I have never been a bit fan of taking vitamins or supplements.  Honestly, I always thought it was overkill, and thought you should be able to (easily) get everything you need from your foods.

Well... I'm starting to wonder about that.

Based on advice from my chiropractor, and things I'd been reading, I started taking fish oil capsules (spring for the good stuff here, or you risk getting extra doses of heavy metals!) and a B-stress-complex.

After a couple weeks, I noticed... I've started dreaming again!

I hadn't noticed when I stopped... but I knew my sleep had been very restless, and not deep or satisfying - I was tired all the time.  Now, I'm actually waking up just before my alarm, right after a dream!

So, this is very, very cool - but makes me wonder what else I'm missing...

I've also just started taking magnesium... apparently something like 2/3 of Americans are deficient in magnesium, and it's incredibly important for our bodies to function correctly.  So, I'm hoping it helps me with a couple more issues I've been having.

I also wrote about magnesium and it's relationship to migraines - something I only learned of recently!  Apparently, some doctors use magnesium as a way to treat migraines (through injections though, for rapid relief - ouch!)

So if you suffer from chronic migraines, you may want to give magnesium supplements a try.  You should take them with food, usually later in the day, and cut back if you notice yourself having frequent loose stools.

And, take a look at my article: "The Magnesium-Migraine Link - What You Don't Know Could be Killing You"  (yes, I went for a bit of drama in the title, but it's still good, interesting info!)

Enjoy!

Well, the herb garden didn't survive.  I guess we all saw that coming.  I had forgotten the toppling dill, until I re-read my lost Journal entry.  It came back with rather amazing clarity.

I still have the AeroGarden - and an older package of seeds to grow cherry tomatoes!

Once I clean out the garden device itself, I'm going to try the tomatoes.  Not sure what kind of luck I'll have, but since I have the seeds, I figure I have to at least try!

In other news, as I've mentioned, I'm very into health but have really been struggling with my own.  It sucks to feel like you value and care about health, but to be so bad at actually implementing it!

So, I've had a couple meetings with a local nutritionist to get some advice.  It's been interesting, and the more I read and learn, the more I'm feeling that I need to make changes.  To that end, after 20 years as a vegetarian - I've started eating fish.  I am convinced that fish is going to be healthier for me than those super-processed fake meats, although I'm having difficulty with it now.  (It's hard to suddenly start eating animals after so long, it grosses me out a little, and I have absolutely no idea how to shop for or cook it!)

So far - all I've had is tuna salad.  LOTS of tuna salad!  I wonder if I should start identifying myself as a tuna-tarian?  ;)

I'm trying to create a poll - not sure if it's working.

When I got my own home (two years ago as of last month) - I was excited to think I'd be able to grow fresh herbs in my kitchen.  The thought of reaching over to pluck some basil seemed so very perfectly domestic, despite the fact that I rarely cook.

Faced with the reality of a very dark townhouse, I turned instead to an Aerogarden.  These fancy devices do all the work for you, and include lights (on automatic timers) that are supposed to guarantee your herbs, veggies, or flowers will grow into bountiful, robust plants.

Yup.  And, I think I'm killing my herbs.

It started with parsley that refused to sprout at all.  "No big deal," I thought - it's just parsley.  It's a garnish.

Except, more and more of the smaller herbs have been dying off, quietly, in the shadows of the bigger ones.

I accepted that gracefully, content that the bigger herbs (a huge pile of dill and a good size chunk of basil) were things I liked more anyway....

Until I came home one day to find my dill had literally toppled over!  It looked like it had simply given up on life - the whole thing (that had been strong and vibrant the day before) was literally lying defeated and horizontal.

I have tried trimming it.  I checked the water and nutrients and lights.  Everything looks ok.  The basil is still standing strong, as of this writing, but for the life of me - I have no clue what could have killed the dill!

Would love any advice from those who have "been there".  I'm thinking I might try my luck with regular potters in the window, despite the darkness, and hope that summer brings enough light for things to grown.

Any other ideas?  Or tips to keep my poor little herbs from dying before they make it on the dinner plate?

The picture that I chose here on Beliefnet has three dark stones, piled on top of each other.

It looks peaceful, zen-like to me.

I just realized - I HAVE THOSE EXACT STONES!  I have two sitting on the counter in my kitchen, and a handful of others scattered strategically throughout the house.

:) Funny to realize it.

