When Everything Changes…

I find not only the Earth is changing, so am I.

Earth Changes/Climate Change
An excellent column in this morning’s Hartford Courant by Robert M. Thorson, “Climate Change Science Trumps Opinion” . Prof. Thorson put forth the clearest explanation of how global warming will/could bring on an ice age.

I quote directly from his article:
Counter-intuitively, small ice sheets are harder to get rid of than big ones because they can't produce enough meltwater to flip the toggle-switch of Earth's climate system into its interglacial mode. Only when ice sheets are huge, and when tickled by an extra tidbit of astronomically raised sunlight, can they flood the North Atlantic with enough meltwater to stop the persistent flow of north-flowing warm oceanic currents in the Gulf Stream. This permits the North Atlantic to glaze over with sea ice.
In consequence, and moving downwind on the prevailing westerlies, the chill from an ice-covered North Atlantic makes Europe very cold, the Middle East merely cold and mainland Asia cool enough to stop the Asian monsoon. Ventilation of carbon dioxide dissolved in Pacific waters to the atmosphere increases for unknown reasons, as does the release of methane stored in wet terrestrial soils. This warms the whole globe through the greenhouse effect, which melts more ice from mid-latitude ice sheets, maintaining the freshness of the North Atlantic and keeping the heat conveyor belt shut off until there's nothing left to melt. Only then can ice sheets begin anew with their oscillatory, grinding growth, a phase that lasts about 90,000 years.

Enough said for changes on Earth.

Personal Changes
It seems everything in my life is changing. My house is for sale; I’ve stopped coloring my hair (and if you don’t think that was a big change you’ve got another thing coming!); and my body is changing.

Lets talk about the body
Even though I have recently slacked off with my workouts, I feel pushed to resume and not stop. I am looking forward to being able to get out on my bike again.

Then there is my body itself. I have to go gluten free. Not thinking about it, but pushed to do it. Little by little I am replacing wheat/gluten-based foods with gluten free.

I have already stopped using bread. Until I can get to the store to buy gluten free bread, I will now go back to having a ‘sandwich in a bowl’ which is all the ingredients you would put in a sandwich (and more if you want), cut up, and mixed with mayo or whatever condiment you want. That eliminates the bread. For all I know there may be wheat products in mayo, but I'll take care of that once I use up what I have.

I already have quinoa for breakfast, so there is no change here. But, I have bought gluten-free cold cereal for before-bed snacks.

Next will be crackers once the one’s I have on hand are all used up.

My daughter, Anne, has been gluten-free for almost two years now, and has never felt better. She is my resource for how to do it right.

Surprisingly, I do not feel like I’m denying myself of my favorite foods. I’m excited to get on with it!