We are on our way to the Pecos river to kayak 20 miles over the next few days. I’m excited and nervous! I’m so happy to be doing this with my hubby and his summer staff. He’s been on the river a lot; I haven’t even attempted it. I’m getting very out of my comfort zone. I know it’ll be worth it.
Anyway. I have been eating soooo great lately. Until yesterday I have had little to no processed foods for about 10-12 days. Well, I have eaten in the dining hall, but even then I choose to eat meals that have little to no processed food.
I had Mexican food yesterday (enchiladas… not so healthy). I also had tea with artificial sweeteners. I felt it last night. My anxiety was worse, and I just felt icky. The next few days I have a lot less control over my food (including eating two Chick-fil-a biscuits this morning). I really hope it doesn’t affect me too much. Between that and full caffeinated coffee (I’ve been drinking half caff or decaf), I feel more anxious.
I still haven’t had a soda! This is HUGE.
When we get back, I will be back to only “real foods.” The cool thing about what I’m doing at this point is that there is no guilt about eating things that I don’t want to. I just feel the affects and remember that when I eat again next.
This is an experiment of sorts. I bought raw milk and have been drinking a lot of it. I love the taste and it fills me up.
I have read and have been told that raw milk is so much better on digestive systems than pasteurized. Unfortunately, I have found that raw or pasteurized doesn’t matter for me. I’m having digestive issues. So instead of drinking all the raw milk, I’m just going back to not drinking milk. I’m going to have very little dairy. Maybe a little raw cheese (maybe) and butter and my homemade Greek yogurt (it’s fermented so it helps more than hurts). I actually feel my best when I don’t have much dairy at all. I’m noticing that it affects me in many ways.
I have also been researching supplements and herbs for mental health. I signed up for some free herbalism classes through Commonwealth Herbalism. My friend suggested it to me.
The supplements and herbs that I’m currently taking include magnesium, turmeric, L-methylfolate with methyl B12, fermented cod liver oil (I’ll receive my new bottle today), raw probiotics (hope to eat more fermented foods so I don’t need this and cutting way down on dairy will help), vitamin C (with herbs, probiotics, fruits and veggies, etc; I probably won’t need this long term), and I have the anxiety soother herbal tincture and the stress relief herbs.
I’ll know more about what my body truly needs when I go to the appointment with my new applied clinical nutritionist on the 30th.
With all of these changes (in addition to cutting out another medication and slowly weaning off another), my anxiety has been improving. It’s a slow process. These next few days my slow that progress down a bit; luckily I don’t have a timeline. I’m just taking it a day at a time.
I’m still working on the best foods for my body and brain. I feel like everyone is different and we all have different needs and foods that affect us. I’m sure my nutritionist will have recommendations for certain foods and supplements that would be good for me. I mean, that’s the whole reason I’m seeing her!
Beauty in My Backyard
I found out the other day that I have a ton of medicinal and edible plants in my backyard. It is FULL of what I would normally call weeds (it’s a true Wild and Free backyard haha), and I found out that a lot of it is beneficial! I’m not planning on cutting it. We’ll just walk to through it.
Amazing Resources
I went through my books recently, and I realized how many amazing resources I have that I have been collecting over the years. Many nutrition books (including recipes), herbalism books, etc. One of the herbalism books that I had came from my grandma ( Early American Herb Remedies).
Back to Intentional Movement
One more exciting thing! Since I’ve started eating better, my desire for exercise is coming back! I’ve started 5k training with my workout partner again, and I cleaned up my garage gym! It was a DISASTER because of a lot of dust (we don’t have pavement at all and there was sawdust everywhere because of Robert building my chicken coop!), and there was camp stuff everywhere. I re-joined Street Parking and am taking it slow. I’m going to work really hard at not comparing my journey to others’ journeys. We will see how it goes. Look at the difference!
Simply Courtney 