Day 37, Blame the Liver (and Lunar PMS update)

Wow, I've been sitting here (Here: in bed in my pajamas with my laptop on my lap. It's only 7:48 --and I've already been Here a while! I am enjoying a rare evening of self care, feels decadent!) trying to start this post. I have started and deleted several times and, well, really, it's not my fault. It's my liver.

[First of all, let's the get tedious listing of the menu out of the way, and the obligatory mention of the fact that I did not write a post yesterday because I was working on the taxes. Yesterday: Smoothie, home made trail mix for snack, McDonald's Berry smoothie for "lunch", dried apples for snack, Big Beautiful salad for dinner.
(I will add a photo tomorrow when my brain is working again). Today, out of bananas, no smoothie (I've tried to make them without a banana, the texture is all wrong), buckwheat with plain yogurt, the last of the dried blueberries :( and agave nectar for breakfast, another Big Beautiful salad for lunch, because yesterday's was so good, but I couldn't finish this one, and for dinner a grapefruit and lots of water with cranberry juice --you'll understand soon]

This afternoon I had a session with an acupressurist (her name is Kolene Woodrum, and she is wonderful, if she had a website I would link you). The first thing she does is have you tell her why you are there (usually a physical issue) and she will ask you questions to figure out what the underlying problem actually is, since physical problems are a manifestation of an unbalance at the energetic level. I told her about this diet, about my desire to lose more inches, about the changes in my mood and motivation lately, etc.  I also told her that I have been feeling like my heart chakra is closed (for lack of a better way to put it) because I have been feeling very detached and not very passionate (except when I get angry).

She explained (and here I must add the disclaimer that if I say something that makes no sense at all, it is probably due to the fact that I am paraphrasing what she said and, while it made sense and it resonated with me while she explained it, I am having trouble explaining it... again, probably my liver's fault) that weight gain tends to be the body's way of creating a shield to protect itself (from an emotional threat), she mentioned that throat issues usually have to do with problems with self expression. She also said that the liver is the organ that deals with anger, and she said it also rules the thyroid and your eyesight. She said the raw diet is the best thing I could be doing to cleanse the liver of toxins and that it makes sense that emotional issues are coming out because they are still "stored" somewhere in my liver and they too need to be flushed.

The treatment was very relaxing and gentle, it was very interesting to feel the changes in my body as she would move from one area to the other. It was also very neat that a couple of times I felt like I wanted her to treat a different area and she would go there almost immediately. She played a very relaxing CD that she gave to me at the end of the session :)

After wards she explained that as soon as she started working on me my liver started clamoring "Me me me!" so she focused on it the most (obviously this is very intuitive work). She warned that I might feel "yucky" in the stomach, that I might feel more angry as more of the emotional issues got flushed out, and that I should not try to do much in the way of productivity or concentration (she specifically said "don't get on the computer") because I would probably have a really hard time concentrating.

Boy was she right on (it's 8:24, it's taken me this long to try to make sense of these few paragraphs). I have spent a lot of time in the bathroom since I got home, I had to wrap myself in a blanket because I got a little bit cold and I have been craving water with cranberry juice. I have not felt angry, thank God, but I have also been trying to avoid situations that would give me the slightest excuse to blow up at somebody (thus being in bed so early. L2 brought the other laptop so I would help her research something online and I lost my patience with her very quickly, in my defense however, later Loren tried to help her and he lost his patience too, so maybe that one was more about her than about my liver). I was hungry but everything sounded too heavy until Loren suggested a grapefruit. That was just what I needed and now I feel totally satisfied.

I am really out of it! I tried to read over what I have written and lost my concentration so many times I finally gave up! But there is one last thing I really need to mention!!

I'm on my period again and this time it actually caught me by surprise because I didn't have PMS at all.
(If you have not read it, I really recommend checking out the Important Lunar PMS post)
I had been feeling Crabby, which, when compared to Content or Happy, is not ideal. But when you consider that normally I would have been closer to Criminally Insane, it turns into a change worthy of mention. In fact, I am not even sure that the crabbiness had anything to do with my period at all, which allows for the possibility that A Life Without Mercurial Hormonal Changes does exist, and not just as a fluke that one time during Lent, but consistently.

I could not be more serious about recommending this for people who have life altering PMS symptoms. Please try going raw (even if just 75% raw) for 6 weeks or so, just long enough to experience 2 periods on it, or even just one week before your regular PMS days. I can't imagine that you would not experience a positive change.

IMPORTANT Lunar PMS information!

I should really be going to sleep, but I thought of something CRUCIAL that I forgot to share, and while the words to talk about it are still somewhere in my head I am going to do my duty and share it (and I might regret publishing, yet again, a post written after midnight, but that's the risk I gotta take).

***If you are a post pubertal or pre menopausal woman you need to read this!, if you are a man who lives or works with a woman in that age group you need to read this!, however, if you (men) find it useful and would like to recommend it to said woman PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION, I repeat, EXERCISE EXTREME TACT when recommending this post***

Here it is:

I am PMS-ing, or rather... SHOULD BE!

And, in fact, the convergence of the Days Before My Period (capitalized because you have to show them respect or they will totally pwn you (how hip am I that I can correctly use the term "PWNED" and its variations?)) and the Days Before The Full Moon (see "respect" above) would normally bring about a cataclysm of hormonal, chemical, energetic, psychic and psychological imbalances capable of bringing about the end of a perfectly good 17 year old marriage, or, at least, the end of all chocolate ice cream and tortilla chips in the house.

AND, and, aaaand, considering that the full moon we are about to have on the 19th has been labeled a "super moon", one would expect the needle of the psycho-meter to be shaking in the red zone right about now. And yet, here I am, happy, peaceful, patient, and ever so humorous (at least way funnier than my husband, but we'll get into that one some other day).

Hmmmmmm, you say, "so what's has made the difference, oh soon-to-be-enlightened-and-skinny one?"

Why, my Raw Food Lenten Fast of course!!!

Seriously, the only other times in my life when I (WE really because, unfortunately for them, my family can't tie me up in the barn during those 1-3 days) have not had to suffer/muscle/pray/medicate myself through PMS (especially when coinciding with the moon) have been those when I was:

a. Following a ridiculously healthy and simple diet and

b. Singing in an opera (during which time I become this uber human version of myself, who exercises and meditates daily, and eats moderate-sized servings of very healthy foods -except for the fast food burger and fries dinner I treat myself to before the show, but this works for me, I promise, otherwise my sugar will drop halfway through the performance and I end up having to use the baritone as a crutch to get me through my blocking)

So you see Lunatic PMS Sufferers of the world, there IS a cure and it is so so simple! I hope you try it next month, happy menstruating!