Dry, itchy skin...ugh

Two posts ago I mentioned how my dry skin itch went away completely for the first time...ever?  Well, it's back.  I'm pretty sure I know why, though.

I mentioned that I had been slathering lotion (not just any lotion!) on my body while I was up North for the week, and when I returned home I stopped with the lotion to see if the silicea would have any effect from the inside.  I believe now, though, that the real actual root cause for my dry skin, is that I don't drink enough fluids.  At times I find it quite difficult to consume even 4 glasses of water in a day.  I'm just not that thirsty, oddly enough.

I'm not saying that the silicea isn't doing anything at all; it's just that homeopathic medicine is much more subtle than what we're used to ("Two tiny little balls?  That's it??").  It's not going to produce a miracle in my situation since I'm not keeping up my end of the most basic requirements of health.  I need to drink more fluids and I need to actually have my follow-up appointment with Helen to see what advice she has for me (other than drink more fluids, dumbass!).  THEN we have a chance of figuring out what else (if anything) I need.

In the meantime, I will go back to using the "band-aid" fix of the lotion because I can't stand being itchy all the time.  Having this rash all over me is just not acceptable. :)

In other news, I'm finding it less tedious to produce bowel movements.  That, I am VERY happy about.

Well I'll be...

Last week I was traveling for work and was visiting a client in Northern Ontario, roughly 3 hours North of Cochrane.  When I arrived at Timmins airport and stepped outside the plane, I breathed in and my nasal hairs froze instantly.  Oh boy.  From then on I breathed through my scarf.  The outside temperature was -40C every morning, warming up to about -28C in the afternoon.  Add wind chill to that and you're at -50C.  Fun stuff.

That meant that everywhere I went there was heat blasting; in the trucks, in the buildings, in the "dorm" rooms.  Upon arrival, the ambient temperature in my room was 25C.  Holy shit.  That got lowered right away to a more comfortable 23C.

In fear of an asthma attack while up North for the week, I armed myself with a new Bricanyl inhaler, the type that I'd used for many years, but haven't had the need to use for over a year now.  I didn't need it once.  I firmly believe that eating properly has just about eliminated my asthma, though I do still experience minor wheezing at times.  It's not nearly bad enough to treat with the inhaler, anyway.

So, here I was, in awful conditions for skin and lungs.  To battle the incessant blowing/electric heat and hopefully prevent my skin from drying out, I applied some serious lotion (St. Ives Intensive Relief) to my body, morning and night.  I found it really helped and I only scratched the hell out of my skin the first night.

On the Thursday, I took my second dose of silicea as directed. Now that I'm back home in "normal" winter weather (between -3C and -10C), I've eased up on the lotion application so we'll see whether the silicea helps with skin ailments as much as it's rumoured to.  I have my hopes up! :)

I noticed yesterday that for the first time in memory I was not itchy.  Anywhere.  I've always had some spot on my being needing a scratch, like as if I had fucking fleas, but suddenly there was no itch.  Could it be??!  Will see how it goes in the next couple of days since I've virtually stopped applying the lotion.

In other good news, the corn on my left foot is gone!  The last bit of hardened skin came off during my trip and I can finally walk with a normal stride.  I'd forgotten how good that feels - why the hell did I resist this treatment so long?!  Avoiding chemicals, that's why.  At times they do good things, okay? :)

Hubby and I went for a hike through a section of our closest conservation area today, and it was so nice to walk normally, even when there were tree roots and rocks underfoot.  I gave my (left!) ankle a slight twist while jogging down a hill, but other than that it was fantastic.  Yay!!

Oh!  And, as expected, I did wheeze a bit after running up and down a couple hills in the cold air, but it wasn't severe enough to use the inhaler.  I'll always make sure I have it on me just in case anyway.

It's time to take charge...AGAIN. (FAIL)

Beginning tomorrow morning, no more fucking around with my food intake.  My legs, stomach, and back are all itching like crazy and I wonder if I'll get any sleep tonight.  It's driving me nuts.

Tonight I made a nice prime rib roast and followed this recipe.  It turned out pretty damned good (thanks to the electronic meat thermometer we have) and the side of brussels sprouts were nice as well (I cooked them in a covered casserole dish in a bath of previously-made beef broth, onions and garlic).  MIL asked if there were also a side of yams and DAMMIT I didn't think of that.  One side was all I made.  Woops. :)

Anyway, for dessert we had half a cake that was bought at the grocery store last night.  A traditional, sugar-laden cake with lots of creamy frosting, chocolate shavings, and even chocolate-covered malt balls on top.  I had a tiny slice with my coffee (yes, with fucking cream in it).

