on only one project for this year, not only might I have a better chance at achieving it, but it also leaves me room for pursuing minor interests as they come up without fear that they’ll side track me from the main project.  For example, currently we’re attempting to learn spanish, but not in any kind of formal way.  Just learning a few phrases here and there.  For myself, I would like to read spanish.  This can be done on an as interested basis instead of a “have to” base.

There’s still plenty of variety in this project, however.  Reading up on fat loss blogs, researching for more ideas, exploring nutritional ideas, developing meal menus, chatting with other people about fat loss and/or lean body mass building, and the psychology behind each of those.

There won’t be informative articles.  I’m not much into article writing.  This’ll be just a journal of my… well… journey, and thoughts.  Nor will I be concerned with perfection.

I am considering taking weekly pictures as another way of documenting my progress, though I’ll probably not post them each week.  I’d like to be able to put them together into a video type thing so they can be seen as a flash-thru-time kind of thing.  I’ve always liked seeing those kinds of videos on youtube.  Though I think most of the ones that I’ve seen have been done on a daily basis.  I just don’t think I’d be consistent with something like that, especially since it would require someone else’s help.  Once a week is the most I’ll aim for, I believe.  It can be done while I’m taking everyone’s measurements as I’ll also be tracking my daughter and richard on a weekly basis.  (myself on a daily basis).

The process is for me, but it will wind up affecting everyone else in this household.  So I’ll be tracking them on a weekly basis to make sure that they aren’t being too negatively affected.  Though we ALL need to lose quite a bit of fat each.

Further details to come as I get them.  Oh, and I’ll probably places this process under the category of “61 weeks”, so it will all be under one spot.

Weight Update 8/8/09

Name:  Initial Weight -> Current Weight

• Richard:  273.4 lbs -> 270.6 lbs
• Me:  207.2 lbs -> 203.2 lbs
• Manta:  177.4 lbs -> 175.2 lbs

I know the numbers aren’t all that impressive.  But yesterday was also Take Out Night, and all that food is still in our systems.

Also, the goal isn’t for fast weight reduction, but altering our eating habits into something more healthy and long lasting.

Also, as long as we have sinkers instead of floaters (lower numbers instead of higher numbers), then the ‘current’ weight will keep gradually getting lower numbers.

Food Triangle: Costs, Pleasure, Value

I’m always surprised when I get responses to a post, since I know that my blog is actually pretty boring and not really meant to induce other people to read, heh.  But I love it when I get responses that provide information or alternative ways of viewing something I’m thinking about.  For example, elinora (no link ) responded to a post about nutrients with this:

elinora Says:
August 5, 2009 at 8:53 am edit

Do you know the business joke: Cheap – Fast – Good. Choose any two.
It’s important in eating healthily to choose a diet that balances you out as you wish to be. The choices are between
- Cost of food and the consequence of eating it (e.g. beans give you gas)
- Pleasure that eating the food gives you
- Value to your body in nutrients

Driving your choices to any one side of this triangle will cause problems. Pleasure without caring about the caloric consequences means fat. Pleasure without nutrients means malnutrition. Eating a food to which you are allergic means health consequences.
Each person chooses their own position between these three areas. If you feel you are too far in one direction, start moving yourself in the direction you want to go.

Since I tend to think out loud, I’ll do so about this idea, here, in this post.

It’s interesting to think of food/meals as Cheap, Fast, and/or Good.  Also to think of it in terms of Cost, Consequences (-), Pleasure (+), and Value (nutrients).  I know she gave me a triangle, but I don’t tend to associate cost with consequ…..ok, got it now, lol.  Costs aren’t necessarily money costs, but the costs the body pays to eat the food as well.  And time.  So the triangle would be something like….mmmm… Reduced Costs + Nutrients + Pleasurable…. i think.

