Late To The Party, and Flirted With The DJ Because I Was Being Chased By A Tiger?

photo from WWF

That almost sounds like a good song title.

It just came to me as whimsy does because I started reading Dave Kessler's book The End of Overeating -like, what 3 years or so after the big wave of fervor over this book. I zipped through part of it on the Kindle last night in no time. Coincidentally, I was eating the last measured cup of a cinnamon sugar popcorn that was a blissful butter/cinnamon/sugar/salt extravaganza that pretty much exemplified what I was reading in the first 4 chapters of the book. Yep, I'm an addict and I have a whole slew of dealers from Kraft to Kellogg's to Hershey's, just to name a few.

It makes sense and I kind of knew some of this , but reading about other people's food fixations and mixed emotions and behaviors made me a feel a little better. Not so weird after all. Better , because I'm in a little better recovery place than I once was. More aware and more willing. Better because my reaction is to assess what I'm eating and work toward reducing greatly the eating of and addiction to processed foods. I got pissed at the food / advertising industry and I want to be defiant. I'm responsible for my actions , but my dealers were spiking the party punch. Better keep reading the book , I think.

Then , last night I dreamed that I was in college, and I had no major. I couldn't remember what my mailbox number was at the student center. I wasn't paying for my dorm room and expected to be locked out. I had forgotten to attend a math class all year long, and realized it was exam time. Also, I remembered it was May and I didn't know what I was going to do or where I would live when the semester ended.(These are all recurring theme dreams for me all crammed in to one which is odd for a 49 year old who already has a degree/career.)

I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. I'm walking across campus when suddenly a zoo full of big cats-leopards, lions, tigers, bob cats, lynx's and car sized Tarantulas are running all over campus mauling and destroying people. People are trying to take cover in buildings but the people in the buildings are trying to block them from entering. The military is starting to send in support , but they are killing as many people as the animals are.

I'm not able to run fast because I'm too fat and my knee/hip arthritis is hurting me. I try staring them down, playing dead , hiding behind trees, praying, summoning "the force", you name it. It works for a while, but in the end I had two big cats lying on either side of me about to take a big ol' bite out of me. I woke up with both dogs in bed-one with her head in my hand and the other snuggled up to my back.

Ha! But seriously, that was a symbolic dream and it just might get discussed with my therapist. I imagine my Cortisol levels were off the charts. I felt pretty crummy and shook up this morning. Fight or Flight all night long. I had no self energy left.

And then I had a thought: "Does this mean I need to be eating the Paleo diet?" For some reason, that cracked me up.