Getting Some D

I've been missing the D.

Even as I actively work to reconstruct my world into one more life-giving and less toxic - a world where healing is not only possible but the natural, sustainable way of things, a world where my full recovery from Type 1 diabetes is not just a hope but a plan, a world where the doctors and drugs don't rule my body - somehow I manage still to be deficient in vitamin D... Really?

On a Limb

"You're going to die."

In that doctorly tone of authority, my endocrinologist gave me the news, the truth of which was soon betrayed by a curl in his lips and a fatherly twinkle in his eyes. He was only jokingly answering a question I had asked a moment before - one I assume must have seemed too absurd to take seriously: "So let's just say - hypothetically speaking - what happens if I don't take these antibiotics?"

I had paid a visit to Urgent Care the previous afternoon for a pain and sudden swelling in my right elbow, which I had noticed that very morning. Within just a couple hours the swelling had gone from the size of an average mosquito bite, to halfway down my forearm and a third the way up my tricep.

The Skinny

Avocado undressing.

Few things help me feel as skinny as I do while stuffing my face with essential fatty acids.

It is, in part, thanks to those mighty avocados that I've reached a milestone this month that I wasn't even aiming for... I now weigh the least I've weighed since either a) lying about my weight on my Oklahoma drivers license, or b) my memorable trip to the ER in Jan 2008, from which I emerged with Type 1 diabetes. The current number for this 5-foot-6-inches tall 31-year-old white girl is 116 pounds, at 17.5% body fat, 60% body water and 6.2

And Raw to Grow On!

It's been a while since I had a traditional birthday spanking, but these past few years have certainly whipped me into shape in a beautiful way, both spiritually and physically, that I didn't even know to look for. This last year, especially, has been like icing on the birthday cake. It's been the most awesome, progressive twelve months of my life so far, and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate that than by ditching the cake altogether... for some Raw chocolate birthday mousse with friends!

On Tuesday of this week, I met several of my dearest friends at our neighborhood Raw restaurant for a birthday dinner to remember. The nine of us in attendance were coming from very different backgrounds; still, we all share a fundamental interest in health and healing. I was particularly giddy and aglow that evening, for several reasons: First, half the people in attendance were actually new friends to me, our meeting having been the direct result of my deliberate shift in life direction over the course of

A Farewell to Frydays

Sometimes I'm a very bad girl... but only sometimes.

When I tell people I'm 90-95% Raw, they inevitably want to know what the 5-10% is. I'm sorry to admit that the answer isn't terribly glamorous.

Most people have a vice or two, something in their diets-of-the-moment that can be exceptionally difficult to give up for good. One of the things I've loved most about having gone Raw is the 180-degree perspective shift. Suddenly, the majority of the things I might otherwise find tempting seem more like poison to me than a reward to which I'm somehow

Where to Begin

Raw chocolate w/goji, maca & raw milk.

Eat dessert first.

That was the recommendation inside the menu of the raw restaurant I visited in Santa Monica. It was a suggestion based on the idea that the acidity of sweeter foods and fruits often used in desserts would aid in proper digestion if consumed a few minutes before the meal itself.

Of course, I'm only two months or so into my own Raw foods journey, so I cannot attest much to how any of this stuff works or why - only that I believe Raw foods are working for me. Despite that short time and my still very limited knowledge on the subject, I've been inundated it seems with requests from friends and strangers who also see this new diet working for me, people who want to know more about what specific changes

Just Say No

You're looking at all the kidney meds I did not take for the last few months. My doctor doesn't know it yet, but I stopped taking these pills at about the same time I started eating Raw foods seriously, in early January.

Until then, I'd been taking one every day for the last year. The doc put me on them after finding elevated levels of protein (microalbumin and creatinine) in my urine. Apparently, it's not supposed to be there in the larger quantity that it was (exact numbers to follow) and he wanted me to take the Lisinopril (more commonly prescribed to help control blood pressure) as a precaution against premature diabetic kidney disease