TCM

So I had my consultation... was interesting I guess. Some things that I expected to be unimportant were apparently important, and vice versa. "ohhh, that's not normal..." For finding pain in pressure points, could argue that you'll always find something if you press hard enough, but what impressed me was how sensitive some were, and how assymetrical it sometimes was. The tongue inspection appeared to be the most informative part of the exam. Sometimes he almost sounded like a salesman. I was going to give some kind of example, but can't really explain it, but maybe you know what I mean. And I'm like "Oh yeah, speed holes!" Anyways, I'm exaggerating a bit, and it could be all completely valid.

Anyways, the "diet obstacles" came up, as expected. I wasn't expecting it to be too bad... Like shellfish, I don't eat anything but shrimp anyways and got rid of most of that a few years back anyways. Diary was expected, and while it would be tough, I think it's mostly doable. But then the bombs started dropping. Bananas. Apparently I should stay clear of bananas. Mangoes and pineapple! That really sucks. And then the worst... "I'm afraid to ask... but what about eggs?" "Ohhhhhh.... Nooooo......" That's like a staple for me. Might as well tell me to stop eating rice, or chicken. It'll be tough. But I guess if this a real chance to physically, mentally, and emotionally improve my condition, I should give it as best an effort as possible. Just feel pretty down about it for now. And having just gone shopping two days earlier, half the food I have here is now considered off-limits, or at least to be minimized.

Another interesting thing was how quickly he wanted to get things started. He actually asked if I didn't have anything to do, if I could stick around and have back to back appointments. I declined, but had one the next morning and having one after the weekend. I guess that's good in a way. One thing that I'm a bit nervous about is cost as well. I'll have used up almost half a years worth of coverage in a week. But if it's effective, it'll be worth it. I can try swing a bit of extra coverage if some can be considered "naturopathy" while some is "acupuncture," I feel that's honestly valid based on what we've done so far, but I doubt it'll work.

One last interesting thing to mention. Apparently from a TCM point of view, jogging is vastly superior to other cardio like elliptical or bike. Something about the impacts promoting circulation of yang upwards and yin back down. ok.

Anyways, first treatment, wasn't bad, seemed quite brief actually. Lay down, poke poke poke, wait 15 min, unpoke, turn over, poke poke, tape beads to ears, wait 15 min, unpoke, bye. Poking mostly didn't hurt, did a bit on some places (esp scalp) on initial insertion. Felt uncomfortable if I let myself think about there being needles sticking out of me so tried to keep my mind elsewhere. Overall for the day, don't notice anything, if you told me I had only dreamed the whole thing, it would be plausible. Drank some herb tea (ie boiled bark and roots and other funky stuff), tasted fairly bad but not terrible. Don't think it made my apartment smell too bad, but I sortof like funky asian smells so others might disagree.