Literally. I’m literally sick and tired. This is the biggest reason I’ve been quiet this past week – I’ve felt like crap.
It started on Wednesday. I had a little bit of a cough. And my chest felt heavy. I never had difficulty breathing, but I definitely felt chest pressure. And mind-numbing fatigue. By Thursday, my sinuses were completely clogged and I felt like crap. Still went to work, but it was rough.
Friday was a bit better, but not by much.
Do I have COVID? Who knows, maybe? But most likely, it’s a head cold. I know it’s hard for some people to believe, but it IS possible to have something other than COVID.
Today? I feel … ick. Sinuses are still pretty clogged but at the same time, I have a runny nose and though I’m still coughing, it’s only occasionally and my voice sounds really croaky. I doubt I do a podcast tonight because my smoker’s voice is not cute.
I’m rarely sick. Like, EVER sick. So this took me by surprise. I was prone to sinus infections for a number of years but then I discovered nose spray, Zicam and hot liquids. (Tip: Routinely burn the back of your throat. Don’t give yourself third degree burns, but hot enough for it to be uncomfortable. I have found that really helps burn off any bacteria that might be camping out).
Yep. I went to work even though I felt like dog shit. I haven’t called in ONCE in the ten years I’ve been with the clinic. I didn’t call in because I didn’t want to ruin that record, (though to be honest, I did think about that), but rather, I wasn’t sick enough to stay home. I guess I should define my reason for staying home – when I can’t walk upright.
On one hand, I probably should stay home when I feel like this. I don’t want to pass this on to someone else. And I would have, if I thought what I have is contagious, (but what if it was COVID, Karen?? Huh? Huh? Chances are, it isn’t, so calm your self righteous self down), but on the other hand, I’m tough enough to deal with it and in fact, getting up, taking a hot shower, distracting myself at work, does wonders – I usually feel way better by the end of the day whereas staying home I would have been focusing on my poor little self and wallowing in my sickness.
I feel like most people nowadays use any excuse, at all, to stay home. People don’t tough it out anymore, they call in “sick” if they have a headache, or the sniffles, or cramps or … whatever. I don’t know, maybe they’re telling the truth. Maybe their headache is a migraine, or their sniffles is a sinus infection, or their cramps are so severe they CAN’T walk upright, who am I to judge their motives? But judging by the work ethic of most people nowadays, I am suspicious.
And I don’t really care – do what you want. But it DOES put more stress on the poor saps you left to cover for you and do your work for you.
It’s just something to consider the next time you’re tempted to call into work. I’m just saying.
I started my OMAD fast this week. For those that don’t know, OMAD stands for “One meal a day.” I’ve determined that for me, my feeding window (I always feel like a cow whenever I talk about my “feeding” window – moo), is 3:00 – 7:00 PM. That way, I can still eat dinner with Kevin. And it’s every day, not every other day, or three times a week like I’ve been doing for the past 18 months. So, I fast 20 hours a day, every day.
I started it on Monday and it was rough. I was never so glad to see 3:00 PM roll around that I ate about two meals in four hours and felt SO SICK afterward. Lesson learned – I won’t do that again. But since I’ve been sick for the majority of the week and NOT HUNGRY, it hasn’t been that bad. I’m getting used to it now. And for the past two days, it hasn’t been a big deal, at all. I have been drinking water with sea salt though and I think that helps.
But being sick, it got me to thinking – is fasting GOOD for you when you’re sick? Does it help heal you faster?
Good question, if I say so myself. Ha!
I’ve also heard, or read somewhere, that when you fast and start burning fat, that you can release a virus, or some sort of sickness, that was trapped in your fat and get released when you burn that fat so that is why you feel sort of sick when you start a program designed to burn fat.
I have no idea if that is true, but it sort of makes sense to me.
So. I don’t know. I don’t know there is a hard and “fast” rule (see what I did there?) to whether you should Fast or not when you’re sick. You just have to do what feels right for your body, I suppose.
All I know is, fasting feels right for me and if I can improve my heart health and avoid brain disease, like Alzheimer’s, and extend my life expectancy, then I plan on continuing it.
