My head is buzzing and I can’t write until I empty it.
My house needs a clean and tidy, I don’t know what’s for dinner tonight, I haven’t finished my Christmas shopping and I haven’t posted the few Christmas cards I want to send.
I’ll do these things and then I’ll get writing:
I feel lighter already. Bring on the writing!
Halloween 2020
What could be scarier than mental illness paired with a whole day and night of people trying to frighten the life out of each other?
What is scary about Halloween if you have a Mental Illness?
For some people with a mental illness, Halloween will be an opportunity to hide behind a costume and a mask and maybe feel a sense of relief at being able to be completely anonymous.
Some will enjoy the irony of other people getting their anxiety tested as the most adventurous ones celebrate the holiday by giving and receiving a real fright.
For some though, even being surprised and frightened in fun can raise anxiety levels so high it becomes difficult to function.
It’s not that the act of frightening these people that is the truly scary thing, it’s that when you have an anxiety disorder, one that treatment, therapy and medication does not lessen, you become one big human shock button.
That shock, the horror of a big fright, is so much fun for so many people. If you have an anxiety disorder or some other mental illnesses, and someone shocks you, it can trigger an anxiety attack/panic attack that will write off Halloween and possibly a few days that follow.
Halloween Ideas
If you know someone with a mental illness and you want to celebrate Halloween while being sensitive to ways your friend might struggle this month, do one simple thing and reach out and ask them. Here are some questions to ask your friend or family member with mental illness, at Halloween:
– How are you with Halloween?
– How can we celebrate Halloween 2020 in a way that you’ll have as much fun as everyone else?
– Are there Halloween decorations, Halloween treats and Halloween ideas you love and find easy to enjoy?
– If we hold a Halloween party, what can we do so that everyone feels comfortable?
– Would you mind being in charge of the scare-factor of our family and friends Halloween celebrations? Can you keep it to a level where everyone will be happy?
– Is Halloween something you’d like to skip this year? We can do lunch another day and catch up without all the chaos if you prefer?
A Better Halloween This Year
I guarantee your friend or family member with a mental illness will be grateful that you caring enough to include them in the planning of Halloween. If you love to get the bejeezus scared out of you, there are plenty of places to go and things you can do. Maybe stop a moment the next time your heart is in your throat with shock, and remember that some people with mental illness feel this sensation on a regular basis, and it isn’t much fun.
Be a good friend, have fun, and enjoy Halloween!
I made keto cauliflower mash and it was a waste of perfectly delicious cauliflower. I followed the instructions from a few different recipes; steaming the cauliflower, adding salt and pepper, butter and cream cheese, blending it with a hand stick blender, and it looked great, most importantly not runny. Runny is apparently the devil of cauliflower mash.
Doesn’t the food in the photo look great? I mean apart from that piece of chicken at the top looking like a choc chip cookie, it looks like a potentially delicious meal.
My family liked it and I got requests to add it to the rotation, as we say in my family, but I found it mealy, grainy, and the flavour wasn’t cheesy and it wasn’t like cauliflower. It was a disappointment to me.
Maybe next time I make the mash, I’ll put it in my bullet blender. I don’t want to end up with a puddle of mash, though. These are the trials of the keto diet; grainy mash or a puddle of mash.
I’m fussy about my food, I know that, and being on a keto diet and intermittent fasting, I try to make sure that both of my meals each day are delicious. One unhappy dinner does not derail me, though.
Tonight I’m making lamb chops with peas and it’s hard to go wrong with that.
If you like reading books online, check out my other blog at www.rachelgracewrites.com where I’m writing my novel The Naked Ladies Writing Group, one post at a time.
This morning I weighed in at exactly ninety-nine kilo’s and I’m pretty damn pleased with myself.
I cannot believe I’m saying this but I’m under a hundred kilos. I’d given up on losing weight, because of my thyroid disease and meds I take for mental illness that tend to block weight loss. Apparently keto is king, and will not be beaten.
Having absolutely no appetite is what makes this diet so easy to do, for me. I’m fasting from after dinner one day to lunch the next day, eating under 30 carbs a day, doing some walking about three times a week and doing absolute beginner yoga each morning. That’s it.
