It has been sometime since I would stop at the convenience store and get a large cuppa diet cola (caffeine free to make it a "little" better). Now that it is not as easy for me to make up my favorite drink and sip all day like I did when working for myself and around my house, I thought yesterday that a diet cola sounded like a good thing since I was out shopping all day and I was thirsty. Yes, I should have chose the water, they had that too and countless other drinks were a possibility but I "jumped ship" and opted for the pop. "It has only been almost a year since I have had any. 32 ounces surely wouldn't kill me, after all I eat such a good diet and the nasty would be quickly "detoxed" out, " or so I told myself.
WOW WAS I WRONG!
Less than 1 1/2 hours after finishing that 32 ounce thing which I gulped like fresh water I started feeling something like a major migraine coming on. I have experienced many headaches in my SAD eating days although I have discovered since changing my lifestyle that I am not really prone to them. I have also had only one migraine in my entire life. It was a three day affair, not fun at all and I was glad to see go. I (and the doctor after a cat scan) attributed it to the stress of going back to college again after twelve years while managing a household, family, and a teenager with special needs since it didn't come back I was okay with this explanation. I immediately grabbed aleve and hoped that would be the end... not quite, aleve'd up and still have it today. The moral of my story.... I need to continue to "just say NO" when it comes to the artificially sweetened pop. I have never had such a quick reaction before, but I guess now that my body is used to being "un-toxic" these things are majorly noticeable to me now. I have no other symptoms, just the headache for which I am drinking plenty of fluids with hope of flushing out the trigger.
ON TO OTHER THINGS, THINGS LIKE BEING PREPARED FOR ????
I am planning a weekend soup and legume canning session soon. I have been reading the Apocalypse Chow book by Jon and Robin Robertson. Although I am not a gloom and doom thinker, I realized that my pressure canner is a gem to help me in the case of emergency too. However, I got it to save money and be able to get rid of a very large freezer from out bakehouse (which still works and is a place I store garden produce, excess grains, breads, dried fruits, etc. I realized that if the electricity goes out for a week a whole years worth of great organic and home grown frozen goods will not be of much help unless I attempt to feed the entire town a couple of days.
I have read sites where dried veggies, and vacuum packed cans of grains can be purchased to "prepare" for ????? Although I agreed that prepared is something important I never really bought into the idea of having a box of food stuffed away so that I could use it someday or worse to figure out how to use a bunch of dried stuff on a regular basis (so it wouldn't go bad) when I wanted fresh. Now I know with my pressure canner I can have the convenience home canned soups / legumes, prepared TVP taco or "sausage" meet on a regular basis (okay not fresh, but handy and I do like eating it) while at the same time having a stock of something saved for the "big one".
To remind me here's a little about my pressure canner . . .
23 quart pressure canner:
WOW WAS I WRONG!
Less than 1 1/2 hours after finishing that 32 ounce thing which I gulped like fresh water I started feeling something like a major migraine coming on. I have experienced many headaches in my SAD eating days although I have discovered since changing my lifestyle that I am not really prone to them. I have also had only one migraine in my entire life. It was a three day affair, not fun at all and I was glad to see go. I (and the doctor after a cat scan) attributed it to the stress of going back to college again after twelve years while managing a household, family, and a teenager with special needs since it didn't come back I was okay with this explanation. I immediately grabbed aleve and hoped that would be the end... not quite, aleve'd up and still have it today. The moral of my story.... I need to continue to "just say NO" when it comes to the artificially sweetened pop. I have never had such a quick reaction before, but I guess now that my body is used to being "un-toxic" these things are majorly noticeable to me now. I have no other symptoms, just the headache for which I am drinking plenty of fluids with hope of flushing out the trigger.
ON TO OTHER THINGS, THINGS LIKE BEING PREPARED FOR ????
I am planning a weekend soup and legume canning session soon. I have been reading the Apocalypse Chow book by Jon and Robin Robertson. Although I am not a gloom and doom thinker, I realized that my pressure canner is a gem to help me in the case of emergency too. However, I got it to save money and be able to get rid of a very large freezer from out bakehouse (which still works and is a place I store garden produce, excess grains, breads, dried fruits, etc. I realized that if the electricity goes out for a week a whole years worth of great organic and home grown frozen goods will not be of much help unless I attempt to feed the entire town a couple of days.
