It’s been a rough few days. The intestinal issues I mentioned in my last post have made it very uncomfortable for me. Then yesterday I woke with an awful sore throat that plagued me all day. The only relief came when I took some Ibuprofen and Loperamide toward bedtime.
When I woke this morning the sore throat was back with a vengeance but the intestinal issues have subsided somewhat. I suspect it is a virus now, though at first I thought otherwise. My youngest showed symptoms yesterday which changed my mind. However, having two viruses at the same time is no picnic. I hate being sick!
Along with my illness I’ve had my children home more than usual because the weather got very cold and icy Monday into Tuesday. School was closed Tuesday after a three-day weekend. My children ended up with some cabin fever – fighting, bickering, etc. I think I handled it well considering my condition.
The same time the icy weather showed our downstairs heater decided not to turn on. Thankfully it was resolved by a reset but my husband took his time because he likes using the fireplace. So I was cold, sick and dealing with grumpy kids. Hahaha
Platies 🙂
To add to the fun, this morning I found that our fish aquarium filter had overflowed onto the wood floor under the aquarium. The wood was already showing signs of warping. This means now all three areas in our downstairs wood floor have water damage. A full replacement will be required at some point. The good news is that while vacuuming up the water I noticed a tiny baby fish swimming around. Upon inspection I found at least two. Looks like our Platies reproduced and some survived! 🙂
GAPS Diet
With the first signs of my intestinal issues I felt that I should return to the GAPS diet. I have been slow at getting started because of feeling so ill, but I was able to do a full day of the diet yesterday with good results. I plan to continue following the diet today.
Dinner – GAPS chicken nuggets, baby kale salad with avocado and cucumber, lemon juice as the dressing, coconut pancake, roasted vegetables.
Top left – butternut squash soup. Left middle – roasted veggies. Left bottom – almond rosemary-thyme crackers. Large pic – dinner last night.
Staying on the GAPS diet is a lot of work so I doubt I will do it long-term. It requires I cook and shop frequently which is not always feasible. However, if my body continues to be moody and the intestinal issues don’t resolve I may end up just having to stick to the GAPS regardless. We’ll see what happens.
Dream: Sham
I have been sleeping light, waking every few hours from dreams.
The first dream I recall was early in the night. I remember meeting up with my ex-husband and him giving me some green, licorice looking “candy” (seeking a reprieve) that I requested. It was actually marijuana candy. I ate it and waited for the effects to kick in.
Then I was walking along suburban streets in the early hours of the morning. A Hispanic family was walking around looking for discarded “trash” that could be used or sold for a profit. They had with them their 9 year-old son who would wake early and help them scrounge for things every morning before school. I remember saying hello and then looking down at my feet at rope (connection/attachment to others) and various sets of keys (access) they left on the road. I left them there being careful not to step on anything.
Eventually, I made it “home” only it was unfamiliar. I walked up the sidewalk to the front door but had to climb small, wooden stairs (higher level of understanding) and almost fell because one of the rails was loose. The house was a mobile home (feeling insignificant or unappreciated) and quite nice and I remember knowing that it had been made to look expensive so as to keep up with all the other families in the neighborhood.
Inside, I noticed how nice everything was, especially the kitchen. Stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops. Lots of money and attention put into it. I remember thinking the wooden floors of the mobile home would not be able to hold it forever – not a solid foundation. I knew it (the house, the family) was all a sham.
Dream: In Labor
In this dream I kept feeling pains in my stomach and knew I was in labor (anticipation of hard work ahead). I informed my husband and he rushed to get me into a black SUV and to the hospital. The entire time I could feel the labor pains like waves through my abdomen and back. It was very realistic but muted just enough to keep me from waking.
It seemed to take forever but we arrived at a hospital, only it didn’t look like one. A woman who was very obviously pregnant, was waiting inside the room. She was smiling and said, “How far along are you?” I said, “38-39 weeks.” She asked me if it was normal for me to go into labor early and I said, “Yes, usually around 38-39 weeks.” I could still feel the labor pains and felt like someone was checking me. The woman kept smiling, her belly so huge I wondered how she hadn’t popped yet.
Eventually I was told that I was not in labor. The pregnant woman gave me the news. She said, “The twins aren’t ready to come yet. Still another few weeks.” She was referring to her own babies but I knew she also meant my baby was not coming yet. I was disappointed but accepted it as fact without any upset.
I woke suddenly from this dream and wondered if the pain in the dream had been bleed-through from my physical body. Maybe my stomach had been cramping in my sleep? But I had no pain when I woke up.
