What’s the point of a blog when the mad woman doesn’t update it?
Well if I explained about the 35 litres of paint being put on walls, full house move, school holidays, dad access visits … and please don’t ask about the fun and games with my old laptop and of course my Internet connection.
Talk about stress, phew!
That’s the excuses made, Now I’m back! Welcome to the Indigo Blog, ad hoc blogging about Superfoods in the daily diet of a very ordinary madwoman.
To give you the medical update, between this blog post and the last, I came off the Cerazette and had a period for 21 days … I saw a consultant foot surgeon who said he could not help me (so at least no more operations for a while) and ran out of vitamin tablets!
As far as smoothies went, there was a period of about a week and a half during the move when I
just could not get organized enough to have fresh or frozen fruit in the house, or the rice milk (and trust me, it’s NASTY if you use dairy). Like any new addition to an old routine, it’s very easy to bring on the guilt at this point. “
I should be having that smoothie, I’m being bad if I do not” and so on. Really? A house move is busy and stressful! The trial of superfoods is about trying a food supplement, not about a terrifying and restrictive regime to which I must stoically adhere.
IBS
This is am interesting point, actually. Anyone who knows a bit about wind will be aware that anxiety and stress can make it a million times worse. Some of the main symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other functional gastrointestinal disorders are gas, trapped gas, bloating and abdominal pain. Anxiety causing huge exacerbation to these. Small changes, such as stress management (ie not feeling guilty) can have big results, as we all know.
Having had initial problems with
more severe than usual flatulence, I suspected the Barleygrass but this was not confirmed. Now I was worried that missing the smoothies for a while would mean my body systems would have to get used to them all over again. I actually found this not to be the case.
I started back on the smoothies without modifying my everyday diet ( so bread, biscuits, wine etc were in there everyday) but I simply used less (a quarter teaspoon) of the Hemp, Maca and Barleygrass for the first few days – and no gas! By the end of the first week I was up to a small teaspoon of each with no ill effects!
So I think it’s fair to say that maybe my initial problems were really due to a gung-ho approach (as in, I can eat anything so in went the supplements too) when perhaps I should have introduced them into my diet more gently. I was also trying at the same time to eat more healthily, which meant a higher consumption of fruit and vegetables. Of course this is good (vitamins, dietary fiber etc), but the body has a delicate balance. Large changes, quickly done, and the machine will rebel. So I hold my hand up and say maybe relaxing about it and being gentle on myself have made a huge difference to the success of my mission so far for the last 2 weeks.
And as a principle, that’s not only good for my digestion but also for my general wellbeing. It seems this change in focus has made for a pretty good start on round 2 of my superfood challenge.
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