Your daily Hedghog.

This was at the bottom of an email I received from Takepart.com .

Actually, I wanted to write about diet, from the main article mentioned in the email.

On my Sjogren's support Facebook groups, everyone is claiming the benefits of their particular diet. Many have gone gluten free or dairy free. Some have gone into the AIP (Autoimmune protocol) or the less restrictive Paleo diet. There are so many 'eat this, not that' posts that many of the people following these groups get confused as to which is the Right diet to follow.

I played around with the "smoothie" diet, as I call it. Replace one meal with a nutritious green smoothie. It was very nice for a while, but I could not stick with it for one reason. Having Sjogrens and having already lost most of my molars, my emotional self wants to be able to chew foods for as long as I am able. I will be restricted to smoothies soon enough.

I then looked into the various forms of the AIP and Paleo diets, which are widely varied. Again, one plan will encourage eating a particular food that another one says to never eat. My belief is they ALL work, but none of them are 'one size fits all.'  There are so many factors in finding out which diet is right for an individual person. Some people are allergic to peanuts but not tree nuts, others are allergic to tree nuts but not peanuts. I knew of one person who was allergic to just Brazil nuts but could eat any other nut without a problem. Thus, a diet that is a perfect fit for one person could be all wrong for another.

With all this in mind I started playing games with my own diet and through trial and error discovered that I can no longer eat raw tomatoes. It was almost by accident that I discovered that almond milk was exasperating my symptoms much more than dairy milk. Walnuts also had to go.

I asked my rheumy about all of this and he said that his only dietary recommendation was to have a plant-based diet, which follows through to the reason I wrote this today. The arguments over the new dietary guidelines seem to hit a lot of points, but no-one seems to argue with the fact that the new guideline promote a plant based diet. Having not read the actual guideline, I don''t know if this means a step away from the grain based guidelines that are currently in place, which I don't follow as I have had a problem with grains for over 20 years now, or if they consider grains to be plant based.

In any event, here is the article that began my rant:

To Meat or Not to Meat

Reviews

Reading reviews can be a double edged sword. Positive reviews are often written by sheep or trolls - Billy goats Gruff any one?  Sheep are those who write positive reviews because that is what they are told to do. A minority, I know. Trolls are those who write positive reviews in order to gain points from either the author/creator or the vendor. Many of those.

Derek Rydall, who conducted an on-line book club to coincide with a set of webinars about HIS book was continually pressing his audience to post positive reviews to "help get the word out about this amazing system." Okay, perhaps not a direct quote but that was the gist of his message, and Amazon was receiving a very high number of 5 star reviews.

Negative reviews also have their fair share of trolls, such as Christians panning books on paganism for no reason other than the book is non-Christian in nature and the reviewer is trying to save peoples souls. These trolls are usually easy to identify and discard.

Now, more to the point, it is easier for me to make a decision based on negative reviews than positive ones. Such as one review that said the book was bad because the author did ____. I read the review, thought to myself 'I love it when authors do ____, bought the book and was thoroughly pleased with my purchase.

All that said, I will also confess I have always been somewhat addicted to 'self-help' / 'self-improvement' books and methods. Probably my Aspie self trying to figure out why I never quite fit in and why it seemed like remarkably few people around me had any common sense. Discovering I had Asperger's rather than ADHD was a very freeing experience, but that occurred when I was in my 50's and I was already hooked on finding ways to improve myself.

Combining those two points I am going to give a sort of book review here. I'd had the opportunity to get a free e-book, Power vs Force by David R. Hawkins. Pretty dry reading but fully sourced and was something I dove into, loving every page. When I was done I wanted to get more of his series and purchased Letting Go, the pathway to surrender. I found this to be another wonderful book. Not nearly so dry, but full off information I could apply to my own life, so half way through I wanted to figure out which would be the next in the series for me to purchase. Amazon did not have his books listed in any kind of order so I went on-line and found reviews for "truth vs falsehood" which all panned the book as being more about pushing one political ideology than anything else.  From the reviews I know I will not purchase this book and am seriously reconsidering purchasing any others by this author. I still intend to finish Letting Go, but may follow it by dusting off my old Sedona program. You see, the biggest reason I could never gain anything from the Sedona Method was, the program insists on 'letting go' with no real explanation on HOW to do it. Hawkins has explained the how, so I may gain more from the Method this time. We will see, but first I need to finish reading Letting Go.

Do one thing at a time. Do it slowly and deliberately. Do it completely. - Zen thoughts, author unknown

So tired

Wow, the past week has been difficult, but I got through it.

 Age can cause fatigue, for me it is an inability to digest vit. B12. Both Sjogrens and Lupus can cause fatigue. Lack of restful sleep can cause fatigue. Last week they all ganged up on me. I wasn't falling asleep as soon as I sat down, the way I was before the monthly B12 shots were started, but I was pretty close to it. Brain fog was really beginning to interfere with my life, but I am thankful that my daughter understood and patiently repeated things that got by me and explained things that I should have understood but didn't.

Oh, I was functional through the morning and afternoon, but when I got home from work that was when my fatigue became overwhelming and my thoughts fell apart. Dishes piled up, laundry wasn't done. DD would have helped with that, but my pride got in the way. If I couldn't do it myself it wasn't going to get done.

