My 2020 Challenge

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Dgflorida wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:32 am So sorry to hear that you had a rough day with itching and such. Hope today is better.

I discussed the vitamin thing with the doctor last year and he didn't feel it was needed or even tested. Vitamin D requires cholesterol in order for the body to create it. Hubs has cholesterol and I make sure he gets some sun. B-12 is derived from meat protein and such and hubs gets plenty of that. His pain is a combination of post polio and advanced knee arthritis which is very clear on x-rays. He is not a suitable knee replacement candidate. The pain medication works well for him so far. But he was dumb to continue going to the gym when he was off it. So his body gave him a painful kick in the foot. Now that he is back on his medication, everything is fine. I appreciate the thoughts and ideas. Always keep them coming.
I thought your husband was a diabetic? Am I wrong about this? If he is on metformin it can severely deplete B-12.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Feeling much better today with some residual pain and minor itching. I think the reason I reacted so badly to the gluten was I am going through detox and my body is getting rid of a lot of junk in my system.

Not much excitement in the kitchen. I cooked two large turkey burgers to make cabbage soup. They were seasoned a little bit at the meat market so really did nothing more than break them down in to a crumble, brown them, and throw them in the crock pot with some store bought organic chicken stock. It was organic chicken stock due to going through detox. Diced a fresh onion and shredded about 1/3 of a head of cabbage and cooked everything down in the skillet after browning the meat. Then everything went in the crock pot. It turned out well for simple fare. I will eat it tomorrow for lunch and probably dinner.

Breakfast was two scrambled eggs.

Lunch was the skimpy chili leftover from yesterday but I added about 1/3 cup of the cooked turkey burger which made it more filling.

Dinner was the last of my stuffed pepper soup. I had some flax and seed crackers left and used them up with the last of my peanut butter to accompany the soup. Drinking chocolate collagen for dessert.

I snacked on one of my home grown pears. I ate it fresh instead of cooking it like the diet recommends. Just did not have the energy to cook it. Maybe tomorrow I will cook some down.

Received a revised letter from Medicaid. They have raised my spend down. to $989.00. I have medicare but medicaid is my secondary coverage. Medicaid spend down means I have to pay $989.00 out of pocket before medicaid will pick up the coverage. If I could afford $989.00 out of pocket monthly I would not need medicaid. I have tried to get a medicare supplement and they are always eager to enroll me until they hear I have ALS then it is nope, sorry, and good bye. They also said that due to the recent increase in Social Security that the state will no longer pay for my Medicare B. So my $31.00 a month increase is now going to cause me to pay out of pocket 144.60 so a big hit on my budget. I am fortunate that I do get in home care with my aide through the Department on Aging. That can be applied to my deductible so I will not have to pay out of pocket just yet for Medicaid. However it is very close to what the DOA pays for my aide. Also in the next two years with the measly increases we get from Social Security I will most likely not qualify for in home care due to my income. So I need to get busy and try to save more money to pay for my in home care out of pocket. Also will have to pay what medicare does not cover. I spent all of my savings paying for in home care out of pocket before I qualified for this program. I am thankful that I have gotten so much debt paid off but still do have debt that needs to be paid off before the bottom drops out. I have one credit card and my furnace loan to pay off. So staying frugal is still going to be very important.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Not much going on here. Getting more in to the the leaky gut diet foods. Took a four hour nap after my aide left. Glad I cooked my food this morning. With candida wash out you can become more fatigued due to the changes in your body.

Breakfast was two hard boiled eggs.

For lunch and dinner I had a stir fry with two of the mini pinwheel Italian sausages from my meat bundle to make a stir fry of zucchini, onion, and the sausages. There was enough for two hearty servings today and a lot of sausage and a little bit of zucchini and onions leftover for breakfast tomorrow. I am thinking of adding a scrambled egg on the side. Everything is being cooked in coconut oil which is suppose to be more healthy. I really cannot taste any coconut taste in my food which I was concerned about. I will have to pick up more some time in the near future. I am saving my cabbage soup for tomorrow.

