Last Day

It's the end of three weeks. I can go back to three meals a day tomorrow if I want to. What are the results? I have lost weight - about 20 lbs over the 7 weeks since I went off wheat. I look better, I think I look younger. Those are nice things. And the Parkinson's? Still there.

I did not really expect recovery, but what can be expected is greater stamina, energy, health, vigor, those kind of things. Am I energetic? Well, today I shopped for groceries, worked in the garden, organized the shed, made a marker drawing, fixed dinner for others (I had a smoothie which I also had to make) and got my ipad email working again. The last was particularly grueling - ha!

Was it all accomplished effortlessly? No. By dinner time I was dragging my feet around. After my blueberry smoothie and a pleasant chat with my family, I felt better.

I hope I'll not swing back into my old ways. I do intend to continue eating whole foods, and less of the "bad" foods. Fortunately I have the Suppers group now to give support in the fight against food addictions and bad habits. I will post a photo of myself to compare with the photo taken in February in Santa Fe.

 Pictures don't lie. So any difference?

                                                    

Cleaning Up and Trimming Down

What I put in my mouth has become a major focus this year since I started attending the Suppers lunches. Suppers is a group for those who want to eat more healthily. You can learn a lot, about good nutrition from Dor, the leader/founder and the other attendees, and how to cook because you may either attend and prepare the food at the lunch or stay after for cleanup.

The first big change I made was going wheat-free. Reading the book “Wheatbelly” put me solidly in the anti-wheat brigade, at least for a trial period. I wasn’t keen on the idea when Dor proposed it because I had experimented with other similar diets, but one chapter into “Wheatbelly” and I was sold.

After four weeks gluten-free, and prompted by another Dor initiative, I started a three week cleanse guided by the book, “Clean.” I am now 11 days in. The goal is to clean out my body of toxins that have accumulated in the tissues, blood, and digestive tract. The main rules are to eat a solid food lunch of selected foods, and a smoothie, raw soup or juice meal for breakfast and dinner. An added benefit is weight loss if you have extra pounds, which I of course do.

I am feeling well, have lost a few pounds, but is it of benefit for Parkinson’s Disease? Let me finish the cleanse and then see. Maybe there will be some impact. If I do actually remove a significant level of toxins, will there be a reduction in my symptoms?

Parkinson's Summit

I attended the Parkinson’s Recovery Summit in Santa Fe last week with my PD friend Janet and came home with a range of impressions. Focusing on those of the summit itself and not the distractions of that fair city, I found that the ideas about healing that I have been hearing from the alternative health community for quite awhile were reinforced. Here is what I heard:

Chinese Traditional Medicine – good. Two sessions focused on Qi gong, the ancient Chinese energy exercise, that harnesses life energy from the earth and from the heavens to utilize in healing the body. There were lots of mentions of chi, grounding, meridians, acupuncture and other traditional eastern ideas by presenters all around.

Power of the mind in healing – effective. Visualization is a powerful tool for changing the body’s level of health. You can heal yourself with meditation or visualizations focusing on the sickness and seeing the healing process taking place.

Joy – essential. Stress and trauma may be a big part of the cause of Parkinson’s. If we can turn around our patterns of anxiety, perfectionism, stop criticizing and judging ourselves or others, and feel appreciation and gratitude for all of the positive elements of our lives, that will go a long way to healing our symptoms.

Today I was thinking about the idea of stress as the cause of PD. Obvious to me, that by itself cannot create all the symptoms of PD. I think a combination of factors is at fault, a series of foul-ups in the body system that when combined with stress and a Parkinson personality manifests with symptoms labeled as Parkinson’s Disease.

I feel a transformation in myself now that I have time to focus on myself and being and functioning a little differently from the old me. An inner transformation needs to take place I think and that is essential in the recovery process. 

In general, the conference was uplifting. Most of all because there were people speaking at the summit who recovered from Parkinson’s Disease. That by itself was the most inspiring element of the summit.