An interesting article about Gluten.

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So I've been watching as all the wonderful fall leafs swirl around in the wind on our brown front lawn. Around the city fall is ove. Freezing nights and darkness at 4:30 has really turned things around. I'm off Manjistha and now taking Ashwagandha. If I eat any more yams and carrots I might turn orange. Looking over the winter grocery list I find most of my favorite foods are on it, thank you. However probably the most significant change is no wheat. I've noticed a great change in my digestion. On Friday Drack was coming down to meet me for lunch and he was supposed to bring some soup. Poor guy got stuck in traffic and thought he wasn't going to make it, which left me with no other choice then to hurry next door and get a sandwich. At the time I didn't know the new sandwich shop offered gluten free bread, so I ended up with a big tasty hoagie roll...of wheat. After not having had any since Monday morning, I felt like it just stuck there, suspended in my stomach, not moving. I realize how much, what's the right word, lighter I feel not eating wheat products. I don't feel slow, I feel like things are moving in my body. I'm interested to see how my tummy feels to Meadows when I go back on Thursday. Strangely though I've had a migraine since doing Yoga on Thursday night. I spoke with RF about this on Friday and she is beginning to think that as soon as I am loosen up, adjust, my body (most likely at night) tenses up again all over. I wake up noticing my shoulders are scrunched up in my ears. I'm literally ruining all the work done to me. I need to find some kind of balance. Some way to keep myself from old habits. Hell I need to hire someone to hold my shoulders down when I'm in bed. I just want to take the time to say it's the month of gratitude. And I've got more things to be thankful for this year than ever before.

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I went to a chiropractor on Monday. I've never been to one before and I was on the new client wait list for two months to see this particular one, apparently the best in Nashville. Since I've never been, I'm not sure what is standard for a chiropractor, but I feel like Meadows went a little farther than most. She examined me and we discussed my medical history for about 30 minutes, before she made any decisions. I walked up and down the hallway a few times, lay on my side, on my back, on the floor. She poked and prodded, pinched my spine, tested reflexes, tested muscles. She used a model spine and pelvis to show me what she observed. I have all the symptoms of someone with a curved spine, except when I bend over my spine is not curved at all. My hips are twisted up and forward, which is why my right leg turns out when I lay flat on my back. Meadows examined my belly and my skull, and she was displeased with both, which led to some muscle testing. While lying on my back, I held her 'voodoo jars' (as she affectionately calls them) in my left hand, and tried to resist her pushing down on my left arm. The jar with wheat left me completely weak. So as part of my list of homework between that session and my next, I am to go gluten free. She hopes to feel changes in my belly as a result. As for my head, she showed me how to massage the inside of my jaw by basically rubbing the back of my jaw inside my mouth. Apparently my jaw is where a lot of my neck pain maybe coming from, as it is a place to hold anxiety. She prescribed yoga, but for the places I cannot stretch on my own, massage and a craniosacral session. Which I just did last night. Craniosacral is best preformed by those LMTs who have gone through certification classes beyond what is taught in school. It's a complete overhaul on your central nervous system by releasing parts of your body with energy and a shit ton of patience and very little physical work. I was able to stay partially clothed on the table while RG took 45 minutes to preform the 10 steps. It took forever for my left ear, sacrum, and jaw to release, all the places Meadows pointed out to me. On Monday Meadows did an adjustment she would normally do for those folks who were in a recent car accident. "I want to see how your body will react to it, even though your accident was in 2007". I was sent home with instructions, tennis ball massage, jaw massage, specific yoga stretches, wheat free, cranialsacral etc. I have to tell you not eating wheat is very difficult, not to mention that I'm already trying to cut out non-seasonal food anyway. As for the adjustment I feel taller, especially after the cranialsacral as well. I definitely feel, different. That's the best way to describe it. The day after my chiropractic session I was sore as hell, but I did feel a release. I think obviously it takes more than one session to see a major change...but I'm interested to see how this goes.

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