Twenty-two

---

Weighted Blanket

My weighted blanket arrived.  I absolutely love it.  It's heavy.  Twenty-two pounds to be precise.  But when it's on it's like that feeling I get when I first slip into a hot bath, or when D gives me a hug right when I'm feeling overwhelmed.  Just an overall ahhhhhhh feeling.

I still woke up at least three times that I can distinctly remember, but I'm still very pleased with the blanket.  I can't expect it to magically enable me to not awaken at all during the night.  

---

Brunch & Gluten

We have brunch here in a few hours.  I am making leek bread pudding.  After several days of gluten indulgence on my part, I'm not sure why I picked a bread pudding dish, but there you go.  After this brunch, I'm back to restricting gluten as much as possible until we leave for DC.

I was telling D how my days when the gluten is out of my system (or mostly out) are so different from days like yesterday and today.  Right now, I could so easily go back upstairs and go to sleep.  When I've eaten too much gluten, I wake up and thinking, "When do I get to nap?  When do I get to go back to sleep?"  This was the thought I had every morning for as long as I can remember.  Then, without gluten, I realized I didn't have those thoughts anymore.  I would wake up and be awake.  All day.  Not craving naps all the time, not trying to get a five minute nap in, not taking a nap in the car before an appointment I'm early to (yes, I did this a lot). 

Of course D's reaction was, "Well, why do you eat it at all then?" My response was initially defensive, yet still truthful: "Because it's easier."  There's also the added element of determining exactly how much I can handle before it starts to set me back.  Right now, I'm at too much.  I think the answer is I can have a bite or two every day, and probably the amount in a cheeseburger once a week (not that I'd eat a cheeseburger once a week, but that general amount).  Much beyond that seems to start making me oh-so-sleepy.  It also makes me more prone to headaches and of feeling generally unwell.  At least, I think it's the gluten.  It's possible it other things - too much sugar, maybe too much corn or soy.  Which is why I probably need to do the diet again.  Reintroducing needs to be done when I'm not traveling because nothing is ever "normal" on travel days or the days surrounding it. 

The reason I've eaten so much gluten in recent days - and it's still not that much relative to my diet of several months ago - is simply lack of time allotment to preparation and shopping and cooking.  I have to have fresh vegetables and fruit in the house.  I also have to have a roasted chicken in the refrigerator.  And, of course, always a batch of brown rice.  I haven't had all three of those things since returning from California.