Blood Work Results
I am so thankful to have a general physician who believes in yearly physicals and recommends blood tests to gain greater insight into her patients' overall health.
Here's what the results say from my recent test:
Your blood sugar, electrolytes, kidney, thyroid, liver, and blood counts are normal. Your iron studies are normal. Your lipid panel/cholesterol is normal. Your female hormone test (progesterone, FSH, LH, and estradiol) is normal and implies at time of testing you were in "follicular" phase of cycle. Pap smear is normal.Phew! I'm especially relieved to know that have normal iron and protein levels. As a vegetarian, it's something I worry about. The delightful and insightful Kristina of Lovely Morning recommended that I try brewer's yeast as a way to inject more protein into my daily routine. How is it that I've been a vegetarian for nine years and have never even heard of it? Do any of you have experience with taking it?
Additionally, I really want to start making green smoothies to beef up my vegetable intake, but I honestly don't know how to begin. Do I have to purchase a fancy blender? From your comments, it sounds like the answer is yes. What's the cheapest fancy blender I can get away with? I have so many items on my to-buy list and Christmas is oh-so far away...
Kristina has also informed me that Vitamix blenders can be used to make baby food. That is a very compelling argument. (But they are so expensive!) Perhaps there will be one on Woot one of these days?
Once I have my fancy blender, I really want to buy the book: Green Smoothie Revolution. I really am such a fruit person; I would definitely benefit from eating more vegetables.
It's still not clear to me what the results say about my menstrual cycle. I was in Day 5 when the blood work was taken, so I'm not sure if those hormones are right or if the stage is on track.
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17 comments:
Brewer's Yeast is so good!! I use it as a topper on popcorn. And it's pretty good on bagels with a little bit of cream cheese.
Enjoy!!
for a day 5 it looks normal. You might see if she would be willing to do a day 21 to see if you have a progesterone surge which would prove if you ovulated or not.
We spent $200 on a Breville Ikon Die-cast stainless steel blender and it's done a great job.
Your T4 (and they should really be doing a free T3 and a free T4 test) is a little high. They (fertility docs) recommend having it below 1 when you are trying to conceive. That could also be why your hair feels like "pool hair". Another reason you might want to get it lower is it can cause mental delays if it's too high.
I make green monsters in my $20 knock-off 'magic bullet' blender from JC Penney. It works, and the blender cup becomes the cup you drink out of, so you only have to wash one dish.
I say you don't need a fancy blender, even though I'm sure it wouldn't hurt.
We have a crappy $20 blender and it works just fine, you just have to put the ingredients in in the right order. I have to put the greens in first, then juice/milk, then the fruit. I think you could easily get away without dropping a lot of money on a fancy blender.
The vitamix has revoltionized or kitchen-life. We used some of our wedding gift money to make the purchase and it was so worth it.
You can: grind your own flour, flax, and nuts, make hot soups, make the creamiest smoothies ever, and make lots of crazy juices.
Brewer's yeast is also called nutritional yeast and you can get it in the bulk section of the grocery store. It's delicious- adds a nutty flavor to almost anything. You can use it like parmesean cheese to dd just a little bit of enhanced flavor (and protein and B vitamins!) to anything!
I have a magic bullet and I love it! I feel like a tool, but it's one of those things that actually works like the commericals.
Plus, you could make baby food in as well, I believe.
We found an awesome old-school blender called the Osterizer from a thrift store. It looks like it's from the sixties, but it still functions as new and is quite powerful (crushes ice). You may think it'd be hard to find, but actually I wanted one because my roommate had one and I loved it. So you may get lucky like I did and find one right away!
If you haven't stumbled upon this already, you should check out this awesome green smoothie recipe. I make one almost every day:
http://happyfoody.com/2009/08/10/happy-foody-green-smoothie-challange-2009/
nutritional yeast on popcorn is the best snack ever! you don't even need butter.
2nd 2nd on the popcorn!! brewers yeast is the best on popcorn!
i also add it to almost every soup i make (if not a clear broth)...
Love my magic bullet-- it was maybe $40 but I've had it for about two and a half years now with frequent use (and mostly throwing it in the dishwasher) and it's going strong. In addition to smoothies, it makes excellent frozen margaritas, no ice chunks :)
Sara!! You do NOT need the fancy blender!! I have made many a smoothie in my $20 Kohl's blender (the same one I used to make Kyla's babyfood!) and it works just fine. I have made green smoothie's and maybe I don't use quite as many hard, raw veggies as some, but I've used a lot of spinach, carrots, frozen fruit, etc. love, christy
I've been a veggie for 7 years and haven't used or tried Brewer's yeast yet. I'll be curious to know how you like it.
I recommend an immersion blender. I got mine with a holiday gift card at Bed, Bath, Beyond last year for $50. It came with several attachments, and is G-R-E-A-T for smoothies, and especially for soups (Saves you from having to transfer soup from pot to blender and back.
Please share your recipes!
I agree on the brewer's yeast as popcorn topping, although I find a bit of butter helpful for making the yeast stick oh so deliciously to the kernels. I haven't ever tried this but I wonder if Braggs would be good on popcorn with Brewer's yeast. It could serve as the liquid for sticking?? More B vitamins in there too. Yeah for being healthy!
my mom loves this gal for green smoothies as well as other veggie / raw eating techniques:
http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/
I use a hand blender to make green smoothies. So easy, because it's less to wash, you can blend right in the cup. It's nice too because all the different attachments mean I can whip eggs, chop nuts, etc etc etc. Really I just like it because it's not as hard to clean as the blender!
I tried making green smoothies with a cheap $20 blender, and with my Kitchenaid immersion blender. I love my immersion for other reasons, but not for green smoothies! The smoothies remain a bit... chunky. If you like chunky, then don't worry about a fancy blender!
I didn't like chunky, so we got a BlendTec blender ($400), and to be honest it is FANTASTIC to have. It does so much, and pretty much juices greens so you can actually drink them.
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