Changes I’ve been making have included reducing grains from our diet to once a week.  This has served to reduce the costs of lots of water retention and acid reflux.  Since something has had to replace those grains, (using zucchini noodles and broccoli/cauliflower rice), our nutrients have increased.  Calories (costs) have decreased.  We haven’t been buying prepackaged meals that are filled with pastas, so that’s a money cost reduction, but buying the extra vegetables has been an increase in money costs so that probably balances that out.  And then there’s the increased amount of time in the kitchen that we didn’t have before, so that’s a time cost increase.  However, I think that the nutritional value of those particularly changed meals outweighs the time increase.  Even when factoring in the increased time for cleaning tools that were used in prepping the food.

Since we’re only having grains one day of the week, that means no more cereal with milk for breakfast.  This has been replaced with Green Smoothies for the weekdays and Egg meals for the weekends.  I can’t really say that the Pleasure has increased, but the Nutrients have.  Money costs have definitely increased due to purchasing the fruits for it.  As is the Time costs for making the smoothies.  In fact, this week I’ve been rather lazy in that regard, skipping breakfast altogether because I didn’t have enough oomph that evening before to make our morning Smoothies.  This past week would wind up being a Nutrient cost because of that.

It’s not that the Green Smoothies are hard to make.  Especially with the Vita-Mix now.  It’s the prepping the fruit that’s been hard on me.  I can’t stand up that long because of my back.  So I wind up sitting in a tall stool we bought for me.  But I can’t sit at the sink for that part, I have to stand.  Then there’s the time involved for things like de-stoning cherries.

It looks like I’ll have to get my daughter or richard to prep the fruits for me.  It will increase their time costs, but, like in the case of my daughter, it would be teaching her food prepping skills she’ll need when she’s on her own.  And I should probably figure out some kind of specific scheduled time so that I don’t get so caught up in what I’m working on or playing with that I put it off until it’s too late to make them.  (I’m well-known for doing that!!)

I’m still not sure how to make those smoothies more pleasurable though.  The vita-mix helps a little, making them a little more smoother.  Adding in more water helps too, even if that decreases the nutrients for a set amount in our cups.  Reducing the amount of leaves also helps.  I think the leaves are good for helping to cut down on the blood sugar spiking, and adds more fiber and a sense of fillingness to the smoothies.  But they also cut down on some of the pleasure of drinking the smoothies.  (But a straight fruit smoothie wouldn’t be pleasurable at all, imo, and the blood sugar spikes would be too high a cost to pay.)

Hmm, this triangle is, so far, seeming like a pretty good way of viewing our meals and the changes I’m trying to make.  At the moment, I like it.  Maybe it will help me in making my decisions for those changes.  (I hate making decisions!!)

Now, initially the idea was given to me because I was asking questions about micro-nutrients (vitamins, minerals, amino thingies, fiber, etc) as opposed to macro-nutrients and/or calories.  And the response given me did help me to put those into perspective without having to deal with all the numbers and researching and such.  Basically, I get the idea that if we have the micro-nutrients we need from quality foods, then the macro-nutrients are covered and the calories as well.  If we are very active, we’ll need more micro-nutrients, thus more food, and thus more calories.  So it all winds up working out, I think.

You can wake up now.  :D

Nutrients vs Calories? or Calorie Myths?

I’m curious if calories really is the way to judge how much food a body needs.  I know it’s based on energy, but I wonder if the way we determine a food’s calories is actually the process our body uses.  And even if it is, are our theories on it really appropriate to the reality?

Are calories really more important to consider than nutrients?  What if the body got the appropriate nutrients it needs, but in less calories?  Would that create problems?  Would the person be over-eating if they got all those nutrients but ate more so that they could have the calories they are supposed to have?  Or would those extra calories (and thus extra nutrients) go down the drain…wasted.?

And regarding nutrients, are macro-nutrients more important to consider than micro-nutrients?  By this I mean, are carbs, protein, fats more important to consider than vitamins, minerals, and amino acids?  And again, what if a person got all their vitamins, minerals, and amino acids (and whatever other micro stuff the body needs) but did so in less calories than is required?

I don’t have any answers.  And obviously the questions alone show that I need to do some research to understand this stuff.  I’m not sure I have the oomph to do all the research, etc.  But these ideas often enter into my mind, regardless.

