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lil chick's log
At least the spring back spasm didn't last too long. Maybe I've just learned that when it happens to inhabit the couch ASAP and not try to do stuff. Or maybe the "sprint" exercise did help a bit.
I have a theory that the return of the sun and vitamin D could have something to do with the spring back spasm.
I was getting lower back and neck problems from poor posture. As long as I bend down properly with a deep squat vs rounding my back I'm okay, but if I slouch on an unsupportive couch for too long it could come back. I also do 5-10 minutes at least a day of laying on the floor on my back. It resets the spine. Knees bent.
Perhaps time for an update (haven't posted here since spring). Wonderful to be headache and nausea free!
Back and neck spasms (in hindsight) were not that bad this spring but it might be because I just didn't do a lot of farming. I have an urge for change.
Jessica mentioned something about "not getting sick" and I feel the same way. (knock on wood). Lots of catchy things have come through this house and I've been strangely safe.
I loosened up on my alcohol avoidance and that was a no-go. One drink of alcohol makes me feel crappy for 24 hours. I can get away with a few sips of something light, like a few sips of beer or champagne with a meal. But any more than that affects my sleep and affects my whole next day, making me cranky, tired, no fun etc.
Potatoes still are related to night-time foot cramps. I watched a video today that said foot cramps at night are a sign of neuropathy. I also flunked some of the at-home tests for neuropathy in the feet. Probably from long-term b-vitamin deficiency. I wonder if potatoes worsens that. Armpit nerve pain sometimes flares and sometimes not. My feet still go raynauds ish too when cool and I do a lot to keep them warm. (even in summer)
I still have low-levels of vertigo, for instance I felt like crawling up an open-riser staircase in a restaurant ... and sitting on a roof deck made me want to pee my pants. BUT I just returned from a road trip of 4 HOURS in the car each way! With zero nausea. Miracle! Vertigo was also mentioned in the neuropathy video. Interesting, eh?
I get itchy after sweating and the best way to cope with this is to shower immediately after sweating, before the sweat dries, which I'm sure is wonderfully detoxing (although sometimes impossible). As I've mentioned before it seems to be in "pinpoint" areas now. So strange. I adore my natural clothing and try to wear it often, even though it isn't always as stylish.
Still need a bit of progress on my forehead but the rest of the face is good. I did get a wart recently and wonder if I'm low in iodine. Anyone else having wart problems? Probably going to order iodine drops to rub on the wart and add kelp to my soups.
Eyes get dry at night but good come morning. Occasionally my "surfers eye" area gets inflamed but then looks good again a day later, makes me think my body is "working on it". Nose is mostly good with occasional sticky boogers that come down from above--possibly ear detox. One of the weird things I suspect is that my right ear is able to drain into both left and right nostrils. You'd think right would go to right and left to left. But I have reason to believe it is not so, at least for righty. Righty is prone to getting infected and maybe it is because this odd hookup is problematic.
I think I might be seeing more spider veins in the thighs lately. I sometimes suspect I need to add a vitamin C food to my daily agenda. Leaning toward a few ounces of hand-squeezed citrus at breakfast.
Gums are getting better but at the slow pace of glaciers as stated before. Possibly also Vit C related.
My weight is high for me, about 5 pounds more than usual, but seems perfect for my advanced age LOL.
Yes, when I began cutting down on VA 5.5 years ago I was having lots of trouble with travel and had stopped flying entirely and really doing much over 1 hour of car travel. This is hard because my aging parents are far away--so I hadn't seen them for about 5 years.
Here are my ideas about this. I think that part of the issue might be about neuropathy causing vertigo and perhaps tinnitus too. Perhaps the neuropathy is directly caused by VA or by b-vitamin depletion caused by VA detox.
But also I think that my body was quite aware that I was poisoning myself.
I've read that when your inner ear starts getting confused the reason it says "time to throw up" is because it thinks you have been poisoned.
Travel was one more item on the list that my brain would access when it came to deciding if it was an "everything must go" night.
I think possibly my "everything must go" nights helped me (though they made me feel quite desperate). I'm sure they were detoxifying. I'm not going to say it is smart but I have to be half dead to take a medicine that relieves symptoms. So I never blocked my nausea nights with OTC meds.
I guess I now feel that way about supplements too and would much rather drink a little home-squeezed citrus than buy a supplement.
I now think about herbs, supplements, OTC and prescription medicines about the same way. Useful sometimes, very carefully, probably not good for permanent usage.
