Oh, this is super timely for me. I may need to take a longer road trip soon and I am dreading the food options. Love all the suggestions and ideas. We recently went on a short road trip. I looked at restaurants ahead of time and found some real gems. I often will order several side dishes, such as steamed broccoli and a salad. On that trip, we were at a huge tourist attraction and the food options were dismal. (Hot dogs, fries, nachos with cheap artificial cheese, etc) I suggested we leave and walk across the way to a hotel, as I thought I could just order a plain salad if nothing else. I ended up ordering two different side salads and combined them in to one salad. It was amazing. Like they were meant to be eaten that way! I also ordered a small fruit salad, which ended up being quite huge and very fresh. It was a great meal and cheaper than the food at the tourist place. On that trip, I packed a small electric kettle to heat water for oatmeal. I took carrots and apples, nut butter, nuts and dried fruits, hummus. I am prone to digestive issues so also packed kombucha, which I find filling. This wouldn’t work for airline travel, but I do take a paring knife, bowls, etc so I have a mini kitchen. I love going to regional grocery stores and buying fresh foods when we travel. My DH doesn’t care for it because it reminds him too much of his childhood vacations but he is slowly warming up to the idea. I also look for juice bars, as many of them also offer smoothie bowls which make a nice meal. I have not traveled abroad since going wfpb, but I have found Canada and France to have lots of healthy food options.

My female boss told me, when I was pregnant, that motherhood would soften my personality. I was basically on my own at age 15. My parents had a violent divorce, I was bounced around between extended family, abused, left for good at 18 and didn’t look back. I was 35 when my boss told me that. It always felt like an odd thing for her to say. My child ended up premature due to HELLP syndrome and has mild cerebral palsy. My boss’ comment came flooding back years later, at a homeschool park day when an incident happened. I won’t go into details here, but the incident upsets me to this day. I have told my DH several times since then that I think motherhood actually made me “harder,” not softer. I feel like I have had to fight for my son, for therapies, for insurance coverage, etc. It’s not that I am hard. I cried the other day when a friend was telling me about losing her senior dog. I cried last week when my dog caught and killed a baby bird. I think every woman is half “soft” and half bad-ass. It depends on which side most people see.

Florastor I was on three rounds of antibiotics recently, including one that said it could cause stomach distress “for weeks, even months” after finishing. I will say, with the one antibiotic, my pharmacist suggested I take 2-3x label recommendation. She also suggested kombucha and yogurt. I took literally everything I thought might help. I do try to rotate my probiotic brands, but swear by Florastor. I recently noticed Target sells Florastor.

Well I ended up going houseplant shopping in a total downpour today. I was drenched to the bone getting from car to houseplant greenhouse at back of nursery to inside to pay. But it was worth it. Stress plus more stress equals Taco Wednesday (because I missed Taco Tuesday as our fav taco spot was packed last night) and new houseplants.

Oh! Thank you so much for this! We had a large covered patio and outdoor cooking area built several years ago. We used our grill (charcoal) all the time. Then I went vegetarian. I have tried to get my DH willing to grill vegetables, but haven’t convinced him yet. I hate that we haven’t been using the grill!

Oh, Faith. I am so sorry.

I tend to buy books. Lots of books. Esp with stress over my health, I will go on binges buying health related books. And shoes. My neurologist really stresses me out so I tend to buy new workout shoes after appointments with him. (I do like my neurologist, but I find appointments depressing. And he is forever on me about wearing practical shoes and that I need to be working out more. So. New workout shoes.) And plants. It is spring so plants are always the answer. (I can justify that for any season.)

My DS and I adopted a kitten when DH was out of town, dealing with his dad’s terminal cancer. DH will never let me live that down, though we all say how wonderful it was to have new kitten energy in the house while we were all sad.

I have only been to the stadium twice. Once for 4-H robotics and once for niece’s high school graduation. My SIL lives not far from there and we visit her fairly often. The traffic is always a nightmare. Everywhere around Houston. But that immediate area seems especially bad. Allow for extra time, though I don’t really know how much to suggest.

I agree with above. Your dad is being unreasonable. He should step up and to that day if he is opposed to your mom stepping in. My parents had a horrible (violent) divorce when I was a kid. They still despise each other, but put on this odd sugary sweet front when they have to be together. I find it very emotionally difficult to be around, even 40-some years later. I get agitated and upset in anticipation of being around them together. Not knowing the reason for your parents divorce (nor needing to know), I get that there may be reasons your dad is opposed. But then that is on him and he needs to step up.

I am so sorry. I feel your pain. We spent $5k on saving my child’s pet. Then I got sick and ended up with a ct scan, an MRI and a biopsy. Thankfully the pet and I are both on the mend. But. Whew. That hurt.