Ordered a Vita-Mix

Last night I ordered a vita-mix blender.  There seems to be a lot of good reviews on it.  I had been considering it, but the price kept me from making the decision to go ahead and get it.  But, after yesterday’s smoothie and soup, I’ve decided that if I want to keep up these kinds of meals, then I need a better blender.  Of course, having a blender that was struggling to deal with the frozen bananas and was also putting out a burning smell helped seal the decision to go ahead and get that better blender.  Richard thinks I’m a little insane spending that much.  Heck, so do I.  I certainly hope it’s worth all it’s hyped up to be worth.

I dream of having an actual SMOOTHie and not just a s-m-oo-th-ie.

It would also be worth storing away the food processor and the coffee grinder.  The food processor has only been used for making the broccoli/cauliflower “rice” once or twice a week.  Oh, and also for attempting to make the banana “ice cream” some evenings.  It’s a pain to clean though.  The coffee grinder’s been used for grinding up sprouted wheat berries and/or grinding seeds.  Supposedly the vita-mix can do a wet-chop for the “rice”, would supposedly do a better job at the “ice cream” part, as well as having the dry container for grinding seeds and dried sprouted grains.

And since we aren’t eating as much meats as we used to, I can put the foreman grill into the cabinet as well since it’s only used once a week.  Clearing off counter space is good.  Even if it will in turn be used for boxes of fresh foods, lol.

*sigh*  Can’t wait for the blender to arrive to see if it was a good investment.

Smoothies, Soups, and Weights

So, I’m putting in another spurt of effort towards working on our eating habits.  Our previous habits have sent us into a spiral of weight gain and unhealth.

I found a site that offers a book called “Transitioning to Living Cuisine” which is formated in terms of levels 1 – 7.  Each level basically asking the reader to take a step-by-step approach into adding more and more raw foods or whole foods into the diet.  (“Diet” here means dietary habits…as in lifestyle not temporary.)  Level 1 encourages the reader to add in 1 quart of green smoothies per day, and/or 1 quart of “green” soup per day.  The green part of these meals is things like lettuce and spinach and other leaves, starting out with 2-3 leaves and gradually increasing the amount of leaves added to the meals.

I’ve seen these suggestions in a few different places elsewhere, but with no idea as to what the next step would be…too many options to choose from.  But the author does well at encouraging the reader to only focus on the first level until you’ve reached a certain point and your body’s become accustomed to the changes.  Add to this the other suggestions from elsewhere that when first starting out, it helps to do raw meals for breakfast and lunch, but let dinner be a cooked meal.

So that’s our current focus.  Smoothies for breakfast and Soups for lunch.

Yesterday we bought some containers for Smoothies and Soups so that I can premake them in the evening and Richard and Manta can just grab theirs in the morning and stick them in their lunch bags.  Mine will also be made, so no more wondering what to make or being too tired to make something.

This morning’s smoothie was parsley+cherry+banana.  Manta helped prep the cherries as well as helped make Richard’s and hers smoothie.  As soon as hers was done she abandoned me to make my own….the brat, heh.

Today or tomorrow morning I’ll be ordering a Vita-Mix.  I’m told that the smoothies will come out smoother, as will the soups.  Also that the machine can better handle frozen bananas and other frozen fruits.  I’ve been hesitating because of the costs of the machine.  But I think that in the long run, if we’re going to keep up the green smoothies and soups we’ll need to have some of the rougher stuff better taken care of.

If these changes work out, then it’ll be a good way for Manta to learn to feed herself.  The healthier the better.

Speaking of which, I weighed everyone today.  Ugh.  It really brought home just how bad our diet’s been (I knew it was bad, but this is ridiculous).  The scale gives a number for fat percentage, this number is probably off but for now it’s what I’m using to track changes.

• Richard:  273.4 lbs; 67.8%F
• Me:  207.2 lbs; 50.0%F
• Manta:  177.4 lbs; 45.0%F

The body fat numbers seem kinda off.  Well, more like what the results would be.  For example, for Richard, that would suggest that 185 lbs of him is fat and 88.4 lbs of him is Lean Body Mass.  But he’s 6′ and pretty darned strong.  Yet, according to the numbers above, he’s got less LBM than Manta and I.  uh..I don’t think so!!

