Gratitude day 9 / Fasting days 5 & 6 - transitioning back onto solid food

Going back onto solid food has been harder than I expected, so I suspect a food reaction.

Yesterday I introduced eggs. The first one was beaten up in broth, and I had that before going out to teach my Arthritis exercise class. The later ones were soft boiled. By the afternoon, I was feeling exhausted, and just didn’t have the energy to write an update.

Will I do better on fish?

There were a couple of other things that seemed a little off, and my weight went up slightly. Now that isn’t an issue in itself, and may not mean anything, but can sometimes be an indicator of a food reaction. So I suspect that I’m not going well on eggs, and today didn’t have any.

Today I used my broth to cook up some organic broccoli. Then added some sea salt and lemon juice and blended it up for a light soup I could drink through the day. For protein, I added tinned fish (1 tin red salmon, 1 tin sardines) and for good fats a couple of teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil. I’m still feeling exhausted, but I have been down to the shops twice and carried back heavy loads of shopping, so that’s a factor.

By tomorrow, I will hopefully be past the effects of any egg reaction and will be able to gauge whether all the new foods I added today are ok. On a strict elimination diet, I would be adding one food a day at most. But on an elimination diet, I'd already be on something like fish and vegetables, and right now, I want to get my calories back up a bit. If I don’t have any further reactions, I can carry on with new foods.

In a couple of days, I’ll recap on what my aims were, and how successful it’s been.

Being grateful even when things don’t go to plan

I don’t know what the parameters of the original Steemit gratitude Challenge were, but have my own guidelines for it.

My primary aim was to notice all the good things that are going on for me, and be grateful for at least something every day. Posting about it every day is only to keep myself accountable. Yesterday, I didn’t feel ungrateful but didn’t have the energy to even think what I was appreciative of, let alone write about it. Then I saw it was only myself deciding I needed to post every day and made the choice to have a break for a day.

This morning, while out walking, I realised that today’s gratitude realisation is about Choice. On Sunday, I was beavering away on a bunch of things (I know, I know, why wasn’t I having a day off?) including a new routine for my class the next day. When I saw I wasn’t going to get everything done, I told myself that the class weren’t expecting a new routine, I was imposing that task on myself and I could choose to finish it next week (or never) instead. Notice the similarity to my choice about posting the next day.

So here’s the thing – I’m grateful for being able to choose what I do. After all, we all choose what we do, even when we say we have to. But even more, I’m grateful for having that realisation that I’m my own worst task master, and reminding myself that I can choose differently. I don’t have to do everything I decide to do. I can re-decide.

Cracking the whip. Dang it, when I went looking for this picture, most of the pictures were delicious looking desserts smothered in whipped cream. Sigh.

Recap on Gratitude week 1

Again, this is really for me, and if it helps or entertains anyone else, that’s a bonus. I’m going to revisit my first week of gratitude thoughts to remind myself what they were, and keep them near the front of my mind.

• Day 1 – family
• Day 2 – small pleasures of the day
• Day 3 – we don’t have to work for “the man”
• Day 4 – where we live (the country, city, suburb and house)
• Day 5 – a bunch of small pleasures again
• Day 6 – Steemit
• Day 7 – having a great local organics store

What have you been grateful for today?

Thanks for reading.

Images by myself, @sift666 or from Pixabay, unless otherwise stated.

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