Palm Springs, Pt. III (Pt. 2)

I've calmed down now. All is much better.

It might be that all it took was a few days of relaxation to feel better. In my woo fashion, maybe it also got a boost from a simmer pot I had going for a few days, infusing the atmosphere with a lovely mix of citrus, spices, and apple. And maybe I just needed to take my Walnut/Centaury/Wild Oat flower essence (plus two others I can't remember offhand) to center myself. Whatever it took, I quickly settled into a serene and content acceptance of this place as our new home for the next year.

And we've certainly dived into making this place ours. Lots of cleaning, including some to compensate for the fact that the place wasn't entirely clean in the first place. Lots of buying things with the expectation that we will be taking them with us to wherever we land in the future—but it will be Palm Springs. And lots of talk of moving things like health insurance and ID cards/driver licenses to California. The one-year trial period is over. We're moving forward, and our future is Palm Springs.

Health and Weight

Since my weight apex in May of 309 pounds, I've been engaging in intermittent fasting. A number of things contributed to my decision to return to it. First, back pain became a regular occurrence every morning; I think constipation contributed to it. Second, speaking of digestion, the difficulty of, uh, reaching around and wiping after unloading in the bathroom became an issue as my voluminous belly and rear end were getting in the way. Third, I had begun to enjoy the thrills of plantar fasciitis. Everything together, coupled with a bunch of painful walking in DC for the spelling bee festivities, finally made the issue apparent. Something had to change.

Turns out that after only three days of IF, my back pain went away. So that was wonderful. Took a bit longer for the wiping issue to recede, but it eventually did. Plantar fasciitis is still around, though. But I've since realized that my shoes were not giving my feet the support I needed. I could stand to get some better shoes, so that will be my next clothing purchase.

I've also begun to notice the joys of prunes. I've eaten them for years, but not with the joy I reserve for, say, grapefruit or mango. But recently, with some occasional back pain, I've noticed that when I indulge in prunes—like four or six at a time—my back pain eases, my bathroom visits are more productive, and I often feel a pronounced euphoria afterward. I thought prunes were recommended because of their fiber content, which is honestly not much to crow about. But nope. It's the combination of that and sorbitol, which is a sugar alcohol that acts as an osmotic laxative, drawing more water into the intestines and making BMs easier.

This is no small discovery. Considering my issues with digestion-related back pain, this is on the level of discovering that eating chocolate at night causes me insomnia. From here forward, if I ever have back pain like this, I'm downing some prunes. And will keep them on hand for the future.

Which...uh...turns my gainer brain on a bit...

If I have a treatment now for back pain, and I get better shoes...uh...can I perhaps gain again? Some of me is excited at the thought; some of me resists it. But we all know how that I'm not likely to lose much weight at this point. I've been on IF since late May, and I'm down only 15 pounds, which I reached in August. I've been plateaued near 295 since then. But this gut is certainly sticking around.

At any rate, stay tuned. Anything is possible, as we all know.