11/22/2004 9:44 PM

Well, it feels good to be back. I’m sure that I’ll be able to catch you all up over the next few blogs or so, so I’ll just jump in where I am.

Today I ended up eating some wheat pasta. I made some for my daughter – not the best choice for a type O kid, but I make it once in a while. I ate a bowl of it. The good news is that wheat no longer makes me feel horrible, but the OTHER good news is that it DOES give me some side-effects that I don’t like and therefore keeps me out of the wheat for the most part. The first annoying side effect is that it gives me sciatica pain that doesn’t go away for several hours. The second is that it affects my vision. It makes me feel like I have “thick” tears and I don’t like it. I’m typing now, and my eyes feel pretty disgusting. No more wheat for me for a while.

I do like certain brands of rice pasta. I have found that, overall, rice is the only grain that I can eat with almost no problems. Spelt is just the same as wheat for me – same reactions only it also makes me sleepy. I haven’t had good luck with amaranth or quinoa, either. I know that they are not avoids for O in general, but they are avoids for me. And, just so you don't wonder, I am a secretor - been checked.

Oats don’t seem to bother me too much, and rice is fine. The only thing that I notice happens if I eat a good portion of rice is that I feel like my blood pressure goes up and my heart sometimes starts to pound. This happens more if I have been especially “clean” in my eating for a few days. I also don't like that feeling at all - it's kinda scary - so I don't eat big portions of any grains anymore.

So, I’m feeling kind of pooped and I’m headed to bed. I feel sort of like the prodigal daughter coming home again. In my journeys, I have learned a lot about what works for me, and what doesn’t work. One thing that I have finally come to accept is that I need a lot more sleep than I would like. In order for me to really feel good, I need to be in bed around 10:00 to 10:15 and asleep by 11 PM at the latest. This need to get to bed earlier than I previously believed is exacerbated by the fact that I have to get up on most weekdays at 6:10 AM. This is a full hour and a half earlier than my body would like. What is funny is that getting to sleep by 11 and getting up at 7:30 is the same hours that I preferred as a kid. I only started to mess my sleep up in college, when sleeping somehow became “un-cool”. Being married to an insomniac doesn’t help with that feeling. His idea of an ideal sleep is to go to bed at 1:00 AM and to get up at 8, with a waking period from 3-5.

I have finally embraced my body’s need for sleep. With that reminder, I am off to bed!

Night. It’s good to be back.