Happy thoughts for today....

     My Dad is doing well after his knee replacement surgery yesterday.  He was up walking twice today and doing physical therapy.  He hopes to be discharged Sat. or Sun. if they can set up home health visits and physical therapy.
     I volunteered at Freedom Service Dogs this week and worked with a volunteer I hadn't known much before.  Bev is 77 years young and has survived 3 heart attacks.  How wonderful that she is still volunteering, and doing something rather strenuous, too.  I admire her. 
    The 1st 2 days of Dr. Fuhrman's "Eat to Live" diet are going great.  I eat a big salad before lunch and dinner now.  I have had to bend one of his rules, however, and have a mid-morning snack.  I eat breakfast at 6 am and need some fruit to get me through until 12.  Maybe I will have to eat a bigger breakfast.  So far, this is a nutritional life change I can live with.
    I have a delicious recipe for you, which I modified from his book:

                               Chocolate Cherry "Ice Cream"
     Puree in a food-processor 1 frozen banana, 8 oz. frozen cherries, 1 heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder,  a dash of cinnamon, and approximately 1/2 cup of almond milk (or other alternative milk).  Serves 2. 



    

Get well soon Dad. We love you.

     My Dad had surgery this morning to re-replace his left knee.  It was a 5 hour surgery; it took 3 hours just to remove the old knee replacement.  But he got through it okay.  Wish him well everyone.   He is 84 years young. 

"The family.  We are a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."     Erma Bombeck

Review of "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman

     I read the new revised 2011 version of "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  It is an excellent book.  I recommend it highly, along with "The China Study" by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, for vegans starting out and needing motivation.  I had read "Eat to Live", the 2003 edition, in the past and took parts of it to heart but wasn't quite ready yet for the full change.
     Dr. Fuhrman coined the term "Nutritarian":  a person who strives for the most nutrient intake per calorie.  He recommends a micronutrient and fiber rich diet, and documents the medical rationale. 
     "The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the spread of processed food and American fast food worldwide has made obesity and the diseases of low-nutrient, high-calorie eating bigger contributors to premature death worldwide than starvation."
     Traditional American weight loss tables are based on Americans' overweight averages, and are set much too high.  They reinforce an unhealthy overweight standard.  A good formula for determining ideal body weight is as follows:
     Women: 95# for the 1st five feet of height + 4 # for every inch thereafter.
          Woman 5'6" = 95# +24+ = 119#
     Men:  105 # for the 1st five feet of height + 5# for every inch thereafter.
          Man 6' = 165 #
     He also feels that if you follow his diet recommendations, your body will eventually settle at its perfect weight.
     He has a strict 6 week plan to get started and liberalizes it somewhat thereafter, if you would like.  His Life plan is to eat 90% unrefined plant foods.

     UNLIMITED:  Eat as much as you want:
          all raw vegetables (goal: 1 lb. daily)
          cooked green and non-green nutrient-rich vegetables (goal:  1 lb. daily)
          beans, legumes, bean sprouts, tofu (goal: 1 cup daily)
          fresh fruits (at least 4 daily)
     LIMITED
          Cooked starchy vegetables or whole grains (1 cup per day)
          raw nuts and seeds (1 oz. per day)
          avocado (2 oz. max. per day)
          dried fruit (2 tablespoons max. per day)
          ground flaxseed (1 tablespoon per day)
     OFF-LIMITS
          dairy, animal products, between meal snacks, fruit juice, oils, salt, processed food
         
     Other suggestions are to eat lots of mushrooms all the time, and to keep it simple.  I'm all for keeping things simple.  He does provide several recipes.  The green smoothies are great.  I'll be trying the mushroom soup tonight for dinner.
     I'm going to give this a go.  I am not aiming for the weight he recommends, but am hoping my body will eventually settle into my perfect weight.  I will try it for 6 weeks starting tonight, but will probably up the grain/high starch vegetable limit to 2 cups per day.  I eat a cup of hot whole grain cereal with flax and fruit for breakfast most days, and don't want to be unable to have a little brown rice in the evening or 1/2 of a sweet potato.  I will limit it to that.  I went to the store today and stocked up on fresh greens and fruits so am ready to rumble (no pun intended).  Wish me luck.

