Wellness

In thinking about getting myself back on track, my mind has been focused on one thing -- wellness.

I'm a big fan of wellness; it implies not only physical health, but mental, emotional, and spiritual balance as well. Our bodies can be toned and trim, but without good mental health (for lack of better term), we are missing out on a big piece of what it means to be truly well.

To that end, I am going to begin using this journal not only to track my weight and experiences with celiac disease, but also to explore various methods of attaining inner balance and peace. As I have mentioned before, I want to look and feel better. This is a whole new step in the journey!

I've decided to start by exploring the chakras (pronounced "CHAK-ruhs"). As a teenager, I was in therapy on-and-off for around five years, and my groovy counselor Janet J. was very into studying the chakras. It's been fun brushing up on this!

Chakras Diagram courtesy of Tree of Life.

Chakras are centers of energy. Located along the mid-line of our bodies, they govern our psychological properties and well-being. There are seven chakras:

1. Root ( ) The Root chakra represents feeling physically present and at home in any situation. If it is:

• Open, you feel stable, secure, and grounded.
• Under-Active, you feel nervous, anxious, and unwelcome.
• Over-Active, you may be greedy and/or materialistic.

2. Sacral ( ) The Sacral chakra represents emotions and sexuality. If it is:

• Open, you are able to express your feelings without becoming over-emotional, and you are comfortable with your sexual self.
• Under-Active, you close yourself off from others and are unemotional.
• Over-Active, you tend to be very emotional all the time, and you may be over sexual. 

3. Navel ( ) The Navel chakra indicates how you handle yourself in groups and social situations.  If it is:

• Open, you have good self-esteem and feel in control.
• Under-Active, you are generally passive and indecisive.
• Over-Active, you tend to be very aggressive in groups.

4. Heart ( ) The Heart chakra represents your love and kindness.  If it is:

• Open, you are friendly, compassionate, and have harmonious relationships with others.
• Under-Active, you tend to be cold and distance yourself from others.
• Over-Active, you may be suffocating others with your love.  Your affections may be for selfish reasons.

5. Throat ( ) The Throat chakra talks about self-representation.  If it is:

• Open, you are very good at expressing yourself.  You may be an artist.
• Under-Active, you tend to be introverted and overly shy.
• Over-Active, you tend to be a poor listener and often domineer conversations.

6. Third Eye ( ) The Third Eye chakra represents insight and visualization.  If it is:

• Open, you have great intuition.  You may tend to fantasize.
• Under-Active, you may be too rigid in your thinking.  You may rely on authority figures to make decisions for you.
• Over-Active, you may live in a fantasy world.  You may daydream too much, and hallucinations are even possible in extreme cases.

7. Crown ( ) The Crown chakra represents wisdom and oneness with the world.  If it is:

• Open, you are unprejudiced and possess great self-awareness.
• Under-Active, you tend to be a rigid thinker.  You are likely unaware of your own spirituality.
• Over-Active, you are probably intellectualizing too much.  You may become addicted to spirituality and may neglect your physical body's needs.

Eclectic Energies has an online quiz that you can take to see how open and/or closed your chakras are. Here are my results:



My Root chakra is under-active, while my Heart and Third Eye chakras are both over-active.  My Sacral, Navel, Throat, and Crown chakras are all open.  The results seem to fit my present status very well; I'm going to work on this, and come back in a few weeks to re-check my chakras.  It will be interesting to see how they change!



"Chakras Awakening & Balancing" courtesy of Mimosa.

Healthy You Update #3

Man, I hate it when I wake up in the morning and don't feel like P. Diddy!  I haven't been waking up feeling good at all.  Actually, it's generally been an "off" week.

Let's see.  I gained weight (and not just a fraction of a pound -- a whole pound!)  I sucked at drinking water, we didn't set up the weight machine, and I'm way off from my weigh-in goal.  I did take our new puppy, Piper, for lots of walks -- but she's so excited about smelling! peeing! pooping! sniffing! barking! chasing the bugs! peeing some more! that the walks weren't exactly great exercise.

I hate having celiac disease, and I hate that I allowed myself to binge on gluten so badly last week.  I am really, really sick again today (and was yesterday, too).  Why did I do this to myself?  Stomach cramping, aching muscles, headaches, psoriasis flare-ups, and dehydration don't particularly make me feel like working out -- or even being healthy for that matter.  Right now, I want to curl up under my desk and cry.

