The Overeating Syndrome

I have noticed several commercials lately that talk about reasons people overeat. Things like eating because you feel down or because you feel lonely. Then they say don't worry about gaining weight because of this, just take this little pill and the fat will melt away. Well, something is wrong with this picture. If people are eating for mental reasons rather than physical reasons (ie, they are hungry and need the food) then they need more help than just a pill to make the fat go away. That won't solve the problem. Instead of encouraging people to get help for the issues that are causing them to turn to food as a mental and emotional stimulant, they are simply treating the end result which will never go away if the initial problem is not helped. I know we have all turned to food at some point to deal with emotional stress. I myself once ate an entire pint of Ben and Jerry's peanut butter and chocolate ice cream in college when a boyfriend broke up with me. A pint may not seem like much but that is some really really rich ice cream and a pint is certainly a whole lot. My point in all of this is that if a person eats because of emotional/mental stress or anxiety then that is what needs to be treated rather than the end result of gaining weight. However, these commercials make it seem like it is ok to overeat when you are stressed or anxious, just take a pill so you don't get fat. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture? If you eat to combat emotional or mental problems, then find out a way to fix the problem. Get help if you need it. Taking a pill to get rid of the fat will not solve the problem that started you on that road to begin with. Have a happy healthy year and God bless.


*Disclaimer- once again I am not a doctor nor a nutritionist. Please see your doctor if you are having issues. Thanks

Thoughts on losing weight and diets

Oh I have have been reading so many people talking about that age old new year's resolution to go on a diet and lose weight. Commercials on television are overflowing with all sorts of gimmicks. So I thought I would post my thoughts on weight issues. First, some of us are genetically prone to be chubby. I am not talking about obese, I am simply talking about on the high side, or slightly over what the medical community likes to call normal. In a world that shows superthin underfed folks as beautiful this can be tough on others who don't fall into that category. So every year thousands upon thousands of women go on "diets" and vow to lose weight. Many of them are successful at least for a little while. My view is that one should vow to live a healthier lifestyle instead of looking for a quick fix. Diets are unhealthy, I don't care which new low-carb, low-fat, low whatever you proscribe to. They simply are unhealthy because they are taking away something that your body might need to function. I will give you an example. My sister was on a certain diet that was low carb for a long time. She started experiencing bad daily headaches many turning into migraines and she stopped losing weight. She went to doctor after doctor that simply gave her a new pill to try to get rid of the headaches. I told her to get off that diet and start eating a balanced diet with fruits and vegetables, which had been eliminated because of this low-carb stuff. Her body was out of balance and it was trying to tell her something. She finally listened to me after all the guinea pig pill remedies were exhausted and the doctors had no answers. She ate a banana and the next day she didn't have a headache. As she added back all the foods that she had eliminated she began to feel better and have more energy, the headaches all but disappeared. She was killing herself trying to lose weight and wasn't even accomplishing that very well. She and I both are prone to be on the chubby side. My daddy was chubby, my grandaddy was chubby, and so forth and so on back through the generations. I gained a lot more weight with my last pregnancy simply because I was confined to bed rest due to hypertension issues. The older I get the harder it is to get the weight off. One thing I remember though is that my grandfather was healthy. He worked hard physically, he ate what he wanted to eat, and he lived to be 90 years old. If he hadn't developed Alzheimer's and started having mini strokes (common with Alzheimer's) then he probably would have lived longer, but it was his time and the Lord called him home. One thing he always said was that everything was a balance, don't eat just one thing and don't eliminate things necessary. In other words live healthy by getting some physical exercise and eat a balanced diet. You need fat, you need carbohydrates and you definitely need all the vitamins and minerals contained in those foods. A couple of years ago I started really watching what my family consumed. I started eliminating processed foods and store bought junk foods. I lost a little weight that first year but not much. This past year, I got a whole lot more exercise with the large garden and the added livestock care. I eliminated more things from our diet, especially artificial sweeteners. I went back to whole foods. We use all natural ingredients now. Things like raw sugar, honey, whole wheat. We added more nutrient dense foods to our diet like carrots, beets, and other roots vegetables. Guess what, I haven't watched anything that I have eaten I have simply eaten good whole food and eliminated as much processed, pre-sweetened, "plastic" foods from our diet. We drink whole raw milk from our goat and eat full fat butter on our potatoes and toast. This year I lost 35 pounds and simply did not try. I still have some weight to lose and I am sure that it will come off this year until my body reaches a balance which is healthy for me. I don't try to fit into a mold, I want to be healthy for me. I have found that when you eat more nutrient dense foods in a well balanced regimine then you don't have those cravings for something and you don't overeat because the food that you have eaten keeps you full. When your body has what it needs then you don't feel the need to eat more. Now everything I have talked about doesn't even address the mental issues of people who over eat. These are simply physical issues being observed. So my thoughts are that if you want to lose weight take a good hard look at what you eat. Are you eating more processed food or whole food? Is your diet well balanced and nutrient rich? Do you get any exercise? You cannot lose weight in a healthy manner without burning more calories. I have a few more posts on this issue that deal with different aspects. So keep an eye out for those. God bless and take care.

