Wheat-(Mostly) Free and the Summertime Abyss

I will admit that I haven’t gone completely wheat free since my last post on the subject.  Sunday, while out with my son, we went to Burger King and I had a Chicken sandwich, which came on a bun…and this morning I had a half of a bottom piece of a bagel.  I’m still down about 2 lbs from a week ago, so for the most part, I’m doing well.  I just have to try to make the best choices I can when choosing to eat out.

As far as everything else, I’m doing alright.  I still haven’t began my running program yet, but I’ve been doing some research here and there.  Next week is vacation (actually it’s probably more like basement project week), so I’ll probably begin my running program after that week.

The sunburn is gone now at this point, but the spot where the blister is at is pretty dry, so I’ve got to moisturize that.  I hope y’all are doing great.  I wish you a safe July.

The pause of one project and the progress of others!

Happy Thursday!  We’re finally showing some life in our garden.  While I haven’t completely gotten rid of the weeds, we’ve got some crops ‘a growing.  We’ve got some tomatoes starting to sprout, the jalapenos are almost ready to pick, and a cucumber is showing itself.  We weren’t sure that we were going to get anything out of the garden this year, but are excited that something’s actually happening.

 

We’ve totally given up on the wallpaper project in the hallway at this point.  We’re going to take our time removing it all and just get it done when it gets done.  We’ve looked at different options, such as hiring help to do it, but it would likely take too much money to do it right now.

We’ve made great progress on planning the basement project, though.  We just bought the can lights last night from Lowe’s, and picked up the circle cutter and keyhole saw as well.  We saw some different kind of ceiling tiles though, which might be able to put up just using adhesive, but I’m going to have to do the research today to see if that’s a viable option, otherwise, we’ll continue along with the beadboard ceiling plan.  There’s only 2 weeks left until the in-laws arrive, so it’s getting down to the nitty-gritty time to have all the prep done.  Excitement is ‘a brewing!

Wonderfully Wheat Free!

It’s been quite a hectic week around the household.  We’re still in our wheat-less world, and I really haven’t noticed any significant difference to this point, outside of the fact that I’ve lost around 4 lbs in the last week (down to about 236), but I’m not sure how much of that is attributed to actually being wheat-free…but I’l take it.  Our lunches have consisted of the Cheesy Sausage Quiche and the Cauliflower Pizza Bites.  While the Pizza Bites were okay, as far as I was concerned, my wife did not seem to be too hot on it.  However, the Cheesy Sausage Quiche was significantly better…I used Apple Chicken Sausage with it, and it was pretty darn tasty.  Next on the palate will probably be the Tuna Melt Stuffed Tomatoes.  I didn’t follow any of these recipes to a tee, necessarily, but I did substitute them where I could to make them dairy free as well as gluten free.

Turning to the sunburn front, it was a pretty bad one.  I had a huge blister on my right knee.  It was just about one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen.  It blew up like a balloon.  It’s gone away now, but I’m leaving my DNA everywhere I go, because I’m peeling so bad.  I need to remind myself to never do this again.  Although it has diverted attention away from my left foot, which seems to be doing great now.  I anticipate starting to walk/run again here in a few weeks.  Once that starts, I’ll be rolling!  Urrr, I guess I’ll be running, not rolling.  LOL!

I hope you all take care of yourself riding this heat wave (it’s supposed to be 95 today here) and stay cool!

 

Sir Walter Scott would be mad too if he had to remove wallpaper

Oh, what a wicked wallpaper web we weave.  The wallpaper plan has gone up in smoke, as Krista has told me that we should quit working on it now, as it will take too long.  While that is true, she, knowing me as well as she does, knows that I would continue plugging away on it until it’s done, no matter how long it would go.  The bottom layer of wallpaper that is on the wall is just too difficult to remove, so she wanted me to contact some people to help finish it, so we can paint it…or at least get some advice on how to do so…so, I’ve put in an email to our guy, Mike, of Rescue 1 Construction, to see if he can help.  We’ll see what he has to say.