Now. It’s 3:00 o’clock and time to break my fast.
Your turn. What do you think? Do you Fast? Do you Fast when you’re sick? Why, or why not?
ADDED: I just thought of something – what if I’m feeling sick because I wear a mask to work all day every day? I think, eventually, it’s going to come out that wearing masks cause respiratory issues. Mark my words.
Did you hear Jill and Joe address the nation on Easter? You have a “moral obligation” to get the vaccine. They didn’t say anything about Jesus. How disrespectful. BLM coordinator buys a 1.4 million dollar house with the donations made to the organization. Where is the outrage? One in three people are diagnosed with psychiatric issues after COVID – or more likely, from being locked down for over a year. Book review this week is “An Unfinished Story” by Boo Walker and I share a little bit about me, the person behind the microphone.
I know. Life is rough right now. So many “experts” telling you what to do, where to go, who to see. Get the vaccine, (or more accurately, the experimental injectable) or not get the vaccine – that is the question everyone is asking. Follow the crowd or assert your independence and refuse to conform? Who do we listen to? WHY would we listen to someone who doesn’t really care about us? Who is telling the truth and who is lying?
AND WHEN CAN WE GET BACK TO NORMAL LIFE?
Or, is this our new normal?
Who do we trust? Where do we go for some peace? What is real and what is fake?
I can’t answer these questions for you – all I can say is that the majority of the information you’re being exposed to is a lie and to encourage you to seek alternative news sources and get ALL the information before making decisions that will affect you and your family.
However, I can offer a bit of hope. A resource, if you will, that will honestly help calm your fears and smear a soothing salve on your soul.
The Bible.
HEAR ME OUT!
Before you go rolling your eyes or sticking your nose up in the air thinking, “oh great, another religious wacko” consider this – what’s the harm in looking into God and His wonderful book of life?
“There is a plethora of reasons why understanding the Bible is crucial for everyone, from the new believer to the seasoned scholar. There is not a person alive who doesn’t stand to reap some benefit from knowing, understanding, and applying the principles of the Bible. Here are just a few reasons why understanding the Bible is so crucial:
It Empowers Us for Right-Living The Bible offers countless wise missives, instructions, and clear warnings on what to embrace and what to avoid in order to live a blessed, successful life. Understanding these things—why they matter to God, why they should matter to us, and how to structure our lives by them—is absolutely crucial to living both an abundant life and one pleasing to God. Without grasping this, at best we’re subject to the tailwinds of the world’s ever-changing notion of morality, which offers no tangible guarantee of joy, salvation, or righteousness. To live right, and live well, we must derive these things at their very definition from the Bible.
It Gives us a Framework to Understand the World Without a firm grasp of what the Bible says about the age we live in, the spiritual forces at work, and who and what we are up against, we can very easily become despondent, confused, and angry as struggles come our way. Thankfully, the Bible very clearly lays out the truth about the spiritual battle raging around us, the enemy in charge of this fallen world, and the role believers can and should play in the fight. To understand the battle and stand our ground in it, we must fully grasp the nuances of the world’s state both spiritually and physically as explained in the Bible.
It Demystifies Difficult Realities The spiritual battle is not the only aspect of life that’s difficult to understand—nor is it the only one the Bible explains! The problem of evil, sin, and suffering, why bad things happen to good people, why things seem to get worse rather than better around the world, why man is even here, why God’s Son had to die a horrific death, why there were certain cultures God ordered His people to wipe off the map—these are all very deep, very difficult realities to contend with. Even a surface reading of Scripture may not be enough to fully grasp the intricacies and necessities of these subjects. That’s why we can’t just read the Bible—it’s important to understand it. To have a clear, logical outlook on why so many things have come to pass the way they did and continue to, we must dive in deep and do the hard work to grasp the meaning and reasoning laid out in the Bible.
