Getting Back to Roots

It recently occurred to me that the original intent of this blog has gone by the wayside a bit. What started as a journey toward better health has culminated into pretty much whatever life throws at me in the moment. And, while I’m ok with that, I did feel like perhaps the occasional mention of what brought me here in the first place would be appropriate.

It really has nothing to do with New Year’s. I know most people make resolutions, and one of the most popular resolutions is to lose weight/get healthy. Sure I want to do those things, too, but I gave up resolutions some time ago. You can read why here: New Year 2011

No, it’s really more because I’ve neglected my blog for so long, despite having many, many things to say. It’s feeling like I owe it to myself to take just a few moments every couple of days to write something just for me. So if you’ll forgive me a few hundred words, I’d like to ramble a bit.

Thank God for Peppermint Tea!

Thursdays are supposed to be all about my coke addiction and things that I’m trying or are helping me kick the habit. So in that spirit, I can’t help but think how grateful I am to have peppermint tea.

Back at the onset of all of this, I got some peppermint tea so that I could have something to drink on my cleanse besides lemonade. When I later discovered that caffeine was having such a detrimental effect on my hands, I used it as a coffee substitute. It has also been immensely helpful to have on the days that I’m trying not to drink coke but desperately need something with flavor.

A Seriously Overdue Update

Has it really been two weeks since I posted anything? I mean, I knew I’d been busy, but didn’t realize I’d been that  busy! This is going to be a long  post. You’ve been warned. J

I took a little time off from writing to go be a florist for Valentine’s Day at my mama’s shop, and then for a bit of rest from the stress that comes with working the insane amount of hours that I do. We also took a little trip down south for my oldest daughter’s first archery competition, and it was nice to get out and about to somewhere we normally wouldn’t visit.

Why Is It So Stinkin' Hard to Drink Water?

Water. It’s the stuff life is made of. Our bodies are comprised of an overwhelming percentage of it. It is Earth’s most precious natural resource barring oxygen. It’s pure goodness and so very useful for a multitude of things. Why, then, is it so blasted difficult to drink?!?!?

I try to drink water, I really do. But it’s really a challenge for me. Water is so bland, so tasteless, so….water. It’s not even that I don’t like water. Water that comes from my well is very good as water goes. I won’t touch city water with a 10-foot pole, but that’s city water—you can hardly even call that stuff water, if you want my opinion about it. Good, crisp well water, however, is quite nice. It just doesn’t taste as good as practically anything that has sugar in it is all.

A Bunch of Randomness

I don’t know WHAT made me think that I actually had time to maintain a blog for myself. Must have been a bit of temporary over-ambition. So, since so much has happened since I was able to post, and since I really don’t have much time right now, this is going to be very random. (Do you like the squirrel? I like the squirrel. He’s so cute!)

I Have Resorted to Drugs

I got really tired of the itching and the swelling and the frantic wringing of the hands with the towel, so I started taking Benadryl and Advil a few days ago. It has helped tremendously. I got to itching early this morning, but I also had forgotten to take my Benadryl so that was very much my fault. I also had some chocolate milk…again, my fault. Plus, I have some blisters that are very “ripe” and the itching is always worst right before they bust.

Caffeine: My Number 1 Suspect

Ok, so I didn’t make it through the week without coffee. I had to have caffeine to pull off the hours I needed to a few days ago. However, I did use real cream and maple syrup rather than my non-dairy creamer. My dyshidrotic eczema worsened. (By the way, I just realized I had a touch of dyslexia and have been spelling dyshidrosis and dyshidrotic incorrectly all this time. I can’t figure out how to change my labels, so I’m just going to let it be and do it right from here on out.)

Since I didn’t have any other drinks other than water, La Croix, and peppermint tea, I know it is something in the coffee that’s triggering my flares. Whether it’s caffeine or some other element, I’m not sure. So I’m moving forward with the second phase of experiments. I got some Coke. Caffeine-free Coke, to be exact.

Getting Healthy: Take 2

You could say this is take two, I suppose. You could also say it’s take 200 if you count up all the times I’ve tried to change my lifestyle in the past. It’s either insanity or tenacity…I’m not sure which. What I do know is that, no matter how many times I fail, my health is something I cannot give up on. And so, I continue onward in my resolve to kick the caffeine habit and get well.

Exploring Possible Dishydrosis Triggers

Ok, you know how I said I would have no more soft drinks for at least a week? Yeah, I may have fibbed a bit there. On Sunday, we ended up taking a family excursion, which meant that I would be traveling in the car again. I had more Dr. Pepper. Oops!

In addition to that, I had a good bit of coffee over the weekend. That whole having to stay up all day and all night thing necessitated the heavy use of caffeine. There was really no other option there.

Can you guess what else happened over the weekend?

Know When to Hold, Know When to Fold

I want to apologize for going on hiatus the last couple of days. I’ve not felt well at all and it’s been all I can do to sit up long enough to do my work, much less try to blog. So, that said, I’m a little bit sad, a little bit mad, a little bit frustrated, and a little bit glad. I had to break the cleanse last night.

