A few weeks ago I told you that I was going to get P90X and do it. I may not have mentioned it since then, but I have certainly been thinking about it, almost every day, in fact. I’ve also been working hard to get ready for it. Every week I have increased my average workout time by 10-15 minutes, so that this week I am doing 50-60 minute workouts.

There has not been a day in the last 2 1/2 weeks that I have not been sore somewhere. Near the beginning of the month, I got so sore from a half-hour cardio workout that I could barely walk up and down the stairs at church two days later! I haven’t been that sore anywhere since. However, I have been mildly sore in various places–legs, abs, arms, shoulders… the soreness just moves, never leaves. And I’m sure it’s only going to get worse starting next Sunday! LOL!

I’ve been watching some of the P90X videos to get an idea of what they will be doing, and I have learned some things from them and also from the videos I have been using on ExerciseTV.tv. I noticed that the trainers would do circuits. They would pick 3 or more sets of exercises, and do either so many reps or so many seconds (30, 45, 60, etc) depending on the exercise, and whether it were strength training or aerobic. Well, I decided to apply that to my strength training at the gym.

Something else I learned was about working to failure, meaning you lift a weight heavy enough that at either 8-10 reps or 12-15 (depending on whether you want to build bulk or lean muscle respectively), you cannot life it one more time. Then you rest that muscle by doing other exercises, then come back and do it again.

This is the machine I was using.

So I took those two things to the gym last week. The first exercise I did was the machine bench press . I picked that and two other machines and did 1 set on each machine 3 times. Then I picked 3 more machines and did the same thing, for a total of 9 machines last Thursday. I was able to benchpress only 22 pounds with that machine.

Now, not only is 22 pounds a very small amount, but considering that when I started in late May, almost exactly 4 months ago, I started out at barely being able to do the 20-pound minimum, that’s really bad. I mean, gaining only 2 pounds in 4 months… But all summer whenever I would use that machine, I would do as many reps as I could, then rest for a minute, then do as many as I could again (usually about 12-14).

Tonight I went again. I started out at 22 pounds, but it was too easy. I got all the way to 15. So on the second round, I put it up to 24. That was still too easy, so I put it up to 26. I should have put it up to 28, because I still got up to 15 reps! So that’s a 4-6 pound gain in just 5 days! I worked the muscle to the max, let it rest, then did it again, and sure enough, I improved!

I also improved how much I could do with the bicep curl machine by a couple of pounds, so I was very happy.

That’s what P90X seems to be about. Only much more intense!

I can’t wait to get started. I’ll keep you all posted, probably with video posts. And I’ll post my modest before and after pictures (no guys except my husband will ever get to see the immodest ones I took yesterday) once I get them taken. And I’ll try to talk about other things on this blog other than just exercise. It’s just on my mind right now. Including my recipe for a homemade recovery drink. I need to actually make it first, though, and see how it turns out, before I post the recipe!

So are you planning a workout to get ready for the holidays? Why not share it?

Well, about a week ago I decided to make rye sourdough. I found a very simple sourdough starter recipe, and after about a dozen exchanges of emails with the author of that site, I came up with a starter that I had to refrigerate last Thursday because Manny had a doctor’s appointment Friday morning and I knew I wouldn’t have time to work on it.

Without going into all the details of exactly what I did (just read the instructions in the link above if you want to know), I mixed up more flour and water and a little salt with a portion of the starter that I had revived by doubling it, kneeded a bit (which was hard, because it was a VERY stiff dough), then divided it into roughly half. You see, I wanted to compare how it would look and turn out in a round loaf verses a bread pan. Half went into the bread pan and half onto a cookie sheet (I would have used a clay stone or pizza stone if I’d had one).

About 3 hours later it had risen a little, but it was almost 9:00 pm, so I gave up and baked it for half an hour. Knife inserted in the middle came out clean, so I knew it was done inside. The round loaf came off the sheet right away, but the one in the greased glass bread pan didn’t want to come out right away. I had to let it sit a few minutes before it would release without sticking too much (in spite of all the oil I smeared the pan with before putting in the dough).

