Getting Healthy, Writing and My Brain

In a slight departure from my usual posts, I thought I'd write about something a little different today. If you've been following my blog then you're probably aware that I underwent a seven day juice fast a couple of weeks ago. It was quite an experience! Since then I've been trying my best to eat as healthily as I can. I've also been trying to write more of my upcoming Melrose series. It's been an interesting experiment.

Let me explain. I was listening to a podcast a little while back that was all about the brain and how information travels back and forth across the hippocampus. It was a fascinating podcast and kept me entertained while I was having a one hour walk along the trail near where I live. Anyway, back to the plot. One of the themes of the podcast was that when we study something that is new, the brain works overtime to process it, categorize it and store it appropriately. As it processes this new information, other more usual work gets pushed to one side. It made sense. Since the beginning of the year I have struggled to get back into writing my latest book. I know what I need to write, I just haven't been able to sit down and write it. Now I understand why. My brain has been too busy processing all the information I've been researching on achieving a healthy body and how correct nutrition plays an important part in all that.

And I have been researching a lot! It's the main reason that's led me to the diet that I am now following - a high raw, mostly vegan diet. And I use the word diet carefully here. According to Wikipedia (and other sources), a diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. It's a way of life, not a food fad. Day by day I am feeling healthier, gaining more energy, feeling more awake, dropping weight and generally feeling more and more motivated. Yesterday I started writing with earnest again. My brain had finally finished emergency processing of all the information I was taking in. I am now breathing a sigh of relief, safe in the knowledge that my body is getting healthier and my writing is back on track. The first draft of Unicorns (Melrose Part Two) is scheduled to be complete by the end of February!

So there we have it. It's good to listen to our brain sometimes. When we take on a new and different project, other projects we have been working on have to take a back seat for a while. After all, just like computers, we all only have so much processing power to manage everything we throw at ourselves. Have a great day!