As of tomorrow, no more crap.  And we're going to our friends' house for dinner, so this will get interesting.  I have no alcohol to drink, and that's just as well, because I'll be drinking water.  And I'll get ridiculed for it, because that's just the way they are; how can you be having a good time if you're not blasted on something?  Whatever.  This is the friend that works out for 2 hours a day so she can eat junk food all the time and not get fat.  This is the friend who had the lap band surgery before.  She sure as hell ain't skinny, but I guess she enjoys torturing herself.  Oh well.  That's her problem.

Welp, that's it...I'm fucked.

My sugar addiction has started to kick in again and I've been weak.  I'm back to having 18% cream in my 3 coffees a day and *shock* I just noticed that the bastards added dextrose to the cream.  Bugger.

Last week both of us were off and we decided to go see The Hunger Games.  Fearing I would pig out on movie theatre nachos and cheese (my fave snack when there...no pop!), we went to the grocery store to get "healthy" snack to sneak into the theatre.  These healthy snacks morphed into cookies and brownie squares.  Fack.  We snuck a bottle of water each in, hidden in my purse.

This week my skin feels like it's CRAWLING it's SO itchy.  Last night I had to pee at 2:30am and while I was doing so I was ripping away at my legs and it felt soooo good and yet so gawd-awful at the same time.  When I went back to bed the skin was all red and throbbing with heat.  Ugh.  This insane rash (which always seems to start in an arm pit for some reason) is making its way across my body and my taste buds better fuck off with the constant whining for sweet things!!

My mild rosacea  has returned as well.

I've also noticed that there is a lot more mucous in my nasal passages, to the point where I have to snork it back so I don't sound like I'm sick with a cold.  It's real pleasant to have to do this near co-workers while I'm on the phone with a client!  (Thankfully I have a mute button, which has served me well and prevented my firing on a daily basis.)

So, today I will start the changes to reverse this once again.  Coffee is bad when you have a yeast overgrowth problem, so I will reduce my intake (I hate caffeine withdrawal headaches!!!), will gradually revert back to using almond milk in coffee when I do have one, and will not partake in the very-sweet-looking cake we bought as dessert for tonight's dinner (his mummy's coming over).  I will hear about it from her, but I will ignore it.

Guess I won't be having bacon with our usual Sunday breakfast, either.  Grrr.

Oh wait, I do have something positive to report -- I weighed myself this morning, and after all this sugar-binging, the scale still reads 145.3.  Yay!!

Blarg.

Today's meals have been garbage. Today, I ate crap. That's more accurate. McDonald's was involved. Yesterday, I ate crap as well. Some of it was good, but for the most part, CRAP. Yesterday I went for product taste testing (paid) and there were 6 different store-made white cakes to sample and rate. Really. I should have downed two fish oil capsules after that. If I were anorexic I would've thrown that shit back up. But I'm not, so life goes on.

Ugh.

I DON'T want this trip to end. I want to lose a little more weight. I want to feel good again. We just got our second Wanigan delivery today and I intend on eating every last bit of all the fruits and veggies. I don't know exactly what I'll do with the fennel yet, but I'll find a recipe somewhere.

There was also red chard in there. Wow that shit is vibrant. I took pictures of it; I was so inspired. What a neat looking vegetable!

Tomorrow will be another day of eating crap, because someone else will be cooking it. *sigh* I can't wait til Sunday, where we'll enjoy our regular breakfast of bacon and farm-fresh eggs. That reminds me...I need to go to Broadway Farms to buy more bacon.

I got my uptake and scan test results today. They said the two small cysts didn't show up on the scan, but my T4 is in the high-normal range. They want to send me for another uptake and scan in two months to see if there's a difference. They also want me to get another ultrasound done in about 6 months to check on the cysts. So there you go.

I had walked over to the walk-in clinic for my results while my winter tires were being put on my car. *wail!* Winter's gonna suck!!! Oh wait...I can work from home when I want/need and hubby and I each have a pair of snowshoes for exercise. Hopefully it won't be too bad. :)

OH!! I almost forgot. My winter itch is already back. I recently trimmed my fingernails so it's really hard to scratch. How unfulfilling that is. I've started putting grapeseed oil on my legs to try to calm the itch a bit. It works for a little bit but returns the next morning. *screams*

Didn't Do So Well Today

Not only is it back-to-school time for the kiddies (I have none...which is just fine with both of us), it was time to turn the *gulp* HEAT on for a couple of nights. Ugh. Guess what that also means...yep, dry, itchy skin. My legs are already scratched up. Coconut oil, here I come. *sigh*

On another note, there's junk food in the house, and when there's junk food in the house I want to eat it just to get it out of my sight...and I usually do. BAD MOUSE!!

Aside from the couple of treats I had today, I ate somewhat well. Dinner was best out of everything: leftover roast beef, spinach, the last of the roasted veggies from Saturday night. Ok, there were a few green beans and two small new potatoes, but the spinach serving was much larger.

I also took one fish oil soft gel during my lunch and thankfully didn't experience the same thing as yesterday.