I’m not doing clean keto, which is all about wild-caught salmon and organic meats, dairy and produce. I mostly eat meat, dairy, veggies, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices. Yep, that’s about it. The only processed food I’m eating is a little Denada Ice Cream after dinner, which is absolutely delicious. I like the chocolate and the caramel with chocolate chips flavours best. I drink water, coffee with full fat cream, green tea, black tea with a splash of milk, Coke No Sugar, Solo No Sugar and mint tea.
On Monday, I went to a shopping centre and I decided to cheat and have a donut, I love donuts so much. I went to Donut King and scoped the range and nope, nothing called to me. Not one of those creamy, custard-filled, frosted beauties made me want to eat them. This is still incredibly weird to me. I am a lifelong foodie, which I guess I now reframe as a carb and sugar addict, and before keto I could eat all the donuts, all of them. Now I honestly couldn’t be bothered and anyway it would make me feel like crap emotionally and probably physically as well.
Before keto I ate what I wanted, and I ate a lot. I ate McDonalds, Hungry Jacks or KFC once a week. I ate huge platefuls of food and I often had seconds. Since keto, I haven’t eaten any take-away food at all, I eat a smaller amount of food and feel completely satisfied after every meal. Since starting intermittent fasting I’ve only eaten twice a day, lunch and dinner and I’m rarely hungry. I don’t get hangry any more, which is nice for my family.
If you’ve tried everything except a keto diet like me, I recommend you give keto a go. Do what’s right for you, and see your doctor before you do anything like this, but also, give it a go and I hope you get under a hundred kg’s like me.
Check out my other blog, where I’m writing my novel, at: www.rachelgracewrites.com
I didn’t plan on trying the Keto Diet because I was worried about the stories of how hard it is, how limited the foods allowed and how not everyone loses weight.
One of my relatives recently lost weight on Keto, and I respect him a lot, so I decided to rethink the Keto way. I did a days research online and decided that people on keto were pretty hard core, and there were others who did low carb with good success long term, and I have over thirty kilos to lose so long term is my sentence diet-wise anyway.
I’m three and a half weeks in and I’ve lost four and a half kilos. I’m taking it one day at a time, and not getting too excited, just one step after another, one meal at a time, no snacks and intermittent fasting in the 16:8 way.
I’ve tried many diets in the past few years, to try to get my health back and lose weight. None of them were liveable, none made me lose weight on an ongoing basis, after that first week of water weight as they call it.
This way of eating has had some unexpected side effects that have me hoping for a new life. Calm down, don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched, nothing has worked before, why do you think this will work over time? Yes, those thoughts still nag but not loud and insistent, just there strong enough to keep me in line, eating my bacon and eggs for lunch, no snacks, two meals a day only. My head is so clear.
My fiancée and I started together, we both read up on what to eat and decided we’d give it a go together. I’m the cook in the house, and so I have done my best to make yummy meals. We’re doing well and I hope we continue to lose weight.
I loved this lunch, even though it was smallish. The low carb tomato sauce made my day. The way the cheese became crispy around the edges of the beef patty added a whole new layer of delicious.
This was way more delicious than it looks. Barramundi cooked in butter, and cauliflower in a cheesy sauce. Can’t talk, snarfling!
Another delicious breakfast, this time bacon and eggs with mushrooms and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. I’ve never liked breakfast as a meal, but I am enjoying these low carb breakfasts.
This was delicious. Three ingredients I love; smoked salmon, cucumber and feta.
I thought I’d miss burgers so much on keto/low carb, but this dinner was delicious and satisfying and didn’t leave me wishing for a soft, white bun.
2 beef patties, nothing added, fried in the pan
2 slices of cheese, added to the burgers, in the pan, when they are done. Allow the cheese to melt.
Iceberg lettuce to wrap the burger
Sliced pickles
2 thin slices of tomato
2 small pieces of beetroot (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie)
1/4 an avocado
1 radish to crunch on
This was really yummy, much better than I thought it would be. I haven’t found sugar free sauces yet, I’m hoping to find them at the supermarket today.
Rachel Keerie 