*Disclaimer- I am not a doctor nor am I a nutritionist, these are simply my thoughts on the weight loss issue and not to be taken as medical advice. Talk to your physician or a nutritionist about your particular situation. Thanks.

Goals for 2010

I don't make New Year's Resolutions simply because they are rarely kept for very long term. One thing that I do, however is to take a long look at my goals where we are at in accomplishing those long term goals and what I would like to accomplish for the next year. The difference between goals and resolutions is simple. A resolution is set in stone in your mind and so when life throws a brick at you and knocks you off course, you lose your map and can't ever find your way back to the path toward the resolution. A resolution is something that must always stay within sight right in front of you or is lost. A goal is something that you can see at some point on the map. And you see that there are many paths to that goal. So when life throws a brick at you and knocks you onto a different path you simply take a different route toward the goal on your map. A goal is a point in the future that you will someday get to even if you can't immediately see it physically. So, all that being said I have sat down with my journal from the past year and this and thought about our and my goals and what I would like to see accomplished this year. So here they are:
Grow in my relationship with Jesus Christ, work to come closer to Him and what He wants for me.

Have more patience with my husband

Plant a new orchard

increase the size of the garden, grow some new varieties of tomatoes, and more sunflowers

Spend more time sewing

At least build the outdoor oven, would like to have the whole summer kitchen but....

Raise ducks and turkeys for the freezer

Incubate more eggs to increase the size of the flock

Keep only one spring doeling! Butcher all bucklings and sell extra doelings

Get one to two inches of compost spread in the goat pasture, garden, and orchard pasture

Increase the compost piles (both size and number)

Get firewood cut and stacked earlier in the year

Make time for target practice

spend more time with the horses

have more family game nights

rebuild the solar shower (outdoor summer shower)

plant a berry patch

thin out the pine thicket

get rid of excess clutter

My goals are relatively simple this year and some things like the orchard and berry patch probably won't be complete, but a start would be great. Things that are homesteading goals I really don't mind doing in small chunks and simply taking my time to get them complete. This year I would at least like to add a couple of apple trees to the orchard pasture and get some blackberry bushes for the berry patch. Of course, in the long run I would like more than that but starting is good on a homestead and when you are working within a budget sometimes you must take it slow to get toward the eventual goal. The pine thicket has been a goal of our for a few years now, but the underbrush has made this goal almost impossible. However, thanks to the addition of our small goat herd this year they have happily taken care of much of the underbrush and we can now see areas that we can start to get in and thin the trees. Pine trees grow like weeds around here and this stand has taken up a large portion of one of the pastures. It also starts to present a fire hazard after so much time. Since it runs along the outside fence line I would like to keep it there and keep the larger healthier trees. However, I don't want a pine beetle infestation and don't want a fire and don't want to lose my large pasture so it needs to be thinned and if we at least start that will be a good accomplishment. My personal goals really are things that I work on continuously, but it is good to really sit down and think about just those goals sometimes. It keeps them clear and to the front of my mind when things get so busy around here. Once I have thought long and hard about where we are and where we want to go then I put my goals down in my journal and think about ways that I can possible accomplish those goals or at least work on them. For instance, I have found a local supplier for the orchard trees that I would like to have. I know the cost of those trees and so I will save my writing money and sewing money in order to purchase what I can. Same thing with the berries. That way those things will not eat into the household budget or money that we save for emergencies. Getting rid of some of the clutter that we have is a big priority this year. When my mother in law passed away a couple of years ago most of her things were brought up here. I have been slowly getting rid of those things and using what I wanted to keep. She was a huge collector and has some fabulous things and some not so fabulous things. I know I brought box after box after box of pyrex up here and cannot possibly use it all. So I think I will put the pyrex in the country store and if anyone wishes to purchase it at reasonable prices then that would be great. She also did loads of crafts and I brought all of that stuff up here. However, I know that I cannot possibly use all of it and some of it I just don't want to pursue so I will put those craft supplies up also on the country store blog. I do believe that bartering is great and so these things will be offered for trade or sale. Barter to me is a win win situation. Just getting rid of the boxes of those two items will be a huge step toward decluttering our little farm. Well, that is about it for goals this year. I think if I accomplish all of that then I will have accomplished quite a bit. So what are your goals and aspirations for the coming year?

Technology Free Week

Ok, I have received lots of encouragement about going tv free, so......we will be having a completely free technology week next week. Basically in order to entice my hubby and daughter to give up their television, I agreed to give up the computer. Yes, I do spend a good amount of morning time on the computer. Much of that time is spent doing research for articles or projects that I want to do around the farm, but still... So I will try to get quite a bit of blog posts done this weekend to tide everyone over for next week. If all goes well maybe we can get rid of the television all together. I think going without for a whole week is a good start. I am prepared to take what I can get in baby steps if that is what we have to do to break our family of this terrible addiction. God bless and thanks for all the encouragement.

