Why Does My Dog Always Know Something is Wrong Before I Do?
So recently Munchie has insisted on sleeping with me and is very courteous…now if you know Munchie you know he is a 100 lbs of Olde love but courteous mmm not so much. He has improved his manners around the wild and woolly Miss Daisy. Munchie has not pushed me off my bed, dug his dreaming running paws into my back at 4am or otherwise given me flashbacks of sleeping with an ex!
Happiness is in fact a warm puppy. I know when Munchie is there no one is going to try and break into my house or my room and I won’t feel the chilly breeze from my partially open window. He will have my back as I sleep.
Does he snore you ask? Oh yes he does, in fact I was dreaming a distant car was backfiring when I awoke and realized it was Munchie! Naturally his noise machine is facing my ears dans la nuit! It is still better than waking up to Daisy running around dragging a fire agate across the antique Afghani carpet she has recently wrestled with and won,dragged across the floor. Miss Daisy has eaten my Leather luggage tag, the lid on a box of displays under the bed and carved her immortality into my Victorian chair. Baddddd dogge with the carving tool teeth! Alas she is but a baby.
So back to Munchie…I digress…Munchie has really been everything that makes dogs our best friends. He is loyal and caring and pitches in when and how he can and that makes him a dogge hero. He is almost three and it has been an interesting journey from pupster Munch.
So it is back to work and on with the day. I have a list of things to do as big and chewy as that bone in Munchie’s mouth. One bite at a time…
Raw Vegan Days and Dark, Organic, Fairtrade Chocolate and Blackberry Treats
So as I fall deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of food truth and the aging process I see all food so differently. I am in love with fresh organic real live food again…
Yesterday I dropped by a farmer’s market on my way home from a deep breathing 20 minutes on the tidepools on a gorgeous So Cali day. I was really hungry as my blueberry, hemp, blue green algae and organic naner smoothie was wearing off. I bought some red heirloom org carrots and quickly scarfed one down…woe to any rabbit who tried to take it from me. Then I found the purveyor of all org sprouts of bean and seed and grassy kinds. I grabbed a fistful of pea sprouts and dropped them on the scale. I replied no bag I’m eating them now. I handed over my $1 and enjoyed the delicious green light crunchy flavor of these baby pea sprouts. I felt their energy convert to mine and I gave thanks to all involved. Next stop org arugula to wrap around the carrots.
Ah “The Bitchin’ Sauce” lady was there. I bought a container of lemon almond and headed back to the sprouts. I grabbed a bigger wad of pea sprouts and proclaimed I would be eating these as well bu this time with the magical “Bitchin Sauce” he gave a nod of hearty approval. I felt so satisfied after that…I had even taken a stroll down the aisle where the food trucks are…The smells were nothing compared to the fresh snap of raw living from the ground. Does this mean I will never eat a ripe small farm brie again? I doubt it…but the next cheese I eat will be small batch and very high quality. Less is more, and yet the satisfaction level of a high quality treat allows us a purer enjoyment without guilt. I hope once I am detoxed that in time I can have a fresh hot baguette for my petit dejeuner next time I’m in France with some org butter. Everything in correct amounts.
When I read the Woody Harrelson would not eat the Twinkies in Zombieland I understood and just another reason to give Woody the mad props! He is a hero of mine for many reasons.
So on that note my favorite new movie theater treat is fresh org blackberries eaten with a high quality org, FT chocolate. heaven…
I haven’t included pictures of myself on this health seeking strengthening journey because I just haven’t taken any lately…I will. Should I tag myself in my photos so no one mistakes me for a younger version of me? haha just a little detox humor…and a lovely side effect of nurturing one’s temple with food which gives life.
Namaste and may all your meals enrich you body, mind and spirit.
What if Failure Was Not an Option?
So I ask myself the other day as I registered my daughter for a four day life coaching event what would I like to do if I knew failure was not an option? What if I knew with absolute certainty that I would succeed?
1) I would love with all my heart and soul.
2) I would create what is in my heart without concerns of marketability.
3) I would travel to far away places and learn the language and carry only a backpack and not worry about the cost.
4) I would invest in companies I believe in regardless of what the financial experts say.
5) I would apply for graduate school in a foreign country.
6) I would learn to fly an airplane.
7) I would make a beautiful collection of jewels from my amazing local tourmaline collection for their pyroelectric and piezoelectric health qualities.
8) I would speak my mind.
9) I would paint everyday without thought to whether or not anyone else is interested in my art.
10) I would teach the poor and disenfranchised that they have the power to change their circumstances starting with their own limiting beliefs.
…and so it seems failure is not an option and so it is time to continue the journey. Life is a gift, give thanks daily.
Change Everything…or at Least Question Everything
As I begin another calendar year and focus on what I want to achieve going in it occurs to me that I really need to question more of my accepted beliefs.
These beliefs are as simple as I think bread needs to be served with a meal down to what I put in my coffee or tea. It is also as complex as why I think a doctor must be consulted for health issues when I already know the answers or at least the question. I’m not saying stop seeing your doctor but, for me it comes down to doing everything in my power to stay healthy get healthier while adapting to a more positive lifestyle.
So when I gave up grains (excepting quinoa) I started asking why when we have so many fresh whole food choices the American table always seems to include gluten loaded GMO wheat bread made with a variety of toxins designed to preserve your bread and shorten your life. I ask why we think certain foods are breakfast foods and others are for lunch or dessert. In the US we think of the entrée as the main course and yet the word which is French means appetizer or first course.
