My Wichita Favorites

As my permanent time in Wichita is coming to an end, I've been filling my time with my favorite things to do in good ol' Ta Town.  There are so many things I'm going to miss about Wichita.  It's funny to think when we all graduated from high school, everyone was so ready to "get out of here".  I chose to stay in Wichita for college, because it was the best place for me to play basketball, and I have to admit I was a bit jealous of my buddies heading off to Lawrence and Manhattan.  However, after many fine years (26.5 to be exact!) in this awesome city, I've come to realize how much I'm really going to miss living here.  I've always said anyone who thinks there is nothing to do or enjoy in Wichita really isn't trying!

Every morning I've been walking my crazy, little doggies (Max & Fletcher) through every lovely street in College Hill we can get our feet on.  We've been so lucky and spoiled with this awesome weather the past few days that as soon as I can get my teeth brushed, we are out the door.  I'm really going to miss the College Hill area.  Each house has such an intriguing personality of its own, I never get bored looking at the same ones every time we pass by.  I'm going to miss driving down Roosevelt St, which is still lined with brick between Central & Douglas, and the cute little sprigs of green popping up in between those bricks in the summertime.

Max & Fletcher

I still ask Tim all the time how I'm going to handle my withdrawal symptoms by not visiting The Anchor, whether it be dinner or their amazing breakfast only served on the weekends!  I mean come on, what bar has an amazing atmosphere, welcomes people of all ages and backgrounds, has an amazing line up of brewskis, AND has a fabulous vegetarian menu?!?!?!  Tim is positive I'll find a replacement in Chicago, but I'm not so sure about this!  I think The Anchor will always be my favorite little bar in Wichita, and I plan on stopping by EVERY time I come back to visit.

And if you haven't tried Kanai (a sushi restaurant) out west, you're missing out on Wichita's best sushi.  Now being a vegetarian I'm addicted to the harmony roll (filled with cream cheese, red pepper and asparagus tempura) but my girlfriends swear they have the best tuna, shrimp and crab filled creations around.  Amazing presentation and great atmosphere, we always show up by 6pm or we end up waiting for and hour just to get a table.

This morning after a long walk with the pups, I headed down Douglas to The Donut Whole and indulged in a cinnamon streusel cake doughnut and topped it off with a yummy vanilla soymilk.  I think I'll be lucky to find a place as cool as The Donut Whole in Chicago, especially if they make cake doughnuts that taste like a root beer float or ones that have Fruity Pebbles on top.  

I have to say the spot I'm going to absolutely miss the most is the cozy, little front porch of our house.  Tim and I have spent countless hours sitting at our cute, small mosaic table.  We read, share stories and share wine or a cocktail while the world just passes us by.  Depending on the weather, we usually light our chiminea and the wonderful smell of pinon pine dances around us.  We have colorful, big trees surrounding the yard and I'm going to miss watching them turn from green to yellow and red.

Our house

The patio

 Wichita will always be "where I'm from" and "my hometown".  Tim and I have decided that Wichita probably won't be the place we settle in the future, but it will always be one of our favorite cities.  And no doubt about it, it will definitely be the city that holds our favorite friends.

Guilty Pleasures...

Yesterday I saw the movie Eat, Pray, Love with my girlfriend Molly.  It was a great story and I actually saw the movie before reading the book.  Usually, I insist upon reading any book before seeing it as a movie, but this time I thought I'd give it a go.  Besides a great performance by Julia Roberts, lovely scenery from her travels abroad and a mouthwatering showing of food, there was a line in the movie that quickly reminded me of a realization I came upon while on my honeymoon in France...

While "Liz" is spending time in Italy, she befriends some of the locals.  During one particular conversation at what appears to be a barber shop, her Italian friend states (and I'm not quoting here, but you'll get the gist)

"You Americans, you don't know how relax and enjoy simple, daily pleasures."

Again, I'm definitely not quoting here, but it does bring up a good point.  Do we really know how to relax?  And I mean really relax, as in being able to do NOTHING.  And enjoy it.  I know we've definitely mastered the fine art of sitting around and watching television, and I'm sure a few of us could argue that watching TV is doing nothing.  But I consider watching TV a "mindless" form of doing nothing.  How about mindfully doing nothing?  I know I definitely struggle with this one, especially after not working this summer.  I've always been a worker.  Which I think is a good thing, I have an impeccable work ethic.  But I really struggled with (at times) not actually "working" this summer.  Another emotion I noticed when I would spend a day in the middle of the week (gasp!), sleeping until 10:00 and then heading over to the pool with some girlfriends, is GUILT.  Now why in the world would I feel guilty for doing that?!?

I started to think of this during our time in France for our honeymoon.  I really enjoyed all of the things we were experiencing.  Drinking bottles of wine, eating amazing food and walking endlessly exploring a wonderful city.  But I never felt guilty then.  Why?  Because I was on my honeymoon!  I was supposed to be enjoying myself, right?  So why can't we enjoy ourselves ALL OF THE TIME!?!?!?  I think we really live in a society with all of this pressure to achieve, achieve, achieve and work, work, work.  And once we've achieved it's almost not enough.  It's as if we're waiting for a special feeling, something that will tell us, "It's okay, that's enough."  I once heard a great saying (not sure where), "Americans live to work, but Europeans work to live."  And I'm totally generalizing here, but this was definitely the theme I picked up on while spending two weeks in France.