My middle child has been sick since Sunday. He missed the first day back to school and is home today as well. His symptoms are bad headache and low grade fever of around 100.3°. Yesterday he was well enough in the morning to go shopping with me so I thought he was recovering. Sadly, by evening he was complaining again but could not describe what was hurting him. He fell asleep around 5pm and slept until this morning waking occasionally in a delirium and talking nonsense. This morning he says he feels better. When I told him he once said he thought he was dying he said, “Yeah, I was worried I would have a headache forever.” We suspect he has the flu. 😦
His birthday is Friday. I sure hope he is fully recovered by then.
In thinking of his birthday story (I went into labor with him on 1-11-11 but he was born at just after midnight) I realized tomorrow is yet another version of 1-11-11 only instead of 1-11-2011 it will be 1-11 and then 2+0+1+8 = 11. It will be exactly 7 years from when I was in labor. Pretty cool! I wonder if anything significant is going to happen? Hmmm
BTW, the 1111 number continues to follow me as if reminding me my journey is not over.
January 8th, pre-workout. Strapped on my watch and this was the time. 🙂
Updates and Plans
Since I have written in a while on what is going on with me I figured I would do a little update.
I completed my online NASM course on Monday. My next step is to get First Aid/CPR certified and then take the NASM certification exam. Once I pass the exam I will be a certified personal trainer and can get a job. My plan is to do an 8 week internship at a local gym first via the program I enrolled in. After completing the internship I am guaranteed a job.
My motivation regarding this new career path is on-again-off-again. Some days I think it will be a good thing and other days I just want to drop it completely. It is hard for me to see myself doing anything in the workaday world right now. It is good that I paid so much for the program because it is the money that is making me keep at it. I hate to spend money and then not at least experience the end results of my efforts. Follow through and give it a chance, right?
I am still running and lifting weights and doing my fitness thang. lol I run three days a week and lift weights three days a week, neither on the same days. I found that separating the running and lifting was better for me. My body wasn’t tolerating that routine well. Honestly, I don’t think anyone’s body would tolerate a schedule like that long! I’ve maintained my weight and body fat and will continue to maintain it until I get bored. Ha!
The heart palpitations continue. Not sure exactly why but they are a daily occurrence. When they happen I feel it in my throat, which is odd. If I take my pulse I can feel my pulse rate slow and then catch up within a few seconds. I suspect the BC might be partly to blame but I am giving the BC at least 6 months. Thus far my acne has remained under control. I stopped taking the antibiotics three weeks ago.
Speaking of antibiotics, I think they have messed with my gut flora so I am going to revisit the GAPS diet to return the balance. I won’t be going full-out with the diet but using some of the components such as the broth, probiotics, yogurt/kefir (yuck) and lots of veggies. It will mean no non-fermented dairy and gluten-free for a time but that won’t be an issue. I am also toying with the idea of making my own yogurt. It sounds like a healthy and fun project. I haven’t started the diet just yet, need to review the book, but I am looking forward to relieving some of the side-effects of taking antibiotics for so long. Interestingly, the last time I did the GAPS diet was in January 2015 right after taking a round of antibiotics for exactly the same acne issue!
Someone asked about Monty not long ago so will update on him. He is doing well. He weighed 12.5lbs at his 14 week checkup. He is potty trained (yay!) though still has occasional accidents here and here. We recently leash trained him and he does well on a leash, already indicating he will be an excellent running partner in the future.
Dream: WOD
I was taken to a mountain town with a group of people. We walked up steep trails to a house that was in pretty bad shape. There was an interaction inside with a man who was using the house as part of his work. I soon realized my group were my coworkers and we were being introduced to a new part of our job.
After much discussion someone mentioned how the city was growing fast and asked if I wanted to work there. I was hesitant and they said, “We will pay all costs of relocating. You will have your own house and all expenses will be paid.” Still reluctant, I looked out the window and saw miles of pig farms (overindulgence, gluttony). I said, “I don’t think so. I couldn’t live in such filth.” I somehow knew the growth of the city relied upon pig farming.
They referred to the city as WOG but for some reason I called it WOD. In the dream these names meant nothing but upon waking I knew both well. Wog is a term used in Scientology that refers to non-Scientologists. A wog is a “common, everyday garden-variety humanoid … He ‘is’ a body. [He] doesn’t know he’s there, etc. He isn’t there as a spirit at all.” WOD is a cross-fit term that means “Workout of the Day”. Both terms make sense in the context of this dream. Wog indicates that I saw the groups of people I would be working with as unawakened. The pigs and shit they wallowed in indicate the state of the unawakened in the world. WOD indicates that I saw working with wog’s as part of my job (work-of-the-day) – just an everyday thing.