Oh, you want to see pictures? But of course! This first one shows a bird’s-eye view of the two loaves, plus a portion of the 100% rye bread I made a few days ago (yeast-risen–this recipe). The pan I used to bake both that and the sourdough to the right is on the far right.

Top View - Middle loaf is not sourdough

This picture shows the sides of the three loaves, with the bread pan in the back for size comparison. The funny edges on the top of the middle one are because it overflowed the pan and I had to break those pieces off, so it looks a little funny. It was a 4-cup loaf of bread, but surprisingly rose well–melting butter soaks through because it is so light, comparatively. I’m not exactly sure how much flour went into the other two loaves in cups–it was somewhere around 700 grams, if that means anything.

Side Views - Sorry, but I ate them before I got the camera!

Now, for crumb views. Sorry the flash makes it so bright, but I don’t have optimal lighting nor a fancy camera, and I was too much in a hurry to dig up the tripod. Click on pictures to enlarge.

As you can see, the first two, the sourdoughs, didn’t rise much, but they did rise some. The last one was yeast risen and really rises a lot. It has a very wet dough, too wet to kneed, but very stiff to stir (which is what you are supposed to do with it anyway). I should try baking it in my bread machine pan sometime, just to see how much it will actually rise (because it likes to overflow the glass bread pan, which is much shorter). I couldn’t possibly kneed it in the bread machine, though!

Yes, I didn’t get pictures of the loaves before cutting. Why? I was hungry. I had baked it the night before and taken it out too late to eat any. So as soon as breakfast rolled around, I ate several slices. Yummy! It has a nice sour taste that reminds me of the kefir bread I made over 2 years ago. It’s even better toasted. It’s been a long time in coming, but now that I have a working starter, I can keep working with it, so I can make all the sourdough I want. Yay! Whole grain and wheat free.

Now if I can just get it to rise a bit more… But if not, I can use the yeast rye bread for sandwiches and this for, well, all other bread cravings. Wonder if it would go over well at potluck once I perfect the recipe… which means getting a better scale that weighs in at least 5 gram increments and is more accurate than the one I have (which could be off by as much as 20 grams or more).

Yeah, making bread by weight is a whole new level of breadmaking. But I like it. It means I don’t have to worry about having or doubling a recipe–because weights are accurate–if the scale is.

Okay, enough. Go make a starter. Or come visit and I’ll share a slice with you. If there is any left!

I feel like blogging tonight, but I don’t know what to blog about. I think my friends are getting tired of hearing about me working out. I’ve posted about that a lot lately. I’m just getting over being sore from a rather intense workout I did Thursday. Going to try it again tomorrow. I’ve got to be ready for P90X next month!!

But enough of that. My husband went to the Goodwill Outlet today. That is such an amazing place if you have time to hunt. He found this set of CD’s for anxiety and depression and paid all of $1! It’s worth $400 brand new–and it was brand new! So he’s going to listen to it–since he’s going to be studying for a degree in social work, it will be helpful for him–and then we might sell it for a nice fat profit on eBay or Amazon.

He also came back with almost 25 pounds of clothes. He bought 3 pairs of jeans for himself, but one of them turned out to be a size 12 (ie, not men’s jeans!) and they fit me perfectly. Not to mention that they come to the actual waistline, which I like (makes the belly look flatter, unlike those awful low-rise jeans!). I’m going to use them for before and after pictures with my workout, since they fit ever so slightly snug, but by the end they should be nice and comfy (I don’t like jeans or skirts or anything digging into my waist, especially when I am sitting down).

He found a bunch of other stuff too. One was a shirt that he thought would be for Gislaine. Problem is, it’s an XL… I told him it would fit her in 10 years. We decided to give it to the 7-year-old neighbor girl who is big for her age. Maybe it will fit her in 3 years. Or just be an oversized shirt now.

He also picked up a bunch of shirts for himself. Pens in pockets have ruined a number of his shirts lately. Some he’ll use now, and others we packed for later when other shirts wear out or get pen marks.

