This wonderful afternoon started 3 years ago with a Craigslist ad to rent Bill’s solar adobe home in New Mexico. Mary Kaye from New York answered my ad, but even though it didn’t work out, Mary Kaye and I stayed in touch over Facebook with a shared compassion for photography, nature, kids, dogs and adventure. Mary Kaye and her husband Dave were traveling through Colorado to spend a couple nights at this wonderful fire tower called Jersey Jim’s that’s rented out for $40 a night. What an amazing experience. The sun was behind the clouds making it a little chilly as Bill and I climbed the steps to the top. When we stepped inside it was warm, serene and comforting with expansive views from every direction. There was a bed in one corner, a stove and fridge with the fire finder compass wheel in the center of the room. They had hummingbird feeders on all sides and as we walked around the outside the hummingbirds dive bombed me in their attempts to get their turn at the feeder. Mary Kaye serenaded us with her fiddle playing from the ground. Perfect afternoon….we really didn’t want to leave.
Jersey Jim’s Fire Lookout near Mancos, CO
View from Jersey Jim’s Fire Lookout
Jersey Jim’s Fire Lookout
Mary Kaye playing the fiddle
I wanted to get established with a doctor here in Durango and found a Integrative Medicine Clinic with a Nurse Practitioner, Renae Blanton, who was wonderful. I gave her all my recent lab results and she had me do a nocturnal pulse oximetry test due to my red blood cell count being elevated. It was very easy, just a small machine the size of a phone with a wire that attaches to your finger which measures your oxygen level as you sleep. I haven’t received the results yet but we’ll see. She said the amount of female hormones I was on was very miniscule and gave me progesterone pills 100 mg (I was only taking 15 mg) and I’ve ordered a cream from a formulary pharmacy for the BI-EST (was .2 mg) now 6 mg, Testosterone (was .5) now 10 mg. The first night I took the progesterone I slept great and woke up feeling like a new person; energy, mood and otherwise. Unfortunately the next day and those following were back to the usual exhaustion, achy muscles and joints. Oh well!
During my phone consult with Dr. Scott he noticed that I was eating sweet potatoes for a snack with no protein. He said it was very important to eat even just a small amount of protein with it. I asked for suggestions for protein that aren’t meat because I’m eating so much meat right now and he said he didn’t have any, but once I’ve added nuts back in it can be as simple as having apple slices with almond butter. Currently I’ve been eating baked chicken, ground lamb, ground turkey and organic beef hot dogs…..and of course lots of veggies in the way of steamed broccoli, carrots, zucchini and mixed greens salads and smoothies with beets, ginger, kale with pears, blueberries and strawberries. I’m loving it! I asked him when I start the next phase of the diet and ClearVite powder and he said first I have to do a 3 day fast drinking only water with lemon and lime juice and Grade B maple syrup every 15 minutes. Urggg!! I said I was worried about losing more weight and he said he didn’t think I would but if I do then I can stop and move on to the next phase. The purpose of the fast is to stabilize blood sugar and the purpose of the ClearVite is to cleanse toxins from your body. So here I go. I’m going to start the fast Monday, the ClearVite on Thursday and keep on moving forward.
Try this next time you feel like you’re waiting, (from the book “The Power of Now”), “Give up waiting as a state of mind. When you catch yourself slipping into waiting…snap out of it. Come into the present moment, just be, and enjoy being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything. So next time someone says, “Sorry to keep you waiting”, say “That’s alright, I wasn’t waiting, I was just standing here enjoying myself…IN JOY IN MY SELF“
Katherine Ireland Health Coaching 