Did My Keto Lifestyle Hurt My Health?

 

Nope!  Not one bit.  If anything, I am so incredibly grateful I made the decision to go Keto just over three years ago.  While in hospital I had a lot of blood work done.  One of the tests ordered by the cardiologist was a complete lipid panel and it came back perfect.  My cholesterol is spot on as was all my other blood tests.  I am not overweight and in great shape.  By all accounts I am healthy as a horse!  Except for that one heart thing I've got going on…..  But a poor diet and unhealthy habits and lifestyle are not contributing factors.  Yay!

 

I had said to the nurse that if I was told I had to give up
my keto coffee there would be some real tears

So, with that in mind, I was told to stick to my regular diet and keep it up.  As with anything I do I know there is always room for improvement.  While I'm not one of those keto peeps that eats a ton of red meat and bacon and drinks bacon grease (I'm joking about that, I don't think anyone really does that), I do know I want to be even more particular about my food choices.

 

I plan to make a few more tweaks and changes to my menus, in particular to watch my sodium so I don't retain water and tax my heart, focus on super healthy fats like olive oil, nut oils and avocado oil for cooking, lean cuts of meat, more fish and chicken and loads more vegetables.  I'm adding fruit to my diet in small quantities for more nutrients and better variety.  I have also upped my water consumption to flush out all the toxins I had been given in the hospital (highly recommended by the nurses).

 

Finding keto bread has been a real game changer

I don't want to find myself eating leftovers day in and day out either so I'm cooking in smaller batches so I don't burn out on my food choices.  And because I am worth it I am focusing more on the creation of my meals as well as how I prepare them and plate them.  I think it is really important that our food is not only healthy and nutritious, but also pleasing to the eye.  I love, love, love dishes and I have a nice collection of cute ones.  It will be a lot of fun to use them on a daily basis instead of waiting for special occasions.

 

Because I do truly believe food is medicine I feel this is an important place for me to focus my attention and efforts right now.  I'm excited to try some new recipes and enjoy some foods I haven't had for a while.  I will be sharing more about the meals I make in some upcoming posts so stay tuned.

 

 

My Low/No Spend Year So Far - 2021

 

We are nearly one third of the way through 2021 already!  That amazes me quite honestly, but excites me too because this year, same as last year, I am trying to do a low spend (no spend in some cases) year and so far I am managing it quite nicely.  I’ve pretty much stuck with a very low $100 a month grocery budget that I’ve manage to keep at budget or under every month so far, minimal spending for clothing, toiletries, household supplies and even our entertainment expenses.  What has that meant for me?

 

Well, in 2020 it meant that I was able to get rid of all our debt (Yeah baby!), fully fund and even increase our emergency fund, add to my savings and retirement savings accounts, start and fund an HSA, build a prepper pantry and stockpile some supplies and even start a prepper pantry for our chickens and kitties.  This year I’m in maintenance mode of all of those things and am utilizing a pull and replace mode.  I've been able to do that using our regular budgeted funds too.

 

I’ve become a super saver this year too and boy does that ever feel amazing.  Every extra bit of money I earn and all that is leftover once bills are paid, gas and groceries are purchased, and any other expenses are met goes right into savings.  Early retirement will be possible! Yipeee!

 

My plans as we move forward this year is to keep on keeping on.  Spend less, save more and strive to remain debt free.  I am feeling empowered!  Some of you have told me that you too are doing a low or no spend year this year.  Let me know how it is going.  Share any tips you think might be helpful too.

 

 

My Coffee Habit – Revisited

This girl loves, loves, loves her coffee.  I’ve touched on it a time or two.  Coffee habits can be a bit of a budget buster, but I’ve got it down to where I can manage quite thriftily.  My first post about coffee is here and then my last one is here, if you are at all interested in revisiting them.

 

Latte anyone?