It Elucidates the Past, Present, and Future There are countless details of history, the current atmosphere, and the coming future that can’t be truly explained without a scriptural framework. Some things have happened and are happening that had to fall into place in a certain way due to the Messiah’s coming over 2000 years ago; similarly, some things still must come to pass in order for all of God’s purposes to play out. Understanding these purposes—not to mention what’s happened, why it’s happened, and what still must—helps us to not become embroiled in guesswork and conjecture, but to live our lives with a proper perspective of the days and seasons in God’s hands. To fathom the truth of the past, make the most of our time now, and have hope no matter what comes, we must view all of history through the perspective laid out in the Bible.
When we Misunderstand the Bible, It’s Easier to Misunderstand the One Who Authored It Circling back around to where we started, let’s touch again on the heartache that comes from an author misunderstood. When we stay high-level with Scripture, doing a cursory reading without making the diligent effort to dig in and truly understand it, we are building a house of cards on a sandy shore. Anything could come along and blow our beliefs down or rip the floor out from under it. We also run the risk of constructing an improper view of God when we don’t make it a point to truly understand His Word, which can lead to all sorts of pain—from legalism to loose-living, from hyper-judgementalism to hyper-tolerance, from loving Him without the proper respect to hating Him outright. Countless extremes spring from simply misunderstanding the heart of God as He laid it out for us in the Bible. To fully understand the Author, we must understand the blueprint He laid for us: the Bible, His very Word.”
With all the craziness that is our world right now, we have a God that loves and cares about us – ABOUT YOU. He only wants the best for you and who offers hope and light during these dark times. A lot of people have been deeply affected by this past year – it’s been rough – and it’s nice to know there is a resource out there that can help lighten our personal burden.
Listening to “experts” and the government is not helpful, nor is it encouraging. But God, now He’s someone you can rely on, who will NEVER let you down and promises everlasting life.
Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
I hope you’ll consider checking Him out. What do you have to lose? (Answer: Nothing).
I started fasting in November 2019. Right before Thanksgiving. Probably the WORST time to fast. But what can I say? I’m an idiot.
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my fasting journey. But for those of you curious, yes, I’m still doing it and could probably do it better, but my goal was never to lose weight, per se, but to feel comfortable in my skin. To not have to be uncomfortable in my clothes because I’ve made a vow to myself, I will not buy bigger clothes.
PERIOD.
My Fasting schedule is: I Fast for 24-hours on Sunday, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Why those days? No specific reasons, those days just work better for me. So, for example: I eat dinner on Saturday night about 6:00 PM. I will then not eat again until 6:00 PM Sunday night. I’m giving my intestines 24 hours to rest and my glucose to drop to zero. Am I hungry? Yes. But it’s not bad and I’ve gotten used to it, to be honest. I think the biggest reason I feel hungry is because my brain has been programmed to turn on my hunger hormone at the “normal” eating times and I just need to re-program it. Which takes time.
But honestly, I’m not really that hungry anymore. And I try to only eat when I’m hungry on “feeding” days. I don’t know why we have all been brought up to believe that we have to eat three meals a day. No, actually, we don’t. And in fact, it’s better if we DON’T do that.
Have I accomplished Fasting goal? Yes – sort of. But it has been a BUMPY road and I learned A LOT about my body in the process. More on that later.
First and foremost, if you’re thinking of starting a fasting program, talk to your doctor. Especially if you have any underlying health conditions, specifically, diabetes. Fasting messes with your blood sugars, in fact, that’s what fasting is, in a nutshell, it lowers your glucose level to virtually zero so that your body has no choice but to tap into your fat reserves, so if you’re diabetic … well, you can see the problem. So check with your doctor before starting something like this.
First of all, what is fasting? Dr. Jason Fung is a doctor one our neurosurgeons at work refers patients to. Well, he doesn’t refer them to him, he encourages people to look him up and watch his videos. Here’s Dr. Fung talking about what to expect when you start a Fasting regiment.
My comments:
Headaches or Dizziness
Yes. I have experienced, and sometimes still experience dizziness. And I’m pretty sure it’s lack of sodium. I don’t really like salt and prefer my food to be salt free so on Fasting days, I drink a glass of water with sea salt and it not only helps curb my appetite for that day, but I have noticed a decrease in dizziness. And it should be sea salt, not the iodinized table salt.
