Determination, aka Stubbornness

Well, it's been a while since my last update, so here's a quick summary: I had a lovely vacation with my family, moved into a beautiful third floor apartment in a 19th century home in the country, started a new diet for my health and settled into the '11/'12 school year!

The beach was beautiful. It rained a few days, but mostly at night, so there was plenty of beach time! And, I only burned once, which is great considering my sun tolerance. Or rather, lack of sun tolerance. I even had a rainbow beach umbrella and a straw sunhat with a tie under the chin, of which I gracefully decline to post a picture. I will, however, let you see a couple of the other shots I took!

The view from our room, the morning we arrived.

Morning sun over the beach.

Well, it IS a spinning blog...
If you look close, you can see my beautiful little Lark, always with me, even on the beach!

But, vacation can only last so long, and soon I was moving into my apartment to get ready for school. And my spinning came with me.

You know you're into spinning when your desk organizer has a drawer
just for sample skeins and Ravelry.com is your homepage...

Isn't it pretty? This is my Shaylee alpaca on the lark - it's what I was
spinning in the beach picture above.

And, not too long later, that alpaca has been navajo-plied and
made into this lovely winter hat. There are mittens in the works too, it'll be
my whole winter set!

Well, that's all well and good, I'm all moved in and settled, and all set to go pick up food and the other necessities for a new home - when I realize what an opportunity I've got here! There is no food at all in my pantry, so with just a little self control in the store, I can fill my shelves with only healthy foods. If there's no convenient unhealthy foods around, you can't fall into old, bad habits, right? Right!

So, my kitchen is now full of minimally processed, gluten free foods, olive oil, spices, organic fruits and veggies, free range eggs, real butter, and grass fed beef. There's also, well, a couple gluten free cookies. Because no-one's perfect, and every once in a while you just need a cookie as a reward for good behavior.  :)

The best part? I got the idea for a gluten free diet from a nutritionist online who has been able to cure things like diabetes, MS and depression just through diet. He also has a section on fibromyalgia. It's called "food as medicine," and for FM, he recommends a diet high in phytochemicals (found in organic plants), antioxidants, and healthy oils and protein, but without gluten, processed sugars or chemical additives. In case you've never tried it, this diet is very hard to get used to. But, fortunately for me, I'm incredibly stubborn!

So, it's been 5 weeks now, and I can feel the effects already. I have energy like I never would have believed. I don't ache in the morning, or even most of the rest of the day. Most important, I haven't needed painkillers in a month. This is huge for me. I just feel good. So of course I had to let everyone know about it! It turns out everyone could benefit from decreasing processed foods and gluten. Many people are mildly allergic to gluten and don't even know it; they just feel tired and discontent. I've got to hand it to the experts on this one; my doctor even told me that if this improvement holds, and I can stick to this diet, we could discuss decreasing or even stopping my FM drugs. My own little miracle.

My first home-cooked meal! Gluten free and unprocessed doesn't have to
be yucky or take forever. I add honey to everything.  :)

Finally, to round things out and ice my good-karma cake, I've decided that this school year will not be impacted by any manner of health problems. Sophomore and Junior years weren't the best due to the distraction of dealing with pain and medications, but things are getting better and I'm gonna prove to myself and everyone else (including the med schools to which I'm applying) that I am one kickass little firecracker. Because I so am.

Up Next: What's with the title, anyway?

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln