Health Stuff

It's been a pretty strange year for me health-wise. We both had a physical in January just to see where we stand. That was just opening Pandora's box. John had some issues with his heart - they thought - but further tests didn't show anything. I had some nodules on my thyroid which I finally had checked after I began to have some throat problems. The throat problems turned out to be a type of reflux (LPR) which I am controlling by not eating Junior Mints anymore. The meds the doctor prescribed made everything worse so I am so thankful that I can control it so easily by just giving up one thing. During the process, the endocrinologist found that I was still vitamin D deficient and my liver enzymes were out of whack. After more testing, she was just sure that I had Paget's disease and I had a bone scan last week.

The results were not at all what she expected and there IS no bone disease - well - just a little arthritis - but no Paget's. She wanted some x-rays but I did some research and found that it is normal for alkaline phosphatase to be elevated when vitamin D is deficient and it takes time to normalize once the vitamin D is back to normal. Since my D is just now back to a normal level, I talked her into giving me some time and rechecking my levels. I will go back in December for more blood work. A full year of horsing around with this - and I have actually been healthier as far as my sinuses, allergies and bronchitis is concerned. I have had one short bout of bronchitis this year - back in March - and have not had to see a doctor for being "sick" since then. I think I will take a break from the physical in 2010.

I am taking a good multi-vitamin now with 1000 units of vitamin D, a couple of Caltrates every day to get the calcium, and right now, while the flu is so widespread, I am taking Emergen-C that has tons of extra C and B vitamins. Also, we are making an effort to eat better. . . more veggies and fruit and lots less sugar. I'd like to drop another 20 pounds by the end of the year and see my cholesterol go below 150. It's 160 now. We are both still content not eating meat or dairy and, in spite of what the doctors would like to find, we believe we are healthier. Neither of us takes any meds besides our supplements. I guess for 55 and 61, that's not bad. :)

Blogworthy?

It's been too long since I've blogged here. Actually, we have been in quite a routine as far as our diet goes. Neither of us has lost any weight in about 4 months now but we have been nicely maintaining while we eat whatever we want. Whatever we want has increasingly meant cookies, muffins, cake, etc. I'm really happy that I haven't gained any weight back during this "rest and eat" time. :)

As far as our daily nutrition, naked burritos, stir fry, scrambled tofu, and chili with cornbread still lead the pack as our standards. We still eat lots of bananas, raisins, oatmeal, and whole wheat bread too.

I haven't done anything new for awhile now but a couple of days ago, I felt a little creative and did a change-up on our naked burritos. Here's what I did:
1. Put a little salsa in the bottom of a casserole dish.
2. Used a can of fat-free refried beans and covered the bottom of the dish.
3. Piled on a bunch of basmati rice on top of that.
4. Put some fresh chopped cilantro next.
5. Squeezed a lime over everything.
6. Sauteed a chopped onion and tomato seasoned with cumin and put over the top.
7. Served in a bowl with a dollop of fresh guacamole.

It was really delicious and the creamy refried beans really gave a different texture than the naked burritos with the black beans that I usually use. Maybe we'll call this one "Fajita Casserole". We will definitely have this one again. It was a great use for leftover rice.

Today I cooked some pinto beans (used some veggie broth and a chopped onion and cooked them all morning). We steamed some carrots in one of the Ziploc steamer bags and I made some corn fritters. They were really good. I used the regular recipe for cornbread except I used a can of cream style corn instead of the liquids (so no soy milk). I "fried" them in a non-stick skillet. They were pretty tasty and John loved them. They were kinda bread and kinda veggies and something a little different. I'm sure we'll add those to the rotation too.