Probiotics and Kefir

Well some how and I don’t remember now I have stumbled across something I have never heard about. That would be KEFIR. After I stumbled across it I started doing some reading and that was like 3-4 weeks ago. The more I read the more I believe this is for me. I have been having so many health issues since last June (2010). I have prayed and asked God for wisdom to know what I needed to do and to give my Dr’s the wisdom they needed to know what is wrong so we will know how to treat the problems. I really believe He has answered my prayers in more than one way.

So I started reading about this kefir and just got more and more excited. So last week I finally decided OK it’s time to order some kefir grains to get me started. I got my grains in the mail about 4 days ago I think it was. They were VERY tiny ones. They were put in a ziplock bag and put into a bubble envelope so they could have just been mashed and mashed and mashed until they were all to pieces. I was told they would grow to keep feeding them so that’s what I am doing. The first batch of kefir took around 30 hours to make. Then I drained off the kefir (which is the liquid that is some times thick) to get the grains out to start another batch with.

They’re so tiny it’s hard to get just grains because I am afraid I will crush them to pieces so I have been trying to get very gentle with my stirring of them in the strainer.

So I put my grains in the 2nd batch and it didn’t take nearly as long to get thick. It was thick by 24 hours but I did let them stay a little longer than that. I am going to post some links in case anyone is interested in learning about this. You could also just do a google search for making kefir. They have all sorts of recipes and everything. They make butter, sour cream, yogurt, kefir water, cream cheese and I don’t know what all else with it.

I want to do this for my health and for my families health since it' seems to be soooooooo good for you and helps boost the immune system from what I am reading.

HERE is some info.

AND some more on MAKING YOGURT

MORE INFO on making kefir.

You can also watch YouTube videos of making it.

REALLY GOOD SOURCE Your kefir might be a little high to get you started out BUT it will last forever if it’s done right and tended to.

One lady I email on yahoo groups lives in Alaska and she said she didn’t send out grains that wasn’t as large as jelly beans! WOW how nice!

More talk of kefir making

HOW TO MAKE KEFIR GRAINS AND HEAL YOURSELF

MAKING DAIRY KEFIR AT HOME

THE JOY OF MAKING KEFIR

SEEDS OF HEALTH

THE MANY HEALTH BENEFITS

 

That should get you going if you’re interested in this subject.

Happy growing your kefir!

Rose

Wheat Belly Lifestyle, Sewing Room, and Health

Well the last time I posted was almost a month ago and I figured I might better get on here and tell you all I am still around and still doing the Wheat Belly thing.

I have lost 25 pounds now and hubby has lost about 40. He is a little more active than I am at this point, so I can see why he’s losing much more.  I can’t remember if I said this in the other post I made or not but I am having some health issues so that’s interfering with me as well. My Dr. said when I went last week that my iron level had been wayyyy too high for the past 3 times she’s had my blood work done and now she’s wondering what’s going on with that. She said if it’s what she thinks it might be I will have to go get blood drawn off ever so often to keep the iron level down. Anyway I am staying soooo tired and drained. I’ll be so glad to get back to feeling like doing something. 

Although I did actually feel like mowing the lawn yesterday and that’s a BIG accomplishment for me these days. Hubby got someone in here back last year in the fall and had the pines cut on our property and the guy was suppose to come back and push up the piles so they could be burnt but he hasn’t came back. I had a walking track and it was covered in limbs and brush after all of this. So after I mowed I started trying to clean up my walking track so I could mow it and keep it up for the summer. So now today and I am basically doing nothing. Hubby got up early this morning and finished cleaning out the walking track and finished mowing it as well. I had gotten it way over half way done before I just ran out of energy yesterday. 

My Dr. also gave me some of Dr. Wilsons adrenal builder supplements to take and yesterday was a week that I have been taking those 3 times a day. I sure hope that get me fixed up because every evening about 2-3 p.m. I feel like someone has drugged me and I can’t hardly stay awake!

Anyway enough about all of that because I know folks don’t want to hear all about my illness.

I haven’t been doing any projects but I am sure itching to start one. I have so many things that need doing and fixing. I need to finish painting my kitchen and take the wall paper off my bathroom walls. I’ve also got some sewing I’d like to do and the sewing room needs finishing up as well.

