Dog
The dog followed me around until today. Every time I left the room she would come with me. Today, she was more satisfied to be by herself. That’s good. It was sweet, but a little painful, especially as she has decided that in the new house she should be allowed to sleep on the bed. (Nope.) There isn’t a couch anywhere except the den, though, so she only has one room to comfortably lay down.

Having the dog with me is a help. While she’s fussy occasionally and I have to feed her (and the whole fence thing with her climbing out is not totally resolved), I am very glad that she is with me. She gives me someone to talk to, someone to have to schedule around (so I don’t end up sleeping all day), and when I woke up in the middle of the night, I just went back to sleep since she wasn’t barking.

Today I am a little lonesome. Apparently 40 minutes a day with other people is less than my optimal. (I think I was lonesome yesterday too. But I went to work and that helped some.)

I started a low carb diet on Monday.

Fibromyalgia?
I started the fibro stuff last night. 9 pm and 9 am, 300 mg. I have no idea if I actually have fibromyalgia, but it seems possible/probable/likely to me. So I am doing the regimen. Put all the sal-stuff in a bag under the cabinet. Got new make-up, soap, deodorant, and shampoo. Wore gloves today to cut up my veggies (though they said that was not necessary) and to cut the flowers for my vase (which they said was necessary).

Sometime in the next week or month I should know if I have fibromyalgia. It would be great if I didn’t. It would also be great if the reason I was still having pains was because of the nightshades I was inadvertently (or unknowingly) consuming.

Nightshades I was eating when I thought I was avoiding them all
Turns out light Hellman’s has potato starch in it. (Didn’t know that.)
Turns out the cocoa almonds also have potato starch in them.
Paprika IS a nightshade, so mustard is out. (Though R did find some mustard without it. I haven’t tried it yet.)
There are significant rumors (though no proof) that Diet Dr. Pepper is also nightshade laden. If that is true, it will be obvious to anyone who knows me that I didn’t go off nightshades, but simply began avoiding most of them more often.

So… a lot of food I have been eating over the last year has still had nightshades in it. While my symptoms have gotten better, they did not disappear. That might be the reason why.

It also might mean that I don’t have fibromyalgia.

How will I know? Well, if, within the next month, my symptoms only get better (since I am very carefully reading labels and avoiding anything that says even “food starch”), then I don’t have fibromyalgia. However, if no matter how careful I am being, I get a lot worse and then better, I do have fibromyalgia.

You might say that this is a lot of expense and trouble to go through just to see if I have fibromyalgia. Maybe. But I don’t want to go to the doctor and have it diagnosed (too $$$ for insurance purposes) and I don’t want to keep getting worse if I have it. So I’m doing the “superhard” regimen, which is restrictive and you do have to be very careful, but I’m not seeing superhard yet. Of course, this is coming after having given up nightshades. The fibromyalgia people haven’t asked me to give up any foods. Perhaps that is the difference.

Diet
They do suggest for hypoglycemics, which I think I am, that we go on a low carb diet. Well, presto chango I was already going to do that. So it is done. I’m not going on the restrictive diet, not yet, because I think I will lose weight with the other one too.

I’ve also discovered that I don’t like Diet A&W (which has no caffeine and therefore is acceptable). The aftertaste is nasty and stays in my mouth for hours. Gonna have to get some diet Sprite or something.

I don’t know if it is related to the carb cravings or the hypoglycemia or what, but the last couple of months I have eaten four or five meals a day because I get hungry every three to four hours. That’s meant I probably haven’t been losing weight.

However, now, eating way less carbs and way more protein, I should be getting better physically and perhaps I will even drop some weight.

Right now that’s not the biggest priority, although it would be a great blessing.

But I’m not calorie counting, so I doubt that I’ll lose weight.

I don’t have a measuring tape (despite the fact that we own three) so I can’t take my measurements. Well, maybe I’ll go out again and get a measuring tape.

Purchasing and Give Away
I went to Sam’s and didn’t remember why I went. I got some food and some pillows, which I need to take back as they are too green or not blue enough. However, I went to find a good trashcan. I am going to take the pillows back (perhaps tomorrow morning early?), but I don’t know if I really want to buy a trashcan right now. The last one I bought didn’t work out… So…

I think I might give the trashcan away. Maybe someone can get it to work for them. (It is too skinny. While stuff goes in fine, when you try to pull the bag back out, it rips.)

The other night I decided I should not give Grama W’s lemonade set she gave me away. It’s the only thing I have from her, besides her paintings. We have Grampa W’s book and a clock that doesn’t work (but should). If I am going to keep to that, then I need to dig it out of the give away box.

Speaking of give away, I’ve also put several pieces of jewelry in a give away pile. My question on that is, should I try to take it to a pawn shop and see if there is any gold or silver? Which pawn shop should I take it to? How does one do that?

Where do I take the non-pawned/pawnable stuff? I don’t know. But I have four boxes of stuff right now. I also have five books to give away. (Of course, I got an entire box from Vickie’s books, but that doesn’t count, does it? They didn’t come home with me. They are going to my office.)

Bible Reading
I have been reading four chapters a day fairly consistently since the week before the retreat (July 14). I think I have missed three days, though I “made up” two of them.

I learned that not reading the Bible for quite a while lets you see things you have missed out of familiarity before. I saw the gospels in a whole new light, the first time through.

However, I had started the second time through and realized I was already forgetting where I saw what, so I stopped with Matthew (which I did finish a second time) and moved on to Acts. I’ve seen stuff there I didn’t remember also. It’s been quite invigorating, though I don’t want to spend a year and a half not reading the Bible except in church to get that “new” feeling again.

The reading has been interesting, though, rather than a chore. Thank you, God, for that.

Rain
We need rain. We are in a big-time drought.

Even Old City is in a drought, which is hard to believe, as much rain as it normally gets. But it has gotten less than a third.

Unfinished business
I don’t have my study done.
The games closet isn’t done (though it is close enough it probably will be by tonight).
My office at work isn’t done.
That’s it.

That’s not bad for only officially moving in on Saturday. (Four days ago.)

I should have fogged the house when I left the first time, though. New Town has just as many bugs as Old City, though no mutant flying roaches (Palmetto Bugs). Just itsy bitsy spiders who are very industrious. I guess they keep the ants away, but they also make webs everywhere.

Need to eat
My stomach is trying to crawl up my esophagus, so I am going to go feed it in the hopes that it will settle down.