Eventually I was introduced to other coworkers who had relocated to the city. They were all having a party with the locals and pizza was ordered. I remember staying with a man inside the house. He showed me how to clean up the feces (materialism, possessions, pride, aggression) that was in abundance. I think he did this to try and convince me that all hope was not lost. The visuals are pretty gross. He showed me a huge barrel full of human feces. Then showed me how to contain it. I unpacked a box and carefully kept the contents, a bunch of kitchen materials, separated from the contaminated stuff. There was a small, plastic container in the box for the feces and it was explained that once contained the amount would never be more than the size of the container.
Then I was introduced to a man with blonde hair and was told he was “our brother”. He was young, maybe 20-something, and very attractive. I looked to the man who had been teaching me, who I also knew was my brother, and said, “How is he my brother?” It was explained to me that we had the same father but I believe that is how my human mind interpreted because the explanation if very muddled in my memory. I recall looking around the room at all the others and thinking they were all my “brothers” and my family was really big.
Then I met a woman whose name was “Joy” but she was the complete opposite. I laughed and called her by her name and she got nasty with me. I knew I had made an enemy of her. I didn’t care, I was trying to lighten the mood because she was overly serious.
She stayed there with us as we prepared to go to the party outside. The weather had warmed substantially. Usually it was freezing but that day it was in the 60’s. I opted not to wear shorts even though most others were.
We went to the party and I was surprised to find that the celebration consisted of everyone driving go karts (ability to navigate life’s twists and turns) around a circular dirt track. There was a quick demo on how to use them and I was fascinated that a work party would involved something so fun. I watched as “Joy” stepped up to a go kart. Her response to me was the complete opposite of before. She greeted me like an old friend and told a woman next to me she was grateful to have met me, that I had helped her by something I told her. The woman told me and I said, “I don’t remember saying that to her.” It didn’t matter, though, Joy was now full of….joy. lol
OBE: What Nourishes My Soul?
I woke at around 6am with the dream on my mind. While going over it in my mind I must have drifted into the in-between because the next thing I recall is sitting at my computer with my children to my right. I saw the screen clearly. At first I was viewing FB. Something wasn’t quite right, though. It showed that I had no friends and I got a message that said, “Add friends”. Confused, I figured there must be a glitch with FB. I shifted to my website and noticed the format had changed. I could not see my followers and suddenly became aware that I had none.
As I looked over my website my screen went gray and a tiny message was written in the center. At first I thought I got an email from someone I hadn’t heard from in a while but turns out it was a message that someone had reblogged one of my posts.
The gray screen with the message in the center made me aware of vibrations. I could feel them and my physical body very distinctly. I could feel my heart doing weird things and the vibrations were similar to a feeling of restlessness. I knew I was dreaming and knew that the vibrations meant I could shift OOB but I was not 100% certain. I began to sway back and forth to see if I could feel the shift. It just felt like swaying, though. Still curious I opted to just leave my body and see what would happen.
So I turned to my left and stood up from my seated position. I disconnected and moved easily toward the window. On the way to the window I took off a pair of black sunglasses (not wanting to be seen, not wanting to see something, darkened vision) but my vision was not an issue. I could see clearly and vividly the window and white blinds in front of me. I unlocked the window and pulled it up. Then I went through the window to the porch roof. As I steadied myself I thought, “I don’t want to do the same thing I always do.” Then I said aloud, “I want to know what nourishes my soul.” I said this as I looked up at a brilliant night sky. In the center was a glowing full moon.
I stood there staring at the moon for a bit and thinking my intention again: “Show me what nourishes my soul.” Then I thought to myself, “Why am I asking that question?” lol And then I thought, “Now what do I do? Do I just wait for an answer?” With that thought I could feel the scene destabilize. I did not fight it because I was confused as to why I asked such a question. Where did it come from? Weird!
As I returned to my body I knew the answer: Love. I thought, “Duh! I know that!” lol
Lingering in the remaining vibrations, part of a song came to mind: “Two strangers in the [dark night] bright lights….” I messed up the lyrics and thought “dark night”. Here is the song:
Surprised that I even went OOB, I was unable to return to sleep and just lingered with the song going though my mind while I mulled over my dream. I remember thinking about nourishing my soul with love. It made me feel a bit sad and I began to feel depressed over the whole idea of living the rest of my life hungry….starving even.
