Detoxing

Monday was kind of a detox day, at least in the amount of fluid I ingested. I didn't really intend to flush out my system; it's just so bloody buggery cold here that all I could think to eat and drink was soup and hot tea. If you're wondering how cold "bloody buggery" is, the ambient (disregarding wind chill) high temperature yesterday was 5 degrees F. This morning when I came into work it was -5 degrees. Schools are cancelled because it's too dangerous to have the kids standing out at the bus stops, plus some of the buses won't even run because the diesel fuel is gelling up in their tanks!

So by the end of the day I felt waterlogged. I definitely spent a good amount of time in the loo eliminating it, too. The only problem with this is, I've always had a stomach that doesn't agree well with hot liquids. I remember being a kid and drinking hot chocolate in the morning, and without fail my stomach would be upset shortly afterwards. I don't know if this is a documented thing, but it's one of my many foibles. But right now I'm just too darn cold to worry about my stomach; the warm tea cup feels so good on my hands, and it does seem to help warm me up. I just have to deal with a seasick feeling.

The other cleansing thing I wound up doing yesterday was trying flax seeds. My mother-in-law read an article in one of my "health" magazines about the benefits of flax seeds and went out and bought a big bag of them. She brought me a container of them, and they've been sitting in my kitchen for about a week. I know they're an excellent source of Omega 3s and a great fiber source, and it's supposed to be good for the cardivascular system, the skin, the colon, even weight loss, so I finally decided to try some. I ground it up a little with a mortar and pestle, but it didn't work too well, so I wound up having to chew it really well before swallowing. I ate a tablespoon of the seeds with my lunch (beef vegetable soup), and the biggest thing I noticed afterward was how full I felt. Once the seeds are opened and come in contact with fluid, the lignan (I'm not sure if I have that term right, but it's the fiber inside) swells up a lot. That in itself is a selling point for me.

So I'm going to keep trying flax and see how I feel. Today I ground a tablespoon up in our coffee grinder that we set aside for herbs, nuts, etc., and I'm going to mix it up with my lunch again.

I didn't go work out again this morning. I just can't bring myself to go outside when the temperature's so low. Yesterday I made up for it by going after work and riding the bike for 45 minutes while I watched the episode of "Medium" I taped last week. This afternoon the plan is to treadmill while I watch last night's episode of "Heroes." It doesn't feel right going in the afternoons; yesterday I got home and was so exhausted that I laid down and took a nap. But maybe the bone chilling cold had something to do with it, too. Nevertheless, my need for exercise is overtaking any urge to say the heck with it, which is definitely something to celebrate. And once the temperatures go back up and I don't have to worry about my car failing on me again, I'll be back to the early morning routine.

Lately I've been thinking about typing up my old journal entries and putting them on here as archived posts. Even if no one else is interested in it, it might be good for me to go back and look at my progress and remind myself of things that have worked and haven't worked in the past. Last year at this time I was really stumbling (even more than this year!) and I'd like to go back and look at my frame of mind and what was going on. Maybe this afternoon after my walk I'll get online and start typing things in to the computer. But I won't guarantee anything will be online right away -- with Mabel and Hubby home from school, it makes the afternoons chaotic.