Attila is planting the last of his starts today and tomorrow. The weather has turned hot. The peppers, they love the heat, are the last starts to go into the ground.
I’ve been busy baking bread today. Since the fresh garden produce has started coming in from the yard, meals are taking a lot more preparation work. My cold season meals of sandwiches, or soups, are quick and easy.
The lunch time stir fry currently consists of onions, choy sum, and beet greens. The mix of greens will change as different garden plants begin to yield, and others, such as spinach, bolt and are done for the season. I have abandoned eating the stir fry with rice or any other carbohydrate included, and I find I prefer it that way. I tried adding an egg but did not care for that much, although I love eggs. Just the vegetables cooked in a little bit of olive oil, with a few tablespoons of Thai hot chili sauce makes a lovely lunch.
Since my stir fry includes no proteins, I add that to the meal with a smoothie. My smoothie is quite simple, one cup of 1% milk, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, ½ teaspoon of cocoa powder, and 1 scoop of isolate whey powder. Sometimes I add a tablespoon of chia seeds.
I find chia seeds disconcerting to work with. They clump into hard lumps when in liquid. I will have to figure out how to deal with them properly.
I loved the breakfast I had been eating, applesauce, two muffins, cuppa coffee, raw apple or vegetable if we have any. More protein was needed. I added Chia seeds, pumpkin. seeds, and whey powder to my muffin recipe, and am not happy with the result. The muffins are too dry. So I decided to return to my regular recipe, and add protein to breakfast separately. The dietitian assured me I could eat an egg every day, and I do love eggs, but with my lipid issue and the health issues cholesterol and saturated fats have caused me, I am just not willing to take the chance. So, what else could I have for breakfast?
The obvious choice is Greek yoghurt. To my palate yoghurt is not food, it is unpleasant medicine.
I used to be able to manage eating it by adding some of my homemade jam, even then it was not something to look forward to. The commercial flavoured yoghurts are high in sugar, so I won’t be buying those. So I did some poking around, and found some research that indicated dates as having a reasonable glycemic index. They are high in sugar, but also high in other nutrients and fibre. I love dates. I’ve always loved dates.
So yesterday I used the food chopper to chop 1/4 cup of nuts with two quartered dates. This was added to the yogurt and allowed to sit for 15 minutes. It is acceptable, and I might get used to it, might even come to like it.
That is breakfast and lunch sorted for protein. Dinner usually includes a protein food, such as fish, or chicken, or beans, or a legume of some kind, so I am not on the lookout for an added protein with dinner.
An interesting thing about salt. I’ve been on a low-sodium regime for years now, and my palate has completely adapted to it. Everything tastes normal, and quite good, without added salt. I have tweaked every recipe we use to eliminate as much salt as possible. For instance, a loaf of bread here is made with 1/8 teaspoon of salt, so whole wheat bread is low sodium at our house. Soups and casseroles are made with out added salt, although I will add a tablespoon of low-sodium soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce to a soup or casserole on occasion.
I am tracking everything I put in my mouth for nutritional value, for the cardiac rehab program. I always consume more than 500 mg of sodium per day, but I seldom ingest more than 1000 mg per day. In the summer, when I work out of doors and perspire, I make sure to eat a pickle, a teaspoon of jam, and drink a big glass of water, to keep myself hydrated. With such a low salt intake my electrolytes can get into trouble quite quickly, so I monitor how I am feeling when it is hot.
The tracking won’t go on forever, once I adjust the things that I eat in a day to ensure I am getting all the nutrients I need, I will just use the tweaked diet I create, and not think about it much again. I like eating the same foods for breakfast every day, and don’t mind long periods of time where I eat the same lunch. Dinner varies day by day, and is always nutrient dense.
I watched an interview ZOE did with Bryan Johnson, the man who wants to live forever. He is an interesting person, I can relate to his focus. I doubt very much he will achieve the goal of living forever, but I think he will probably live long and comfortably. Financial wealth can have its perks. He said something that resonated with me, he was answering the question as to whether he was bored with his strict diet, created for him by medical professionals, he said he felt:
“liberated from needing to decide what to eat”.
And that is how I feel about having the same breakfast day after day, and lunches that are the same for weeks, and sometimes months at a time. I feel liberated.
I am not trying to live forever though, I am just trying to stay alive for my normal life span, and remain relatively healthy and comfortable while doing it. With my anaphylaxis, my aneurysms, and all my dietary restrictions, finding healthy food that I enjoy is hard work. My health issues are hereditary, and naturally occur with aging. I have the advantage of new medications, and surgical procedures that just might save my life, or at least keep me comfortable while I am living it. My ancestors did not have these opportunities.
It is a great relief when I do find foods that are good for me, and that I like.
Worldly
Weather
21°C
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Sunday 15 June 2025
Condition: Mainly Sunny
Pressure: 102.0 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 21.0°C
Dew point: 12.1°C
Humidity: 57%
Wind: SSW 4 km/h
Humidex: 23
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“All empty souls tend to extreme opinion. It is only in those who have built up a rich world of memories and habits of thought that extreme opinions affront the sense of probability.”
William Butler Yeats
1865 – 1935