OUM update

New MD curriculum chart

Old curriculum chart (my course of study)

So I finally thought "Hey, I should email OUM for an update of my request for deferral" and as I searched my inbox I found a reply from 6 weeks ago! It said my request was approved until 31st August 2013! Yay! This is wonderful news.

My plan is now to revise what I've studied so far, especially neuro as I need to retake that exam (if I stay in the MD program as their cut-off for a pass is much higher than that for the MBBS ie 65 vs 50). I generally need to revise everything as I'll have the OUM in-house end of pre-clinical exam to pass before attempting the USMLE Step 1.

As for IUHS, I still have my application in progress over there so I'll see what happens about that.

I have that motivation for study feeling coming back! So good! Just as I began revising my neuro modules it was as if everything seemed easier.

In other news, Maria (my VA) is doing exceptional work. My business is coming along well. Now the truth will be told as to whether it is at all profitable!

The VA and my grand ideas

My VA, Maria, is really impressing me. She works virtually completely autonomously and does a great job. She gives me good ideas and I really appreciate her work.

It's good to be working towards a business, one that is based on something I really enjoy and can be done REMOTELY (hello, world travel), instead of unless study. And more study. And more study.

But don't worry - I still want to do med, but I don't feel like to HAVE to do med to get where I want to go. That is quite liberating. Interestingly, I still want to do my med degree though. It feels good that I want to do it for me, and there is no stress to get the best USMLE score in order to get a job I want, or a job at all. I will probably get better grades now that I'm not trying lol

Getting a VA (Virtual Assistant)

So my friend put me onto The Four-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris, and one of the main highlights of his book it to outsource your life. This is were a Virtual Assistant (or Online Personal Assistant) comes in.

I love this concept for many reasons. One - I like to live out my "eccentric billionaire fantasies" as suggested by Tim. I now have someone do things for me like find out if the organic shop home delivers. Maybe I'm not that eccentric yet, but give me time. Two - I can pay someone to do the time-consuming things I need to do to get this online business up and running such as research and writing content. Sweet. My VA can also find me a web-developer and do some book-keeping for me should I ever make any money from this. I'm also getting her to manage my Google Calendar and appointments and do errand-type things (online of course) that annoy me.

My VA's name is Maria and she is from the Philippines. Her going rate is $1.39 per hour. I have hired her for 30 hours per week (less than $42). I feel a bit guilty about paying her so low but she told me she is thrilled to have steady full-time employment and can't believe I have included 4 weeks paid annual leave into her contract. I don't think she cared so much that I said her hours were mostly flexible. But dw, I will give her bonuses and pay rises frequently as incentives for performing well (which I expect she will).

I like the book because it talks about Lifestyle Design, something people often overlook, and it was time for me to redesign mine. It also shows you how to set up a remote and fully-automated business online, something I will attempt. I'll keep you posted. I would love to be able to still help people and their health, but do it from any location I choose at whatever time of day I choose etc. This is what I want for my lifestyle.

Other ways my life is now outsourced - I use MyBudget.com.au to look after my bills and budget etc. I haven't found anything as good as them and I'm happy to keep paying the $25 per week. I have also just hired a house cleaner. I have been considering this one for awhile. Firstly, I kinda hate paying for someone to do something that I can do myself, however I have reconsidered that point since reading the book and now realise that, although I don't mind doing housework, not having enough time to do it at times is the source of about 50% of all the stress in my day-to-day life. That is worth $30 per week to remove. I have also found a good cleaner which makes it even better.

Fruitarian

So, I've been fruitarian raw vegan for about 6 weeks or so mow. It's the best thing I've ever done. I feel amazing. I can feel my body healing and my health improving. My BMI is now 23. Whew.

Well, I really can't recommend it more.

Apart from that - well, I'm going through the motions with my Masters (x2) and my application for IUHS, I still have big dreams but really my number 1 priority in my life right now is my health. And I'm learning so much along the way.

Oh photos of the contianer house coming soon....

Dropping out of TCM school

Oh, yeh, I've decided to drop out of TCM school.

