Journal of a Perennial Optimist (again)

[Yvonne Smith]

I have decided to do the Starch Solution way of eating again. I really like it, and I do lose weight and have lots more energy, but always gradually stop doing it for one reason or another.
The diet is from Dr. McDougall’s book, called “The Starch Solution”. The first time I tried it, around 2021, I lost over 40 lbs, never felt hungry, and had all the energy I wanted, and could fit into clothes I liked. It pretty much stopped my arthritis, too, and I was able to walk better with out the knee problems.

Then, my heart went on the fritz, and i just stopped doing it, but have gone back once or twice since then, and just always stopped before i reached where I want and need to be , health and weight wise.
It is food that I enjoy, and i don’t feel deprived , ever. It is perfect for summer because we have all of the fresh fruit and veggies in season then.

I ordered more of the bush cherries, a black currant bush, and a wild plum start from Gurneys. I will probably keep them in a pot this summer and let them grow, and they will be larger by fall, and then we can plant them out in the back yard where the peaches, figs, berries and apples are. It gets pretty good sun out there.
Since they are small, it will be hard for Bobby to see and avoid them with his summer mowing, so keeping them potted for the summer should be a better option.

I bought a small electric cultivator, and I have moved a couple of the black raspberries to the front yard along the side fence. It is shadier there, but I have been reading that the berries can do fine as long as they get morning sunshine, especially in hot climates.
I want to gradually move more of them along the fence line if they do okay there, and it makes a natural hedge and would also deter anyone climbing over the fence.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

I worked outside in the yard again today.
Bit by bit, it is starting to look more like a yard and I am getting things planted. Today, we planted the asparagus. I had put it all in a planter after it was shipped, and we didn’t have the new asparagus plot ready yet.
It is still not done, so all the asparagus is in half of it, and once the other half is ready, I will move half to the new part of the asparagus bed. But, at least it now has more room to spread out and grow some.

I have been transplanting some of the black raspberries to the front yard, and so far, they seem to be growing fine. They won’t get as much sun, so we will see if they produce berries or not.
I am totally worn out ! My body is not ready for the weedeater it and cultivating yet, so it is do a little, recuperate a little, until I get more strength built up.

I have been following a channel on YT called “Getting Healthy With Stasia”, and she lost over 60 lbs with the Starch Solution, and used a lot of beans, potatoes, and lentils; so I have been watching some of her videos. She has advertisements in the middle, but always has good information and recipes.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

The Starch Solution is restrictive, @Beth Gallagher, and is probably not for everyone, unless you are determined to do it. It is hard to decide what to do with food nowadays..

There are the carnivore people who live on meat and eggs and say they have never been healthier, and at the other end, you have the vegan people like Dr. McDougall, who is totally against any kind of animal food, and also against fats for the most part.

Low carb used to work for me, but now it does not. The potato diet (Spud Fit) is totally restrictive, but I did it and lost weight and felt good. It is nothing except potatoes.

The starch solution is pretty much any kind of starches, veggies, and fruits, and no processed foods. I would rather do that than live on meat, at this point, and just low carb was not working for me.
I just want to feel good, and be able to work in the yard and garden, and fit in my swimming suit this summer. And this is the time of year where salads and fresh fruit happen, so it was an easy decision for me.

Yvonne--I copied this post to here so as to not derail the "What did you do today?" thread. I guess we need a diets/dieting thread.

I think the Starch Solution is too restrictive for me; I am a meat eater and there's no way I'm giving up meat, dairy, and oils. I guess I'll just start out by cutting sweets and bad carbs since lately I have been going overboard with snacks out of sheer boredom. I feel bloated and I know the extra salt and sugar are not helping me control the lymphedema swelling in my arm.

So I'll just try to make healthier choices and get a little more exercise in while I'm still able to. This is a good time to be eating healthier since all the wonderful summertime fruit and vegetables are going to be available! Thanks for your response and I hope you have good success with the Starch Solution.

 

[Ken Anderson]

I guess we need a diets/dieting thread.

