A lot has happened to me this past year, and I’ve come to accept what has happened, happened. It’s never to late to look back on your life, and decide to change. And with night shifts starting, I’ve noticed my body has been affected negatively and something needs to change.
With the night shifts, my eating habits have been poor, my caffeine intake has skyrocketed, and I am exhausted. It messes up your sleep pattern. Actually, it just messes you up, period. Even though now I have the ability to go for a run or ride before work, which I could not do when it was so dark in the mornings (but my Petzel headlamp always helped when I ran in the dark–which is a positive,) my body feels yucky. Ohh Memories of running up and down, zigzagging through the streets of alexandria, met the newspaper man delivering newspapers to all the shops along King Street, and Starbucks on Orocono preparing for their first customers…
Anyway, I’ve decided it’s come to make a change–wipe my palate clean, so to say. My experiment is more like a lifestyle change. My friend is completing a “cleanse” as we speak. She said she feels amazing–and her face is glowing. I tried going two days on her cleanse but could not survive without the caffeine during night shifts. But, I have a feeling the change in eating will help me feel better, both inside and out, and give my body a break.
So what does that mean? Nix the sugar–of any kind. Nothing artificial–no diet cokes, no “diet” anything…Waaaay to many chemicals in those foods. I read once an athletic journal on how athletes, switch to gluten-free diets during their training and this seems to improve their performance. Honestly, I forgot the Journal’s name. Therefore, I’m trying this gluten free diet- it may be easier on my intestines, and may make my stomach less irritable. The body is incredible at sensing the smallest changes your body makes. So, no more gluten (for now)–this might actually help with my horrible stomach disomfort I always have. I am also cutting out anything that is canned . If it’s fresh and colorful, I can eat it. Cutting out meat will not be an issue, because I’m already a vegetarian. No dairy. Only fresh foods. I can eat seeds, lentils, nuts, soy, etc. I actually just cooked up kale for the first time in my life the other day, and realized there are so many different wonderful, exotic fruits and vegetables that we never eat.
Kale chips--actually pretty tasty- mine did not come out as pretty as the ones in this picture
It’s just an experiment to see how I feel. I’m hoping it will give me more energy, help me improve physically, and give my body a rest from all the crap I’ve been doing to it.
A Rendezvous with Sneakers 