HI. THANKS FOR SHOWING INTEREST IN MY BLOG. I NEED TO BE CLEAR AND TRANSPARENT WITH YOU AS I'M NOT OUT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF AN ALREADY FRAGILE SITUATION. I AM NOT A DOCTOR NOT DO I PRETEND TO BE. I HAVE NO CREDENTIALS OF ANY KIND RELATED TO THE TOPICS I TALK ABOUT. I'M JUST ANOTHER PERSON ON THE INTERNET. THIS IS NOT AN ADVICE BLOG IF YOU PERCEIVE I'M GIVING ANY ADVICE, THEN PERCEIVE THIS: THE ONLY ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU IS TO NEVER TRUST A STRANGER ON THE INTERNET. TO REVEIW: THIS BLOG HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DIAGNOSING OR PRESCRIBING ANY COURSE OF ACTION. DON'T ASSUME MY STORY IS YOUR STORY. IT ISN'T. SO DON'T FOR A MINUTE THINK THAT WHAT WORKED FOR ME WILL WORK FOR YOU. THIS IS JUST MY STORY ACCORDING TO ME, SO TAKE IT LIKE THAT. ALWAYS CONSULT WITH YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT ANY HEALTH CONCERNS YOU HAVE, USE UP THE ENTIRE PRESCRIPTION YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN, AND NEVER STOP YOUR TREATMENT WITHOUT CONSULTING WITH YOUR DOCTOR FIRST. ALRIGHTY THEN.
FREE RADICALS, OXIDATION, AND OXIDATIVE STRESS
Big words, but here's the visual I use: Internal Rust
This visual refers to possible long term effects associated with metabolic activity, that is, (eating, drinking, digesting, breathing, moving and exercising. Like the tin man frozen in place, I might be left the exact same way - compromised or paralyzed by dis-ease - if I didn't feel I understood their sources and how they might affect me. Taken on the surface, the tin man had some serious stiffness in his joints. Until he got some oil.
And then he wanted a heart, for goodness sakes. Sheesh. Some people want everytin (of course, pun intended).
OXIDATION AND OXIDATIVE STRESS
Here's a simple demonstration to show the process of oxidation and also the power of anti-oxidants. I believe that antioxidants are my soldiers in the fight against my cells' premature death due to a more intense oxidative stressors. For this demonstration, I'll need a paper towel, two fresh cut slices of an apple and a slice of lemon or a small amount of lemon juice.
I'm going to place one slice of apple on the paper towel, untreated, open to the air, skin side down, with both sides of the slice exposed to the air. The other slice of apple, I'm going to treat by first squeezing lemon juice on it, making sure to cover the entire slice. I'll set the treated slice right next to the untreated slice for easy comparison. Why Lemon juice? Lemon juice is just one of many natural antioxidants.
A little while later...
Lo and behold, the untreated slice of apple is turning brown. But the slice treated with the lemon juice, still looks freshly cut.
Hmmm, what's happening here?
Well, the untreated slice of apple is experiencing 'oxidation', which in this case occurs when the surface cells of the apple are exposed to the open air. The surface cells on the untreated apple begin to die and decompose, turning brown in the process.
The visual of a browning slice of apple is what I keep in mind regarding my gut cells. If I want them to be the healthiest they can be, I have to consciously act in their own best interests. I must be their advocate. They are demanding it of me and I can't let them down. I've learned they will scream at me if I don't treat them well. My cells want to do the right thing and I want to give them the best chance to succeed with the greatest army of collective soothants and anti-inflammatory supplements, foods and activities.
The treated slice, on the other hand, still looks like it was freshly cut, with hardly any brown at all. Why less brown in the treated slice? The power of the antioxidants in the lemon juice. In effect, the antioxidants in the lemon juice has extended the health and life of the surface cells.
I believe a similar thing occurs in my body. When cells in my body experience oxidation due to my body's natural metabolic processes, they exhaust their energy and die. My oxidated cells then become part of the waste material that my body is designed to eliminate. But when I add antioxidants to the environment of my cells' life cycle, my cells, I believe, live healthier, stronger, longer lives. And over the course of my lifetime, I'm thinking: Less oxidative stress on my internal environment means a healthier longer stronger life for the host of all those cells. Just my thinking, you understand.
My personal hypothesis, then, is this: When my cells are exposed to a steady, consistent environment of antioxidants, my cells live healthier, stronger, AND longer. My filtration system feels supported, and I think my cells metabolize energy more efficiently.