I thought we had one in the health section; maybe not.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Yvonne--I copied this post to here so as to not derail the "What did you do today?" thread. I guess we need a diets/dieting thread.

I think the Starch Solution is too restrictive for me; I am a meat eater and there's no way I'm giving up meat, dairy, and oils. I guess I'll just start out by cutting sweets and bad carbs since lately I have been going overboard with snacks out of sheer boredom. I feel bloated and I know the extra salt and sugar are not helping me control the lymphedema swelling in my arm.

So I'll just try to make healthier choices and get a little more exercise in while I'm still able to. This is a good time to be eating healthier since all the wonderful summertime fruit and vegetables are going to be available! Thanks for your response and I hope you have good success with the Starch Solution.

I totally agree with you, that the SS diet is restrictive, but that is probably why it works for me when nothing else does. When I look forward to what I am eating, I am likely to eat too much, just because I enjoy the meal. The premise of this diet is to make life enjoyable, and food boring, and apparently, that I what I need.
I won’t overeat on cold potatoes and broccoli, but I will eat it just fine (and actually enjoy it) when I am hungry.

The bean pudding is something I could defnintely overeat, so I have to make sure that it is a small portion after I have had my veggies, salads, and whatever else I am having for my meal.

I thought about starting a thread, but then I decided that no one else here is likely to even want to try the Starch Solution diet, even for the health benefits, let alone the losing weight benefits; so I just added it to my diary.
We had some vegetarians before, but none right now, as far as I know.

I did think that people might want to try the bean protein ice cream though, so I added the information in the Ninja Creami thread. I think that we used to have threads on several diets, but none so far this time.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

I thought we had one in the health section; maybe not.

I did a cursory scroll and didn't see one, which does not mean it isn't there.

 

[Ken Anderson]

Feel free to start a thread.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

It has been great weather this week, and i have been spending a lot of time outside working in the yard and my little under-the -tree garden areas. It seems like each year i run out of energy just a little faster, so it is outside, do something for a little while (maybe 15-20 minutes) and then back inside to put my feet up and rest and recuperate for a while, and then back out again.
I can lie in bed and plan all the gardening stuff I want to get done, but it is just taking me so long to actually do most of it.

Tomorrow, we both go in for our lab work at LabCorp, and since we have t a membership, we should have the results on the portal in a day or so. Maybe a little longer since it is a weekend coming up, but probably by Monday or Tuesday. It is always good to get labs done and then compare results from last time, to see what has changed, either for the better or the worse.

I have th zero gravity recliner set up in the back yard, and I am trying to get out there 1-2 time each day to soak up some sunshine and start tanning a little, so I will be ready for when the pool warms up. we are both looking forward to lounging in the pool this summer. The only bad thing is all of the neighbor’s have chickens, and those pesky roosters spend the whole day (and a good part of the night) crowing back and forth at each other, so we will he bearing that all summer long.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

We got our labs done yesterday (before the truck “exploded” on the way home), and the results are already on the Labcorp website; so today we were able to look over the results.
Pretty much everything looks good on mine.
My cholesterol went down from 201 to 185, and my triglycerides are at 100, so all of those stats look good, probably helped by the low-fat Starch Solution foods i am now eating.

My thyroid TSH is in normal range, and the only worrisome reading was that my GFR has gone down from 51 to 35, which is a pretty large drop in 6 months.
Hopefully, it will come back up now, too, since the SS diet is supposed to be good for kidney function, as well as heart.

June will be the cardiologist visit and echocardiogram, so then I will see how the heart failure is doing.
I have been really tired the last week or so, and each year, it seems like yard work just wears me out faster. I have to go out, do a little bit, and come back in and rest, and then go back out for a little bit again.

I got more of the Four Sigmatic “Focus” mushroom coffee that is specifically for energy and mental clarity, so that should help with the fuzzy-brain and maybe the energy, too.
I am feeling better today, so part of it might be the heaviness in the air, which always makes a difference. I can breathe MUCH better when I go out to Idaho because the air is not nearly as humid out there, and it always helps me to breathe better.

