30 Days (Almost) Dairy-Free

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Last Sunday I completed my 30-Day dairy-free challenge. I realize I am a few days late with this, but I wanted to give my full report! At the halfway point two weeks ago, I wrote this post, and many of my thoughts and feelings are the same now as they were then.

After 30 days of (almost…) no dairy, many of my GI issues have been resolved. I no longer get stomach aches during the day that require me to curl up on the nearest couch! That is huge. Also, I’ve heard stories about people’s skin magically clearing when they give up dairy, and while this wasn’t my primary motivation for doing so, I was hoping it might happen. It didn’t. My acne can still compete with that of my 12-year-old self.

Even so, there is no question that I feel better when I am not eating dairy than I feel when I am eating it.

The One Time I Cheated:

Okay, the one time since the last time I said there was one time I cheated. I cheated twice in 30 days. The first was for some wedding cake on our anniversary. The second was last week during my crazy, stressful week. I had not packed lunch, and by the time I finally peeled myself away from my desk to go buy something, I was starving. And stressed. I went to Martin’s–a grocery store with a fairly extensive cafe–and after circling the salad bar a few times, I decided greens were not going to cut it that day. Pizza. Pizza was all that I wanted. I ordered a slice of plain cheese and enjoyed every single bite. The next day I did get a pretty bad stomach ache (like, an unbutton my pants while sitting at my desk kind of stomach ache.) Perhaps it was the cheese, but maybe it was just stress.

Am I Cutting Dairy Out of My Life Forever?

Heck no. In fact, I’ve already enjoyed some pizza this week. 😀 Now that I have “detoxed” from dairy, I am hoping I can eat it less frequently and perhaps in smaller doses than I did prior to this and have it not bother my stomach. My plan is to not purchase/eat dairy regularly, but allow myself to enjoy it when I really want it (and carry some lactaid pills with me at all times.) Whereas cheese, yogurt, and ice cream used to be daily staples for me, I am now not going to keep them in the house or eat them regularly. I am equally content with soy yogurt, and my taste buds have adjusted to soy milk in my coffee. However, if I want a piece of pizza, I’m going to have a piece of pizza. If I am eating at someone’s house, I will have whatever dairy they are serving. And ice cream? There will always be room in my life for ice cream. My hope is that my stomach can handle dairy in smaller and less frequent doses.

I will conclude with this: Last summer I went to Detroit on a mission trip with the youth group. One afternoon we went to an awesome ice cream shop named “Mootown Creamery” (Get it? Mootown instead of Motown? :-D) This sign was mounted on the wall, and it basically sums up my feelings on the matter:

There is nothing wrong with me a little ice cream won’t fix.

Any dairy-free folks out there? How do you deal with life without pizza and ice cream?

Running: When Dogs Chase

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Yesterday… was glorious. I took my first day off in three weeks, and I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do. I slept in (until 7:30,) blogged, ran, used a gift card for a massage, watched Netflix, and had dinner with Andrew when he came home from work. The most stressful part of my day was my easy, 30-minute run.

I picked a familiar, relatively flat, out-and-back course through the neighborhoods near my house. About a mile into the run, 100 meters ahead, I saw a woman running toward me with her dog. Then, another dog–a Collie–ran out of a yard, barking at this woman and her dog. I heard the woman yelling, “Go on! Get out of here!” but the dog continued to bark and run alongside them. Suddenly, the Collie turned towards me and began sprinting in my direction, still barking. Oh geez. I stopped immediately, bracing myself for whatever impact I was about the receive–paws, teeth, whatever. The dog slowed as it came nearer, and at this point the woman and her dog were just across the street from me. The Collie’s attention shifted back to them, and I continued running, glancing behind me a few times to make certain I wasn’t being chased.

On the way back, at roughly the same place the event had occurred, I noticed movement in my periphery. I turned to the right and saw the Collie sprinting toward me once again. Again, I stopped. This time, he stopped too, and stared at me. I lunged a bit toward him and said, “Go on!” He barked and ran backwards a few paces. I continued running, hoping the dog would stay put or lose interest, but after a few seconds I heard, ptptptptptpt (<–the sound of four paws hitting the pavement at running speed.) I turned around, took a few running steps toward the dog, and again he stopped and barked. This continued for about half a mile, until he must have lost interest.

While I don’t think this Collie was particularly aggressive, being chased by a dog while running is very scary! Unless it’s a dog that you know, you have no idea if it’s going to jump on you, bite you, or just keep you company. Once, a few years ago, I was running on the sidewalk of a major road by my apartment. It was raining, and I came up behind a woman walking her two (very large) dogs. I was about to say, “Excuse me,” as they were occupying the entire sidewalk, when one of the dogs turned and saw me. Because it was raining, none of them had heard me coming, and I must have surprised the dog, because he and his brother both started snarling and jumping at me. The woman and I both stopped; I took a few steps back, my heart racing at the near attack. I think the woman was equally terrified (startled, anyway,) and yelled, “Next time, speak up!! We didn’t know you were there!!” Dogs.

