The DietChef Thing: Day 12

Hey everyone.

I'm writing this a bit earlier than usual because I have a crushing Migraine, in fact it's the one I had yesterday, I'm really tired and I'm dying to curl up in bed. Luckily I have a snack I can take in with me so it's all good. Today has been another crazy busy one, but it's also seen me stay on the tracks and mentally recovering from yesterday's battering, so we can call it encouraging, if not really good.

I wake up with a dull thudding behind my eyes. Oh no, Migraine still in place. Pink elephants on parade, and quick too. This is my code name for painkillers. Uh-Oh! I feel a digression coming on.

It's a weird thing, you know, when you live with a very long term debilitating health condition. If I were a really good person I would be so self-contained and private about it that no one would know anything about it. I know some people like that. I admire them more than I have words to express. I don't mean that they're saintly, nobody's that, except in nineteenth-century children's books, they're just more courageous than I could ever be. I've also been around people who don't hold back any details. Please, don't think I'm criticising. The way they cope is by being up front about whatever they're suffering from. Me, well I recently spent quite a bit of time looking at a lot of my old tweets, and I discovered I talk a lot more about my health, or the lack thereof, than I thought I did. Maybe I'm better about it now than I used to be, but still. I find that if I keep things inside my head it makes everything feel all backed up until I'm ready to burst, so for better or worse I'll drop the odd tweet, but I try hard not to complain, I don't want to ever come across as whiney. I really do have a horror of complaining and whining, I think it's the thing that really scares me. I've told practically everyone that the day they catch me at it they have permission to kick me! So if I have to vent a little I try to keep it jokey. So I write silly notes to my head, I give my pain meds names, do any dumb thing I can think of to keep accentuating the positive. I don't know that I always succeed, but I always try.

Ok, so, pink elephants taken but they don't do a thing. Sometimes they just don't work. So sad, too bad, we have a video to make. We had two weeks' break while noble husband and I were on vacation and we're not going to turn it into three. But first, breakfast. Chocolate granola, yogurt and a lovely hot cup of tea, nom!

The morning progresses, my head plays Led Zeplin and Iron Maiden Fortissimo and my tongue is green and furry while I try to produce the voice of a five-year-old child. The speech is finally recorded and noble husband begins the editing while I play solitaire and ache. It's lunchtime but I don't want it. Minestrone Soup. I hate soup with bits in. Resignedly I heat it up and add the now habitual pinch of salt.

First bite: it's all right. The broth is too thin for my liking, there's tomato which is too acidic. The vegetables are nice, but they've used full size pasta shapes, not proper soup pasta, it's a mismatched hotchpotch of a soup, I won't be ordering it again.

It's time for me to put my headphones on and help my husband with the final edit. The process is long and arduous, this is a complicated story. Noble husband is endlessly patient, even when one particular speech segment has to be redone. The finished product is worth the trouble though, we're both really happy with it. I upload it to Youtube at about 4:30 and relax. I do some Emails and Twitter and pleasantly while away the time till dinner. Creamy Mushroom Pasta tonight, good, I'm starving.

When I was a little girl I used to hear a story about a rich man with three beautiful daughters. One day he asked them all how much they loved him, the vain old fool! One said more than all the world. One said more than her life. But the youngest and most beautiful said: "I love you as much as meat loves salt." Of course, he was angry with her, and he drove her out into the world. Being a fairytale it all worked out in the end, and Cap-of-Rushes, for that's what the girl came to be called, even gets to teach her father a lesson, as well as marry a Prince. She invites him to her wedding feast and instructs the cook to serve all the meat dishes without any salt. Of course, when her father tastes all the nasty unsalted food he realizes what his daughter meant when she told him how much she loves him, and he cries, and then she comes forward, hugs and forgives him, and all is well.

I heard that story when I was very small. By some hard searching and great good luck, I now possess a digitised copy of the very rare vinyl album which contains it. But I've never forgotten that meat loves salt. That food in general loves salt. Not too much maybe, too much of anything is bad for you. But I've never been able to eat food without a little salt. As you will know by now, the recurring trouble I am having with DietChef's food is that it is really very under seasoned. The first night I ate this Creamy Mushroom pasta and it was really not very nice, without proper seasoning the sauce tasted too fatty, too milky, the taste of the mushrooms was lost. By the addition of a tiny, and I do mean tiny, pinch of salt the whole thing came alive. It really was delicious. The sauce was velvety, creamy, full of flavour, the mushrooms tasted lovely. I ate every bit with relish. I know some people have to eat a very low salt diet for their health. I hope that fate will never be mine, or I don't know what will happen to me! I love a tiny bit of salt as much as salt loves most things! Even chocolate!

Well, that's about it. The Migraine has really taken hold, so I've spent most of the time after supper writing this. I've just been brought a cup of tea and my snack, which is cheese and onion potato and soy snacks. As soon as I've had these I'm off to a good book and a soft pillow. I really hope this head's gone by tomorrow, or I might have to threaten it with decapitation! Goodnight everyone.

Food eaten today.

Breakfast: Chocolate Granola, plain, no fat yogurt.

Lunch: Minestrone Soup.

Dinner: Creamy Mushroom Pasta, serving of sliced spring greens.

Snack: Cheese and Red Onion Potato and Soy Snacks.

Drinks: Tea, no milk or sugar.

Bad? no.

Are you hungry? Peckish, but I haven't finished my snack yet.

Mood: Ouchy.

Music: Dan Gibson's Solitudes: The Coconut You Gave Me.