No product

Every time I have my hair cut the stylist wants to know if I need any “product” today. No, I don’t. The reason used to be because I have allergies so I didn’t want to buy anything that sets them off. Now it’s because I no longer need those things because the following people convinced me to try doing without them.

“I haven’t used soap or shampoo anyplace on my body for six months, save hand washing in advance of food prep.” Richard posted on December 28th, 2009, on freetheanimal.com

“Having no water hook-ups, I bath in the ocean, fully clothe[d], without soap/etc, using the mineral rich sand to wash my skin and hair. I live on the beach, obviously.” Eelkat posted August 6, 2011, on rvnetwork.com

“I haven’t used shampoo in over four years…Going shampoo free allows us to just rinse or dampen our hair daily to pull a brush through it, and then do our no-poo routine [baking soda and apple cider vinegar] a few times a month.  With no bubbles to rinse out, I use very little water even on my washing days.” Cherie posted on Jan 19, 2012, on Technomadia.com

I’m preparing to move back into a very tiny motorhome. It has not a lot of space nor a lot of weight capacity. My new motto is: Every ounce counts.

So I’ve been experimenting with using no soap or shampoo. I simply get in the shower and scrub myself with a soaking wet washcloth from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. No need to rinse and no old soap buildup turning pink along the edges of the shower.

Here’s my picture shortly after my shower from day one of this experiment, January 20, 2012:

I felt clean and I think I looked clean.

And here’s one from today, February 17, 2012.

Still using no soap or shampoo nearly a month later. I still feel clean and think I look clean.

I do wash my hands with soap several times a day. No point in taking a chance on making myself sick. And I do still use deodorant. No point making my friends and family sick. 🙂

It turns out that body soap and shampoo are things marketers have taught us we need. In the future I will be saving money as well as space and weight in my RV.

And for those of you who noticed, yes, my hair is longer than I normally wear it. No, I haven’t decided to grow it out. I just haven’t decided to get it cut either. Which means no one has been pushing product at me for quite a while now.

Another advantage of not getting it cut is that I can now tuck it behind my ears.

Look how much skinnier that makes me look! 🙂

TTYL,

Linda

 

I Want Out!

February in Minnesota, as in other cold climates, is cabin fever time. While the drought we are experiencing this year means we have no snow to speak of, it is cold. Todays high is predicted to be 15°F. That’s colder than the lows we tried to avoid when we were living in our RVs.

So, what do we do to cope with this desire to run away? We go to:

That’s right. We went to the RV, Camping, and Vacation show at the Minneapolis Convention Center. We’ve been going to this show off and on since we were backpack campers. As our style of camping has changed, so has the show. It has a much higher percentage of RVs now than it did back in the 1970s. Which is good for me since what I was doing was window shopping for my next RV. You know, getting answers to some of those pesky questions.

Like how far out into the slider door area can you put furniture and still feel like you have good access?

And how comfortable can I be if I turn the passenger seat around for daytime use when my feet don’t actually rest on the floor?

And, would a 15″ high footstool let me be comfortable with my feet up?

And, how deep do I want my cupboards to be vs. how wide I want my aisle to be?

 

If the bathroom is this size and has a sink in one corner, I will have how much knee room?!

Plus, how much do I want some of the other goodies that didn’t used to be available on a conversion van.

Like a screen door:

Look, Steve, a Hydro Hot type system!

And this one has room behind the sofa bed for my Travel Scoot!

Yes, we had to remove that shelf but I don’t need the extension that turns the sofa into a king-sized bed. Then by removing the seat from the Scoot it fit right under the bed and even my big basket cleared the door!

But, the Great West Van Sprinter Legend ex that had those last three features only has a 10 gallon black tank. Can I go back to coping with the frequent dumping required by having one that small?

Fortunately, I don’t have to make that decision today. But, it was good to have a day of virtual travel to help me get through this long winter.

Now back to my other coping with cabin fever technique: planning my custom conversion on Sportsmobile’s Design Your Own website, http://sportsmobiledyo.com/dyo/Public/Frames.php?client_id=&body_id=8&layout_id=,  where I can get a 20 gallon black tank if I put the bathroom at the back of the van.

TTYL,

Linda

My ten foods

It has become a thing to do among the people who eat the primal/paleo/caveman way to make a list of the ten foods you would want to take with you if you knew you had to survive on a deserted island but could only take those ten foods with you. Apparently, this island has unlimited cooking facilities. And seasonings don’t count so I listed them without a number.

  1. beef steak
  2. chicken thighs
  3. bacon
  4. eggs
  5. almond butter (like peanut butter except made from almonds)
  6. bananas
  7. pumpkin
  8. broccoli
  9. ghee/clarified butter (butter with the milk solids removed for those who avoid milk products)
  10. dark chocolate

salt & pepper and other seasonings like herbs, spices and garlic. Who can live without garlic?

 

And here’s a sample day’s meals and snacks I could have with those items.

Breakfast: Fry bacon; cook eggs sunny-side up in bacon grease adding salt & pepper. Crumble bacon. Mix bacon into eggs and eat.

Lunch: Season and bake chicken; steam broccoli then top with ghee adding other seasonings as desired.

Dinner: Season then broil steak; microwave canned pumpkin; melt ghee over pumpkin and add seasonings. I like salt & pepper on my pumpkin but cinnamon with nutmeg is also popular.

Snacks: one or two pieces of chocolate; sliced banana topped with dollops of almond butter

 

Yes; there’s a lot of fat in these meals. You need it to make up the calories you are not getting from breads, pasta, potatoes, rice, and beans.

If I felt the need for a baked treat I could mash a couple of bananas, stir in an egg and a few tablespoons of almond butter and bake it. It comes out like cake. I like to then melt ghee over the top of it to make up for having no frosting. 🙂

If I had one more item on my list it would be canned fish. I can eat tuna or salmon right from the can but it is also good mixed with an egg and seasonings in a 2-cup bowl and microwaved for about 3 minutes to make a fish patty. And the omega 3 oils you get from fish are a good thing.

BTW, it is understood within the primal/paleo community that the beef and ghee would be from grass-fed cows, the bacon would be free of nitrites,  the almond butter would not have sugar in it, and the chicken thighs and eggs would be from free-range chickens. But just eating this way (no grains or beans, and for many no dairy) without doing all that is still better for your body than what most of us were taught to eat as we grew up. IMHO, of course. And that of many other amazingly healthy people.

TTYL,

Linda