Thermography

Thermography is a non-invasive first step in assessing inflammation.

I was excited to find Donna Tomey’s ThermographyFirst, who offers full-body thermography in a zen environment. ThermographyFirst.com

Seeing my torso in shades of blue and green, with highlights of red, orange and white, in what appeared to be a “strike a pose” stance, I exclaimed, “Oh! I look cute!” Donna admonished me, “No,” she said, “You don’t look cute; your hips look uneven.” “Oh,” I replied, crestfallen, remembering I had been standing straight when she took the images. Well, I knew what to do about that; a chiropractic adjustment should do the trick. Of greater concern was the area that looked to me to be my carotid artery, a fearsomely important piece of of anatomy. It was white (highest inflammation color) surrounded by a deep red-orange (right behind white). Now, I’m not saying I was terror-struck, but I did have a few tremors and proceeded to handle the situation as best I could. I have a tendency to pro-actively micro-manage a situation, and with full knowledge that a medical professional would review the images and prepare a report, I still thought it expedient to start moving in a remedial direction.

First, the unevenness:

I made appointments for the next morning.

An hour massage followed by chiropractic adjustment. That would take care of the unevenness; I had been there before. Decades of driving children around, much of it in a soccer-mom oversized SUV; left leg propped up on the door pocket, right leg pushing down on the accelerator, the brakes, driving, driving, driving and sitting in traffic. Repetitive motion can be wearing; improper posture (hours of it!) can throw one out of alignment.

Now, the carotid. Whether or not there is inflammation, and I’d have to have an ultrasound to start down that bleak road, I won’t know anything until a doctor reviews the report. I learned this when I called my lifelong (about 15 years) support-team-anchor DO, and he starting yelling, well, talking loud, which for him is yelling, that I can’t tell anything until someone experienced in reviewing this film, well, reviews it. Now, I have to admit, I didn’t call him right away, like I did for the chiro and masseuse. No, I waited two days.

During that time, I started again on the plant-based diet. It took more than the available time I had to research recipes that, without any fat, oil, meat, egg, dairy, were something I wanted to eat and would satisfy my jaded teenage-age daughter’s palate.

I learned there are some great resources and I made a couple of great meals.
Here is one of them from the many healthy and delicious recipes by Cathy Fisher from her
StraightUpFood.com website:

CURRY VEGETABLES AND RICE

  • 1 cup water (for sautéing)
  • 1 yellow onion or large shallot, diced
  • 1-2 chili peppers, diced (see note below)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh, minced ginger root
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 teaspoon dried coriander
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • ½ teaspoon ancho chili powder (optional)
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon turmeric
  • 4 small tomatoes, diced
  • 20 fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ cup cilantro leaves
  • 2 tablespoons hulled sesame seeds
  • ½ cup water
  • 4 cups steamed vegetables of your choice (potatoes, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, peas, cauliflower, mushrooms, etc.)
  • 3 cups cooked brown basmati or jasmine rice

Directions

1. Measure and set out all of your ingredients first. Sauté the onion and pepper in a small amount of water on med-high until soft, around 3 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and then all herbs and spices and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add tomatoes, basil and cilantro and sauté for an additional couple of minutes until fresh herbs have softened.

2. In a high speed blender, grind sesame seeds alone until powdered. Add half cup of water to this and blend again to incorporate. In same blender (or one large enough to fit all ingredients), add sautéed vegetables mixture, and blend together until almost smooth (makes about 2 cups of sauce).

3. Steam 4 cups (approximately) of vegetables of your choice, and cook enough brown rice to equal 2 cups cooked. Combine vegetables with sauce and serve over rice, or pour sauce over rice and veggies.

Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes (sauce); 15 (veggies); 60 (rice)
Serves: 4

Notes: If you like spicy food, use a hotter chili pepper like jalapeno or Thai; for a milder spice, use Anaheim or poblano peppers. Peppers such as the poblano can be unpredictable in their hotness, though, so taste a little before using if you are trying to avoid a very hot and spicy dish. You may also use a red or orange “sweet” bell pepper for a very mild sauce. This recipe is only mildly spicy, so feel free to increase the amounts of dried herbs and spices listed above to your taste. / To make a neat mound of rice, pack hot or warm rice into a small glass dish and then immediately invert it onto your plate; or use an ice-cream scooper.

Comment: When I made this, I left out step 2 and just added vegetable broth, because I didn’t want the sesame seeds or tomatoes, and I didn’t have basil or cilantro. It was still wonderfully delicious and healthy, and I look forward to trying more recipes from this website.

Also, I used just the smallest smidgin of avocado oil in the pan (I’m stuck on stainless steel rather than nonstick, whenever possible) and tossed the onions quickly in that, medium heat, adding just a little water at a time to keep them from sticking too much as they cooked.

Now, back to the almost-yelling doctor. After my conversation with him, I decided that the again-arduous non-fat, non-meat diet was too exhausting, and I could wait for the evaluation. So, I opted for a more relaxed approach: to enjoy Thanksgiving and this I did.