Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Ach, Mardatha (or anyone else) never feel guilty reading about allotments. It's a bonkers pastime, very inefficient way of turning labour into grub, but I love it.

This year, I am totalling the amount of time and the number of visits per month. Bearing in mind I sometimes don't even see the place for a fortnight and mostly only go up at the weekends.

Thus far, I am averaging 10 hours per month over 5-6 visits. I expect the time expended will increase in a smooth curve as we go into the prime growing season, then gradually decrease over autumn and into winter.

The secret to anything gardenish is too keep it slow and steady. I've dealt with the inherited horrors of rubbish and dereliction, it's just a case of keeping all the plates spinning and working to progressively improve the soil.

Speaking of water storage, some parts of this city went off-supply last week for a few hours. Didn't know if I'd have water when I got home but wasn't phased, plenty stored, tea could still happen.

jk0

I know I've mentioned this a couple of times over the years, and things you guys suggested really helped. I'm still taking Glucosamine, MSM, Sea Kelp and multivitamins with iron.

As you know, I can't eat red meat any more due to gallstones. I've not had any for 16 months. However, for about ten days now, I can't face even going for my morning walks that I've taken for ten years. A couple of times I get half way up the road, and have to come back because my legs are so tired.

Any ideas?

[Deleted User]

Go and see the GP for your own sake JKO, it may be something that is a diet deficiency but it might be something that needs medication to sort it out. The GP will know what tests to make to get to the bottom of your tiredness, anything you experiment with by way of cures might fix it temporarily but to be safe and sure of the cause go see the Doc!!!

GreyQueen

jk0 wrote: »

I know I've mentioned this a couple of times over the years, and things you guys suggested really helped. I'm still taking Glucosamine, MSM, Sea Kelp and multivitamins with iron.

As you know, I can't eat red meat any more due to gallstones. I've not had any for 16 months. However, for about ten days now, I can't face even going for my morning walks that I've taken for ten years. A couple of times I get half way up the road, and have to come back because my legs are so tired.

Any ideas?

Seconding Lyn about seeing the GP.

A fair few people find bread and other wheat-based/ wheat-containing foodstuffs to be energy-sapping and are much livilier when limiting or completely avoiding them. Maybe worth researching if the GP cannot turn up anything?

Does avoiding red meat mean you'd also have to avoid offal like liver? It's packed with good stuff and is considerably cheaper than chips. I find liver very filling, mood-enhancing and satisfying, whereas bread leaves me hungrier and hungrier and I gorge like a pig and never feel well. HTH.

jk0

GreyQueen wrote: »

Seconding Lyn about seeing the GP.

A fair few people find bread and other wheat-based/ wheat-containing foodstuffs to be energy-sapping and are much livilier when limiting or completely avoiding them. Maybe worth researching if the GP cannot turn up anything?

Does avoiding red meat mean you'd also have to avoid offal like liver? It's packed with good stuff and is considerably cheaper than chips. I find liver very filling, mood-enhancing and satisfying, whereas bread leaves me hungrier and hungrier and I gorge like a pig and never feel well. HTH.

Thanks GQ. Not sure about the liver. Do pigs get 'fatty livers'? I used to love Pâte, but did not dare have any after my diagnosis. Can anyone advise?

I've also been cutting down on bread, as I was putting on weight. I still get through about 6 slices a day. (I need the roughage.) Breakfast is porridge, toast & an Actimel drink. Lunch is a marmite sandwich & banana, and supper is usually grilled fish or chicken with vegetables, or occasionally spaghetti with Quorn.

Cappella

I'm just wondering Jko if you might be anaemic? I'd definitely second opinions here about seeing your doctor and asking for a blood test maybe? After my heart attack last year I cut out all red meat, all processed meat, eggs, full fat dairy products, and all sugar (everything that tasted really good to me at the time in fact!) Five months later I had lost well over a stone and a half, my heart function was good, blood pressure good and I didn't have angina but I was exhausted all the time and it turned out that I was very anaemic. Iron tablets and much more careful attention to my diet have turned things round, but without the blood test and doctors help I'd have gone on thinking it was after effects from the heart issue.
Apologies if the personal details aren't relevant to you, but it's always worth having a check up, just to be on the safe side.

GreyQueen

jk0 wrote: »

Thanks GQ. Not sure about the liver. Do pigs get 'fatty livers'? I used to love Pâte, but did not dare have any after my diagnosis. Can anyone advise?

I've also been cutting down on bread, as I was putting on weight. I still get through about 6 slices a day. (I need the roughage.) Breakfast is porridge, toast & an Actimel drink. Lunch is a marmite sandwich, and supper is usually grilled fish or chicken with vegetables, or occasionally spaghetti with Quorn.

Hmmmm........ looks like a lot of bread there, still. I cut back bread to almost nothing and am losing 0.1 kg or more per day and still eating a lot.

Could you look at eating some salmon? Poached in foil, perhaps with a bit of grated lemon or lime rind in there? And how does olive oil sit with your gallstone-preventing diet? Avocados are good stuff.

I tend to think Q is a bad product because I know several people who will always vomit within minutes of eating it even if they have no idea what they've eaten. And they're not people with food sensitivities, either. I don't react to it that strongly but I don't feel exactly well having eaten it.

Could you look at reducing the bread and upping plant roughage, such as more veggies (not more spuds) and salads with breakfast and lunch. And what about eggs, they're action-packed little packages of goodness?

Looking at what I've highlighted in red, there's an awful lot of cereals in your diet.

ETA, you can also buy chicken and calf liver pretty easily, as well as pig liver.

Cappella, I've had to take prescribed iron tablets for several years due to iron-deficiency anaemia (heavy periods, not likely to be jk0's issue) although anaemia isn't unknown in men in mid-life and older. Even with supplementation, I was only just scraping into the very lowest point of the normal range. Have virtually stopped menstruating and no longer need iron tablets, but the liver is amazing, even a small amount is incredibly satiating (as in good for about 16 hours' worth of energy) and just lifts my mood and makes me feel like grinning all the time.

Karmacat

Our health can be a real shtf, can't it ... jk0, I feel for you, I really do - the thing I try to get enough of is green leafy veg, which for me means frozen broccoli or cauliflower, lots of goodness in there.

Quorn: I'm a bit doubtful about quorn these days, there are some products made from it that I love, but I look at how manufactured it is, and how normal the rest of my food is, and I sort of back away. GQ, yikes, people vomiting isn't a good sign

As far as growing tatties goes, I have to stick to my guns here - it's not right for me. There are other claims on my time, and I need to stock the garden up on perennials and clear away the perennial and annual weeds before I think about anything other than microgreens that can practically be watered while I'm sitting in my armchair. I'm desperate to stay well enough for two goals: the wedding at the end of May, and not to fall deeply ill again while I'm still seeing clients, the stress is unbelievable. Twenty weeks to go.

mardatha

JK0 - You can go low fat or you can go low carb - but you cant do both. You should see the doc and get him to test iron and B12, and you can def eat lambs liver with gallstones because I have it at least once a week.

Cappella

GreyQueen

Does avoiding red meat mean you'd also have to avoid offal like liver? It's packed with good stuff and is considerably cheaper than chips.

Thank you for your comment. No, I can eat liver and have it fairly regularly but I'm also eating a LOT more pulses, nuts(especially almonds) dried apricots, tofu and leafy green vegetables to supplement my iron intake. I had iron injections initially, but being careful about my diet really helped too and my iron levels at my last blood check was fine.
JkO - maybe snacking on nuts and dried fruit may help? Can you eat those?