Loosing Weight and Your Body PH Levels

If you have Arthritis or Gout, we need to have a little chat, Right Now.  One of the things I love most about the Calories In, Calories Out way of eating is that you can load up on fresh fruits and vegetables.   And drop those extra pounds.  

However.   For certain people, too much of this:

And these:

And ESPECIALLY too much of this:

(Remember my recipe for Salsa Verde?)

is going to raise the acidity levels in your body sky high.  And if you have Arthritis or Gout, you are opening the door to having to spend some days dealing with pain management, fatigue, and loss of your quality of life.

Who knew tomatillos were so high in acid??  Good grief.

I was just about to post my new favorite recipe for Zanahorias Escabeche, a really, really good pickle made with fresh carrots, onion, garlic, jalapeno, vinegar and Mexican Oregano, but I will leave that until I get my PH under control.  And Arthur(itis) gets his dagumm treble hooks out of my aching body.  

Photo from Ozutto.com.  Mine has onions and garlic and jalapenos added and is, well, fabulous!

Now that I understand what I have done, here is how I will fix it.

First, I will take care not to eat any acid for a week.

Second, I will drink lots of water.

Third, I will avoid protein - beans, chicken, eggs, and tofu.

And twice a day, I will put 1/2 teaspoon of Baking Soda in a glass of water and drink it.

The only good part is that I get to lay around and read Trash Novels for a week.

And I'll continue to eat lots of this:

Recipe Link

And stuff like this:

Photo: Eatingwell.com

Remember my post on The Buford Highway Farmer's Market?

I'll be creeping out there tomorrow to pick up a tray of this sashimi, and if I'm not all better by Wednesday, I may have to resort to this:

Image from Culinarygadabout.com.

I'm off to read my Trash Novel now - Back To Business (I hope) Tomorrow!

How My Pomegranate Book Cost Me A Thousand Dollars

All Rightee Then.  When I finished writing about my zippy new Book Binding skills, I was heading into the "Pomegranate Book" at the end of that post.

The Pomegranate Book covers...before I looked closely.

That was before Arthritis hit with a vengeance, and I was out of action for days and days.  When I finally eased back into the studio again and picked up the ready-to-go Pomegranate Book covers and started to work with them, it became VERY apparent that the black toner didn't cover the paper evenly.  So I turned the paper around, re-printed...and then re-calibrated and re-printed...and so on and on.  I simply could not get a solid layer of black.  Period.

You probably don't know this, but ALL of the stationery, note-pads, catalogs, store signs, hang tags, and Shopping Bag labels for Lula Belle Tassels and Tideline Fabrics were printed on my trusty old HP4500 Color Laserjet printer, that is now about 12 years old.  Thousands and thousands of items printed by this old guy:

I bought this printer in 1999!  Still works pretty good, if you don't mind lots of cuddling and maintenance.  Which I don't.  We have become true-blue friends, and work equally hard in the studio.

He is so old that I have to search out spare parts from  Second Chance Industries on Ebay.  Great bunch of guys down there, who cheer me on for keeping him up and running. 

Considering his age, and the service he has given me, I decided while on the long drive back to Atlanta to quit pushing him so hard and start easing him into retirement.  (He doesn't know this yet.)  Like thoroughbred horses put out to pasture:

Image courtesy of American Farriers Journal

 
Quietly, I started the search for a new printer, and after days and days of shopping, trial runs, and a very knowledgeable technician at Printer Showcase, I realized that although the new laser printers are fast and efficient, they won't handle the heavy, textured cardstock I like to use - they don't lay down enough toner, and they don't "mash" the toner into the paper like my old guy.  The only one I found was the Xerox 6280:

That image looks great coming out of the printer, but it cost about 24 cents to print!!

Great quality, but far too expensive for production runs.  I tested OKI, Ricoh,  Kyocera, HP, and Xerox, and was interested to see the really different print quality coming out of each of them.  And was further intrigued by the incredible range of "set-up" properties offered for each print job.  Most offered 2 or more printing platforms, but the printer that had the widest range of possibilities within my budget was the Ricoh 430dn.  It won't print on textured cardstock, but does print everything else beautifully, for less than .05 cents per page.  So, One Thousand Dollars later, I have a new printer on the way.

All because I loved my Pomegranate Book Design too much to give up, and because I secretly love a pure black background for images.  Thanks to Scot over at Printer Showcase in Marietta for spending the better part of two afternoons working on my needs and running all my test prints to get Just the Right Printer to take the load off my old guy.  Who will still do my textured printing, only not black.

So now, while I wait for my new printer, I'm going to work on the next Fabric Design Contest at Spoonflower Printing!

  

Treating Arthritis with Sean Lennon, Salmon, and Randy Travis

So.  I am having this stupid arthritis FLARE for a couple of weeks now, and cannot get control of it.  My body is sooo fatigued, and all I want to do is sleep.  Meantime, there are books to make, fabric to design, and sewing to do.  And I can't.  There are windows of time when everything feels okay, and so I go at it...and then crash, boom.

Fighting Arthur is like a video game.  There are rules, but every rule has a secret sub-rule, and sometimes more than one.  What you have to do in order to win is to unravel all the sub-rules, and balance your counter-attack with very, very fine maneuvers.  Like following a rigorous diet of low animal protein, no acid, no dairy, low salt and sugar, no nightshade veggies, and lots of PH balanced water and freshly made Ginger Tea.  Hard to do for an extended period of time.  But, I get to eat lots of Salmon, Papaya, Avocado, and Quinoa meals:

Photo courtesy of Ginny Hong Blogspot

The worst part is, you have to budget the energy expended for any physical activity, which is even harder for me to do.  When I start feeling better, I am ready to Rock 'N Roll to make up for lost days, and that's where I mess up, every time.  Then the game has to start over, from scratch.

So today, I'm being still and browsing some of my favorite Blogs, so that I won't mess up and get too active.  I found this wonderful video of Sean Lennon and his lovely girlfriend, Charlotte Muhl, which made my day...

NPR interviewed them in their Music Offices, and recorded the session in a Tiny Desk Concert...you can watch it, and listen to their music here. 

Other lovely finds on this day of Forced (Grrr!) Quiet were the Blogs of Greige Design, which I spent the better part of an hour happily browsing through, and French Essence, which I just adore, and will visit often.

Photos courtesy of Greige Design and French Accents.

Now.  Doesn't that make you feel good?  Even with Arthritis?  If not, there was one final treat from Husband last night...

Randy Travis, live at the Cobb Energy Center Auditorium!

He sang "Digging Up Bones", just for me and Arthur.  And made me feel better.