I have read sites where dried veggies, and vacuum packed cans of grains can be purchased to "prepare" for ????? Although I agreed that prepared is something important I never really bought into the idea of having a box of food stuffed away so that I could use it someday or worse to figure out how to use a bunch of dried stuff on a regular basis (so it wouldn't go bad) when I wanted fresh. Now I know with my pressure canner I can have the convenience home canned soups / legumes, prepared TVP taco or "sausage" meet on a regular basis (okay not fresh, but handy and I do like eating it) while at the same time having a stock of something saved for the "big one".
To remind me here's a little about my pressure canner . . .
23 quart pressure canner:
I purchased this wonderful (and large) device around July of last year. I started canning with my garden green bean and potato harvest and continued into soups, spreads, and other low acid foods. I like having some canned food like this on hand, it provides the convenience I need however coordinating a good day of canning of my own soups takes time to use the day wisely for maximum value. For example, 1 pot of Sicilian style split pea soup makes 7 pint jars. A 2 pound black bean pot of feijouda makes 10-12 jars. My pressure cooker holds 18-10 pint jars or seven quart. The quart jars are to big for what we typically consume at one time and if I am cooking to feed this many then I would just crockpot a pot of soup and have leftovers. It takes about 2 1/2 - 3 hours of my time to complete one batch... there is a 1 1/2 hour period in which I simply must babysit the pressure gauge to ensure it stays where it needs to be.
I also like lemon juice from concentrate sweetened with stevia. Now I can have a sweet drink that is not jammed with sugar or worse yet headache provoking chemicals while still be "prepared".
Anyone else prepared? What is in your storage box?
I also like lemon juice from concentrate sweetened with stevia. Now I can have a sweet drink that is not jammed with sugar or worse yet headache provoking chemicals while still be "prepared".
Anyone else prepared? What is in your storage box?
6 comments:
We have a huge water cooler at work. That's my preparation--that and green and herbal teas.
Once you've even partially detoxed, it's hard to go back ;)
Wow, that is really crazy how quickly and terribly the Diet Coke symptoms came on. I breifly mentioned kicking the Diet Coke habit on my blog a while back and I always meant to tell you that I have definitely kicked the habit (as in drinking a minimum of 20 oz/day) but I do still consume a Diet Coke now and then. Maybe a total of 20 oz/month. Big difference. I wish I could get rid of it completely but there is definitely a small addiction that makes me want a hit every now and then.
We have an ever growing box of emergency food in the living room inspired by Apolcalypse Chow (I would put it somewhere else, but aside from the crawl space we have NO storage at my house).
Sorry about your aspartame headache. I recently read more about aspartame and it scares me how much I consumed for so many years; as much- and often more than Crystal. I wish someone had told me it breaks down into formaldehyde and mutates your brain cells, pickles your liver and all that awful stuff, I would have stopped much sooner. I stopped last year after learning that one can't heal from Fibromyalgia while still consuming aspartame and/or MSG, and now when I want it I just have a Blue Sky cola. (expensive, but I drink them like once a month).
Whew that comment was long. Sorry :P
Oh yeah, in our storage box we have (besides food) a camping stove and extra case of propane for it, a propane lantern and four extra propanes plus about a thousand extra mantles (W accidentally bought an entire box instead of one from the box), plus water proof matches, a food mill bought especially for emergencies/camping, and good lord I'm not sure what else. :)
i really dont have a emergency box but i may think in making one, we never now when you can need it.
i cant drink diet soda or i will be in a mother headache for days.
Erica - I have also been a little preparedness minded. A little more so as I read more about ways to become so. I like the acopolypse chow book. A food mill esp for camping?! I have never heard of this.
We used to be experts at camping when the kids were younger. We had three tents. The "master" tent had two rooms, a dressing room in the front and the "master" bedroom in the back. We had a canopy that we put up so that our tent and our children's tents up so that we would get out of the tent and have a nice living room to stay dry under even if it had rained. We still have our campstove and porta potty along with the cheapo dishes that we used. So these things would also be in my "emergency" box. Actually we hope to camp a bit more this summer (without the teens who wouldn't really want to go anyway).
We should probably get some propane tanks for the cookstove, I don't think we have anymore of these.
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