He also found 5 or 6 pairs of training pants for Manny. They are a size 2T, and he’s growing out of that size, but if I get serious about potty training, maybe we can actually use them to help him learn, and then get some size 4T underpants once he’s potty trained.

If…

The weather has been hot here. I can’t really complain too much, because while the rest of the country sweltered, we were blessed with 70-degree days most of the summer. But we don’t have air conditioning, unlike most people, and I’m not really fond of sweating when I’m not working out, so we made do with opening windows at night and closing them in the morning, and avoiding baking during the day (I put the bread machine in the garage and made granola after 5:00 pm, so all the heat would go out during the night). Thankfully it gets cold here at night (high 50′s to low 60′s), and the humidity has been low, so it was bearable. I don’t know what the high was inside the house, but I suspect high 80′s. Which means that tomorrow the high outside will probably be lower than the high today inside. Note to self: After we move, be sure to buy a big fan to sit in the window.

We took Manny for a visit to the doctor last Friday. Which reminds me, I should have been blogging about that on my eczema blog. But I didn’t think of that until just now, and now I don’t have time. It’s almost bedtime.

Today is September 11. I shouldn’t let this day pass without a mention of what happened 10 years ago. I have mixed feelings on the whole thing (probably because I think there is something to at least some of the conspiracy theories out there), but the innocent victims’ families have all my sympathy! And then there are those who should have died but didn’t. The guy who forgot his briefcase, or the lady who got stuck in traffic. Or the pilot who should have been on Flight 11. Watch this–all of it:

[If you are viewing in Facebook or email, please click here to see the video.]

Okay, so I know P90X, which I’m going to start next month, is going to be intense. A friend suggested that I warm up to it. I agree. So when I couldn’t go to the gym tonight because my husband was coming home late, I decided to see if there were any free cardio videos online that I could do.

Enter ExerciseTV.tv. I browsed through the cardio ones to find one that was half an hour long, and I found this one. Wow! What a workout! I had sweat dripping from all over when I finished–and I don’t sweat easily. I wasn’t able to do it perfectly–the last couple of exercises, which had me in push-up position doing things with my legs, were a bit problematic because of 1) my shoes being too wide in the heels and trying to slip off and 2) my abs not being strong enough. But I’m determined to get stronger. No excuses!

What did you do for exercise today, or what do you plan on doing? I’d love to hear it!

Some people like to use a sponge for washing dishes. For years I avoided them, because they always became smelly. But even the green scouring pad became smelly, and I never liked it. I knew the smell was caused by bacteria, which was nasty.

For several years, I used the non-cellulose sponges, because they were more airy and dried out before the smell-inducing bacteria could grow. But I didn’t like them very much.

Then back in April we moved into a rental house, where we wait for our home the tree fell on to be fixed. There I started using small, cheap cellulose sponges, planning on washing them whenever they got smelly (since I could buy 6 for a dollar at the dollar store). But I noticed something: they didn’t get smelly. They would get stained and torn and eventually wear out, but they never got smelly. Even when I switched to bigger, two-sided cellulose/green scrubber sponges, the lack of smell continued, even when the sponges didn’t have time to dry out between uses.

Well, this week I finally figured it out. It’s the dish soap I’m using! Back in March, I started using Melaleuca’s Lemon Brite handwashing dish detergent, and I haven’t had a problem with smelly sponges ever!

I believe it works because of the Melaleuca oil in it. Melaleuca oil is antiseptic, so it kills off all the bad bacteria before they have a chance to make the sponges smelly.

Melaleuca oil is a high-quality form of what is more commonly known as tea tree oil. I’m very happy with Melaleuca’s detergent, so I probably won’t ever try this, but I suppose someone could get some tea tree oil at the pharmacy and add it to whatever dish detergent they are currently using–but that just seems like a lot of work to me. That might give similar results, though tea tree oil is much lower quality than pure Melaleuca oil.

I especially like how this detergent doesn’t dry my hands out like some do, and it’s not made with harsh chemicals, so it’s safe for the environment too. Not that I’m all into saving the earth, but I figure doing my part is good stewardship, and if I can do something without a lot of effort, it makes me feel good.