I want to be good at doing nothing.  Okay, that sounded interesting.  I want to be good at doing nothing when there is nothing to be done.  I am very passionate about the work I am about to pursue, and I am excited to work very hard to achieve that goal.  But at the end of the day I want to sit and reflect.  I want to enjoy a mind-challenging conversation.  I want to drink an intriguing glass of wine.  I want to relish in a delicious plate of food.  And I want to look back and say, "I deserved that, I enjoyed that."  No guilt there.  We only get one trip in this crazy thing called life, and I certainly don't want to look back and the end of all this and say, "Well, I guess I worked a lot."

So tomorrow I'm going to sleep late, enjoy a lunch with friends and go pick out quilting fabric with my mother-in-law.  And I'm going to enjoy every single minute.

The road to feeling great!

Last week I had a visit with my doctor at the Riordan Clinic. Formally known as The Bright Spot for Health. Most of my friends in Wichita had never heard of this clinic and some knew it as "the weird-looking white domes on north Hillside". Well, those "weird-looking white domes" have changed my life. Big time.

My snow-bird parents head for southern California when the weather turns cold and nasty here in the ICT. Last year after returning in the spring, they just weren't quite feeling up to par. One would think after spending the past few months in sunny, warm California would make them feel wonderful, especially returning to Wichita when spring was in full force. After a few recommendations from friends, and I'm sure countless hours of research done by my lovely dad, they took a trip to what I'll call "the Center".

The Center's philosophy is based on integrative medicine, meaning they attempt to treat the human body as a whole and not just the parts. They focus strongly on nutrition and food sensitivity testing, along with strong research in cancer, intravenous vitamin C therapy, vitamin and nutrient deficiencies, subtle energies, and psychoacoustics in the emerging field of adult stem cell research. Wow, that was a mouthful! After my parents had such a wonderful experience, I felt extremely blessed to be able to become a patient along with them.

Typically when we visit our good old family medicine doctor we show up, wait for 30 minutes (sometimes longer!) and see the doctor for about 10-20 minutes (sometimes less!). When becoming a patient, or a co-learner as they like to call it, your first appointment actually lasts all day. You then return on the second day for a few hours to review lab tests from the day before and start a plan with your doctor. How wonderful is that?!?

Now, given that my first appointment was about a year ago, I might not remember all of the details. I do remember feeling like I was given all the attention in the world and that my doctor really cared and wanted to help me. And I guess it wasn't just my doctor that I got those feelings from, it was the entire staff. I spent a good two hours initially with my doctor and from there we developed my own personal path to overall wellness. We went through my complaints and concerns. We reviewed family histories and personal histories. I had lab tests done and also went through some mental exercises. To say the least it was a very full day. Day 2 was shorter but even more powerful than Day 1. Day 2 was when I got to discover the key to feeling better than ever! I learned about food sensitivities I have and I also learned about vitamin and mineral deficiencies that appeared on my lab tests.

When I say food sensitivities I don't mean "allergies". So if I'm sensitive to grapes, when I eat a grape I don't break out in hives or swell like a balloon. It's all about identifying how I feel when I eat grapes. (I was sensitive to numerous things I was eating on a daily basis!) Once I discovered all of my food sensitivities it was time to start the elimination diet. Yikes, that sounds scary. Basically I completely eliminated all of the food that my lab tests showed I was sensitive to. Trust me, those first few days were not very fun. Especially when you are sensitive to cow's milk, corn and yeast. That meant no cheese (which I love!) and if you haven't noticed, corn is in EVERYTHING!!! Yeast is actually in quite a few things too. It was a bit overwhelming reading so many food labels. But the positive nature took over and I decided to approach it as "Let's try new foods!" time. Just after a few days of eliminating my sensitivities, I felt like I had more energy. I wasn't getting my end-of-the-day daily headaches and I wasn't feeling like I was ready for bed at 8:00pm. Tim even commented on how he could see the changes.

The interesting thing to me is that some of us are sensitive to foods that are considered "good" for us. Healthy foods. I am sensitive to grapes. Grapes are fruit. Grapes are healthy. But anytime I eat a bunch of grapes or have one-too-many glasses of wine, I start to slip back into my yucky feeling of blah. Blinding headaches and zero energy. Who wants that?!?

What so many people don't realize is that food is medicine. What goes in your mouth affects every part of your body. It might taste wonderful going in, but is it really worth the damage and not feeling your best? Living in a society that struggles with weight and awful health conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, why can't we focus more on nutrition and less on pills that temporarily fix these problems? This is extremely frustrating to me. I'll have to save another blog to go into that...

To make a long story short, after a year of a complete dietary overhaul I am feeling better than ever. Sure, I still "indulge" in foods that I'm sensitive to but maybe not everyday as I was in the past. As I said above a few times, I'm sensitive to grapes but I LOVE wine. So if I want wine, I'll drink a glass. Every night? No, but probably a few times a week. To me it's about knowing what you are sensitive to, and making sensible choices about what to put in your body. What a great year (in SO many ways)! I'm feeling better than ever, I'm making conscious choices about what goes in my body and I don't feel like I'm missing out on any great food. If anything I've discovered so many wonderful and delicious foods that I probably would have never tried. Another thing I always think about is how I never really knew how awful I felt. When you change your diet to fit YOUR body, you realize how wonderful you can really feel! And that is something to smile about.

Another bonus...I'm 20 pounds lighter than I was last year. Wow.