"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art."   La Rochefoucauld

"Don't eat anything your great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize."  Michael Pollan

"Let food be your medicine."  Hippocrates

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart) e.e.cummings

     Yesterday was our 40th wedding anniversary.  40 years....it boggles the mind where the time has gone.  We both agree that we still feel about 18, which age we were when we met. 
     We went out to a really nice vegan restaurant, compliments of our daughter, Kate.  In August we will celebrate with all of our kids and grandkids when Dean's chemo is well past, plus plan to take a trip together later this year.  Meanwhile, I am enjoying the four beautiful red roses from Dean.
       Dean did have another high fever of 104 on Sat. night;  the medical community still hasn't been able to determine the cause of these sporadic fevers of unknown origin, so it is probably chemo related.  It is hard to plan celebrations around them, though.  But he felt well again yesterday, so we took the opportunity to hike in nearby Roxborough State Park.
     Since moving to Colorado we have always loved to hike....our hobby.  We just haven't done enough of it the past couple of years, and hope to rectify that situation starting this year. 

                                                             Dean at Roxborough

     By the time we thought of getting a picture of us together, we couldn't find any passers-by to take one.  We will next time.

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous,  leading to the most amazing view.  May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."       

Edward Abbey 

    

1928 Bunion Derby

     I have been following ultrarunner Dean Karnazes' "Run Across America."  He started on 2-25-2011 at Disneyland resort in California and should arrive in New York City by the middle of May.  He will have run nearly 3000 miles total, 40-50 miles per day.  He is running it to benefit the charity "Action for Healthy Kids" and to urge people to get healthy and to lose weight.  He is currently running across Kansas. He has a support team and stays in nearby hotels; and gets regular meals and healthcare as needed.  This is not to belittle his tremendous effort.
     However, he was not the first to make this journey.  In 1928 there was a footrace across America from L.A. to New York City.  The grand prize was $25,000.  199 men from around the world entered.  It was put on by C.C. Pyle, a sports agent, con-artist, and rogue.  It started on 3-4-1928, and on 5-26-1928 there were only 55 men remaining to complete the race.  It was won by a 20 year old farm boy from Oklahoma named Andy Payne.  Only those who could afford it had a support team or coach. They were generally starving, had poor housing, poor shoes, and got little sleep.  This was the era of endurance competititions, however.....dance marathons, flagpole sitting, bowling, swimming, eating and drinking competitions.  Several of the racers entered the race again the next year in 1929, but C.C. Pyle was bankrupt by then and could not pay out any prizes at all.  (C.C.Pyle's Amazing Foot Race, The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America, by Geoff Williams).
     Doesn't this make you want to test yourself, at least just a little?  Of what amazing things are we truly capable? 

     "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."   Helen Keller

    

And if not now, when?

     Today finishes week seven of jogging for me.  I am soooooo slow, and it isn't coming back easily.  When does the muscle memory kick in?  My new running mantra is:  "If not now, when?".  It is from a quote by Rabbi Hillel:  "If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?  And if I am only for myself, then what am I?  And if not now, when?"   If I can't take up jogging now, will I ever?   Humans evolved as endurance runners.  I am human, ergo I am an endurance runner.  Period.
     Jason and Kuldeep, your long runs of 18 and 21 miles are motivating me.  Fantastic job. 
     Dean has today off from chemo, yeah!
     Sadie still is wearing her cone of shame.  We took it off one evening, she was napping, but soon she licked the sores on her leg open again so back on it went.
     At Freedom Service Dogs this week I trained 2 just rescued year old yellow labs....Carson and Kyrik.  Both are bursting with that young lab exuberance (read, hard to hold onto and distracted by everything), but both love treats so that's a help.  Kyrik loves them so much he nearly swallows your hand, too, so I spent much time on teaching him to take treats gently. 

Thought for the day:

 "Always remember that you are absolutely unique.  Just like everyone else."

                                                             Margaret Mead

Keep a one sentence journal...

     I am suggesting today an idea I read on another blog (the happiness project), which I thought was wonderful.  Keep a daily one sentence journal.  It can be more if you want, but try for one.  Life is so short and memories can be fleeting.  Write those highlights of your life down to remind yourself someday of the things you never want to lose, when you are in one of those  "Where has the time gone"  moods.   You will thank yourself. 
      The year: 1974.  2 1/2  year old Jason at a dewy military Easter Sunrise Service at Walter Reed.   When the Colorguard marched in he yelled, "Look, Clowns."   Then he noticed a nightcrawler in the grass and let everyone around him know, "Snake, Snake!"  while he pummeled it with a church bulletin.   We left early, but we clearly thought he was brilliant.
     18 month old Ben squatting over the vacuum on pudgy toddler legs and observing as I vacuumed up after a meal.  "Look, Mom, crumbs dance."   Sheer poetry.  They do dance for vacuums.
     18 month old Katie, a year later, singing "Sunshine on my shoulders"....she had the words down, even though she wasn't even able to talk much yet. 
     Priceless memories.  Write yours down.  You can thank me later.

