Change... It's always something

I've been doing a lot of writing, but mostly now I do it for my work at the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. We produce a lot of information, much for the website www.celiaccentral.org, and lots for other publications and uses. I really enjoy it! I try to cross list my "first person" stuff here. For example, in this Erewhon Buckwheat and Hemp Cereal Hot Products post I harken back to the Wheaties of my childhood. It's not the same as posting here, but still satisfying.

Since I'm doing for my Day Job what I once was striving to do for my extra-curricular work, I've been waiting for inspiration about how to move forward here. I was letting things simmer, but then my modest Happy Healthy Gluten-Free Facebook page started taking off with no real push from me. I was very pleased though. Clearly it meant that somehow, somewhere, people were finding me and appreciating my stories enough to click the Like button.

Buoyed, I decided to get back to blogging. So, today, if I have time, I'll post this AND my recipe for Crispy Brown Rice Horny Toads. My thoughtful essays usually don't get much traffic. The recipes always do. Philosophical musings can be a bit in the "navel gazing" category, after all.

My big light bulb of late is that for me, and maybe for everyone, I react to all change that is out of my control in the same way: Denial, Anger, Bargaining. Depression and Acceptance. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Kubler Ross beat me to actually writing down the model and getting all the credit. And you probably know that she was all about grief and loss in the face of death and dying. In fact, her big book was called On Death and Dying. I'm talking about much smaller stuff though.

I often refer to a person's first year with a celiac disease diagnosis as the "Year of Freaking Out." It's that time when you have to reorient your whole world around something you do 3, 4, 5 times a day -- eating. Life is now significantly different than you'd thought it would be. Mostly it's better because you are getting healthier, but at first it seems like a terrible life sentence. Then you sort of go through the Kubler-Ross stages and a new normal emerges and you manage, mostly okay, most of the time.

I've now gotten my first-hand introduction to menopause. I know it's rather pedestrian to mention. It's hardly a unique situation. I know I'll survive it. But I am strenuously resisting it! The stupidist thing is that menopause jacks up your hormones in such a weird way that you think that the anxiety attack you are having is somehow a reasonable thing to have going on inside, and dang it, it's just not. With everything in my life actually going exceptionally well, I'm totally pissed off that I can't enjoy it more because of my wacky hormones. I do have to say that this past year post-hysterectomy-but-with-ovaries has been downright awesome. No period and no menopause? I'm just a little jealous of the males of our species right now.

The holistic remedy for this, as with most things, include the novel ideas of exercise, good nutrition, drinking enough water, and mindfulness/meditation. Yeah, yeah. Next you'll tell me that spending time in nature, taking baths, drinking herbal tea and petting the dog will help too. Oh wait. Those things are actually pretty awesome. It's my hormones telling me that they suck! I do need to visit my GP to figure out what the latest lore on HRT is, but generally I'm disinclined if I can manage without.

I'm open to suggestions. What's worked for you or a loved one?

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