What do you think? What do you use to wash dishes? A dish cloth? A sponge? Something else? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Also, what dish detergent do you like and why? Please share.

Today Gislaine officially started “preschool.” Okay, so it’s not traditional preshool, but since her friends across the cul-de-sac are both going to school, I wanted to do something.

So every day we work on a memory verse. This week it’s John 10:27. We also focus on a character trait–this week is Attentiveness. We also have a letter and number of the week–that would be A and zero. She traces a few letters or numbers, or does some other simple preschool activity in a preschool book (most of those I bought at the dollar store). Then we have a story or a craft that goes along with either the character trait or the letter or number.

It took us less than half an hour to get today’s work done, and she enjoyed herself thoroughly. I made her erase some of her tracing for being rather sloppy and redo it, and that helped her to learn to do better. I also plan on having her learn to color realistically and to stay in the lines better (though she does tolerably well already).

So I suppose we can consider the first day of school a success. Now she’s over at the neighbor’s house, playing with her friends. That’s where I think 4-year-olds should spend most of their time–a few chores, a little school, and a lot of play.

Have you heard of P90X? It stands for Power 90 [day] Extreme. It is made by Beachbody, a company that is focused on fitness. Well, starting October 1, I’m going to do it.

One of my friends, John, is a Beachbody coach, so I bought the program through him. He’s doing a challenge with a group of people–5-10, he says–to go through the program for 90 days, then to do P90X2 for the next 90 days. I figure it will be good for me, and motivating.

My husband and I are going to work at it together. He’s already in decent shape–he’s been working out at the gym for a while. I, on the other hand, have a hard time motivating myself to do my workout, even when I get to the gym. I don’t enjoy challenging myself, and my workouts get boring after a while, and I plateau quickly. P90X will solve all of those issues.

I’m not really overweight, but I have some extra “baby fluff” around the middle that I would like to get rid of. Plus I have never been able to do a push-up–not even a girl push-up–ever in my life. And currently I need 80-90 pounds of assistance to do a chin-up. And I only weigh between 130 and 135. It’s what I got down to in my weight loss challenge last year, and I never have gotten lower. I am a bit more fit than I was at the beginning of the summer, thanks to my gym membership, but I have plateaued, and I need something to help get me over this hump.

I’d like to invite you, if you would like to join me in this fitness adventure, check out John’s blog post about the challenge. I’m not doing the shake part of it, for financial reasons, but I wish I could. But I figure there are some things I can do about nutrition anyhow, and I’m really more interested in the camaraderie and accountability. I’m not a Beachbody coach and would get nothing out of it if one or more of my readers wanted to join the challenge, except mutual moral support.

So what do you think? Care to join me?

When I first tried sourdough many years ago, I fell in love with it. The tangy flavor really appealed to me. I especially liked the crusty edges (even though I rarely eat the heels of regular bread). Unfortunately, most sourdough is 100% white flour, and I have been trying to avoid white flour as much as possible. In fact, I managed to go 4 or 5 months here in Aloha without it. When I did buy it, it was for a recipe for my husband to take to work for his coworkers. And with the leftovers, I attempted to make playdough (that turned out to be a failure–the recipe with cornstarch was much more like the real thing). But now I’m rambling…

Since I have developed an allergy to wheat, I try to avoid it for the most part. That means no more bread at potlucks, for instance. So all the fancy sourdoughs that show up there don’t show up on my plate. And I don’t buy it, white or whole grain or otherwise.

But I thought, now that I’ve found a good recipe for 100% rye bread, maybe I could find a recipe for 100% rye sourdough, and a way to make a starter.

Sure enough, I found a site that explains exactly how to make a rye sourdough starter, and then how to make bread with it. Granted, the recipe it shows in those steps uses 50% wheat, but I wrote the author, and he shared a sort of recipe for 100% rye (something about 78% hydration, 1% salt and 1% caraway, I think it was). I still have a lot to learn, it seems.

