I had an experience recently that many in the sandwich generation go through. My mother moved into my brother’s house, much against her will, because she had not been able to monitor her medications by herself, or feed herself adequately. I spent a week back east, helping my sister clean out the house in preparation for remodeling for occupancy by a younger generation. It was a dirty, dusty job. There was a lot of stuff in that house. With the help of a few local high school boys, we filled a construction dumpster to overflowing. At one point a young woman came by and took a lot of the mattresses and furniture, as she was filling a shipping container in preparation for moving to Ghana. She said that if she doesn’t use these items, there are plenty of needy families that will be thrilled to have them. I’m glad my mother’s things will be treasured by others. I especially get a smile when I think about the two high-back stuffed chairs, that I lovingly needlepointed for my parents many years ago, will be travelling to Africa.

Anyway, besides the aches that came along with all that garbage humping, I tried very hard to eat compliantly. I stayed at my sister’s house, and there was a lot of wheat and processed food there. So, I succumbed to deli turkey sandwiches for lunches. My sister has most of the health problems of the three of us siblings, and I can see why. Even though her diabetes is controlled by diet, she just didn’t eat well for a B. Peanut butter on raisin toast, ham sandwiches, a dollop of ice cream in her coffee. She knew I don’t eat chicken, so at least for dinner she served beef.

In contrast, I had dinner one evening at my brother’s house. He follows the B non-secretor diet, and so they made an almost perfect dinner. Lamb chops with baked sweet potatoes and sautéed chard. The oopsie was cookies for dessert that were made with wheat and sugar. (Of course…….I ate some!.) I felt so much better after that dinner, though than after the processed lunches.

I’m glad I went on the trip. I felt like I was contributing something to the trials and decisions my siblings have been dealing with concerning our mother’s wellbeing.

Here’s an update on the Biotherapeutic Drainage experiment my naturopath did with me in trying to lower my cholesterol. It didn’t work. She tried two different series on me, and the cholesterol went back up to around 250. So, at this point I’m taking the Red Yeast Rice again. But I think I want to talk to her about trying Shitake tincture. My massage therapist’s husband works for a myco-medicinal farm, and she is encouraging me to give it a try.

For my last note: Two of the three pounds I gained last year are gone. Hurray!

Ah….the weeks just slip right on by. All the chickies are back from IfHI, and I’m jealous. I just watched Myrna’s video. I think I’m going to have to try to get to the 2009 session. It might be a difficult one to convince hubby about. He doesn’t have problems with singing trips or golf trips and board retreats and all that. But, he has a real issue with BTD. Don’t know if he’ll have an epiphany in the next two years or not. It’s funny, though, during the past few years he has really become conscious of food reactions. He knows if he is going to eat wheat that he’ll be stuffy the next day. He knows if he goes on a sugar binge, he’ll have cravings for up to a week. So, he is aware – just anti-BTD.

I’ve been pretty compliant lately. Two of last years three pounds I gained seem to be permanently off. Still plugging away, but at least there is progress.

The chorus placed first in mid-sized choruses at our regional competition in April. We placed third overall. We were really pumped about that. A lot of hard work paid off. Now we’re busy learning a bunch of new songs for our fall show.

Golf season has started. It actually started in April, but I like to wait till it’s a bit warmer. Cold, wet golf is not my idea of a good time. So, I’ve been out a few times. Had to cancel last week because the old neck was bothering me. It took a lot of strength to make that phone call to cancel. In my earlier days I would have attempted to play through the pain.

Daughter is on her way home from her year in Hawaii. Hubby is there now, helping her clear out her house and do a garage sale, ship the car back and all those horrid duties. I feel guilty for not going along to help, but I wouldn’t be much help. Most of the jobs call for heavy lifting, and I’m not good at that. She will transfer to an in-state college this fall.

So, that’s a little catch up from here. Have a safe Memorial Day.

I guess this cholesterol issue is a work in progress. After stopping the Red Yeast Rice and going through the first remedies in the Biotherapeutic Drainage system, the results were not good. My total cholesterol was back up to 250 (from 183). The systems that the first dosages concentrated on were liver and kidneys. So, my naturopath ordered another set of three remedies, these concentrating on the heart and arteries. This makes more sense to me. She also had me order a supplement called Cholest Solutions. It has the usual cholesterol lowering ingredients such as, fish oil, niacin, phytosterols, garlic and inositol. So, that was a bit disappointing. I hope this next round goes better.

Other than the health issue, nothing out of the ordinary is going on in the daily life arena. The winter was filled with work and exercise and the daily struggle with being compliant. I’m still battling that Christmas pound. Hubby and I went out to the driving range last week. It was the first time I had lifted a club since October. What a cold weather sissy I am! The ‘season’ starts this next Tuesday. The weather report says it will be sunny and in the mid 50’s. So, we’ll see how it goes.

The barbershop chorus is madly getting ready for annual competition at the end of the month. That gives me four weeks of limited temptations in the food department. Maybe I can knock a couple o’ pounds off between now and then. YES!!

I had my annual visit to my naturopath recently. She took all the normal blood tests. Things are looking pretty good. Total cholesterol is 183, down from 205. Triglycerides are at 57, down from a whopping 233 (yippee!) HDL is 64, up from 60 and LDL is 107, the only thing that deteriorated a bit, up from 98. But the ratios are all good. The chem panel was all within normal limits, too. The one disturbing result was the glucose was at 104, up from 91 last year. This was after about 6 weeks of taking Glycoscia. I guess that’s one supplement that won’t work for me. Something else is behind it.

Anyway, the good lipid results are from the changes in supplementation. I increased the use of Red Yeast Rice, and added Kyolic garlic with lecithin, while still limiting my intake of animal fats.

So, what does my naturopath do? She wants to experiment. Since Red Yeast Rice is still a statin, just in natural form, she would rather I not have to take it. So she told me to stop the RYR and start a homeopathic program of Biotherapeutic Drainage. You can read a little bit about it here: http://www.susanjonesnd.com/biotherapeuticDrainage.htm . We’ll see how it goes. I grew up with homeopathy in our home, so am very excited about doing this.

At least we know what does work.

Music: Big City Rhythms – Michael Feinstein

Mood: Accepting the reality of it all

The day to day struggle of ‘being good’ was paying off. I was feeling better, had lost a pound and was being more diligent about the aerobics. Then last weekend was our annual Sweet Adelines retreat. Our coach flies up from San Jose and we hole up in a hotel and work on our competition songs all weekend. In between rehearsing, we eat and drink. We don’t sleep a whole lot. It’s a great time. I think I had too good a time. I came home really puffy and creaky. I didn’t stick a whole lot to my plan. The ‘plan’ just didn’t fit into the ‘fun’ part.

So, I suppose, the trick to this whole lifestyle change thing is to figure out a new way of ‘having fun’ or enjoying life. I know if I were a diagnosed celiac or gluten intolerant, I would always go out of my way to avoid wheat. The immediate consequences would be disastrous enough that I would find a way to deal with the lifestyle change. At this point, the ingestion of avoids just causes me minor disturbances. That is, on the surface it seems like a minor disturbance. I know that inside, on the cellular level, there are many more bad things happening.

Ack! I don’t want to change. I have to change.

And the struggle goes on.