As far as the basement planning is going, we’ve finally settled on a ceiling tile…beadboard, instead of the two options I mentioned last week.  I’ve still got to finish measuring out to see how many tiles are needed (as we also need it for the office and the bathroom), but thankfully, at least that part of the planning is almost resolved, outside of the lighting.  Now, I will also have to work on planning the walls portion, as we’re going to have to get insulation, so we can put the paneling back on and paint it (unless she ends up wanting to get different walls).  I’m hoping to finish all of the planning this weekend, so I can start getting all the materials and tools ready to get started once the in-laws are here.

Finally, the garden…we were able to pick up some more compost and mulch, so we added the compost to hostas that we had planted around a tree in the front yard and the mulch over the soil in the flower garden that we had planted the week before (which was mentioned in the last post).  We ended up not being able to weed the vegetable garden in the backyard, but we did put up a fence around it to keep our schnoodle, Ted, out of it…as he had a little too much fun in the mud in the garden after a recent thunderstorm.  🙂

Anyway, that’s it for this week.  I appreciate anyone who happens to come across this either in the near or far future and reads it, as it does mean a lot.

“Wrap”ping up Wheat and Sunday Sunburns

As tomorrow is the 4th of July, I will not be able to post anything then, so I’m getting this out today.

We’ve began our wheat-free experience, and thus far, it’s been okay.  It’s still early in the process, so there’s not a lot to report as far as if it’s changed anything.  I’m hoping for it to be a good experience.

My first real new type of wheat-free recipe was a chicken-avocado lettuce wrap sandwich on Saturday.  It was surprisingly pretty filling.  So much so, that even though we didn’t eat for about 8 hours after that, I wasn’t starving then.

I took my son to the Twins game vs. the Royals at Kaufmann Stadium yesterday, and I got burnt pretty well on my neck, arms and knees, so that’s probably not a good thing health-wise.  🙂  I’ll likely be okay though, but will keep an eye on it.

 

Of wallpaper, basement walls and gardens galore!

The wallpaper work is still in progress…of course, as you expected.  I did finally get all of the first layer off, but we’ll still be working on getting the bottom layer off and sanding it all down.  I hope to get a lot of it done tomorrow and possibly Saturday.

As far as the basement planning, a plan is beginning to take shape. It should be a fun project, but I think it might cost a little more than we expected.  We’ve narrowed down the ceiling tile options to 2 different styles, this one and this one.  I’m planning on reusing the grid that is already there (for the most part), but also might have to add some pieces to make it all work together.  I still have to research the insulation for the walls as that might add some more cost, and we’ll have to plan the lighting as well.  Hopefully, we’ll have a complete plan done here in the next couple of weeks.

Unlike the wallpaper and the basement though, we made some significant progress on the garden.  Pam, our next door neighbor, came over and gave us some awesome tips on our flowers and the existing flowers…such as the lilies, which apparently you aren’t supposed to plant all that deeply (you should be able to see some of the bulb), otherwise they may not flower.  We got all our flowers/plants planted on the south side of the house (where most of the light is all day long), but we still have some weeding to do in the backyard garden, as it has gotten out of hand.  We’re novice gardeners, but we’re learning on the job.  See ya next week!

The Wheat-Free Life is around the corner

Another week has gone by, and I’m getting my mind right on preparing for the new wheat-free era which begins this weekend.  The hardest part, I believe, is getting mentally prepared to say no to bread.  The anticipation of it is kind of hard, but I think I’ll be ready.  I certainly hope that it will cause a big change.  While it may not be dramatic as far as weight loss (although I’d certainly like to see that too), the switch over to eating more fruits & vegetables may cause digestive changes, which could be a shock to the system.  We’ll have to see what happens…it’s exciting, yet scary all at the same time.

I felt a very minor twinge in the bottom of my foot this morning, so I know I’m not completely ready yet to begin any type of running program, but I’m hoping that it will subside by the middle of next month, so I can get going.  I’m itching to begin it, because I think that, of anything, will help me feel better, because right now, I find my energy to be lacking.  I know Krista says she feels better, because she’s been walking more, but that doesn’t seem to be enough for me.  I feel okay, but I don’t want to just feel okay.  I want to feel great.  I think running may be able to do that for me.

Next week’s post will be after the start of the wheat-free period, I’ll let you how it’s going.  I know there probably won’t be any significant results to that point, but I think it’s important to get out my thoughts on it to reinforce it.  Here’s to having a great week!