I have also bought bone broth and warmed it up at work to drink on Fasting days. This helps with hunger and I’m hoping the collagen in bone broth will smooth a few wrinkles in the process. (Hey, let me wallow in my self-delusion, please).
2. Bowel Changes
The change in bowel patterns – erhm – I’m going to keep this brief because NO ONE is interested in how many times I go to the bathroom, but I will say, that yes, that definitely changes when you Fast. However, I take magnesium supplements on Fasting days not only for constipation, but it also helps my stress levels. It helps calm me down and I’ve definitely noticed a difference since taking it.
3. Insomnia
I have experienced a bit of insomnia. But since I’ve cut all caffeine out of my diet, this is not as big of an issue as it used to be. I didn’t cut caffeine out of my diet because of Fasting, but because I was having a lot of heart palpitations. Cutting caffeine really helped with that but what REALLY helped my palpitations was taking potassium supplements. Ever since I’ve done that, my palpitations nearly disappeared. (Some of the palpitations was due to stress/anxiety, which I have from time-to-time when my body can’t take anymore and then it just sort of manifests. Fun stuff).
He mentions Blue-Block for insomnia. I actually bought, and am wearing now, Blue-Block glasses I bought from Zenni.com. Do they help? Meh – jury is still out but I would like to think they are helping my eyes as I stare at either a computer screen, a phone screen or my Kindle screen all day long. I DO think it helps with eye fatigue.
4. Heartburn
OH. MY. GOSH. YESSSSSS. I definitely experience heartburn. Especially when coming off a Fast. I went through a period of time when I drank Apple Cider Vinegar, not so much for the heartburn but because it also helps with hunger pangs. Thankfully, heartburn doesn’t happen very often and when it does, I just chew on the Alka-Seltzer heartburn tablets and that takes care of it.
The beauty of Fasting is that it’s completely customizable. You can follow any schedule you want. For me, Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays just seem to work the best. I knew I didn’t want to skip Friday or Saturday nights because those are our “date nights.” Kevin and I go out to dinner on those nights.
I will say, that starting out is hard. And start small, by the way. Don’t start with OMAD (one meal a day) or alternate day Fasting. Try skipping breakfast and eat lunch and dinner to begin with. Or, eat breakfast and lunch and skip dinner. Whatever fits into your lifestyle. And then gradually, lengthen your Fasting window. Skip breakfast and lunch and only eat dinner, for example.
Another tip – DON’T DRINK SODA OR OTHER SUGARY DRINKS. I can’t even tell you how MUCH this helps. Those drinks are good and addicting because they are liquid sugar. And sugar is addicting. Also, cut down your carbs. I try not to eat much bread. And I LOVE bread. But again, it helps. Bread gives you a lot of belly fat because of the yeast, which is also in beer, hence, a “beer gut.”
As Dr. Fung said, consistency is key when you Fast. But it’s a lifestyle choice and change and it’s not always easy. Let’s break down the reasons people fail when they try Fasting according to Dr. Eric Berg.
Never Start
It seems “unnatural” to not eat. So it’s a mental shift away from what we’ve been taught our whole lives. In order to survive, you must eat. And sure, that’s true, but skipping a meal or two doesn’t equate starvation. “You’re switching food fuel with fat fuel.”
2. Feel Worse
Yes. I won’t lie. When I started my Fasting journey, the third day WAS AWFUL. I was dizzy, a little out-of-my head and I felt like my stomach was going to eat itself. I believe I broke my Fast a bit early that day because I was so miserable. But I didn’t give up. The fourth day wasn’t as bad and after a while, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I still have hunger pangs but I just ignore them most of the time. I found out, the hard way, that most of my struggles were due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. When I started taking potassium and started drinking water with sea salt, my symptoms went down SIGNIFICANTLY. I also eat a lot of eggs on my feeding days and raising my vitamin B levels also really helped. So, learn from my mistake – keep your electrolytes up, it’s important.