Oh I do have ONE project I have been trying to work on when I am able. Hubby leveled off the ground area for me and I started laying the stepping stones and the bricks for a small patio out by the pool.  I have an iron table someone gave me that I wanted to use to put our things on by the pool and so I am doing the little patio to sit the table and chairs on.

I’ve been online a lot getting recipes for our new lifestyle. I’ve got a few good ones that are keepers. I bought the Kindle version of Secrets to Controlling your Weight Cravings and Moods. By Maria Emmerich and she has a lot of recipes in there to. I also like Maria as well as Dr. Davis. They have so much knowledge and I have learned so much from them and still learning. I also ordered her other book about Healthy Metabolism but it hasn’t came in yet. I didn’t get that one on the Kindle. Someone has given me a Kindle and she hasn’t sent it to me yet but I bought the Kindle version and downloaded the Kindle App for my computer! How cool is that? Then when I get my Kindle I can put it on it.

Wheat Belly Book

Well I had to come back on here and tell you, this book has been a lifesaver for me! I am NOT getting any money by saying this either. This is just me trying to help someone else that is in pain or that has other problems with their health. You can go read on the Facebook wall and see it all for yourself and I for one KNOW they are telling the truth and aren’t being paid to say all this because after 3 days of being wheat free my joints weren’t killing me anymore. I cannot explain how my body feels but it’s totally amazing to me and I just still cannot get over the fact that just by reading this book and doing what he says that I feel this much better. I have lost 22 pounds so far in about 6 weeks time. I started feeling better in just 3 days like I said, so it wasn’t losing the weight that made me feel better. I have 65 more pounds left to lose. I have also lost 2-1/2 inch. in my waist as well. Still got lots more to go though since basically most all of my weight is in my stomach.

I am so excited about this until you just would not believe! My mood is so much better and I just feel sooooo good. I am not discouraged because I can’t eat these things he wrote out in his book. I don’t feel like I am being deprived of anything either. I am not feeling sorry for myself which is soooooooooooo nice because that puts you in a mood in itself!

The reason I wanted to come back on here is to help others not to have to suffer in pain. Doing this helps all sorts of things we have trouble with now a days.

You can go HERE by clicking on here to see his blog. He’s a cardiologist and he’s helping loads of people get healthy again and I am one of them. I thank God this book came in my life by way of my Dr. She asked me if I liked to read and I said yes and she wanted me to read this book.

I posted something on Wheat Belly’s wall that I wanted to copy and paste here so you could read it.

You know it's just so amazing to me how more controlled I am in my eating now since WB. That is so fascinating to me because I used to be an emotional eater and also craved the sweets like a crack head to drugs. It was SO BAD! :-( But I am so amazed at the self control I have now. It's like I am somebody else. I can really see myself getting this weight off me this time. I really can! I'm even willing to give up corn. rice and those other things and not feeling deprived at all this time. That's one reason I didn't diet (not that this is a diet for me) because I always felt like I was missing out on good foods and I'd feel sorry for myself and get all down in the dumps. My attitude is good, my mood and everything. I just wish I could get 25 more pounds off my stomach area faster than what I am doing. My rib cage on BOTH sides are always sore and have been like that for years now because I have TOO MUCH in this area and it's making it sore. IF you just cut my stomach off I wouldn't be over weight. lol I always said it HAS to be a lifestyle and not a diet because once you quit weight watchers or whatever, the weight goes back on in just no time and then some more weight to boot. :-( We have to learn how and what to eat and it be a lifestyle and not a diet. Anyway am enjoying this journey not feeling deprived and hungry all the time! I thank you SO MUCH Dr. Davis for all the effort you put into this book because it has really meant a lot to my husband and I. I can't thank you enough and I mean that!!!!
We even bought us a convection oven yesterday while in town. I was telling hubby when the heat wave of the summer hits I don't like turning on the oven at all because it heats up the house soooo bad. So we found something we can bake our foods in and I could even sit the thing outside on the carport and not even have to heat the house up with it. lol

