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Thursday 13 December 2012

The Intermittent Paleo Diary, and Occasional Artist

Well, it's been 43 days, as of 13 December! Weight is down below 72kg (hooray), but more importantly, my clothes are fitting better. A reminder arrived from the doctor's surgery yesterday, wanting me to go get a blood test (HbA1c) - I'll go do that next week - see how things are going.

I think my blood sugars have settled down. I know for sure that it only takes a small amount (read, less than a fist-sized piece of kumara) of carbohydrate to shoot my bloods up to 14!!!!

But I'm enjoying LOTS of protein (especially shrimps - nom nom!), and the whole leafy vege thing. Not really missing carbs, tho I have an occasional craving for sweets - satisfied with a (very small) handful of dried fruit, or a small munch of a "Primal Bar" that I found at Nosh - lots of nuts and seeds with a bit of dried fruit - no soy or wheat!

I attended a Paleo Seminar last week, run by Julianne Taylor, of ZoneDiet - I actually learned some new stuff, and it was really good to be able to talk to an expert. Only 6 women attended, so it was an almost 1-1 experience. Almost enough geek-science-nerd stuff to satisfy me! COFFEEEEEEEEE - no more coffee - it's a bean whose proteins mimic gluten! Yep, that's why I would have stomach cramps and the runs 30 minutes (yes, that quick!) after a cup of coffee. And I even managed to get a paleo dinner - at the roast shop next door to the venue. Pork, carrots, kumara. Yum.

I've received three fantastically awesome packages in the mail this past fortnight. The first was from Jean Parker, a talented artist from Tennessee. I'd admired some encaustic pieces she'd done, and commented about how hard it is to get the little boards from R&F down here.

This is what she sent me:


There are some fantastic ATC specific paper embellishments, a half-dozen ATC sized encaustic boards, a big board, brochures, Santa ATC's, napkins, and some other bits and bobs! In particular was an encaustic piece (end of the centre row on the right) of a pot sherd - just beautiful. I actually had to wait a day before I had time to open it.

The second package was from Ruth Rothberg, and were my 4 Carousel Animal ATC swap cards: a llama, a horse, a giraffe, and a lady, with a handmade Carousel stamped card from Ruth:


And then, today, this magnificent collection arrived from my friend Emma Gessel, who lives in Utah:


I'd ordered the 3 textbooks thru Amazon, and had them sent to Emma, so I could pay her for the real postage cost, rather than Amazon's gouge. Volumes 1 and 2 of 'The Story of Christianity'. 'Biblical Interpretation' is for a course in exactly that, which I'm attending on campus next year - really looking forward to that, and it will involve learning some Greek and Hebrew! There's also a book on Digital image techniques - a play/text book! There are a bottle each of Citrasolv and Purell, which I want to use for image transfer techniques. There's a half-dozen rolodex cards - gonna have to be patient for package two to arrive with the rolodex machines! - and - wait for it ... MY VERY OWN PHASER! How cool is that! It looks a bit like the Starship Enterprise too. And it comes with a couple of rounds of ammunition - black tape! Yeah, I know, it's actually an 'original' Dymo labeller - but it's still darn cool! Happy happy dance time!

Also in the mail today - my Academic Record arrived from Laidlaw - I passed Theology with a B! Thank goodness I had good marks for the internal assessments. The exam itself had a B, C, C+ and C-. I got an A- for Introduction to the New Testament. I really don't do well on the 'softer' subjects!

Also included was someone else's exam paper - their student number is 1 digit different from mine - and they did EVEN WORSE!!!! I'll phone Laidlaw tomorrow and see what needs to happen to it to get it back to its real owner.

It's been a busy month, and I haven't really got much done in the way of art. WIP's are:


Fabric ATC 'Valentine' - I added the flower lace and 'hearts and dots' to the background of purple fabric with metallic stitching and red bias. It goes off to player #3 in the round robin for completion.

I've started my 'Christmas' themed fabric ATC's - but they need more work - hate sewing with metallic thread!

Also started - and it's very time consuming - is an altered book for another round robin - the pages are all gessoed, and I plan to stick a door inside, that opens onto my 'theme' instructions - doors, gates and trees. Here's the image I intend to use:



I'm hoping to get these completed on the weekend, and out on Monday!