When the morning stars sang together....

     When reading a Madeleine L'Engle book once years ago, I learned that stars sing.   Job 38:7 in the Bible states,  "When the morning stars sang together....".   I did some research, and stars actually do sing. They emit light, and some of it is in a large enough wavelength to fall in the radiowave spectrum.  Stars of different sizes emit different tones.  Larger ones emit tones lower than smaller ones.  When recorded together their radiowaves produce a harmonic sound much like from an orchestra.   When you tune your car radio and are between stations, some of the hissing and crackling you hear is actually noise from stars and near-by planets. Some pulsars emit beeps.  The universe emits a crazy cacaphony of sounds.
     The next time you are out gazing at the stars, think of the music they and the universe are sending our way, and be amazed.  Be amazed.

" Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known."   Carl Sagan

Book Review: "Crazy Sexy Diet" by Kris Carr

     Kris Carr is a cancer survivor turned wellness coach and motivational speaker.  She is witty and I enjoyed parts of her book.   She promotes a vegan diet as it is alkalizing and anti-inflammatory.   She takes nutrition and lifestyle farther than I think is valid, however.  She promotes juicing, (nutritional, sure, but wastes all the vegetable fibers and is expensive), fasting, enemas and colonics, and supplementation.  I don't think eating vegan and healthy should be so complicated; it should be simple, just eating real food.
     Points I do like:
          1) She starts by asking if you are sleepwalking through your life, are you among the living dead?
          2)  Nobody knows your body like you do, and waiting around for someone else to fix your woes is playing a risky game of roulette.  We can all be kick-ass wellness warriors.
          3)  We now talk about nutrients instead of actual foods.  We've lost sight of the forest for the trees, the kale for the vitamins.  We're greater than the sum of our parts, you, me, and the broccoli.
          4)  What is happening to our bodies is a mirror of what is happening to the planet.  We're all one organism.
          5)  A helpful exercise:  Picture yourself when you were five...even dig out a photo of yourself at that age and tape it to your mirror.  How would you treat her (him), love her, feed her, nurture her if you were the mother of little you?   She thinks you would protect her fiercely while giving her space to spread her itty-bitty wings.  Little you would get naps, healthy food, imagination time, and adventures into the wild.  Extend the same compassion to your adult self. 
          6)  She recommends meditation at least daily, also yoga (when the great swami stretchy people created yoga, they weren't interested in a rock-hard middle).
          7)  When you are living like you mean it, you're a force of nature.
     I especially loved the advice to nurture itty-bitty me, and her comment about the great swami stretchy people!  She's right in that we are all wellness warriors, and I want to be a great swami stretchy person.  Health is more than the absence of disease, it is the presence of vitality.   We can all live like we mean it and be forces of nature. 
     This week, fiercely protect itty-bitty you and give yourself space to spread your itty-bitty wings!

 Itty Bitty Debby,  I will fiercely protect her and help her to grow.

Updates:                                              
In Dr. Weil's daily blog today  (http://www.drweilblog.com/) he quoted research that confirms what the book "Healing Through Exercise" (see previous post) stated.  Researchers at the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis did a 15 year study, showing those who exercise daily or near daily for at least 10 years have the lowest risk of dying from colon cancer.  Research by Harvard School of Public Health and Univ. of California done over 18 years showed those walking briskly 90+ minutes/week had a 46% decreased risk of dying from any cause;  those with greater than 3 hours/ week of vigorous activity had a 61% lower risk of prostate cancer death.
As Dean, my husband, concisely reviewed "Healing Through Exercise":   Exercise=Good. 

Dogs are in the moment.