I just want to focus on my western medicine degree and the herbal medicine masters and getting my lifestyle back.

The TCM degree is too intensive for what I'm willing to commit to it. It's too much for me to go into school on my days off work and realistically it will be very difficult indeed to hold a practice dual medical degrees.

Anyway, I'm sad to leave my wonderful TCM buddies (I haven't told them yet) and I was really enjoying acupuncture and looking at health in a different perspective, but I want to focus on western.

Road trip!

We just got back from a road trip to Mildura and Broken Hill for 5 days.

The BF asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said sunshine and fresh fruit. Mildura is the "fruit bowl" of Australia and has lovely sunny warm weather this time of the year, unlike my home town.

We were spontaneous with our decision to drive further north to the outback town of Broken Hill. We had a great time there - it was very different indeed.

On return we visited Penny Hills

And Mungo National Park

We managed to source lots of lovely fruit at the farmers market and local stores, although I nearly had a melt-down when I couldn't find any watermelon or green coconuts for a day.

We camped on the Darling Rive which was lovely and got some much-needed sunshine.

Update

Well, the 811rv is going really well indeed. I've now lost 4kg in 4 weeks and lost a BMI point. The hardest thing is eating enough. Pretty much all my symptoms have resolved and I'm pretty much ready to start exercising again.

The BF moved into his container house last week too. We went shopping on the weekend for kitchen cupboard doors and some appliances and looked at bathroom stuff. It looks really good already and I can't wait to put pictures up.

I haven't made it to a number of my TCM classes which is a little worrying but we have a mid-semester break next week so I'm sure I can catch up with most things.

We're planning a road trip this weekend for my birthday! Can't wait!

Being vegan is easy...

...but being raw is harder.

I find being raw vegan, especially on the 80/10/10 is quite easy. I barely get any cravings, but occasionaly I do crave cooked "comfort" food such as bread etc. I rarely crave animal products any more, and if I do, say cheese, I simply think of what it actually is (ie solidified animal secretions) and that turns me off straight away.

I have a day back at work to do and an assignment over due for International Health, so I guess I know what I'm doing today.

Join PCRM's VegRUN! - Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)

Join PCRM's VegRUN! - Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)

The usual

This weekend I'm working so it's the usual of trying to get enough sleep while on call, and doing homework at work while on downtime.

I'm really enjoying this 811rv diet although I didn't eat enough calories yesterday which made me a bit tired but then I quickly tried to eat more fruit before bed which was a bad idea as then I was too awake to sleep. Typical.

I bought the dog two new toys today and he really loves them :)

Card-carrying vegan

I've flicked the switch - I am now 100% vegan for life.

I knew there was something in vegan diets and something in raw diets that made sense. Why wouldn't one be healthier for eating only beautiful fresh fruit and veges?

I went back to raw vegan a few weeks ago now to regain my health (that I lost last year thanks to over-doing it, working shift-work and eating junk). I had tried it a few times this year but it was hard ot stick to.

Well, now I'm doing the 80/10/10rv diet and it's working a treat. No cravings, 2500+ calories a day, it's all good. I think I've been doing it for 3-5 weeks now, not sure.

I haven't had any detox symptoms either, which is weird. Maybe being on-and-off vegan/raw vegan for the past 6 months or so helped a lot. My skin cleared up almost instantly, which is almost annoying as I've spend so much time and effort and money since I was 15 to clear my skin. Geez. But I wont rant about that today. Mind you, each time I had a "slip-up" in the past few weeks my skin would break out and get itchy again, so 100% 80/10/10rv is necessary.

Anyway, as of this week I am 100% vegan, no doubts about it, for life. The health benefits got my onto vegan, but the ethical side of it is keeping me 100%.

I watched a movie called Earthlings. It's free and on YouTube. It's feature-length. Well , it's horrifying and it puts right in your face everything you try to not think about when you consume animal. Yuk. It really  upset me and I wont eat animal ever again. I didn't watch all of it as it goes onto animal as clothing and animal as entertainment (including testing products etc) but I'm already educating myself. I already stay away from leather and silk but now I think wool may have to go too.

