Keto — Page 5

(Please note: I am not suggesting anyone else go on the ketogenic diet. I am not a doctor. I am working with medical professionals and doing a lot of research myself. This is my own personal decision based on my desire to improve the quality of my life any way that I can. Over the next year in this blog project I will share, now and again, my journey with you, but it won’t be a focus here. That is not my intention. This post is simply to let you know what I am doing as part of my quest for a better life.)

This is me, floating hopefully at the edge of the ocean, that seemingly endless expanse of time before us, and we can’t see the far distant shore. Inotherwords we can’t see our end, we have no idea how long we will be on this earth, and we’ve got no way to stop death from coming, but we do, we are, able to do what we can to see that the time from here to there is the best that we can make it. That’s what I’m trying to do, here on my blog, and in my life, in myriad ways.

First of all I am adding to my basket of goodies to help me get through the days, I have gotten, cheap!, some Playdoh (Yay Playdoh! Oh, the SMELL!) and bought myself some kids brightly colored construction paper and a box of little glue sticks. Last night I started tearing and cutting a magazine apart. I am going to tell my story, record my journey, on colorful paper, via collage. I will hang the collages up. I will write stories about them. I will talk more about this process in another post. But I am trying, every day, to improve my life. I am trying as hard as I can to make my life better, and I am helped, enormously, because my meds have kicked in and are working, finally. But this can only be counted on to last for so long and I’ve got to take steps to see that my healing and happiness journey is tended to in many different ways. Used separately they make not work. But put these things together and I think you become a force of nature. May The Force be with me!

Then, too, there is a video I saw the other day that broke something wide open in my world. This is where we get, in a roundabout fashion, to the ketogenic diet. And it is fascinating to me (It’s not what you think, about weight loss, but that will be a much appreciated benefit.) since I watched a woman talk about recovering from a traumatic brain injury. She is now doing incredible work in the world. (And I’m so sorry, her name has LEFT me for the moment but as soon as I can remember and find the video, and I will be searching, I will share it here.) And it hit me, hard, and it was as if something in me woke UP. I thought, “If this woman can live through a terrible accident and traumatic brain injury (tbi) and heal completely, why can my brain not heal from mental illness?”

On Monday I talked to Geoff, the P.A. who manages my meds. He is fabulous and has been doing what he does for 30 years. I asked him if he thought it was possible to heal the brain. He said, absolutely! He told me he’s had many people finally come off of meds after they had been stable for at least a year, and do really well. I intend to be one of those people one day. On Wednesday I asked my therapist, Helene, about this, and that’s when she told me about the miracle that is happening in her life. She has suffered from terrible migraines for a lifetime, having to take medication and sometimes still being completely taken down by them. Finally because of advice she received she went on the ketogenic diet in August. Since the end of August up to this day she has not had one migraine. This is a miracle for her. And she is seeing many other amazing things happening with her health. We talked about the fact that there has been quite a lot of study about the ketogenic diet and how it has changed the lives of many people, not just as you may have read, story after story of people experiencing tremendous weight loss, but how many other things have been cured, or made better. It has eliminated depression and anxiety in many people, and there’s so much more. Yes, I’d like to lose weight, I need to lose weight, but if I can improve my brain function and overall health with this diet, I’m in. I am doing a lot of reading and research as well as being guided by my health care workers. I’m 63 years old, something has to change and it has to change now. Here is an excellent article written by a psychiatrist who is on the ketogenic diet herself, it was published in Psychology Today. It is Ketogenic Diets for Psychiatric Disorders: A New 2017 Review. I am listing this article for informational purposes only, for those who are interested in reading more about the ketogenic diet for psychiatric and other neurological disorders there are lots of resources online.

So, 3 weeks into this 365 Day Project of mine many changes are happening, as of course, they would. You can’t get up everyday and, come what may, and even on the hard days, write a blog post dealing with how to be happier, more whole, or some days just hold on and keep going, without beginning to see subtle changes in your life. It just will happen. I am not now doing cartwheels all over the place and singing through the days but I am better than I was, and each day I am getting better. People around me are noticing. Change is in the air. And my job is to just get up every day and do a little bit more. Show up, tell the truth, and have my eyes, my mind, and my heart open to receive what comes. Happiness, wisdom, health of body, mind, and spirit, and finding, most surprising of all, that I have an indomitable spirit down in there somewhere. She is just barely poking her head out now and again when she feels safe, but the fact that she is looking at all is miraculous given where I’ve been for some long time. This brings to mind, once again, one of my all-time favorite quotes, that I have loved forever, used in my writings, and shared with my students. It is by Albert Camus. He wrote…

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world
pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger –
something better, pushing right back.”

This project is helping me find the invincible summer within. I know it’s there, and I won’t give up until I can live there, full time, come what may, ups and downs and the in-betweens. I know I will make it. I know you can too. You might consider starting a 365 day project of your own, it will change your life, it is surely changing mine.

Onwards and Upwards…