     Because of my last post about Sadie, our dog, I decided to comment on a book I just read called "Inside of a Dog, What Dogs See, Smell, and Know" by Alexandra Horowitz.   The author is a psychologist who has studied the cognition of humans and animals.  She made a few points which struck me as being important: 
     Point 1:  All animals have their own umwelten, or subjective realities, which are described as being like soap bubbles which enclose them.  We humans are enclosed in our own soap bubbles, too.   Our perception, or soap bubble, of the world is very different than that of our dogs.
     Point 2:  Dogs are anthropologists among us.  They are students of behavior and know us much more than we know them.  They are attuned to humans and notice what is typical and what is different.
     Point 3:  A dog's world (their umwelt) is smelly, it is well peopled with people, it is close to the ground, it is lickable, it either fits in the mouth or it doesn't, it is in the moment, it is full of fleeting and fast details, it is written all over their faces, and it is probably nothing at all like what it is like to be us.
     Point 4:  Dogs will change your own umwelt, your view of the world.  She mentions smelling the world more and loving to sit outside on a breezy day, and that her day is now more tilted towards mornings.
    Point 5:  Humans walk to make good time.  She recommends considering what the dog wants, going on smell walks, or dog's choice walks where the dog picks direction at every intersection.
     She made excellent observations.  Dogs are not us, but they know us, and change us.  They are our companions, needing contact as much as we do. Now that Sadie is getting older, we do go on more smell walks, more dog's choice walks. 

"Outside of a dog,  a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
                            attributed to Groucho Marx

Updates:
     Sadie's leg is less swollen, she walks on it okay, she hates the cone around her neck.
     Today ends the 6th week of my health journey.  If it wasn't for this blog, there are days when I might have given up due to soreness or lack of measurable progress.  I know 6 weeks isn't much time, but I have high expectations.

"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."
                                               Confucius

Cone of shame.

     Poor little Sadie developed a leg infection over the weekend.  In just 2 days her leg became massively swollen and started weeping, and she soon licked open 2 big sores.  At first, the vet thought she must have cancer because of her big belly.  After further investigation (10 xrays, an ultrasound, and lab work) she most likely has Cushing's Syndrome.  Muscular weakness, a big belly, massive hunger and thirst, immunosuppression causing infections, are all part of this disorder.  For now we are treating the infected leg with antibiotics.  After that, we will see what further tests and treatment will be needed.   We met a new vet, Dr. Hanson, who was thorough in his testing and his explanations, and liked him a lot.
     I wonder if "Healing Through Exercise" (see previous post) will work with old dogs with Cushing's Syndrome?

Review: "Healing Through Exercise"

     I recently re-read the book "Healing through Exercise" by Jorg Blech and highly recommend it for everyone.  He discusses the importance of exercise for all aspects of the human body. It is a good overview of the subject;  so much so that while reading the book, I felt guilty for sitting down and actually walked slowly on the treadmill while reading much of it. 
     Exercise grows new nerve cells in the human brain.  It increases cancer survival for colon, breast, and prostate cancers by up to 50%.  It slows the aging process by years as we age biologically, not chronologically.  It decreases the risk of dying from stable congestive heart failure by 35%. 
     Experts at the WHO report that 60% of the world's population are sedentary, 41% get less than two hours of moderate exercise per week, and 17% are completely inactive.  Two million deaths per year are due to lack of exercise. 
     We determine how fast we age as aging is only 30% due to our genes, 70% is environmental.  With no exercise, humans lose 1-2% of their strength per year, but with training can gain 30-40%.  It is never too late.  Studies on people in their 80s and 90s have shown that they can triple their muscle strength and increase muscle size by 10%, which leads to better balance and increased quality of life.
     The minimum requirement seems to be 30 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week, although 60 minutes most days is better.  Strength training twice a week is good, as well.  The good effects start with burning about 1000 kilo calories/week by exercise.   It doesn't have to be sports or athletic endeavors either....doing housecleaning, gardening, walking to run errands, all work.
     Enforced bedrest for any reason is very bad, especially for people over the age of 70.  For them it can lead to loss of the ability to ambulate.  A survey of residents at one nursing home showed 66% got less than 2 hours of physical motion/week;  1/3 of the residents had no physical activity at all.   Bedrest is not even recommended for back pain any longer.  Exercise will not cause further damage to a disc, and is as effective as medication in providing pain relief without the loss of abdominal and spinal muscle strength which bedrest causes.
     Using exercise to treat disease is a novel approach, but is happening more often.  Some oncologists (unfortunately not Dean's) are putting exercise bikes in their patient's hospital rooms and recommending exercise for 20 min. twice a day.   Exercise can treat and reverse heart disease, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension.  It works as well as medication for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis,  ADHD, and Alzheimer's Disease, without the side effects.   Most doctors would like more research to be done, but who will pay for it?  There is no money to be made on exercise like there is on the pharmaceutical industry.
     Blech also dispels the myth that running leads to degradation of knee cartilage.   It is actually previous injury, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle that cause it.  The human body evolved to run long distances.  Harvard anthropologist Daniel Lieberman states that endurance-wise,  humans are the best athletes in the animal kingdom.  People can take up running at any age to improve their health.
     This is all motivation for me to get out there and jog tomorrow and well into my nineties.
                                                 ********************************

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."    Beverly Sills
  
  
   Last week was a busy one for me, so I apologize for lack of blogs and content.  I was taking a service dog training volunteer refresher class all week.  It is always good to be reminded of the appropriate techniques to train these rescued shelter dogs.