No rum was consumed today, and no Coke Zero. Together they are my favourite drink and I usually enjoy one after work, but I'm all out of rum at the moment. Maybe I won't bother buying more, but then again, I probably will. I like a little buzz once in a while and there's no harm in that. :)

Itchy Update

I didn't bother to update this past Saturday because my weight was exactly the same as the previous Saturday. Boohoo.

To update on the soap/poo-free "lifestyle", I must say the condition of my skin (all over) is not one bit different -- still fucking itchy as all hell! The heat rash from our trip is still visible and is itchy again for some reason. For the past two days I've been scratching my forearms too much and now have some bigger bumps and such. I'd just trimmed my fingernails, too, so I have to scratch harder to get relief.

Dammit.

I haven't been rubbing coconut oil on myself, other than on my face, which has gone back to acne breakouts in the usual areas. Is it my pillow?? Is it because I don't sweat through my pores on a daily basis that the zits just keep re-occurring in the same damned spots?? UGH!!!

My hair, on the other hand, feels very nice and it's getting long. I haven't used shampoo since our trip (had to a couple times, to get the sea smell out) and have been brushing thoroughly with the boar bristle brush every other night or so. I barely need any aloe vera as gel, and I'm not rinsing it every day anymore, either.

It's going okay. I'd wished for better by this point. Oh well.

On My Merry Way...

...to 140 lbs! Woot!! I could have done better, but I'm happy with this week's weigh-in. Hubby just made chocolate chip cookies so I have to avoid those (had to taste-test them already, of course). We ran out of apples a few days ago and I'm missing them. I really love gala apples.

Date	Weight	BF Weight	BF %	Body Water %	Bone Mass %
02/13/2010 02/20/2010 02/27/2010 03/06/2010	162.5 161.9 158.7 157.2	50.9 51.1 48.6 47.6	31.4 31.6 30.7 30.3	50.0 49.9 50.5 50.8	6.5 6.5 6.4 6.4

Last Sunday I finally tried a homemade granola cereal recipe that turned out really well. The yield was huge so it's lasted us through the week, having some each day as breakfast and occasionally on top of some yogurt. Hubby and I will have to share the kitchen tonight as he makes bread and I make more cereal. I'm so happy we have the ability to make our own stuff rather than buying boxes of granola bars from the store. They're so full of garbage it's not funny.

To update on the no poo side of things, I cheated and used a touch of shampoo this past Thursday, but only because I had a job interview. I really didn't want to risk having an off scent. It was only a touch, but I really feared that I'd blown this whole thing by doing so. I'm not sure if it stripped all of the natural oils I'd painstakingly brushed through the ends of my hair, or if I just thought it did. Either way, I'm off the poo again and back on track. Still no soap on anything but my hands, which are dry and itchy as usual. The coconut oil isn't helping so much, it turns out. My legs are itchy again as well.

Just less than 3 weeks til BARBADOS!!!!!!!!

Back on Track

This past week was a busy one, but we still managed to stay on track with our meals and walks. This morning I weighed myself after using the washroom and was pleased with my readings:

Date	Weight	BF Weight	BF %	Body Water %	Bone Mass %
01/30/2010 02/06/2010 02/13/2010 02/20/2010	163.2 160.3 162.5 161.9	50.7 49.6 50.9 51.1	31.3 31.0 31.4 31.6	50.0 50.3 50.0 49.9	6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5

I think I'll keep 4 week's worth of data on the chart going forward.

This afternoon I did a workout in the basement; more elliptical, light weights and crunches. All while watching a Peter Gabriel concert on DVD (from the Growing Up tour). He's so awesome.

Check this out:



My itch has pretty much subsided, which I could attribute to the epsom salt baths, coconut oil, and sometimes skipping a day for showering. My hair doesn't smell so much like wet dog anymore, thankfully, but there are times where the armpits are just RANCID and in need of a wipe-down.

Other than that, things are going well. :)

AARRGGGHH!

My inner forearms are itchy as all hell and it's driving me nuts!! Hope this shea butter works...please, please work!

Update: I used coconut oil instead and it took the itch away. Now we'll see if the rash clears up!

Scratch That...Ugh!

In one of my earlier posts I stated that my "winter itchies" were getting better every day. Well, that isn't turning out to be the case after all. Yesterday I scratched my legs almost to the point of drawing blood (which, unfortunately, isn't a rare occurrence).

It very likely has something to do with the hotter than normal showers I'm now taking, and/or not having enough olive oil on my cloth after the shower. I don't want to have cooler showers at this point, as the heat is needed to rinse the day's "dirt" off me since I'm not shampooing or using soap (except on the "bits"), so as of this morning I've started using more oil on my cloth.

I really, really hope this improves things. I can't go to Barbados in March looking like my cat used me as a scratching post!