It's all happening

The last few days have been really encouraging. I'm feeling better and finally feeling more useful around the house.

I've noticed that the days I feel good are the days I exercise. No surprise, really. I just have to keep that in mind when I wake up and I don't feel like getting out of bed, or doing anything at all. If I just push myself to get up and work out I will feel better the rest of the day. I've worked out 3 days this week, which is the best I've done in years. If I can keep that up consistently I think I'll feel a lot better overall.

I've been working with my Mom in the kitchen a ton lately. It's one thing for me to just help her with dishes or whatnot while she's working in the kitchen, but it's another thing to actually be involved and learning the whole process. I'm learning so much. Cooking, prepping, planning, and I'm finally learning how to make kombucha and kefir. I spent a solid 2 hours in the kitchen on Saturday and 3-4 hours on Sunday.

I started my own brew of water kefir. I drank nearly a quart of water kefir on Saturday and that's when I got my insane energy burst that fueled my 2 hour cooking sprint. I realized then that I had found the replacement for the diet soda I used to be addicted to. I plan on bringing water kefir to class with me instead of soda now. It should be helpful if any of my professors are too boring. Now I won't fall asleep.

My Mom and I made fermented ketchup from a Nourishing Traditions recipe. She had been getting a fermented ketchup that she really liked but it had whey in it, which I have always been allergic to. I've eaten a couple bites of it and not had a reaction, I think I might be OK with whey now, but I still don't want to rush anything. So anyway we made our own whey from a sheep yogurt I had, and then we made our own ketchup with that whey. It is so delicious. I love it. I've always loved ketchup, but I'm talking the crappy processed Heinz kind full of high fructose corn syrup. I switched to Heinz organic which is slightly better, but nothing like real, homemade, fermented stuff. Can't get much better than that. And I love it on everything. Seriously. Everything. So good.