Coffee is the Devil.

Yesterday I was watching a Ted Talk and felt inspired. The speaker talked about how doing 30 day challenges really helped him gain confidence. I have done a bunch of challenges myself and despite my calm demeanor deep down I am really competitive. Something about doing these challenges really gets me going. In the past I have run for 90 days, performed my music in public for 90 days, eaten a low sugar diet for 60 days, and done a variety of food cleanses.  Also I have reached a point in my life where I am feeling a little stagnant and when I saw the video it felt like a sign from the universe to get my ass moving!

So before I get to my new challenge I wanted to take a trip down Memory Lane tell you my life story, well not really, but to least to give you some context for why I'm doing this. 

Growing up I was a perfectly healthy kid. I had never even broken a bone like most kids do. My diet was pretty typical for a teenager.  Being in a jewish household there were always bagels around. This was before the health craze that happened in the 2000's so we didn't know that bread was the devil yet. The terms Carbs or Gluten just wasn't a thing back then.  When I was 20 I started getting pain in my elbow. At the time I was using the computer and playing the guitar quite a bit but it wasn't all that different then what I done in High School. The doctors thought that I had tendonitis so I did physical therapy, massage, acupuncture, yoga and all the usual stuff to get better. I have done those things for years and while I have experienced temporary relief nothing has ever permanently relieved the pain. Eventually the pain shifted and moved into different areas of my body mostly neck and shoulders at this point. Throughout the years I have periods were I really made a push to find out what was going on and other times where I simply gave up. It's easy for people to say "how can you give up" and I understand that but when pain becomes chronic and nothing seems to work it's hard to keep the faith. Thankfully I have some awesome friends and  last year I decided to make a new push to figure out what's going on.  So I saw a bunch of doctors, got all kinds of blood tests and I ended seeing a rheumatologist who believes I have Fibromyalgia.  Fibromyalgia is a largely misunderstood disease that causes pain throughout the body. There is no known cure for it so I have become like a detective trying new things and being open.  Diet is one thing that I can control and its possible that I could be deficient in some areas that could be causing the pain.  So I started thinking what was different about my diet at age 20 and it hit me: coffee and alcohol. I was in college at the time so those were almost required substances.  

So that is my challenge : to give up coffee and alcohol for 30 days as well as mediate for 10 minutes a day and to see what happens.  The hardest of those 3 tasks for me by far is to give up coffee. I love,love coffee. I have my favorite spots that I frequent where they know me by name and no it's not Starbucks. I'm a coffee snob so I like the local spots where they grind there beans that day. Coffee after a meal, so good! So yesterday was my second day and I had a terrible headache and that's how I know I'm addicted.  I called out of work and detoxed my ass on the couch. On a positive note I watched the entire series of "Love" on Netflix so yes I was productive!    

Don't Avoid Puddles, Jump In Them!

Tonight I was supposed to get together with my parents for dinner. They are in town from Syracuse, New York but my Mom wasn’t feeling well so she canceled.  I decided to take a little nap with my 500 count Duvet and sunk into the sheets. Something about a nap while it’s raining out is glorious. I woke up feeling refreshed and something in my silly brain said “let’s walk to a coffee shop and write some lyrics” so that’s what I did. Well actually first I grabbed a salad, walked a few doors down for a coffee”, and shit”, the coffee shop was closed. I began walking home.  I was getting increasingly wet and uncomfortable. At one point I tried to avoid stepping into a big puddle but in all directions the water was flowing so yeah my feet were soaked. For a moment I felt pissed and uncomfortable and then it hit me, when I was a kid I didn’t try to avoid puddles I actually jumped in them. It was like aha moment. Then I started thinking what if I could think that way with everything. Maybe this should be my new motto. “Don’t avoid puddles, jump in them” or perhaps "Make Puddles fun again!  Perhaps life is more about how you handle the puddles then the sunshine and maybe sometimes we come to expect the sunshine all the time.  I know that is the case for people in Los Angeles, the place that I call home. People here treat rain like the plague. They detest it.  Perhaps they have it too good and they loose perspective. I think a good solution to this problem is any Los Angeles resident found to be bitching too much about the weather should be required to go spend a week in Syracuse, New York in February. There’s just something about not being able to feel your face that makes a person realize that a few droplets coming from the sky really aren’t all that bad. Perspective is everything. How do we loose it and how do we get it back? There is a good song in there somewhere. Ok, time to go write it!