Pain

I got my first real migraine on Saturday since Jan 2nd. That's 7 months without a migraine. Sure I've gotten headaches here and there but NOTHING like I experienced on Saturday... 5 hours of my life gone... disintegrated into a dark, silent, medicated room. The ONLY thing I can connect the migraine to is a lack of exercise. In Grenada, I spent two weeks drinking lots of alcohol and getting very little sleep. But I was still walking, sweating, and exercising somewhat every day. Since I've been back I've done nothing... but have continued to struggle with sleep and eat/drink whatever I wanted. It's pretty much a given now that a migraine will occur with TWO or more of the following factors:

-Interrupted sleep for 2 days in a row (required)
-Stress
-No exercise
-Excessive alcohol, caffeine, or junk food
-Week before or during my period

If only one of those things are happening, I will most likely not get a migraine. But if 2 or more are happening, its almost guaranteed. This realization has come over the past year or two... and it causes me to get in little funks. Once I actually get a migraine, this fear grips me for some time afterwards, and leads to MORE of the factors - interrupted sleep (worried about getting more migraines), stress (worried about getting more migraines), no exercise (worried about increasing migraine related head pain), alcohol (drinking helps me stop worrying about migraine), etc.

I'm Back!

Its been awhile since I've posted... but for an acceptable reason, I've been in Grenada! I've put off this post for 2 days because I honestly don't even know where to start. I debated journaling and drafting blogs on the trip so that I'd remember the details of each day, but I decided against it and tried to just enjoy the moment. It's hard to describe the trip in words, so for now, I'll start with Top Five list- in no particular order.. just the order it comes to my brain!

1) The fruit - I ate some of the best fruit in Grenada, and literally picked it right of the trees. Among my favs were mangos, coconuts, tomatoes, clementines, and a new fruit called "skin-ups." Nothing beats fresh island produce.

Shook the coconut from the tree, sliced open with a machete, drank all the water then ate the inside. Yum!

Fresh mangos from the trees

Skin-ups

The inside

2) The water - I have never seen water so blue and so clear. Even better, it was always warm.

On the boat to Petite Martinique

At the Sandy Keys... a small strip of sand in the middle of the ocean

On the speed boat going all around the Caribbean

The edge of the bar at PSV

3) The islands - I can't think of the best way to describe all the different islands I visited... untouched? rustic? natural? I am shocked that these islands have not been taken over by tourism yet. Some were so small, you could walk from one side to the other in just a few seconds or minutes... other were larger more populated Islands. The islands I visited were...

-Grenada

-Petite Martinique

-Sandy Keys

-Tobego Keys

-Mayreau (Salt Whistle Bay)

-Happy Island

-Petite St. Vincent

-Carricou (just stopped here on the boat)

The largest was Grenada - the "main" island in charge of all these other smaller islands. The smallest was Happy Island, which is a man-made island (using conch shells) with one small bar. The Sandy keys was also just a strip of sand in the ocean with one small umbrella.

Approaching the Sandy Key

Mayreau - my favorite island

Approaching Happy Island

View of PSV from the top of Petite Martinique

Approaching the coast of Grenada from the boat

4a) The food - For the second week of my trip, I was lucky enough to have home-cooked meals for breakfast lunch and dinner. Before that, I got to have some amazing meals at the resort. The fish is outrageously delicious and I love authentic Caribbean food. 

Here is a list of just some of the fish I ate:

-Red Snapper (whole and fried, never had it like this)

-Stewed Lambi (its really conch, taste sort of like clam but this was my FAVORITE)

-Tuna

-Swordfish

-Shark

-Lobster

-Mahi-mahi

-Saltfish

Some other amazing food I had:

-Chicken roti

-Homemade Baked BBQ chicken

-Roasted Corn

-Bakes

-Mac&Cheese pie

-Breadfruit

-Rice & peas

-Fresh Grenadian chocolate

-Nutmeg jam

-Homemade cherry limemade

-LOTS of amazing coffee

Homemade shark 

I bought some amazing sea salt dark chocolate

Coffee at the resort

Roasting corn

Grilled Lobster tails with homemade garlic butter sauce

Bakes, saltfish, breadfruit, fresh tomatoes

Best Curry Chicken Roti ever

4b) The alcohol - People in Grenada literally drink all day every day. You wake up in the morning and see people walking around drinking beer. I love Carib, the local beer, and Clark's Court Special Dark Rum, the locally produced rum. You can probably find Carib at some random beer distributors in the states, but Clark's Court is only sold in Grenada. I made sure to bring home 2 bottles!

Rum punch at Happy Island.... they grate fresh nutmeg on top of the Rum Punch, its Grenada's #1 export


My Fav cocktail special dark and LLB

On the boat

At the resort

5) The people - When we first got there, everyone kept saying hi to us and I thought Marvin knew everyone. But after the tenth "Hello good morning" I realized its just the way they are! At any time of day in any location, you cannot walk by someone without saying hello. They actually will stare at you confusingly if you don't nod, say hello, good morning, good afternoon, etc. One thing I actually loved is how at nighttime, people see you and say "good night" in place of "hello" rather than saying god night as an ending. I also fell in love with Marvin's nieces and nephews, and his brother and sister-in-law showed us so much care and hospitality.

Renee

Marvin and Martin

MJ & Marissa

Renee, Marissa, MJ

Marisa, MJ, Martin, Renee

The whole fam :-) Besides Martin

Everyone :)

Weekend Ratings

This weekend I went to Long Island for 2 BBQs and really did not exercise any sort of restraint or healthy living. I can easily say that going to LI is the worst thing for me health wise, physically and mentally.

Friday - 3

-Healthy breakfast and lunch

-LMC workout

-Dinner out at a Caribbean restaurant - Miss Lily's (not too healthy but not overboard)

-1 beer and 2 cocktails

Saturday - 1

-Healthy breakfast, no lunch

-BBQ... Exorbitant amounts of food and alcohol :-(

-no exercise :-(

Sunday - 2

-semi healthy breakfast and lunch (carb overload)

-BBQ leftovers for dinner

-No exercise

-a few glasses of wine late night

Today - 3

-Healthy breakftast (egg whites & turkey on a whole wheat wrap) & super healthy lunch (see pic)

-Yummy watermelon snacks (see below)

-Super healthy dinner (homemade no-mayo cole slaw, baked BBQ chicken breast, whole wheat couscous)

-Semi healthy but unecessary Bachelorette snacks (light Swiss cheese, turkey pepperoni, Special K crackers, red wine)

-No LMC workout, but I walked about 1.5 miles back & forth to my dr's appt

My yummy lunch from Pure Foods: quinoa, sweet and spicy cabbage, shredded beets, and Swiss chard w/ tahini sauce.

I sipped on this delicious healthy mocktail all day long... Some fresh crushed watermelon with pelligrino 

Spicy "no-mayo" cole slaw

-Bag of premade shredded cabbage or cole slaw mix (or just by a head of cabbage and shred it)

-In a bowl mix: 1-2 tbls of Dijon mustard, 2 tbls of red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, fear

If powder or chopped garlic and a squirt of honey

-Drizzle in olive oil while whisking or mixing with a fork. About 1-2 tbls of olive oil.

-Pour vinaigrette over slaw and mix well. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours