melworks

So, August ended on a down note for your's truly. While at The Store yesterday, I took our beloved Store Dog out for a potty break. As I was walking across the parking lot, I tripped over my own two feet(I think), and faceplanted on the asphalt. There were three people around who saw it happen, but all were wary of approaching because of Beloved Store Dog. I picked myself up and one guy in a wheelchair asked if I was okay? I said that I thought I was, then I felt blood running down my face. I wasn't too concerned because head/face wounds always bleed a lot more than other places, and I felt okay. I let the dog poo, then went into the Store to take stock of myself. Using my Phone cam, I saw that I had a big gouge in my head, a small abrasian next to my right eye and another one below my lip. It looked like I'd been in a fight.
My left hand was abraded, as well as my left knee. I had apparently fallen on my left arm, and it was sore, but I could move it and was pretty sure it wasn't broken. I cleaned myself up as best as I could, then went back to the counter. Jorg didn't notice anything wrong until someone else said something and then I had to tell what happenened. Very embarrassing. I did go up to CVS and grab some bandages and antiseptic spray (Which I am NEVER using again! That shit burned like fucking napalm.), but I finished the rest of the day. Last night, I popped an ibuprofin and went to bed around ten. When I got up this morning, my right wrist felt odd, so I went by Urgent Care and had them take a look at it. No break, thank goodness, but apparently I really did a number on my tendons. They offered me an Ace bandage, which I took, and some painkillers, which I declined, and then I went into work.
After work, I went by Walgreens to grab some extra bandages and a wrap bandage for the knee. But I don't care for the bandages I got (wearing one on my forehead now and it looks like I've got a diaper on my head), so will probably run through what I've bought and then just go without.
So, September. Oy vey. I hope we're getting rid of all the bad stuff early. Okay? And that the rest of this month is super-boring for everyone.

Yep, I've decided that I need to get my shit together again and start watching what I eat. I am NOT counting calories, I'm just watching oxalates, salt and processed sugar intake. I will be taking Tuesdays off from the diet, because a Free Day is always a good idea. I am going to try not to eat before 1PM and after 10PM, but I'll drink all the zero-calorie beverages I want, whenever I want.

Here's hoping once I lose a little weight, my nerve pain will go away again. *eyeroll*

Today marks two weeks on this new eating style of mine: more fresh fruit & vegetables, less processed stuff. So far it's been good. I'm sleeping better. I've lost some weight. My feet don't hurt, probably because of the weight loss.

The meals are very similar, but I don't mind. And I'm able to mix things up enough that I don't get bored.

For example, tonight I had green beans, instant mashed potatoes, a turkey sandwich and a banana smoothie. The other day, I had sauteed greens with scrambled eggs and a diced apple.

I'm eating a lot more fruit. My vegetable choices are a bit limited at the moment. I'm trying to expand my palette, but I'm all onioned out, and if I never see another fucking mushroom again for a while I'll be fine.

The point system I devised for myself is working fairly well. I started the month with 112 pts and I'm currently at 65. I spent 20 pts on single serve pizzas, 15 pts on a Cherry Coke while out with friends, and another 12 pts tonight on a package of Instant Mashed Potatoes.

I've also bought a personal blender, some vegetable/fruit peelers and an apple corer.

When Thanksgiving comes next week I'm going to eat whatever I want. I suspect that there will be pie. And possibly pizza. And a nice red wine.

Lord knows how my stomach is going to react to all of that. LOL.

Anyway, I'm doing much better than I thought I would. Two more weeks to go!

