My Story

My Story

or

Who Am I and Why Am I Doing This?

I have never really struggled with weight.  But that doesn't mean I've never been unhealthy.  All my life I have been fairly active.  But I haven't always eaten as healthy as I currently do.

Growing up, I recall a few Saturday mornings splitting a dozen Dunkin Donuts with my mother,  or we'd indulge in a whole loaf of fresh-baked bread, slathered in butter.  To this day, my go-to trouble foods are baked goodies.  I don't think I ever ate a salad until I was in my mid-20s (although we always had plenty of fresh fruit around, which I loved).

Both of my parents have suffered health maladies.  My mother had uterine cancer in her late 30s, and breast cancer in her mid-60s.  She strongly believes she was the victim of faulty bio-medical technologies for birth control and hormone replacement therapy.  Fortunately, she survived both cancers, a testament to what she was doing right.  My father died from a series of heart attacks in his early-40s.  Popular wisdom might say that I am prone to suffer from similar health issues.  Both were smokers.  (In a triumphant act of her will, my mother quit 14 years ago, and so ended her periodic migraine headaches.) Both were following the meat-and-potatoes dietary sensibilities of their time, and my father, bless him, was an alcoholic.

As an adult, I have never been a big meat-eater, as I'd become convinced that too much was not good for the body, so a few years ago at a free cholesterol screening I attending with my mother, I was surprised (shocked, actually) with the result that indicated I had high cholesterol.  Not just a little high, but significantly so.  Figuring it was some kind of error, I disregarded it.  After all, I was a decent athlete and marathon runner.  But a yearly physical a few months later revealed the same elevated levels.

The only source of bad cholesterol is through animal products.  Period.  I was consuming more cheese, butter and yogurt than I realized.  But I swallowed a large slice of humble pie (sans ice cream), cut way back on these, and a short time later my numbers were once again in the healthy range, thankfully.

I am a middle-aged woman of 48 now.  Heck, I'm even perimenopausal.  I'm heading into the second half of life and doggone it, I want to be strong and healthy.  I don't want to accept cancer or heart disease as a hereditary sentence.  I look in the mirror and realize I'm not 29 anymore.  Reading up on health and experimenting on myself has become a bit of a hobby (even a passion), and I am eager to share what I'm learning if it can benefit even one person.

We nourish ourselves with so much more than just what we put into our mouths.  Spiritual practice, good relationships, exercise, creative expression... these are all part of what makes us healthy.  I could eat only the freshest organic vegetables and drink the purest water, but if my marriage were troubled or I hated my job, I wouldn't be healthy.  I think we've all probably encountered a svelte but neurotic health nut who couldn't hold a conversation with anyone.  That's not health in my eyes.

I want to be wholly healthy.