Category Archives: Body Conscious

sondai Change my Life… Sugar Addict

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On August 1st I embarked on a lifestyle change with the help of a 30 day challenge. I can’t say I was totally 100% perfect on everyday but it was definitely a big step in the right direction. It is now the month of September and I see signs of regression. However, as an active participant in my own life I am heading them off at the curve. We are presented with choices everyday. Today is no different.
September 17th has always been one of my favorite days. It is my birthday. One thing that I always enjoy on that day is… cake. Well it is now September 18th and my body and that cake are at odds. Sugar is such an evil substance. It is a manufactered drug to enable dis-ease within the body. My head feels like I have been beat about the face unrelentingly. Ugh.
These effects me think of children. I saw a mother give her child a bottle of artificial pink lemonade. God only knows the amount of sugar it contained. After the little girl drank a significant amount of this surely addictively sweet substance she was off. Climbing on tables, spinning in circles, she was so clouded with this substance she could barely listen to instructions. You could actually see her trying to understand and process what to do. Her mother was threatening her, telling her to stop doing this and that. I wanted to explain to her – it is the sugar, she is hopped up on sugar!
I may have said this before but, look at the basic food groups. What foods are actually white? Think about it. Before processing. Califlour and the inside of a potato, and that is pushing it because both are not completely bleach white or processed white. Salt is pink or black, grains are tans and beige, flour is even brown or tan according to what you make it from.
Too much table salt can cause hypertension. Too much sugar causes diabetes. These are dis-eases within the body. When we eat processed food our body’s filing system gets confused. It has no clue what to do with things beyond vegetables, minerals, grains. It has to create pockets to store the unknown items.
I admit I have a sugar addiction. I struggle with it. August let me know I can ween myself away from it, but it does rear its head and it is tempting. Sugar attacks joints, creates stiffness in the body and robs the body of essentials. I have knee and ankle trouble that worsens when I eat anything with sugar.
So the battle rages on but knowing the effects and knowing the life I want… one totally outweighs the other.

Head, Shoulder KNEES and Toes

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Back in the NOT SO distant past I was an avid dancer. Not on stage… I got no money to “perform” but I would sure enough find some space on the dance floor. I can remember the day that my knee did not agree to continue with my dance fun. DJ Stylus and Jahsonic were just beginning their long career of jacking bodies and making rooms sweat. AKA the days before Axel F was even born. It felt like a piece of bone lodged in my patella. I actually had to hobble to the car. I could not really straighten it or put pressure on in. It was horrible. It happened like 25 minutes before the end of the party. I was blown. Disappointed that I could not dance for the rest of the night. Once I got home my answer was to sleep it off, which is generally my answer to all pain. I should have gone to the hospital for X rays with the piercing pain that accompanied the position my knee was in. But nope. I did eventually go to the doctor and found out that I had a degenerative meniscus.  Basically,  cartilage was slowly disappearing from my knee. So there are certain things my body does not do at this particular junction.  Swat, run, jump or kneel. Notice dance is not listed. I still love to dance. So I do. Now mind you I hear my knee anytime I walk up or down steps. Repetitive motion causes my bones to rub together and my knees (and ankles) snap, crackle and pop. Standing from a seated position they pop. Sitting… normally I flop. I am too young for this I swear. As a pro natural healing gal… herbs were/are my go to. However, they weren’t/aren’t preventative. Take for instance tumeric. It is an awesome herb for many things that ail ya. Inflammation around the knees after dancing is what I used tumeric for. It worked. However,  it don’t work if you don’t remember to take it. Having a serious distaste of swallowing pills can be an issue.  I can remember one time I went all health commando and decided I would do a clove of garlic a day. I was becoming a pro. This one particular day the clove was bigger than I expected.  I swallowed but it lodged in my throat.  I lived alone and I was shook. “OH MY God I am going to die from swallowing garlic.” Is all I could think. Obviously,  I didn’t because I am here telling the story. So… I don’t like pills, therefore I conveniently forget to take them. Well someone heard my whining because they made Joint Juice.  Have you seen the size of a chondroitin/glucosamine tablet… remember those pink erasers in elementary school?  It might as well be that size. Joint Juice is 8 oz of cranberry and pomegranate and other stuff plus good stuff for your joints. I am bending at the knees… Watch out next thing you know… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC6RSQD2HOI

Can Someone Get Me an Aspirin… I think I am having a Heart Attack

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©Grafiklee 2006 | Poster: "Heart Attack" Sizes: 50x70cm.

©Grafiklee 2006 | Poster: “Heart Attack” Sizes: 50x70cm.

Don’t be alarmed… this was the other day. Since I am writing this message I must be ok. BUT I have begun pricing a refurbished VitaMix and I am working on getting my vegetables delivered again.

I am a sexy big girl. The men who like it… like it. So much so several have expressed to me that I should not lose weight because they like me how I am. Now I have always felt some kinda way about that statement. So if I express to you that the doctor thinks I am a borderline diabetic with high cholestrol and a chance of having a heart attack you would still want me at this size? A$$H*le I would be dead! Obviously, they didn’t make the grade of life long partner.

I have never been… wait I was about to lie. I was a size 12 in what 4th or 5th grade? That was big for that age. My family always said “you better lose the weight before you become a pre-teen because it will be harder for you to lose after that”. Thing was I was big for my age but it was nothing that a little increased activity wouldn’t have put a stop to. Problem was I was accident prone. Wore one skate to keep my balance. I was too afraid to fall. Fell off my bike one good time, never got back on it. Got a scooter instead. (I loved that thing) Just running my knees would buckle and twist out of place. TO THIS DAY I cringe just thinking about it. I get freaked out over anything dealing with bones. Whew! Moving on.

I am overweight and I have been feeling it lately. I love my style and what I am able to do with fashion and some accessories. I am going to miss some key pieces in my wardrobe but I need some relief on my knees and ankles. They have been cursing me out. I do not like them when they get so angry. So it has to go. The weight that is. It will be difficult in the beginning. I have started and stopped dietary changes more than once. The problem most of the time is convenience. I am a grad student. I am either reading, writing or trying to sleep. I love to cook but that is an investment of time.

*sidebar – Gentlemen. Notice I said I love to cook. I am good at it too.

I never feel like there is never enough time in the day to prepare a proper meal. Hell maybe my time management is off. I need to do better. But yes, the title of this post was a real feeling on more than one occasion. I have read up on it actually because at one point I think I may have or am a hypochondriac so I needed to figure out all of my ailments because they were going to kill me. I have herbs and tinctures for a multiplicity of things… a multiplicity you hear me?

Loose herbs all up and through my cabinet – ya hear?

I know a number of remedies but, still ailments seem to repeat themselves. Which essentially means that I haven’t been doing what I need to be doing. Taking better care of myself. So I think I will make that investment. I mean what is a gabillion dollars (estimated cost of a vitamix) when it comes to your health.

Next post: Washington’s Green Grocer aka there is fruit at my door.