Squash soup

2 oz cashews
1 cup cooked winter squash or pumpkin
1 cup applesauce
2 cups turkey or chicken stock
1 tblsp curry powder
1/2 teasp nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon
splash of heavy cream

Chop cashews in the blender, then add all ingredients except cream and blend.  Pour into pan and heat to just boiling.  Stir in cream and serve.

Getting creative with Photoshop

I made these images from photographs using this tutorial plus instructions from Cafepress about how to create transparent backgrounds.

They are available on T shirts and whatever at: http://www.cafepress.com/sk/pm1

A year later

I think a year ago I probably was at my maximum weight.  I don't weigh myself, in fact I usually don't even look at my weight when I am weighed at the doctor's office.  But we waited nearly half an hour at the gym before we could swim last Thursday, and I took the opportunity to weigh myself.  A doctor might not be happy with my weight--184--but I am.  My guess is that I have lost 30 pounds in the last year.  Photos are from June 2011 and November 2012.

 























A year and a half ago I decided to try taking Metformin, hoping to improve my diabetes control a little more and hoping it might help me with my pattern of post-menopausal weight gain.  I kept increasing the dose, because I felt it wasn't doing anything.  I went up to 1000 mg twice a day, and thought maybe that was helping.  Then I got something like the flu, though my flu test was negative, and lost a clothing size in a week of being mostly too sick to eat.  After that we spent all of Christmas vacation cooking, but my clothing size didn't go back up.  It was in mid January that I started following the Primal way of eating.  I think I went down another clothing size in a month, and after that I have been very very slowly losing inches (as judged by how my clothes fit).  A few weeks ago I switched my pants down another size (luckily I kept a lot--I have one more size in the attic).

I went off the Metformin last summer when I learned that my A1c was 5.8--exactly what it was before I started the Metformin.  So I don't think I am eating particularly lower carb than I was; the difference is that I very rarely eat anything made with grains or refined sugar.  I eat large meals--I am not careful how much I eat--but I have given up snacking except for a bedtime snack.  I also started supplementing with iodine and over the course of the spring and summer I worked my way up to 25 mg., which I think has given me more energy.  Having more energy makes me happy! I'm doing pretty much the same exercise--swimming twice a week, some walking and gardening.

I'm very glad to have found what works for me.