Month: February 2012

Leilani’s Art, Fall 11






Worst. Painting. Ever. :-)

Kokee and Salt Pond in October

We went to the Emalani Festival and watched the Hula




And saw a rainbow over Kalalau Valley

Koa trees are beautiful and very interesting


Our campsite at Saltpond

Beautiful Sunrise





We went hiking in Waimea


Once Upon A Time…

Once upon a time, well I should say about 100 years ago, the people forgot that they loved each other…


[The controls on this video player may not appear on some browsers, just double-click to play/pause.]

… they started fighting wars. That time there was only one princess. One king said: “Maybe the princess can help.” “The princess?” asked another king. It was planned that the princess should help. A messenger told the princess. The princess packed her stuff and went towards the horizon. In the evening she found a cave and a sad dragon. The dragon looked up, surprised to find the princess. “Why were you crying?” asked the princess. “They are fighting wars.” said the dragon. “I know.” said the princess. “I am a peace dragon.” “I love peace” said the princess “We could work together.” “I love that idea.” said the dragon. “Get on my back!” Together they flew. Then the dragon landed the princess got up. The dragon blew fire and suddenly the war stopped. There was a big fest [party]. The princess was the queen over the world and the dragon was the helper. The End.

Leilani wrote this, about a week ago. She started when it was almost bedtime, and I first told her to interrupt what she was writing and get ready for bed and finish tomorrow. Then I caught myself. To allow a more natural schedule and allow creativity when it happens is one of the reasons why we home school, right? Leilani wrote and drew happily for almost 2 hours, working on this and other stories.

A Long, Long Time Ago

Thanks for the photos, Wolfgang!

Just About Me And A Diet That Works.

I lost 8 pounds (5% of my current body weight) in 3 weeks, I fit into my clothes again! All without hunger, counting calories or cravings. And it’s cheaper than to eat normally. It did (and does) require a bit of planning and a bit of time though.

I cut out alcohol, dairy (except eggs), gluten, suspected allergens and processed foods (except high quality protein powder 2-3 times per week), and severely reduce sugar. I drink only water, unsweetened herbal tea, and if I can’t help it a bit of coffee. I think the key are the processed foods, so that includes every ready made snack food, everything in a can (even beans), liquids in cartons (even almond milk), frozen meals (even Amy’s). That removes the possibility of endocrine disruptors leaching from the plastic. And protects me from a lot of ingredients that can be put into foods in the US without needing to be labeled like Neotame or Potassium Bromate

We eat a lot of beans and other legumes, and sometimes eggs. The grains we eat are mainly oats, quinoa and rice. We have not we have not changed much about the way we eat fruits and veggies, but we eat more of them and have not changed the amount of fish we eat, about once per week.. I do snack on soaked almonds and fresh coconut, in the beginning also on (homemade) dried bananas, but the sugar cravings pretty much went away after a week (so did the dried bananas :-). I do not limit fatty foods, but eat only healthy fats – unrefined olive oil, pumpkin seeds oil, sesame oil, my supplement of choice is fish oil. Of course I have not eaten meat to begin with.

I have not eaten unfermented soy since I know that it probably aggravates thyroid problems so no change there either. No extra supplements and much more money spend at the farmer’s market and a lot less at the organic food store. I have not been to a supermarket in 3 weeks. Andy and Leilani are coping well, and sometimes they get eat differently and I drink a protein shake (pea or hemp protein). Andy is even nice enough to pay attention to what I can eat when he cooks!

Now it is May. I lost 18 or 19 pounds and I feel great. Most days I have enough energy, and my sleep is awesome. My cholesterol dropped from about 200 to 138, with an excellent HDL-LDL ratio (about 1:1) and my Triglycerides are “hard to believe” according to my doctor. I gave up on Naturopaths, and only take very few supplements. Two new ones though Microhydron and Shijalit seem to really help me. But the biggest adjustment are the green smoothies. In the beginning of April I started drinking green smoothies. Between 1 and 3 liters a day (half of that is water, and a bit are fruit and avo and coconut, cucumber or tomato or beets, but between 2 and 4 cups crushed leaves are the “bulk” of the smoothie) Yay Vitamixer.

Now it is the end of June. I lost 21 pounds and I’m not feeling as great anymore. Most days are better than they used to be before, but the limited diet is hard. I like the smoothies but they are a lot of extra work. I wish I had as much energy as I had back in April and May, before the mainland trip, and actually through and the week after as well. Leilani is in summer camp, so I have less actual work, but not many of my summer projects got done, or even started… I also realize that I dropped the new supplements again, will re-start them