I'm undecided about what to do with the leather/wool clothing that I already own.

PS The bi-carb/baking soda works well but you gotta do extra washes, ie if you normally shampoo once, then shampoo twice with bi-carb.

My new shampoo

I'll tell you how it goes

Natural deodorant recipes

I have become slightly obsessed with my coconut oil since purchasing it. I never expected something natural to work much better than a store-bought product containing many ingredients.

I'm now searching for deodorants, soaps, and shampoos to add to my beauty-routine collection.

Here are two recipes for making natural deodorant. With both, you can add essential oils for a scent. These deodorants will not prevent sweating but will kill the odour-causing bacteria.

Coconut oil
2 parts baking soda
2 parts starch (arrow root, corn starch etc)
3 parts coconut oil

Vodka
1 part vodka
1 part water (distilled)

The coconut oil recipe will be solid at room temperature, so you may want to make small "bars", and the vodka recipe is a liquid which you may want to store in a jar and dip a cotton ball into to apply.

Productive day(s)

Well, I just want to tell the whole world how my Chinese Medicine Foundations exam got graded incorrectly and I found myself and extra 20 points on my exam, just by taking the time to go and review it!

It's a pain in the bum at some unis, and some don't allow you to at all which was a major gripe of mine with OUM changing their exams, to review your exam. Well, excuse me for wanting to know what questions I got wrong just in case I ever have a patient with the same complaints but here I am not knowing what I know and what I don't know.

My CM school is quite small, so this week they allow students to drop into the office and have a look at their exams. This is great because you can take notes of where you need to revise so for the rest of the course and career you know what you're doing.

Anyway, I've felt like the biggest dumbass for the past 3 weeks, thinking I only got 51% on my exam! Turns out, I got 71%.Geez. So my final grade for the subject jumped from 64 to 77 or something like that. That's a Credit to a Distinction. I ended up with D's across the board, thank you very much.

Today - just now - I finally submitted my assignment for Herbal Medicine. I quite enjoy this subject on Skin and right now I want to be a dermatologist (if anyone's been following this blog for the past 2  years I've gone from emergency physician, to general practitioner, to paediatrician, to emergency paediatrician, to integrative medicine, and now to dermatology.)

I also saw an advertised job for an alternative health dermatology specialist with a salary range of $80-100k. This is where I'm aiming to hit with a cruisey 9-5 M-F job, not an insane any time of the day or night all weekends and public holidays in any weather job. Of course, if and when I ever become a registered doc I should clear that no worries, but it's good to know my other options in the world of alternative health.  I feel like I need about that much to comfortably pay off my mortgage, to maybe get an investment property (for my retirement), and to take one overseas trip a year (not an expensive one though), and to do be cringing at the thought of bills being higher than expected or stressing because the price of petrol rose 10c. Yes, I am still striving towards a self-sufficient and sustainable life-style.

In 1.5 hours I return back to work. Well, actually I'll probably go in half an hour earlier to get myself organised. I start on-call tonight. Eek. It's difficult coming back. I have to admit, I'm starting to get over the adrenalin rush of paramedics and look forward to the day I am chillin in my clinic. But, I need to go back to work to study - sounds funny. Since having my stressful episode at the beginning of the year, I have been conscientiously practicing only studying at work, and never after work at home and rarely on my days off. This is much healthier and I do a lot of study at work as I know that is my only time to do it. So, I need to go back and get back into it and I'm really looking forward to that aspect of returning to work actually.

Well that's all as I have to go get ready. 

Dream Journal

I thought I'd start a Dream Journal section on here because of them are so weird and I want to record them. Even though dreams are not "real", they are still an interesting part of life and often provides insight into your thoughts patterns and emotions.

So last's night's dream:

I was on my honeymoon with the BF. We stopped off in LA on our way to Mexico. We went out to a bar and met Tom Cruise. He was a little strange but nice enough and we had a few drinks with him and he taught us some sort of bar game.