I just can’t sing his praises enough about this book and I know I keep saying basically that but I am just so excited God led this to me. I actually was praying for the knowledge to help myself feel better. I have been sick since June of last year. I am NOT a sitter and I am doer and this has been the most hardest thing I have ever done in my life except for when I was down in my back for 3 months in the bed. I have gotten depressed and felt sorry for myself because I didn’t have the energy to do anything. I would get up and wash a load of clothes and sit back down because I was so exhausted.  Every day no matter what time I would get out of bed I would have to take a nap. Dr is treating me now  and my progesterone is finally coming up. It was 0.15 and my DHEA is coming up and my diabetes is getting better and my thyroids are getting better as well. Adrenal fatigue is better. My memory is better and Lord thank you that the sweet cravings is also better. Dr. wanted me to start taking chromium for the cravings but since Wheat Belly I’m not craving that anymore. I am constantly thanking God for this man and this book!

My husband has lost 24 pounds and about 3” in his waist as well. He is on board with me because both of us need to lose this weight. And did I say my joints are feeling soooo much better?

 

 

Hang in there with me because I am almost sure you will hear more about this in the future.

Rose

Diets and Lifestyles

Isn’t it funny how fast things change for you sometimes. Well sometimes it’s NOT funny but sometimes it is.

My very last post was about pie crust. lol I didn’t even realize what I had posted about last and now I am not eating flour. In fact I threw part of those in the trash.

I went to my Dr. for my blood work results today was a week ago and she wanted me to start watching what I am eating so I can lose some weight. She asked me did I like to read and I said yes, so she said read Wheat Belly, by Dr. Davis. He’s a cardiologist that’s written a book about his findings with his patients in case you’ve never heard of him.

When I got finished at the Drs office we went and ate lunch and then we went to B.A.M. (Books A Million). We had planned on going there afterwards because hubby and I love just sitting in there, I on the lap top and he looking at the magazines. We do buy some every now and then.  Anyway I happen to think, let me see if they have this book the Dr. wants me to read. I went to look and they DID have it. I sit there and read a bunch of it and decided to save my money and not buy the book. I have it on hold at the library now, some one had it checked out. Dr. Davis is on Facebook if you’d like to check it out and he also has a BLOG as well. Click on the word blog that is in bold letters and that should take you to his blog.

Anyway I figured since my hubby is retired now that I could use that money I’d spent on the book to buy the groceries I would need to change over to this lifestyle. I’d love to buy the book but just didn’t have it this time to do that. So I figured I would buy what we needed to at least get started on it.

I am really really craving some crackers and some pizza. I have found a lot of recipes on Dr. Davis’ blog as well as on Facebook and I have a cracker recipe I found on there. I think I have like two that I have found, one has flax seed in it.

Hubby and I are already feeling better. I can already tell a difference in the way I feel in less than one week. We started it on Wednesday.  Since I am a diabetic this is going to be really good for me and for him as well. We both are still eating too much for dinner and struggling with that. Not that we’re eating wheat but just need to watch the portions so we can lose more weight since dinner is in the evening and that needs to be a smaller meal than what we’re eating. We’ll get there I’m sure.

I have had so much trouble with my allergies for several months now. I don’t know if it’s the diet or what but they seem a little better for the past couple days.  I don’t feel so bloated feeling either. A few things we have noticed but since it’s just been close to a week now we’ll see if it’s the new lifestyle shortly.

We both are excited about this because everyone that has changed their lifestyle to wheat and grain free have seen loads of changes in their health, weight, pain, all sorts of things.

Stay tuned for more I am sure.

Rose

EDITED to add:
Hubby has lost even more weight. I haven't weighed yet. My joints are killing me like they were and I just feel so much better. It's totally amazing how much better I feel. Not bloated feeling at all. I had got to feeling like someone had hooked an air hose up to me and just blew me up. My breathing is also much better. My nose isn't as stuffy feeling as it was. I guess that's due to less inflammation from the wheat. SO GLAD my Dr. recommended me to read this book!!! Hubby is also feeling much better and isn't as grouchy as he was either. He wanted to join me in this because he also needed to lose weight, more than I do in fact. Since he retired he's gained a good bit of weight.