I gave up buying clothes made anywhere except my hometown San Diego unless they are from a clothes swap or local thrift store. My thought process is this that since an item is second or third hand it is okay since it was already transported here for its first incarnation. The thrift buying and swapping has allowed me the budget to buy local designer made clothes. ( https://www.facebook.com/break.themould.9?fref=ts, https://www.facebook.com/staciemayclothing?fref=ts ) I no longer keep clothes in a variety of sizes. They fit or they are sent on the next lucky wearer. When a friend my size comments on how much they love something I am wearing I make a mental note and when it is time to move on I offer it to said friend. I will still enjoy seeing it on someone new.
My personal bath supplies involved sourcing from a local woman who makes all her soaps and I choose the bamboo charcoal soap for my easily irritated skin. Her bath bombs are da’ bomb and come in delightful essential oil scents. ( https://www.facebook.com/MyLuckyDragon?fref=ts ).
My food is now sourced from a variety of farmer’s markets as well as the grocer and includes much more organic choices. The microwave sits dormant. I don’t buy food in cans and I buy nothing to be microwaved. I enjoy my life too much to succumb to illness and degenerative disease which can be prevented through lifestyle adjustment.
I have given away a large number of books yet again as I realize they are available online, e-book and library. A rare on American History stays in the small keeper collection. The others were joyfully received by the new owners.
I don’t keep a lot of photos and I have had friends and family look at me funny when I tell them it is about living in the present. Our ancestors before camera had to remember people in their hearts. I have given away many and have one shoebox of photos. When the lid won’t close it is time to go through them again.
I threw away multi vitamins and supplements which are bio available in my new living food diet. Too many additives and sugars in them.
I don’t need to own, insure, store and house everything i have ever owned or desired. Often I think that idea which has bubbled into hoarding for some folks comes from wanting a memory of the $ money spent. A reminder or perhaps we think we can cash it out one day and maybe today is that day.
Sometimes in love and stuff it is time to move on…
Why Would Anyone Read What I Write?
Seriously, I ask myself as I write my life stories of this and that why would anyone take Ten minutes to read my drivel?
So I thought about it and here is what I came up with? My story might help someone else figure out a solution to a problem by reading how ridiculously I handled mine. Inspire you to dig deeper for a cure not symptom control. So here it is…
Let us begin…
Last year I gained an unseemly amount of weight for no reason other than I felt hungry all the time and craved baguettes and butter and chocolate ice cream, and cheese in all forms…now before you think the obvious that yes, eating all that would make me gain weight, keep in mind I was going to the gym and trying to be aware of all my food choices as well as portion control. It just didn’t matter I was packing on pounds faster than a fat man at the county fair! Then another oddity occurred. I was now suffering frequent asthma attacks. In the photo last spring I was at my tubbiest and wondering why I was so lethargic each morning even though I was active. I am sailing a catamaran in the photo. Instead of Popeye I was feeling like Wimpy his chubby sidekick.
Then I had an attack while at the gym. I was on the stair master and went into anaphylaxis! I was breaking out into hives all over my face was swelling and my breathing became labored. I made my way back to my locker and thought to myself “hell no I’m not going to drop dead at the gym”! I chewed up several Benedryl and used my inhaler more times than recommended no doubt and began to feel better. I began to meditate and put a cold cloth on my face. Once well enough to go home I did. This happened again two weeks later and by now I was carrying a bottle of Benedryl on me as I had hives in the past and knew it was an emergency backup. This time my entire body broke out and my eyes were swelling…again I took the Benedryl and used my inhaler and was able to return home. My physician refilled my inhaler and prescribed an Epi-pen. I wasn’t sure how much better having the pen made me feel especially after emptying my wallet to pay for it! My doctor has been my doctor off and on since I was twelve and is familiar with my years of asthma alternating years of exceptional health.
I started researching causes for anaphylaxis and cures and why was my body treating my fitness as a threat? I have had allergies off and on most of my life with breaks from symptoms lasting a decade or longer. Except for the inhaler I had no prescriptions and I don’t believe in aspirin or other painkillers. I don’t take over the counter meds of any kind with Benedryl being the exception. Maybe it was food? Should I spend thousands of dollars on tests or should I break down my food habits one by one and find the culprit myself? I decided I would be the investigator…it took time and paying a lot of attention to what I stuffed in my pie hole!
I began detoxing through far infrared sauna, ionic foot bath and chanal 2 treatments as well as aloe vera juice shots and had immediate relief from ongoing symptoms as I changed my diet and streamlined my food choices to mostly living and organic. No processed food, no sugars (I use a light amount of honey or blue agave in my tea) and no coffee. I miss none of it. The dairy removal along with the wheat has caused the most dramatic shift for me in feeling my strength return. I ate some delicious brie recently and woke up a little wheezy…Not worth it to me. Once you have had your life flash before you, not once but twice the choice becomes obvious. I choose abundant health.
Fast forward through months of eating some things and not eating others and moving toward a 80%vegan diet and 20% paleo which is non gluten and no wheat or grains except Quinoa and I am symptom free. I still eat some wild fish and organic meats without having a reaction. I started back at the gym just over a week ago and I have discovered my strength is returning very quickly. I will soon be at the fitness level I was at 5 years ago. I wake up refreshed and ready to greet the day’s challenges. I once again look forward to the gym and the strength and toning it rewards me with. I am still heavier than my ideal weight but I am sure than within a short time I will happily embrace an even healthier balanced body weight. 
I changed my diet and saved my life…
Zen Life 