Aside from that, my day yesterday was wonderful and relaxing. Plus, we had a super-food dinner: Salmon, kale, and quinoa with tomatoes and herbs from our garden.

Basil, parsley, and oregano

Yum.

I hope you had a great Monday as well!

Have you ever been chased by a dog while running? What do you do when that happens?

Youth Stuff and Yard Work: A Full, Fabulous Weekend

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Well, I survived the crazy weekend! Despite the stress I experienced leading up to this weekend, everything went incredibly well. Here’s what the last two days held:

Saturday morning I went with a group of our youth to volunteer with the Miracle League of Richmond–a baseball league for kids with disabilities. We “buddy-up” with the players each week during the league’s spring and fall seasons to help them enjoy the great American pastime. It is an absolute joy to know and be able to spend time with these guys and girls. Plus, it’s my kind of baseball: everyone gets up to bat, everyone swings until they hit the ball, and everyone makes it home. 😀

One of our youth, Eliza, and Carrie Rose have been buddies almost every game for about four years!

If you live in the Richmond area and are looking for awesome volunteer opportunities, check out the Miracle League!

When I returned home Saturday afternoon, it was time for yard work. Andrew was working on the roof installing… something related to ventilation along the very top (not my area of expertise. ;-))

After thanking Andrew for having such useful life skills, and also having a serious chat about not climbing on the roof when a. no one else is home and b. no one is holding the ladder (seriously, Andrew, what were you thinking?), I offered to mow the lawn. Now, I mowed the lawn frequently when I was in high school, but the lawn mower we have now stinks. It just stinks. The previous owners of the house left it behind, and it works, so we figured, why buy a new one? It is a full-body exercise to push it across the yard, and only once have I successfully started it by myself. (Andrew started it for me initially, and then when I took a break after, oh, four rows, Andrew was back on the roof, and our neighbor Gary took pity and started it again for me :-D)

In the garden we thinned the broccoli, Swiss chard, and beets. I know it has to be done–if two or three plants are too close together, none of them will thrive–but I have such a hard time pulling up little plants that are doing well!

Saturday night, this happened. I am scarred. Absolutely scarred.

Sunday morning was Youth Sunday at church, which meant the youth were responsible for most every aspect of all three worship services. This was a large part of my crazy-stressful week last week. Everything came together beautifully, and all our youth did a wonderful job! I am one proud youth director. 🙂

Meg was one of two high school girls to offer the sermon…Go, girl 🙂

After following the bulletin closely and nervously for three services thinking, “What did I forget? Where is there a hole in the service?” I headed home to rest for a few hours before our youth year-end banquet. I was nervous about the banquet, but all went well! Okay, I forgot to recognize and include one of our mission teams from last summer in the slide show…Sorry, LA Team! (Or as Forrest renamed it, the “Lost Angeles Team.” ;-)) Oops. Aside from that, all went well. 🙂

We ate, watched the slide show, thanked our parent volunteers, and honored our seniors and some other youth, including our awesome Servant of the Year, Lauren!

…and the public speaking wasn’t as horrible as I’d imagined 😉

When I returned home at the end of the night, I enjoyed reading through notes from youth and parents. Thanks to everyone for your kind words…they brought me a lot of joy! Perhaps the greatest…item…I received last night was this collage from hilarious 9th grader, Courtney:

Why, yes, she photo-shopped herself into a bunch of pictures and added captions like, “Our engagement photos turned out GREAT” and “I’m so glad we’re married now!” 😀 Andrew and I laughed SO hard. What a funny kid. We’ve considered adopting Courtney, but because she comes from such a loving, outstanding family, we don’t think the courts would approve the request. 😉

While I feel like I say this every Monday, this was a full, but great weekend! Thanks to everyone–youth, parents, Andrew–who stepped up to make everything run smoothly!

Today, I enjoy my first day off in three weeks. 😀

Squeaky Clean

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Saturday night. 9:30 p.m. I just started the washing machine on a hot water cycle, no clothes, lots of bleach. Why? Oh, friend, take a seat…

After a long day working in the garden, Andrew and I cleaned up to go out to dinner. Around 7:15 p.m., right before leaving home, I remembered I desperately needed to start a load of laundry if I wanted to wear clean clothes to church in the morning. I started the laundry. We went to dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant. Andrew kept his dish mild, while I requested the medium heat. We talked about our day. We talked about our friends. We talked about tomorrow, and Andrew suggested that perhaps I was unnecessarily stressed this week. On the way home, we stopped for sorbet.