In response to my growing despair at ever finding the nourishment I need, I heard, “Don’t give up.”
Considerations
I had not expected to have such a revealing dream after yesterday’s decision to not fall victim to over-analyzing dream content. The dream says a lot about my path, my concerns and considerations regarding my path/life.
Meeting my “brother” and then knowing I had many, many “brothers” was interesting as well. It feels like my human self is trying to make sense of the connection I have with others. In the dream it felt like “brother” was a relative very similar to a half-brother or sister. The same “father”, which if you think about it, indicates that everyone in this world is our Spirit sibling. We all come from the same father-God-One-Source.
I am obviously struggling with the wogs – unawakened – here on Earth, and how they are caught up in materialism, over-indulgence and selfishness. It is akin to the world being covered in pig shit. LOL It is made clear to me that they (my family, the human race) wants me to “relocate” and do my job (meaning get my ass into gear doing my Earth work instead of hiding from it). My job seems to be taking the “shit”, cleaning it up and containing it. Ha!
It is dreams like this one that I wish I could remember what was actually being said rather than bringing back just symbolism. The feeling is there but it does not completely compute. There is still the question, “So I am here to help, but HOW?” Cleaning up pig shit I guess. LOL
Just a quick look at yesterday. I will likely not post much more on the diet from now on since my family is settling into it pretty well now.
My daughter had her first tantrum over what she could eat. She came home from school and wanted Raisin Bran as a snack. My mother-in-law told her no and she commenced to her yelling, kicking, and “dying” routine. So mother-in-law called my husband who gave her permission to eat it (boo on him!). I came home just after, oblivious to the drama and saw her sitting with her new bowl of cereal. I immediately told her no and then I got the tantrum. I stuck firm and we went for a walk. Cereal forgotten and replaced with mother-daughter time. Score!
My son is doing much better. He still hates his probiotic and the cod liver oil (who could blame him?) but he is eating better and much happier. My mother-in-law watched him yesterday and all I got from her is, “I hate this diet. There are no snacks for the children”. When I explained there were snacks just not the kind they were use to and that they would get over it, she said, “Well get rid of all of it then so they can’t see it”. I explained that not all of it would be forever excluded from our diet. Why waste good food? We didn’t eat bad before. Mainly I just need to toss the Goldfish, sweets and cereal bars. I told her I would.
I made Fish Soup last night – a first ever for me. I thought “Nasty” when I heard the name but all the websites online said it is a big winner for families with kids. So I made it. This was the recipe I used:
Fish Soup – total time to prepare and cook was approximately 40 minutes
6 cups chicken stock (homemade)
Several baby carrots cut up
Two stalks of celery, chopped
Three sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped
1 white onion
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small bok choy, chopped
1 cluster of broccoli florets
2 Swai filets, thawed
Salt and pepper to taste
Lemon if desired
Put all ingredients except the broccoli and Swai in a large pot. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and allow to simmer until carrots are tender. Add broccoli. Allow broccoli to cook until bright green (maybe 2 minutes). Add Swai whole to the pot. When the fish turns opaque and flakes then it is done (approximate 2-3 minutes).
Serve with lemon and more parsley if this suits your tastes.
This recipe was a huge hit. My husband said it was his favorite meal of the week (wow). My daughter didn’t like it much but she had a tummy ache during dinner.
Positive Change
As a family we have eaten a much greater variety of meats and veggies than is normal for the week and the week isn’t even done! In four days we have eaten – chicken, ground beef, ground lamb, bone broth, and fish. The fruits and veggies we have eaten is triple what we normally eat. We have eaten a dozen apples, 8 bananas, 4 pears, blue berries, bok choy, broccoli, kale, onion, garlic, parsley, carrots, celery, spinach, cucumber, beets, lemon, and ginger. I still have brussel sprouts and peppers I have not used yet.
If you are thinking of trying this diet, I will say that you will need to grocery shop more than is your norm. I have already taken two trips to the grocery store and am considering a third (fruit is low again). Also, if you think you are making enough for your family, double it. I made an entire crockpot of chicken soup and it lasted two days. I made an entire crockpot of meatball soup and it lasted ONE day. The night I made boiled meat patties there was one patty out of 10 that survived for leftovers. The fish soup was gone after one meal with only a tiny portion left which my husband took for lunch today. I never thought I would have to cook so much! Ha!
It can be done, though, and is not too bad since most of the meals are pretty easy to prepare. I have three small kids and was able to do it and I work part-time. I know I could do this if I worked full-time, though the grocery shopping would have been harder.
