happenstance home

In my last post I mentioned that my focus this Summer has been elsewhere. Of course my main focus was on my boys, but I also ended up having to work hard at healthy eating.

Doctors orders - low sodium diet and no caffeine!

The reason - not anything horrible.

I had a hearing test near the end of the school year that didn't come out so well. The lady that gave me my test was actually really shocked by how bad my hearing was. I think she probably thought I was being paranoid. So that test led to a couple appointments with a ENT which I probably should have made at the end of last Summer. Long story short - Last Summer I had some issues with my balance. At first I thought it was food poisoning, but when it went on for days I figured different. Went to the doctor - she gave me a high dose of Dramamine. I took one pill only at night for a few days, and then toughed through it. It never got really bad, and went away so I thought that was that. The dizziness came back here and there, but not horrible, and usually for just a day. The last time it happened was in February so I wasn't thinking much of it.

Anyhow - I guess you can have some rapid hearing loss with Meniere's. The doctor thinks I might have that, and I definitely have Otosclerosis.

So - the low sodium is useful in helping you have less water - which needs to not be in my middle ear. Caffeine is bad for the Meniere's.

So I have been eating at home a lot so I can track my sodium. I can have 1800mg a day. The caffeine has actually been easy. I'm not even craving chocolate which is not like me.

This gets me to my next bit of info. Discovery of the Nutribullet. Best drink blender I have ever used. Also known as the Magic bullet. Since it works so well I wanted to tell you about it!

I bought one from a infomercial. I thought it would be a easy way to get more fruits and veggies into my life, and it has been excellent.

You fill half of your cup with greens, then add whatever fruit and veggies you want. When you have all of that in your cup then add nuts, flax, wheat germ, chia seeds. Whatever you like. I also use the Nutribullet powder which has lots of nutrients in it.

Just a few photos of different combinations.

You then screw a blender cap onto your cup.

Pop it on the Nutribullet and twist it. In about under half a minute tops your drink is ready.

So smooth, and they really taste good. My boys will even drink them (I put a little protein powder in theirs) You can also make delicious fruit and yogurt smoothies. The other thing that I really like is that unlike a juicer you get all of the nutrients from your food. There is no pulp to throw out like after you have juiced!

Oh, when your drink is finished blending you twist the cup the other way and then flip it over, unscrew the cap, and drink right out of the cup. Easy to make - easy to clean - as healthy as you make it. The one I make myself has only 55mg of sodium. It's a great way to start the day, and especially if I know I will be eating somewhere else that day I will really be sure to have one because the sodium is so low.

The good part about all of this - I am eating really healthy and lost 10 lbs. this Summer! I'm still dealing with ringing in my right ear, and I have another hearing test in October to see how things are going. I answer questions wrong because I don't always hear something right, and will add words I think someone said. It can be funny at times. In the grand scheme of things it's not that bad, it is disappointing to not be completely in control of your health though. I kind of go by I am going to be healthy and there is no other option - I guess that option kinda caught up with me!

Have a great day!

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, by Lynda @ Happenstance Home

decorating

Hello Again - Plus a Front Room Update

Just checking in ...

Only one more week of Summer vacation, and it will be a busy one. Orientations, class schedules, a tradition of breakfast out at one of our favorite breakfast spots after we meet the teachers and get the books, 3 barbecues, two dinners, a so needed haircut, basketball, dealership, pool party, fantasy football draft party, and one little man working on some service hours. I really hope I didn't forget anything! Oh - Target for school supplies!

I know I took lots of time off of blogging this Summer. I had my focus on other things, and sometimes I am not the best at really focusing well on lots of things. I'll talk more about that in another post, but for now I thought I'd share a corner of our front room where I made a little bit of a gallery wall.

This cabinet holds all of my CD's. Does anyone else still have a bunch of CD's. I'd like to go through them, and put my music in the Cloud. Then there will be some I can just get rid of, but I know I will still keep lots of them that I really like. I still grab them to listen to in the car.

I had the candlesticks and the cross-stitch on the cabinet, and the letter f was just leaning. I hung the f, added a funny photo of the boys when they were little, hung a little mirror, and added a cute print to the top of the cabinet. As I find more things that will work I will keep adding.

I had to add the word merriment to the boys photo because one is slumped on the sofa, and the other is rolling his eyes.

I have a thing for typography. This frame is pretty neat too - it has a inset of iridescent beads.

I bought this from Courtney of a little glass box. It's always nice to think that you are somebody's favorite.

So, that's the start of my gallery. Oh, the rabbit and cabbage cross-stitch is something I made a long time ago. You use hand dyes yarns to stitch it so it comes out really variegated.

One last thing - I used a old metal and silk lampshade as the vase for my paper flowers. I just tipped it upsidedown, and it made the perfect holder.

Thank you for reading. I'll get back to regular blog visits soon. I won't be such a stranger here either.