4 sisters

Hi everyone

Sorry to be such a whiner, after getting my cholesterol the other day I was down it just seemed TOO MUCH...for me. However over the past few days I have decided just to pick myself up by my boot straps and just do what I have to do.

They say to follow low fat diet.... which I have for years, however since last christmas I have likely done more poorly at that. They say to eat less animal products and I have been basically vegetarian for years, but over the past 2 months I have started eating meat because of all the bleeding I have had. They say I should have more fiber, but when I got this radiation enteritis, they said to eat minimal fiber. They say to maintain a BMI of under 25 and I am a bit over 25.

This is a BMI calculator http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ They say to exercise more, and I have stopped exercising over the past few months because it seemed to make the bleeding worse, and so I need to increase exercising as well. (in moderation)

SOOO I just need to lose 10 lbs, increase my fiber despite the cramps (that should help the bleeding too)... and stop eating so much cheese or else find a low fat cheese that tastes reasonable. Get out for a long walk every day... AND then in 3 months get it checked again.

I will hopefully start the hyperbarics in the next week or so and solve THAT problem. I saw my doc yesterday and now have a referral to go to the osteoporosis clinic at OHSU to talk to a specialist to see if I really have osteoporosis if it is only in the bones that were radiated, and if so what treatment would they suggest.

Some days it just seems like everything is going against you.... but all you gotta do is to sit back and figure out how you are going to solve each of those problems and then do it.

Two days out hunting for mushrooms always helps my psyche.

My latest preserving feat has been making fruit leather. I had about 8 cups of applesauce in fridge and needed to do SOMETHING with it, so I went out and picked blackberries, put the through the strainer (not necessary) and then spread the mixture out on parchment paper and put in the dehydrator 6-8 hours .... presto ...fruit leather...

THEN on Saturday I decided to do the same thing with the pumpkin. I cut open the pumpkin took the seeds out and baked the pieces. I then peeled them and put the "meat" into the food processor along with agave syrup, nutmeg, cinnamon , yoghurt and some apple sauce and dehydrated them and man are they good. Pumpkin is just SOOO good for you too, why waste something as healthy as pumpkins by cutting them all up into faces.

So now my next thing is eggplant. I grew them from seed in the greenhouse and have watched them in the garden all summer pretty much doing nothing, and suddenly they are producing by the ton....

Really not what I expected, I thought I was going to have to write off eggplants as something I can grow. I do seem to have a failure though. I have many many pepper plants, and they are all "red bell peppers" and there are many many green peppers on the plants, but none seem to make it to the red stage, they all just seem to rot. There is no way either Ken nor me can eat green peppers. So will have to do something different next year.

I have included a picture of me with my 3 sisters, drinking a bottle of wine Angies daughter brought back from Australia called "4 sisters"

Bye for now

love

Janet

jankenb @ gmail.com