Overall I think this diet is a great way to get your eating habits in order. It has been a great learning experience for my entire family and my children did not die from lack of carbohydrates and sugar.
Day three of the GAPS diet. Day two was interesting.
Yesterday morning I spent almost two hours at the park with my kids. I took a large pear with me to snack on and plenty of lemon water. While at the park I usually do body weight exercises or use my baby as my weight in order to get my workout in. I do lunges, squats, push-ups, etc. I decided I had enough energy to do my workout and so did it slowly just in case I got weak during it and made sure to eat the pear midway through. Unfortunately, I ended up feeling very faint and was hit with low blood sugar on the walk home. I think my son was as well because he kept complaining of being tired. My headache was also full force by this time and I gulp down an early lunch as soon as I got home. I then caved and took an Ibuprofen.
So it looks like the reasons for my feeling “off” and having the headache was very low blood sugar caused by the sudden decrease in carbohydrates from doing the diet. I recalled that when I did the Atkins diet years ago (2001 I think) that I got very sickly feeling and had really low energy. This lasted beyond the normal period it takes the body to adjust so I stopped eating so few carbs and instantly felt better. Remembering the lesson I learned then, I decided to eat more small meals and doubled my intake of honey. By the evening I decided to make more coconut pancakes to make sure I had an available supply the next day at work.
As a result I feel hugely better and my husband remarked that he did as well. I also noticed that this morning the dryness on my face is remarkably less. There is still some flaking in some places but no more redness or tight feeling. I slept amazingly last night, too. I only woke up once as did my son and husband (baby duty you know).
GAPS Day 2 Menu
Breakfast (with snack):
Me: 1/2 Coconut waffle with honey, 3/4 cup Greek yogurt with blueberries, chicken broth, coffee, pear, peanut butter with honey
Son: 1/2 coconut waffle with honey, pear, peanut butter with honey
Son: Large carrot, peanut butter with honey, 3-4 pieces of chicken from my soup (he wouldn’t eat the broth or veggies)
Dinner:
Everyone: Cauliflower and meatball soup (yum!) with gluten free toast and chicken broth. Son slept through dinner (sick still) and did not eat anything except some juice.
Dessert:
Coconut pancakes with honey
Freshly juiced juice made of kale, spinach, parsley, oranges and apples
As you can see, I did not eat nearly enough and neither did my poor son who was likely starving because he refused to eat so much. I added some gluten-free store bought bread and rice crackers to get through the day because I really do not feel well without the carbs and instantly felt better once I ate them. Honey just does not cut it!
My son finally pooped – three times in fact! lol I am hoping today while he is with my mother-in-law that he will eat more now that he has the option to eat gluten free bread and crackers. He hates the new peanut butter we got and was refusing that yesterday and he loves peanut butter! But since we are eating eggs now I have a feeling he will eat more. He loves eggs.
My daughter is doing really well on the diet. She is excited every day about what she will get to take to school in her lunch. Today she begged for the meatball soup in her lunch, so she got it with half a gluten free sandwich, applesauce and peanut butter. For breakfast she ate all her scrambled eggs (this is not usual!) and was in good spirits, all bubbly and even saying, “I love you mommy!” on her way out the door to the bus. The only time she has been grumpy was when had after school snack and could not eat her goldfish. She opted for pistachios instead.
My husband must have been feeling good yesterday because after he came home and ate lunch he decided to run the 6 miles back to work! I warned him of the exhaustion that might hit him because of the lack of carbs and he thought he would be fine. Later, he told me he did feel wiped out when he got back to work. He is tough! I would have fainted. lol
Overall, I am happy that things are better now and do not feel as overwhelmed by the diet with the few additions that I made. I intend to still limit the gluten free things I added in except for when I feel the low blood sugar symptoms threatening. I do not miss sugar! 🙂
Day two of the GAPS diet. My husband came down with a chest cold yesterday, day 1, and my two sons both have it, too. The first day I took the probiotic (I am on day 3 of that) I got horrible stomach cramps which passed after about ten minutes. Thankfully I have not gotten the chest cold as it sounds horrible.
Physically I felt very achy the second half of the day yesterday. Even though I had not done much physical activity, I felt as if I had been walking all day. My lower back ached as did my left leg and leg joints. I got a headache around 8pm and it haunted me all night. Every time I would wake up, which I did about five times total, the headache would be intense, especially at the base of my skull and the top of my forehead. Even as I type this my headache still remains.
