Reflections on Healthier Living

This picture reminds me that we need to eat to live, not live to eat!  Embarking on a healthier lifestyle these past few months has opened my eyes to so much!  With the help of Leah, I have been introduced to so many new types of foods and a new way of eating!   I thought I was eating healthy all these years, when in actuality  the foods I was eating were not good for my body and did nothing to help my illness .

Eliminating dairy, processed foods, refined sugars and now gluten from my diet has been a bit challenging, but there are so many tasty alternatives out there that I hardly miss anything!  Except ice cream--still have not found a tasty non-dairy, low sugar option yet...but I am still searching!!

Of course, it was my decision to continue with the elimination even after the 21 days that Leah had asked me to go without was over.  Don't get me wrong, once in awhile I may have dairy or something if I am out of town and there no alternatives available, but generally I try to find something else to eat!

My weight loss is stuck at 40 pounds. I am happy with that number in the 2.5 months since I have had this flare up, but I would like to lose about 60 more pounds!! For health, to decrease my pain, and so that I can shop in any store I want--that is a major goal for me!!  I know I will get there, just have to step up my game a bit!!

I need to exercise more, if my body would just cooperate!! I walk all the time, but I need to add some other exercise as well since water aerobics is over for the season.  The outdoor pool is opening on 6/10, so I want to swim every day if I am able to.  I will be starting a pain management program 6/23 twice a week for 6 weeks and that will involve PT/OT and stress/pain management.  Hopefully by the end of the program at the end of July, I can join a gym again, and then I will be back to work and hopefully my life will return to some semblance of normalcy, whatever that means!!

No one ever wants to get sick, but maybe this flare up was a wakeup call for me to start taking better care of myself!! Well I certainly am awake now!!  These changes that I have made will not end once I am feeling better and able to go back to work.  These will be put in place so that nothing like this happens again, and if I do have another bad flare up, hopefully I will be better equipped to handle it if there is a next time!

The best six doctors anywhere

And no one can deny it

Are sunshine, water, rest, and air

Exercise and diet.

These six will gladly you attend

If only you are willing

Your mind they'll ease

Your will they'll mend

And charge you not a shilling.

~Nursery rhyme quoted by Wayne Fields, What the River Knows, 1990