I wrote at I’ve been making crisp, quick pickled watermelon rind that I’ve been making pickles this week, and also the past two weeks eating – almost daily – Hummus and Babaganoush with lots of fresh garlic and mediterreanean pickles on the side.  I love spicy, flavorful foods, especially when they’re low fat and healthy.  Even when I eat a can of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, I add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and a splash of srichacha sauce. The past year I noticed I’ve had far fewer hot flashes than usual, but this week I began having them again and Friday night I had the night sweats for the first time in many months.  As I looked over my food journal to remind me what I ate Friday, I saw that I’d eaten pickles all day long.

I Googled “do pickles cause hot flashes” and got a bunch of search results that say yes they can.  My first thought was “Phooey!” and my second thought was that Friday I’d eaten far more pickles than I have in a year because I was testing recipes.  My digestive tract loved the pickles but apparently my thermostat does not.  Ok, one more reminder, everything in moderation.

The biggest thing that helped me with hot flashes was to change how I thought about them.  If I dreaded them coming and made a production of pulling my hair up, and fanning my collar and fanning myself, I seemed to stay in them longer.  When I began noticing them with the thought that, this will be over in a moment, let me enjoy the little mini sweat lodge that is releasing toxins for me and making me lighter and clearer, they seemed to past faster.

I do enjoy having less of them now, maybe I’m at the end of that cycle.  Yay for evolution and yes, even yay for aging.  I’m not getting older, I’m getting better.

RELATED: Mystical Menopause, Sage-ing While Aging
Hot flashes are easing up just as I began enjoying them
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