All winter long I kept the image of my favorite beach in my mind to kept me away from insanity when I got impatient or worried about my knee.
Yesterday, I finally walked along Popham Beach, a pristine beach on the central Maine coast. I walked almost the entire length (about 5 miles) and felt fine. Although my knee hasn't regained 100% of its mobility, it doesn't keep me away from my natural brisk pace. However, I feel tension more than pain in my ankles which never happened to me until now and my muscles ache a little bit which again is new to me.
Even after Clouds Rest, my last long hike last fall, I have never experienced severe muscle cramps or aches.
The good news is I woke up this morning without any pain or tension. I biked my daily morning twenty minutes reading an interesting book about curing pain through food. It is written in French by Jacqueline Lagace, a Canadian woman who suffered years of arthritis that nobody could cure. She changed her alimentation following a diet that a French physician had experimented successfully with hundreds of patients suffering from similar health issues.
His success persuaded Lagace to try it and she saw for the first time in years a deep relief and even a total improvement of her articulations problems.
Basically the diet consists of staying away from dairy products, most cereals, overcooked meat and from industrial food which means food prepared outside of the house as well as store bought food.
I don't intend to follow the strict regimen especially since I have been for decades eating more fresh produce and fruit than dairy and meat products.
However, I will consider skipping gluten that is not easily absorbed by the human body and can affect articulation health on the long term.
The book has been published in May so it is only available in French but if you read French, the title is Comment j'ai Vaincu l'Inflammation Chronique par l'Alimentation.
I learned a lot reading the book and I hope it will be translated in English because it illustrates the important concept, "You are what you eat."