Where You Get Your Protein Is Important

April 28, 2017April 28, 2017Leave a comment

Eating an apple can help curb your cravings for sweets.

This article addresses why getting too much protein from animal sources, especially high-fat sources, bacon and anything processed with nitrates, is harmful. And fructose (not the kind that’s added into processed foods but the kind that is naturally occurring in fruits and vegetables) may have some benefits.

I’ve been logging my food into My Fitness Pal for over 600 days and have found that my sugar intake is often over 50g. But my only source of added sugars is from breakfast cereals, bread, jam, plus a teaspoon of sugar that I add to my mug of herbal tea that I drink at night. I strive to buy the healthier cereals, I try to limit myself to two slices of bread/day because of the need to restrict carbs and calories, and I just add a dab of jam to my PB. The main source of my dietary sugar comes from fruits, veggies, and dairy.

I always strive to eat more veggies than fruit, I get my protein from varied sources such as beans, legumes, dairy (especially Greek yogurt), eggs, some chicken, and once in awhile, salmon.

If you’re on a budget, eating primarily vegetarian really stretches your food budget. I have to be careful not to over-consume beans and lentils, however, because of the high amounts of carbs and calories, both of which are detrimental especially for someone who had been pre-diabetic. I’ve reversed it, but once your body becomes insulin resistant as mine was, I believe that insulin resistance is something you always have to guard against by limiting carbs and calories.

In comparing black beans to split peas, lentils, and great northern beans, I’ve found that black beans win hands down. Black beans are lower in carbs and calories. Guess I’ll be buying more black beans again. My weight loss has stalled since my surgery, and I’ve got to get it going again.

I’d be interested in hearing from y’all about any healthy weight loss tips!

I’ve Had Better Days

April 12, 2017April 12, 20175 Comments

I’ve also had better weeks. And worse weeks.

Saw my knee ortho (PA) yesterday and shoulder ortho today.

Knee: PA advises cortisone shot. I tentatively scheduled it for May 10. Weirdly, the knee buckled slightly when I stood up at the shoulder ortho today. But, it held.

I went swimming the other day. Could do a great scissor kick while on my left side for the first time in I don’t know how long. That was amazing! But I had great difficulty doing the side stroke on my right side because of my shoulder, so I couldn’t test out my scissor kick there.

Right Shoulder: Random hardcore pain in R arm. We’re talking a 10/10 on the pain scale. Ice is highly effective in stopping the pain. The pain started two weeks ago today, out of the blue, which is why I scheduled my follow-up with my ortho a couple of weeks early.

The surgeon tested it. The shoulder is now grinding and clicking, and there’s a smaller range of motion than there had been up until two weeks ago. The arm is also a bit weaker.

The ortho is requesting a new MRI with dye to see if it’s torn (which would require another surgery) or if it’s just inflammation. This is freaking me out because they have to start an IV on you, and I just don’t trust the techs to do a great job, especially since my veins run, hide, roll, and collapse at the sight of a needle.

From what I’ve read, failed shoulder surgeries are all too common—plus my original tear was large, requiring four anchors. But from what I’ve read, having a failed shoulder surgery is not good news because it won’t ever be as good as it could have been.

Left Shoulder: Having an open MRI Thursday to see why there’s grinding, weakness, and pain. MRI’s are not invasive, but no one loves them. You have to lay completely still for forty minutes or so, the darn thing is noisy, and the place I’m going to doesn’t give you headphones with music. At least I’m having an open MRI. The closed ones really suck (hence the cute cartoon).

Anyway, the staff had messed up the order (wrong shoulder and closed machine), but I think I’ve got that straightened out. If the imaging center doesn’t receive the corrected order in time, I’ll reschedule it.

So after today’s news, I was very depressed. Feeling better now, thanks to messaging with a BFF. But I will definitely require hand-holding. You all know by now how much I hate needles! 😱

So please keep your fingers crossed that I won’t need any more surgeries. Frankly, the novelty has quite worn off, thank you very much!

Ruminations, Louise Brooks, & More

April 10, 2017April 10, 20179 Comments

This tranquil secret garden was part of the Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour about ten years ago.

This past week hasn’t been what I’d term thrilling—mostly I’ve been dealing with sudden, stabbing pain that would strike my right shoulder randomly, immobilizing my entire arm. This excruciating pain was related to my recent shoulder surgery.

But I don’t really want to rehash all the occurrences. Suffice to say I’m heartily sick of the subject. But I was taken aback when the pain hit me hard at the gym the other day, especially since I never work my right shoulder at the gym and all I was doing was getting off of one of the machines.

The pain was severe but nowhere near as bad as the first occurrence almost two weeks ago. I somehow shuffled over to a couch in the lobby and attempted to sit down. My BFF was with me, so she helped carry my stuff for me.

One of the staff came over and asked me if I was alright. I knew they’d be worried I had injured myself on the premises, so I hastily assured him that my condition had nothing to do with the gym. I asked if there was an ice pack on hand and there was! Sure saved my life.

Luckily, we had completed our strength training, so we rested and chatted for quite awhile. Eventually, my friend left and I finished my workout by putting in 30 minutes of rather low-key cardio on the stationary bike. Just didn’t have the energy to go all out. My body couldn’t do it. But, hey, at least I finished.