But I can’t do anything until I have a ripe starter, and that will take the better part of this week, it seems, so I have plenty of time to figure that out. I had everything I needed except for distilled water and a kitchen scale. Apparently, the kitchen scale is very important, because the water and flour need to be mixed in equal weights–such as 50 grams each–and it’s very difficult to be accurate with measurements. And when it comes to actually making the bread, the only way one could figure out 78% hydration, which means more flour than water, so that instead of 50:50 rye:water it’s now 100:78. It seems I’ll get to use some math for the process–my favorite subject it was, so that will be nice.

Anyhow, I stopped at the Goodwill on my way home from shopping today and found a small kitchen scale for $1.99! I also found a number of other things I hadn’t planned on buying and ended up spending over $25, but that’s okay, because they were all things we more or less needed. Okay, the $10 family-sized swimming pool probably wasn’t really needed, but then, the neighbors loaned us their kiddie pool, and it got a big hole and it’s not fixable, and it was worth $10, so now we can replace it, so I guess it was needed after all.

Oops, I’m rambling again. Sorry…

So I picked up a gallon of distilled water and mixed up 50 grams each of 100% organic rye flour and water in a widemouth canning jar, screwed on a lid (a plastic one–not too tight), and set it in the kitchen.

My only concern is that the temperature of the house fluctuates dramatically. Right now it is about 80 degrees (the A/C doesn’t work), but this morning it was 65 (thanks to all the open windows). I hope this doesn’t negatively affect the culture. Maybe it will just slow it down at night.

Anyhow, I can’t wait for morning to see if it has any bubbles. I’ll take a picture then–it’s late now and I’m ready for bed. It’s been a long day!

All I can say is that a rye sourdough starter looks a whole lot easier to make than a wheat one, so maybe it’s a blessing I became allergic to wheat. And there’s nothing better than rye bread with caraway. Unless it’s more rye bread with caraway!

If you have any interest in rye sourdough, I would encourage you to take a look at the site I found. They have a lot of interesting information, including pictures of the bread they have made. It looks so good!!!

This is the blender I use.

It’s not even noon yet as I sit down to write this, and I have already used my blender three times. I use it more than any given pot or pan, more than the toaster, more than just about anything else. Granted, if my son weren’t allergic to so many things, requiring me to make things for him, I would probably not use it quite as often. But I use it almost every day.

And today happens to be one of those days when I use it extra.

Let’s see… I started out by blending up some black beans I had cooked for Manny, right before I poured them into ice cube trays to freeze for later.

Then I blended the quinoa I had cooked for Manny’s breakfast. Because he doesn’t chew stuff much yet, I find it better to grind his grains. Most of them I grind before cooking, but since quinoa needs to be rinsed, it’s easier to blend it up afterwards.

A little later, I used the blender to make teff milk, which is very similar to the rice milk I demonstrated on YouTube, except that I use a little less teff than rice (otherwise it gets too thick), and I only cook it for 1 hour instead of 2 1/2, because the grains are so tiny.

When I finish with this post, I will make cashew cheese for haystacks.

After lunch, I will make nut milk with the nuts that are soaking on the window sill right now.

So that makes five times today that my blender is getting used. I honestly don’t know how I could live without one! Anyone want to get me a VitaMix for Christmas? Or my birthday? Or just because? Anyone?

But seriously, please share how you use your blender–if you have one. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Have you noticed that food prices have been going up? Even with all the bulk buying that I do, it seems that it is getting harder and harder to stay within my budget. Some months I have to supplement a few dollars of my personal money to get us through the month–or ask my husband for a little of his.

There are certain meals that are rather popular in our family, but some of those are a little pricier than others. For instance, we all like scrambled tofu on sweet potatoes, but sweet potatoes are not cheap. I almost always buy them for my son, who is on such a limited diet that I get him whatever he can eat even if it’s not exactly cheap (and since he’s little, he doesn’t require large quantities, thank goodness!), but for the rest of us, I change things around.

So instead of tofu over sweet potatoes, I’ll cook some cornmeal the night before and put it into a glass bread pan. In the morning, I slice and bake. Voila! Baked cornmeal!

