The Timimimy Tee had to work all this weekend driving bus for the John Deere Classic. That meant that I had the opportunity to catch up on some long outstanding chores. Basically we haven’t been home for a full weekend since before the triathlon, so things were starting to pile up. So what did I do, you ask? Well, here, let me tell you: I went to the Farmer’s Market, Aldis, HyVee, took several long walks, vacuumed and dusted the whole upstairs, vacuumed most of the basement and moved Lucent’s litter box so that we don’t constantly have to walk over litter particles to get to the washer and dryer and workout area, attempted to rehab my water kefir grains by putting them in a sucanat/spring water solution, sprouted and roasted almonds, cut up all the veggies from the Farmer’s Market, weeded our front garden bed, did 3 weeks of meal planning for the primal challenge (more to come on that below), returned a long overdue email, finished a humongous crocheted blanket for a friend, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand…RELAXED. On Sunday afternoon I sat outside and read for probably 3 hours. I got a little bit of a sunburn, but it was so beautiful out there that I couldn’t bring myself to go inside.
OK. Now for some details. First of all, I’m kind of excited about Aldis! I stopped on a whim, hoping they would have spring water for the kefir and for the sauerkraut Tim is going to make. They only had individually wrapped bottled water (which seems odd for a discount store!), but I found some other great deals. Avocados were only 79 cents (1/2 the HyVee price), Rainier cherries were only 2.99. They had nitrate-free bacon for 3.89 and mineral water for 1.49. I’m so jazzed!!
And on the kefir grains. So, yeah, I though for sure I had killed them. I got a couple of good, fizzy batches out of them, and then they just stopped working. They didn’t smell like kefir (didn’t smell like anything, in point of fact). I emailed Cultures for Health, and they sent me back some great tips. They recommended using sucanat (unrefined cane sugar that still has minerals left in it) and all spring water. Previously I was usually Domino sugar and just boiling our Brita-filtered water to remove the chlorine. Evidently the rest of the chemicals in tap water are harmful to the grains as well. I had also ran out of mineral drops, so I had stopped using those too. The person who emailed me said you CAN resurrect the grains, so I’m giving it the old college try.
And, finally, the Primal Challenge. A couple of workmates and I are going to embark on the 21 Day Total Body Transformation on July 20th. My friends want to lose some weight, and I want to lose about 3 pounds and do a reset to get closer to 90/10 instead of 70/30 . I spent an hour Saturday culling through my recipes. I put together 3 weeks of meal plans (containing mostly just general ideas for breakfast and lunch, and then 4 distinct recipes w/ sides for supper), along with copies of the associated recipes. I also pulled out additional recipes for them to use, if they don’t like my suggestions. I reordered the 21 Day Total Body Transformation. I lent it to my brother probably 2 years ago and haven’t seen it since. I’m so glad I bought it again. It’s a very concise, helpful guide to the primal lifestyle and contains reminders that I really needed to read again. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this turns out!!
That’s the weekend, now its back to work and back to training for the Bix 7, which is NEXT WEEKEND. ACCK!!