Later in the night, the BF and I went to leave the bar and walked out to our car in the carpark which was a new model black VW Beetle. We saw in front of us Tom Cruise and his bodyguard in their car, which was a small delivery van. Their battery was flat so we offered a jump-start. All four of us were in the van when I asked the bodyguard to be careful with the jumpstart wires and then he decided it would be funny to electrocute me. I begged him to stop but he kept going until I had to be resuscitated by paramedics.

Analysis:

The BF and I want to go to Mexico and we will probably fly via LA. We're not sure when we're going to go. When we were in Bali we got asked numerous times if we were on our honeymoon. I think it's perhaps because we looked so happy and in love, and because Bali is a popular honeymoon destination.

Tom Cruise has been in the media lately since his split with Katie Holmes. I was reading the front of magazines at the supermarket a few days ago. I wondered to myself how weird he might be in real life. A few weeks ago I was looking up his strange Scientology rant on YouTube out of boredom. I considered how strange it would be to be married to someone like that. I used to think he was really good looking too.

I used to own a new model black VW Beetle and often think about getting a new one again. I don't need a new car but I still think about it some times.

I don't know where the van came from.

A few weeks ago the BF had trouble jumpstarting a car with his battery-powered emergency starter and he said yesterday that he wants a new one for his birthday. When people use them I always get worried they will electrocute themselves. As a paramedic, I know how dangerous electricity can be.

Sometimes when the BF tickles me I ask him to stop and he keeps going. I don't like the feeling of being disempowered and often wonder how horrible it would be for some women to be in a violent relationship.

Coconut oil for hair and skin (and general update)

I bought some raw organic coconut oil from the organic grocers the other day. It's the stuff which is solid at room temperature. I bought it to ?cook with ...even though I'm trying for 100% raw...anyway, I bought it and I used it in my hair as an overnight treatment (well, originally I thought I rinsed it out but it needed shampooing out the next day) and it worked amazing - better than any other salon treatment I've ever used, and I used to be a hairdresser. I tried massaging some into my scalp and it seems to have helped my dandruff for sure.

As I was in the bath, some got onto my skin through it rinsing in the bath water and my skin looks amazing too, so I thought I'd put some just on the dry patches on my face, and they looked and felt amazing too. So I thought I'd put it all over my face and neck last night and I woke up with beautiful skin. So this morning I "washed" my face in the coconut oil and I am loving it. I never have nice skin.

I'm also currently using beetroot as a blush (the fresh stuff, not canned) and I love that too. The mixed blackberry and spirulina powder works good as an eyeliner and ok as a mascara. I got these tips from Megan Elizabeth.

Perhaps my skin is looking so good because I'm at the end of my fives weeks off work, I went to Bali in the sun and surf, or that I've been eating 100% high carb raw vegan for a week (minus one big mishap yesterday afternoon which I'm leaving in the past). Probably all of these combined I'd say.

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I've bargained with myself that if I get >1500 words of my assignment written today I'm allowed to go shopping for an outfit to wear this weekend for the BF's birthday. I'm trying to reward myself as bargain for eating well as I can usually study no probs, but on annual leave from work I'm finding it painful to be at the home desk instead of...anything else!

I wouldn't normally buy a brand new outfit for an occasion, especially not form a high street retail store, but the BF requested it so instead of arguing my case I've decided to "let go" of being right and instead by loving.

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Med school update: I've requested a deferral from OUM so I can figure out what I'm doing. I'm still waiting on a letter of recommendation to finally submit my application to IUHS. It's unfortunately all come down to finances. I'm so glad that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel re my finances so it will be a matter of re-grouping and going again. I'm really super-keen, but I can't do what I can't do and I still haven't won the lottery....

I've now purchased the Dr Najeeb videos as they are currently on sale, so I will be doing those at work daily when I go back next week.

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Fitness it on the back-burner right now but I'm hoping it will make a come back soon as the weather improves along with my heath.

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Container house: we have our first one on our land now! Yay! It needs some work but I'm hoping to start semi-living in it shortly when I'm at the BF's farm.

That is all and I better go finish this assignment.