 

[Marie Mallory]

We got our labs done yesterday (before the truck “exploded” on the way home), and the results are already on the Labcorp website; so today we were able to look over the results.
Pretty much everything looks good on mine.
My cholesterol went down from 201 to 185, and my triglycerides are at 100, so all of those stats look good, probably helped by the low-fat Starch Solution foods i am now eating.

My thyroid TSH is in normal range, and the only worrisome reading was that my GFR has gone down from 51 to 35, which is a pretty large drop in 6 months.
Hopefully, it will come back up now, too, since the SS diet is supposed to be good for kidney function, as well as heart.

June will be the cardiologist visit and echocardiogram, so then I will see how the heart failure is doing.
I have been really tired the last week or so, and each year, it seems like yard work just wears me out faster. I have to go out, do a little bit, and come back in and rest, and then go back out for a little bit again.

I got more of the Four Sigmatic “Focus” mushroom coffee that is specifically for energy and mental clarity, so that should help with the fuzzy-brain and maybe the energy, too.
I am feeling better today, so part of it might be the heaviness in the air, which always makes a difference. I can breathe MUCH better when I go out to Idaho because the air is not nearly as humid out there, and it always helps me to breathe better.

Yvonne, I heard people with COPD move to drier climates to breathe better.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

I had my official first visit with my new Devoted PCP this morning, and it went well. All we did was go over the lab results and my medications, and she asked me questions about how I am feeling.
Since there were no major issues, that part was pretty easy to do. She is having me do another bloodwork this week to see if the kidney function is changing and taking another look at the thyroid T3 and T4, because that had gone up since last November’s labs .
Overall, both Bobby and I are really happy that we changed to the Devoted PCP, and can do the doctor visits right from home with the iPad instead of having to sit in a doctor office and not be happy with the quality of care from the doctor.

I am expecting the new raspberries and strawberries to arrive in the next day or so, Starks said they were shipped late last week. We have a lot of strawberries right now, but they are really small ones this year for some reason. I am going to be making some strawberry ice cream in the Ninja Creami, for sure.

The raspberries are starting to get little buds, so they are still a ways off yet. The josta berries look beautiful, but we have never had a single berry in all the years I have been growing them, and I have no idea why that is ?
The bushes have spread and look great, and just never seem to get any berries.

 

[Don Alaska]

I had my official first visit with my new Devoted PCP this morning, and it went well. All we did was go over the lab results and my medications, and she asked me questions about how I am feeling.
Since there were no major issues, that part was pretty easy to do. She is having me do another bloodwork this week to see if the kidney function is changing and taking another look at the thyroid T3 and T4, because that had gone up since last November’s labs .
Overall, both Bobby and I are really happy that we changed to the Devoted PCP, and can do the doctor visits right from home with the iPad instead of having to sit in a doctor office and not be happy with the quality of care from the doctor.

I am expecting the new raspberries and strawberries to arrive in the next day or so, Starks said they were shipped late last week. We have a lot of strawberries right now, but they are really small ones this year for some reason. I am going to be making some strawberry ice cream in the Ninja Creami, for sure.

The raspberries are starting to get little buds, so they are still a ways off yet. The josta berries look beautiful, but we have never had a single berry in all the years I have been growing them, and I have no idea why that is ?
The bushes have spread and look great, and just never seem to get any berries.

Both the T3 and T4 rose @Yvonne Smith? Did anything else change, like the source of the Armour Thyroid (I think that is what you take, right?). Did your TSH change at all? If the lab doing the testing changed, that might affect the levels as well.

Our ground is still partly frozen so no strawberries or raspberries here yet for sure. We have a ton of raspberries in the summer, and my wife uses them every day in her daily smoothies, and we ask other to come and pick what we cannot use. We don't grow as many strawberries as we can eat since they struggle a bit here.

