As the holiday nears, so the natural light disappears. The key to living in the North is to stay busy, get plenty of fresh air and exercise!!
Shopping is not one of my favorite things to do especially this time of year. However, it seems the longer I stay in Alaska, the less I shop for others which is a good thing. However, I have found out how convenient my lovely iphone has made shopping for books and music. One addiction I have. However, my limit is reached as now I have tons of books to read for the next few months and plenty of new music to listen to.
So, here I am, out of classes and its deep winter here in Alaska. What to do with all this time i have? LOL easy….
Winter break has left some of the students on campus and the trails near this University were groomed today for skiing. Fabulous! A student ski team member is staying on campus for the break and has promised to take me out. I love the fresh air. What a fabulous way to spend my hour lunch break. The trails are plenty and I really need to hone on my skills. Literally, they stink. My lack of coordination has left me with the most ridiculous of athleticism skills known to any one!! It is a surprise that there have been no broken bones!!
However, the cold does limit one’s ability to stay out in the cold for long periods of time. The gym offers limited openings during this season so staff are forced to go out to another entity to work out for this season. But, one can only work out at the gym for a short period of time. So, what to do with this time all winter? Easy, learn a new skill or in my case, refine an old one!
Last March came the diagnosis of severe allergies. For twelve weeks a diet consisiting of limited vegetables and some grains and meats were the only items allowed to eat.
The end result was a fabulous weight loss of seventeen pounds.
Now, the weight is coming back on because the problem has cleared up and a regular diet has returned for the most part.
There was a revelation of allergies which had been unknown for all these years. One was allergic to cow dairy products. Another is corn. Dairy products result in upset stomach while corn produces gas. These two symptoms have been evident throughout life. The skin rash that has also been evident all this time has wonderfully disappeared once these items were no longer consumed. A new person has evolved by changing the diet.
The next big step is changing to a vegetarian diet. Many people debate this type of diet because it does not provide the protein which is reminiscent of a dite laden with animal protein.
However, there are many wonderful substitutes for protein such as cheese, beans and nuts. Not to mention the many grains which society has conveniently forgotten about with the inception of processed and prepackaged foods.
The first step and reskilling that will be focused on is the sprouting of grains. That topic will be discussed in tomorrow’s blog. The first item of sprouting are sesame seeds. Stay tuned to see how this works and if it will be a successful endeavor. My friends have been great encouragement for this endeavor.
