Reflexology

I've gone for three one-hour sessions of reflexology on my feet and calves. The first session was a learning experience to learn about where placement on your feet is connected to parts of your body.  Master Hung  doesn't really tell you "now I'm touching your kidney, your liver", he just kind of gives you a summary things like this is where the center of your body is your balance.  This visit I actually asked to touch his hands after he was done and I was really surprised that his hands were not callus, his hands are not heavy  they were very soft and light which is surprising considering the amount of strength that is in them and how they yield the excruciating pain that they provide in my feet.  I'm not kidding, now after three weeks you would think that I would start to get used to the pain, but no. I know the pain is coming at a certain point because I know when he's going to get to the center of my foot and it's almost as if there's a ball in my foot and his thumb and knuckles have found the ball and decide they want to play soccer.

My friend Lilliane and I go to reflexology together and we try to have a conversation the beginning of the session and pretty much five minutes into the session each of us have clenched our teeth and a few ouches and awes in pain have been voiced from each of us, but theses masters of reflexology don't flinch, they keep going. There are a couple of breaks for sure but it is definitely not a relaxing pedicure session.

 This reflexology session we also decided to have a 30 minute back massage. Now my neck is always been a little tense, more so the last few years however, now I have another area of pain that Master Hung has decided to inflict on me.   Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining! I am just communicating the sessions that I am experiencing.

 Truthfully, I actually know that the reflexology is working when we leave the sessions it's amazing how flexible and light you feel - my feet feel absolutely amazing like I could walk a marathon. So, I'm going to keep going !

Espresso

Well if you know me I am totally addicted to coffee, Espresso, Maciatto, latte drinker at all the times and all hours of the day - I love love my coffee beans..... Used to love  sitting down to a beautiful cup of rich dark coffee and a cigarette OMG best time of the day… Haven't had a cigarette in ages but I still love coffee,  I digress.....but since I've received this new detox tea I'm loving it and only had it the last two mornings and it's absolutely fantastic and I've not had a cup of coffee in two days !  I'm having a hard time adding pictures on the blog for some reason & until I figure that out I'm not able to show you a picture of the package of this detox tea but I can tell you the ingredients that are inside;  it's called FitTea and inside is; Rooibos, green tea, ginger, Oolong, pomegranate, Stevia, Fuarana, citric acid, Sea Salt, lemon juice, honey, matcha green tea, Garcinia cambogia.   I drink one large cup in the morning and I actually feel full of energy to start my morning and it taste very fragrant !  Not sure if it's better than coffee or worse or if it's going to even the talks anything but it's worth a try!

The Urcincol,  I've been taking for two days as well and I don't think I've noticed anything different obviously, and the items that are in here is quite interesting:  Celery extract, Banaba leaf extract, cabbage palm, Acai, fruit extract, Mojave Yucca,  Turmeric, milk thistle, and artichoke.  So in my reading lately I have found that turmeric really helps with inflammation.

 The only odd thing is I woke up this morning with my left eye was all swollen and I think it's a STYE and it has  what appears to be a pimple right on the underside of the lid the touches the eye ball....if that's not screwed up I don't know what is. I have a feeling my age of 56 my body is starting to seriously fall apart. And I don't know if I own enough duct tape or gorilla tape to keep it intact,  so trying some of these new things might be the solution. Broaden your horizons my new mind says open up your way of thinking two other solutions.

 Reflexology –   I really feel these sessions with the reflexology have definitely assisted in my circulation within my calves and my feet.  My calves is to be rockhard and now it's just amazing how relaxed they feel my feet feel amazing and I haven't had swollen ankles in weeks so things are working for the better. That being said I think I'm going to join the new yoga place down the street.

Thailand -  I think I mentioned that we're planning a trip to Thailand in the fall of this year and it just so happens that my son leaves for Thailand tomorrow - so pretty excited that we can both see this amazing country..... We're going to almost all of the same cities and it'll be interesting to see how our adventures will be so different in the same place.

 Well I'm not going to turn this block into a losing weight blog or anything and I definitely don't want to embarrass myself to tell anyone how much I actually weigh, but I will from time to time indicate possibly successes that I have along the way of this journey of losing my excess baggage.

Food & Travel

Here is where I have one of the most difficult times traveling - for pleasure is always fun and you indulge and I think it's OK. But traveling for business is a different environment and you're on the go in a business frame of mind rushing around eating at terrible times and throw in a couple of time zones,  terrible sleep patterns and boom you gain 5 pounds without  even blinking an eye.

So that's my toughest time when I travel for business I don't make the best decisions. Again,  this year going to try to change that up a little bit and detox the body a little bit and make better decisions.

So for travel I'm totally stoked because a good friend of mine and I are in the midst of planning the most incredible adventure to Thailand at the end of this year and of course food will play a large role cause it's Thailand !   But I'm sure I will talk more about that later as it's going to become a large parts of my life with all the planning for this amazing trip.

So today in the mail two things arrived that I am so excited about one is my 14 day plan of a detox tea and it's just a slow cleansing that you take every day and every 14 days. It detoxes your body with some better herbs and Vitamins.    The other item is a product that has a number of homeopathic ingredients in it that assists with gout and  inflammation ..... so I'm really excited -  tomorrow is a new morning going to start these two items and hopefully it's a start to some  successful results.

Food

 Recently I was told I should have a food blog and show things that I cook & bake and talk about food .....well made me think about the blog I started three years ago which was this one.  So instead of inventing something new with having a new blog sitting out in cyberspace might as well take the same block which talks about travels escapes and coffee and creates a different format for it so here we go.

I've always had a difficult time with food - I love cooking, cooking for other people & entertaining has  is been a true joy of my life. But the struggle with food is always a difficult one with me. I'm a total foodie, I love restaurants, love socializing around food. With that being said,  food is sometimes my enemie. I go through phases of my life where I eat totally healthy, start diets & break diets, I gain weight and I lose weight -  it's been a struggle for over 20 years.

This year I finally have come to the conclusion that that's enough I've never weighed as much as I way right now,  I've never been as unhappy with my appearance as I am right now......so things have to change.  I've recently got some medical issues that I'm finding are food related (Gout) as well so change is a good thing. With that being said I'm learning about different foods and how they react to me.

 So everyone always refers to GOUT as the old man's disease. Well women do get gout too (mostly to women after menopause) and since I only have one kidney, I am a little more susceptible to getting gout plus the food that I was eating  triggered episodes and after a lot of analyzing what I  found that there were certain food triggers that would bring on a gout episode. For me it was mushrooms, beef & asparagus. Well after the last two episodes they were probably the worst and most excruciatingly painful all times I've ever had.

I bought a book that provided  me with more information on gout that I've ever had before and I found my list of food triggers or far larger than just those three items.   Again food is my enemy. But that being said coffee and espresso is high am a list to help with some gout and inflammation ........inflammation - I've been told that I have quite a bit of inflammation throughout my body, my hands are always swollen (just thought they were fat pudgy hands but they're always swollen),  my feet and ankles constantly are swollen, I thought a lot of it was to do with flying because I am on a number of planes every week and the altitude really does not help with the lack of circulation that I have with my legs & feet.

So it was suggested that I go see reflexologist well I've done that the last few weeks and it is in life-changing let me tell you. The first visit my feet were so non-inflamed and swollen that my shoes were falling off just been a fantastic journey with my reflexologist. As painful as the sessions are I really think it's helping