 

[Mary Stetler]

I now have flowers on my hackberry bushes that I got last year. They are still in good sized pots. I wheeled them up on the deck trying to keep the deer from finding them. But I have had deer on my deck too. These are also called honey berries although they are not very sweet even if you let them drop to the ground (which is recommended in the instructions)?

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Well, the order from Starks arrived, but they gave me strawberries, and grapes instead of raspberries. I messaged them, and they said they are now out of that raspberry, but they gave me a credit, so I looked at the new sales and they had other raspberries on sale. I ordered a package that has 2 different kinds and one has a spring crop and a fall crop, so I might even get some berries by this fall.

The lady on eBay that I ordered the bush cherries from said she would replace the one that didn’t make it through the winter since the other one came through just fine, but she also sent me the wrong order, so someone else got my replacement bush cherry, and I got a fig start and more grapes.
She wants to send me a shipping label to send then on to the person who was supposed to get the fig and grapes, and that person will send me my bush cherry.

I an concerned about doing this, I have no idea if the other person will even send my bush cherry, or if it will arrive alive after that long in dry shipping, and the fig and grapes might not make it alive for that long either.
I wrote and explained this , and waiting to see what the eBay lady wants to do about it.

I would be fine with keeping the fig and grapes. Bobby is clearing out along the fence where the bamboo has been and we can plant the new grapes there . I would just keep them all in a large container until this fall when Bobby is all done with bamboo removal, or even until next spring if necessary.
They won’t grow a lot this year anyway.

All the grapes are a seedless concord, and we like those, so if we end up with grapes , that is fine. The fig tree is a Negronne, which is a dark purple fig with a red center, and I really like figs, too.
Anyway, the strawberries were fine, and I got them planted this morning. They are everbearing, so we might have berries from them later this year, too.

I redid the labs, and everything looks better this time around. The GFR is up to 40, which is much better than the 35 was. Pretty much everything looks okay on the new labs. My creatine is always high, but it was lower this time than 2 weeks ago, too.

 

[Don Alaska]

Well, the order from Starks arrived, but they gave me strawberries, and grapes instead of raspberries. I messaged them, and they said they are now out of that raspberry, but they gave me a credit, so I looked at the new sales and they had other raspberries on sale. I ordered a package that has 2 different kinds and one has a spring crop and a fall crop, so I might even get some berries by this fall.

The lady on eBay that I ordered the bush cherries from said she would replace the one that didn’t make it through the winter since the other one came through just fine, but she also sent me the wrong order, so someone else got my replacement bush cherry, and I got a fig start and more grapes.
She wants to send me a shipping label to send then on to the person who was supposed to get the fig and grapes, and that person will send me my bush cherry.

I an concerned about doing this, I have no idea if the other person will even send my bush cherry, or if it will arrive alive after that long in dry shipping, and the fig and grapes might not make it alive for that long either.
I wrote and explained this , and waiting to see what the envy lady wants to do about it.

I would be fine with keeping the fig and grapes. Bobby is clearing out along the fence where the bamboo has been and we can plant the new grapes there . I would just keep them all in a large container until this fall when Bobby is all done with bamboo removal, or even until next spring if necessary.
They won’t grow a lot this year anyway.

All the grapes are a seedless concord, and we like those, so if we end up with grapes , that is fine. The fig tree is a Negronne, which is a dark purple fig with a red center, and I really like figs, too.
Anyway, the strawberries were fine, and I got them planted this morning. They are everbearing, so we might have berries from them later this year, too.

I redid the labs, and everything looks better this time around. The GFR is up to 40, which is much better than the 35 was. Pretty much everything looks okay on the new labs. My creatine is always high, but it was lower this time than 2 weeks ago, too.


View attachment 1559

I wonder why they didn't do a TSH. Are you on thyroid supplements? Otherwise, things look pretty good @Yvonne Smith

 

[Yvonne Smith]

I wonder why they didn't do a TSH. Are you on thyroid supplements? Otherwise, things look pretty good @Yvonne Smith

They did that on the first one and it was at 3.85, which was higher than the one last November, so she wanted to see what the T4 level was at. The only thyroid supplement is the Armour thyroid, plus I take a kelp tablet twice a day for extra iodine.
The lab test earlier this month had a lot more tests done, this one was mostly to see how the kidney function was doing and if it was improving again.

