Far out it was a challenging night last night. In my attempt to go as wholefood plant-based (healthy vegan) as soon as possible, I think I overdid it with legumes the last couple of days. Don't get me wrong, legumes are great for overall health and longevity generally but some people struggle to digest them. I'm one of these people, though as far as I've been able to work out, it's resolvable: I need to reintroduce the gut microbes (bacteria) that digest these kinds of foods for me.
I probably used to have these bacteria but I had a rather challenging series of gut health issues 13 years ago and ended up on a restricted diet and a range of antibiotics that, it seems, changed the ecosystem of microbiota in my gut in a big way (and not for the better!). Soooooo I'm learning and trying things and sometimes I f&ck it up. Like this week, leading to pain, gas, bloating and not a lot of sleep.
So this morning was a very... slow... start. Bless my darling Brad. Sometimes I don't know how he puts up with it. My health challenges affect his holiday and all the (many, many) things he'd like to do. But somehow we manage.
Sometimes I wish he could feel what I feel on days like today so he knows I'm not just making it up or being lazy or some such nonsense. But in reality, I don't want anyone else to feel this way, let alone this man I love so much.
Instead, I attempt to communicate the problem, how I'm feeling, what I need, what I'm going to try and do differently to make tonight better and then I get on with trying to have a reasonably fun day within the confines of what my body is up for.
At something crazy like 11 am we finally left the house and went for a drive to find "Ocean Beach". Literally, that's what it's called. It is an ocean beach, as in a beach that faces the ocean (that ocean is officially known as the Tasman Sea) and it's only a 10-minute drive from Strahan where we are currently staying.
I'd thrown swimmers into the car assuming we wouldn't just walk along the beach but actually get in. And while I still felt somewhat rubbish I figured that getting into the ocean would make me feel better.
I did. I felt good enough, in fact, to jog out of the knee-high water as a kind of resistance training! It was, dare I say, fun.
Albeit, really quite cold!
Thank God for the ocean. What would I do without it?
All up it was a pretty good day considering how challenging last night was. We had gorgeous weather. I got to see new things. We walked along two different beaches (1. Macquarie Head & 2. Ocean Beach). We did a short bushwalk near our accommodation and we had (spicy!) Green Curry Veg and Rice for dinner.
And I got to spend time with my love. Lucky me.
And that, my friends, got me over 11,000 steps for the day. That'll do (pig), that'll do ;)
