Happy Sunday!
I’m suffering from nutrition dysmorphia.
It’s not a real thing. I made it up. But maybe you can relate.
See, I like to tell myself I eat ‘healthy’. I avoid gluten, lactose, corn, and eat simple foods. That doesn’t equal nutritious.
On October 2nd, I demolished a full gluten-free pizza. Felt fine.
Until the next morning.
I woke up nauseous, sweating, and horizontal by necessity. Felt like I had a boulder in my guts all day. After consulting ChatGPT, I arrived at one possible reason:
My body needs more fiber.
Like… a lot more fiber.
Removing the bad stuff isn’t enough anymore. I need more good stuff.
Curled up in bed, I told myself it was time to change. New era unlocked. Disciplined adult activated. Bowel-smart chapter started.
Cut to yesterday, October 25th. I’m home alone on a Saturday night. No supervision or supplemental fiber.
I ate gluten-free Chinese food with a multi-faceted snack lineup.
Sure enough… same script, slightly less dramatic performance. Not quite the gut-wrenching experience of round one. Still enough discomfort to make me question my life choices.
When you ignore the warning signs, the body gets creative.
My younger body was a tank. Eat anything, eat everything. Keep trucking.
My body today can’t keep up. Not like this. If I want tomorrow to feel good, I have to respect tonight. If I want a healthy life, I have to choose it.
Fiber is no longer optional.
October in 3 snapshots
🍽 Dinner by Chef Daisy — Cody invited us over for a proper adult dinner. Five of us together on a Wednesday evening. Drinks, conversation, bolognese, dessert, done. Perfectly splendid. It reminded me community isn’t complicated. Hang out with people. Eat some food. Talk for a few hours. Do it often.
🎮 Hacking through the underworld — Thanks to YouTube recommendations, my itch to play video games has evolved beyond nostalgia. I picked up a new(er) game called Hades. Thirty bucks and 20 hours later, I’m deep in the underworld, happily button-mashing my way to the surface. It’s made for more enjoyable and memorable evenings. Better than my TV and phone routine.
🚰 Leaky ceiling water bomb — Friday night, watching TV, and water started dripping out of the ceiling above our kitchen. A literal water balloon bulging down, then pop, sploosh, drip, drip. Thankfully, drips. Saturday morning, the plumber found a tiny leak on the pipe feeding the toilet. That was after he cut out drywall in three places, looking for other causes. Water does not care.
3 lessons learned in October
I. You can’t eat an elephant all at once. Big projects don’t happen in a day. They take time, focus, and a willingness to be bad before you get better. Progress is unglamorous: one bite, one brick, one decision at a time. Let it take as long as it takes.
II. Stay mindful of the sinking bogs. If you don’t choose how to spend your time, the day will choose for you. There are endless tasks that feel productive but lead nowhere. Busy work is quicksand. Watch your footing. Choose the ground that moves you forward.
III. Stillness is an active practice. Presence doesn’t happen by accident. Your mind wants motion, distraction, stories that spiral away from real life. Stillness requires reminders. Journaling, breath, alarms you ignore but need anyway. It’s a daily return to where your feet are.
3 interesting things
- The mutated animals of Chernobyl – YouTube (18mins)
I find this place endlessly fascinating and terrifying. - Anchors don’t work the way you think – YouTube (7mins)
The physics of seafaring is an interesting rabbit hole. - Engineering the Antarctic Base – YouTube (20mins)
Human ingenuity in zero sunlight and desolation.
I’ll leave you with a quote 🤔
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
— Jane Goodall
Until next time,
remember to live and let go,
Scotty
PS you don’t see that anymore, eh?
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