Manta’s numbers had her at about 79.8 lbs fat with 97.6 lbs LBM.  I guess I can sorta see that, after looking at other people’s examples online.

But mine? as being higher than both of theirs??  My numbers have me as 103.6 lbs of fat with 103.6 lbs LBM.  There is no way that I have more LBM than either of them.

I seem to remember that the scale’s %F numbers can change depending upon how much water a person has in their system.  Something about the water level in the body altering how the signal moves.  I drink way more water than either of them.  So I’m thinking that that’s influencing the numbers quite a bit more than I was initially led to believe.

If the water levels do have a major influence on the reading, then we’ll notice a drastic change in numbers in a couple of weeks or so, with the daily smoothies and soups.

Ok, so this week’s meal plans are Smoothies in the morning, frozen entree for lunch, and the evening meal according to the schedule I made up (so we wouldn’t have to think or rely on moods when deciding what to eat).

The week after that I’ll be including the Soups for lunch.  (This week will be spent entering the soup recipes into an easy to choose from format.)

Ok, that’s it for now I guess.

Oh, the site I got the “Transitioning to Living Cuisine” from is http://www.reneoswald.com/index.html .  I highly recommend it for those intending to start a raw food lifestyle, as well as for those who are just looking to add some easy but healthier meals to their current menus.

Meals & Changes

Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve written.  My excuses?  Well, firstly, I’m not good at maintaining ANYthing.  Secondly, for a while there I was re-caught up in that forum I should really avoid.  Thirdly, I’ve been doing house-wifish type things…*shiver*.

I’m ok with the first in terms of diary/journal/blog.

I spent four days this month on a trip to visit my mother.  That was four days away from checking the computer and checking the forum.  So that was a good four days of going cold turkey.  When we got back here, I almost went onto the forum to read, but I stopped myself.  No need to encourage bad habits again.  So far I’ve successfully stayed away from that forum.  It helps too, that I’ve been busy with the thirdly.

I’m sick of this weight.  I’m sick of my back hurting.  I’m sick of not being able to walk or stand for more than a short few minutes.  Me, who used to walk miles a day, can barely make it three houses down and back.  Because of the lower back issue.  I’m also sick of my hands and lower arm going numb all the time.  I’m too young for this physical crap.  So finally, I’m working (again) on reducing my weight, as well as encouraging better eating for my daughter and Richard.

I’ve been cruising through my Raw books.  Not that I intend to eat 100% raw.  But because hopefully they would have easily made meals and healthier alternatives to some of the foods we eat.  Surprisingly, for not cooking, many of the Raw recipe books are just as complicated as a regular cookbook.  How annoying.  But, I’m still using them to give me ideas on simple meals.  So far the simpler meals seem to be along the lines of Smoothies, Soups, Dips, “Casseroles” (as in Veggie/Fruit + Sauce).  I started transferring the recipes from some of the books I have into “The Living Cookbook”.  But most of the recipes use ingredients that I wouldn’t normally use and have no idea where to get.  The annoying part is that these recipes have so much in common that they work much better as a mix-n-match type of thing.  So I (again) abandoned the actual recipes and am figuring out what’s happening inside them, and creating a mix-n-match chart that we can follow.  I want to create an excel sheet or database form or something for creating the recipes and meal planning and shopping lists, but that’ll take me a while to learn how to do all that.  I can’t afford to let myself get distracted or I won’t finish this and we’ll return to our bad eating habits.

Currently, the changes I’ve made have been “No breaded/cereal goods”, “No pasta”, “No milk nor ice cream”.  So this means no cereal w/ milk in the mornings.  No breads, cakes, cookies, doughnuts, etc, except for what I make from sprouted wheat berries.  Vegetables instead of pastas.  Banana “ice cream” or Cool Whip with fruit instead of ice cream.  Prepackaged sauces that are normally used on pasta or still used.  As is meat and cooking.  But the raw recipe books come in handy in helping me figure out possible meals that won’t utilize the breads, cereals, nor pastas.  Once I get the Smoothies, Soups, Dips, and Casserole charts done, then we’ll learn how to make the Casserole Sauces ourselves instead of relying on store bought stuff.

