Hot Water, Whey Powder, & Spirulina

Another mild cloudy day here at Mist Cottage. It is so mild that we still have insects actively penetrating the house, Asian Beetles, and Stink Bugs. I deal with them by capturing them with the hand vacuum, then flushing them down the toilet. Our siding is old and allows insects to seek shelter in our house, new sheathing and siding is on our long list

We have hot water! Attila finished the job yesterday, and so far it works flawlessly. We have it set to 125F, which seems hot enough for our household use, it shipped set to 140F.

The last few days mark Imbolc, Candlemass, Groundhog Day, or Midwinter, half way between the winter solstice and spring equinox. We celebrated with bright coloured lights on the Christmas Tree, and a homemade pizza.

Today the Christmas tree is coming down. I will miss it, but it really is time. Ginger will miss it. He hated it when we put it up in December, but came to love sitting in the shadow of the tree, peering out of his forest at the activities going on around him. Ginger does not like change, so his nose will be out of joint for a few days or weeks.

To store the Christmas tree in the basement, Attila has to rearrange things again. He had moved a lot of stuff from the area where he was working on removing the well pump and pressure tank, and installing the new hot water heater. All those items were stored where he used to store the Christmas tree. So he will be moving things around again to make room for the Christmas tree. Attila makes a game out of it, similar to Jenga.

My sisters have been enjoying smoothies, so I thought I’d give it a try. I was looking for a tasty way to incorporate whey protein in my diet. Whey protein isolate has been found to have health benefits, of specific interest to me, to lower triglycerides. It is also lower in lactose than other forms of whey protein powders, and so is more appropriate for me. The other consideration is the presence of heavy metals in protein powders, so I purchased an expensive product from NOW, which claims to be tested, heavy metal free, and is GMP tested and approved.

I’ve been making a morning smoothie for breakfast, using the basic ingredient list my sister shared with me. I am using three dates, and one cup of a combination of frozen strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and kale. To this I am adding 1 ½ cups filtered water, and 1/4 cup of whey protein isolate powder. At first I added a scoop of whey powder (28 g), but found that I felt a little off, and had a headache, afterwards. So I reduced the amount of whey powder by half (14 g) and those symptoms have disappeared.

I had been taking spirulina to try to reduce my triglycerides, but it has anticoagulant properties, and when I recently had a CT scan, I bled quite a bit when the line was removed. Apparently spirulina is an effective anticoagulant for me. I feel that with an aneurysm, enhanced bleeding might not be a desirable thing. So I no longer take spirulina, and am trying whey protein isolate to try to lower my triglycerides. My lipid issues are inherited, not lifestyle based, but I am keen to try food supplements that might help, but probably will not.

I am really enjoying the breakfast smoothies!

Worldly

Weather

Updated on Sat, Feb 3 at 11:07 AM
-2°C
FEELS LIKE -4
Mostly cloudy
Wind 4 NE km/h
Humidity 72 %
Visibility 23 km
Sunrise 7:24 AM
Wind gust 7 km/h
Pressure 102.2 kPa
Ceiling 500 m
Sunset 5:18 PM

Quotations

“I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves.”
Alexander Humboldt
1769 – 1859

I think this is true in situations where happiness might be affected by our approach/attitude/philosophy/faith etc., but there are many events in life that aren’t going to make us happy no matter what we make of them, that is just a fact of life.