Beginning...Again...Again!

9-23-16 1:23 a.m.
I wrote the following back on June 16, but just discovered I never published it. I had entitled it "Beginning...Again," with the apparent intention of making another start on regular blogging, a start which then ended before it took flight.  Tonight (this morning) in a fit of insomnia I a) got on facebook, which led to b) reading a friend's most recent blog post, inspiring me to c) consider creating a new post of my own, and d) discovered a 3-month old unpublished post already written.  I decided to just add a preamble and go ahead and post it, because it segues nicely into what I wanted to write about anyway.  Stay tuned for that!  My thoughts from:

6-16-16 (time unknown; likely morning since I was in my robe, after daylight since I had coffee)
I'm sitting here in the recliner in my bathrobe, mug of black coffee on the armrest.  I prefer my coffee with cream, preferably Real cream.  The fact that it doesn't even have milk in it is one small sign that I am changing things up.

Yesterday evening was about the worst I have felt physically in...probably ever.  Not sick, not at all.  I've been diagnosed by a real doctor with fibromyalgia and more recently chronic fatigue syndrome.  But I have never worn those diagnoses like a badge of honor like some people.  I don't blame every ache and pain on "my fibro," though they are often severe. I don't believe I have ever once proclaimed on Facebook that I was having a "really bad day," though I have had them.  I haven't missed even an hour of work in the past year.  I live with pain, but I live, with pain.

Yesterday...wow, what a powerful word...Yesterday, I woke up about 4:45 a.m., got up about 5:30, and was out picking green beans about 6:30, then squash and cucumbers.  We have a u-pick berry business, and I "ran the u-pick" until my friend/employee Cindy arrived to take over around 8:00.  I came in and took a shower, then went out to the field and collected the blueberries that had been picked by our pickers that morning, about 6 buckets holding 2-3 gallons and weighing 12-18 pounds apiece.  I drove my truck then to our Market, and did what I do until nearly 7:30 in the evening, running the store.  It is a busy, non-stop job, one that would be made much easier if two people were doing it, but I can't afford the help yet.

I hurt more at the beginning of the day than "normal," and by the time I hiked my butt into my truck at the end of the day, the spot between my shoulder blades was screaming, and everything, literally everything, else was hurting like never before.  My low back doesn't usually hurt, and it was screaming as well.  Sitting down and standing up took a herculean effort and a mind game knowing how much it was going to hurt during the transition.  Walking I shuffled like Igor.

It was a Really. Bad. Day.

That's the negative.  The positive:  a few days ago I had a conversation with a customer, with whom I've been barely acquainted for many years through our business.  I learned that she used to work for a naturopath, one with whom I had had an appointment I was unable to keep many years ago, and the doctor retired before I ever got in to see her.  My customer, whom I'll call Bea, is a slender woman, probably in her 60's.  She told me a lot of things (many of which I already knew) about how our food is related to our health.  I know these things.  I've done the research, and intellectually I KNOW these things.  But I don't practice them.  Or rather, I practice them for very short periods, enough to begin to feel better, then I fall back into the clutches of a poor (but tasty!) Standard American Diet (SAD, I know).

One thing Bea told me though that I had never heard before was that sugar is converted to alcohol in the body.  I know sugar is an addiction, but a light when on as to WHY it is an addiction.  Now, I haven't done any research to check the validity of her statement.  But it certainly makes sense, at least as an explanation, whether the science is there or not.  Now as soon as I re-read that last sentence, I realize that I really DO need to check it out and find out if the science is there.  But regardless of the chemical facts, what I do know is that I feel better when I don't eat sugar.  I also feel better when I don't eat wheat, and just to round out the Big Three, I feel compelled to sacrifice dairy (cheese too?? yep, cheese too...) and see where it takes me.

After a day that felt like yesterday did, seems like it can only get better.

Punctuation

I fancy myself a writer.

I fancy myself a writer?

I...fancy myself...a...writer.

I, fancy myself, a writer.

I, fancy, myself, a writer.

I...fancy!...myself!... a writer!

I, Fancy, myself, a writer! (except my name's not Fancy)

I fancy; myself a writer. (sophisticated cavewoman version)


The power of punctuation!