Author: Maggie

Trying to get back on track with healthy eating

~ Maggie ~ 6 Comments

Yesterday we dropped D. off at the airport. She stayed with us for four weeks and we all had a great time. We went swimming almost every day, talked a lot, did some sightseeing and well… just enjoyed having our daughter so close to us.

But now life is back to normal. I’m going grocery shopping today. Alone. Not that I mind being alone, but it was actually fun and interesting to take her with me and talk about food and healthy (she is studying to be a dietician) or not so healthy (we’re human and women and have hormones and this was her much needed vacation) choices.

I have to admit though that the last few weeks were not my best food-wise.

Oh well, let’s be completely honest, it’s been on and off for over a year now. I felt sick a lot and I gained 20 pounds. But I started 2020 (sort of) right and then I got off-track again two weeks ago.

I had hormonal issues (I am going through perimenopause, but had my first period after eight months of thinking I was done) and stress (too much work makes me crave carbs), topped off with a little virus.
I also don’t really like what I’m eating anymore, especially at lunch. I typically eat three slices of glutenfree bread with some sandwich meat (thinly sliced ham, salami, etc.), but don’t like the taste of the meat anymore. Also, I”m craving all the carbs pretty soon after finishing lunch, so my blood sugar is not doing so great with it either.

So my goal for today is to find food that I like eating but that also works well for my body. This is kind of hard since I can’t eat gluten, soy or dairy (milk protein), have issues with peanuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews, and some other nuts and also strongly react to sugar (hypoglycemia). I’ve known about the sugar for 25 years now, so that comes naturally to me, but the other intolerances/allergies I found out about in the past year. That’s probably why my eating has been off. Some of the things that did work in the past (like eating bread, wraps, and pizza, snacking on nuts) are not right for me anymore.

I know that stating you can’t eat some foods is controversial, especially if you didn’t have extensive blood tests. But believe me, I’ve been in denial for a long time, went back and forth between eating and not eating these things and this is what I know about my body: 
– Gluten make me hold water and cause severe – like 3 weeks or longer – obstipation. I also noticed my arthritis flaring up when I eat gluten.
– Soy makes me nauseous shortly after eating it and the next day I feel “under the weather”.
– Cheese and other milk products give me headaches and stomach aches.
– After eating peanuts and nuts I notice my throat feeling swollen.

So, for lunch, I think I need to combine the high glycemic (gluten-free) bread (or rice cakes – those are a whole lot cheaper) with something that contains a lot of fibers and/or fat to will bring it down, like avocado or hummus. Also, I just have to get used to eating more salad for lunch. But hey, eating sandwiches for lunch has been my normal for 48 years. It’s a habit that I find really hard to change. It doesn’t feel like lunch when I eat something else. Maybe I could start with just once a week and then work my way up.

Anyway, changing what I put on the bread should help with my biggest issues. My breakfast (two boiled eggs and some papaya fruit) actually works pretty well and for dinner, I just need to cut some carbs (potatoes mostly) and eat smaller portions. Yes, that should work, don’t you think?

That was quite the brain dump, sorry. But it helps to think out loud and I think it would be helpful (both to me -accountability!- and my readers) to share some of this journey on my blog, so there will be more posts like these. Let’s hope next time I can safely state that I really am back on track…

A gray day

~ Maggie ~ 1 Comment

I took my camera to the beach that is closest to us (a 7-minute walk), to show you the blueness of the water. and the sky But I guess I jinxed the weather because when we walked down the clouds came in and both the sea and the sky turned gray(ish).
But this is Curaçao, so there was still a lot of colors to be found…

Garden therapy

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

We had the most wonderful weekend. Full of sunsets, swimming, friends, music and good food. And also some hard work away from the computer.
On Saturday morning I felt a bit (ahem, a lot actually) restless and stressed, but I decided to ignore my laptop and head into what will be my garden someday to attack the thornbushes in that space.
That was the right decision. I should have known there’s nothing better to work off frustration then clearing big spaces from weeds. Or thorns in this case.

My arms and legs are scratched and I’m still a long way from having that space completely cleared and ready for planting, but I do feel up to facing my e-mail and editing work again.

I told T. to remind me of this and to kick me into the garden when I mention I feel restless and stressed again. Garden therapy always works for me.

Wishing you all a good start to your week!


Crafty goals

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

I didn’t have much time for crafting last week. But that’s okay. There was swimming, talking, laughing, reading and other good stuff instead.

Last week’s list:

/ work on the cowl -> just a few rows. Need to concentrate a bit on the pattern. Not that it’s that hard to follow, but with D. here, there’s just too much distraction. Oh well, it can wait.
/ make covers for the top of our chair cushions. They get greasy really fast (from sweaty and salty hair) and washing the cushions is not that easy. They dry slowly and it costs too much electricity each time -> Started simple granny squares, but it’s going slowly.

This week’s list:

– work on the cowl
– work on covers for the top of our chair cushions

Let’s see how far I can get…

Three things

~ Maggie ~ 6 Comments

When I’m too busy to write real blog posts, it’s always a good time to focus on the little things that make me happy. So that’s what you get today.

Three things that made me smile this week:

1. Parrots! They fly over our house often, but they hardly ever sit down close enough to take pictures of them. I do love the thought that these are ‘everyday birds’ here.

2. Rainbows. We see a lot of those lately too. Well yes, that also means we have a lot of rain, but hey, we need rain for the garden. And I love seeing rainbows! This was actually a double, but the camera didn’t pick up the fainter one.