 

[Don Alaska]

They did that on the first one and it was at 3.85, which was higher than the one last November, so she wanted to see what the T4 level was at. The only thyroid supplement is the Armour thyroid, plus I take a kelp tablet twice a day for extra iodine.
The lab test earlier this month had a lot more tests done, this one was mostly to see how the kidney function was doing and if it was improving again.

I have said before I like to see the TSH, especially on older women since the TSH is part of the feedback loop and indicates what your body thinks is needed. Women seem to be happiest at 0.8-1.5 mIU/mL. It doesn't seem to matter as much for men, or at least they don't complain about it as much and men are less likely to be on supplementation. 3.85 is still "normal" but it is near the upper limit for most labs (usually ~4.0 or so).

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Last November, it was .39, which is why I was concerned about how much it had jumped up since then, @Don Alaska .
My GFR was at 51 in November, so both were better last fall than this spring. When we discussed it at my doctor’s meeting, she said we would do another set of labs and see what the T4 was and if the GFR had come up any, which is why I had 2 sets in the same month this time.

She might want to adjust my thyroid if the TSH does not come back down. I have another appointment on the 12th, so I will know more then. I think they will be having me do labs more often than twice an year until they are sure what is going on.
Plus, in June is my cardiologist appointment and another echocardiogram to check the heart failure level again. Last year , it was at 57%EF, but it seems like I have less energy this year, which might only be from less activity.

 

[Don Alaska]

Usually in therapy, the TSH is measured to see if you are getting enough T4 (or mixed) supplementation and the T4 is measured to make sure you are not getting too much, if that makes sense. Doctors tend to make thyroid supplementation simple, and in most cases it is, but sometimes your body can throw you a curve and more testing needs to be done. That is what endocrinologists are for. The best explanation I have ever read on the subject was a textbook written for British medical students that went into thyroid testing in depth. It would not before the lay person, however, as it would lead to confusion since you would be searching the medical dictionary for the meaning of many of the terms and tests used.

There are also two eGFR formulas, one has a normal of >60 and the other (I think) is >90. I think the former is more common and can be performed in any hospital laboratory. There is also the true GFR that was once done in radiology and is seldom if ever done today. It is the reference method however again which the others are compared.

I am so very happy to read that you are at least maintaining. Some of the lab values can be affected by your changes in diet and supplements, as well as activity. Redoing the labs in a few months is a very good idea.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

An interesting thing happened today, and we made lemonade out of some lemons. (So to speak)
As I mentioned, the eBay guy (I just assumed it was a lady but his name is Flint and he is a guy) sent me the wrong package and sent my bush cherries to someone else.
I was concerned how far away that person lived and how the plants would do with making yet another long trip, because the eBay guy wanted to send me a shipping label and said that the other person would send me my cherries if i sent her package to her (for him).

When I looked at the shipping label, the lady lives in north Idaho, right near where I grew up !
So amazing life is sometimes !
Anyway, I looked her up on facebook and sent a message, and she wrote back, and I am going to send her the fig and grapes tomorrow, along with a start from my fig tree that she can maybe root, a comfrey start, a rose of Sharon start (rooted and growing), and she is going to send my bush cherry, which she says is growing and doing good, plus some raspberry starts that she has. And I can take a start from her fig tree and see if I can get it to root, so everything is great all the way around.

So we are both exceedingly happy about that !
Anyway, she did not get the plants form this guy on eBay , they belong to a forum for trading plants and fruit starts, and she gave me the information for that and I signed up for it ,(using my Happyflowerlady name), in case anyone else here is interested.

Growing Fruit

Discussions of all aspects of fruit growing

growingfruit.org

Then I mentioned that I belong fo a conservative seniors forum and gave her the link and told her we used real sounding names. So , maybe she will join here and we will have another interesting garden person on the forum ?