BTW - you can find them by the bag in arts & crafts stores!  Very smooth and relaxing.

Do you ever wonder why people post things online with blatant mispellings?

I always thought that those authors were idiots - either they were careless, or just plain too dumb to know that they were spelling things wrong.

Until I actually broke down and did the same thing myself.

My most recent article is on "migranes" (check it out here:

Liz's Article on "Migranes"

Why on earth would I do such a thing?

Well, I've started looking at how people search... and learned that a huge number of people are searching for information about "migranes"! 

I don't know, I'm still trying to decide if it's a bad thing to target those types of errors in searches, is it somehow wrong or immoral, or is it just practical?  Maybe helpful to people who are spelling-challenged?

Just a thought though, sometimes there's a good logical reason or purpose behind a seeming "mistake".

And, for the record, I've been fairly migraine-free lately.  I'm still getting the odd one every once in awhile, and pretty much stopping everything to sleep it off, but they've been *manageable* - so I'm feeling pretty grateful about that these days.

Take care!

What's happening here?

I admit, I haven't been around much.  I'm (sadly!) pulled in 5 million directions - I want to research and write about health issues, but I also want to try to get eat healthier and exercise, and learn to compose music, and write movies and poetry, and find a better job, and set up a personal blog, and...

Too many things going on, and the truth is, I end up performing poorly at all of them, because I just can't focus on any one thing for more than a couple of days.

That aside, I'm curious as to what's going on here.  I really loved this place when I first got here - it seemed like a great community, with a decent interface for writing.

Today, I'm having trouble doing anything - because I keep getting big hairy flash banners stuffed across the screen.

Firefox is blocking them for me, but it's making it difficult to actually get to the form fields to type (took me forever to manager to actually log in.)

I'm sad that this is happening.  It's a pity, and kind of intrusive :(

Don't know what to say beyond that, and not sure if anyone is reading anyway... so we'll leave it at that!

This is really the first site (other than various forums) that I've participated on... I'm not on Facebook, or Myspace, or anything like that. And, I should confess upfront, I'm a pretty hardcore introvert...

So - my first "friend" request suprised me! And, when I read the message... concerned me. It definitely looked... suspect. (And the account has since been deleted apparently, so my instincts were good!)

But, then I got another. This time, there wasn't a message - just a request. "So and so wants to be your friend." And their profile looked pretty darn sincere, from what I could tell.

I'm left wondering... "really?" Am I missing something. Why would somebody who doesn't know me, based off on post (about migraines - not the most intimate of topics!) want to be my friend. And, why no message, no introduction - just a random request sent across the dark void of cyberspace?

I mean no offense or disrespect to the sender at all, I'm just... well, confused by it. I wouldn't walk into a bar and start handing out my phone number. I wouldn't randomly start inviting strangers on the street into my home.

Oh well. I guess it's a combination of me being an introvert, and the way things happen online..

If you (anyone!) is reading this... and want to leave a comment, I'd love to hear about your experiences. Do you usually wait until you get a sense of someone before "friending" them over here, or do you jump in quickly, eager to meet up with someone new? Have you been surprised by friend requests?

Thanks

PS: Wow - am I the only one having massive issues with formatting here? It takes me longer to format a journal-entry then it does to actually write it :( What am I missing?!

I've suffered from migraines since childhood. Thankfully, they're alot less frequent now. I've also learned to deal with them (as much as one can... it still feels a bit like dealing with a train, barreling down on your, at 100 miles an hour!)

For me, migraines feel like my senses are on complete overwhelm - everything is too much and my body seems to be completely out of whack because of it (too much noise, too much light, too much heat, too many fragrances...)

So, I cope by trying to reduce sensory overload as much as possible. Get to a dark, quiet, cool place, and lie very still. I've noticed my brain treats "mental chatter" (your internal "thinking" voice) almost as if it were a real sound, it causes me more pain - so I try to stop all thinking and just be as still as possible.

A cool cloth or icepack behind your neck, or around your head and eyes can help too, as well as a dose of over-the-counter medicine (migraine specific, or regular ibuprofen or aspirin).

I haven't found a way to totally stop migraines, but by taking action as soon as I feel one coming on, I've been able to get through them a little more quickly and easily. And, I've noticed that they're becoming MUCH less frequent (for which I'm profoundly grateful!)

You can read more of my tips for migraine relief at my full article, here:

www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1...

Thanks, and hoping you have many pain-free days!

- Liz