TimePeace - Musings by Cyndi

 Today has been a really good day!   Every breath we draw is a gift of God's love; every moment of existence is a grace. ~Thomas Merton Slept in this morning, and arose feeling rested. Decided to do a weigh in. 158. It felt good to see it under 160.  As I said on Day 1 - I don't want to lose a truckload of weight.  It is not healthy to lose alot of weight in such a short period of time.  Not only do you lose it from your fat reserves, and even muscle if not exercising, but also from your bones, especially if nutrients are not kept in check! So I took my Standard Process supplements, scanned the refrigerator, made a smoothie and we went for a 2.5 mile walk.  The walk was a bit tiring as the dew point at 8 a.m. had bordered at  70°F, and  dew point readings above 70°F  are oppressive and even dangerous. Anyway, back to the smoothie.  Since the amount of  food in the house was at the minimum (today & tomorrow shoppin...

Sometimes I wonder if we are the only ones who feel the craziness of the morning. Life would be simpler if we woke say 90 minutes before work, groomed, then grabbed a bowl of cereal and out the door. However, if we did that, I wouldn’t be writing a blog that I hope could be helpful to someone else someday. This week has been such a run-on sentence. I have to ask myself “do I feel better than I did before I started this 13 days ago?” Yes and No. I think I have more energy in the morning if I get a good night sleep, yet, once I have my morning walk before work (between 2 and 2.5 miles), I still often feel drained. Perhaps it is the sultry August mornings that are exhausting. I still have sinus issues that usually are seasonal, but the seasonal issue came back in the spring of 2020 and is still here.  So I kept it simple this morning, the best that I could do, maintained all the supplements, and for the morning smoothie I just threw in SP Complete, beets, carrots, cilantro, ginger and...

Another good night sleep, even though I do remember it storming, I was up once, and I had a very lucid dream before my 4:30 alarm.  Same routine just a different day. I made a double batch of smoothie with only the SP Complete (no need for the additional Whey Pro since I’m now eating fish). To the 2T SP Complete, I added a cup of coconut milk, fresh figs, 1/4 cup fresh dates (that I prepared last night - soaked and pitted) and a 1/4 cup of blueberries (this amount was for 1 smoothie). For breakfast I sautéed two large cloves of garlic, and fresh arugula from farmers market in my cast-iron skillet. This actually is part of a very common breakfast for us as we eat vegetables most mornings. I made enough for two, and Bill had his soft boiled eggs, and I reheated in the skillet the rest of the lake trout from yesterday. Lunch was an easy preparation. Chopped romaine lettuce, topped with seeded cucumber, peaches and chopped basil. The dressing was just extra-virgin olive oil. For lunche...

With 8-hours of sleep last night, not waking once during the middle of the night, the morning is off to a good start. A good night’s sleep also means more energy and I didn’t have to drag myself to my mat. After a decent work out it was time for breakfast and lunch preparation. Because it was also Day 11, that meant that I could start at adding wild fish or organic chicken (or wild game) into my meal plan. So the routine has been laid here, SP supplements, shake, food, and out the door. This morning I created a simple fig shake. All the same Standard Process ingredients, and doubling the batch so I can bring one to work. The only difference in what I used for liquid is that instead of the Califia coconut milk, are used SO Coconut milk. I think I prefer the Califia. To make clean up easy I lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper and laid out our asparagus and roasted them in the oven. I then roasted a 6 ounce piece of Lake Superior lake trout. While it is suggested that the fish only ...

“Monday, Monday” … “ just another manic Monday“, OH YES!!! It took me quite awhile to fall asleep last night. Because we get up so early we try to be in bed by 9p most nights, 9:30p at the latest, especially when the alarm goes off at 4:30a. But for no known reason, falling asleep easily on a Sunday night has its challenges. I’ve read that “Sunday insomnia” is a real thing when a person still is in the workforce. We find that our bodies function differently during work days than when off for weekends. Temperature also plays a role. Even with AC, our upstairs bedroom does not cool enough to a comfortable temperature… and we just replaced our AC and furnace in July! Anyway, I would venture to say that it was closer to 11p, but I finally fell asleep ( The best thing for me at night is a cup of warm raw milk with nutmeg, or Golden milk, an Indian preparation of ginger, turmeric and other spices in cow’s milk, but I can’t have that right now. I did drink 2T of organic tart cherry concentrat...

Had a long sleep, and I can't recall waking up during the night.  Since starting this journey, for the amount of liquids I am drinking a day, I'm glad the bathroom is close by!   We decided that we would spend the Sabbath morning at Lincoln Memorial Gardens  within nature's cathedral.  We hadn't been there for awhile (since the summer solstice).  So after our daily morning drink (heated water, 2T pure lemon juice - I like Lakewood , and 10 grams of collagen with peptide powder) I made another peach ginger smoothie for me as I made yesterday afternoon, and one for Bill as well. Then he had Ezekiel Flax seed toast with almond butter (not suppose to have that yet, so I will be patient.)   It was a great morning and I didn't start feeling hungry until the end of our hike. We put in almost 5 miles, with breaks along the way, including time to sit in front of the lake to just be and listen, and participate, in morning prayer with Abbey of the Art . Fin...

Saturday is Farmer's Market day.   The usual routine need to be altered as we had a 9a zoom for our Dominican Sister/Associate gathering.  Topic:   The Holy Preaching: On Care for Our Common Home.  We are not active as maybe we should be.  I always get "on fire" after attending a retreat such as this.  But that is another blog. As I have found, I am waking up with more energy.  Today is day-8.  Preparing breakfast is not what it used to look like and I miss my eggs and sautéed vegetables.  Sometimes for breakfast I would prepare salmon and eggs as well.  Breakfasts that include pancakes or muffins have been reserved for Saturday or Sunday for years, as starting the workday off with a good protein and vegetable meal has seemed important.   This morning for breakfast  I made a pumpkin fig smoothie:  2T SP Complete, 2T Whey Pro, 1/2 cop organic pureed pumpkin, 1/2 frozen banana, 4 small fresh fig...