3. Don’t Lose Weight
I dropped about 20 pounds in three months. And then … nothing. Now granted, I haven’t been as active as I need to be. Remember, I’m either sitting on my butt reading or I’m sitting on my butt blogging or checking my Patreon, so I’m quite confident when I start my walking back up, I’ll drop some more pounds. But the fact that I dropped that much weight right off the bat was very encouraging. And people at work noticed and were encouraging, that really helped me to stick to the plan. And remember, my weight loss goal was just to feel comfortable in my skin, not necessarily to get down to a size zero. Not because I didn’t want to be smaller but because I don’t want the stress of staying that size. Staying overly big or overly small takes a lot of work and quite frankly, life is too short to want to deprive myself of the small pleasures all so I can stay overly small. No thanks.
I also Fast to repair my internal organs. And it’s healthier for your brain which studies have shown help prevent Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. And it also prolongs your life expectancy. There are A LOT of health benefits of Fasting, not just weight loss and to be honest, those benefits are more important to me than being stick thin.
4. People Discourage You
“You’re not starving your body, you’re just shifting what fuel you’re running off of.” Dr. Berg says when you eat is more important than what you eat. I found this interesting and encouraging. Insulin is triggered by carbs and frequent eating. I wish I had known this stuff when I was in my 20’s. I think a lifetime of Fasting would have made my life a little easier now that I’m in the my 50’s. It’s not too late, but if you’re reading this and you’re younger, I encourage you to look more into this alternative. I recommend watching Autumn Bates and Fledge Fitness YouTube channels. They are both GREAT resources on what Fasting is, how to implement in your life and the science behind the lifestyle.
So. I’m sorry if you clicked on this post thinking you were going to get a before and after picture. Honestly, I WISH I had taken a before picture but again, my goal wasn’t merely to lose weight but to feel better on the inside and the outside. I think I’ve accomplished that but I’m ready to amp it up another notch. I’d like to start OMAD (one meal a day). I’m close to doing that now. Even on my feeding days, I have been trying to stick to my fruit smoothie in the morning, skip lunch and then eat dinner. My fruit smoothie is:
Handful of Pineapple One banana Greek yogurt One scoop of protein powder One cup of Almond milk Handful of Strawberries
It tastes like liquid ice cream. I LOVE them. I drink them three times a week right before work and that will, most times, curb my hunger and I don’t eat lunch. I hate to give them up, but I suppose I could drink them as “desert” after dinner.
At any rate – I want to try OMAD and of course, start moving more. I have been walking a few times around the hospital during the weekday and I’ve been averaging about 7000 to 9000 steps per day. It’s better than nothing.
So Fasting is not a fad for me, it’s a lifestyle. One that I really don’t have any intentions of stopping. The trick is finding a schedule that fits in with your life.
It’s a personal journey and one I hope you will look into and try.
After locking up, Claire climbed into her convertible and drove north, back toward the Don CeSar hotel. David’s novel rode shotgun.
Story blurb:
A grieving widow and a disenchanted writer form an unexpected bond in a novel about second chances and finding the courage to let go of the past.
It’s been three years since Claire Kite lost her husband, David, an aspiring novelist, in a tragic car accident. Claire finally finds the courage to move on; then she discovers among the remnants of her shattered world her husband’s last manuscript. It’s intimate, stirring—and unfinished. An idea comes to her…What if she can find someone to give David’s novel the ending it deserves?
Whitaker Grant is famous for his one and only bestselling novel—a masterpiece that became a hit film. But after being crippled by the pressure of success and his failed marriage, Whitaker retreated from the public eye in his native St. Petersburg, Florida. Years later, he’s struggling through a deep midlife crisis. Until he receives an intriguing request from a lonely widow. To honor David’s story, Whitaker must understand, heart and soul, the man who wrote it and the woman he left behind.
There’s more to the novel than anyone dreamed. Something personal. Something true. Maybe, in bringing a chapter of David’s life to a close, Claire and Whitaker can find hope for a new beginning.
These two sentences are from chapter three of “An Unfinished Story” by Boo Walker. (First of all, LOVE the author name).
So, the premise of this reminds me of Verity by Colleen Hoover. Which I liked. Actually, I loved it. I know that book had mixed reviews. But I enjoy the premise of another writer finishing what someone else started.
