Cabin trip...again

I am heading up to the cabin again! This time to work on a countertop (tile). I will post pics when I have some. Our siding is almost up as well (not me doing it, duh). It's so exciting to get some things done like this. Now the woodpeckers will bend their wretched little beaks trying to peck through the siding. 

 I'm taking my mom up with me and we are going to watch movies (Jane Austen adaptations...what else?) and do puzzles and eat out a lot. That is, in between me working on the countertop...no huckleberry picking/plant stinging stuff this time. Just safe activities, except for Yellowstone Park maybe one of the days. There's always the possibility of running into something nasty there. I also want to check out a new resort that went in by West Yellowstone. It looks pretty nice from the highway so we will go investigate. It could be a cool new thing to go do up there. Not writing again til I get back Sept 7...but pics will be forthcoming.

Craft tag

My neice Lindsey "tagged" any innocent bystander who happened to stumble onto her blog today to post some christmas craft ideas...wow. We are supposed to come up with 5! I have not crafted for ages. The only thing I've made that I am semi proud of and that is even remotely gift related are these name tags. You can used them on gifts or on a photo page. I happen to really like this idea and I hope you will too.

Instructions: What you do is go into one of those ridiculously expensive paper stores and buy way too much paper that you love and that will probably sit in your closet gathering dust until you happen upon my blog and I "tag" you to make something. Cut out some shapes that you like...I happen to like rectangles (did I mention that rectangles are really easy to cut out?). While you are in the paper store be sure to buy the ink that comes in little containers with a sponge that is meant to "edge" things with. Edge your shapes with the ink sponge and rub it around a little...it antiques the edges. Then stick on ready-made letters in a style that you like (also bought at the paper store) and decorate with flowers or stick-on glitters (in the little circles on the paper that you buy at the store!) In other words...buy lots of cute little decorations and go crazy with it.

The Sugar Fix...caution...long post!

Hey everyone, for what it's worth, I found this book one day while browsing at B&N. It caught my eye because I knew that sugar couldn't be good for you and I was honestly looking for a very convincing argument to make me WANT to stop eating it. I have to "know" something in my head before I can believe it and act on it.

I am a self-confessed sugar-holic, eating at least a couple of desserts a day, not to mention the 2-pumps of chocolate that I get in my daily mocha. I have ALWAYS had a sweet tooth and felt literally powerless to stop eating sweets. It's like any other addiction. It's tied to all kinds of emotional rewards for me...holidays, celebrations, stress relief, relaxation, time with friends, relief from boredom. You name it, sugar is involved. I can't envision a gathering or occasion when I didn't think that the dessert was a MAIN ingredient for success, not just a nice thing to have available. So I needed the reasoned, believable argument against sugar and I found it.

If you are interested in science and the mechanisms behind how the body processes carbohydrates, then this book is for you. It's full of research findings that indicate that fructose is a leading contributor to obesity. But not only weight gain. It's also linked to heart disease and diabetes.

Normal dietary sugar (table sugar) is 1/2 glucose and 1/2 fructose. This book teaches about the difference in how glucose and fructose is processed in the body, with fructose being the relative bad player in a lot of disease processes. Glucose raises blood sugar levels with insulin release being the body's response. Fructose does not raise blood sugar, instead, it is processed in the liver and raises cholesterol levels, stores as fat, and raises uric acid levels in the blood which causes a host of problems (vascular damage, cell damge, etc.). Fructose is the cause of belly fat deposit, lowers leptin release by fat cells (a hormone that tells you to stop eating), and contributes to fat cell damage that causes the fat cell to hold onto and store more fat.

Historically, fructose was found in fruit and some vegetables. It was hard to eat enough of it to cause any problems. Now it's found in a lot of products that we eat (processed foods, soda, and fruit juices). Our fructose consumption as a nation has gone sky high in the last 30 years thanks to high fructose corn syrup and added sugars. We also concentrate our fructose consumption when we drink natural fruit juices.

The problem with fructose is that we break it down in the liver with enzymes. We are genetically predisposed to increase our fructose enzymes when we eat more fructose. These enzymes produce uric acid as a by-product of the metabolism. So then, when the enzymes are increased, it only takes a little fructose to set them all off producing uric acid and causing fat cell damage.

The main idea then, is to go on a mini fructose fast. Other carbs are ok, like starches found in grains and vegetables. (They are metabolized in the gut and enter the blood stream as glucose, which is then taken care of by insulin release). So you go on this fructose restriction for two weeks, avoiding fructose...that means any sugar or honey (70% fructose by the way) or anything with corn starch or high fructose corn syrup, can't eat fruit either. This resets your fructose enzymes to a lower level. Then you can add fructose back into your diet but in smaller amounts. The recommended amount is 25-30 grams max a day.

The author then says that if you do go back to eating a lot of fructose, you will re-establish a high amount of enzymes and be back to where you were before. So this is a way of eating and basically a way of life. You have to look at it that way or else it's just another fad.

I don't think this is a fad because the science is so solid on it. And personally, I have been off fructose for 4 1/2 weeks, have lost 9 lbs and feel great. I don't crave sugar and I don't miss it. I do like chocolate still though. And dark chocolate is actually good for you and has a very small amount of sugar added. You have to get the really dark stuff though. I am not saying that I have conquered my addiction. As any addict can tell you, there will be relapses and the battle is never really won. You have to take it one day at a time.

Anyway, pick up the book and look through it sometime...heck, it might be the answer to your weight and some health-related issues.

Plant Sting update

still bugs...thanks for asking

Mmmmmm...huckleberries

A couple of pics of these huckleberries that cost so much in pain and suffering

This is Mocha in happier times before she got stung and her eye swelled shut

Beware! Nasty plants are in the forest

Last week I was up at the cabin and it was beautiful! The huckleberries are on (will post pics later) so Kevin and I took Mocha and headed up for a few hours of picking. We got into huckleberry heaven, I swear. I have never seen a more plentiful patch in my life. We picked for about three hours and got a ton. We kept getting into better and better patches so we couldn't stop. If anyone knows the sheer joy of finding a ton of huckleberries, you know what I'm talking about.

Now for the nasty part. I was going for one particular plant when I pulled my elbow back into what can only be described as fifteen hypodermic needles full of acid. Wow...tears in my eyes...I kept saying "oww Kevin...oww! I looked behind me and there was a plant I've never seen before. It was hideous and it was just standing there laughing at me. I crushed it beneath my shoe...but on reflection, that's probably what it wanted me to do. It probably is part of the life cycle of that plant...getting someone so pissed off that they are compelled to crush it so the seeds can be released into the soil...damn! I should have cut the head off of it and taken it home and burned it.

I ended up going into a minor emergency center when we got home on Tuesday and got on some prednisone for the swelling. It's getting better now.

And to add insult to injury, while I was grabing my elbow and calling for Kevin, Mocha pissed off a wasp somehow and it stung her right on the head! She and I were helpless after that so we just went home. Poor Mocha's eye swelled shut for about 1/2 a day.

I made a cool dessert with the huckleberries though.