Well, nearly two months into working full time and I finally feel as if I am somewhat adjusted.  I started noticing in the last week or so that I am no longer feeling like I could collapse into an irreversible coma at any given moment between the hours of 3 pm and 7 pm.  I'm (sort of) getting the hang of what I am doing at work, and I have begun a routine at home that allows me to feel productive without spending the entire weekend cooking and cleaning.  There's a lot of fine tuning to do, and I am sure that over the next few months as we add in the extra curricular activities for Jacob and then the holiday hoopla, I will still feel overrun, but at least I'm on the right track.

I never realized just how much I actually did during those 10 hours each week until I lost that time!  Isn't that always the case?  You don't know what you have until it's gone.  For me, that's not entirely true.  I always appreciated the opportunity to work only part time.  I knew that we were lucky to be financially secure enough for me to be part time, and that I was even luckier to have a husband who was able and willing to work extra if we needed the cash.  I'm still lucky enough to have that wonderful man by my side.  Now, I need to look at my new situation as a blessing too.  I am blessed to have been asked to take this new position at work.  It is a great opportunity for my professional growth, and also for me personally.  I like routine and if I don't have a reason to exit my comfort zone, I will stay in one place forever.  This is a wonderfully positive  motivator to learn new things, gain new skills and branch out.  After 4 years of stillness, this is a welcome change.

There are a lot of extrinsic stresses that come with this new job that I think are just part of the territory.  I am constantly questioning my own leadership style, testing the depth of my responsibilities, examining the strength of my own integrity and being mindful of the importance of extending patience.  I'm also gaining new perspectives.  It's much different to see my job from both the management and direct service points of view.  I have a greater appreciation of both sides, and I am especially grateful for the guidance I have received from my direct supervisor recently.  She has helped me come to terms with some heavy burdens and has given me directives that I think will be very useful in the future.  Amen, for having someone decent to talk to!

Aside from all of the psycho-babble mumbo jumbo about how I am dealing with my stresses at work and in life in general, I also wanted to talk about...you guessed it...eating.  You all know that I did the purification program in July/August, at the same time I started my new position at work.  I was shocked to find that I didn't feel good at all.  In retrospect, I don't think that it was the purification program that made me feel so run down.  In fact, the purification probably kept me from complete collapse!  I know that the exhaustion was due to all the stress and adjustment I was under.  I talked to my chiropractor and he gave me a supplement to help my body handle stress better.  I took it for a little while, continued to be very careful about what I was eating, and I have over the last 3 weeks noticed a huge improvement.

Over the last month or so, I have had very little refined carbohydrates.  I have bulked up on fresh fruit and vegetables.  I have had one or two alcoholic drinks, but mostly I drink only water (OK, and coffee.  I will always drink lots of coffee!)  I'm eating small, nutritionally dense meals, maintaining a stable blood sugar and I feel good!  I even lost 4 pounds without even trying!  I'm not going to kid you, I'm tired.  I'll always be tired, but I am not exhausted.  Greg and I, for some unknown reason, have gotten into a habit of going to bed much later than we used to (I'm talking 10-1030 routinely now instead of 9-930).  I know that's hardly late, but when he gets up at 430 to go to work, it's really not a lot of sleep.  Even though we are spending less time in bed, the quality of my sleep has improved somewhat.  I will never be someone who says, "I slept all night and didn't move a muscle until the sun came out!"  It just won't happen, but I am getting between 4-6 hours of decent enough sleep.  I'm tired in the morning, but I am now able to shake the sleep from my head within 10 minutes of waking.  And most noticeable is what I said before - that I do not hit that insurmountable wall in the late afternoon/early evening anymore.  What a blessing!

I also think that I am handling stress much better.  Yes, some of that can be attributed to simple acclimation, but I also give credit to healthy eating.  Having a body that is hyped up on sugar or tricked out on impure substances does not make for ideal physiology.  Feeling already off your game going into stress makes it worse.  Being in optimal physical health means that you can focus your mental energy where it needs to be.

Likewise, eating healthfully has always improved my headaches.  Dealing with life's adjustments with headaches feels practically impossible at times.  Having struggled with headaches for so long, I am always appreciative of a clear head.

As if those reasons weren't compelling enough to make you want to tweak your diet for the better, let me add another bonus - increased libido.  Don't worry, I'm not going into any extreme details on this topic, but I do want to put this out there, because I think a lot of women struggle with a waxing and waning sex drive in addition to coping with gobs of every day life stress.  Over the last few years I have read some articles, and done some "experiments" of my own.  While everyone is different, I think that two basic physical principles apply to most of us.  One -  the more you have sex, the more you will want it.  It's the elementary "use it or lose it" concept.  Enough said.

The second principle is that eating right can increase your desire, and I think that it has multiple components.  The most logical is the same concept that applies to handling stress.  When you are healthy, your body is working at its optimal levels and normal, healthy people want to have sex. That one is pretty simple.

The second component to principle two comes from an article I once read that outlined centers for satiety in the human brain.  It said that we have four basic centers: hunger, thirst, sleep and sex. When one center is not satisfied, the other centers will increase cravings as well.  That is why people often mistake thirst for hunger, and why we have increased appetites when we haven't slept well.  The article suggested that people who were dieting have sex instead of having a snack.  Well, of course if you have sex instead of eating, you will lose weight. You're consuming less and burning calories too!  However, it also said that people who have sex on an empty stomach reported higher levels of satisfaction, an even better reason to forgo the chips!  We have put this concept to the test.  Now, if I haven't eaten all day, I need a meal, not nookie, but if it's 930 and I'm feeling snacky...well, let's just say that getting my snack in another form has proven to be beneficial in more ways than one.

I also think that when you are eating healthfully, you feel better about your  body.  Isn't body image a huge factor for women?  If I just ate half a pan of brownies (now you all know where Andrew gets his sweet tooth!), the last thing I want to do is lay naked with my big old brownie belly flopping all over the place.  Gross!  But if I have been eating well, I feel better about myself.   I may not look like I did when I was 19, and yes, healthy eating or not, that still bothers me.  But at least I feel well over all, and feeling well is truly the biggest factor for me.  Having the energy to stay up a little later at night, having the ability to put life's stress in the back of my mind instead of the foreground for a while, and feeling attractive add up to the perfect conditions for love....those things and the fact that I have an incredibly sexy and attentive husband!  I can't take all the credit!

And then there's what I call the cycle of sex, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with food, but since I'm on the topic of sex, I may as well continue, right?!  It does connect back to the beginning of this entry when I am talking about feeling better all around.  While it isn't the most important part of a marriage, sex is a wonderful way to stay connected with your spouse.  When we aren't having regular sex, I feel disconnected.  When we go through a slump, I feel guilty and Greg gets irritable.  The longer the slump, the worse it gets.  A few nights of catching up and it's all erased. (Honestly, it's this easy for us because we have a very strong connection outside of the bedroom too.  That's the most important thing).  Regular sex reinforces our relationship.  We sleep better and feel more affectionate towards one another throughout the day.  These are emotional responses, but they are physically based.  When you have an orgasm, your brain releases oxytocin. This hormone increases the positive emotions associated with your partner, increases feelings of trust and generosity and also acts as a natural pain reliever.   Why wouldn't you want to bathe you brain in this wonderful natural drug as often as possible?!

So there you have it - an update on life and some tips to a better sex life!  Now go de-stress yourselves and find the ones you love!  Most importantly, eat well and enjoy this beautiful fall day!