I've been experiencing this back to the basics/back to the roots/DIY/health sentiment lately. This isn't the first time I've attempted to simplify my life so I'm beginning to think that this is exactly what I should be doing. Or why else would it show up in my life again and again?
Health
Don't worry, I'm not going full on vegan-digging-for-roots on you. I just want to be healthy and get rid of my chronic issues. It's not much but it's enough to bug me on a day-to-day basis. First off, I recently learned that although I don't have diabetes my blood sugar is quite a bit too high and that I should cut down on the sugars, if not cut them out entirely of my everyday diet. That way I can ensure that I will always be able to enjoy that wonderfully luscious piece of cake or a refreshing cone of ice cream once in a while. But it is proving to be a bit hard. It usually takes us about two weeks to get ourselves off the sugar. And then one of us gets her period, and then the other one, and we go all sugar-crazy. And then it usually takes us about a month to notice that we've been stuffing ourselves with cake and cookies and chocolate. Cue beginning of vicious cycle. All the while I'm thinking it's ridiculous! I don't even like sweet stuff that much. And once I stay off the refined sugary treats I'm perfectly happy with an agave syrup lemonade or a fruity, unsweetened yoghurt. I've known for a while that my body doesn't really like sugar all that much. In fact I never ate this many sweets before I met my wife (who grew up with an abundance of sugary treats), we rarely had dessert when I lived with my parents. So before that I had no idea sugar was a problem because I never had that much of it. But now I've known for quite a while that my IBS flares up like a motherfucker when I eat sugar. I should know better and just stay off it already. So that's one thing I'm trying. Bye bye sugar, whether it's hidden or not. We eat whole grain bread only most of the time, I love my veggies, I've even found ways to trick myself into eating fruit (it hides well in a coconut water drink or buttermilk). I drink mostly water or tea. If I sweeten it I use agave syrup. I usually don't put sugar in my coffee anymore. We buy whole grain pasta and vary a lot with other whole grains (bulgur, cous cous, quinoa, khorasan wheat etc.). When we can we buy our vegetables directly from a farmer in Lower Austria.
I cut down on my meat consumption and upped my tofu intake when I realised most of my PMS issues stemmed from too much meat. It worked within the first month/cycle. Less cramps, no breast-pain (oh get it together, smirkers, this is a perfectly normal topic for grown-ups ;), less acne, less mood "issues" (= the crankmonster).
I run.
I hydrate more (water! tea!)
I try to get a decent amount of sleep when my insomnia lets me (and recently it has *fingers crossed*).
I'm losing the (over)weight.
Back to the roots
My friend and sister from another mother (although our mothers are pretty much exactly the same behaviour wise) A. had been on this trip for a while now and when she told me about Ghassoul (or Rhassoul) clay recently I decided to join her. I mean, I've been buying my shampoos at Lush for years but I knew they didn't exactly count as natural. But I liked them, I still do. But unfortunately my skin and hair likes clay a lot more. In the middle of winter I usually get a very slight neurodermatitis which basically means my skin gets super dry and reddens and itches like fucking crazy. I've tried a lot. Lotions don't really work because a) I hate the extra effort of using body lotion after a shower (seriously, who bothers with that?) and b) most body lotions do squat for my skin anyway. Now for the first time I have hopes that I might actually make my skin stay on me next winter. Rhassoul clay + argan oil = miracles. Bye bye enlarged pores, bye bye flaky skin, bye bye oily skin, bye bye zits. It has even to some degree repaired my hair which was pretty pissed off from all the blond hair dye I've been using. My hair stays clean much much longer, it is stronger and my waves are more easily convinced to look like curls - without product, just with water. Yes, I'm telling the truth, I swear.
There are a couple of things I won't stop using, for instance the lush perfume I love so much and that face scrub and the Neutrogena body lotion when I can be arsed. Hand cream. And when coming home from a dance lesson I'll probably grab that bottle of shampoo instead of mixing up a batch of clay. It's just easier.
DIY
I've never had a hobby. Now I do. Again, something A. got me into :) I started to make jewelry. Which is funny, since I myself never used to wear jewelry. Now I know I didn't because I just didn't like what was out there. I like wearing my own stuff, and also the things A. and E. make. We have similar styles but not quite the same. E. does very romantic stuff in brass, A. does mostly silver colored ear dangles, and both of them have a steampunk edge to their art. I haven't quite settled on something yet but have developed a strong liking for gunmetal and am beginning to dabble in celtic designs. But I also have silver and brass materials. I also make necklaces with feather pendants. But details aside: It is making me incredibly happy. It's wonderful to do something with my hands. It relaxes me, connects separated parts in my brain and my heart and my body. I've an inkling that this might very well be part of my therapy, that it restores something within me and taps into the creative well where my writing can't quite go yet because there's too much of a blockage of things not said yet.
And within this back to the simple things movement going on in my life I'm dreaming of living even more simply. Of getting out. Of moving into a big old house with Finn and the bunnies where there's enough room for all of us plus a border collie. Next to all the standard rooms houses come with it would have a room for the bunnies, a room for making art, an editing room, an office, a gaming room, a music room, a no-distractions writing room and a garage for all the messy DIY things. We would have a vegetable garden and fruit trees and keep bees. After a morning of writing I would stand in a big wonderful kitchen and can jars and jars of veggies and fruits that we grew. We would spend evenings sitting on the porch with a good book, go for runs and walks in the woods. And when it rains, which it would often, we would sit in the kitchen eating homemade soup and stare at the rain.
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