Paleolithic Jess

Long day, but it was wonderful. The meeting with the naturopath went extremely well! We received great reinforcement with our diet, and some fine tuning to make it even better. Here's some main points:

Eliminate:
All processed foods - nothing in a box, nothing in a can, nothing in a package

All processed sugars (keep the fruits minimal, a serving of blueberries in the morning or something like that)

No dairy

Continue:
All organic, free range and hormone free foods (from the coffee beans to the main courses - everything)

Eat lots of veggies from the allium, cruciferous and brassicacea family on a daily basis.

Get a water filter for the facet. Drink obscene amounts of filtered water (64-96oz). Drink matcha 2-3 times a day.

Basically, he referred to it as a Paleolithic diet. It's what humans used to eat before we started harvesting crops. Hence, the avoidance of grains, and sugar. The diet is mostly veggies, nuts and small amounts of meats (cold water fish, white meats, and small amounts of red meats). It's very heavy on the veggies.

After the appointment, at the request of the ND, I fasted for several hours and went to get a bunch of blood work done. I was actually supposed to do it tomorrow morning before the MRI, but I was worried that it would be too many needles in too short a period of time. Anyway, it turned out no big deal getting my blood drawn. The sweet woman (also named Jessica), called me a "hummingbird" because my veins are so small. She had a few tricks up her sleeve and magically hit my vein on the first try. It made me feel pretty excited about tomorrow's prick. Maybe it'll be the same.

Speech therapy went off without a hitch. She printed up a bunch of mind teasers, and problem solving sheets. Things are looking really good in that department. I just need to keep challenging my mind, working on reading aloud and my comprehension.

It was such a busy day, and I'm absolutely exhausted. No nap yesterday or today. I'm like a little child, needing my naps :)

There was a lot of information to process - all of it good. Now I need to rest up for the big day tomorrow.

For the record, I went as a viking for Halloween this past year (there was a helmet but it kept sliding off). I guess next year I can wear the same outfit but call myself Paleolithic woman. That's handy.

Off To Seattle

This morning, I woke up, showered and finished packing for Seattle. I had heard the snowplow outside as I was waking, but I forgot to take a peak until I hopped on the computer, and drew the curtains just now. We have about 8 inches, and it's still heavily snowing. I'm so bummed we're leaving!! For the past month, I've been itching to make a snow angel, but there hadn't been enough snow.

Here's a photo I just took of my little Buddha. My dad bought it for me in 2006 after a few weeks of hard work down in Tucson, AZ (we were doing the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show as we had for the past decade). He had watched me fall in love with it, hard not to with a face like that - he's so soothing. It was hand carved out of stone, somewhere in Asia (I can't remember where). It was a big deal that my dad snuck away and bought it for me, it was against everything in his Christian gut.

So, I just checked the mountain passes, and they're pretty messy. Wish us luck, we're heading over to the west side this afternoon after work. We'll just take it slow and easy. I guess the more you drive in extreme conditions, the better you get at it. I'll chalk this trip up as more experience. Here's the photos from the pass cameras...

We usually head over Stevens, but it's snowing like crazy and they're doing avalanche control which would cause some undesirable delays. Maybe we'll take Blewett & Snoqualmie instead. Snoqualmie is a mess though, they're requiring chains on all vehicles unless you have four wheel drive, which we do, but Danny's tires are pretty bad in the snow. We need to get studded tires. Either way I have a feeling it's going to be a looooong drive :) Don't worry, all of you mothers out there, we're packing warm clothing and snacks just in case we get stuck. And, I have what most people don't, a father that thrives on pulling people out of snow banks. If we go slow enough, the worst thing that can happen is that we end up getting stuck.

We're off to conquer another MRI! Every day's an adventure :)