Thursday Thirteen ~ DASHing

1.  My brother posted one of those "I'm going to see how many read this whole post" things on Facebook about diabetes devastating our family and how taking Metformin "may encourage the onset of dementia."

2.  He told us to copy and paste for friends to read, but I wrote that "instead of just posting this information and moving on past it, I'm going to share with you how I got OFF of Metformin, little brother.   I love you enough to share what worked for me."

3.  Here's how my story unfolded.  My doctor in Chattanooga suggested the Mediterranean Diet and, when I moved to St. Louis, my doctor here suggested the DASH Diet, I have followed each of these diets.

4.  Here's basically what I'm still doing:  Since having quadruple bypass surgery in February 2009, I have chosen healthy foods over processed foods and have lost 67 pounds slowly and carefully and safely over eleven-plus years.  Now I'm down from 224 pounds to 157 and still losing at an easy pace, by choice, by watching my intake.  I eat lots of colorful fruits and vegetables, rather than processed foods.  The less processed, the better.

5.  I have bought three DASH Diet books by Marla Heller, a registered dietician.  These have been very helpful to change my eating habits.

• The DASH Diet Mediterranean Solution is at the top, promising "the best eating plan to control your weight and improve your health for life."
• The DASH Diet Weight Loss Solution, on the right, says on the cover:  "2 weeks to drop pounds, boost metabolism, and get healthy."  It has two stages, starting with a two week "jump start" to reset your metabolish.
• The DASH Diet Younger You (below) promises on the cover that you can "shed twenty years — and pounds — in just ten weeks."

6.  Here's the link to these three books by Marla Heller that I've purchased.  I think it's enough to just get the blue book at the top, which combines the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH Diet into what Heller calls the MedDASH Diet for short.

7.  A key point is to think of "diet" as every-thing you choose to eat, and I told Jim (my brother), "Your library probably has a copy, if you don't want to buy it, or I'll have Amazon send you a copy, if you want it."

8.  I also told him there are Facebook pages for people to encourage each other to stick with the program, and I'm in two of them.

9.  If you are interested in the Facebook groups, the most important one for me is the MedDASH group, using the blue book at the top.

10.  I'm also in the  DASH Diet Weight Loss Solution on Facebook, which uses the gold book.  I joined it before the MedDash book was published, then added that one when the MedDASH book came out.

11.  There are other books by Marla Heller that I didn't buy, including The DASH Diet Action Plan and The Everyday DASH Diet Cookbook, if you want to explore all of them.  You don't need a separate cookbook, however, because she makes meal suggestions in each of the books.

12.   Did someone ask what DASH means?  DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

13.  Ask me questions in the comments, and I'll try to explain better.

The only rule for Thursday Thirteen is to write about 13 things.  For more information and to sign up, click on New Thursday 13.

Birds, ocean, mountain, and a moving window

Monica's window looks straight out onto a plastered wall in San Diego, California.  But that makes it all the better to see a colorful bird feeder hanging just outside, which has attracted seven or eight dark-colored hummingbirds, poking their beaks into openings to drink the water.  "It's my turn, guys!"  I enjoyed watching the water slosh inside as the birds landed and darted away.  The feeder was something like this picture, but with a ring all the way around where they could sit until their turn to sip.  It also had a totally different pattern of color.  Oh, there was also a blooming plant in the window, adding to the color.

Kimberley's windows overlooks  ocean swells and some land jutting out into the ocean in St. David's, Bermuda.

Anton's window was moving in Moscow, Russia!  At first, I thought he was in a car, then I saw indications it's a moving train.  Excellent interpretation of "window" for us to enjoy a few minutes of the greenery growing by the tracks on his trip that sunny day.

Jim's view is a nearby stone building up against a rocky mountain covered in trees and bushes in Pyrenees, Catalonia.

Sarah must not have had a bookmark handy the day she videotaped the view from her window in Oldham, UK.  Although I can't see the book's title, she has it splayed open on her windowsill beside her cup of tea (coffee?), flanked by a couple of potted plants.  Her window overlooks neighboring trees and houses with buildings a few blocks away.

Okay, that's enough for me today.  Your turn to look out a random window or two in the world, using WindowSwap

Extra ~ a little nature tour of Iceland for us, thanks to my daughter.

TWOsday ~ two issues

Black Lives Matter

I posted an article on Facebook about Rabbi Susan Talve.  Her synagogue is next door to Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who came out with guns when protesters went by their house.  She says of the McCloskeys, "They are bullies."  I wrote about her in 2015 when she spoke at the White House and told her how I admired her for being willing to be arrested to protest injustice.  She's willing to do what it takes to stand up to bullies.

Pandemic

I laughed at this official flag of 2020.  I'm still wearing masks, as are my neighbors here at the Crown Center.  Do you always remember to wear your mask?

Please wear your masks!

I think I'll take a break today

• Finish reading my book.
• Savor a cup of tea.
• Daydream.
• Listen to music.
• Unplug from my phone.
• Take a nap.
• Meditate or do yoga.
• Take Clawdia for a walk.
• Enjoy the small moments.
• Read another book.

Beginning ~ with a note

"The note had been typed out, folded over two times, and pinned to the child's chest.  It could not be missed."

How to Pronounce Knife: Stories ~ by Souvankham Thammavongsa, 2020, stories

In the title story of this collection, a young girl brings a book home from school and asks her father to help her pronounce a tricky word, a simple exchange with unforgettable consequences.  The stories that make up this book focus on characters struggling to build lives in unfamiliar territory, or shuttling between idioms, cultures, and values.  A failed boxer discovers what it truly means to be a champion when he starts painting nails at his sister's salon.  A young woman tries to discern the invisible but immutable social hierarchies at a chicken processing plant.  A mother coaches her daughter in the challenging art of worm harvesting. The author interrogates what it means to make a living, to work, and to create meaning.

 ============================
Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts
Book Beginnings on Fridays.
Click this link for book beginnings
shared by other readers.
============================

National Senior Citizens Day

Everything on here is likely to happen in my world today, except I doubt if anyone in my family knows it's National Senior Citizens Day.  Since I live among seniors in a retirement center, I already had plans when I learned this is supposed to be our day.  Donna invited me to have lunch with her.  Lest you think we ladies are dining out, think again.  We'll find a place outside where we can eat socially distanced, and have the food delivered to us.  I like this part of today's world, that eating "out" can mean simply "out back" in our gazebo without having to mingle in a restaurant with strangers, some of whom may not have been diligent about wearing masks, socially distancing, and avoiding crowds.

Delcrest Plaza redevelopment plans

Click to enlarge the image.

The Planning Commission heard their proposal for a combination hotel and apartment development, but parking plans need improvement.  A hotel is shown in blue, and apartments are in purple.  That green in the middle is a dog park, with the Crown Center parking lot at bottom right.

This is an aerial view of how that corner looks right now.  Oops!  As I kept reading the comments on NextDoor, our neighborhood connection, I found more, including updated drawings.

The planning documents say there will be 29 studio, 102 one-bedroom, and 29 two-bedroom apartments.   The 5-story hotel will be an Element brand, by Westin.  They are geared towards longer stays, and include kitchenettes, etc.  Now the seven-story apartment buildings are along Delmar, in blue and green at the top, and the eight-story hotel is in red.

The designs look totally different to me, and the parking situation is much more evident in this illustration.  This is exciting, but I'm much more interested in when we'll be able to start construction on the new Crown Center apartments.  The building along the bottom of this last view is where I live, and it will come down when they finish our new building.  Construction was supposed to start in June, but was delayed because of the pandemic lockdown.  Hopefully before the end of this year, they say.