Latest Goings On

I just got a new gadget to help me with the raw food stuff I have been making. I have been eating about 80 percent raw food (uncooked fresh veggies, seeds, nuts) and am really enjoying it - especially since I have seen HUGE improvements in my health in a short amount of time. My cholesterol used to always be around 140-160 until I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism (dead thyroid) which made it creep up to 191 and my triglycerides up over 100. I did not like that. Besides needing to take levoxyl (gives me what I can't make) I decided now was the time to eat better. I did not think the health improvements would be so drastic so fast, but it has been about 4 months of eating primarily raw and my new blood work shows that my cholesterol dropped from 191 to 129!!!!!! My triglycerides are now 78!!!. My thyroid hormone levels were the same so it wasn't that that made the difference. Diet really matters - what you DON'T eat and what you DO eat. I haven't eaten bread, pasta (twice), cheese (on pizza twice), the only crackers have been rye crisp and no refined sugar. Agave and dates yes but refined white sugar NO. Amazing! So the spiral slicer arrived in the mail and I was able to find a zucchini so I spiraled away to make raw "pasta" out of it.

When you are done you are left with a little core of what ever you spiraled that you can chuck into the blender with your almond butter smoothie or whatever. This is a super slick device that is super easy to clean and work with. So here is the raw "pasta" dinner I made. Raw spiralized zucchini with a cashew nut ricotta-like "cheese" and fresh sauce (tomatoes, beets, dates, onions, garlic, herbs) topped with nutritional yeast (for vitamin B-12) and avocado. Yum. What I am finding with raw food is that the colors are beautiful and taste is much more flavorful than cooked stuff. I never thought about it before but why would you cook all this stuff? So I am a happy camper now that I like what I am eating and I love that my health (which was already pretty darn good) just gets better and better.

On to the rain. A rainy day and the kitties have collected all over the furniture. 12 cats are a lot and our "big 3" favorites are hangin on the bed. Chicken, Tuca and Rip.

Yesterday it rained almost 2 inches and today probably about the same (weather station says 2.39). I could hear the waterfalls and river barrel down our hill long before the rain got here. It pushed the vetiver grass flat.
Some more yard excitement a month ago involved a big rock coming down the hillside. It knocked the cement bench right off its stand and that sucker is heavy.

I had to wait for Jeff to move the rock - too heavy for me to roll. We had the equipment out to get set for caving and of course the cats take interest. Rip was diving in and out of the rope.

The next minute he was conked out sleeping all tangled up. We love him. I'll get out in the yard when the rain stops a little to get some photos of progress there. Trees are growing, mani is really working well as a ground cover and I continue to work on trails...