100 Days

November 28th, 2010…100 days since I've worked and since I started the LEAP diet. I'm now up to 22 vegetables, 19 spices/sweeteners, 18 types of animal, 9 fruits, 5 oils and 3 grain-free flours. My new favorite vegetable is a sunchoke, also called a Jerusalem artichoke. What is a sunchoke, exactly? Well, it looks like a potato that's the size of a brussel sprout, has sunflower like blooms and breaks down into fructose instead of glucose, making them ideal for diabetics and the rest of us. Think potato meets water chestnut. I'm going to grill our next batch and make home-fries out of them.

It's amazing how much can happen in 100 days. It's not very long in the grand scheme of things like eternity…or even my life. I've already been on earth this go-round about 11,840 days, so 100 days is only .8% of my life. I've learned more in the last 100 days than the other 99.2% for sure! The question is: can I maintain balance when I reemerge into the world? It will happen eventually. I'll start apprenticing with Andrew, hopefully start a biology class on January 18th, maybe start doing yoga or climbing or skiing again, throw some friends in the mix and voila…a busy American life again. Fortunately, I'm not Kira anymore. I'm KiraZoe now and who knows what she's all about. It doesn't really matter how she defines herself anyway.

For those of you who are worried that I'm wasting away and going to die here on my green corduroy couch, have no fear. I've been tested for all infectious diseases of the GI tract, all my bacteria levels in there, parasites, Candida, thyroid and adrenal function, vitamin D levels, anemia, cervical cancer, electrolyte levels and western medicine has deemed me extremely healthy! Yipee! The best they can come up with is reoccurring mono (epstein barr virus) or the chronic fatigue syndrome umbrella, neither of which have an understood cause or cure. I also have many food allergies and intolerances which cause inflammation sometimes when I eat.

Chinese medicine has a beautiful diagnosis: collapsed Yang and deficient Qi (especially of the kidneys, spleen and lungs). Lately when I eat during the day, digestion is fine. When I eat from 5-7pm, when my Qi  (pronounced chee) is in the Kidney channel, I get bloated. So, they are working to bring both my Yang and Qi back into balance.

At any rate, I think it has everything to do with my emotions, spirit and karma. I spent my whole life running away from myself, but especially since Luke died 5 years ago, that my body couldn't keep up anymore. I was so out of balance spiritually that I imploded. I'm in a reflective cocoon now until I'm ripe enough to be born into the world again…as a new person. Or rather as the person I have always been.