But all this is irrelevant to the bleach in the washing machine.

When we returned home, I remembered that I needed to put my clothes in the dryer. I began pulling the clothes out of the washing machine, a few pieces at a time, shaking them gently to avoid wrinkles. As I neared the bottom of the washer–only a few socks (no matches) remained–I saw something at the bottom of the drum, partially hidden by the agitator (I just Googled, “washing machine diagram” to learn the technical names.)

Is that a…? No. No way. Catherine, you are being neurotic. It’s just a big wad of lint. With a tail…

“Andrew…?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you please come here?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I think… there’s a mouse…a dead mouse…in the washing machine.”

Oh yes, indeed there was. I considered not writing about this because it is So. Gross., but figured the story was worth it. We have no idea how it got in the house, much less the washing machine. The best guess we have is that it came in through the garage, which opens right by the door to the laundry room. We had been keeping a double-bagged bag of bird seed in the laundry room because when we had it in the garage, a mouse broke into it. We checked the bag, and it had (recently) been chewed, so we think the mouse must have smelled it and sneaked in while we were working in the garden with the door open. Gross, gross, gross.

So now, 10:08 p.m., I put my wet, took-a-bath-with-a-dead-mouse clothes back in the washing machine, shaking each item individually, intentionally–just in case. Just in freaking case.

I will not wear dirty clothes to church tomorrow; they will be squeaky clean.

(Squeaky clean?? I can’t believe I said that. Great word play, horrifying mental image. I’m so sorry. I might wear dirty clothes tomorrow.)

Stress Relievers + The Day Nothing Went Quite Right

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

You know how everyone loves Friday because it’s the beginning of the weekend, you can forget about work, kick back, and relax? Well, this week when I saw posts on Facebook saying, “I’m so glad it’s Friday!” all I could think was, “Why?! How is it already Friday?! I have so much to do before the weekend!”

Yesterday. Yesterday was one of those days in which nothing went quite according to plan. I have two fairly large work events on Sunday, one of which is a year-end banquet to celebrate the past year in the youth ministry and honor our graduating seniors. The celebration includes a slide show, and while this is always a highlight of the night, it is a tremendous undertaking for the person putting it together (me.) Roughly 200 slides plus music, timed as well as possible. By the time I’ve completed it and run through it a few times with the music, I never want to see it again.

Yesterday afternoon, after finishing and rehearsing the slide show (<–not as seamless as it sounds; more on that in a moment,) I received a text message from my good friend and coworker, Forrest. A little background: Forrest was the youth director before me and is now our Director of Serve Ministries. When we made the switch last summer, I created a new gmail account for the youth group, but Forrest occasionally receives emails to the old account (which is rarely checked anymore because everyone has the new address.) So yesterday, Forrest sent me a text that said, “Uh you better check the other email address. [Someone] sent 15 pictures of [her child] last week for the slide show. Just happened to check it for someone’s email address.”

I felt the blood rushing to my head. Sweat beads were starting to form on my face. The knot in my stomach became tighter.

I opened the old email account and saw one unopened email at the very top:

Wrong. So wrong. Forrest, you got me good! 😀

Prior to this, the projector in our fellowship hall refused to work properly during the test run of the slide show. When I restarted my laptop (this fixes many technology issues at work,) all my documents disappeared. Of course, at this point I had not backed up the slide show. Delightful. 😉

Everything was resolved by the end of the day–my documents folder reappeared, my friend and coworker, Evan, helped me figure out the projector issue, and I didn’t have to alter the slide show. However, the events of the week have inspired a post (okay, a few posts) about stress:

Negative Effects of Stress

Upset stomach

Headache

Elevated blood pressure

Trouble sleeping

Skin breakouts

More susceptible to colds

There are plenty more–and more serious conditions if stress is chronic. No, thanks! So how can we deal with stress so it does the least damage to our health? Here are just a few options:

Stress Relievers

Exercise

Laugh

Yoga

Hugs

Take deep breaths

Listen to music

Talk to a friend

Pray

Take a bath

Drink lavender/chamomile tea

So, take a deep breath, go for a walk, and don’t let the stress get to you. As Forrest told me yesterday, “The sun comes up Monday!!!”

Workout Schedule + Laughing During Yoga

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Today I feel much, much better than I did yesterday and exponentially better than the day before! I think a night of Benadryl-induced sleep was just what I needed.