And my bowel movements are perfect. Did I say my bowel movements are perfect? I did? Well, they are. Perfect. Imagine, perfect. Healthy.
And that could be a reason all by itself not to believe a word of this story...it's so atypical, so seemingly unattainable, and really unconvincing, that this story just can't be true. I don't blame you. Really, I don't. And here's another disclaimer so there's no misunderstanding.
I have no credentials and no training. You can trust me on that. Just a man, alone with his thoughts.
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU'RE TAKING ANY MEDICINE FOR ANY REASON AND ARE UNDER A DOCTOR'S CARE, SOME OF THE FOLLOWING FRUITS OR VEGETABLES COULD INTERFERE WITH THE EFFICACY OF YOUR MEDICAL TREATMENT. CONSULT BOTH YOUR DOCTOR AND YOUR PHARMACIST TO SEE IF ANY OF THESE FOODS INTERFERE WITH OR AFFECT YOUR TREATMENT IN ANY WAY. ALWAYS BE INFORMED ABOUT HOW FOOD INTERACTS WITH YOUR MEDICINE AND ABOUT ANY POTENTIAL SIDE EFFECTS. ALWAYS GO OVER THE DETAILS OF YOUR TREATMENT WITH YOUR DOCTOR AND ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT ANY AND ALL OF YOUR HEALTH CONCERNS. AMEN.
ANTIOXIDANT POWERHOUSES, NATURAL DETOXIFIERS: PART OF ALL PLANTS, WHOLE FRUITS, ROOTS AND VEGETABLES
Interestingly, Vitamin C, much like EFA's (Essential Fatty Acids), cannot be synthesized or produced by the human body and MUST be acquired through food or supplementation. Funny how nature creates a situation demanding that you eat these items or be sick. Point: Consuming Vitamin C prevents the disease known as scurvy, a challenging and often fatal ailment common among sailors and passengers long ago during their long voyages across the sea. In short, a body must have a consistent and sufficient source of Vitamin C or that body will get ill and maybe die. Turns out that Vitamin C, similar to vitamins in general, is a vital nutrient, a nutrient only available from a food source, and a powerful antioxidant.
Know that there are many antioxidants, fully discoverable, each one doing something different to support human energy metabolism and filtration. Vitamins being only one category, antioxidants are contained in all plants, roots, fruits, and vegetables. By eating primarily a variety of these food items, I feel I'm getting a good dose of the antioxidants I need to keep my living processes running smoothly.
Vitamin C, one of nature's powerful antioxidants and probably best known from orange juice fame, is available through plant tissues. High concentrations can be found in all citrus fruits including lemons, limes, grapefruit, oranges, mandarins; also, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages and green, yellow, orange, and red peppers.
Ever wonder how the idea of taking Vitamin C to fight a common cold came about? Well, it's similar to what I'm talking about here. The idea is that by me adding antioxidants to my cold treatment arsenal, I can somehow speed up the healing process. More good guys to fight the bad guys add up to eventual victory. It kind of makes sense to me.
Daily sources of antioxidants are included in my food choices in the forms of fruits, veggies, roots, and leafy plants. I believe these food choices keep my cells happier and healthier and living stronger and longer.
I highlight Vitamin C, but it's just one example in a whole universe of antioxidants that can be found is all edible plants, fruits, roots and veggies. I choose a bunch of all those food choices feeling I'm doing my body good. My body certainly doesn't scream at me anymore.
There are many other antioxidants and other great stuff contained within the goodness of all plants, roots, fruits and vegetables. This part is really a no brainer for me. By eating more plants, roots, fruits and vegetables, I feel I've brought down and eliminated my internal inflammation.
Or maybe this is all just a coincidence and I was never really sick at all. Can this really be someone's truth, even for one writer, Graham Becker? If you did your own research about you, that certainly wouldn't be wrong. Because none of this is about you. It's all about me. Or so I claim. Always check with your doctor and check your sources. Don't believe a word I'm laying down. I'm serious.
So, I eat plants, roots, or vegetables with every meal. For me, veggies with my meat or fish protein make for groovy and smooth bowel movements.
I eat all fruit separate from any kind of meat protein. Protein powder in smoothies is the exception for me. I add fruit and protein powder and blend together. The protein fruit combination in a smoothie doesn't disagree with me or cause me any digestive discomfort or distress and digests nicely. The protein works to slow down the digestion of the sugar in the liquid smoothie, helping to moderate blood sugar spikes and excessive stress to the pancreas.