This coming week will be filled with various doctor appointments, PT, and filing taxes. Not exactly fun in the sun, huh?

I’ll be following up with two orthos (for my knee and right shoulder), and I’ll be getting an MRI on my left shoulder. I’m kinda hoping I just have bursitis and not a rotator cuff tear on the left shoulder. But it’s a bit unnerving to hear my left shoulder crackle whenever I do shoulder rolls. At least my right shoulder doesn’t make any noise at all.

Small mercies. I’ll take ’em.

NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF

No more Gloomy Gus; it’s time for the uplifting part of my post. First of all, my BFF and I are planning to visit a local nature park mid-week. She’s never been there, and it’s been over a decade since I’ve visited the gardens. We’ll walk around, commune with nature, and hopefully take lots of pictures.

I say hopefully take lots of pictures because my poor iPhone is old and storage is extremely low. Oh yeah, and the battery is starting to go, too. If only I had a great digital camera, or at least, the iPhone 7.

Believe me, I’d be running out today and getting a brand new phone with oodles of storage if I could only afford it.

Wait. That falls under the heading of the Gloomy Gus stuff. OK then. Back to the fun stuff.

We’re also planning on going on the Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour in May. We took the tour over a decade ago and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I’m sure we’ll see some lovely gardens again, such as the one pictured at the top of this post.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography has been an interest of mine since I was a teen. Ever since my recent discovery of the Painnt app, I’ve been obsessively applying filters to some of my pictures and other free sources and have been sharing them on various platforms such as Instagram.

Filtering photos really is art in its own way, even if you’re just tweaking a stock photo. You’re puting your own stamp, your imagination, creativity, and indeed your own unique vision upon a subject. You’re enhancing color, increasing warmth, or adding ominous touches to the original photo. By the clever manipulation of light, shadow, color, and texture, you can completely alter the narrative of the original source photo.

And to me, that is exciting indeed. If I’m lucky, I find myself awestruck by the beauty and transformation of the finished creation.

I’m using the Painnt app on my iPad right now because my old computer with Photoshop on it isn’t hooked up to the internet. And yes, I also need a new computer and the latest versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver… ahem.

OK. Fun stuff only. See, I remembered.

DISCOVERING LOUISE BROOKS

I’d like to show you some of the work I’ve done this week. One of my favorite creations is this photo of the iconic silent screen actress, Louise Brooks. Frankly, I’d like to produce a high-res image of it in acrylic so I could display it.

I’ll post my filtered photo first, and next to it I’ll post the original black and white so you can compare the two. Interestingly enough, I had come across the source photo in a Facebook group dedicated to the 20s, 30s, and 40s. I was struck by Louise’s beauty and by the exquisite photo itself, so I thought I’d try working on it. I was pleased with the results.

I naturally knew who Louise Brooks was, but I had never seen her films, nor did I know much about her personal life. So it was highly gratifying for me to accidentally stumble across an intriguing BBC documentary on her life on YouTube last night. The documentary was based on interviews with her and included excerpts from her 1982 memoir, “Lulu in Hollywood,” which were read by actress Linda Hunt.

Louise was a fascinating creature. With her bobbed hair and hedonistic lifestyle, she was the epitome of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Roaring Twenties flapper—liberated, sexually adventurous, headstrong, and ultimately self-destructive.

Louise had an admittedly relaxed attitude about sex. She had affairs with some prominent men, like Charlie Chaplin, but she also claimed to have had a brief dalliance with Greta Garbo.

She socialized with William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies at San Simeon. Louise also worked with many of the famous stars, directors, and producers of her day, including W. C. Fields, Walter Wanger, Howard Hawks, Wallace Beery, and even Fatty Arbuckle after his downfall.

Louise soon tired of her new husband and Hollywood and went to Berlin where she made her best films. Berlin in the twenties was decadent and every sexual appetite could be easily satisfied, especially if you had the money to pay for it. But it was also a creative city in which to make innovative silent films.

Brooks is best known as the lead in three feature films made in Europe: “Pandora’s Box” (1929), “Diary of a Lost Girl” (1929), and “Miss Europe” (1930). The first two were directed by the famed Austrian director, G. W. Pabst.

It is in “Pandora’s Box” that Louise plays Lulu. According to Wikipedia, “Brooks’ portrayal of a seductive, thoughtless young woman whose raw sexuality and uninhibited nature bring ruin to herself and those who love her, although initially unappreciated, eventually made the actress a star.”

Pabst had predicted that if she did not mend her ways, she’d end up like Lulu. But Louise sought pleasure for pleasure’s sake and her personal life often too closely mirrored that of Lulu’s. She was on the verge of total self-destruction when film preservationist, James Card, rescued her in 1955.

Her memoir should prove to be a fascinating book. I’m looking forward to finding a copy and reading it.

FILTERED PHOTOS

Over the last couple of days, I began focusing on certain themes: horses, lighthouses, greasers or Teddy Boys, musicians, dancers, and a few miscellaneous subjects. Some samples of my work are in the following slideshows:

HORSES & LIGHTHOUSES