until you look at a frame of reference. For instance, I've not posted anything here for well over a month. That's not so unusual, but I kept thinking there was a more recent entry.
Well, while my fingers have not danced on this page for a while, I've not been idle. All that yard work (tree trimming, weeding, planting, lifting, toting, bending, twisting) resulted in back problems that kept me restrained and miserable. The ol' back has suffered a lot through the years from careless working methods (who don't I kneel and not bend?) and carrying too heavy a load. And the load is less about what I pick up to move than what I move around with me all the time.
That's pretty depressing; though I try to ignore the problem it isn't going away without work. So I have begun work on myself. It's been interesting, needless to say challenging and has brought some reward.
I am working with a nutritionist and am learning how to eat properly. Yes, Virginia there are reasons we have health issues and it's not all about how much we eat. While I've enjoyed eating delicious and comforting foods, I've been poisoning myself. Sounds like a dramatic exaggeration, but it's not really.
Our food is the result of manufacturing processes that produce large quantities that have been stripped of nutritious values and may actually be dangerous because of the effects on us.
The sad thing is, these processes were touted as means of overcoming food shortages and reducing hunger around the globe. The result of the work has actually been profits to huge agri-businesses and continuing hunger in our own country.
If I sound like a recent convert shouting the gospel, it's because that's what I am. In support of my newly embraced belief system, I recommend these films: Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, King Corn and The Future of Food. They are available on DVD from Netflix and Amazon.com sells them.
The other film I've watched came to my attention when I stumbled onto (in the sense that I rarely watch this show and paused over it unexpectedly) a Bill Moyers Journal episode specifically about A Place at the Table. This video was produced by folk involved in trying to overcome hunger IN THIS COUNTRY through educating people about their food and influencing law makers to look at how laws and regulations contribute to the very problem they were intended to fix. At least the justifications offered for the rules was reducing hunger; the results have been big profits to agribusinesses who greatly influence laws through their financial contributions. If you want to understand what's taken place and how we could make things better, I recommend this film.
I have more such videos on my 'to view' list and will probably report on those when I've seen them. This is truly scary stuff. But it's not hopeless.
Meanwhile, my own program for personal improvement and wellness is progressing nicely. My nutritionist says I'm doing fine although I wanted to read some stuff, use some supplements and then wake up one day thinner, healthier, not to mention much wiser.
Doesn't seem to work that way. Nothing seems to work that way. And, as we all understand, I didn't get into this shape overnight. Yeah, the same old same old. BUT as a wise person once said, the best place to start is here and the best time to start is now (that is, since I didn't start 25 years ago in a different place).
And it really is a journey, a process, to change what you eat and how you eat. All the attention and bother I spent on 'low fat', 'lo cal', 'lite' was pretty much useless. All that stuff may have had less fat and less sugar and fewer calories, but it also had lousy nutrition and contained things people shouldn't eat. As one author describes those things and much other stuff we eat, 'food-like edible substances'.
I don't know where the journey is headed exactly, since I'm learning as I go. But somewhere down the road I expect to be healthier, weigh less (as a result of being healthier INSTEAD of being healthier because I weigh less) and have a much better life.
I engaged a nutritionist because for more than 50 years I had failed at fixing the problem(s) myself. I was working with faulty information, had a lack of reliable tools, and couldn't even begin.
Some folk, no doubt, could do personal research, devise a plan and set off to becoming healthier. More power to them. I needed help. And, thankfully, I could get that help.
And, I'm convinced now that you will pay for health at some point, either up front to be healthy and have a better life, or to regain health or manage disease to safe your life. I'm fortunate that I found a means to begin before I was sick and dying.
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