Is it day two or day three?

Well early days either way...

I just wanted to quickly touch base and let you know that I am doing ok so far.  I have NOT yet managed to get a Paleo breakfast and have had cereal two mornings in a row but the rest of it is going well.  The grocery order arrives this afternoon so I will have more choices then!

FibroFacioGal (my old mate whose blog is really worth a read) commented on my blog and asked what I'm going to do with myself and my new found education once I finish this Masters.  I'm not sure everyone knows but I have been doing a Masters of Conflict and Dispute Resolution and I should be finished early in the new year.  This very question is the fuel of much intense self-examination and thought.  My Professor at the uni is trying to persuade me to do a PhD and has a study plan all worked out for me.  She has given me some work as a Research Assistant (which I can do at home, in bed, lying down... nice work if you can get it eh?) and the project I am working on is a pilot... the Professor has suggested that when I am done with the Masters I could carry on with the extension of the pilot study we are working on at the moment and do a nation-wide study of the same issue.  It's pretty interesting stuff - we are researching conflict between graduate students and their PhD supervisors.  Quite possibly I could get a scholarship and some research funding to continue this study and the Professor would help me get it all up and running.

As part of my course I have done what I need to do to become accredited as a Mediator and as a Conflict Coach so if I were going to go back into the mainstream workforce I would probably be looking for something in one of those areas... apparently Family Mediation is a growth area and I only need another course or two to get accredited in that too.  As things stand at the moment I am not really fit enough to return  full-time to the workforce and I already have some part-time work so I am pretty happy with where that all is for now.  Strangely the recuperative effects of not working make me feel almost well enough to work but time and again I find that when I take on a project here at home it knocks me back down again so much that for every hour I spend doing something I need three hours of resting to recover and I'm likely to feel lousy for a day or two!

I just had a call from The Boy who is working and taking care of himself; he's doing pretty damn well for a nineteen year old!  We had a nice long chat.  The shopping order arrived with all my new veggies and stuff - I unpacked as much as I could before pooping out.  Off to pick up TLOML from her work in about half an hour... Life goes on... with or without the diet...

The view from the bottom of the valley...

Well it has been ages since I wrote a blog and there are a number of reasons why... I guess, in part, I didn't think I had anything to say or anything anyone else would find interesting...  I have been doing OK with University and I'm in the home stretch for the Masters...  Health wise I have been kind of bouncing along... not great... not terrible...  I appear to have entered menopause and for the past few months I have felt like I'm permanently experiencing severe PMS...  I've been pretty grouchy, very snappy and a bit paranoid...  I described myself to a friend today and told her that TLOML doesn't seem all that into me at the moment and she said (rightly) "Who would be into that?'

Well I thought I would start blogging again because yesterday I got some not great news and today I have begun the first part of a journey designed to turn my health around... (at least as much as possible).

Yesterday I got the results of a Glucose Tolerance test and it is the first test I have flunked since high school! My baseline fasting glucose was 7.2 (130 for my North American friends), then I drank the sugar drink and 60 minutes later it was 14.3 (258) and after another hour (120 minutes total) it was 13.5 (243)...  The doctor (who I have never named but she took over after Dr McSincere left) said she doesn't think it will be able to be controlled by diet but she wants to give me a month to try and get the levels down and then she will repeat the test (lucky me it cost five needles getting the test done the first time).

So here's the challenge... I am going to start a Primal/Paleo diet.  Taking sugar and grains out of my diet will not be easy but the alternative is most unattractive.

So here goes...  Today, without knowing it, I did the wrong thing by having some cereal for breakfast... no more cereal...  lunch was a hearty ham and eggs which, as counter-intuitive as it sounds, is apparently one of the best things I can eat...  dinner is on the stove chicken, brussel sprouts, broccoli, sweet potato, red cabbage, onion, garlic, chili, ginger, with a dash of wine (not much I promise).  I have ordered Krill Oil and will start that on Thursday.

Well I intend to find a site online to track my progress...  I have a friend in the US who has cured her own diabetes readings with this diet and she is going to coach me online...  I'm going to weigh myself but I'm not sure I am going to share that with you lot...

Wish me luck, I have not really done much with dieting in the past... I did the juice diet for most of a week last year...  I spent a few months on a low fat diet back in the mid 90's...  Still I never had as much motivation as I have right now - today!