J.J. Virgin

Hello all.  I have known for some time now that I have gradually developed specific food intolerances.  They are not really allergies, where your throat swells shut and you have to seek medical attention, they are symptoms that develop more slowly, for the most part. When I say slowly, think 30 minutes after a meal and you realize that you just don't feel good. It may be a headache, but more often for me, it is usually more "gut" related.  Either I have to sit in the throne room for the rest of the night (often the case if I consume certain artificial sweeteners), or it can be me realizing that I am clearing my throat constantly.  The most frequent symptom for me is acid reflux.  You know that joke "I just threw up a little bit in my mouth", well when it happens repeatedly from something that you ate, it just isn't very funny. It can cause permanent damage to your throat, as well.

I am (for all any of you know) a highly intelligent person and I am also a (once again, you have to rely on my telling of this saga) diligent researcher.  I know enough about  allergies and such to know that the proven way to find out what your system cannot tolerate is to eliminate the suspicious food from your routine completely and then add it back... to see how your body reacts.

Recently I have done this with milk and sugar and artificial sweeteners.  I started my personal research with my favorite desert-like, sometimes chemically flavored coffee.  I found that, often, before drinking the entire cup,  I will feel the liquid wanting to basically come back up. "So stop drinking that you dummy." Duh. OK, that 2 X 4 to the head worked...so I did quit drinking that.  I have been doing other experiments on various foods that were causing me problems and I am finding out that I am intolerant of several...well, let's call them food types that I know of. This sent me off on another research binge.

While at the bookstore looking for diet books. (I have an ongoing problem losing weight, in addition to my food intolerances) I picked out five books by authors that I had not read yet and brought them home.

Imagine my surprise when the first one I delved into because of the "drop 7 foods for 7 days and lose 7 pounds" on the cover was a book about food intolerances.  It's called The Virgin Diet, by J.J. Virgin and in it she explains, sounding like she has my case file in front of her, the reasons I'm not feeling good, as well as my inability to lose weight, is caused by these intolerances.  In addition to the the dairy and sugars that I had already figured out, I am thinking that based on the symptom guidelines that she presents, I may also be intolerant to soy, peanuts, gluten, eggs and, of all things, corn.

DO NOT GET ME WRONG HERE...I am not blogging about this for anyone but myself. I'm not jumping on any bandwagon, I'm just saying that the information as she presents it, really seems to be what I am dealing with. In addition to her book, I am going to her website and continue researching and who knows, I just may have found someone who knows more about dieting than I do. Some of the things she writes about are not the norm for a weight loss diet book, so I like that.  I've been doing everything "the experts" have been telling me to do for years and it hasn't worked, so finally something different that doesn't sound like something a hippie/vegan/mountain top guru is trying to push down my gullet.

I'll keep you posted.  Well, that's it for me today. The house in Buchanan is done and I'm making plans to remodel my bathroom and will be busy with that for a few weeks.

Remember to enjoy life and if you don't feel good and don't know why... do some damn research, you just might learn something.

The Virgin Diet by J.J. Virgin...

I'm snow blind...

I know that's not a very good excuse for not keeping my blog current, but I am so sick of snow that I just didn't want to do anything except "veg out" on the couch, watching the tube and crocheting.  In between those two activities I did some other things, but not much.

One of the things I did was wait patiently for my Kid Rock First Kiss promo pre-sale pack to arrive, which it did - on time and in good shape...

Even though the tee-shirt fit, I'm just not crazy about how t-shirts look on me.  I usually "flash dance" them. I cut the necks off so they won't choke me and I cut the bottoms off so they don't look like a dress and sometimes I even alter the sleeves.

I decided to remake my First Kiss tee.  I wanted to use pink fabric for the remake, but I couldn't find any.
I was then going to use black fabric, but couldn't find any that matched either.  Finally, I went to Michaels to get a pink tee and use it, but once again, nothing matched. I finally decided on a red shirt to match the fire on the hottie's cigarette.

Now, lets get started.  I have one particular top that I wear all the time, so I decided to use it as my "go by".  This is it...

It's cute and swingy and keeps me from looking so much like the Pillsbury Doughboy.  I placed the black tee on top of this shirt to see what the difference was...

 As you can see, there was a big difference. The next thing I had to do was cut out a pattern for the side pieces which I would later add to the black tee, to make it flare...

I knew the top would be too long, but length can be adjusted at the final step. I then took the tissue paper pattern that I created (see above) and cut four (4) triangles from the red shirt for the side inserts...

The red shirt was large enough to supply four triangles pieces.  I simply flipped the pattern piece to the other side of the shirt for the remaining two triangles...

And now, making this sound incredibly easy, I sewed the triangles pieces together, making new side seams. Then I sewed the straight edges of the triangles, to the straight edges of tee shirt (which I had opened at the side-seams).  After I did that, I tried it on several times so I could decide about the length of the shirt and how far I wanted to scoop out the neck,  and through the magic of modern technology (i.e. my super duper fantastic Bernina sewing machine) I ended up  with this...

I like the make over immensely.  It is extremely comfy, but I'm not sure about the red. I thought about adding red trim to the neck, or maybe just ordering another shirt and making black inserts. Black is really hard to match, but as my family used to say..."it will never be noticed on a galloping horse".

So in between staying in touch with all my new KR friends on facebook, hanging with my homies and whining about the snow, and of course, keeping up with my shows, this is what I did.

As I always have a project going, I think my next project is to re-learn how  to use my embroidery module, on my machine, so I can monogram some baby blankets and other stuff for my friend's baby that will be delivered in April or May. 

Hopefully, my best friend (aka my sister) will also be here this spring and I can post some pictures of the fun we have, and of the finished house that you've all been watching as it's been remodeled this last year.

Well, that's all from Planet Keene.  Stay cool, (but stay warm) and don't do anything I wouldn't do.