I used to order my espresso grind coffee online in vacuum sealed bricks.  Sometimes Amazon would have a killer deal and I’d stock up.  Then I discovered the espresso grind bricks at Dollar Tree and gave it a try.  Fabulous!  Now I get my coffee there and it saves me a ton of money.  I also wait until K cups go on sale and I use coupons to lower the price even more.  K cups are a treat for me so I don’t use them every day, but I happily justify the purchase of them because compared to purchasing a beverage in a big plastic cup I not only save a gob of money, but I also don’t use as much plastic.  Plus it is fun to experiment and make your own. J

 

 

How My Housekeeping Checklist Has Been Working

 

Last year I made myself a checklist to better help me keep track of my housekeeping tasks as I completed them.  This has worked out tremendously in conjunction with my 15 minutes of daily housework and I couldn’t be happier about it.  I now have a clear way to track what I’ve done and don’t have to worry about doing something twice because I don’t remember if I did it or not.  Seems pretty counterproductive to me to be wasting time like that doing things that don’t need to be done.

 

I have since shared about that checklist in a previous post and was amazed at how many people took me up on the offer to send it to them.  Plus we had some great conversations in the process.  I really love to hear from you guys.  If anyone else wants a working copy of my checklist the offer is still open.  You can read more about it here if you are interested.

 

This is a guilt free process and I am thrilled to see that it works even if you are a little bit laid up as I was in the month of February.  February kind of sucked for me, to be honest, but this checklist proved its worth far beyond what I ever could’ve imagined.  I will undoubtedly be sticking with it.  Right now as it stands my house is nice and clean, orderly and organized.  And!  I have no need to spring clean anything.  No marathon cleaning jags for me!  What more can I ask for?

 

Not too long ago I used to devote my weekends to cleaning and catching up on laundry.  I would take time off of work using up my precious vacation time to do my spring cleaning, decluttering and reorganizing.  Thankfully those days are no longer.  I am in control of my house instead of my house controlling me and constantly weighing on my conscience (because we all know it will do that!).  15 Minutes a day people!  Fifteen minutes of concentrated cleaning every day and I am able to stay on top of things.  Whether I am busy, sick, have a project in the works, working overtime at my job, working on my “second job” selling stuff online, whatever the case may be, I can still maintain our home and keep up the laundry.  It really works!

 

I completed most of the tasks on my checklist in the past three months, but not all and that is completely okay because this is a no guilt system.  Now I have printed off another checklist (on colored paper of course! Gotta keep it pretty! J) and will pick up where I left off and just keep on going.  I have one of my kid’s school folders from our school supply bin to keep my lists in and a pen handy to mark things off as I complete each task.  Each day I can refer to it to see what I still need to do and pick a task.  By the end of June we will check back on my progress, but I’m pretty confident I will have the same results.  Yay!

 

Any of you tried it out yet?  How is it working for you?  I am telling you, it’s a real game changer!

 

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

 

This is not going to be like my regular weekly post because last week was anything but my normal routine.  Not at all what I was expecting.  But, thankfully, all is well right now and that is the most one can hope for.  Sorry if this is a little too long, but I needed to get some things off my "chest".  Ha, ha, ha.

 

Sunday was Easter and we had a lovely day beginning with small gifts and a wonderful brunch of French toast and breakfast sausages.  I gave each of my girls a vintage Campbell's Soup Cookbook and a chocolate bunny.  They gave me dark chocolate and some black licorice.  The black licorice is definitely not Keto, but a nice treat on occasion nonetheless.  I sure hope you all had a nice Easter.

 

I spent the day on various tasks around the house, did a little bit of sewing and prepared a lot of delicious food.  It was almost like Thanksgiving.  I roasted a chicken with carrots and broccoli, sautéed green beans with onions and sliced mushrooms, fixed some rice for the girls and made gravy using the pan drippings.  I had made deviled eggs earlier in the day and we also put out a can of black olives.  My youngest made dessert by whipping up a quick Keto vanilla mousse and we had that with fresh strawberries.  My oldest was able to come for dinner and we were very happy about that.  It was a short visit, but we enjoyed seeing her so much.  A very lovely Easter Sunday to be sure.