I received my B12 shot on Monday, and while it usually kicks in within a day, it didn't seem to have the umph it has had in the past and it has taken me four days to catch up on three days worth of dishes. Laundry was done in a jiffy, but the lawn hasn't been mowed yet and I have other yard work I was hoping to do.

Yes, I am nearing retirement age (I'll keep working as long as I am able). Yes, I have Sjogrens. Last week my rheumy told me that I also need to keep an eye on my Lupus symptoms. Lupus? He also said I may have RA, though I still think that diagnosis is up in the air. My first rheumy said I had RA and used an enlarged finger knuckle as evidence. I explained that joint had been swollen since I had broken it in ninth grade. New rheumy used the swelling from my bunion as evidence. That had been checked out back when I thought the swelling was from arthritis. In any event, I'm tired of being tired.

I want to get back to practicing Tai Chi which I stopped over ten years ago due to lack of space. I am working on improving my mental faculties with Zen meditation and other programs based on neuro-plasticity. Yes, I take all my meds, and am trying to eat better which can be difficult to do on a limited income, but I see only positive things in the future.

A long post to basically say nothing, but at least I got a post out.

I don't know who to attribute the image to, but I like it enough to share.

Chipmunk

This morning I am reminded of a wonderful poem by Odgen Nash. I first read in in a collection of animal poems by this amazing poet that I received as a birthday give many, many years ago. As I do not want to violate copy-write* I will only post a few lines; the first from the middle and the second from the ending which is not included in anything I have found online.

......

He moves with flickering indecision

Like stripes across the television.

..

But his ultimate purpose is obvious, very

That is to get back to his chipmonistary.

 Today I feel like that chipmunk. I am dealing with Aspergers and Sjogrens. The first makes dealing with distractions difficult similarly to ADD, the second brings on brain fog, the combination makes thinking (or not thinking) difficult.

Like the chipmunks indecision, I am trying several types of self-improvement at once and this can be problematic. In my mind they compliment each other, but they all require time and my busy chipmunk mind is constantly looking for distractions.

In order of introduction into my life, the first program I am using is the Zen Meditation program offered by Wild Divine   This is a program I started a number of years back. Lost when my computer crashed and finally have reinstalled on the new computer.

The second program is Liberate Your Life by Chris Cade. http://www.chriscade.com/rishi/?section=liberate-your-life&page=details. Actually I am not working that program yet, rather reading the introductory booklet Conspiracy of Distraction. One portion I underlined was this:  

My real point is that a number one reason people don't make the type

 of progress they desire in life is because their Inner Critic makes

 them think they are bored and so they don't stick to "the program."

The third program, if it can be called that, is I am currently studying Buddhism. This seed was probably planed by the Zen meditation I've been doing though there is a lot of non-Buddhist Zen out there and the Wild Divine program is not designed to convert anyone, just to teach about Zen meditation itself.

 I have a list of "Zen Things" on my computer desktop, and the first three things on the list are:
1. Do one thing at a time.
2. Do it slowly and deliberatly.
3. Do it completely.
So as distraction keeps trying to pull me into other programs I fight the urge to "try something new." and put my efforts into the programs I have and do them deliberately and completely and keep reminding myself that the work I am doing is NOT boring, but is fulfilling.







*I attempted to look it up online to post a link, but apparently the complete poem has been taken down repeatedly by the copywrite holder, and the versions that I have found are incomplete compared to the published version I remember.

through the wringer.

First of all, on getting back I see a notice that EU viewers need to have a notice and give their consent because Google uses cookies. Google also informed me that they have automatically included said notice, which I cannot see because I am in the US. I will add to that, when I name drop, those sites will probably also use cookies. These things are beyond my control and I apologize for that, them, whatever.

I have been through the wringer for the past year or so, but am having a much better time now.

First things first (second things second?), the computer situation. My older desk top was having some difficulties. One of the things I had looked for when I bought it was the feature of having two CD/DVD drives. I made a comment about that when I brought it into major chain store to have it checked out.

Two hundred dollars later I had my computer back with brand new problems. I opened it up and saw that one of my drives had been removed. Called major chain store back to ask what happened and their reply was it could not have been removed there, because they never opened the machine up.

Huh? How does one do a full diagnostic without opening the machine to check for excess dust, damaged heat sinks, loose connections or any other physical problem? IF they did any diagnostic whatsoever, it was not complete as advertised. If it was complete, then they opened the machine. Whichever you choose, I had been lied to but could not prove it.

The result was, my computer was attempting to run drivers for a drive that was no longer there and the basic programming to run the machine imploded. Couldn't even get it to turn on. So it was time to shop for a new machine. This one was/is a laptop, and we don't get along particularly well. Went though Windows 8.1 which I had been hoping to avoid, and upgraded to Win10 the first day it was available. Not impressed with that one either.

Avoided reintroducing my basic third party programs until the upgrade, because I didn't want to get too familiar with 8.1 as I knew it would not be staying. Now I am thinking of downgrading to get 8.1 back. Doubt if I will do it, but...

The one factor that both 8.1 and 10 share, though the problem here my be the laptop itself, is the fact that I no longer enjoy being on the computer. I do what I need to and get off.

But I missed my blog and so after computer problems, health problems (another post) and household problems (probably a couple of posts) I am finally back. Hopefully this time for good.

Hello again people.