OXIDATIVE STRESS
If my body can't keep up with the amount of internal oxidation occurring, if my body can't filter the toxins efficiently, I believe they build up in my system. Like bad guys, they're cell delinquents with nothing to do but loiter amd then hang around like carcasses in the surrounding, accumulating, cell sludge. That, I believe, is a piece of the mosaic that helps describe my personal internal inflammation. For me, intense oxidative stress occurs when I indulge in exacerbators, especially processed food and soda.
There is always a certain amount of internal stress that I feel. I'm exposed to air,food and water toxins as well as to the toxic effects from stress and worries and concern about life's daily challenges and problems. When oxidants, also known as free radicals, accumulate en masse in my body, the result is oxidative stress. There's too much for my body to filter. I believe they make up part of the mozaic of internal inflammation. Oxidative stress may cause my body to try to work overtime to filter out the toxins. A steady accumulation of oxidants might be a contributor to my body's oxidative stress.
My body is made up of trillions of cells. Each cell has a life-cycle. As long as I'm alive, every minute of every day, cells are born, they live, and they die. When cells OXIDATE, that's pretyy much their final stage of life. When cells die, and they are dying all the time, our body is designed as a giant filter to recognize and flush these dead cells out through our pores - through our breath, our perspiration, our skin, nails, eyes and ears and nose, as well as through our solid and liquid waste elimination. I view my body is a huge energy factory designed to nourish my cells, energize my entire body and mind, and then, finally, to filter and remove toxins, dead cells and metabolic wastes.
All of this, I believe, has enabled me to continue to live because my body is designed to metabolize energy from the air, the sun, plants and animals, as well as other humans. Plus I believe my body is a natural detoxifier with internal defenses designed to attack and eliminate intruders, toxins and infections.
As the miracle organism that it is, the body is asked to filter everything it ingests and to eliminate waste along with toxins. When the body takes in more toxins than it can adequately filter, an accumulation can occur.
This is where a potential increase of FREE RADICALS, primarly dead cells due to the processess of a body's metabolism, may become problematic for some. For some, this inability of their body to efficiently remove waste and toxins can lead to chronic inflammation. The body is simply asked to do too much for too long and can't keep up. After a while, decades maybe, parts start to go bad and break down. Sometimes, earlier on, a complete systemic breakdown.
Here's another way I look at it. The human body is an amazing processor of energy - sunshine, food, air and water. Our body's main purpose is to make sure every cell is nourished and then filtered out upon reaching the end of its lifespan. Its an ongoing process that is occuring in all of us, even as you read this. We don't feel the process so much as experience the results of that process.
A body hungers for attention every day of its life. As the body's owner and guide through this thing called 'Life', if you don't provide these energy sources to your body efficiently - if you're not able to get enough sunshine, your food sources are inadequate in terms of fresh, whole food, you don't drink enough water, or the air you breath isn't clean - your body is going to tell you by having a part break down or you can have a complete system malfunction, like I experienced.
Weight gain and stress can exacerbate internal inflammation. We also consume toxins such as alcohol, caffeine, prescription and recreational drugs, as well as antibiotics and chemicals in our food, water and soft drinks, not to mention cigarette smoke and air and highway driving pollution.
So, how do we maintain this filter known as the human body?
Well, we know that good health is tied to a healthy immune system. A compromised immune system is more vulnerable to dis-ease. So, how do we grow the good bacteria in our gut so that they can crowd out the bad bacteria and more ably lower inflammation and fight infection? Is it even possible after months or years or decades of medication and toxin ingestion?
The wonderful thing about the human body is that it strives to live healthy and with a balanced PH. The immune system wants its host to live long and prosper. That's why, when it shuts down, you need to listen to your body. Because you're the only one it's talking to and you're the only one who can figure out what it's saying. It all starts with LISTENING. Once we listen, we can act.
PLEASE BE REMINDED, I AM NOT A DOCTOR AND I HAVE NO BACKGROUND IN HEALTH OR HEALTHCARE OR TREATMENT OF ANY KIND. THIS BLOG IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. FOR ALL YOU KNOW, I'M A DERANGED LUNATIC CAUGHT IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE. YOU WOULD NEVER LISTEN TO A PERSON LIKE THAT. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER BUT ALWAYS CHECK YOUR SOURCES. DON'T ASSUME OR CONCLUDE FOR A MINUTE THAT WHAT WORKS FOR ME WILL WORK FOR YOU. ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR DOCTOR, CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT ALL OF YOUR HEALTH CONCERNS BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING, ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR DOCTOR'S ADVICE, USE UP THE ENTIRE DOSAGES OF MEDICINE YOU'RE GIVEN AND CONTINUE TREATMENT AS LONG AS YOUR DOCTOR SAYS YOU SHOULD. FURTHERMORE, NOTHING HERE SHOULD BE INTERPRETED AS ME, GRAHAM BECKER, GIVING ANYONE ADVICE ABOUT ANYTHING. I'M NOT. NEVER TAKE THE ADVICE OF A STRANGER ON THE INTERNET IS MY ADVICE. HERE'S TO YOUR HEALTH!
