Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Complexity of Eating

I have been experimenting with a low carbohydrate diet for one year now. Low Carb works, though at times can be near impossible to maintain. I do a lot of traveling, and when away from home 'low carbing' is tough. Fortunately, my increased awareness of what I am eating does help keep me about 20 kilo south of morbidly obese.

The actual formula for success though demands stricter proportion control, more selectivity, and a better exercise plan. Also, while I have improved my statistics, lower weight and lower blood pressure, I have never been able to feel truly healthy. I feel my sixty-years disproportionate to my peers.

In a large part, this is because of my lack of physical activity. In fact, now it has become severely punishing for me to stand for any length of time. I have become car dependent, and even simple tasks, like doing the dishes, creates lower back pain. Added to this, a string of symptoms makes it near impossible to answer 'How are you?' without a tedious litany of complaints.

I have, for example, leg and hand tremor, all on my left side, all too often... Also what the Japanese call 'goju-kata' fifty years old shoulder, or what might be described as bursitis. Most recently, a severe stomach condition, initiated in the Philippines, lingers after a month with daily cramping and enough gas to impact global warming. A simple day trip into Osaka, though spent joyfully with good friends, was plagued by an underpinning of pain.  I am just no fun anymore.

What to eat... what needs to be changed... what little rituals can I introduce into my life... to bring back vitality? I have learned much from a year researching nutrition, yet feel I know too little. Meanwhile my body flounders and I fear the worse. A spring equinox equaling equanimity, a calm appraisal, with an appropriate response, what can I do right now to fix this?

A fast can be a beginning. Perhaps by creating space, proper choices can find their way in.