Working hard, or Hardly working?

Have you recovered yet from your long weekend?  My wonderful students apparently have not, seeing as how I'm sitting here writing my blog instead of teaching.  None of my kids showed up for class today.  It's not like they have a state exam in a week or anything.  I know you're thinking that it's impossible that not a single kid showed up, but I was only supposed to have 3 anyway.  I teach in an alternative program (read:  all of the badass kids who have been kicked out of the high school attended by everyone else in the town).  There are only 7 of them in the program right now, but they can't all be in a room together at the same time, so we split them in half. (Read:  I wasn't kidding when I called them badass, and I didn't mean it in the "whoa that truck makes him look so badass" way).  And today the three who are supposed to be with me right now just didn't come to school.  So here I am. 

First of all, because it was just Memorial Day, and because I'm technically wearing my hat of English teacher right now, I am feeling the need to recommend a book to you.  You may have read it already, but just in case you haven't, you should.  It claims to be a work of fiction, "except for a few details from the author's life", yet it was written by a Vietnam War veteran and is so detailed and believeable that you are left to wonder exactly which parts were made up. It is raw, gritty, touching, gut-wrenching, and all of those other strong adjectives that you would expect to come with a book that was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.  It's about love, relationships, coming-of-age, and war.  Now go order it.  You will not regret reading this book. 

You didn't know that in my other life I'm a book
critic, did you?  Haha. I'm so not. 
But I have read a few good books in my day.
This is one of them.

Ok. Moving on.  On the health front, things are going fairly well.  I'm loving the new supplements.  Remember how I told you about my sleeping problem.  (As in, I wasn't sleeping at all because I was just never tired?)  Well, two weeks in to the new pills I'm popping, things seem to be changing for the better.  I've been starting to get tired at the very appropriate time of 10:30ish, and have been waking up around 6:30, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Thank you, Supplements!  Sleeping at normal times is kinda fun!

Additionally, the move away from dairy is proving to be a good one, too.  My nutritional muscle test a couple of weeks ago showed that I have an issue with my stomach.  But I've never had noticeable symptoms, so we didn't spend much time talking about it.  Well, I'll tell you something:  now that I've been away from dairy (well, mostly...) my stomach feels all kinds of new.  It's hard to describe, but I really do feel noticeably better.  Which is so weird, because I never thought I had problems before.  So anyway, I'm doing a pretty bad job here, so let's just leave it at this:  I have been cooking with and drinking either almond or coconut milk, have stayed away from all yogurt, have not really eaten a ton of cheese, and have avoided most other dairy.  And I feel healthier! 

Giving up dairy = good for me
Mozzarella cheese = impossible to give up

Moral of the story:  one little change can make a big difference.  TRY IT!!!! 

Here's a question for you:  (to which I'm asking begging for responses.  Don't let me down.)

What little change have you made that has made a big difference?
(Working out once in a while;  going meatless once a week; drinking more water; using sunscreen???? C'mon.. tell me!!)

Have a healthy day,

J