I am now officially 26 years old. I'm still in my mid-20s, so it's not too bad! I celebrated this weekend with a barbecue which was much fun. It was supposed to be held in a park, but we only found out about 2hrs earlier that the park was closed. So, Oolon's family were kind enough to let us have the use of their house and barbecue for the day.
I had a lovely time :-)
Monday, January 10, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Shameless and gratuitious self-congratulation!
I think I'll do this once or twice/month, just to gloat about how awesome I am. Just wait until I finally make it up the hill to my house - there will be a WHOLE INTERNET PARTY with balloons and streamers and hats and CAKE. DAIRY-FREE CHOCOLATE CAKE YOU MARK MY WORDS.
It will be GLORIOUS!!!
Aherm. Anyway. Been cycling consistently for a fortnight. Here's the run-down:
Week 1: Cycled a total of 100km. Discovered that the reason I was struggling so badly was all the excess weight I was carrying in my basket and panniers. Oops.
Week 2: Went easier this week and travelled 28 km all up. I did manage to travel 20km in one hit, which I'm proud of :-)
The key thing is that I've cycled at least 3 times each week. It's about having something that I can achieve easily when I don't feel like really doing it, because that way I won't beat myself up for not doing what I feel is enough. If I do that, then I'll get discouraged and possibly stop, which would be bad.
So, hooray!
It will be GLORIOUS!!!
Aherm. Anyway. Been cycling consistently for a fortnight. Here's the run-down:
Week 1: Cycled a total of 100km. Discovered that the reason I was struggling so badly was all the excess weight I was carrying in my basket and panniers. Oops.
Week 2: Went easier this week and travelled 28 km all up. I did manage to travel 20km in one hit, which I'm proud of :-)
The key thing is that I've cycled at least 3 times each week. It's about having something that I can achieve easily when I don't feel like really doing it, because that way I won't beat myself up for not doing what I feel is enough. If I do that, then I'll get discouraged and possibly stop, which would be bad.
So, hooray!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Dairy-free. Ergh.
As well as a stupid reproductive system, I also happen to have a really stupid gut. It hates me. A lot. This is a relatively common exchange:
Tummy: I need to do something.
Me: Ok, lets go over here and get on with it.
Tummy: Uuuum, no.
Me: You don't want to any more?
Tummy: No, I still want to. I just won't.
Me: Well, we'll just stay here until you do.
Tummy: *is defiant*
Eventually, it does what it needs to do and I go back to my normal life. Occasionally, it decides to be too enthusiastic, causing all sorts of other trouble. Some times it's one, followed directly by the other. I could not pick up any sort of pattern.
The doctor diagnosed it as IBS, as far as any "syndrome" can be "diagnosed". Which, of course, told me nothing. I was told to avoid stress and to take fibre supplements and drink lots of water.
I was also lactose intolerant, or so I thought. I switched to lactose-free milk, but I still got sick. I'm also anaemic, so it was suggested that I might have coeliac disease, which I was tested for and it came up negative. Recently, friends of mine suggested I try going completley dairy-free. I looked up milk stuff and came across the possibility of caseine intolerance or allergy, and I figured that it couldn't do me any harm to try going dairy-free for a few weeks, particularly when I remembered that protein shakes always made me feel sick and that protein bars also made me unwell, but after a couple of hours.
This doesn't just include milk and cheese and ice cream. Nothing cooked in butter, nothing processed with any milk protein in it at all whih also includes flavoured chips and certain kinds of bread. So, lots and lots of paranoia whenever I eat anything that I didn't prepare myself until I figure out whether this is actually what's causing the problem.
So here I am, dairy-free for a few days. No idea how long it'll be before I can tell whether I'm feeling better, which is when I will also reintroduce a small amount of (lactose-free) milk into my diet to see what happens.
Wish me luck.
Tummy: I need to do something.
Me: Ok, lets go over here and get on with it.
Tummy: Uuuum, no.
Me: You don't want to any more?
Tummy: No, I still want to. I just won't.
Me: Well, we'll just stay here until you do.
Tummy: *is defiant*
Eventually, it does what it needs to do and I go back to my normal life. Occasionally, it decides to be too enthusiastic, causing all sorts of other trouble. Some times it's one, followed directly by the other. I could not pick up any sort of pattern.
The doctor diagnosed it as IBS, as far as any "syndrome" can be "diagnosed". Which, of course, told me nothing. I was told to avoid stress and to take fibre supplements and drink lots of water.