I'm not setting any particular goals for myself this week.  I just want to get this train back on the tracks and get myself feeling better.

Blah.

I hope everyone else had a good week!  I say, let's make this one good!

The Con

I hate when people use the elevator to go up one level.

It's even worse when they use it to go DOWN one level.

I work in an office building with many spoiled (and largely obese) state workers who evidently have something against using the stairs.  This obsession means that a short jaunt on the elevator can easily take up to five minutes to complete.

In the name of fairness, let me just say a whole lot, given the fact that I use the elevator, too.  I always ride from Floor 2B (way in the basement) to Floor 6 (with is a total of 8 floors and 16 flights of stairs up) when I arrive each morning.

HOWEVER -- if I'm going down, I always take the stairs.  (I might get a little dizzy from all the down-and-around, but it isn't too strenuous).  Going up, it depends on how far I have to go.  If we're talking up to three or four levels, I'll take the stairs.  Any more than that and I generally go 50/50 (example: take the elevator from 2B up to Floor 2 or 3, then take the stairs up to 6).  Each week, I try to climb more stairs than I did the week before.

Sure, I have lazy days and weeks, but at least I'm making an effort.  Constant disregard for health and wellbeing makes me a little cranky, especially when the person complains as they continue to indulge in their negative habit (example: taking the elevator up one level with your arms full of vending machine junk from the cafeteria while complaining that your back hurts).

Actually, I might just be grumpy because I gained weight this week -- a full 1.1 lbs.  Speaking of accountability for one's own wellbeing, who here has been binging on gluten-packed foods, then wondering why (a) she doesn't feel well, and (b) she gained weight.  Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Well, I'm tired of feeling crappy all the time -- especially because I have complete control over my health on this one.  It's really, seriously time to go strictly gluten-free.  Good-bye, wheat, barley, and rye products... I'll miss you forever.

Fit Point: Supplements

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This week's Fit Point has had me pondering since Monday...

Supplements
With so many vitamins, proteins, fat burners and more on the market, there is often a lot of uncertainty over what the best combination is for your personal activity levels. What supplements do you use, and what are the benefits of each? Do you think supplements are necessary? If you have used various brands or types, what has worked best for you, and why? Where did you find the best supplement advice?

I've never been much of a supplement person. I don't like taking Tylenol when I have a headache or DayQuil when I have a cold -- I'm the kind of person who avoids pills of any kind like the plague.  When I'm sick, I try to let my body fight it off on its own, or turn to natural remedies (example: warm tea for a sore throat).  If my body needs a particular nutrient, I'd rather provide that by adjusting my diet.

My aversion has become especially pronounced since 2008.  I decided to try the Alli weight loss system, which essentially prevents your body from absorbing the fats that you consume.  Instead, the fat (literally) zips right through you.  I realize that a weight loss medication is different from a supplement, but I didn't do well with the Alli pills.  It was disgusting, to say the least, and probably unhealthy.  I decided then and there to prevent putting additives into my body at all costs.

A couple of months ago, I decided to try a Green Tea supplement, which I had heard boosts the metabolism and supports overall wellness.  However, I can't give much of an opinion on this.  I stopped taking the supplement after only a week or so, when I was diagnosed with celiac disease.  At this point, I've been focused on regaining my health rather than boosting my metabolism.

With that said, I am taking two other "supplements" of sorts that are meant to help my body heal from the damage that the gluten has caused my body.  First, I take Floragen-3, which is a probiotic.  As my doctor explained, all of the gastrointestinal problems I've been dealing with have essentially wiped the "good" bacteria out of my body.  The Floragen-3, taken once per day, is helping to restore and maintain what I lost.  Once my GI symptoms fully resolve, I shouldn't need the probiotic anymore -- although I might give Activia a try, just for the hell of it.

Finally, I have started choking down a gluten-free daily multi-vitamin (which was expensive like whoa).  My GI tract is damaged as a result of the celiac disease, which means that (until it heals) I'm not able to fully digest and absorb the nutrients from the food I eat.  The multi-vitamin helps by providing what my body is unable to get from my food; and actually, I've noticed a huge difference now that I'm not malnourished anymore!

Murphy's Law

Lose five pounds -- gain a stretch mark.