Its STILL sunny!!!

Any other year it would not have been sunny for several consecutive days like this... It is making my eyes more tired than I think they would be in duller weather (if I have to have this done again I want to time it for the depths of winter, around the shortest day!) so I'm taking plenty of short breaks, and using slices of cucumber to cool things down every so often. Yesterday I went outside a few times and it was too bright for me and I didn't go very far at all. I have an eye patch purchased before the op but its really uncomfortable - I can't see well enough to go anywhere without my glasses, but if I put the patch on under the glasses it throws everything off because of the weird angle they sit at, and if I put the patch over the glasses it feels like its pushing the glasses into my eye in a very uncomfortable fashion. I guess its my own fault for ordering the eye patch online and not being able to look at it before buying.

Unfortunately my appetite is back now and I'm nibbling a lot, making up for lost time. My body is still working on healing obviously so I'm not fighting it or worrying about it (much). The main discomfort now is the eye socket where it was pulled and poked about, but I'm managing to wait till midmorning before taking anything for the aches so clearly its not hurting too much.
And as of this morning, I only have to take one lot of eye drops instead of two - sadly I got rid of the one that had to be taken 3 times daily not the one that had to be taken 4 times, but I'll take it!

A Real Light bulb Moment and a New Recipe!

About one year ago I became convinced that I could eliminate salt from my Whole Foods Plant Based (WFPB) diet, aka the WFPB SOS Free diet. It was after the Chef AJ visit, lecture and cooking demo at my house. I collected a variety of salt substitutes and began using them in all of my home cooking. I started to neuroadapt and my food tasted very good to me without salt for the first time.

It was during that Chef AJ visit that I met Wanda Huberman. Her husband, Mark Huberman, is the president of the National Health Association, and they attended the cooking demo at my house.

What I did in my home was one thing, but the compromise that I was willing to make when I went out to a restaurant was a whole nother story! Sure, I didn't order anything with a mother or a face, but I also didn't make any effort to make sure that there was no oil or salt in the food that I would eat when I was out. I even started to compromise my efforts when eating at Whole Foods, of all places! I would eat pretty much anything that was vegetables and Vegan, knowing that the reason it tasted good was the oil and the salt. But I gave myself these allowances because when eating out, at least here in Cleveland near where I live, there are no WFPB SOS Free restaurants.

So in talking to Wanda one afternoon about how her and her husband deal with restaurant eating, she told me about a card that she carries with her wherever she goes. She presents it to waiters in restaurants and asks them to hand the card to the cook or chef.

Read more �

Healing

My eye does seem to be healing well, in fact yesterday I only took two lots of painkillers, didn't rest it as much, and spent much more time reading & watching tv - too much time, as it was much more sore and I had a headache when I woke up this morning. That will teach me to get cocky I guess, and today I will be more careful, but on the whole it is now improving by leaps and bounds, so far as I can tell. My follow up appointment is on Thursday morning and I can't see much chance the surgeon will be anything but pleased with my progress.
I can definitely tell that my glasses are not the right prescription for my eye at the moment - I can see pretty well using both eyes or just the left, but there's a substantial difference in clarity if I cover the left eye. The main thing I want to know now is how long I have to give it before it's worth getting another eye test and a new prescription, obviously I don't want go rush it and waste money but I can see it continuing to tire more quickly if it has to continue working with an out of date prescription.
In other respects I'm feeling much more positive now as well. My appetite isn't completely back to normal, but it's closer. I've been eating two or three times most days - not forcing it because doing so made me feel sick - and starting to enjoy eating more. I'm still not in the mood to cook much though, we've had a few takeaways since the op because I couldn't be bothered...

Bank Holiday weekends aren�t supposed to be sunny

I know I complain endlessly about the weather and especially the rain, but really, is it too much to ask for a bit of cloud on the first weekend after eye surgery? Our rental house has light-coloured curtains in every room, something we�d never go for in a house of our own (we�re thermal backed black-out curtains people) and it�s so bright in the house that my eye is constantly tired through squinting. I don�t have any prescription sunglasses, and although my glasses are reactolite that don�t actually darken inside the house unless I leave them on a sunny windowsill, so its kind of uncomfortable. I spent nearly the whole of Saturday lying in the bedroom with a sleep mask on (it doesn�t fit properly but its better than nothing) and the same yesterday morning and early afternoon. The inside of my head is a pretty boring place, and listening to Classic FM on my iPad is only so much distraction�

So far I can only read for a short while before I need to take a break, ditto watching TV, and my one attempt at going out wasn�t very successful do to the pain when I tried to look both ways before crossing the road, so I�m slowly turning into a green skinned fang toothed psychopath due to a combination of boredom and frustration. My appetite hasn�t come back and up until yesterday I felt sick every time I forced myself to eat something. Minus the nausea I wouldn�t mind if the lack of interest in food stuck around for a while, I might actually lose some weight. And up till yesterday I�d been constantly constipated ever since Tuesday. I�m also not enjoying cooking as much as usual, I suppose naturally enough when I have no interest in eating the results.