3. This cat and his shenanigans. Such a quirky mixture between a domesticated house cat and a wild stray.

Linking up with Carole’s Three on Thursday

Crafty goals

~ Maggie ~ 2 Comments

This week was… well, busy. Mostly in a good way, but I am at that point again where I know I need to plan better or I will feel overwhelmed. Or actually, I’m already past that point, which is why I always get stuck there. I’m already at the phase of “just get it done and I’ll think about how to plan better later”. And when later arrives, I’m just too tired, or I think it wasn’t all that bad. Until I get two editing assignments, a writing project and a lot of bookkeeping on my list again. Besides that big house and giant garden and a daughter visiting.
Anyway. Mostly fun and I will get through eventually. But if you know an easy and free but brilliant way to plan these things (lots of different jobs for only one person), please let me know!

Anyway, on to the crafting. I keep telling myself these lists are for fun and so far, that works. They do help me to focus on just a few projects instead of making myself crazy with all the possibilities.

Last week’s list:

✔ start the cowl – I did and I love it so far! It’s going slowly though because I don’t have that much time to read and follow a pattern.
✔ make a headband – finished it this morning.
X start the doll (or one of the other toys)

This week:

– work on the cowl
– make (crochet? – I have to think about it) covers for the top of our chair cushions. They get greasy really fast (from sweaty and salty hair) and washing the cushions is not that easy. They dry slowly and it costs too much electricity each time

What are you making this week?

Happy

~ Maggie ~ 9 Comments

Three things that make me happy today:

– my daughter visiting. It’s so much fun to have her around (and she’s staying for four weeks).

– work coming in. Yes, it makes me a little bit nervous to have a lot to do these months (need to learn to plan better), but I’m so very grateful that some writers even ask for me as an editor.

– my mother still going (relatively) strong. She’s now planning for a little vacation in February.

Linking up with Carole’s Three on Tuesday

Progress report :: the guest room

~ Maggie ~ 7 Comments

I have this thing about painting. I would very much like to be the kind of woman that just goes ahead and paints some walls when she feels like it. But I am not. At all. I tend to procrastinate when I really need to paint and I never paint for fun. I think it has something to do with perfectionism. At least that’s what I was thinking when I finally painted the walls of the guest room this Sunday.
We’ve known D. was coming to visit since. August, so it should have been done a long time ago. But I first needed to accept (yes, there’s that word again) that the result would be better-looking walls, not perfection. And I needed to accept that I make a giant mess while painting. No matter how many precautions I take, I always end up with paint all over myself and usually over the floor also. But hey. We do have a shower (though it’s kind of cold this time of year – no boiler, less sun) and the floor is tiled, so easily scrubbed clean.
Anyway. Long story short, I painted the guest room.
D. was going to arrive on Tuesday. We already ordered the bed on December 29th, but the delivery service was having a Christmas break, so it arrived on Tuesday. I went shopping for curtains and bedding on Monday and I also did a second layer of paint that day, so we had to do all the decorating (and bringing all the books back in) on Tuesday. Yes, that’s cutting it close.
But it all worked out. When D. arrived, the room was waiting for her. And I really like how it looks.
Especially compared to what we started with last May…

Before:

We put in a window, replaced the bars and ripped out and replaced the ceiling last year.
During:

And this is what it has looked like ever since – until last Sunday:

But now it looks like this.

It still needs something on the walls and those books will be on shelves eventually, but for now, I’m very happy with it.

2019 :: knitting

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

2019 wasn’t my best knitting year. Well, it wasn’t my best year whatsoever, but I am writing a post about knitting because I already wrote about finding home and I didn’t want to get too deep into the other things that happened this year.
Still, there was some knitting and I did find comfort in that. Looking at this list, it’s funny to see that I have been winging it most of the time. The house slippers were made from a (very simple) pattern, but other than that, I just knitted away.
That explains why this isn’t the most interesting list of knitting, but I had fun making each and every one of these items and that’s what counts.

In 2019 I knit:

:: the sunset shawl (top picture)
:: a rectangle 
:: two headbands
:: eleven hats (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,, eight, nine, ten, eleven)
:: giant potholders
:: a poncho (or large cowl) (second picture)
:: four dishcloths (that were supposed to be potholders)
:: a sweater dress
:: a green cowl
:: a little circle to put under our tiny Christmas tree
:: a pair of simple house slippers

 If I have to pick a favorite, I guess it would be my sweater dress. I wore it (paired with a long sleeve shirt and leggings) a lot during our time in The Netherlands, it was just perfectly warm and comfortable.

(p.s. yes, I know I’m a bit late with this post, but I wrote it last week and then I forgot about it.)

Happy Monday!

~ Maggie ~ 2 Comments

We had a wonderful weekend. On Saturday we met with some friends on the beach. We had a bbq to celebrate the new year and just sat and ate and talked and did nothing at all. It was good.

On Sunday we both felt rested enough to tackle a few things around the house. I decided that the guest room needed to be painted after all before D. arrives. That’s cutting it close because she arrives tomorrow and I still need to do a second layer. I also have to go shopping both for groceries and for things for that room. The bed arrives tomorrow, hopefully.

Anyway, I’ve got a busy day and week ahead, but I don’t feel overwhelmed, it’s going to be fun.

Wishing you all a great start to your week too.