One of three, in original family. I last saw my brother six years ago. It has probably been eight years since I saw my sister. We text often but surface type stuff. Too much family drama. My dad remarried when I was in high school and he adopted his new wife’s three young kids, though that was after I married and moved across the country. Technically, they are my siblings, but I didn’t grow up with them. I haven’t seen any of them in 20 years. My siblings have only visited us maybe 1-2 times in 35+ years of us living away from our hometown. It is expected that we travel to visit them, but - family drama. Dad is a raging alcoholic. After we went home eight years ago, I swore I would never go back due to the way he treated me and my child. We did go back six years ago for my FIL’s funeral. Have not been back since.

Breakfast: oatmeal and frozen cherries Lunch: roasted red pepper hummus with homegrown carrots, socca, mango Afternoon snack because three antibiotics in three weeks is killing my stomach: oatmeal Supper: Salad - spinach, black beans, celery, avocado, hemp hearts, raw sprouted sunflower seeds and homemade no oil dressing

I received a grand jury summons the week after my DS was born premature and he was still in NICU. Thankfully they let me off!

Oh, thank you so much for that information. Very useful! I have looked before at functional med but our insurance doesn’t cover it and most places charge several thousand. That said, I took a backstreet home yesterday and noticed a functional med place and it brought that back to my mind, thinking I needed to look in to it again. I want help “connecting the dots” or looking at the bigger picture.

Today was not my best eating day. Breakfast: oatmeal with dates and ground flax, frozen cherries Kinda downhill from there. Had a board meeting this morning, which was long and boring and wore me out. Stopped and got a gluten free cookie after the meeting, which ended up being my lunch. Not eating a proper lunch + being tired put me in a funk = non-productive afternoon. Supper: Taco Tuesday at one of my fav restaurants. Two vegan tacos on corn tortillas, chips and quac.

The Woman Warriors cookbook? I bought it, just, um, can’t find it right now. Will dig through my stacks. Thanks for reminding me!

One of the personal trainers at my gym wears them, though he is the only one I have seen wear them IRL.

I detest having garage sales. Have done three in the 25+ years we have lived here. I always swear Never Again. I cannot stand people wanting to barter over a $2 item, which always seems to happen 100 times. Or they keep badgering me to sell something that clearly isn’t for sale. I do like Soror’s answer. Since it is a community wide sale, half ass it to get rid of some easy stuff.

Breakfast: frozen cherries and a few walnuts, before early morning ENT appt Second breakfast: oatmeal with almond butter, sweetened with dried dates, before personal training. First personal training session in 3 weeks due to health issues. It was rough, but so nice to start getting back in the routine. Lunch: a bit of leftover socca, carrots from my garden, hummus Snack: Energy bar to get me through hot yoga class (Hm I need to look at the ingredient label again. I buy these from a vendor at the farmer’s market who has his product in local Whole Foods.) Supper: large salad with tomato, black beans and sugar snap peas, homemade no oil salad dressing, topped with raw sprouted sunflower seeds and ground flax I am starting to ramp up my flax/omega 3 consumption. Ideas for working more in, besides on salad and oatmeal?

My former ENT (he moved out of state between my first episodes and this time) said, “Fish when you know the fish are biting,” meaning, if you are having a flare-up, test for everything possible. Rheumatologist said opposite. Never test during a flare up because everything will be off. At this point, I am traumatized and just never want to go through this ever again! LOL I am just so grateful the ENT listened to me and changed the antibiotic. He had initially said to give it two weeks. But I had been on two antibiotics and neither one helped. I am normally not one to want antibiotics, but I was so miserable.

ENT appt went well this morning. The swelling has gone down a bit more but is still quite visible. I go back in two weeks for - hopefully - a final follow up with him. I would like to thank everyone. Thank you so much! I am trying so hard to heal my body and putting in all the work and had been feeling really well lately that this just really hit me hard, emotionally and physically.

Breakfast, prior to early morning hot yoga: green apple and a few walnuts Second breakfast, after yoga: oatmeal, sweetened with a few dates, unsweetened coconut and a bit of almond butter Harvested carrots from the garden and ate several of them, which ended up being my lunch Supper: large salad (beet greens from my garden - from farmer’s market: lettuce, tomato, sugar snap peas. Beans for protein.I topped my salad with pumpkin seeds, ground flax seed and hemp hearts. Dr Fuhrman’s recipe for no oil salad dressing.) roasted garlic hummus with more homegrown organic carrots and socca. (Socca: chickpea flour, equal parts flour and water, seasoning as desired.) Ended supper with mango and banana fruit salad, tossed with bit of fresh orange juice.

My son is 21 now, but he was the kid that would pick out cookbooks like a 600 page pasta bible at the library’s used book sales. He would read cookbooks cover to cover at 10 yrs old. He also would ask to watch the food network when offered cartoons at the dentist office. He owns a dozen or so cookbooks and took a couple of them to college, but I think he gets his recipes off an app.

Thank you so much for this info. I am vaguely familiar with Rhonda Patrick. Just pulled up her website, lots of info there. I have been interested in the pbm, but haven’t tried it, just done some light researching on it.