We are all fanatics, in one way or another, whether it be a hobby, a special interest; or one might be vehemently sick, while the other fanatically healthy. I am currently subscribed to the latter. I am obsessed with being healthy and that obsession has happened for a couple of, what I consider to be, very good reasons. For one and probably the most obvious, I would like to live as long as possible but I have a couple of other endearing factors as well.

My mom died of cancer pretty young. It was a devastating period of time. My husband’s mom died late in life at 88 years old. She was pretty healthy for the most part but could not be left alone after a stroke robbed her memory and not to mention the debilitating depression that followed. Two completely different circumstances but both with the necessity for care giving and the feelings of helplessness that come with it. I know what it feels like to care for a dying parent with fragile hopelessness. It is humbling and heart breaking to say the very least. By taking charge of my health, I hope to minimize disease so that when my time comes along, I will have left as little of an emotional footprint as possible on those who find themselves there in my time of need.

The more selfish side of my health obsession is that I want to be able to do the things I enjoy late into my years. I didn’t realize until later in life that I really don’t enjoy watching things as much as I do actually doing them. I want to be able to show my family, long into life, glimpses of the world through my eyes and offer a palate with which to “develop” a desire of their own along the way. I don’t want to spend the late years of life in a nursing home staring glibly at a television, forcing loved ones to make time for senseless zombie-like visits. It’s just not my style.

Some might view me as being a fanatical foodie and I am okay with that. If it helps me reach my goal, and I think it has served me well so far, then how can I argue with results. I choose to go without disease, if I can help it, peacefully in my sleep the night before a day filled with great plans. I want to just not show up one day.

Burgerville - where you go when you know.

One of the things that stands out along my journey of food education is the degree of public desensitization. I pick up on conversations and it hurts my heart to realize some of the perceptions regarding the humanities of today's world. In my head are some of the these ideals that have been trapped over the last couple of years that I must release. It is like a festering trap.

When a child prefers breast milk over a man formulated alternative, the child is not being sneaky or picky or spoiled. On the other hand, they are quite possibly still connected to an instinctual behavior and know better than the parent that which will supply the nutrients he or she needs to survive. Ironic?

A child out of control and a parent who offers up the simple explanation of the seemingly natural state of being on a sugar high. All those close in proximity nod in understanding. What are these insulin spikes doing to their little systems and how does this set up their health for the years to come?

We have no time. Food comes in a box, a can, a bag, in plastic...it's made into this and into that and it's easy and fast and sugar laden, not to mention the added bonus of the chemical preservatives. Convenient. I can't count how many times in the past I had ripped off the cardboard tab of some processed, easy to prepare, all in one meal to feed my family for dinner. I sometimes cringe in the shame of it. What is easy today will most likely come back to haunt in other, more time consuming ways health wise. In retrospect, is it really that convenient after all?

The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes increased from 0.9% in 1958 to 6.3% in 2008. In 2008, 18.8 million people had diagnosed diabetes, compared to only 1.6 million in 1958. (CDC.com) Although by 2008 the population had grown by 43%, diabetes had grown by 91% in growth comparison.

I wonder if big business food processors really have our health in mind when they are sealing up that last box of the day. I'm leaning toward not.

Support your local farms, farmers markets, grow your own. Eat whole foods.

http://eatwild.com/

Burgerville, do you know what you get when you go?

Big Pharma - are you a statistic?

Some years back, I developed psoriasis. I reached out to various dermatologists over the years and they each had something to offer me in the way of relief while maintaining the stance that there was no cure, only treatment. I eagerly took their advice and prescriptions every time. Nothing worked. The creams, the gels, a total waste of time, until I came upon the real doctors who had the good stuff.

The light treatments came next and made things worse but that was okay because there were far better "fix all" pharma to suit my needs. The last prescription I was given was a drug used to treat cancer. I might as well have been dead while on this drug. I cannot really explain how badly I felt during this time. I think back now and don't even know how I functioned at all. I remember associating getting out of bed in the mornings to peeling a banana, me being the peel, the mattress, the fruit. Every day was not just a chore it was a monumental accomplishment to get through and I hated everything and everybody. I can promise you it was the hardest thing I have physically ever done. Those that know me, know that is a statement into itself as a comparison since a year or so ago prior I had climbed my ass up Mt Hood (and some others) and was taking 9 mile runs on a regular basis.

But alas, the doc tells me they can give me a better drug that if I were willing to give myself injections that I would be just fine. They could get me back to the climbing and running, no problem. All I had to do was let them diagnose me with arthritis and that would suit my needs. Okay? Really? They asked that I go to this specific doctor to be diagnosed and I did and yes, he did, based on a few verbal questions diagnose me with arthritis. Really? Does this happen?

Project go-ahead. You can have the drug! Yes! But wait a minute. Being an intelligent thinking person, I pause to think of why this was all so easy and what the purpose really has been all along. I ask, what if I want to take a break from the drugs for a while to get my head together. After a scathing email lecturing me on the dire straits of my condition if I refused treatment I realized I was on my own. Then I get sick, the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

You see, you can't take the cancer meds when you're sick or you could end up with pneumonia so it is recommended that you skip your dosage while you are sick. I did. Almost immediately I felt a difference. I realized that, OMG, they were killing me with these drugs. And no, OMG, I don't want your new drugs either. This is when my journey of self healing began and still continues.

I have learned a lot so far and I continue to learn. I have learned things I don't specifically need to know for my specific condition, it just comes with the territory, but it is all useful and good stuff. My healing journey has just taken on a life of it's own but that's okay. I initially started this particular blog tonight about something different but this is what turned out and so it is. I will just go back and change the title.

Blogging, an animal of it's own. Like an alpaca, the hair just grows out of control but shit, alpaca wool makes great stocking caps so not all is lost. It's just a bad hair day.

We're not a part of "Nature" - we rule it, right?

Somewhere along the way we, as humans, have lost our connection with the rest of the natural world. It is human "nature" to not want to admit that we are, now in some fragmented fashion, a part of nature. We are the rulers of our earth, is it not true?


Birds, many species of birds, build many different types of nests based on their specie. I often wonder how a bird knows what type of nest to build? What size, what shape, how high...? How do they know? What "DIY" place do they get their instructions? Is there an instinctual energy that surrounds the planet that at one time we were in sync with that now evades our specie as we have evolved? The industrialization of our society, the perceived control severing the connection, continually setting the stage for disaster...are we, in fact, bulldozing the mother tree?

...and nature laughs, the jokes on you.

You freakin' idiots. You don't need blueprints to build a nest and progress is a matter of perception.