Let's talk about the weather part 5

Okay. So I'm feeling a bit bummed out. It's February, and here I am in a dressing gown (albeit barefoot). Outside, it's dreary. Sure, it's less dreary than it is when the sun is sitting further diagonally north and lower in the sky, but it's still dreary. Overcast. Raining. The glands on the side of my head are standing up to attention.

It's made me realise anew why I hate Winter, and given me renewed appreciation for those of you who are suffering through it right now who hate it (hi, Erin).

So it's not cold cold cold. Tonight's forecast is 12 degrees (53). But it's summer, goddammit! This is meant to be the time when I soak in all that lovely dry heat. The kind of weather that energises me the most. But no. This summer, whilst we've had a couple of small heatwaves (and 40 degrees is going too much the other way), mostly the hot weather we've had has been the energy sapping ultra humid variety. It's not meant to be like this in February!

This little return to weather that is more common in April or May has reminded me and given me a giddy-up about what it is I know I need to be doing next for my health - eating as much raw foods as I can. I was talking to God a couple of mornings ago about making changes in my diet, picking up where I left off a year or so ago. I was bemoaning how complex and challenging it feels in our society to change my diet - and I wouldn't even consider I'm like the standard Western diet. But elements of it have certainly been creeping back in, like eating wheat, for example. It's a sad fact that the less energy I have, the more stuff I eat that's processed and out of boxes. And then the spiral continues.

And so, after praying about making diet changes that morning, that evening I had my online friend Brandi instant message me. Brandi is never around at that time of night (she lives in Hawaii, so it's a four hour time difference, and it was, like, past midnight there for her). Brandi is a raw foods advocate, has a whole stack of information about it, feels passionate about it. And she answered some of the biggest concerns I had. And much as I would want to think not, I really feel like God was saying, go this way, go this way. Damn. Don't you hate that, when you ask him something and he answers? ;)

I have taken on a lot of "whacky" health things over the years of getting well, so I feel like I'm kinda halfway to the raw food thing anyway. But boy, what a challenging concept it is. Eating mainly raw foods? But wouldn't I be hungry all the time? What kind of comfort is there in eating raw stuff? Yuk. Nevertheless, it's been one of those gut feeling things on my mind for quite a few years now. My old next door neighbour, he had a terminal cancer diagnosis years ago, and radically changed his diet - you know, radically to the point where you just think, "Whoah! No way! I couldn't go there!" Thing was, this guy had not only beat his cancer but he was fighting fit and I could just see the health blooming out of his eyes. And I see it all the time with people who have a mostly raw foods diet. It's like they've woken up, and they're eating sunlight for breakfast. And I have been really resistant to the idea for years and years ... and I think now, finally, I am going to listen to God on this one. I have felt a lot of little nudges and proddings from him over the years in terms of my health ... go left instead of right, here. I think health is a very intuitive thing, like learning to listen to the music of your body.

Agh! I don't want to make dietary changes that are going to basically mean I'm unfit for human society! I don't want to be the kind of people that others look at as some kind of freak - oh, there goes that macrobiotic chick who just eats chickpeas, you know? I don't want to be the kind of person who people don't want to invite for dinner because they know all I eat is lima beans and witchety grubs. But I also don't want to be the kind of person who goes through the rest of my life with my body telling me that it doesn't want to be eating the stuff I put in it. So what's a girl to do?

I'm sick of feeling my glands standing up like golf balls on the side of my head. I'm sick of feeling like it's taking forever to get over the tracheitis I had five months ago. I'm sick of being back in this low-level fatigueland which sucks such a big one it takes up my entire vision, it's that big :) Low-level fatigueland is just blerty blerty blerty, and it reminds me of it's big sister, chronic fatigue syndromeland, and that is one land that was at the top of the Faraway Tree for way too long. And it's getting in the way of my creativity. And I'm hoping that Writing Lots Land is the next one to swing to the top of the Tree, so I feel like this is the physical component of that.

So, it's tentative steps towards getting more raw foods into my diet. Which feels terribly unpalatable. But you know what they say about eating elephants. Small steps.

Do not despise the day of small beginnings :)

Because if I take baby steps now towards better health, by the time the hell of Winter rolls back around to the Southern Hemisphere, maybe it won't be so hard to cope with if I'm feeling healthy. Bring it on, Papa.