BF's b'day

It's my darling's birthday this weekend so I'm taking him out to Melbourne. VIP tix and lux accom is what my baby deserves.

Here is what I've booked so far:

Hope he likes it...

Raw vegan

Last week of annual leave. Just went to the tax accountants today and not really doing much although I should be studying.

I got some lovely organic groceries I'm so excited about. I also got some raw organic coconut oil. My groceries, excluding the oil, we're about $70 and should last me about 3 or 4 days, so that would be $140 a week for me to eat 100% high carb raw organic. I was hoping for $100 a week but I can afford it right now until I figure out how to organise myself to buy in bulk. For now, I don't mind so much because I'm probably spending the same I would have on my SAD (Standard Australian Diet) due to all the take-away and restaurant food. Also, my health and well-being is certainly worth the investment.

Natural birth control

I've spent multiple consultations with multiple GPs and OBGYNs talking about birth control options as  my body and my mind do not like what we've tried so far.

Lately, I've been using a phone app to help my monitor and use the rhythm method. The problem with the calendar-based or rhythm method is it assumes every woman has the same luteal phase after their period. I got put onto the app by my friend who is trying to conceive.

Natural birth control, or fertility awareness, uses the monitoring of basal body temperature as well as combining calendar method information. Monitoring cervical mucous is another way to help gain more information about what phase of your cycle you are in.

Background info - women produce only one egg per month (ovulate) and that occurs on only one day per month. Conceiving can occur around only 6 days per month as sperm can live for up to five days, thanks to the cervical mucous, and the egg can hang around for about 18 hours after ovulation - this brings a total of only about 6 days per month max. Cervical mucous signs of fertility is when it is of a raw egg-white colour and consistency - this should happen during the 5 days leading up to ovulation. (For more info re cervical mucous see this YouTube video).

If you use your calendar (free iPhone apps available) and monitor your cervical mucous, this alone has a 93% effectiveness - around the same as condoms.

If you monitor your basal temperature and use a calendar, this provides up to 99% effectiveness. Combining all three methods - calendar, cervical mucous, and temperature, will provide a contraception effectiveness of greater than 99% (or if you want to get pregnant, this helps you too).

LadyComp is a great device that  combines a thermometre into a computer calendar that gives you coloured lights for whether you are infertile or fertile (depending what you want).

It feels good to be in control of my own body, to not be taking synthetic hormones, to not be worried about the increased risks of cardio-vascular disease, liver disease, and cancer. To not be gaining weight and losing my mind. My last contraception, Implanon, made me gain 20% of my body weight in less than a year and I'm still stuck with it now.

My question is - why has not one single doctor even briefly referred to these methods in my 19 years of fertility?

Back to reality

I'm back in my routine, although I still have about another two weeks before I return to work. I am, however, back at uni x3 (Chinese Med, Herbal Med, and International Health). I have a total of four subjects this semester. My to-do list is rather lengthy.

I want to go raw vegan again, so I started my morning with banana with coconut and cinnamon and a rose hip and hibiscus tea. I can't wait to buy a Vitamix blender, an Excaliber dehydrator, and a good juicer. Then I should be set. For now I'll have to make do with my crappy juicer, my cheap blender, and no dehydrator. It's a zucchini and tomato with fresh basil and pine nuts salad today, maybe some lemon juice and shredded coconut too and perhaps some spices....mmmm I'm so hungry.

I'd like to buy more organic. Right now after returning from holidays, my funds are a little low, and the nearest organic grocer is 40km away. There are some organic veges in the supermarket near CM school (I thought there were more but I was duped by the plastic "wicker"-style baskets they normally put the organic stuff in which was all in one place but only a few of the baskets had organic veges in them). Anyway, here is a link to the Clean 15 which are the fifteen fruit and veges you don't have to buy organic as they usually contain very low levels of pesticides. This is an American list, but I'd like to think that the foods that don't require pesticides it's fairly universal. Well, the list is a start anyway. There is the partner list, the Dirty Dozen, which lists the worst food i.e. the ones you should only buy organic.

Ok off to make my salad......