Addiction and Nutrition

Below is a super great guest post on Addiction and Nutrition written by Matt Stone who usually writes on his own amazing blog 180 Degree Health.

I totally agree with the article below and it has been my personal experience that Matt's observations are true, and his RRARF program incredibly powerful in working with addiction. Once I began nourishing myself with an abundance of starches and other whole foods during my RRARF month, my life long addiction to sugar disappeared within only a few days and has yet to rear its ugly head. I've lived with hourly sugar cravings my whole life. I've now been cravings free for four months. It's a beautiful world to live in cause cravings are so, so painful.

http://adventuresinrecovery.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/addiction-lack-of-nourishment/


It should be noted perhaps that I cut out all cane sugar and corn fructose and other artificial sweeteners ten years ago, and that didn't help me at all with my cravings. I still had cravings every hour of every day, it never got better. I just have a strong will power, but now I don't have to use my will power anymore. I just don't have any cravings anymore. It's pretty much miraculous and definitely a surreal experience. I never knew anyone to have a stronger sweet tooth than me....I had given up on my own sugar addictions long ago when I ran into Matt Stone's texts.

Shoot Outs and Restorative Rest

So, I've just started college again. I've decided to change profession to something a little less stressful and more meaningful.

Three days ago, the evening before going in to College for a class, I had a huge panic attack about the idea of being in a potential shot out in College. I just dealt with it the way I always deal with it and thankfully I got through my class without any further problems. Then the day after that there was another shoot out on my street. You know it's like they say "just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you", likewise, "just because you're neurotic, doesn't mean you're safe." lol.

I was just beginning to feel more grounded where I live and as I was sitting by my computer at home doing research for scholarships I hear three shots out on our street. Gunshots do have an unmistakable sound.

It's the second shoot out in three months right outside our building. Some kind of gang thing it seems. I've already got PTSD from another shoot out that I was in the middle of about three years ago when my upstairs neighbor flipped out and went on a shooting rampage in my building, so this is not what I need even though it was only out on the street this time, not in my building. It definitely gets the blood pumping and the stress hormones flowing.

 It happened on my weekly RRARF day....I guess I should rename it RRARFWBF "restorative rest and aggressive re-feeding while bullets are flying"...lol...

I'm definitely feeling homesick for low-crime-free-education-and-healthcare-Sweden on days like this....

Early to Bed early to Rise...

I started taking vitamin D and it seems to be helping me sleep better. I still wake up in the night to go to the bathroom, but then I'm actually able to fall back asleep again. This is so great and it hasn't been this way in so many years I can't even remember. It's strange though cause I feel more tired when I wake up in the morning now than when I didn't sleep much after 4 am. It doesn't make much sense to me, but neither does most of my health issues. I think it would be such a great thing if I could get my sleep to improve. Not only would it reflect a more stable health, but it would likely help further healing since it's during the night that repair is supposedly going on in the body. I just envy those lucky few who wake up feeling rested. That has never happened to me.

Here is a link to an article that talks about how vitamin D may help with sleep disorders.

http://www.usdoctor.com/insomnia.htm

The only weakness to this approach seems to be that I'm no stuck taking this supplement. The few times I've forgotten to take my full dose of vitamin D, I've not been able to fall back asleep..... Over time though, perhaps my body will adjust and I'll be free from the supplement. I just hate being dependent on any kind of pill. I want freedom. :)

In other news I'm taking a temporary break from restorative yoga. It seems to only lower my CP now. It's a common thing for me, some thing helps my breathing only to make it worse the next time I try it. I have no explanation for this.

I also tried cranio-sacral treatment with my chiropractor. That shot my CP up to 27 the morning after treatment. Immediately after the treatment though, my CP sank to 15 seconds. It was so strange cause I could definitely feel my body and my diaphragm relax. It's all so mysterious.

I'm in a good mood today though cause for unknown reason my CP was 26 this morning. That's so encouraging but it's likely some fluke. I've been there so many times before it's hard to be too optimistic., but a part of me is definitely hoping that this is a turning point. That my body has finally decided it's time to reduce the hyperventilation.

Shakti Mats and my long awaited for return to Vinyasa flow

I'm back to my vinyasa practice after almost a year off due to my health issues. It's been very difficult to not have yoga asanas in my life. The asanas just make me feel so much better physically and mentally. I'm so grateful that my health seems to be stable enough to allow me my practice again. I have a totally different body now too. I'm not only bigger, but I actually feel much, much stronger and way more flexible, especially in my spine. Where I used to feel chronically shaky and weak, I now feel muscles begin to respond, and build. Yay for RRARF!!!