My daughter has been really into the diet, which is surprising. She is very good about taking her supplements and probiotics and drinking her broth with her meals. She was so excited that one of the first things she said when she got home was that she had to go poop as soon as she got to school yesterday. Gotta laugh at that one. lol
My middle son is not so excited. The first morning he took his supplements without incident but all day he was very picky about what he ate. My mother-in-law said he did not go poop all day. Sigh. This morning he has been an irritable mess, refusing to take his supplements and throwing a fit about drinking the broth. He did eat some breakfast, but only because I went ahead and made some coconut flour waffles to entice him. We really were not suppose to eat that until later but my whole family love eggs and since the eggs are added in the next stage I just went ahead and moved us to that stage rather than fight my children (and my stomach).
My baby is teething like crazy and also has the chest cold so he has been irritable as well. I have not really done anything with his diet, he is really so young that nothing much has changed. He does like the broth quite a bit, though.
GAPS Day 1 Menu
To give you an idea of what we are eating, here is what we ate yesterday:
Breakfast:
Everyone has 1 8oz glass of room temperature water or mineral water with 1tsp apple cider vinegar in it before eating anything. We take our multivitamin, cod liver oil, and probiotic with this water.
Me: coffee with honey no cream, chicken broth, chicken soup, one drink kefir (yuck!)
Husband: tea, pear, kefir, chicken broth
Kids: apple sauce, kefir, pear, chicken broth (middle son refused his)
Kids: chicken soup, chicken broth, apple, yogurt with honey, apple sauce, almond butter and honey
Dinner:
Boiled lamb/beef patties (these are yummy!) with zucchini squash, sour cream, beef broth
None of the kids resisted this meal and we all had seconds except for my son. The patties had fresh spinach, onion and garlic in them and tasted like mini-meatloaves. I let the kids have ketchup on them (bad mommy) but my husband and I had lactose-free sour cream on ours.
Dessert:
Coconut flour waffles with honey
Freshly juiced carrot/apple/ginger juice
What Do I Think of GAPS?
Honestly, I am not liking the diet. Even though we already ate very well, we were not a gluten-free family and do not intend to be after this is over. Also, Kefir is my nemesis. I think it tastes like eating rotten socks. Thankfully, yogurt is not out of the picture and I love yogurt. Store bought milk is a no-no so we bought raw goat milk, which I also hate but the rest of my family likes. I do not like breakfast right now and cannot wait to include more normal breakfast foods. I also do not like boiling everything I eat. It just isn’t as good to me as pan frying or roasting. Thankfully that will not last long either.
In order to have what is on the list of acceptable foods I am going to have to cook in advance quite a bit. Today I am going to spend most of my day making muffins, pancakes, fritters and cauliflower meatball soup so that we have food for the rest of the week. I will have to go to the grocery store because I underestimated how much meat my family would eat. We ate 2lbs of ground lamb and beef last night alone! We also have eaten 8 apples and four bananas in two days. Ahhh!
I also don’t know if the diet is helping me or not. I know I need to give it more time, it has only been a couple of days, but I thought I would feel at least some change. Honestly, though, I mostly want my children to get use to not having refined sugars and I know this diet will do the trick.
Spiritually
Kinda off topic for this post but I wanted to update what is going on with me spiritually. Nothing! Well, not really, as there is always something going on it is just not always noticeable. I am sleeping lighter than I was but still very deeply. I wake frequently and my dreams are a little more memorable but nothing interesting enough to talk about. Yesterday I was in high spirits on the way to work despite the tummy troubles I had from the mineral water and probiotic I took. I had Reiki and healing on my mind all day and thought that I should visit a nursing home and give healing to the elderly people there. So I researched the possibility and found complications that made me second-guess my initial idea. I think the idea came from me wondering what to do during this spiritual lull and so that popped into my head.
In my research I found that certification was key to working at any health institution. Reiki was rarely the only healing modality one was certified in. Usually the individual was also a certified massage therapist or naturopath or something else. So I looked up some of the certifications these people had. Holistic Healer Certification (HHC) was the most common behind massage therapist and naturopath. What I realized from my internet search is that there are many schools out there offering certification in this or that spiritual healing modality but very few are accredited and I did not find any recognized by the federal government. Some charge hundreds of dollars for degrees and/or certifications while others charge thousands. Some have in-depth study while others do not. How is anyone to be taken seriously in holistic health without a common curriculum and nation-wide accreditation?
It is clear to me that in order for holistic healthcare to be taken seriously these issues must be resolved.
Living Life in Between 