This story so far is sad and I hope to God to never experience what this character is going through losing the love her life, (because when we die, Kevin and I will die together – how is that for macabre?) and I’m sure it’s heartbreaking but all of the sadness … I just find myself getting impatient. Okay, we get it, you’re sad. Let’s move on to happier times.
The story begins with David, Claire’s husband, leaving the house with the promise that he will bring someone to dinner that night. He won’t tell her who it is and he dies without her knowing who it was. So there is that element of mystery. I’m at the part in the story where she is selling their house and she is forced to finally go into David’s study to start clearing it out. David is a writer, or was a writer, he was getting back into it when he died, and he was working on a manuscript that he didn’t want Claire to read until he was finished.
So now, she has the manuscript but she hasn’t had a chance to read it yet.
I’m hoping the manuscript has some mystery character, maybe the character that he was going to bring to dinner, or some sort of information that will cause Claire to question whether she knew David or not.
I’m guessing, by the blurb, that it’s not going to have anything like that and will just be a story where she finds a handsome writer to finish her husband’s story and she ends up falling in love with him, thereby moving on with her life.
That wouldn’t be a bad story, but I’m hoping for something a bit more dramatic.
At any rate, my thoughts on this book so far: Meh.
So the trailer is coming along. Kevin has been making some great progress. I’ll admit, I’ve been useless. I haven’t helped him at all. I know that doesn’t paint me in a very good light admitting that, but I can’t take credit for something I didn’t do.
The first picture in the slideshow is where he insulated the ceiling. Then he painted the beams to blend in. Then it looks like he put up some beams to make it look cool. (Can you tell I’m totally winging this and have no idea what I’m talking about?)
The fourth picture is when he took the wood off the walls and painted the beams with some sort of rust protector because apparently, that wasn’t done when we bought it even though they told Kevin that it had been. Were they just not expecting him to look that closely?? Anyway, Kevin was disappointed by that and it made more work for him.
Next, he insulated the walls. Then he put the wood back up. “We” are going to eventually paint the walls a light gray, I think.
The seventh picture is when he bought some cabinets to put under the bed. The cabinets look blonde in some pictures but they are actually a reddish brown. “We” will eventually paint them white.
The thing I love the most about these cabinets is the 10th picture where one of the cabinets is open and you can see a wire basket. That’s where we’ll put our dirty clothes.
Because my top three pet peeves when we go camping is:
Dirty clothes
Where to put our shoes after coming in from outside
Easy access to our clothes
I think we have the dirty clothes dilemma solved. And I think we have the “where to put our shoes” dilemma solved, too. Now, to come up with an organized way to access our clothes.
Kevin built our bed frame on top. Obviously, he will support it on the other side of the cabinets. I bought two narrow twin mattresses from Amazon for us to sleep on. I ordered two mattresses as opposed to just putting one mattress on there because I’m a fish out of water when I sleep and I don’t want to disturb him when I’m flopping around. This is how it’s set up on a cruise ship and we love it.
Kevin also built a back wall and put grey shiplap up. He plans on putting a toilet on the other side of that wall for our late-night pee breaks. (We’re old. We can’t go all night without peeing and neither one of us is thrilled with the idea of getting up, putting on shoes and then trekking to the campground bathrooms).
I think Kevin is going to start working on the kitchen next. He bought a sink at a home recycling center for $15 bucks. In fact, that’s where he has found most of the materials so far for the trailer – which works out great for us because we’re not wanting anything too fancy for this and we certainly don’t want to spend too much money on it.
We’ll eventually take a full video of the trailer so you can get a better idea of how it’s looking and where everything is.
I don’t know, you tell me. It sure feels that way. How else do you interpret, “We have a very narrow window to tie reopening policy to vaccination status. Because otherwise, if everything is reopened, then what’s the carrot going to be? How are we going to incentivize people to actually get the vaccine? We need to make it clear to them that the vaccine is the ticket back to pre-pandemic life.” Guess what? The sun IS good for something – like shrinking the COVID-19 vaccine. I feel like that’s common sense? Book review of the week: “The Last of the Moon Girls” by Barbara Davis. An update on our cargo trailer andmy Patreon is open! Come join us!
Write From Karen 