Amazing how much more food you get when you cut things up in to smaller pieces. The head of cabbage has been used to make a stir fry of kielbasa, onion, and cabbage which gave me several hearty servings and then yesterday used the same head of cabbage ( about 1/3 of the head) to make cabbage soup. I had several bowls yesterday and will have more for lunch and dinner tomorrow. I saved some of the bigger outer leaves to chop up in to a small dice to make coleslaw on Friday. The cabbage cost about $1.25. Also when I combine the cabbage with meat the meat is thinly chopped and added in to the stir fry. Gives a lot of flavor and yet not consuming a lot of meat at one time. I know meat lovers like their meat but I like to use meat more as an accent rather than the main course. Gives me more meat to spread our over more meals.

The sad thing is my grill has died. It is like a George Foreman but it is a different brand. It would only partially cook on one side of the grill today so another household machine bites the dust. It was nice to have for grilling hamburgers, chicken, and even the occasional grilled cheese. However I do have my air fryer. Glad I have it to fall back on.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Yesterday went for my B-12 shot and stopped at Aldi's. I was thrilled to see they had organic virgin coconut oil in their weekly ad for this week. I bought two jars and a jar of Ghee which is also recommended for leaky gut healing. They are so much cheaper at Aldi's compared to our local chain store. In fact not sure they even have ghee at the local store. Also bought some fresh veggies and a few avocados. I also bought some frozen avocados which I thought would be nice to fall back on for making guacamole. YUCK! Just opening the bag they smelled nasty. I ate a cube thawed and it has no taste and everything smelled nasty. I will have to toss the bag. The Aldi's was in another town or else I would taken it back for a refund. Live and learn.

I received good news from my rehab nurse yesterday. I have been concerned that due to medicaid raising my spend down that I am really close to the margin for coverage from the Department on Aging. DOA has increase my allowance by $488.00! That is more than enough so I can rest easy about having to pay out of pocket for medicaid.

I am trying to get my house clean for Spring. Today's project is deep cleaning of my bedroom. My aide called off sick so I am doing a little here and there and will take a rest on my bed when I get tired. I can work for short increments for 10 min sometimes 15 min then need a very long rest period. At least with a TV in my bedroom I can rest and watch TV.

My water filtering pitcher came yesterday so I cleaned it this morning and it is going to start to filter water. The first two pitchers of water need to be discarded and since it is a new filter it will take longer. So most likely will not be able to try it until late evening or tomorrow. Also my special tea for healing candida but I am waiting for the filtered water.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Another sleepless night but that might be due to a 2 hour nap around 11:00 AM.

I baked two salmon burgers from Ruler for breakfast. I had planned to save one for dinner but I was really hungry so ate both of them. They are ok but not something I would buy again. Bummer since I am looking for something to keep on hand to make for easier cooking. I also cooked a turkey burger and a pin wheel Italian sausage. They are both from my meat bundle. I ate half of each for lunch and ate the other half for dinner. The cabbage that I had saved for making coleslaw turned in to a quick stir fry in coconut oil. Also ate half of the cabbage for each meal.

I have a mouse or maybe more than one but could not set the traps since I do not have anything to set the trap with. I no longer have cheese or peanut butter and could not think of anything else to put on the trap to entice a mouse. So will have to go to the grocery store today to pick up some peanut butter.

I earned another $3.00 from a survey this past week so that will go in the slush fund.

Right now things are kind of slow in my life. I am so looking forward to Spring but we have a chance of snow this coming week so Spring is still a long distance away. In fact our local weather stations said there is a chance of snow in March.
Janet Alliesmama
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by Dgflorida »

I am just catching up. Wow. So bad about the medicare/medicaid changes. I think you feel that this new way of eating is working for you. Great. I am a little slow in the thinking right now. But I think that is what I have read. Is it 2 steps back, one forward? or 2 steps forward and one step back?
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