I’ve also been dehydrating since we’ve gotten back from the trip.  I wish I had bought the 9 tray dehydrator instead of just the 5 tray one.  I could get a lot more done, sooner.  Currently I’m making a trail mix for breakfasts.  I’ve had to soak the nuts (to release the enzyme inhibitors) and dehydrate them to get their crunchiness back.  Yesterday and today I’m working on dehydrating the berries (blackB, raspB, blueB, strawB).  Tomorrow we’ll buy a bag of apples to dehydrate for the mix, and possibly a pineapple as well.  Add in some coconut, dark chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips, and we’ll have a decent trail mix for breakfasts options.

Breakfast options will include a choice of one:  Smoothie, Egg+Veggie/Fruit meal, Trail Mix, Breakfast Bar.  The “breakfast bars” are basically sprouted wheat used as a flour, mixed with fruit and seasonings and made into a cookie type thing.

While I work on the breakfast charts, we’ll be having frozen lunches that follow the same criteria of Nos.  And dinners consist of Veggies + Sauce and a Salad (leaves coming from our garden).  Evening snacks so far are fruit, banana “ice cream” + fruit, or cool whip + fruit.

The dehydrator’s working nice not only for the trail mix, but also for putting fresh F/V in a form that I can store easier without fear of spoilage.  For example, we bought a large box of Roma tomatoes, and I spent about 3 days prepping and dehydrating those.  We still have some fresh tomatoes left which I’m using in the egg meals as well as the dinner meal.  I’ve even tried using them as soups.  So far, I have to say it’s kind of nice to see a bunch of food in ziplock bags in the fridge and not worrying about how fast we have to eat them before they go bad.  I have yet to use the dehydrated vegetables for anything yet.  But I think they’ll make decent soups and I’m considering making a vegetable “trail mix” as well.  Something that can be used for snacking purposes.

The thing I keep trying to remind my family though is that if we’re eating so much fruit now, as well as the dehydrated F/V, then we need to make sure we chew well and rinse our mouths with water to reduce these foods from sticking to teeth or gums.  I don’t think they really get the importance of this part.

Anyways, I’ve begun to ramble again so will finally end this post.  It’s also time to get my day going.  Ya’ll take care now, ya’hear.

Second Attempt with the Breathing Mobile Washer

Ok, so today was my second attempt with the Breathing Mobile Washer (see previous post for a link).

This time I had two 5 gallon buckets.  I must say, that was way nicer than using the square container I had used last time.  This time I didn’t have to look down to make sure I was covering the different areas.  This time the Washer was able to move around the bucket without fear of hitting corners nor missing spots.  That definitely released the straing on my neck.

This time I was also able to sit on the edge of my bath tub with the two buckets in there.  I held the bucket between my knees/calves as I pumped the Washer.  With sitting down, this helped put my shoulders and spine into a more relaxed angle, enough that I could even square my shoulders as I was working.  This also didn’t aggravate my carpal as much as I had more control over the angle of my wrists as I pumped the Washer.

I had one bucket with our regular detergent in it (just a tiny bit), and the other bucket was used for an initial rinse.  Once the detergent bucket got way too dirty for comfort, and the rinsing one was looking kinda iffy, I’d dump the detergent water, then add detergent to the “rinse” bucket, then add new water to the new rinse bucket.  Rinsed clothes got rolled up, some water squeezed out, and set aside in a tub waiting for the final rinse.

After I got all my clothes done (3 pants, 7 tops, and underclothes), I put some clean water into the buckets and added some white vinegar, then put clothes into each of them and let them sit for a while.  I guess I could have done two different loads this way, using the same water, and thus saving water.   Just one of a few mistakes I made.  Anyways, after they soaked in the rinse water for about 5 min or so, I pulled them out and stuck them into the regular washing machine on spin to get the water out of the clothes.  I don’t like having to use it, but for now it’s all I got.

Then, I hung the clothes up.

