I had a visit with Dr. Jane yesterday and still am amazed that she is able to take the time to sit and talk with her patients. She talked with me for almost an hour! I am so grateful to have found her.
I had been in to see her mid October and things weren’t going so well. I was already starting to feel the effects of the shorter days and was starting to have increased sugar and carbohydrate cravings. Along with the depression, the cravings were symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. This has been an issue for me in the past and I was hoping to be able to make it through the winter without visiting my dark places.
When I visited Dr. Jane yesterday I had followed most of her recommendations from October and already feeling a difference. I sit in front of a therapy light every morning for 30-45 minutes and I made a visit to the massage therapist she recommended ( I now have her in my budget for monthly visits). I had also made a little change on my supplements and Dr. Jane convinced me to go back to what I had been on originally. I feel hopeful that the SAD will be under control for this winter.
My focus for this visit was my immune system. I tend to get at least a touch of every little virus that is out there and, since I travel around the state a lot, I also pass it around. She recommended two things – meditating daily for 30 minutes and setting a stop date to end my sugar consumption. She said that research shows that sugar basically makes the body a petri dish for bacteria and viruses. I guess this explains why so many people get sick after the holidays. Dr. Jane also said that there is a lot of research that shows that meditating daily improves T-cell function better than any supplement available. She recommended taking something like EmergenC or Airborne when I feel something coming on but that the meditation should do the trick.
Since my sister has had so much success with cutting out sugar and Dr. Jane is recommending it, I have set a stop date of January 1 (also my one year anniversary of stopping meat consumption). Dr. Jane said that it wouldn’t be wise to even attempt this during December but I will try to be moderate in my holiday goodie eating. And now that I have committed myself to this on this blog, I have to do it.
The other big thing – I need to start walking on the apartment complex’s clubhouse treadmill on days when it is too dark and rainy to go outside. I plan to get a pair of snow sneakers from LLBean so I can walk outside as much as possible but there are just some days that are too nasty to go out. Does anyone have any good suggestions for music to make it more enjoyable!!?
Last, but not least, I worked out my budget for next year and I can afford to not only pay off some bills, but I can also take yoga teacher training. I am going to go for it. Ommmmmmmmm!!
No comments:
Post a Comment