Sticky Fingers

My long lost friend Martha has inspired me to write about sticky fingers today. Martha is very much into yoga and follows a yogic diet. The diet is very simple and terribly healthy; no sugar, no salt and no animal products. The theory behind the diet is that one can purify the mind and body and meditate with more focus. No animal products are consumed because of not wanting to harm other living creatures. The other part of this plan is to resist ones desires and to foster determination and will power.
I have what I like to call sticky fingers. Sticky fingers afflicts us all in one form or another throughout our lives. For some it can be debilitating and for others it can be harmless. Sticky fingers is the sensation of loss of control. I have gone from one substance to another. At the age of...for as long as I can remember, I wanted alcohol. After therapy and a good dose of reality my fingers let go of alcohol and then stuck to sugar. Mmmmm, the sweet embrace of sugar. It filled the hole that alcohol left. At the same time as the alcohol and sugar was the nicotine. In order to get my fingers unstuck from the nicotine I had to keep elastic bands around my wrists so that I had something for my hands to do. I had sunflower seeds that I would work in my mouth to keep my mouth busy. It took my awhile to perfect the art of taking the shell off of a sunflower seed without the use of my fingers. Currently I am trying to pry my sticky fingers away from sugar. I am hoping that they will stick to exercise. Generally if you have a craving for sugar it is an indication that you need protein. I try to eat a handful of nuts if I feel sugar calling my name. It seems to work. I think sticky fingers is a biological predisposition. It is also to do with will power; which brings us back to the yogi lifestyle. If you sit and listen to your body, it will tell you what it needs. I find that I have to bind and gag my ego before doing this. The ego will talk over whoever else is talking and get greedy for whatever it wants. In this busy world we have listened to our egos for too long. We have become unhealthy, uncaring, and unbalanced. I would like to suggest that we take time to just simply sit and listen to our bodies for a few minutes a day. It is amazing what they will tell you.

What Kate Ate - 12/21/09

Apple
Oatmeal with walnuts and raisins
Left over solstice dinner
Granola bar
Butternut squash ravioli, salad and sauteed spinach
Dark chocolate

I also ran 2.5 miles yesterday!!! I am so good (thanks Alexis).