Also yay for restorative yoga. I'll never stop my restorative practice. I think I get it now. Annie Carpenter - my all time favorite vinyasa teacher who teaches at Santa Monica's Yoga Works, talks about the value of restorative yoga in this video:



I totally agree with her. In my life, I tend to be over active. When I was a workaholic my body gave me endometriosis, as a result of my abuse of my body, but it also offered me a way to break that cycle. Now my body still helps pull me down to earth whenever I try to move forward through excessive effort. lol. Working too hard seems to always backfire for me, if it's working for my career, stressing and working 14 hour days, or if it's working for my health, like my intense Buteyko practice that won't lead me anywhere, or continuing to push through vinyasa practice despite not developing more muscles nor flexibility. I can always trust that my body will prevent my mind from doing what it wants to. lol. The general wisdom must be in finding the right balance of work and rest. RRARF helped put things in perspective by teaching me the value of restorative rest. Restorative yoga will help me stay connected to this newfound knowledge.

There is this image of the yogi sitting in deep relaxation on his bed of nails (below), I imagine he's almost high on all the endorphins flooding his system. I know the feeling cause I sit on my Shakti Mat on a daily basis. It's the best in the world. I actually sit on my Swedish Spikmattan most of the time since I much prefer it's thicker nails, but it's not available in the US, but the Shakti Mat is great for curing migraines, and it will still relax you when you lie on it.



I think the image really signifies to me that both parts of yoga are necessary; the active strengthening and using of the muscles on the one hand, and the passive restoration of these same muscles on the other. The healing power of that deep relaxation that allows for meditative restoration at the magical center of the self, cannot be overestimated. One part supports the other, and both are equally important. At least it seems to be this way for me.

I feel that I am now more able to follow the wise instruction of Annie Carpenter "Soften Something".

The Essence of the Buteyko Method

""The essence of my method is in decreasing the depth of breathing. You
would ask me how. The best way is through relaxation of the muscles that
potentiate the breathing action. What then occurs is a sensation of having
insufficient air if the breathing is reduced. These are all the instructions -
the whole of the method."
K.P. Buteyko

Here is a simple pranayama exersice that is sure to increase your Control Pause:

http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/pranayama

Feeling Fat and Ugly

I'm now 140 pounds. Have a big fat belly and loads of spots in my face and chest. It's anything but sexy. I simply look awful and it's no fun at all. My self-esteem is hitting new lows....

I'm getting some of those "oh, congratulations, I didn't realize you were pregnant." comments. I have to go like "oh no, I"m not pregnant but I know it sure looks like I am. I've just been doing RRARF....." so awesome. People around me are now worried about my well being to the point of having no, absolutely no faith in my treatment choices anymore. It's awful, awful. At least I'm out of the intense RRARF now and am on the path of slowly loosing my weight back to some kind of healthy and ok looking level. It may not be loosing weight, but just redistributing it from my belly....

On the plus side I can do the first sequence of the Mysore Yoga series again. I do it every morning at home. It feels amazing. Even though I'm still weak, I can feel some sort of strength lurking in my arms, unlike before where I always felt like chaturanga dandasana for example was a matter of doing this huge leap of faith on two shaky spaghetti arms that one day might break. It was very hard to trust that my arms would be able to hold up my body. Now I feel a little more trust.

I took a yoga class last week and I've been doing pilates for two weeks now. It's my plan to go to another yoga class this week, however there's a serisous heat wave going on right now so I'm taking it easy.

I'm excited cause I finally learned that white rice doesn't need to be soaked cause it doesn't have phytic acid in it. That will save me some work in the kitchen. I also learned a new way to get the phytic acid out of brown rice by germinating it, making it more digestable. I'd LOVE to be able to eat brown rice, that would be so awesome cause it's a whole food, and it's got B-vitamins in it. That would be super for sure.

Despite things sucking visually with my health, I was very happy to find my fasting blood glucose levels were 87 mg/dl this morning. That's phenomenal.

About ten years ago, right before I got diagnosed with Endometriosis, when I went for my first US physical with our family doctor in Burbank, the doctor said "I wish all my patients were as healthy as you". And my fasting blood glucose levels were slightly north of 90 mg/dl. So, judging from that alone, I'm healthier now than I was ten years ago. It also shows that it would be great if the doctors didn't only measure blood glucose, insulin and cholesterol, but if they had a way to measure "inflammation" in the body. Cause if they had they'd have seen that I had lots of inflammation going on, leading me to get such severe endometriosis. Today I think my inflammation is considerably lower too thanks to me cutting out most sources of Omega 6.

Here's to hoping for a slimmer future with baby soft skin. That's the only thing low carb has over high carb: it's great for the skin. But bad for everything else.