Back to Work

I've been kinda quiet here on the blog lately.  Rest assured that I have been working hard.  Last week I was  filling in for a veterinarian who took his wife on a well deserved vacation to somewhere tropical.  Nine hours a day plus an hour of driving on either end.  I did get an unheard of, actual whole hour to sit down and eat lunch in the middle of the day!  I has happy to do it for a couple of reasons the first of which is income. An hourly independent contractor rate is pretty sweet.  Second and equally important was restoring my faith in my abilities.  I left my practice almost a year ago burned out and uncaring.  It was a relief to see that I've still got 'it'.  I really enjoyed engaging with his clients and staff, dare I say I've even missed it.  What I did realize is that veterinary medicine is not the all encompasing passion it once was for me.  Somewhere I lost the passion which used to keep me up at night reading about new drugs, procedures, customer service tips, etc.   When I lost that passion I stopped feeling qualified, I started doubting.  I wasn't sure if I was good enough and tough cases really stressed me out.  What if I couldn't fix them, what is wrong, maybe they would be better off under someone elses care?  That self doubt would eat at me(-I'm getting that nauseous feeling in my stomach right now just writing about it!)  This realization helped me to see that if I go back to veterinary medicine it will need to be from passion, from an all consuming drive, confident that I am extremely skilled and able to give my profession 100% of my mind (herbal?, acupuncture? consulting for organic producers?).  Anything less will bring me back to where I was a year ago. 
New Business:  thirty pigs, 200 chickens, farmers market and Slow Food Wausau! ( just a teaser for tomorrow)

Food for Thought (bagels give me gas!)

I am forty, I am overweight, I am a moody carb junky.  To expect this to all change without taking a radically new approach would be the definition of insanity.  I have had a few slaps up side the head which have really truly made me understand that we are what we eat, food is medicine, garbage in=garbage out, etc, etc. 

Early in January I started eating very differently.  Forget the USDA food pyramid with its foundation of grains and teeny tiny sliver of fats, I've turned it on its keister  keester oh hell ! on its ass.  I've been reading a lot of Weston A Price, a lot of primal and paleo nutritional information and the conclusion I have come to is this: the USDA and the AMA don't know beans about what the human animal needs to be healthy!

For the past 4 weeks I have been limiting my carb intake to 100grams (400calories or less), no wheat, no noodles, very limited beans, and potatoes.  Most of those carbs come form fruit and veggies.  Protein -approx 0.7 grams per lb lean weight means I eat 80-90 grams of protein /day.  That is another 400 calories or so.  Guess what the rest of my diet is....(alcohol? no, but a good guess)....FAT.  I am eating alot of fat -eggs, walnuts, avocados, olive oil, BUTTER, grass fed meats.  No canola oil, no PUFA, no hydrogenated anything.   Its largely about preventing the insulin surge, antioxidants and reducing inflammation.

Things have been going great!  It helps that my husband is on board and excited about eating real food, it helps that I have time to cook and a freezer full of homegrown grass based meats.  My sugar cravings are under control, I am listening to my body-  not grazing to keep my energy levels up.  I'm not much of a scale person but the one week i checked -I had lost 4 lbs (eating butter and bacon!!) 

There have been other benefits as well.  This week I had a moment of weakness and ate a 1/2 bagel.  It was so good, mmmm, but four hours later I got all crampy and had bad gas (is there a good kind?).  My normal state of flatulence had been missing and I hadn't even noticed!  My mom had celiac disease, perhaps I have inherited some of those GI traits as well.   Food for thought!  Check out marks daily apple especially the Friday success stories.  They are really inspiring.

Farm Tour Slideshow

I just put together a little slideshow at GrasWerka's site-help to remind me of green glass and a clean house!

Baby It's Cold Outside!



Elegant patterns on the coop window-chickens snug inside

 Real Wisconsin winter is upon us, no more Mr Nice Guy!  The forecast was calling for negative single digits last night.  I've got the puffy down coat and -40 Carhart bib-overalls hanging in the hall.  Instead of just turning the light off in the chicken coop at 9pm, I switched them over to a red heat bulb for overnight.  Chicken popsicles are not my favorite flavor.  While the cold is dangerous and difficult to deal with, it is also heart-stoppingly beautiful.  As I crunched back to the house in the night, the stars looked so close, so bright, they just crowd the sky.  The half moon created shadows and made the snow sparkle.  The house ahead of me was lit up with warm yellow light, my loved ones inside.  Sigh...this is why I'm here...

Wolves?

Wolf in the Pasture?  Got me thinking that I am not the only predator on this farm!