Ok, It is Cold!

Ladies, it is cold outside!!! I mean really cold for us poor southern folk. We haven't had winter temps like this in years and I have gotten.....wimpy! I know you folks up north have been dealing with bitter bitter cold temps this winter and I feel for you...I really do. I also appreciate the gesture when you choose to share, but this is one thing I don't mind sharing. I know this cold will be helpful in killing some of those awful bugs that seem to have thrived through the winters of the last several years. That will be a good thing. Right now however, I don't know who shivers more in the morning at milking time...the goat or me. This cold has made me thankful that God has seen fit to give us the desire to be prepared for anything. We have heat and we have backup heat. We have plenty of food and hay in the barns for the critters and they have shelter from the wind. We have plenty to eat here and don't have to get out on the icy bridges and after tonight snowy roads to get something to eat. We can simply all hunker down and stay warm. There are many many here in the south that simply cannot do that. Many that have propane to heat with that couldn't afford it this year and no fireplace for backup. The shelters are filling up with folks that simply can't stay warm at home. My biggest concern during all of this is hauling warm water to the critters and breaking ice in water buckets. Others are simply trying to survive and having a hard time of it. So my prayers go out for them. I pray that they also use this as a wake up call to be more prepared for future events no matter what they might be. I pray that God keeps them safe during this terrible, bitter cold and whatever else the weather might bring. I thank the good Lord that my children and I can hunker down here at Whisperwind and wait out the cold in comfort. God bless and everybody stay warm!

Response to Comments

I received so many wonderful comments left on the When Families clash post, that I thought I would respond to them here. First of all thank you ladies for your heartfelt words of encouragement and understanding. I wrote the post because I know that there are many of us out there that have decided to separate from society and many times it seems as if we are all alone. So to all of us everywhere, we are together and no....we are not crazy nor deranged! As I said in the post many in my family seem to think that we have chosen a life of poverty. Well....so what if we have. Is it a sin to give up worldly riches for a more humble existence. I don't think so and many throughout Christianity have done exactly that. The riches that we seek so desperately simply cannot be found in things of this world...money, material goods, etc. My children certainly do not do without anything, but the one thing that they are gaining in our life is understanding that true wealth comes from God in the form of peace and happiness. No our life here at Whisperwind is not perfect and not always blissful. We have our share of problems just like anyone else does. However, the difference is that we give those problems to our Lord and simply follow His guidance on the issue. It is a peaceful existence that only those who live it can understand. Another thing about the life that we live is that to use a well worn phrase...we find the joys in the simple things in life. It might seem mundane to some seeing a bunch of chickens running around picking at bugs and such, but to us those little chickens are so funny in their antics. Every seen chickens in a field full of grasshoppers? They are hilarious! Or the peaceful moment of quiet in the barn in the early morning with the smells of hay and the sounds of animals quietly eating their breakfast as you watch the steam rise from the milk going into your bucket. Or laboring for days and weeks to plant the field not really knowing if anything will come of your labors or not....then seeing that first little tomato appear or a tiny little squash in the midst of a dying bloom. These are the riches that only God can provide and they are riches that reach right into the very heart of your soul and make it leap for joy and be thankful that you had the privilege of receiving such a gift. When I had biddies that were being ornery about going back into the chicken coop I sent the best chicken catcher on the farm after them....my 3 year old daughter. She could catch a baby chicken faster and better than anything on the farm. The sound of laughter as she caught chickens and brought them to me was something that money could never buy. From all the comments that I received about that post it is clear to me that many of us have discovered that true riches can only be found when we stop pursuing "riches". Does that mean that we have to live in poverty...no. Our children are well fed, well housed, warm in the winter and somewhat cool in the summer. They have clothing appropriate for the weather and two parents that love them. They have time to play and laugh with both friends and family. And yes they have toys to amuse themselves with. However, they are much richer than many would think simply because they are open to the joys that God provides them each and every day. Living a simpler life gives them the opportunity to see so much more and experience all that He has to give. No thanks world...I'll take green acres any day of the week! God bless you all!

Living without Television....is it possible?

We have been contemplating giving up our satellite service. This decision has really been a struggle for our family. I don't know why it should be such a difficult decision as there is really very little on that we actually want to watch. Usually in the evening it is just something to do when we are tired and have very little energy. This discussion has come up a lot lately in various places. Over on the homesteading today forums I found many many people who did not have tv and many who had not had tv for years. Despite concerns they have survived quite well. Well, this morning as I was reading through several blogs that I followed I found another who is doing quite well without television. This blog post over at SAHMville Blog is worth the read and certainly gave me some encouragement in my struggle to give up the idiot box. So ladies if you have made the plunge also, leave a comment and let us know about it. If you are also struggling with letting this security blanket go, let us know about it. I find sometimes it helps make a decision when we know we aren't the only ones out there. So, I think my husband and I will have to really talk about this and come to a decision quickly before the next bill arrives! God bless.