I have had no energy lately. Now I’m hormonal and totally drained. I forced myself to go for a walk last night and I was literally nodding off while I walked. That’s not good.

Since I’ve been totally immersed in Chinese medical theory lately, I know that I am qi deficient. I’ve decided to do something about it by concentrating on bumping up the qi that I take in through food.

Here’s my rules for this one week challenge.  I don’t expect huge changes in a week but I can’t even begin to think longer term than that right now.

1.  Eat real food that I make at home. No packaged meals.

2.  Drink only water or ginger tea. Ginger is a treatment for another issue I have. I have the tea. I like the tea. I haven’t been drinking the tea.

3.  No artificial sweeteners. If I use a natural sweetener I have to really be able to justify it. I’m giving myself that loophole in case I can’t handle oatmeal plain.

4.  This applies for breakfast and dinner. Lunch on my long days may be hard to manage but we’ll see.

I went grocery shopping today so I started with lunch. I made my go to easy soup. Cook whole wheat noodles as directed. When done don’t drain. Add in salsa to taste.

That would have been good but I had to try some of the other good stuff I bought. I had a pear with a bit of brie. This is going to sound weird but I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a pear. I’ve had them in fruit cocktail and I’ve had pear flavored stuff before. It was good but way too much food and now I’m stuffed. Not an auspicious start to my healthy eating week.

I have a watermelon and feta salad marinating for when I get home. Â