Misery Loves Company

Ok, I admit it, yuck! Had a miserable night last night. Hives are back, pounding heart, endless hot flashes. So discouraged. Doc came in this morning and told me my blood sugar was low so they pricked my finger (hard to get blood out of a skinny starving corpse) and it was a little better. Blood pressure also isn't stellar. I kvetched - after 4.5 years of being plant based, why am I not having better results? He said because I am detoxing from the other decades of crap I lived on. Good point.

On the bright side, I have lost 10 pounds that I certainly didn't need to lose quite so fast. Was down to 121.4 this morning and I'm 5'7" which is pretty damned svelte, if I do say so myself. I'll post a pic of me today below which I will not sub in as my profile pic because I am in love with the hippo. I wonder if some magazine called something like Hives Today or Dermatological Quandaries needs a skinny model. Nausea is bad and having trouble drinking as much water as I need.

Saw Doug Lisle this morning who spoke for about 1.75 hours and only stopped because they had to set up for lunch. LUNCH!!! I can barely remember lunch. How do people do this for 40 days?? Anyway, back to Dr. Lisle. He talked about some things that I wasn't interested in (people asked some strange questions) but here are some of my takeaways:

~ We are systematically designed to eat 3-5 pounds of food a day. When you choose calorie rich foods, you will automatically overeat. We want to eat well so that we can live until we die - high functioning.

~ Human motivation and behavior change - if you set the bar too high, you trap the human motivational system into a sabotage loop. Watch the video Continuum of Evil. Sometimes you can't take change like this too fast and you have to screw up - this will make you stronger in the long run. Don't strive for perfect days.

~How to make partners vegan? DO NOT tell them that they should do this for their health!!! Tell them this is something that is making sense to you now and you are going to see how it goes. After you've been doing this for years, the partner will see how well you look, how good you feel, and might slowly come along. Confrontation does not work. Going slow is the fastest way to get there. Anything else sets up a defense mechanism.

~ You can only regulate WHAT you eat, not HOW MUCH you eat. Yes, we can regulate quantity for a short period of time, but not permanently. You can get people to overeat by giving them calorie rich food, and likewise to under eat, but having them eat raw foods. But ultimately you are best eating the food you were designed for.

~ Long lecture on anxiety that I loved. Very complicated. Take away? When you are having an anxiety attack, instead of doing the commonly suggested deep breathing, tense up your large muscles and hold your breath as long as you can. Then let the breath go and relax. Do it several more times. This will drain off adrenaline which will end the attack. All your systems are screaming for you to run from the perceived danger. But in all likelihood, there isn't any, so try this. (I will, I will!!!)

~Remember that the center of our diet is eating the starch. Fuhrman's way of eating mostly veggies and salads gets people antsy and kind of hungry. They then drift toward concentrated foods and overeat -nuts, crackers, etc. Instead, eat those starches.

~People should work on their environments, not on themselves. Dr Lisle says nothing will get him to cook - he just won't do it. So he changed his environment. He hired a college cook to spend 5 hours a week cooking in his house. He has no idea what he will come home to each night so it's a great surprise. He couldn't change himself, so he changed his environment. Can't get yourself to exercise? Hire a personal trainer to knock on your door at 7:30 several mornings a week. (Clearly I must be made of money, or I used to be made of money before I came here. Now I'm broke!)

~ You don't have to be perfect to do well. Every time you do something right it's a victory. Do something wrong? Not the end of the world. Healthy and unhealthy behaviors go in streaks (YES, THIS IS ME!!!!) Our lives are run by memory circuits. Memories can be stimulated by proximity and triggers. If you eat a Snicker's bar today, you are more likely to have another tomorrow (YES!) because they are hot in your brain. The next day, if you didn't eat one, you are slightly less susceptible. But the memories are still close at hand, just a little less hot. The hardest part is the day after the candy - you just have to grit your teeth and not do it so the urge lessens as the memory lessens. Perfection is not the goal.

There was lots more but like the other guys, he talks fast and he is so damned smart and knows everything on everything (talked about physics and chemistry and biology and everything in between!) so there was only so much I could digest with my foggy brain and write down. I'm going to watch his video on the Continuum of Evil. If I find the answers to happiness and health and maybe romance, I'll let you know.

BTW, one of the interns came in to check on me mid-day (off schedule) because she knew I wasn't feeling well. I live alone so don't have anyone to take care of me, so acts like this just make me fahrklempt (on the verge of tears) because of the kindness. Lovely people they have here!

Ok - here is my pic.
In the mirror, looking at myself, I look really skinny. This pic doesn't look so bad to me. And no Spanx!!!

This afternoon went to a lecture by a naturopath, Dr. Veress. Her lecture was very medical and technical and a bit hard for me as a layperson to understand. But I took copious notes anyway. It was all about fasting and what happens to your body. Maybe I'll post it in the files in case someone is interested. Not positive I got it all down right.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it. This is long enough. Hoping I feel less nauseated tomorrow. Gotta get down another 2-3 glasses of water - ugh!!!