     Yesterday we celebrated Dean's Birthday with our daughter.  He had just had chemotherapy the day prior so we couldn't go to a public place with exposure to possible sick people.  It was a bit cool to walk in a park or go on a picnic, so our daughter took us on a drive through the foothills southwest of Denver, to Deckers, to the Hayman and Buffalo Creek wildfire areas.  Beautiful rustic areas despite the burn zones.  We did have vegan German Chocolate Cake and Cherry Amaretto Coconut Bliss "ice cream" afterwards....I guess one can slip up on the diet a bit to celebrate a 60th birthday. 
    

Thoughts and prayers

     Our thoughts and prayers are with all of Japan today after the horrendous earthquake and tsunami. 

My name is Deborah...

     My given name is Deborah.  As a kid I was Debby, which I hated, later Debbie (although my Dad nicknamed me Susan Jane/ Susie Jane for some reason).  Teen years into adulthood I became Deb,  it sounded more "hip".  Now, though, I have grown into my name.  I prefer the more formal sound to it:  Deborah.
     Deborah in Hebrew means "the bee".  I've always liked that.  The Bee.  I grow perennial lavenders, sages, and nepetas in my flower garden which are full of fat drowsy bumblebees in the late summer.  They connect me with the beauties of nature and my name.   We also shared my name with our daughter, who has it as her middle name:  Kate, the Bee. 
    
     "Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway."    Mary Kay Ashe

     "To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
       One clover, and a bee.
       And revery. 
       The revery alone will do,
       If bees are few." 
                       Emily Dickinson

Consumers must lead the way.

     The new government Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends less than 2300mg of sodium daily for most people....a maximum of less than 1500 mg for people ages 51 and up.  The Adequate intake (AI) for people ages 51 and up is only 1300 mg.   It would be impossible to follow these guidelines and eat a processed food diet.
    They also give guidelines for other nutrients.  They are still pushing dairy, although they recommend fat free or low fat, but they do have a vegetarian and vegan section and mention that people in those two groups are generally healthier. 
     The guidelines recommend increasing fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, and increasing exercise.  There are calorie guidelines, and intake guidelines for those on the DASH diet, the Mediterranean diet, lacto-ovo vegetarians, and vegans.  It is generic advice, but tries to be well-rounded.  It is worth skimming through.

               www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2010/dietaryguidelines2010.pdf

     Thus, we did a pantry cleaning and are discarding soy sauce, black bean garlic sauce, ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, and a couple of brands of salsa.   There is one brand of spaghetti sauce that has more than a third less sodium than most of the rest.  I will have to compare labels when shopping for anything processed.  Eventually manufacturers will come around if consumers lead the way.
     Since we are not adding salt or high-sodium sauces when cooking, we are trying new substitutes.  Vinegars work great to add flavor, as does fresh lemon juice.  We use balsamic vinegar by itself for dressing on salads, and red wine vinegar in pasta.  Mrs. Dash lemon pepper is good.  Also we are increasing the amounts of herbs and spices used.  It is a learning process and gradually our tastes are changing to enjoy the taste of food sans salt.  Dry beans which you cook yourself have no sodium, but the canned ones have around 400mg per 1/2cup serving, unless you buy the no-salt-added variety.  This will be an interesting cooking journey.  Won't you join us?

Update: Another week has gone by.  I have a new, more reasonable exercise plan in place due to time  constraints:  Jog 3x/week;  work out (stretching, modified push-ups, crunches, yoga, etc) 3x/week;  and one total rest day per week.  It is going well.  To your health and ours!

Enjoy the trip....

     Tomorrow, Mar. 9, is Dean's 60th birthday.  I wish my sweetheart all the best things in the world. It is the first day of another 365 day journey around the sun.  Enjoy the trip with me.

"It takes a long time to grow young."  Pablo Picasso

(P.S.  Dean is feeling under the weather so we will spend a quiet evening at home.  Hopefully he will be better on the weekend and we will celebrate with our daughter.  The big celebration will be this summer where we will celebrate his 60th birthday, my 60th birthday, and our 40th Anniversary with our family.  We can't wait.)

