Thurs April 2nd - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: smoothie with kefir, raw egg, banana, honey, and frozen mango

Lunch: leftover spaghetti sauce with ground beef and zucchini

Snack: orange

Dinner: adzuki bean soup with carrots, smoked ham, and brown rice

Dessert: Neapolitan cheesecake...shared with the little guy

Analysis: the dessert monster won again today... maybe if I would eat more food, like good healthy food, during the day, I wouldn't want to eat sweets after dinner... Its a little crazy, but I do not keep these sweets in the house, so that means I'm actually going out to get them - talk about an addiction! I remember the first time I did this good diet thing, I was eating so much food I was never hungry, and I had to really try to eat all the stuff on my menu for the day. Then I was planning every meal ahead of time, not just dinner, and it really made a difference in terms of the veggies that I was getting, esp. I am not sure I have the time or the drive to go that far right now, but I probably need to!

You know, my chiropractor offers an electro-acupuncture treatment to help people stop smoking - I wonder if it would work for sugar addiction too?

Friday March 6th - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: leftover kale soup

Lunch: Ezekiel corn tortilla quesadilla with raw milk cheese, leftover vegetable trio

Dinner: fish fry - baked fish, green & kidney bean salad, mac and cheese, bread and butter, jello, a couple bites of a really nasty cherry cream cheese pie...

Dessert: a gluten/soy/dairy free sugar cookie, a bite of brownie, a piece of sushi, an orange slice, a few chocolate covered almonds, iced tea

Analysis - tonight we had a girl's night out, so I enjoyed some of the delicious things that people had brought to share... I think I did better on veggies today, but still too much sugar and white flour...I should have skipped the mac and cheese and bread at the fish fry. If I am going to be off my medication, I really need to start being much more strict on my diet. No joke. Its just so hard when you are out and about, and when seasonal things come along like fish frys... Doesn't matter - must stay focused or will become diabetic in the near future!

I had another round of acupuncture today just to follow through with what we did on Tues, and I have to tell you, my lungs feel back to normal. I haven't used the inhaler at all today, or felt like I needed it! I guess we'll see how long that lasts... I still do not know if it was merely asthma, if it was related to the medication I was taking, or what. I guess in a couple weeks I will be retested to make sure I still really need the medication, and then I will decide whether to go back on it or not. I don't really want to be on a daily asthma treatment, esp not a steroid, so I am hoping that whatever the problem was, it doesn't come back! Hopefully it was the liver stagnation and the acupuncture just cleared that up - assuming that going back on the meds wouldn't aggravate that again, I think we'd be in the clear. Regardless, if my insulin is still too high, I will go back on it, and I guess I will just have to get acupuncture more regularly to keep myself in better balance. Like I said, I really need to buckle down on my diet. I am constantly faced with times where my willpower is tested, and I have been giving in every time lately! I've got to get it together!

By the way, I asked the acupuncturist again today about her education, and she actually did 4 years of undergrad plus 4 years of acupuncture school - that is as much as an MD! I am SO impressed and cannot understand why they have such restrictive practice laws - well actually, I can. Its the drs trying to protect their monopoly again - if people found out that acupuncture could help them without expensive drugs and surgery, they might do that instead!

Tues March 3rd - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, Ezekiel toast with cultured pasture butter and cherry preserves, a little bit of leftover bison roast

Lunch: leftover Portuguese Kale Soup

Snack: banana and some raw milk cheese

Dinner: leftover kale soup and more bison roast, with a little A-1 sauce

Dessert: Maggie Moo's ice cream - single scoop

Analysis: I was doing so well until the evening, then the sugar craving hit and the willpower caved to the ice cream... Ice cream is actually not the worst cheat in the world (in great moderation) because at least it has some fat and protein with it to slow down the sugar a little. But if I am going to have it, I really should be having the all-natural stuff, not a brand of which I do not know the ingredients, because more likely than not, it probably contains the dreaded high fructose corn syrup.

I got acupuncture today for the second time ever, and it was lovely. The acupuncturist said that according to chinese medicine, when you are stressed, even just normal life stress, it can be tough on your liver, and that in combination with my medication, might have caused my liver to attack my lungs of sorts. I am not very well-versed in chinese medicine, so I can't explain it any better than that, but when I told her the story, that is what immediately came to her mind. I do think there is a lot of wisdom in that healing modality - it is a system that has existed for over 3000 years, so there must be something to it! I asked her how long acupuncturists go to school and she said 4 years - I was actually surprised it was that long - it must be a very extensive training! Anyway, she did overall energy balancing, lung support, relaxation, and also a little help for my reproductive system... Just like the first time I tried it, I have been feeling better and better as the day went on. I am excited for tomorrow because I suspect I will be feeling quite great. Tonight I already did a lot of cleaning that I hadn't been able to keep up with before.

Some people will want to say that its all psychosomatic, and for one thing, in my experience, I really do not think it is because I experienced benefits I never anticipated, and for another thing, so what if it is? If it makes people better, it has achieved its purpose, right? That's what MDs do when they hand out antibiotics for viral infections, which they do all the time... The ER doctors wanted to give me Ativan or Zoloft...no thanks - I'd rather have needles stuck in me all day than take drugs with potentially toxic side effects, when I do not even feel that I have an anxiety issue! I am sure those medications truly help a lot of people who really do need them, but I know I do not fall in that category - at least not right now! And even if I did, I certainly would want to try more wholistic (read: non-pharmaceutical) forms of treatment first... Acupuncture not only helps relieve stress, it also helps balance energy and can support your body in healing itself! Why just mask the symptoms when I can do something to potentially actually heal the deeper problem, whatever that may be? Anyway, I've gotten into a rant here, and I know when you start talking about anti-depressants some people get a little ruffled. So please understand that I am simply talking about my personal experience with this situation at the moment, and that I would never hold anything against someone who used those medications when they felt they needed it. That being said, I am exploring alternative therapies to those, and want to share the knowledge that I am gaining about it so that maybe others will think of trying it for themselves if they are looking for some sort of solutions... I will update as to the further developments!