Edith: one bite at a time page 3

[Siobhan]

The brain needs fat absolutely! I think that even the anti-fat people will admit that. I have no doubt the improved diet is responsible for a better mental state. Good for you!

Work stress can be a real killer. That's one reason I moved to Maine! I worked at a series of hospitals in the Boston area that were sucking away my soul. Every kind of bad thing you can imagine went on there - sexual harrassment, bullying, illegal work hours. Even though I still complain about my job here, it is a country club compared to where I used to work. So, my point is that everything can get better, and I hope your work situation improves, AND that being primal will help you in decision making and other things too.

[Coll]

Welcome! I just read your journal - so glad you are going all out on this journey now! And delighted for you that there is mental acuity and physical energy despite the trying work and all the other challenges that are coming your way! Way to go! It really does feel so good to do something like cut up a tree especially when you know you would not have been able to before. Sounds like your body is trying to make up for lost time on the fat!! Enjoy, and remember to listen to your body so that when it is ready for other healthy yummy things you are ready to change gears and provide them!

[entwyf]

focal point.jpg

A good-ish weekend in Rchester, NY. Not too hot Saturday. However, yesterday around one, oh, yuck.

After church, where I longed for an old-fashioned funeral parlor fan, a friend and her son and I went to Wendy's and sat in the AC and watched the water sprinkler at work in the flower bed at the front of the store. I had their chicken berry whatever salad. Good stuff.

The nicest part of the afternoon was spent on the Lake Ontario beach at Durand Eastman Park. I did not go out in the water, I stayed on the shore and minded a purse, shoes, an iPod, and a chihuahua-basenji named Precious.

It was two hours or so of digging my toes in the sand while I gazed out to the horizon and occasionally reeled in Precious from investigating other, larger dogs. Very peaceful.

As we prepared to leave the beach, it started sprinkling, stopped, and started sprinkling again. Fifteen minutes at the most.

At home, I had enough energy left to set up a "focal point" in the upstairs hallway. I moved the phone out of my bedroom and put decorative boxes to hold tchotchkes so I don't have a lot of crap floating around the room. The goal is to make my sleeping area as distraction-free as possible and keep mess to a minimum. We'll see how that works.

I felt very tired yet mentally very focused. I had a bit of trouble sleeping, but for a delightful reason. At two a.m., lightning flashes, thunder, and the sound of serious rain. Yay! After a thunder clap really shook things up (it sounded as if it let loose right over my house) I got up briefly and closed my window and was delighted to do so.

The key thing here is that I was not in a work-induced vegetative state all weekend. It was lovely. For the first time in a long time, I was able to plan and carry out activities instead of just sitting and wishing I could.

Edith

[tapper47]

Love your journal, Edith.

[Siobhan]

That is just great and I love your new focal point. I am trying to do the same thing in my new home, wish me luck! And how great that you are noticing benefits of primal. And really, really good benefits at that.

[entwyf]

Not sure how to deal with this issue in Primal fashion:

I have had a "bite guard" for teeth clenching for about a week.

395 US dollars, 402.298 Canadian dollars, 384.246 Australian dollars, 254.724 British pounds, 325.208 Euros, 453,874.84 South Korean won for a piece of plastic.

This past weekend, while I had a relatively good amount of physical energy to clean and reorganize at home, I had less mental energy. In the process of hauling things around, I misplaced my bite guard and have not yet found it. A transparent piece of plastic smaller than my hand in a house in upheaval. And I am terribly right-brained, dyslexic, distracted and tired.

What is the holistic, playful approach to losing the equivalent of a mortgage payment?

Trying to keep in mind "don't sweat the small stuff; it's all small stuff." Grrr.

Edith

[Siobhan]

You'll find it. It has to be somewhere. I wish I was there; I am good at finding things.

[entwyf]

Wow. Something's changing for sure. Today after work, I sprinted across the street from the side with my bank to the side with the Subway store. I was going there to get an avocado and something sub made as a salad. (Spinach, cucumber, green pepper, black olives, lovely blob of avocado puree and mayo. In the middle of the cross walk, with traffic starting to move at the other end of the block, I put my right foot down wrong and almost landed on my face.

I did something similar at the end of March. After a day of sitting at my desk, with legs and hips stiff as a board, I tripped walking home from the grocery store; I cracked my skull on the sidewalk and got a big goose egg and a black eye. Two days later, I broke a tooth on a piece of flaked coconut in some trail mix and had to get a crown. I messed the tooth up somehow in my fall. I also had a bit of a sprained ankle as well.

Today, before I could stop imagining my face hitting the asphalt, I caught myself, righted myself, and kept going. I could feel a lot of strain in the muscles of my lower back, but I was otherwise fine.

I have been doing nothing, really, aside from trying to do Esther Gokhale's glide-walking. Some days I glide, some days I don't. And I have been re-learning what feet long encased in bad shoes seem to have forgotten. Walking and running involve feet really engaging with the ground. "Running" in heels or clogs or whatever has little to do with feet and seems to be all about moving the knees, but not much.

So staying upright today, after a disaster in March was just amazing.

Edith

[entwyf]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. If my father, a cost-conscious Scotch-Irish sort, were alive, I'd be walking around dead from the lecture on how could I lose my bite guard; it's the same as losing three hundred and ninety five dollars. Who in their right mnd would fail to keep track of that kind of money?

If I don't find it, I'm going to have to turn in my Scotch-Irish credentials. Meanwhile, duh, exercise to sort out all the tense muscles in my head, jaw, and neck.

Edith

You'll find it. It has to be somewhere. I wish I was there; I am good at finding things.

[tachikomoo]

If any of your cats are like mine it may very well be squirrelled away under the bed... duly chewed lol. Good luck finding it though, the cost of plastic like that, even fitted, is just silly. Grok would use flat bits of a soft wood that doesn't splinter maybe? haha! Sorry, probably not practical advice. Best of luck to find it and hope your muscles feel better, I always try to sit under a hot shower and do stretches to loosen mine up.