So, I started my new eating style today and it's been good.
I got up around 9:30(!?!) and cleaned the last of the Hallowedding leftovers out of the fridge. They were starting to go off.
Then I cleaned up the kitchen table, making sure to keep the bridal bouqet, and generally tidied things up before I went grocery shopping.
Bought my staples, as well as some grapes and apples. Was a bit disappointed as I thought the market was selling bags of Golden Delicious apples, but there were none there. So I bought four individual apples and came home.
Made lunch(scrambled eggs and turkey on toasted bread washed down with orange juice), then went to the Game Store. Stopped off at The Store to chat with Jorg and pick up my comics, then went by the Hardware Store and bought some clamps for a project. (Sadly, the clamps were too small for what I needed, but I'm keeping them; I'm sure they'll come in handy somewhere else.)
Then it was home to jury-fix the mailbox, then off to the library and Dollar Tree. I was looking for some vegan/vegetarian cookbooks for ideas, but all the recipes are heavy on veggies that I can't have in any large quantity.
While I was out, I realized I hadn't bought any kind of veg so popped into the store and grabbed a head of lettuce and a container of Carnival Grapes.
Then it was home, where I fixed an early supper(ground beef and greens sauteed with spices, an apple chopped into bite-sized bits, the Carnival Grapes and a big glass of water), and watched some YouTube videos.
Felt a bit hungry, still, so fixed a sausage sandwich on toast, and ate it with some warm milk. Finished watching YT, then started listening to oldies music via the Internet, before deciding to turn in.
All in all, I think it was a pretty good day. I'm not hungry, but my brain is jittery because of the lack of caffeine/sugar/calories. I did about 1500 today, which isn't bad. I'd like to do a bit more, but we'll see what happens.
So far, the worst thing has been the gas. This diet is very high fiber and my gut is not dealing with it very well.
And I've just realized I'll have to brown bag lunch this weekend while I'm at The Store. So, I'll have to think of that tomorrow.
Did not spend any Points, but suspect I'll be spending some before Monday.

I am failing so hard at managing my sugar and salt intake. *le sigh*

According to reputable sources, our sodium intake should be somewhere between 1500 and 2300 miligrams of sodiums per day. We shoul be getting a max of about 40 grams of added sugar per day.

In case y'all didn't know, they put sodium in everything. I mean EVERYTHING. There's sodium in fruit juice and milk and pretty much everything processed.

And if there isn't a buttload of sodium in a product, you can bet your nelly that there's a ton of added sugar.

This doesn't make it easy to curtail them both.

The best way to do so, is to make your meals from scratch. That way, you can control what you put in your food. However, that strategy doesn't work for me because cooking for one person sucks, especially if you've got no place to store leftovers and I rarely eat leftovers in the first place, so they usually get thrown out.

Also, if I'm brutally honest? I'm just lazy and hate fucking cooking. I'd rather grab something processed, that I can wolf down in a single setting, and then get the hell on with my life. So, I wind up hunting for processed foods that I can live with, like low-sodium corn chips or salt-free soups, plain instant rice, low-sodium canned chicken, fresh fruits and veggies.

I fail moe often than not, which just pisses me off, which makes me reach for crap foods out of a weird kind of revenge. "I'm failing at Health, so fuck you Health! Have some salty cornchips!"

Trying to be healthy is a pain in the fucking ass.

When I woke up this morning, I was shocked to discover red blotches all over my body. I was sort of freaked out, and called my doctor to make an appointment. He was able to see me fairly soon, and after a consultation he said that they were a topical allergic reaction to something I'd been in contact with. The only thing I've changed recently is my laundry detergent, so I was advised to switch back to my previous detergent and to rewash/rinse all the clothes I've washed in the bad detergent. He also gave me a steroid shot in my hip and told me to take Claretin twice a day through Sunday.

So, I came home and rewashed clothes, and as I type this the rashes are mostly already gone thanks to the steroid shot. I haven't taken any OTC medication and I don't know if I'm going to, if the rashes continue to dissipate.

I'm trying to remember if I washed my sheets in the bad detergent or not. I don't think I did, but I may wash them tomorrow just in case.

Also, I was supposed to meet a friend for coffee or something tonight, but with all this going on, I bailed out.

It's been that kind of week.

I'm hoping this weekend isn't complete garbage. :/

Last night, after work, I came home and had a bonfire in the back yard. I've been gathering sticks and downed branches for the last two months or so, and decided to burn them last night, as it was the beginning of autumn. It was a very cathartic experience and I enjoyed it quite a lot. Something about consigning stuff to naked flame just makes me feel better about life in general.

