Some Mixed News

So the last couple of days have been ... interesting. We did get some sad news yesterday when Laura found out that one of the people that she had worked with at PATH had passed away. John Sellors. Laura will tell you that John and Atilla, her former boss, were the people that started CareHPV and it is their legacy that she is carrying forward. Laura had worked with John at the start of the work that she is doing now and always had interesting stories to tell about him. She was always very positive about who he was and what he accomplished. They had a very nice piece in the paper remembering him.

At the same time we had this sad news we also got some good news - my Dad went to the hospital last Friday with pains in his chest. They decided to keep him over the weekend to keep an eye on him but thankfully he was cleared by his cardiologist and went home yesterday. I know my Mom is also happy that he is home - she never sleeps well when he is away.

I also got some uplifting news. As you know I have been running more - and it seems to be paying off. Besides the obvious weight loss my resting pulse and blood pressure are doing great and I am told I am sleeping better - or at least less noisily. According to Laura the plan is to keep me running, keep me eating healthy and cut back on the evening chocolate to make sure I stay around a long time.

So stay healthy and pay attention to the little things so you all will be around a long time as well - and while you are around take note of people like John who did positive things for the world and did it with a positive attitude.

Eating right is a good thing ....

Most of you know that my wife is an avid athlete. Growing up she always played sports and excelled at it. Since I have known her she has been someone to rise early in the morning to make sure she gets to the gym before her real day starts - and she does that 5 or more days a week. One would think with all of that exercise that when you look at her doctors records you would see everything perfect. Well it turns out that there are some things that have genetic control and for her one of them was cholesterol. We have not thought about it - we knew it was always high - and I do mean high - easily doubled mine. A couple of weeks back she had her annual physical and everything as always looks great and she was very nervous waiting for her blood work to come back - wondering how bad the cholesterol was. Well it came back and it was at a level that she had never seen before - It was almost half of what it had at one time been. Everything was a dramatic improvement.

So now the question .... why? We basically ate the same ... except we had taken dairy out of her diet (another story) and we replaced it with almond milk, olive oil and other dairy free substitutes. This presented some challenges in cooking but adaption was not hard and except for ice cream we have replaced most things with dairy free versions that we either have found or I make. Being the curious scientist Laura found out that Almond Milk is one of the 5 foods recommended for lower cholesterol. Yay for us. So if you are at a point where you do not want to take medicines to lower cholesterol try replacing your dairy with dairy free substitutes, use olive oil and drink almond milk. You may want to add in some extra vitamin D and calcium to make sure you get enough but outside of that it is fairly straight forward.

To help you along here is a recipe for Vanilla Pudding that is dairy free and easy to make. If you like your pudding firm you may want to up the cornstarch or add some gelatin - in the mean time - healthy eating :-)

Low-fat Vegan Vanilla Pudding Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup sugar (or artificial sweetener - we use Splenda)
• 5 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 cups almond milk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Preparation:

Mix the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a large saucepan. Gradually blend in the soy milk, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.

Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, stirring now and then.

Remove the pudding from the heat and add the vanilla. Let cool for ten minutes, stirring now and then. Pour the pudding into a large serving dish or individual serving dishes and chill until firm, about 2 to 3 hours.