Food Fades

 

 

My afternoon food fades.  Had them all my life.  I remember in high school hoping any complicated classes would be in the morning because I knew I’d be dozing through class in the afternoons.  Later, as an adult, I figured out the connection to food, to what I had for lunch.  I assumed it was a blood sugar issue and tried to figure it out from that perspective.  Maybe too much.  Maybe too little.  I could never get the pattern.  Maybe gluten.  Maybe MSG.  Preservatives?  No suspect held up to repetition.  Then by chance during a fade, I checked my blood pressure.  Well actually, Judy thought to check it and told me to do it.  My blood pressure was very low.  Both numbers were below a hundred.

 

I checked with Hal.  We sorted through hypoglycemia and hypotension and settled on the latter.  It’s not a big deal.  Nothing to medicate.  It’s just a thing, but now it has a name.  Post Prandial Hypotension.  A sudden drop in blood pressure after a meal.  Food fades.  The solution?  I continue to do what I’ve been doing all my adult life; watch for patterns and avoid the foods that make me crash.  It’s a whole lot easier to pick out the patterns now though, since I’m no longer trying to correlate with blood sugar.  Black coffee in the morning is fine.  I’ve figured out a safe breakfast.  A couple snacks for lunch, and dinner doesn’t seem to matter so much.  It’s working.

 

Mom had it too.  Two o’clock in the afternoon she’d have to lie down on the front room couch and take a nap for an hour.  She always wanted to be back up again by the time I got home from school, but sometimes she was still asleep.  She never made the connection to what she had for lunch or blood pressure.  I got there but it took me a long time.  And I had more resources available to help me figure it out.

 

Mighty Mouse

 

 

 

The smallest plant in the yard.  The first to bloom.

 

Northern Cardinal

 

 

 

 

And Mrs. Cardinal

 

 

 

 

 

Can you spot the sand crab in this picture?

 

 

 

He looks like another clump of sand, but there is a giveaway.

 

That menacing claw.  It looks big on him, but the entire crab is maybe 2 inches wide, so it’s not too scary.

 

Sign of the day

 

 

Noticed while walking through a South Texas industrial area, packed with small businesses building and repairing things.

 

The sign read:

 

Dirty hands.

Clean money.

 

 

It doesn’t exactly describe the life of an accountant, but we recognize and admire the sentiment.

 

 

 

I haven’t mentioned gators lately

 

 

But there are plenty of them at the Birding and Nature Center on South Padre Island.  They’re a rescue center for alligators that cause trouble with people.  The problem lies mostly with the people, not the gators.  If a gator gets fed, it learns from that experience and becomes a “nuisance” and has to be removed.  Or maybe it shows up on a dock or in a swimming pool.

 

There are small ones in tanks.

 

 

To larger ones in ponds.

 

All the way up to Big Padre.

 

Twelve feet of gator!

 

A vegetable cooler

 

 

Freshened up our camping meals on the road.

 

We pack a little Coleman stove and a nonstick pan.  Judy has upped our camping dinner game.

 

 

I just can’t get enough of these tangled oak branches.

 

 

Made a day trip to Lost Maples State Natural Area.

 

To everyone’s delight on a warm day.

 

 

 

Now we’re home.