 

Monday was like any other day, but Tuesday threw me for a complete loop when I had another heart attack at work.  It was mild and I immediately called my cardiologist's office before heading off to the ER per their instruction.  No one at the ER suspected I had actually had another heart attack because I looked good and my age as well as the fact that my EKG appeared normal, but the resident on duty said he had a gut feel about it and sure enough when my blood work came back I had kicked off those enzymes that show up in the bloodstream whenever your heart sustains damage.  The cardiologist on duty was a woman (she is now my new cardiologist) and she didn't mess around.  They admitted me and she got to work to figure out what the heck is going on with me.

 

Wednesday morning at 3:00 a.m. I had a mother of another attack and I was super happy to be in the hospital and not at home.  It hurt!   And my neck was so stiff.  I also had a bad reaction to the nitrous patch they had placed on my chest and had a murderous headache.  It was so bad they gave me fentynil for the pain.  That stuff works, holy Hannah! 

 

Wednesday and Thursday was all about tests and my new cardiologist is digger!  She was determined to find out the cause.  She did an angiogram and searched for blood clots and checked for a possible blockage on Wednesday morning and was mildly surprised that she didn't find anything.  But based on my health and blood work results she said not completely.  So she sent me for a CT scan and kept digging.  Between the cardiologist and the internist (also a woman) they began to come up with some ideas and an MRI Thursday confirmed that I had a viral infection to my heart muscle.  After my first attack on January 30 I came down with a mild head cold a week later, but because I had a tiny amount of damage in my heart the cold virus settled in and made itself right at home.  Over time it just stayed there and wreaked havoc until it did enough harm to cause me to have the attack at work on Tuesday.  So secondary circumstances to the first one.

 

So why did I have the first heart attack in January?  Good question!  And ironically, not because of the electrical issue, but rather another issue entirely.  When I was 19 years old, almost 20, I had a stroke.  At the time no one was ever able to determine why that happened, it was a mystery.  I recovered with minimal damage, or so I thought, and over the years I have done quite well.  However, not only do I have the ischemic markers in my brain, but also there are some in my heart, which apparently will happen.  Who knew?  Not me.  And then as time goes on that damage in the heart starts to cause problems especially once a woman is post-menopausal.  That would be me right now.  Never in a million years would I have thought that even possible.  But there it is.  Prognosis at this time remains unknown and we just have to wait and see how I do in the next few months.

 

Friday afternoon they cut me loose and I was super happy to finally get to go home.  I immediately went home and jumped (not really, carefully stepped) into the shower.  Best shower I've ever had!!!  It felt so good to get all the hospital scrubbed off and then to put on my comfy clothes.  I spent my afternoon with lots of cuddle time with my kitties.  Best medicine right there, let me tell you.  When my daughter got home from school we took a short walk in the fresh air and sunshine and I got her all caught up on the latest events and what my stay was like.  Then we had a little dinner and watched a movie from our home DVD collection.

Chicken salad (using up leftover roasted chicken)

Saturday morning I woke up after a really good night of sleep and felt even better.  I hadn't slept at all the first two days in the hospital so my sleep deficit was pretty significant.  The only "chore" I had to do all day was to go to the pharmacy and pick up my prescriptions and then to rest and recuperate.  That is pretty much what I did too.  I did do some modifying of my recent meal plan and made one specific or me.  Although I think I do a really good job on my meals I thought I'd tweak it some and see if I could improve on it a bit.  Let me know if you are interested in know more about what I am planning to do.

 

I am off work for a little bit and in full on rest and recovery mode.  I have several appointments coming up and I am hopeful for good news and an excellent prognosis because, darn it, I have stuff to do!  At least now we have some answers and ones that make sense too.  Hopefully I'm not sharing too much, but that is currently my life at the moment.  I know a lot of you have your own heart and health issues and have found my situation to be of help. 