The snag in the Wallpaper plan…

We ran into a huge snag in the wallpaper plan from last week.  While I did get a decent portion of the wallpaper done on Friday, nothing happened after that.  The power went out on Saturday night and didn’t return until Monday afternoon.  While I could have continued to do it some using the sticky paper method, we spent so much time on Sunday trying to recharge phones, and find battery-operated devices to try and get by until the power came back on, there was no time to actually work on the wallpaper.

Therefore, the plan gets pushed back until this weekend.  I do know that Krista wants to get the garden planted, so I’m going to have to work on the wallpaper some tomorrow after early release (there’s a cool thing that work does in which during the summer months, they let us out 2 hours early on Fridays so we can get a jump start on our weekends…it’s awesome). I’m hoping to get the initial layer of wallpaper all off on Friday and then work on that 2nd layer some on Friday and finished on Saturday, so I can sand the wall on Sunday.

As far as the plan for when the in-laws arrive to help with the basement, even though the wallpaper is not completed yet, Krista and I are beginning to formulate a plan.  I believe, in general, the plan is to pull the carpeting out completely, insulate the walls, put the paneling back up, and then replace the drop ceiling tiles with something different (and raise it a little) and the lights.  That may be all that we’ll be able to accomplish in the span of time they will be here.

So, it’s a busy time here in our house with projects galore.  If we can get some of this done, it’ll be time to relax for a short time on any big projects until maybe winter.

The struggle continues…

Well, the struggle has continued.  Ever since last week, I have been unable to get up at 5:30 again, and the power going out in the house last weekend (and lasting until Monday afternoon) put quite a drag on the plan.  I am going to mention it to Krista again to see if she wants to restart the plan to get up at 5:30, so we can get a move onto better health.

As far as the discussion on what to begin eating in the post-wheat era, I have begun some research into some lunches that I can eat that don’t contain wheat.  The most promising ones generally involve mini-quiches or possibly lettuce wraps.  I’m not a huge fan of soup, although that is certainly an option I can do on occasion.  One such possibility is the Cauliflower Pizza Bites.   While I’m not big on cauliflower, I think I’m going to give it a shot.

On other health-related fronts, my foot is beginning to feel much better, and I’m not waking up with as much soreness on the bottom of my foot.  But, my back has been rather sore, mainly from having to lift the garage door to get the cars out when the power was out.  It was awfully rough on the lower body, and I’ve paid the price.  But, hopefully I should be well enough when I compete in the Corporate Challenge swim meet in a couple of days.  As far as running, my goal is to probably begin running again in mid to late July.  That’s my early goal, because I want to be able to complete the full 5K next year in the Corporate Challenge.

 

My struggle to finish projects and Wallpaper Weekend

Our home is the land of unfinished projects.  I’ve started several projects around the house, most are small, but some are bigger, like the hallway (I think we’ve been removing the wallpaper from it for about 2 months now).  There’s also a pretty large project looming in the basement at the end of next month, which I need to begin planning.

Some of the smaller projects I started last summer shortly after we moved in, and ran into some snags, so I never finished, and just haven’t ever gotten back to.  There’s the outlet in the bedroom (we swapped out the outlet, and it required replacing the junction box with a larger one and we had to bust some of the drywall to get it in, so there’s a hole there), there’s the motion detector on top of the garage, which has a hole next to it which needs to be filled with foam to prevent other things from getting in, the ceiling fan switch in the family room which still doesn’t work, the sink in the downstairs bathroom which needs to be fixed, the basement floor which needs to be scrubbed, so we can put down the exercise mat floor, the caulking in the main bathroom tub that needs to be redone, and the master bathroom shower which needs to be redone.

Even though I have those projects still left to finish, my highest priority should be to finish that wallpaper in the hallway.  We have about 5 weeks until the in-laws come into town to help do the basement project, so I think I have about 2 weeks to finish the hallway, which will leave about 3 weeks to plan out the basement project and get all the necessary supplies, so we can be ready to go when they arrive.  In order to do that, it’s absolutely critical to finish, at minimum, removing all the wallpaper this weekend and sanding it down so  we can paint it the next weekend.  Time to get it done!  Wish me luck!  I’ll let you know how I did next week.