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This post is part of the No GMO Challenge Blog Carnival.
Monsanto shelved their GMO wheat plans back in 2004 in the face of loud opposition. Now, some farm organizations are asking biotech companies for a GMO wheat and the Organic Consumers Association has asked farm and environment groups who oppose GMOs to take a stand and sign a statement condemning the move.
We need to continue our loud, long battle cry. The 2004 decision to back off is proof that when we make enough noise, biotech has no choice but to listen.
OCA, Farm Groups Counter Call for GMO Wheat
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Cost of food per person per day: $8.25. Our first CSA orders were delivered on the 20th. I expect our cost of food to drop dramatically for the next several months while we rely more on the deliveries of prepaid meats and veggies.
Relevant books read or re-read: The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children by Carol Simontacchi, The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener by Eliot Coleman, What to Eat by Marion Nestle, Relevant movies watched: King Corn by Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis
Energy Level: Way back up again. I was able to make it the whole day without a nap for all but the first few days of the month despite getting up at 5:30AM and rarely getting to sleep before midnight. I’ve started waking up at 5:30 even on days when I don’t have to, a sure sign that my body clock is working well. Unlike an alarm clock, you can’t “unset” a body clock for weekends! How annoying.
Visible health improvements: Hubby asked on the 19th if I’d been losing weight. I hadn’t really lost enough that it would be noticeable, but I think the increased sun I’m getting daily is taking some of the pallor from my face. I still have to avoid afternoon sun because it’s just too hot on my skin, but if I go out before 11 AM, I can usually stay out for nearly an hour. I did manage to lose 3 pounds last month. In June I’ll be pushing the low-carb thing once again. I will not sacrifice veggies, just cut back a tad on the whole grains and not use bread products as quick snacks quite so often. My efforts to quit coffee met a brick wall when my mother-in-law presented me with a bag of Godiva chocolate coffee pods for my Senseo. Now that those are gone, I’m going to pack away the Senseo machine and use whole beans, a hand-grinder and a french press. I figure the work of hand grinding might make a “quick cup” less tempting.
Other notes: I had a mishap with my normally more stable knee mid-month that laid me up for several days. Of course, jealous over all the attention, the less stable knee started acting up soon after. It took about 10 days for the whole cycle to wind down, so although I was walking more than a mile a day at the start of the month, I was only able to complete 20 miles total by the 31st. I’m working back up slowly again so I don’t stress the joint and wind up worse off.
I’ve lost the “taste” for many of the junk foods I used to so enjoy. At a movie last month, I couldn’t eat more than a handful of popcorn because it was just too salty. The tub-o-Coke hubby bought went into the trash nearly full because it tasted so full of chemicals I could barely choke down a sip or two. Hubby brought me home a pack of M&Ms one day and it still sits, unopened, in my purse. M&Ms used to be the food I’d most like to be stranded on a desert isle with.
My homemade kombucha experiment is chugging right along. I don’t plan to stop that for the low-carb endeavor. I’m still looking for good flavorings, though, because the plain tea is a little too pungent. I’ve used cherry concentrate, wild blueberry concentrate and a combination of the two. I think I will try some juiced ginger and raspberries soon. That sounds quite refreshing.
Thanks to kozzmen on Flickr
As a kid I was always the member of our family most bitten by mosquitoes. My mom said it was because I was so sweet, which is not far from the truth. I don’t mean “sweet” as in nice and well-behaved, but made of sugar! If you are what you eat, I was a big scoop of Rocky Road ice cream while growing up. We spent four years in Metairie, Louisiana, which was about four years longer than I would have liked. Between the heat, the humidity and the bugs, I was almost constantly sick except for a few months in winter. The bug problem down there was horrible. Big trucks would come by and spray a cloud of pesticide down all the streets a couple times a month. The neighbor kids would go out and dance in the cloud. I was so angry at my mom for not letting me join in! (Kids.)
And the bites. Oh, they hurt and swelled and itched like mad. Everyone else got these nice little white bumps that healed in a day or two. I got huge clear blisters on top of the white bumps that would get infected even if I didn’t scratch. Mom wouldn’t let me leave the house without being sprayed, head to toe, in the strongest “bug juice” she could buy. I always smelled like a camper, and not in a good way.
As an adult, one of the biggest misgivings I had moving to the Southeast from the Pacific Northwest was the bugs. All my kids get bites, but not more than one bite every couple days, and only one child has a bad reaction to the bites. I kind of expected it from my allergic and eczema-covered child, but she doesn’t really get bitten. It’s my carb-loading, sugar addicted, immune-suppressed Christy that gets eaten alive by the nasty bloodsucking insects here. And, like mine, her bites are truly nasty. When she is bitten, our best bet is to immediately get ammonia on the bite. Sometimes that keeps it from forming a blister, and the bite stays a nice, small white bump like “normal” people get.
Since I’ve been studying nutrition, I’ve heard several reports that a diet of carbs and sugar attracts biting bugs. That makes sense to me. And we are making small, slow, long-term changes to our diet. But in the meantime, mosquito season is in full swing here already. I do not want to spray poison all over my children. The skin is an organ, after all, and what goes on it goes into our bodies. I can’t imagine many worse insults to a growing child’s body than to pump an organ full of poison! What’s a mother to do?
I found an insect repellent at the Mercola site last year and gave it a shot. It was pretty badly overpriced, so when we ran out, I made my own based on the ingredients on the label. I am surprised at how well it works!
Homemade Insect Repellent Spray (Citronella style)
In a spray bottle, combine a half ounce each of citronella oil, lemongrass oil and peppermint oil in four ounces of distilled water. Add three drops of grapefruit seed extract and shake well before each use.
I get all the oils and extract at the health food store. I make a small amount each time so the essential oils don’t lose their potency.
My kids hate the smell of citronella, so I will occasionally use the following recipe instead. I find it isn’t quite as effective for the “sweet” among us, but works as well as the citronella variety on those that aren’t as prone to bug bites.
Herbal Insect Repellent
lemon peels and orange peels
mint or sage leaves
witch hazel
grapefruit seed extract
Put several lemon and orange peels and mint or sage leaves in a non-metal pan and add water to cover. Bring to a boil and steep 5 minutes. Let cool overnight, covered, in the same pan. Strain out the solid ingredients and mix the water half and half with witch hazel. Add three drops of grapefruit seed extract. Put in a spritz bottle and shake before using.
If you prefer something a little more long-lasting, you can infuse the herbals into oil:
Herbal Insect Repelling Oil
Warm a cup of coconut oil just to melting and pour into a quart-sized mason jar. Grate in the peels of one lemon and one orange. Bruise a handful of mint or sage leaves by squeezing them in your hand, then add to oil. Cover and let stand for a month before using. Strain out solids and add to a lotion bottle. Add three drops of grapefruit seed extract. Shake before each use.
If you are going camping or hiking in the woods, a good addition to any of these recipes would be a few drops of the liquid from a pressed clove of garlic to repel ticks as well.
Please, please test a small patch on your skin before spraying any of these formulations all over!
The Dark Side of Fat Loss
