It's Great to be 65!

Family stresses are still there and ongoing. Enough said. No sign of migraine, which is an amazing first, but my brain is just too healthy now to bother with drama I guess.


Well, here I am at 65. It's funny, really, how your perspective changes over the years. In my 30s, I hobbled around like an old person and here I am, an OLD person, and I walk like someone in her 30s. If you've followed my story at all you know the difference is wheat.


I picked up new information last week on the wheat issue. In the last year or two before I started ancestral eating I had noticed slight losses of balance and "clumsiness" as things I was holding dropped out of my hand after a minute or so. I didn't connect that particular problem to wheat even when I realized many other chronic symptoms had disappeared--I had labeled that problem as "aging" and hadn't given it any more thought UNTIL last week, when I was reading about gluten sensitivity and read that "ataxia" can be one of the symptoms. Ataxia is when your brain is affected by gluten and you suffer balance and coordination issues. Hmm.


I then thought hard about my own balance/coordination issues and realized I didn't have any and hadn't had any since about the time I changed my eating patterns. I did have a nasty fall last summer but it started when a stepping stone slid from under my foot, my ankle rolled, and my lower leg bone slammed down on an adjacent stepping stone. Totally wrecked my ankle and bruised (or worse) the leg bone.


Anyhow, the long list of symptoms caused by wheat now includes brain interference that thankfully seems to have healed. 


I made the mistake of letting my friends know the date of my birth. If I had a time machine that would be one of my first adjustments. Just kidding, actually, I had a wonderful morning laughing at the cards they gave me and gabbing for a couple hours in our breezy but temperate morning. I wore my favorite tee, "So far, this is the oldest I've ever been." 


Food-wise, I'm ignoring the birthday thing. I'm having a physical in 2 days so it wouldn't make sense to eat insane food--and I don't really want any anyhow. The afore-mentioned friends were telling me it's time to eat bran muffins vs. cake anyhow, and I of course reminded them I'm off wheat. So they said rice bran would work. :-))


It's a weird birthday because I feel so good and my mood is ebullient, yet I have loved ones in deep stress. I'm reacting differently than in the past. Before, it seemed I joined them within the stressed zone--hence the follow-up migraines--but now I offer support and comfort and laughter from outside the stressed zone. I think that may make me more valuable to them but we're all feeling a difference.


I'll close by saying I'm feeling really good about my health and weight improvements and it would be very cool if I could finish the weight-loss phase and just enjoy maintenance ancestral-style next year. If that happens, I might even make some kind of paleo dessert.