Today, I had the Store all to myself. It was a pretty busy day. The worst part of the day was caused by my left foot. I've had foot problems all my life. That happens when you have zero fucking arches and are standing around a long time. The older I get the worse the foot pain seems to become. It's been ages since I had this amount of discomfort though, and I'm thinking it may be time to visit a podiatrist and have him check my feet out.

I pretty much know what he'll say. "You have floppy feet and plantar fasciitis, but you can alleviate most of the symptoms with arch supports, stretching exercises and lose some weight."

Um. I've already done all that.

I'm wondering if my foot problems today could be some kind of arthritis? My sister has rhuematoid arthritis. I'm wondering if this fresh pain is a manifestation of that.

I don't know.

I came home and took off my shoes and have been off my feet and they feel loads better. But I'm still thinking I need to go get them checked.

Not a lot else has been going on. My friend, Gina, is back in town for a few months. She and her husband moved to Italy and they've been there about eight months. She popped by the Store yesterday and we had a good chat. I told her my concerns about Paul, and admitted that I'm pretty sure one day someone's gonna go out to his house and find him dead, either because of his medical stuff or because he just decided to end it all. She told me she wouldn't be surprised if that happened, but that she'd do what she could to try and prevent it.

We're all getting together this Wednesday, I think.

And Thursday night, I'm meeting Hannah for coffee or desert or something. She texted me last week, asking if we could get together 'cause she'd like to hang out. I really hope she's not going to try and pump me for info on Jorg. If she tries, I'm going to be very blunt and just tell her that I'm not going to talk about him with her, because she just needs to move the fuck on.

Also, I deactivated my profile on my dating site. Autumn is here and I have no real interest in getting together with anyone for at least six months. The only exception I'll make is if a time displaced 20something year old Brad Pitt materializes in my bedroom and the only way to restore the time/space continuum is by having sex with him. Otherwise, people can just fuck off.

In an attempt to curtail my intake of salt/added sugar, I've put together a menu of 18 food items that I'll restrict myself to until the end of this month.

The grocery list consists of:
Broccoli
Canned Chicken
Canned Tuna
Cheese
Chicken Nuggets*
Corn Chips
Eggs
Fresh Pineapple
Grapes
Ground Beef
Instant Rice
Mac & Cheese*
No-Salt Soup
Oatmeal Cookies*
Salad Greens
Sugar-Free Fruit Cocktail
Sugar-Free Pears
Yogurt

The items marked with an (*) are not low-sodium/low-added sugar, but I know myself. Some days, I'm just going to want to have something bad, and I can live with these things.

I think there's enough variety in this list, so that I won't get bored. And, at the end of the month, I can swap some stuff out if I want. No-Salt vegetables in place of No-Salt soups, etc. The list also factors in my low-oxalate diet; that's why I specify "fresh pineapple" rather than canned. Canned pineapple, for some reason, has way more oxalate than fresh.

We'll have to see how this goes.

I went to my doctor today to discuss the persistant dry mouth I've had most of this month. It's mostly been annoying, as my tongue feels like sandpaper and I have to make sure to have a glass of water at hand because swallowing food is difficult. This last week, I started noticing some acid reflux symptoms, which made me wonder if it could have been low-key AR causing the dry mouth all this time? Or did the dry mouth trigger the acid reflux? AND THEN, on top of everything else, my sinuses started draining down my throat a couple of days ago.
Honestly, I have no fucking idea what's going on.
The doctor ruled out a yeast infection, and took some blood. We're testing for diabetes, kidney disease and thyroid issues.
Hopefully, it's none of those, and it's just me getting old and my body crumbling a little bit more under the pressure of age.
Pretty sure it's not the kidneys, as they did a kidney panel on me a little while ago.
It could be diabetes, maybe, although I don't have any of the standard symptoms: hunger, thirst, etc.
The thyroid thing never even entered my mind, but I know my sister suffers from that.
Anyway, hopefully I'll know something more in a few days time.

It has been five days since I had a soda and two since I tried mixing a flavored Ice Water in with ordinary water, to produce some taste. The last was not a success.
Altogether, between cutting out the carbonation and taking a daily probiotic, I'm feeling much better. All the little stomach pains I had have cleared up, I don't feel like the Hindenburgh, and trips to the toilet have noticeably improved.
So, so far so good.