Celery is Gross & Green Tea Tastes Like Dirt: An Anxiety Diet

The other day (which was probably more like a week ago or so) Hubby and I attended a class together. It was called Behavioral and Medicinal Characteristics of Plant-Based Nutrients presented by Merrily Khun, RN, CCRN (r), Ph.D., ND. Hubby went because, as a massage therapist, he can get continuing education credits to support his license. I went because Hubby asked if I wanted to go and I said yes. I'd never been to one of those classes (he's been to several I'd have like to have gone to, too) so I thought it would not only be educational, but interesting.

The speaker (Merrily Khun) did a good job. She was funny, engaging, her subject was interesting, seemed well-researched (she cited her research, too, which - as an admin at a National Laboratory - made me happy to see), kept us on track, and presented her work well.

(Funny aside: The venue made her use their presentation equipment, which she was unfamiliar with. During the early part of her presentation, she tried to show a video. She tried several times and, while we could hear the video, we couldn't see the video. She got quite frustrated. One person tried to help her, suggesting there must be a remote she needed to use, but that was unsuccessful, and the venue guy knew nothing about the technology. Finally, I couldn't stand it and got up to assist. Me - Ms. Anxiety-Don't-Like-Crowds - got up in front of 250+ people, climbed up on stage and showed her how to fix it. Et voila! The video was now showing on both large screens and her computer. There was actual applause! It was a strange thing. I guess it was a good thing that, in a large audience of people in professional occupations like nursing, therapists of all kinds, dietitians, nutritionists, etc., there was a lone administrative assistant in the audience with a background in first-level tech support.)

Anywho- I'm glad I went. I sat from about 8:15 AM until 4:00 PM and wasn't bored once. That's pretty good, right?

Glad I went, and yet...not.

What I took away from that class was, basically, that I should never, ever, eat again. Everything we put into our bodies is bad for us.  Bread is terrible. Wheat is terrible - for everyone, not just those who have Wheat/Gluten sensitivities/allergies. Real Wheat - the heirloom stuff - can really only be found in Europe these days. Everything you eat should be organic, raw. Oh, and raw almonds are great, except you need to make sure they're steamed, not fumigated because...chemicals. Black coffee is fine. Green tea is better. She was not opposed to alcohol - in moderation, of course. Avocados (organic) are perfect. Curcumin is a wonder supplement for pain and inflammation, even for those who are allergic to anti-inflammatories/NSAIDS, like Yours Truly. Sugar is the root of all that is wrong with us. Egg yolks will kill you, just like cigarettes will. (NOTE: I'm taking giant liberties here, and this is Jen's Interpretation. I'm more than paraphrasing.)

So, here I go again with the "The Thing." You take someone like me, who is already a bit obsessive, already anxiety-ridden, already depressed (though working toward making myself better in several ways) and you tell that person that everything they eat is bad for them and they must break every habit they have, stop eating the things they love, stop eating the things they think are good for them, and start eating like a rabbit, what does that person do? Well, if you're me, you immediately go into Self-Preservation Mode and start buying organic (Holy Expensive, Batman!), stop eating bread of any kind, cut out all sugar (except what occurs naturally in fruits and veggies), drink nothing but water (not much of a challenge), black coffee (not much of a change), and green tea (which I'm trying to force myself to like, except I think it tastes like dirt). And celery is gross.

You make beautiful, colorful breakfasts and lunches with your Rabbit Food, and you pretend you're happy without bread, or cookies, or cake, or even hummus! I refuse to believe eggs are bad. Cheese is my friend (she never said otherwise) and coffee is coffee is coffee. Green tea...well, maybe I'll acquire the taste.

You know, They say "Diet" is a four-letter word for a reason.

TTFN
JMS

A rare and wondrous thing

I have these tiny, fly-away hairs that grow near my ears. (No, not in my ears, thank you very much.) Like sideburns on men, only...well...not. At this point, they're just long enough to make it possible for me to tuck them behind my ears, but not long enough so they'll stay in place without the aid of a bobby pin.  Bobby pins don't work in my hair - they slip and slide around - so that option is out. These bothersome things are also not long enough to stay in place when I put my hair back into a ponytail, so they stick out - like ridiculous, frizzy wings - on the side of my head. I hate them. I've had this struggle my entire life so you'd think, by now, I'd either be used to it, or have given up caring; neither of which is the case. I've tried cutting them - and when I kept my hair short this was mostly OK - but that doesn't really work when my hair is long because short sideburns with long hair just looks...dumb.

Today, I'm having a decent hair day.  A rare occurrence.  But there are still these things which make a perfect hair day impossible.

Sigh.

The struggle is real.

TTFN
JMS

PS: A quick reminder: Since I don't post this nonsense real time, "Today" could mean several days ago.  "The other day" could be last year.  Time is sort of wibbly wobbly here.  These are not the droids you are looking for.  Oh...whoops.  I'm mixing my movies and TV shows up again.  

A small job well done

I whined a lot yesterday, didn't I?  I guess I should feel the need to apologize, but I'm not going to.  Well…okay, I guess maybe I will – just a teensy bit – because I certainly wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable and decide never to return.  It felt good, though, to get those feelings off my chest.  Thank you for allowing me to vent.

***

My girl-child had some trouble with her homework the other night.  It wasn't as if she couldn't do the work, she simply didn't want to do the work.  Apparently it was different than her regular homework and she chose to complain about it (speaking of whining) rather than doing the work.  She wanted to go outside to play.  She was hungry.  She wanted to watch television.   She was just humming a song, mo-om!  Sheesh!  She had to use the bathroom probably more times than was really necessary.  There were tears.  She was a mess!

Meanwhile (recall my previous post about anger management issues) I was doing laundry and trying to figure out supper and from her all I continued to hear was grumbling.  I mentioned I was making a concerted effort to speak kindly, or at least politely, and my patience was being tried – but I pushed through it and managed not to holler at her.  

Then I decided to paint my toes.  (My toes said they wanted to be blue, so they are now blue.)  I figured I could flop on the bed, toes in the air, and “help” girl-child with her homework.   Which is exactly what I did.

At this point, she'd been “doing” her homework for well over an hour, when typically she can fly through it in twenty minutes or less.  This kind of delay is very unusual for her so I figured there was something more going on than her just not wanting to do the work, but really – I think she was bored with it.  Somehow, I managed to con her into to not only finishing the first page of her math homework but the second page as well.  There was giggling involved…so I guess whatever I did was successful.

So, not only did I find a tiny spark of happiness in painting my toenails blue, but I found a small flame of joy when girl-child responded positively to my assistance.  Unfortunately, there was no television and no outside, because by the time she'd finished her work and eaten her supper, it was already very close to bedtime.  But she went to bed happy, which made me happy.  I guess I need to consider it a small job well done.

TTFN
JMS

Allergies are Un-fun

I've had some difficulty figuring out what to write lately.  Normally stuff just flows, but not so much the last couple of weeks.  It's annoying, really; I dislike these big gaps of nothing much in my blog.  I decided that I’d just sit down and see what happens.

***

So, Easter happened.  I spent a ton of time outdoors that day and then, conveniently, neglected to take my allergy meds (and yes, I know better…thank you for your concern) so I woke up Monday with a very irritated frog in my throat.  By Tuesday, I had no voice at all.  I actually had to forward my work phone to someone else for the day.  I felt OK – but just couldn't talk.  By Thursday, it had started moving to my chest (woo hoo!) and I was dragging, big time.  I just couldn't get outta my own way.  So, I begged forgiveness from my boss and went home and slept a good portion of the afternoon, and then all night.  By Friday, I was feeling better.  More rested.

Then, night before last, I coughed all night long.  It was so much fun.  That dry, tickly, unproductive, spasmodic cough, so as soon as I started to settle or drift off, I would cough.  Then I'd drift again.  And cough.  All. Night. Long.  I’m sure no one in my house got much sleep that night.  By yesterday morning, my chest hurt and I had circles under my eyes that looked like bruises and I was dragging again.

ENOUGH!

I took myself to the doc, who agreed with me that I was not sick, just suffering from allergies (see?  I told you!) but who also decided that I needed something to help the cough.  Enter strong cough medicine and a very early bed-time and I drifted away about 6:30 or 7:00 and slept all night!  And I didn't cough…much.  Hubby wanted to know if I was foggy in my head this morning after having taken the meds, but no, actually, I feel OK.  Still coughing, but it’s actually not so annoying today and my chest doesn't hurt as much.

It’s amazing to me what allergies can do to a body – and I live in one of the worst places imaginable for allergy-sufferers like me.  The thing is, though, I don’t want to live anywhere else.  I love where I live.  It's absolutely beautiful here.  Almost every single day I drive home and thank my lucky stars that I am able to live here, see the beauty, every day.  Lots of people have to drive a significant way to see what I see daily.  So yeah, allergies suck.  And sometimes allergies become something more – like sinus infections or upper-respiratory infections and the like.  But, I'll deal with it.  Because, truth be told, I’m happy where I am.

TTFN

JMS