 

Breakfast

THINGS WE ATE LAST WEEK:  Roast chicken with veggies, rice & gravy, deviled eggs; taco salad; chicken salad, loads of leftovers.

 

THINGS I (actually my daughter did half of this for me) CLEANED IN 15 MINUTES OR LESS: 

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - vacuumed floors.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Kitchen & Dining Room -  Cleaned microwave, vacuumed & spot mopped floors.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - Vacuumed & dusted, mopped bathroom floor.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Other - one large load of laundry.  Vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & both entryways, washed living room window.

 

How was your thrifty week?

 

 

Good afternoon everyone!

 

Just got home after a 4 day hospital stay in the cardiac care unit. Had a great team of doctors and nurses looking after me. I have loads of comments on the blog which I will get to shortly. I read them all (may have even answered some 😁) while in hospital and it really helped me so much. Love you all! So very happy to be home (just took the best shower of my life, lol) and I will be back to blogging shortly. You all take care of yourselves! You're the best!!

Downsizing – Commitments & Projects

 

I’ve always had this idea that I had to prove, mostly to myself, that I can do it all.  Well guess what?  Right now I can’t and upon further reflection I don’t really want to anymore.  I’ve done plenty and I can now get through life by doing much less.  So that is what I plan to do.

 

Right now I am focusing the majority of my time and energy on two major areas in my life - my health and my job.  Due to recent events it seems prudent for me to shift my attention in this direction.   My health has been one of those things I’ve focused on but haven’t always devoted a ton of attention to.  At the same time I need to focus on my job for a variety of reasons.  One, it is a substantial part of our current income and provides us with our health insurance.  Second, it can be a great source of stress so I am taking steps to reduce it as well as utilizing my personal time off so I am spending less time there.  Third, I enjoy my job very much and find it rewarding and fulfilling.  It fills my tank.  Fourth, it is how I will complete my plan for early retirement.

 

Next on my list is my family, which may surprise you that this is not number one right now.  My family is most important, however not in terms of my time and energy.  My girls are at the age where they are both very capable, independent young women and they don’t need me as much as they did when they were younger.  They still have my love, guidance and encouragement whenever they need it, but in terms of time and energy they can pretty much do for themselves.  As far as the other family members go they’re on their own and can do for themselves completely.  They don’t need me to do anything for them except occasionally visit and keep in touch.

 

I am going to be perfectly honest about this one, but last on my list is friends and acquaintances.  I flat out do not have the time or the energy right now to keep up on this one so of all the commitments I have this is the one area I have chosen to place on the back burner.  I am not an overly social person, meaning I do not have that need to be with other people.  Because of that I feel very comfortable doing this.  My group of friends is such too that they don’t need to be with me on a regular basis either and when we do get together we just enjoy our brief time together and then go on our merry little way.

 

Along with downsizing my commitments I’ve gone back through my goals list for 2020 and culled it once again by about half.  I don’t need to do a lot of the projects on that list this year and will approach the rest as I can.  I may have to ask for help or even hire a few things done, but I personally do not need to do it all.  And there is no shame or guilt in this decision whatsoever.  As far as I’m concerned I’ve done more than enough to prove myself as a hard working individual.  And I am a good person.  I don’t need to prove anything anymore.  Whether anyone else agrees isn’t important.  I know what I know.

 

Having made the decision to downsize these areas has been tremendously liberating and has made me feel much better moving forward.  It doesn’t mean I care any less about anything it just simply means I have rearranged my areas of focus and where I wish to expend my time and energy.  My girls are completely in support of my decision too and are actually very happy about it.  They have long felt I work too hard and do too much and it is time to scale back on things.  Having them understand and support me in this decision means everything to me.  I feel so blessed to have a strong support system.