Now, to be fair, my heart was never in this. I wasn’t doing it because I wanted to; I was doing it because I had to. Because my Coke habit had gotten way out of control, as had my coffee habit. Then the thing with my hands…I’ve been making myself sick and I had to try to undo the damage and get started in the right direction.

However, it looks like that as wonderful as the Master Cleanse was for me last time around, it was not the answer this time. I’ve felt bad the entire time, and yesterday was the worst. If it were just headaches or nausea, I could have dealt with that and continued. But I was severely dizzy all day yesterday. I had to go to town and got scared a couple of times that I might pass out while driving. I made it home fine, but the dizziness only got worse.

Something’s Not Right

Finally, I checked my blood pressure, since I am prone to having lower blood pressure anyway. In fact, I believe the only reason I’m not on low blood pressure medicine is because I smoke and have tons of caffeine. Even with that, my blood pressure stays in the perfectly normal range most of the time. But last night, it was abnormally low—and every time I’d check it after that, I’d just be lower.

My husband and I decided that I must have something to eat to get my blood pressure back up. Knowing that breaking the cleanse the wrong way will result in severe stomach pain and nausea, I thought that maybe just licking on a spoon of peanut butter would help…but I couldn’t get it down. So I opted for a bowl of chicken noodle soup, which has tons of sodium in it. It brought my blood pressure to just within normal ranges, but not much more.

As much as I really wanted to be done with the cleanse, I also didn’t want to give up before it had time to work. Plus, I have all this syrup and just bought a ton more lemons yesterday. So I’ve spent the day trying to rethink my approach, not sure as to whether I should continue or not. Then, about an hour ago, my blood pressure pretty much made the decision for me…it was lower than it was even last night—I could barely stand up properly.

Being Flexible

I’m not entirely sure yet what I’m going to do. All I know is that if I try to continue this cleanse with it bottoming out my blood pressure, I’m going to end up really sick. I have to eat at least a small meal every day. So I think what I’m going to try is to continue drinking the lemonade throughout the day, but allow myself at least one reasonable meal per day. I know I won’t get near the cleansing benefits—I may not get any at all—but it would be stupid to continue in this manner knowing that I could pass out any moment from low blood pressure.

Wellness is a great deal about learning to listen to your body and taking action to give it what it needs. Right now, my body needs food. So, as true to form as it would be for me to beat myself up about failing, I have resolved not to. If the goal is wellness, and this path is leading away from that, then it is not a failure for me to listen to what my body is saying. There is something good that has come from this, though…and I’ll discuss that in another post.

The Master Cleanse and New Beginnings

It took me two hours this morning to get up the gall to do my flush, but once I started I was ok. I’m actually feeling pretty good right now. I’m working on my 10^th glass of lemonade and I only have a mild headache. Of course, I’ve been drinking water like it’s going out of style, too, so I’m wondering if that has helped to minimize the caffeine withdrawal symptoms.

I’m actually just a tad concerned that I’m not feeling like I’m about to die. Don’t get me wrong…I am most grateful that the first day has not been like it was the last time. But at the same time, I should be seriously detoxing from caffeine right now and I feel fine for the most part. So I have to wonder if the worst is yet to come, or worse—the cleanse isn’t doing anything.

The Master Cleanse and Hunger

I was not remotely hungry up until about two hours ago. That’s when the family ate. Grilled cheese sandwiches…and they smelled sooo good. C was originally going to make bacon and eggs, but I gave him a look, while calling him evil, that suggested his life may be at risk if he made me smell bacon cooking right now. ;)

Prepping for the Master Cleanse...the WRONG Way

I have two recipes that were my great-grandmother’s: chili and chicken and dumplings. They are a mainstay of my family’s winter menu and I enjoy them much more than I should. This week, I have made both. It’s not that it’s been unusually cold—it’s actually been rather warm for this time of year. But I know that, after Saturday, I won’t be able to enjoy them again for quite some time. So, I indulged.

Master Cleanse Preparation Rachael-Style

A smart person would have taken this week to slowly wean away from caffeine, junk food, and rich dishes—especially if that person had done the cleanse before and knew what the first day is like if you don’t prepare properly. But, I am not a particularly smart person when it comes to things like that.

Defining Addiction

I’d like to be clear about something before I get too far into this journey. I am not, in any way, trying to minimize serious addictions, make myself a victim, or intentionally publish false or inaccurate information. I do feel that “addicted” best describes my relationship with soft drinks because I feel like I have to have them. And, since Coke is my soft drink of choice, the play on words was too much to resist. But to say that cola addiction is a medically recognized disorder—no, that’s not what I’m doing. So please don’t misunderstand me.

Now that we have that cleared up, I thought it might be appropriate to discuss what addiction really is.

Dishydrotic Eczema: The New Leprosy

Ok, I admit that this title may be a bit misleading. Dishydrotic eczema, also called dishydrosis and pompholyx, is neither new nor a form of leprosy. But it can make you feel like you have a flesh-eating disease, so that’s how I’m justifying my choice of words.

I have had the lovely good fortune to develop dishydrosis in recent months. It started out innocent enough—just a few tiny little bumps on one of my fingers that were strange but didn’t bother me. It stayed this way for weeks so I didn’t think much of it. Then…well, it got angry.