One thing at a time...

Yesterday I hauled ass and actually submitted a university assignment on time. I'm still playing some earthquake catchup. At least I feel like I am catching up, even if my scales suggested to me this morning that I might need to avoid fueling all that catch up activity with chocolate and then celebrating it with a few vino's. 

This morning I had my very first needling.

(image swiped from Google)

I was terrrrrified, but the lovely Justin, who is a Chinese trained, Canadian acupuncturist, went easy on me with a 'gentle' prodding.  I don't think I will ever be one of those people that loves and looks forward to acupuncture sessions (it did pinch when he put the needles in.. sometimes..ok, once...), but I am impressed that my lower back already feels looser. 

Before that stabbing session, I had to deal with a thing.... again.

Have you ever.. I mean ever, tried to keep a cast on a cats foot??? On Sunday night we found him in the garden, surrounded by plaster and bandages and with a triumphant look on his face. Victory! Today I had to stuff him back in the cat bag and I think we were both apprehensive that the vet would  want to give it another go.  Thankfully the bones are no longer grating and we all get a reprieve from the pathetic nightly cast-chewing performance. As you can see, he is still not putting weight on the offending limb if he can help it. We are supposed to stop him jumping and climbing, but as soon as I released him he leaped onto my desk. Worst . patient . ever.

He's not the only sickie in the house today either.  Sistasana is a snuffling mess and Miss J has a coughing thing going on.  I'm determined to not get it, and so far have been successful. I've increased the vitamin C consumption to about 8g a day and seem to be staying well while those around are dropping like flies.

For those of you that find Ascorbic Acid a bit .. acidic, here is a trick that I learned from a couple of Sana people (a contributor and a customer) - mix the ascorbic acid with about 3/4 that amount of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, not baking powder) - so.. to 1 tsp Ascorbic Acid, 3/4 tsp baking soda. This buffers the acidity and also gives it a slight fizz. You can then sweeten it with a little stevia and the effect is quite yummy - stevia works well with tangy flavours, not so well with sweet flavours like chocolate (gives a nasty aftertaste). I've been planning to develop a premixed version of this, but for now you will have to D.I.Y.

Now I've got an essay to write on ameliorative vs. transformative Community Psychology interventions.  I'm sure it will be 1000 times more exciting than it sounds...