On the positive side the black eye I started developing on Wednesday evening has faded already and the swelling of my eyelid is much less, so I can actually open my eye without a crowbar. And yesterday I managed to cut down from Paramol to Ibuprofen (and some Paracetamol) and take only 3 lots of painkillers instead of 4, so there is improvement. My eyeball still looks like it�s swimming in blood though. And last night I had a big pouty sad girl�s meltdown of weeping, and complaining that it�s not fair damn it. It did make me feel better after lots of bottling things up, but had no other effect whatsoever because the world refuses to rearrange itself for my benefit.

Ah well, I hope everyone else is enjoying this painfully bright sunny Bank Holiday weekend!

Learning curves

Yesterday I decided to try to fit in some working from home as I was so bored and frustrated the day before. II t seemed to go quite well � the day passed much more quickly anyway � but because I kept getting caught up in what I was doing I didn�t take as many breaks as I should have and by the end of the day I was exhausted, my eye felt like it was on fire, and I�d basically been extremely stupid. I had a really early night and woke up in considerable pain this morning (if anyone has a morphine drip they�re not using I could borrow for overnight that would be nice� the gap between my last painkiller dose before bed and getting up is just too long)

Today I am working again, but to ensure that doesn�t happen again I�ve programmed my phone to remind me to take a rest every 50 minutes at most. Along with reminders to take eye-drops and painkillers, the damn thing seems to be beeping every 30 seconds.

I also had a nasty moment around lunchtime yesterday. As I�m refusing to leave the house and walk amongst the race of man (and woman) until I stop looking like someone�s used me as a punch-bag (vain I know, but I don�t want to frighten small children and animals)  I ordered my shopping to be delivered yesterday. It came and all was fine. Until I bent down too sharply to pick up a bag and felt such a sudden increase in pressure in my eye that I felt like throwing up. I didn�t, but now I�m bending slowly and carefully and looking straight ahead/up as I bend rather than down at the ground, and it hasn�t happened again.

I�m completely uninterested in food (I know! Who�d have thought???) but trying to force myself to eat since I know that you can�t heal if you don�t fuel your body. Yesterday that mostly consisted of trying mouthfuls of everything in the fridge to see if anything tasted good (it didn�t) and I think maybe I didn�t therefore eat enough. Today I�m trying harder. I cooked something for breakfast � pancakes consisting of boiled then shredded cassava root and eggs, flavoured with salt, pepper & garlic powder. They turned out well � quite a reasonable bread substitute � so hopefully I can use them throughout the day when I remember to eat.

This morning I also took a very careful bath and washed my hair (being very cautious to avoid getting shampoo or even water in my eye) which made me feel almost human for a while.

Time to take some more pills now� BTW, I want to buy shares in the company that makes Paramol. And the one that makes Nytol. Without them I�d be in REAL trouble

How to Preserve "Out" Styles - An Alternative to the Pineapple

Having trouble maintaining your twist-out, braid-out, bantu knot-out, or natural curls over night?  Check out this video on how to preserve your curls while you sleep:

 

The Top Dozen Pesticide-Laden Produce + The Top Fifteen Cleanest Produce

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently released a list of produce containing the most pesticides (yuck!) ... and the least.  Do you want to know which of these foods are going into your body?  Check out the below list.  (For more information, including details on certain produce, check out this EWG page.)

THE 2014 "DIRTY DOZEN PLUS"
Apples
Strawberries
Grapes
Celery
Peaches
Spinach
Sweet bell peppers
Nectarines (imported)
Cucumbers
Cherry tomatoes
Snap peas (imported)
Potatoes
Hot Peppers
Kale

THE 2014 "CLEAN FIFTEEN" 
Avocados
Sweet corn
Pineapples
Cabbage
Sweet peas (frozen)
Onions
Asparagus
Mangoes
Papayas
Kiwi
Eggplant
Grapefruit
Cantaloupe
Cauliflower
Sweet potatoes

For more information, including details on certain produce, check out this EWG page.