After a full, long day at work yesterday (I arrived home at 6:00; don’t feel too bad for me ;-)) Andrew and I made a curry dish using a bottle of Thai Kitchen’s Green Curry 10-Minute Simmer Sauce. It is not an especially pretty dish, but it was quick, easy, and very tasty:

First we browned some ground chicken in coconut oil, then added the simmer sauce, sliced green peppers, baby corn, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and bean sprouts. After it simmered for the full ten minutes, we tasted it and decided it needed ginger and some chili garlic sauce to give it more heat. We then served it over our leftover brown rice. Delicious, and easy (Are you noticing a trend? “Easy” has been our meal theme lately; I’m hoping to break out of that soon. :))

After dinner we made our way to yoga at our gym. Oh man, I had a bad case of the giggles throughout the whole class! “Bring your right foot beside your left hip, cross your left leg over your right leg, make sure your sitting bones are completely on the floor, and lean forward and touch your forehead to your thigh.” Whaat?? “Now take your toes in your hands, and straighten your legs.” Yeah… that’s not happening. But I will definitely laugh at Andrew (and myself) as we try. 😉

Now that I am feeling better, I am itching to do some more intense workouts–they have been missing from my routine the last few weeks. First, I was taking it easy in the week leading up to the 10k, then I was recovering from the 10k, then I had a busy week and minimized my workouts, and then I had another busy week… Four weeks later, I’ve stayed fit with a lot of walking and yoga, but haven’t had a really good, sweaty workout and am feeling a bit “bleh” physically.

So, I am setting a new workout plan for the coming weeks (well, I’m really just rewriting what has worked for me in the past as a means of recommitting to it. :)) As always, it will allow plenty of flexibility:

Monday: Running- 30-45 minutes

Tuesday: Weight Circuits- 30 minutes (Jillian Michaels DVD), Walking/Elliptical

Wednesday: AM–Running-speed work (intervals, tempo, etc.) PM–Yoga

Thursday: Weights- 30 minutes

Friday: Long Run- 60+ minutes

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Anything/Just Move- 30 minutes

It definitely helps me to have a plan in place. I am looking forward to sweating again 🙂

I apologize for the very scattered post; it’s just that kind of week!

What does your weekly exercise routine look like? Do you ever get the giggles during yoga?

Sleepy, Stressed, and Snotty

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

(No, Snow White did not discover two new dwarfs ;-))

If we spoke yesterday, you likely said something to me along the lines of, “You sound exhausted!” or “You sound a bit snotty!” or “You’re too young to sound this worn out!” After a crazy-busy weekend I was met with a hectic week at work (which, admittedly, was at least 65% my fault,) which meant I did not take my usual post-retreat rest day to let myself recover physically. This is the cycle I’ve been in the last few days: complete as much as possible at work while feeling especially tired (having not caught up from the weekend,) blow my nose about once every 15 minutes due to allergies, have trouble falling asleep that night because I need to blow my nose and am thinking about everything I need to do at work, wake up at 2:31 a.m., blow my nose, toss and turn until 3:17 a.m. because I am thinking about everything I need to do at work, wake up to my alarm feeling more tired and more snotty, skip working out due to tiredness, and repeat.

Generally when I feel less than 100%, medicine is not my first choice of remedies. When I feel sickness coming on, before I do anything else, I rest. I sleep in, skip a workout, and allow my body to heal itself. More often than not, this is effective. My second step is to see if Traditional Medicinals has a tea for my ailment. Usually, they do. (As a side note, their “Throat Coat” tea is pure magic. ) When rest and herbal teas fail, I’ll take medicine.

Rest has been an issue for me this week–I have too much to do to take a day off, and I am not sleeping well at night, which is making me more tired. TM’s relaxation teas are great, but don’t get the work done, and their “Gypsy Cold Care” eases symptoms, but does not remove the pollen from my surroundings. Last night, therefore, I called for backup.

8:45 p.m.–I took Benadryl. I know some people take the stuff regularly to sleep, but I do not! The last time I took it was about six years ago when some allergen made its way into my eye, which started swelling like crazy.

8:55 pm.–Dreamland. I vaguely remember Andrew getting in bed, and the next time I woke it was 7:01, and my alarm was sounding.

Over 10 hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep. My sinuses are a bit clearer. Amazing. I feel a little more equipped to take on the day!

I would like to give a quick shout-out to Andrew, who made an awesome dinner by himself last night so I could do nothing, AND brought me some just-because flowers.

Swordfish and Swiss chard + brown rice (what, you don’t eat swordfish on a Tuesday night? ;-))

When you start feeling sick, do you take medicine, rest, or both? Do you workout when you aren’t feeling well?

A Two Storey Home

Where Marriage and Healthy Living Meet

Monthly Archives: May 2013