Wouldn't it be wonderful.

     This is just a follow up to yesterday's blog, Struck by Lightning.  I thought about my Grandparents all last night.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could talk to them again, just for a day, or just for an hour even.  I have so many questions.  Grandma, where in Canada was your family from ?  What was it like living through the Great Depression and 2 World Wars?  Grandpa, tell the story of your life in Sweden and coming to America. What was the best thing in your life,  the worst thing?  There are always so many unanswered questions and untold stories.
 
"What is a family, after all, except memories?-haphazard and precious as the contents of a catchall drawer in the kitchen."    Joyce Carol Oats

Struck by lightning.

Axel and Lillian Davidson Wedding Photo

  My Grandfather, Axel Constance Davidson, came to this country in 1908 at the age of 18 from Silverdahlen, Sweden to avoid being drafted into the army.  His father, Carl Drott, was in the army in Sweden.  His uncles, Otto and Andrew Davidson lived in Stanton, NE.  Uncle Andrew paid for Axel's passage over to the USA, where he entered the country through Ellis Island.  He changed his name from Drott to Davidson when he arrived in the US. 
     Axel worked for Uncle Andrew for several years to pay back the money for his passage here.  He and my Grandmother, Lillian Amelia Kingsley Davidson, worked for and lived with Andrew after their marriage.
    Andrew was a bachelor and very tight with his money, therefore relatively well to do.  He would change the coffee grounds he used to make coffee only once or twice a week.  He would watch while my Grandmother Lillie made the morning bacon to make sure she used no more than 2 slices per person. He remembered that when he came to Stanton, he tried to buy a 79 cent shirt on credit, and the store owner, Mr. Raabe, refused him credit.  However, later on when Mr. Raabe built a new and bigger store with a large fancy opera house above,  Uncle Andrew loaned him the money.  During the depression, Andrew loaned money to various farmers who were in debt, but if they could not repay him, he did take their farms. Dad didn't know if Andrew was very popular because of this, but he was an astute business man. 
     Uncles Otto and Andrew both farmed in Stanton.  Another brother,  Uncle Peter Davidson, was the John Deere dealer there.  Their sister, a widow named Mrs. Carlson, also lived with one of her brothers for a while and kept house.
     Grandpa Axel's brother David Davidson came over a few years later.  He was sponsored by Uncle Otto and farmed for him.  Another brother, Carl Drott, the only one not changing his name, eventually settled in Stanton after starting out in South Dakota.  A sister, Otilia (Tillie) came over to keep house for one of her bachelor uncles.  None of them spoke English before coming here.  It must have been a scary voyage over and train trip across country.  Each came alone.  Great Aunt Tillie was only 17 when she came over.  She contracted head lice on the ship.  Some nice woman, who she couldn't communicate with due to the language barrier, helped her cut her hair short and wash her head with kerosene.
     My Grandfather Axel, Grandmother Lillie, and their growing family moved to their own farm after a few years.  In June, 1931, Grandpa, his son Axel Jr. (my Uncle Bud) age 9, his 2nd son (my uncle) Don age 7, and a hired man were stacking hay.  A sudden thunderstorm blew in, and the 2 teams of horses became frightened.  The hired man took control of 1 team of horses...the ones pulling the hay sweeper.  Grandpa held the bits of the other team of horses...the ones that pulled the stacker up.  Lightning struck the horses Grandpa was holding, killing them.  Grandpa was holding them by their metal bits so he was struck, also.  7 year old Don was nearby.  He was thrown onto the dead horses, but unharmed. 
     9 year old Bud ran the mile west to home to call the hospital.  The hired man got Grandpa into the team buggy and the remaining team of horses pulled them home.   They gave Grandpa a big shot of whisky so he could make it 25 miles to the hospital in Norfolk, NE, all on dirt roads by car. 
     According to my Dad's sister, Arlene, who was 10 at the time and probably remembers, the hospital refused to treat my Grandpa until they had guarantee of payment.  This was in the first years of the depression.  So Uncle Andrew said he would pay if Axel couldn't.  (My Dad was only 4 years old in '31 so doesn't really remember these events, although he is the one narrating them to me).
     Grandpa was burned from the chest down.  When they removed his clothing, the skin peeled off along with it.  He was in the hospital for 2-3 weeks my Dad thinks.  Dad remembers having big gallon jugs of vaseline in the closet at home.  That was all they had to treat him with....slathering him with vaseline.  If he had gotten an infection, it would have been all over.   
     Grandpa was ill for 6 mo. to maybe a year.  He had some type of insurance that paid him a small stipend if he couldn't work.  The insurance people kept coming out to check on him to make sure he was still unable to work.  Grandpa was so angry at them he never got insurance again.
     Since this was the depression, Uncle Andrew stepped in and paid the mortgage on the farm.  They didn't think my Grandpa would survive his injuries, so this was an early inheritance for him.  Later when  Uncle Andrew died, other relatives inherited farm land, but my Grandpa understandably did not. 
     Neighbors stepped in and helped cultivate the corn, put up hay, and do the threshing.
     The depression was tough, everyone was poor.  My Grandparents had cows and chickens, and took the cream and eggs to town to sell. Between trips they kept the items cool in the cave (root cellar).  They lived on this money.   Grandma Lillie made their bread and butter.  She sewed clothing from the bags flour and chicken feed came in.   Dad remembers always wanting Log Cabin Syrup, but all they ever got was dark Karo syrup in a can.  
     He does remember they had a beautiful ice box.  It was solid oak with silver handles.  They got ice from  neighbor Walter Muhs' dam.   When the ice got to be 18" thick every winter they'd go cut large chunks and put it in their ice house, which was basically a hole in the ground with a small house over it.  They covered the ice with layers of straw to keep it cold.
     Every day they'd have to go find wood and cobs to get a fire going in the stove before making breakfast.   They'd butcher their own meat and smoke it or can it.  Sometimes they would salt pork down in a crock and seal the crock with lard, if they didn't cure it.  They made a lot of sausage and sometimes had it for breakfast and at noon.  There was no such thing as fresh roast beef or fresh meat. 
     In the fall they would sell 15-20 calves.  With this money they would pay their fuel bills, taxes, vet bills.  Everything was paid on an annual basis.  So they got by. 
     The grocery store only sold dry goods like flour, sugar, and salt, which is about all they bought.  There was a bakery in town which people would need to go to every couple of days if they bought bread.  There was a butcher.... people would have to visit him every day. There was milk delivery.  Most people, especially farm families without electricity, did not have refrigerators.
     Grandpa Axel did recover and lived until 1959. I remember him a little, I was 7 when he died.  He always had a Swedish accent.  He called my folks "Yimmy and Yune".  He liked to visit with people but never talked about his life back in Sweden, even to my Dad.  He never got back there to visit.   My Dad, Jim, and Mom, June, moved to the farm in 1950 after their marriage,  and Grandpa Axel and Grandma Lillie moved into Stanton.  Grandpa Axel would come out to the farm to help out.  Grandma Lillie lived until 1979.  They did have 1 additional child, LaVonne, born in 1934.
    

