2 Months in

Well, it’s almost 2 months in, and I just finished entering my numbers into the spreadsheet. How am I doing? In absolute numbers, my acts of kindness are above the requirement (having a spouse with a injury causes these to add up), my blogs are on track, and everything else is at about 40%. In some ways, I could beat myself up, but on the other hand I am congratulating myself on how far I have come. Before I Ho Chuan I rarely did much practice outside class, and it showed. Now I am doing something every day, even if it is not the magic number of reps.

Real Food

On the subject of diet, I have been thinking of Mr Repay`s responses, and they do have some merit. I have been Gluten Free now for just over a year, and this has side effects. When you go off gluten, you also tend to go off of junk & fast foods, as these tend to be loaded with gluten. You find that your choices are basically limited to healthy food and healthy restaurants.  If the only thing on a menu of a restaurant that is gluten free is the fries and coke, it is not worth even stopping in the first place. When the free donuts come around at work, I go back to my lunchbox and get a gluten free snack instead. This means that I am missing out on the usual sources of High Fructose Corn Syrup, extra salt and red dye number 40, among other things. So is gluten the absolute guaranteed cause of my previous arthritis symptoms? No, but whatever is, if it is not gluten, it rides alongside of the gluten, and I am not willing to put myself in pain to do the required experiment. So if you are not willing to go gluten free, consider only eating high quality gluten (from artisans such as Mr Repay) and forgo the garbage that is loaded with gluten and other chemicals, that passes itself off as food.

Dennis Donohue