Archive for November 2015

When I was about 8 years old I stepped on a rusty nail. I was barefooted and running with my friends and I will never forget that day. While I was usually a careful child and always made sure to wear shoes, this day I decided it was too hot to bother wearing any. I suddenly became a dare devil and wanted to join all my other barefooted peers. Talk about ironic. That one day I went barefooted, I stabbed my foot with a rusty nail. It went all the way through!

I was shocked, I don't believe I cried much or any. I can't quite remember. I can only remember seeing so much blood coming out. I may have gotten dizzy just looking at it but I didn't let it get to me. One of my friends (or cousin) ran to find my grand mother who was able to help me. I was literally stuck to the board that had the nail on it so I couldn't go anywhere and about this time I began to feel pain. I was tough, I endured it, I had no choice. I wanted to be free and run wild didn't I? Well, now I was paying the price.

That night I was taken to the doctor who gave me a tetanus shot, on my foot. Talk about adding pain to injury. I stuck a nail through my toe and now a needle was going through my foot! It just wasn't my day. Can I say this forever changed my play pattern? Never! No way, it only allowed me to feel I had conquered this giant hurdle. I was actually proud of myself, I was a warrior. I was surviving childhood one toe stabbing at a time.

My mother always let us play and be kids. Almost always. Sure I was raised on a completely different time than mine are today. There was no such thing as fear of the kind we have now. There were some dangers out there, like rusty nails, but more than anything we were allowed to be kids.

I learned this lesson. Well, actually I enjoyed this lesson and loved it. I can't give my children the type of childhood I lived, I wish, but I can only come something close to it. I let them play with dirt and pick up bugs and lick rocks. I let them! I do. I did and I grew up just fine. I have eased up a bit on my over-mothering and have decided to let my children be children. This is their one chance to be whoever the heck they want and have fun at it. I miss those times for sure and now I want my girls to have that too.

Not only is playing fun and great exercise, research shows this is also good for their microbiome! Recently I have become quite thrilled over the fact that we have such a thing as a microbiome. Well, turns out biodiversity comes from acquiring different kinds of organisms in our gut that provide health benefits. And the cool thing is it all starts in our childhood. The more diverse our microbiome is, the better. Playing with dirt is actually good for our children's health so this is what you call a win/win situation.

So let them be kids but just watch out for rusty things.

I have so much to be thankful for, but this is a start.

My family. This is the most meaningful, I can't live without, one. Without my family I don't think I would wan to live in this world. We can be different in so many ways but so very similar when we have ourselves in common.

As I have grown up and made my own family, things took a turn in my life. I created a new family with little people that very much depended on me. I have to look into myself to try to find ways to keep us together, to bond and to stay relevant in our lives. I never want this to end. I see this happening with so many families now a days but but I don't want it to happen with mine. Every year I try to bring my family together even if it's just for these special moments.

At this time I find myself in my home town staying with my parents making plans for Thanksgiving. It's a tradition and I know that with family everything tastes better, everything smells better because everything is better. Small little moments in so many ordinary ways are the reason I am so very thankful for.
Love. This is the big one. I could go on and on about this but really there are only two kinds of love to be thankful for. Love for others and love for ourselves. The ladder is kind of a tricky one and believe you me, it's the one we all need more of sometimes. Ok, a lot more.

We know love is beautiful and gives you butterflies when you find it. Family, friends and significant others. We don't even ask for it, it's just there. It just happens, it's magical. At least for some anyways. The one that took me a while to find and realize and the was that I was missing was love for myself.

To care for myself happened quite later in life, one kind of love I am grateful I am beginning to discover. As a child I loved my parents and siblings, then as marriage happened I loved my husband and then I loved my children. Every one a different kind of love and all beautiful in their own way. At this point I realized something was missing. When all the dust settles, and when everyone goes their way, you are all you have. You have to learn to love being with yourself every day and make the best of it no matter what. You can change who you are with or what you look like, but you can't change who you are. Embrace that. I am grateful I am learning to be that person, one day, one moment at a time. To love myself.
Health. This has become my new mission. No diets, no starvations, just plain health. Nutrition if you will. I am not getting younger, my body is not getting healthier unless I do something about it. This, just like everything worthwhile, is a struggle. A struggle and a pain sometimes that I know I will pay dividends when it will truly matter, my older age. I don't want to be that person with a hundred pills to take every day, I don't want to need a walker to get around. I would like to be active and happy to go places.
Health is not just about being alive, it's about being able to enjoy life. Feeling sick is one way to do that, but there is an even better one that can only be achieved when you feel great. I am hoping I continue to find the path to better health even if it's just a small bit at a time. Vegetarian for a month is transforming my life and touching those around me as well. At first they question my decision, then after I do a quick explanation, they respect it. If I can only make a small change in their lives, enlighten them a bit, I will have succeeded.

The places I've seen. Oh my goodness, I have gone to see more places the past two years than I have ever been my whole entire life! This became a choice, nothing more. and I am very grateful for it. The memories we've made in such short time are priceless. I know I will never forget them, and I know my children won't either. At the end of this life, memories is all we will ever have.