Monday is 'screw-tops' on the posts day - oral surgery for the dental implants - ugh. Thank goodness for credit cards!

Kama - Mr Bear - black dog. Got a fluid filled ear last week. Lancing it didn't help - it just filled back up again. Took him to the vet. Two options: leave it, and have it turn into a 'rugby-cauliflower-ear' or ... have the layers stitched together. Of course, he's over 7 now - so requires a bit more tlc than a younger dog (not that he acts like an adult yet!) So, $800 ish later, I have a dog with a quilted ear:


We're going to take him to get his stitches out tomorrow afternoon after work. Oh,what fun!

Now, you know how I keep saying I'm stressed out, and don't have enough time to do the things I want to do, and wasn't going to volunteer for anything else ... and honestly, I did delete the remark almost immediately after I'd made it ...but it was too late ... I wasn't quick enough, and it had already been seen ...

Anyway, the upshot is, that I'm going to be doing copy editing for an organisation called New Urban World/ISUM (International Society for Urban Mission). I met Ash Barker and Dave Timms earlier this year at a Misseo Dei workshop, and while I didn't find my mission in life, I met some amazing, dedicated (and possibly crazy) people. I'll be very proud and pleased if I can make even a small contribution to their work.

It would be really neat if this is a new direction for me - I've gone from editing Traveller Rule sets, to two books for Alistair Brown, and now this! Tomorrow, I will conquer the world! Mwahahahaha!

This is kind of ironic, actually, since I was suffering from severe anxiety attacks at the end of last week/beginning of this week. Non-stop, uncontrollable crying, rapid heart beat, nausea, the works. Part of the problem is that I associate Christmas with bad stuff happening (marriages ending, losing children, losing friends), and partly my increasing problems coping with groups of people. Sunday last week was a bad day people-wise, and both Saturday (work function) and Sunday - Church and church function - will be challenging for me. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's people I know, or strangers (tho strangers are much much worse - [strange as in - not people I willingly associate with - yeah, like work colleagues]) Hopefully I can successfully fake it!

That's it for tonight. More next week maybe! If I have time ... after I've done some art, and read some more paleo sites, and looked at my Biblical Interpretation textbook, and my Digital Impressions text/play book .... and edited some copy ... and and and ....

Oh, and I almost forgot:


My beautiful Becca - wearing her Christmas present!

xxx

Saturday 1 December 2012

The (Not quite) Daily Paleo - DAY 31!!!!

Good grief - time has flown. I've lost over 2kg (4lbs) so far, and a couple of centimeters. I'm thinking about putting a new hole in my belt, because my jeans keep slipping down! My blood sugars are starting to settle down, though it will take an HbA1c test to actually confirm that.

I've had two bad experiences - one with a 'chinese steam custard bun' which spiked my sugars sky high, and gave me stomach cramps and aching all over. The other was on Monday this week, with 'octopus balls' - I suspect also made with white flour. Up at 1.30 in the morning with severe stomach cramps and the runs - it was an hour before I was able to get back to bed, and even then I spent the night sitting up, so I didn't drown in my own body fluids - eck! The following day I ached all over too.

So it seems I have a reasonably severe inflammatory response to white flour.

I've also been doing a lot of reading.

I don't know whether I told you what books I'd already bought (and I can't be bothered going back to check). So, books read/being read, and websites that I've found are listed below. My favourite has to be Robb Woolf - he's cool. Mark Sisson is a bit of a 'Greek-God/All American Hero' type - so not my type.

* The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Solution - Robb Woolf

# Robb Woolf's Website

* The Paleo Diet Cookbook - Loren Cordain, Nell Stephenson & Lorrie Cordain

# Loren Cordain's Website

* Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet for  Total health and a Longer Life - Nora T Gedgaudas

# Nora T Gedgaudas' Website

* The Diet Delusion - Gary Taubes

* The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease - Uffe Ravnskov

Other interesting sites:

Cavegirl Cuisine

The Daily Apple - Mark Sisson (from what I've read, his book isn't worth buying, as it keeps referring to the website as the place to find information.

There's an awful lot of Paleo sites out there - go google it!

ART FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER

Yes, I have done some:

"Tattooed Owls"


'Steampunk - Dancing women'


'Carnival animals'


'Alice in Wonderland - Cheshire Cat'

And I think that will do for now.