I was also lactose intolerant, or so I thought. I switched to lactose-free milk, but I still got sick. I'm also anaemic, so it was suggested that I might have coeliac disease, which I was tested for and it came up negative. Recently, friends of mine suggested I try going completley dairy-free. I looked up milk stuff and came across the possibility of caseine intolerance or allergy, and I figured that it couldn't do me any harm to try going dairy-free for a few weeks, particularly when I remembered that protein shakes always made me feel sick and that protein bars also made me unwell, but after a couple of hours.
This doesn't just include milk and cheese and ice cream. Nothing cooked in butter, nothing processed with any milk protein in it at all whih also includes flavoured chips and certain kinds of bread. So, lots and lots of paranoia whenever I eat anything that I didn't prepare myself until I figure out whether this is actually what's causing the problem.
So here I am, dairy-free for a few days. No idea how long it'll be before I can tell whether I'm feeling better, which is when I will also reintroduce a small amount of (lactose-free) milk into my diet to see what happens.
Wish me luck.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Stress and its effects on the mind and body
Stress affects people in different ways. There are some standard symptoms, but there are a few things which are a bit more specific to certain people. For instance, stress can affect sleep. It can result in insomnia and general tiredness. For me, it affects my dreams.
I first noticed a link between the two when I repeated first year engineering. I was very stressed about the situation and started having nightmares a few times per week. This stopped almost miraculously when I received my offer for the teaching degree that I had applied for transfer to.
But it's not just nightmares which happen when I'm under stress: I also act out dreams. To date, I have:
The most interesting one was the last on that list, but specifically an incident where I went to bed wearing two layers and woke up wearing only the outer layer.
My brain is a strange and fascinating thing.
I first noticed a link between the two when I repeated first year engineering. I was very stressed about the situation and started having nightmares a few times per week. This stopped almost miraculously when I received my offer for the teaching degree that I had applied for transfer to.
But it's not just nightmares which happen when I'm under stress: I also act out dreams. To date, I have:
- Texted in my sleep
- Used tissues when dreaming about crying
- Performed martial arts moves on my furniture
- Jumped out of bed
- Removed my clothes
The most interesting one was the last on that list, but specifically an incident where I went to bed wearing two layers and woke up wearing only the outer layer.
My brain is a strange and fascinating thing.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Smart little body
My body has a knack for knowing what it needs, at least as far as ingestion goes. See, a few years ago, I developed rheumatoid arthritis. Fortunately, it never got anywhere near as bad as what you see in the pictures but it was always a possibility.
Before I got diagnosed (it took four months to go from my noticing a swollen and sore joint in my hand to being told "this is what you've got"), I started having some other odd symptoms. I got really, really dizzy sometimes. I also started craving rare steak (I'd never had it rare before). I also randomly craved orange juice. I craved orange juice to the point that I had about a dozen mandarines and two big glasses of OJ, all in one sitting, before I felt sated.
I only found out a few months after my diagnosis that rheumatoid arthritis can cause iron deficiency, and that vitamin C helps you absorb iron. My body very clearly knew exactly what it needed!
Then there was starting to take Ritalin. Suddenly, I was no longer craving chocolate. I later learned ADHD is partly due to a lack of dopamine in the brain, and that chocolate increases dopamine, as do CNS stimulants... Again, my body had found something which gave it what it needed and craved it on a regular basis. In fact, one of the ways I can tell my medication is wearing off is that I start to crave chocolate :-p go figure.
I do sometimes like the way my body works.
Before I got diagnosed (it took four months to go from my noticing a swollen and sore joint in my hand to being told "this is what you've got"), I started having some other odd symptoms. I got really, really dizzy sometimes. I also started craving rare steak (I'd never had it rare before). I also randomly craved orange juice. I craved orange juice to the point that I had about a dozen mandarines and two big glasses of OJ, all in one sitting, before I felt sated.
I only found out a few months after my diagnosis that rheumatoid arthritis can cause iron deficiency, and that vitamin C helps you absorb iron. My body very clearly knew exactly what it needed!
Then there was starting to take Ritalin. Suddenly, I was no longer craving chocolate. I later learned ADHD is partly due to a lack of dopamine in the brain, and that chocolate increases dopamine, as do CNS stimulants... Again, my body had found something which gave it what it needed and craved it on a regular basis. In fact, one of the ways I can tell my medication is wearing off is that I start to crave chocolate :-p go figure.
I do sometimes like the way my body works.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)