5. Honorable Mention: My husband. There is so much beauty out there, I wish I could live and experience it every day. I can't, unfortunately, but I have gotten a taste of it. I am grateful my husband is a lover of adventures and became our guide in this beautiful time in our lives. I know for a fact, none of this would never be possible without him. I owe so much to him for so much, I know it would be a whole other world for me if he wasn't in mine. And theirs.

Health, love and family. They are the trio that makes my world go round. I am ever so thankful and grateful God has given me the most beautiful things in life. Not even in a million life times I could ever repay it.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! :)

One month, 30 days, 720 hours a Vegetarian.

This is the way I always viewed vegetarians: "Why would they ever want to live a life like this? No meat? No chicken?! No hamburgers?! Where’s the fun in eating? There’s no need for that, it’s just protein so we need meat right? Of course we do!” But like everything we consume, balance is the key and nothing is being over consumed quite like protein.

No meat and no chicken for a month, but why?! Quite, simply because I need to. While I seem overly optimistic right now, I just don’t know how I'm going to be one week or even two weeks from now. Thinking about it now, maybe I should’ve gone with "Vegetarian for one week” instead, but in truth that is not even enough. Of course I can go for a week, but a month is actually what is necessary since it actually takes at least a month for all the meat toxins to exit my body.

Proteinaholics?

This book brought to my attention the so many things that I didn’t even bother to know before. Proteinaholic, how our obsession with meat is killing us and what we can do about it, is a must read for so many reasons. I am not easy to brainwash, so don’t think for a moment this one book did it, it simply built into how I was already beginning to feel. This book basically states we are eating way too much animal protein and causing the many ailments we experience daily. Protein is everywhere and we falsely believe that it is good for gaining weight and for losing weight. It’s the miracle food right?! How amazing is that? Not only is this not true, at least it’s not good for losing weight, it's actually causing us to get sick. We live in a world of denial and believe only what we want to believe, no matter of what evidence is placed in front of us. Denialism is strong.

WHO Study finds bacon causes cancer. As if I needed anything else to make up my mind, this comes up. The World Health Organization has determined processed meats increases the risk for cancer, however the direct link may not be as big as we think. There are many other things that "could" cause cancer but it still shows me reducing meat might not be such a bad idea. Susan Gapstur of the American Cancer Society says the society recommends "consuming a healthy diet with an emphasis on plant foods and limiting consumption of processed meat and red meat."

What now?

Eating a life with meat protein is something that I held to be part of my human right. It’s there, it tastes good, then why not eat it? There’s so many reasons, like the ones I just mentioned, but mostly it’s a personal matter. This is not for fun, but rather a matter of health and I need to improve mine.

Migraines, fatigue, fogginess, unmotivated with intestinal problems. While I was beginning to hear so many people complain of much worse than this, I was already beginning to add to my own list of ailments. In my 20s I enjoyed complete and utter diet bliss. No worries of gaining weight, no worries of any kind of heart disease or diabetes or cholesterol. I was living in the fast lane and eating whatever my heart desired was just part of the fun. I thought I was healthy because I was thin. Except I wasn't. Migraines were frequent and fatigue and fogginess daily. I hated the way I felt all the time! Things just got worse and worse and now on my thirties, I am definitely feeling the burn. I am headed to a downhill spiral of illness that I am not prepared to live.

This is my evidence. Me. I don’t need anyone telling me how I feel or should feel or may feel if I don’t feel it. I am my own case study and guinea pig and I will do what I can to make myself feel better. This is not for everyone, or anyone, this is for me. This is something I’ve always wanted to try and if I can feel the difference, then it will definitely be worth it!

It’s not a question of will I benefit from it, but how much. I want to know how I will feel 30 days from now after I have devoid my body from all the meat hormones and pesticides found in the feed they eat. I want to know how my body and mind will respond to me after I have done this. Will I notice a difference and most importantly, will I make this change for good.

It begins...

NO RED MEAT, NO CHICKEN NO PORK.

Yes to eggs, milk and cheese. Yay! I said vegetarian, not vegan. Vegans do not eat ANY animal product or any animal-derived products, but vegetarians do. The vegan lifestyle is more hardcore and is one I don’t think I ever want to try (unless I absolutely had to for heath reasons) let alone live, however, all my respect to those who do. I will be documenting my life as I go about the weeks. I will be as honest as I can and see how easy this lifestyle is to attain and if it is even worth it. At this point I know nothing, other than it’s what is best for the human body. I know the dangers of a meat diet and I want to see not only if but how much better I will feel afterwards.

Wish me luck. I know I’m going to need it!!!!

UPDATE 11/13/15

Two weeks in and I'm beginning to feel the burn. The struggle is real. I can see hamburge commercials and my mind wonders or rather remembers how good it tasted. I knew this was going be the struggle I was going to face. The insatiable fast food chains rubbing their meat all over my face every day. I need to retrain my brain to see meat and not have this automatic response of "yum". If I can do this, I will be in the safe zone. This will be easier said than done because hamburger chains don't want to lose a customer.

UPDATE: 11/28/15

Having just survived Thanksgiving without Turkey has been easier than I thought. There were plenty of other foods and I enjoyed every one of them. This is making me continue to think my decision should be permanent. To cut meat from my life has been challenging but definitely worth it. Along with other foods decisions like more water and veggies I'm beginning to feel a difference. I'm almost done with the 30 days and the less I crave any meat at all.

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