Feeling Healthier! First Chiropractor Adjustment!

Wow! I knew that I was feeling crummy, but I had no idea how bad I felt until we went for our assessment last week. I thought I was just tired and run down. It's amazing how a small adjustment can make a big difference.

I really like our chiropractor. The staff at the office have you read literature on why it's important to have your spine aligned and then they ask you questions to make sure you understand it (they will explain further if need be). He really takes the time to talk to us directly and makes sure that we are understanding things.

We're going to a new patients' class on Thursday (yes, a class!) that will help us to understand more about chiropractics and then we'll have a personal session to go over our results. I was afraid that we made the trip in today just to be given another appointment, but he said he knew we were in pain and didn't want us to wait until Thursday, so he gave us both an adjustment tonight.

It was really painless. When I felt the pop in my neck on one side, I just felt relief. Then he popped the other side too. I feel so much lighter now. Before, it was like a depression was settling on me and I had a black cloud hanging over my head. I know I'm not cured, but I feel like becoming healthy is attainable now. I can't quite do that sort of dance move like the picture, but that's how I feel inside :)

I think that feeling that way just crept up on us. It just seemed like that was how things were and as the aches and pains got worse, we just accepted it as normal. Who knows, with treatment, we may actually get to "normal".

Stop the Presses! I *FEEL*....Happy!

I had a great day, and this evening, I was sitting watching television with my husband and had this realization that I felt happy. Big deal, right, people are happy all the time. Yes, I'm sure they are. But for me, living with depression and taking anti-depressants, I don't *feel* a lot of anything. The medication helps to level out your emotions so that you don't live in the darkest pits of despair. The downside is that they also numb the feelings of elation and happiness as well. I don't know if I can explain it very well, because I hardly understand it myself. It's just that I'm not used to feeling this way, but I really like it.

I wonder if this is the effect of eating healthier and following a vegan diet? It is hard to know. I guess I'll just keep eating this way and see how it goes. I could definitely stand feeling happy a lot more often. I know that following a vegan diet helps to reduce the need for medications for some illnesses. Trust me that the thought of being able to reduce the anti-depressants I take was an additional spur toward vegan eating. I am interested to find out if taking animal products out of my diet will help to balance the chemicals in my brain. I am tired of feeling numbed by this drug and by the shadow it casts on my life as this drug in particular was one which doctors were told was not habit forming only to find out later that it is and it is very hard for people to get off it. The last time I tried to reduce my medication, the side effects of reducing the drug were very hard on me.

I'll have to do some more research on veganism and depression and I'll share my findings here. In the meantime, I'm going to smile and enjoy this strange feeling of happiness while it lasts :)

Still Researching Going Vegan

I finally made it to the library this week and was able to borrow a few books on Vegan eating. The ones that I really wanted were not in stock, but I found one that I liked: This Crazy Vegan Life: A Prescription for an Endangered Species. I haven't gotten very far into the book yet, but what I have read so far has made so much sense. It's helping me to change the way I think about food in general.

I've also been looking for health food stores where I live. Surprisingly, for a city of this size, I'm not having a lot of luck. I'll keep looking though. Hopefully I'll find somewhere nearby so I can start buying more healthy foods. I'm not without hope that eating better foods will also help my daughter who has special needs, but we shall see.

Made my first foray into vegan baking tonight. I found a recipe online for vegan banana muffins, but I'm not sure how vegan they are as they have sugar in them and regular flour--although I substituted for whole wheat flour and instead of the optional nuts I added chocolate chips (definitely NOT vegan), because the little one really wanted chocolate muffins, and since they are for her snacks at day camp, I figured I'd let her have her way this time. They turned out pretty well. It did feel odd making muffins without milk or eggs! In my husband's words, they "didn't taste too bad". In other words, he's not ready to dive into eating the vegan way just yet. Anyway, that's what's been going on here.