                                          Lillie on left,  Axel with cane, home from hospital
                                          Neighbors helping out.

The mind-body connection. Visualize health.

     Imagery is a healing tool that has been used by almost all ancient cultures.  It is used present-day to help treat cancer, to decrease hypertension and stress, to lose weight, quit smoking, and for athletes to increase their competitive edge.  The mind and body are connected.  The brain processes everything in images, and it communicates those images to the body.  The body, however, cannot tell if those communications from the brain are from real or imagined images.  Therefore, you can cause a mind-body intervention by guiding your imagery, your visualizations.  You need to make it personal and emotional to you....you don't want your body to perceive it as being false....plus you need to involve all your senses. 
     I recently read an on-line news story where a man cured his recurrent bladder cancer through intensive visualization of a healthy bladder wall.  Many people use sensory images including the loud buzzing of millions of white cells busily at work fighting cancer cells.  Others use a Pacman type image of white cells or ravenous polar bears floating through their blood streams gobbling all the evil intruders they see, which is what I did when I was diagnosed with a type of breast cancer in 1994.
     But I think Dean's imagery is the best.  Probably his right brain is more developed than mine because he is left-handed.  A little background info:  when he was a boy his family spent 2 weeks every summer at a rustic cabin at Cedar lake near Upsala, Minnesota, where they fished and swam.  In Dean's imagery he is back in his early twenties, young and strong.  He is in the boat on a warm summer afternoon, over in a back bay northwest of the cabin.  The boat is at anchor where the lake color goes from light green to darker green, where there is a drop off and the water deepens.  He is lying back against the boat's motor, dozing in the sun.  He feels the warmth of the sun and the sweat on his skin.  The sweat bubbles have little black cancer cells in them, which  have escaped his body through the pores of his skin.  And when the sweat bubbles break, the black spidery cancer cells run across his body, over to the side of the boat, and fall in the lake where circling large-mouth bass and northern pike quickly gobble them all up.