What is too much meat? The answer is probably unique to each person. We are all different and this post is about intuitive eating. I've been thinking about posting this for a while, it's something I've noticed about my particular tastes and eating habits. (I preface this with saying I'm at 5+ years here and have always been on "the slow boat" of VA reduction)
I do believe in letting yourself eat what you've got in the fridge and pantry that makes your mouth water THE MOST. I gaze over all of it and then I accept that what I want is right... and eat it. I wait until I'm actually hungry to do this! I think that matters. So we aren't talking about letting yourself go eat whatever you want when you are bored.
Although I believe in the 3-meals-a-day idea as being "best for most", I've realized I do better with smaller meals a little more often. This seems to be something that came down from my mother. A doc once described her as having a smaller stomach than normal, so maybe it's genetic.
I think never over-eating might help out regarding the post-meal temporary VA-overload that I read about in a link that Tim posted. Interesting that the "lap band" surgery (shown to help diabetes, although causing other problems) would pretty much accomplish this! One place intuition doesn't work is in restaurants. It's important for me to force myself to eat lightly in restaurants. The temptation is strong to over-eat when eating out, and it feels terrible after.
Anyways the point of this post is to say that egg is in my breakfast and meat is in my dinner, but I find that I often eat no-meat or low-meat lunches. Typical at lunch: yogurt, pickles, beans, peanuts, home-made muffins, pretzels, a cup of raw-milk cocoa, pasta with a sprinkling of cheese, cookies, a banana. I always have leftover meats around, so this urge isn't about laziness. Sometimes I want just one bite of meat.
Meat can be high in iron. My mother has been told that she hovers near iron overload. Perhaps my tastes are trying to save me from eating too much iron.
I always go back to my Grandmother's diet and she said her dad was proud to have meat on the table at DINNER for 11 kids during the depression. I think home-made bread (with a small amount of whole rye) was the main event at lunch. With jam, pickles, broth, butter, milk-tea... (This diet resulted in 3 centenarians) The small town I live in has a book about it's history. The first "hot school lunch" program (in the 1800's) was cocoa.
When I've mentioned my nana's diet before, someone said: Maybe the health was from a low calorie intake. It's also interesting that it might also have been a moderate meat intake. And definitely not carnivore! But the foods aside from meat were mostly all low-VA.
Edited to add: I often have an incredibly strong urge for salt about 4:00 pm, and find that I eat less at this time if I just give in to the desired salt intake. Maybe humans need salt licks like farm animals have, LOL.
Here to say it appears my foot cramps have left the building. They were excruciating! Don't know if it is time-on-diet or coping, maybe a bit of both.
For whatever reason they seemed linked to potatoes and I have NOT dropped potatoes. I may be a bit more careful about peeling away green spots and getting rid of "eyes". (not that I wasn't already)
I wear shoes only when I have to and I went through and got rid of any tight shoes. I think shoes can have a bad effect that gets more apparent with age (pinching in the bones toward the middle) Another is that I keep my feet warm. Ugg boots are great for that, my ugg boots never got put away this summer. No more cool feet on the porch in the morning or when in the passenger seat of the car.
I do have nerve damage especially in leftie. I can still feel that, but at least the cramps have stopped.
Good for you. So far your best bet is it is the extra time kept warm?
Hi Joe, keeping feet warm is important in my case, with the Raynauds and all. It's not like I was going around forcing myself to have cold feet before, but I did purchase a pair of ugg boots with white fur inside and they have amped up the luxury warmth. (I don't know if you've seen that I suspect that I might sometimes react to dyes). How silly is it that they dye the inside of most of the color-ways of ugg boots?
As someone in your updates you posted stated: I became, over time, a canary-in-the-coal-mine regarding toxins, and in my case one problem was clothing toxins. I've reacted to clothing a few times, especially new clothing. Especially in places that get damp. So, I've been collecting natural fiber, undyed, latex-free clothing. Especially I try for a pure first layer and some lounge wear and bedding. I can't make myself dress in white all the time, though. I love color. Bloggers who talk about clothing toxins recommend washing clothing many times before wearing. I suppose it is worth mentioning that dyes aren't the only bad things that end up on our clothing, for instance wrinkle treatments. I only mention dyes because I know I react to hair dye.
Of course, the healing of cutting back on VA for so long (5.5 years on the slowboat) continues. And now it's been 9 months with very little alcohol too.