The Health Revolution

I am loving this Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution! I think it's fantastic. This country has been so deluded into thinking our food supply is healthy, that it's scary. If you think anyone is making sure that what is on the shelves is healthy, think again. This guy is going to make an impact, I hope, on the world.

I embraced this way of eating years ago. At 35 years old I was having chronic headaches (6 times a week), heartburn, I couldn't sleep, I had neck pain, TMJ, knee pain and weight gain. I went to my Doc. She prescribed me pills.

Nothing says American Medical Care like a fist full of pills.

I was given prescriptions for huge amounts of Ibuprofen for the knee pain. Prilosec for heartburn, a migraine medication for the headaches. She offered me an anti-depressant, and some weight loss pill that had some very nasty side effects.

Something in me just snapped. "Enough is enough already, I want to be healed I don't want to be on hundreds of dollars of pills every month for the rest of my life!" I walked out.

I knew I wasn't going to find the answers there. I knew I had to embrace Alternative care. I began to read every health book I could get my hands on. And then one day heard about Kinesiology. I decided to go for it. And it changed my life.

Doc "Wonder" was amazing. He taught me so much about nutrition and natural medicine, about my body and it's chemistry. He fixed all my ails. All, but my weight issues. What we figured out is that I had sort of a "Perfect Storm" of metabolic chaos and I know exactly when it all went to hell. The day I got my first injection of Depo Provara. I have been in an uphill battle ever since. I have spent thousands of dollars trying to right this hormonal wrong.

I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that we are the only ones responsible for our health.
The Doctors in this country make money by pushing drugs.
The Drug companies make money by keeping us on prescriptions pills for our entire lives.
The Food companies make money buy filling their products with inferior fillers, preservatives, sugars, additives, and addictive ingredients because real food costs money to produce.
The Farmers pump the cattle and chickens and crops full of hormones and pesticides to fatten the animals and eliminate crop loss.
The Diet Pill companies make money by pushing pills to reverse the weight problems from the food our FDA has approved.
And the Politicians that are supposedly there to protect and work for us---don't even get me started.

The only one looking out for you, is you.

Think before you eat. If you can't pronounce it, don't ingest it. If it's created in a lab, do your research before you use it. And for God's sake, get your ass off the couch.

Natural Health

I'm into natural health. Well about 80% anyway. When I was 36 I had a whole host of health issues. Nothing horrible, but annoying aches and pains, indigestion, headaches, neck, jaw and knee pain, major PMS. So I went to my Doc and she prescribed a bunch of pills to fix me up. I got like 6 prescriptions for drugs. But that wasn't the answer I wanted. I didn't want to be hooked on drugs the rest of my life. I wanted to know why I was having these issues, I was young, in the prime of my life, I shouldn't feel this old - this young. There had to be a better answer.

Then, I got a referral from a friend to a Kinesiologist. A brilliant young man, thinking way ahead of modern times, enlightened me to natural health. I learned more about my body in my first visit with him then I had learned in my entire life of Doctor visits.

Now I'm not going to lie to you, you really have to keep an open mind. Kinesiology is about the mind-body connection. It has four main components: emotional, energy, skeletal and muscular. All four need to work together for optimal health. This "Doc Wonder" could tell with muscle strength testing what things I had sensitivities to (be it petroleum, dairy or aspartame) for where my body was weak, it told me what organs were ailing; it was nothing short of amazing.

I made a conscious decision to trust in what he had to say, even when it seemed a bit far-fetched. I did what he told me to do. And you know what? Within 4 months all those aches, the acid reflux, the PMS, it was all gone. He adjusted my body, de-toxified me, gave me vitamins and tinctures of positive energy – he taught me about nutrition and what the chemicals and pesticides in our food supply and cosmetics were doing to me. It made perfect sense really. I whole-heartedly jumped on the natural-health bandwagon. I read everything I got my hands on. I've even taken nutrition classes where I knew more then the instructor teaching it.

It's not easy, cheap, or convenient to be healthy. It's quite the opposite. Our food supply, although abundant, is quite poor nutritionally. Our cosmetics give off by-products that can disrupt our hormones. And practically every product, food, beverage and medication does it's part in toxifying our bodies. And the good stuff – the natural stuff, is expensive. It's quite scary and overwhelming when you find out the real truth.

But…I had made the choice to do this for my future self. I had to get to the source of what ailed me and make the necessary changes for good health. Ironically, I thought I was being pretty healthy. I ate a fair amount of fruits and veggies, I wasn't a junk-food –junkie, I got a good amount of exercise, but I had issues despite my good efforts. So I started slow. I cleaned out my cupboards and fridge trying to eliminate anything with chemicals and additives. I gave up regular dairy products; I started buying organic as much as I could. I shopped at Farmer's Markets, Co-ops and Natural Food stores. I took pharmaceutical quality vitamins. I began yoga and meditation.

I learned to eat fresh, natural meals and snacks---well, for the most part anyway. I mean it's hard. You can't really find a grilled piece of organic chicken and some vegetables in a convenience store when you are on the go. So I tried to make better choices. "Hold the burger and fries, I'll take that grilled chicken salad, dressing on the side. Why, no thank you to that cheesecake, I'll just have some fruit tonight". I really annoy my husband, family and friends with my health talk I'm sure, especially when I tell them just how bad those French fries are for them. But, I do pretty well I guess, I try to be strong. I'd say I'm about 80% there. However, I do have to admit that there are some days when there is just no substitution for a Cookie Dough Blizzard.

But I try, I really do try….