"Imagination decides everything."   Blaise Pascal

Be careful out there.

     It is a gorgeous warm blue-sky day so I decided to take our dog Sadie on a late afternoon walk, as winter will be returning again tomorrow.  Just down the hill at the intersection we saw a small group of people huddled around a young person who was lying on the ground trying unsuccessfully not to cry.  He was covered with blankets and being comforted by adults, and I heard the ambulance just blocks away.  Everything was well in hand so we did not stay to gawk as our help was not needed.   I am guessing it was a car-pedestrian accident which took place at an intersection, so the car should have been going at low speeds.
     What struck me, though, was the reminder that even while we are doing and thinking the most mundane things, somewhere tragedy is striking someone.  Life is so fragile.  Be careful out there.   

Going to the dogs.

     Today I volunteered at Freedom Service Dogs, something I do regularly.  Two of my favorite service dogs will be training with their clients and going to their forever home with them in two weeks.  This is my last time working with them.  I will really miss them.
     Dallas, a black lab mix, was born to be a service dog.  He just loves to accomplish tasks for you and can't wait to do more.  Today we worked on him retrieving dropped items and dropping them in my lap;  also, retrieving items and dropping them in a basket.  Then I hid the items and he found them and either put them in my lap or dropped them in a basket depending on the command.  Finally, we focused on "find a friend"....upon hearing the command he goes, finds, and brings back another person.  This command is to be used if the client needs help.    He is the most loving, funny dog.  His new client is a very lucky person.
     Cooper, also a black lab mix, is a sweetheart.  He is so very excited when he first sees you coming.  He wags his entire body and practically squeals his delight and welcome.   If he could talk, he would.  He loves to be with people.  Cooper and I (and 4 trainers and their dogs) went to the mall for 2 hours.  We wandered around the stores, rode the elevator, and had lunch.  (More precisely, I had lunch, he stayed down by my side.)  He behaved like the perfect gentle-dog he is.  He, like Dallas, loves to retrieve.  Great, great dog who will soon have a very lucky new client and home.  
 
     If you want information about,  or can financially assist,  a really good non-profit that takes in shelter dogs and trains them to be Service dogs or Therapy dogs,  please visit their website at:
                             www.Freedomservicedogs.org

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."   Roger Caras

We are what we repeatedly do.

     Update time:  4 weeks are done.  I don't know where the time has gone.   Only 5 months left until my arbitrary goal date for wellness.  I have continued to eat well plus, more importantly, exercise including 3x/week jogging.  It hasn't showed up much on the scale (yet), but weight is just a number. Am hopeful that as I am able to jog longer weekly distances, the calorie burn will increase, and/or if I increase muscle mass.
     I did some research.  Google says it takes 3-4 weeks to form a habit.  A research study at University College London showed it takes 66 days to create automaticity of a habit.   I am close to halfway to forming automaticity.  I would like to be hooked on exercise. 
     I am counting on the following quotes to be true:

"Good habits, once established are just as hard to break as bad habits."  Robert Puller

"First we make our habits, then our habits make us."  Charles C Noble

"Motivation is what gets you started.  Habit is what keeps you going."  Jim Rohn

"We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."  Aristotle

     (If you are giving veganism a try, use ground raw cashews as a substitute for parmesan cheese.  We like it.)

A good compliment....

     I mentioned previously that my husband was diagnosed a week ago with congestive heart failure, probably brought on by his chemotherapy.  I have started checking the sodium contents of the food we eat, even though no one has given us any dietary directives to do so.   Surprise.  We already were on a low sodium diet.  I will have to watch some items I buy, as certain brands of salsa, spaghetti sauce, and whole grain cereals have a little more salt than others, but in general eating a whole food, plant based unprocessed food diet is very low sodium. 

"Let food be your medicine."  Hippocrates

     I am still jogging a little three times per week.  In reality it is more "jogging-like" slogging, a jogger-wannabe type motion.   Yesterday I was going up the last hill toward home and a car stopped me.  The driver complimented me on being out there and actually running, wishing she could do the same.   I was tempted to mention my slowness and that I am a beginner again.  I do think that she said it because I am such an unlikely looking jogger.  But then I decided to just accept the compliment.  I was out there jogging, and up a hill no less.  I will have to remember to compliment others doing the same....to feel free to stop my car and compliment a stranger.

"I can live for two months on a good compliment."   Mark Twain