Another favorite meal is seasoned oven fries dipped in sunflower seed sour cream mixed with avocado. When avocados get too expensive, I use tomatoes and cilantro instead (if my daughter liked spicy hot, I’d throw in a serrano pepper, but she doesn’t yet). When I run out of red potatoes (the best kind for oven fries) and money is short, I cook a pot of savory oatmeal. That is, I use a powdered chicken or beef style powdered broth to make it savory, then pour the plain sour cream over it, and add some onion rings. These onion rings are sauted in little oil with a couple dashes of salt and a quirt of lemon juice. My daughter does not like onions, but she loves this style, because the lemon juice takes the oniony taste right out. She calls them worms. That makes a rather tasty and nutritious breakfast that sticks a little longer than the oatmeal/milk/fruit breakfast that most Americans eat. Of course, we still eat some fruit if we have it, just not in the oatmeal.

When I get tired of regular lentils, I grab some spices and change the flavor. Add curry powder, cumin, tumeric, and ginger powder to the fresh onions and garlic and celery that I would normally put in a pot of lentils, and suddenly they are Indian style lentils! I like to put some extra cayenne pepper on mine, especially on a cold day (of which Oregon has had a lot this summer). Serve over rice. I especially like to do this with red lentils, though it will work for just about any kind of lentil.

When I decide I can’t afford to buy tofu and I’m too busy or lazy to make it (right now I have a good excuse–my tofu mold is an hour’s drive away and I don’t have a car), I make a soy souffle. This I serve over millet or quinoa or buckwheat or whatever whole grain I feel like cooking up (those 3 are our favorites for eating with souffle, though I suppose you could use rice or Bulgar wheat too).

We like to eat eggplant sliced and breaded with pasta, but I only buy it once or twice a month. Pasta alone does not satisfy my husband–he needs more protein. So I found a delicious recipe for Italian white beans. My slow cooker is about 10 feet away from my tofu mold, so I just cook the white beans in my pressure cooker, add extra water and all the other ingredients, and cook on low for about half an hour or until my husband gets home. He is picky about white beans, but loves this style. I use dried tomatoes I get in a bin at the grocery store instead of the ones canned in oil, because they’re cheaper, so I find that soaking them in hot water for a while while the beans cook helps (and I can add the water to the beans too). I also use manzanilla olives instead of the olives they call for (because that’s usually what I have on hand, other than regular black olives, which would add nothing to the flavor!). Rice pasta (since I’m trying to avoid wheat) with a cheap pasta sauce doctored a little (usually extra onions and dried basil, maybe some mushrooms or olives if I feel like it) and these beans makes a complete meal.

In my quest to find a substitute for wheat bread, I discovered this tasty recipe for 100% rye bread. I use carob powder instead of espresso powder, but other than that, I follow the recipe to a T. It looks like a lot of work, but actually, you only have to stir it for about 3 minutes, then turn it into an oiled mixing bowl and let it rise twice before transferring it to a greased bread pan to rise again, then bake it. It actually rises quite nicely, and the flavor is, well, if you like rye bread, you’ll love this! It holds together well enough to work for sandwiches, and it rises enough to not be too heavy (for me, anyhow). Sure, it’s not gluten free, but I don’t seem to be bothered by gluten. Just wheat. Hasn’t stopped me from eating it entirely, but I do best if I eat it no more than once a week (of course, if I stopped eating it completely, I’d probably do even better, but I’m doing well enough to be content for the moment). I buy organic rye flour in the 10-pound bag, so it’s actually really good bread. And even though rye flour is not as cheap as wheat, homemade rye bread is cheaper than a good loaf of whole wheat–or rye bread, for that matter!

Well, I think the souffle we’re having for tomorrow’s breakfast has cooled enough. That means I need to get off, go brush my teeth, and hit the sack. I hope you enjoyed my musings, and hopefully you’ve gotten some ideas on how you can save money when the end of the month hits again in a few weeks and there seems to be more month than food-budget money. If you’re in the habit of buying cheap food in bulk, you’ll be sure to make it!