Very simple process.  I was surprised how dirty some of the clothes were.  I’m thinking I need to wear shorts in the house more often, lol.  To reduce how big the items are that I’m washing.  I made a few mistakes, or rather, I could have done a better job at conserving the water.  I also need to figure out how I can use the dirty water for some useful purpose, or even the vinegar water for some purpose.  Other than my food garden, which is in boxes, we don’t have any plants to use the water on (and it’s been raining for days already!!).  But, I’ll figure it out.  Maybe look into using it for the toilet or such.

Meanwhile, I’ve got plenty of room on the lines, due to using hangers to hold the shirts.  I didn’t use much electricity.  And I still don’t know how often I’m going to do this, lol.  But, with music playing and noone else around, I actually found it fun.

Breathing Mobile Washer

The Mobile Washer came into the mail yesterday.  I ordered it Friday afternoon, and it arrived Monday afternoon.  Talk about fast delivery.  

Prior to ordering I called their number because I misread and thought it would take 4-6 weeks to get here, but that could add $2 for priority mail.  But on the ordering process there wasn’t an option for me to do priority mail  I called them because I didnt want to wait 4-6 weeks, and maybe i’d missed the option somewhere.  Turns out that I had misread.  The 4-6 weeks was for alaska and hawaii.  She told me if I ordered it today (friday) she’d have it out to me by Monday.  I’m thinking it’ll be sent in the mail monday (the next business day from friday).  But it actually came in on monday.  I’m still wowed about that, heh.

Of course I had to check it out.  First of all, I ordered two because I thought it might be a kind of flimsy plastic.  Looking at the images, it’s that bottom part with the holes that looks a little flimsy.  But seriously, this is actually some pretty sturdy plastic.  I think it would take either some heavy weight falling on it or some major beatings before it would finally break.

I looked around for a tub to use.  I hadn’t purchased the 5 gal buckets because I thought I still had time to get those supplies.  So I found an extra square plastic container that we’ve been using for storing books or such in.  First lesson?  square isn’t the best tub shape for a round hand washer.

I put the fabric shower curtain in the tub, and then added water and a small bit of laundry soap.  The water came to just over the curtain, I didn’t need a lot of water, though having it deeper might have been better..the same amount of water, only in a container that would make it deeper.  

Anyways, so I pumped the washer a few times.  Yes, I’m very much out of shape.   I can see long term usage causing blisters and/or calluses.  I could feel muscle stress happening in my wrists, arms, and neck/shoulder/back area…that little knot up there where they all connect.  I’d pump about 10 or so pumps, then take a small break, and repeat.  The water got surprisingly dirty.  Maybe from the rust of the shower curtain hooks?  It was dirty enough that I didn’t want to wash the other kitchen towels in it.  Anyways, after a bit I pulled it out of the bucket, squished it in my hands, dumped the tub water, and put in fresh water, then put the curtain back in there.  Without soap, I did the pump and rest routine, and then pulled it out of the tub, added a small bit of soap to the water, and tossed in my kitchen cloths.  After rinsing those as well, I put everything into our regular electric washer and did a spin on it.  Within just a couple of minutes, the water was spun out and I hung everything up to dry.

This method will definitely take some getting used to.  My carpal tunnel is acting up already, so I’m going to have to make sure to use the taping method to get blood flowing through and help prevent this weakness.  This was even without wringing the clothes by hand.  Maybe if I put on some kind of padding to thicken up the handle my hands could do it?  I’m not sure.

Next time I go into town I’m going to get a couple of 5 gal buckets.  I’m also going to order a couple of those gamma lids.  The problem with that particular method will be the requirement of hot water for the pressure aspect to work.  At least that’s what I’ve read so far.

And, in all honesty, if I can’t get these methods to work for my and my wrists on a regular basis, then the washing machine doesn’t take up that much electricity.  I can still line dry regardless of which washing method I use. 

All in all, the Breathing Mobile Washer ( http://www.breathingwasher.com/index.htm ) is actually a pretty sturdy item.  Any issues I’m having with my carpal isn’t the fault of the item.  The item didnt cause the carpal, I’ve had that for years.  It just aggravates it.  Something to keep in mind for other potential buyers.