Wednesday 8 June 2005

Pic of the day: "It's only in elementary school that a person can be popular by being athletic." A bunch of soccer millionaires might disagree with you, but for most of us it is surely true. Later in life we do it only to save our worthless hide, and then in the end we die anyway. (The picture is from the anime Sensei no Ojikan.)

Life in the "healthy" lane

After the heart scare last Thursday, I have been exercising less: Half an hour instead of one hour of walking in the hills. That's the thing I'm most interested in asking the doctor about, whether I can continue to exercise the same way as before, and whether the exercise has anything to do with the heart racing. After all, that episode happened just after I returned from one of my trips. Then again, this could be coincidence. I have taken many long walks in my life, hundreds of them if not thousands. (But of course I was younger then... actually, I have been younger all my life.) And the first time I had a racing heart episode similar to this one, I had not done any strenuous exercise. So it could easily be a coincidence. But I would rather ask my doctor about that instead of tossing a coin. He might just happen to know.

Apart from this, life continues as before. I am still not living as if each day would be my last. (And it wasn't... I am dictating this on Saturday.)

One more thing worth noting: Fat food doesn't really appeal to me anymore. I have been very cautious about eating fat ever since my horror week this spring, when my liver seemingly stopped making gall for a week after a virus infection. I also had several other symptoms at the time, which I in retrospect consider may have come from liver dysfunction. Now that my liver and my digestion seem to be back to the levels from before that incident, I suppose there is really no need for a fat-free diet. Except that it is healthy, of course. And except that I am no longer particularly attracted to fat. After first a month without solid food, and later a few weeks of regular (but light) exercise, I have been more hungry than I can remember before. But strangely, I'm not particularly hungry for fat. Rather I am hungry for the things I cannot eat, fruit and vegetables. For most of my adult life I have been unable to eat those, as they put my digestion in hyperdrive. I keep craving them, though, and occasionally I will try just a little bit. No, I still can't eat them. But I love them more than ever. The other day I bought a paprika, which I keep cutting small slices of and munching along with the meals, hoping to not get sick. I am truly an inverted person, am I not? At least I still walk on my feet and not on my hands...