MY GIFTS, MY BLESSINGS
I didn't create me. No surprise, I didn't create the earth, the clouds, the sky, my parents, my siblings, or really anything at all. All the big stuff happened before I got here. Somehow, the big stuff along with a lot of little stuff, made my existence possible. The universe was patient and timed my appearance to be right now. I don't know how that was done, but 'I think, therefore I am.' And, according to scientists, the 'Big Bang' was like almost 5 BILLION years ago. And don't forget, too, the 120 million years the world was ruled by dinosaurs. We humans are only about 200,000 years old. There was a lot of time when we weren't here at all.
And, now, after all the kerfuffel, tadaa, I'm here with you and, miracle of miracles, you're here with me. All those millions and billions of years of history by the time I popped my head in, or out as the case may be, and, because the same has happened to you, here we are, together in the ether of the internet.
Honestly, probably just like you, I haven't a clue as to why we're all here together on this little floating stone in space. All I know is that the whole universe and more existed before I got here and I don't remember being here before. And since my current experience lets me believe I am here now, I want to be the smartest I can be about the tiny space I hold.
Of course, sometimes it feels like I'm balancing plates on sticks, while standing on one leg perched on an open air steel beam of a high-rise under construction. And it's starting to rain. UhOhhh...I hear thunder...and LIGHTNING!
None of this is lost on me. Taken simply, creation favors life, as complicated as life can be, and as such has given me a little window of time in which to say 'hi.' In the meantime, I've come to believe that my creation, and all creation really, is somehow rooted in a purposeful trajectory in its cosmic timing.
That also might be my cosmic ego wishing it to be true so as to secure my concept as a singular little purpose in the universe.
And, one might also consider, if creation favors life, then creation also favors love and care. Because there is no life without all creatures caring for their vulnerable newborns. Humans, more than others, seem to have the singular ability to love or not love. Love can be scary because it implies a commitment beyond friendship. It can not be done alone. You can love a movie but that's different than loving another person. Love means being open to pain, and that's scary. For the universe, love is built-in. For humans, love seems to be a choice.
The rest of the living world, however, is simply operating from instinctual love and care. We may choose to show or not show our love, but LOVE appears to be among the trajectories of creation. And because love is already part of the equation, and because my universe begins with me and me alone, I've chosen to love my body, to love myself, and to fight for my best health, every day, just for me. It's the right thing for me to do, I think.
So, I truly believe that creation is loving in its intent. That leads me to try to act in loving, patient ways. I do try. I am human, though.
By choosing to love my body, I've helped myself to focus on a debt of gratitude to that creative power. If life is a gift, I'm not giving this one back. In the meantime, I'm going to take care of it so I can enjoy what's left to my brief existence.
My health has been challenging, but I really feel I'm one of the lucky ones. I count my blessings and stay positive. I truly feel everything I've been given: my life, this beautiful planet, the sunshine, the company of family and friends, are wonderful gifts and make the space we occupy, tolerable. Gifts, too, that can only be appreciated while I'm here. I don't know if or where I'm going after my body wears out, so I only have now. Since I'm pretty sure this existence, my life with this human body, is a one-off, I'm not getting this gift again. I've decided to give my gift the best possible care I can. That way it stays the gift that keeps on giving.
I can honestly say, so far, my IBD diagnosis, specifically my UC diagnosis, opened up an opportunity for me to actually be healthier than I might have been had I never had the diagnosis. My diagnosis changed my life. And, in the end (pun intended), for the better.
My mental and behavioral decisions in response to my diagnosis, my dogged determinism, my willingness to follow wherever my personal investigation took me, led me back to health. I wasn't going to fight the process of healing. I was going to listen to my body's messages, even when it was screaming at me. Admittedly I backslid several times, but I never flagged in my focus to solve the riddle of my body's immune system. It took me 20 years to come to full remission of my symptoms.
I should have known a 100 calorie soda wasn't equivalent to 100 calories of vegetables. But I didn't really make that connection at first. Like all humans, I have to sustain myself everyday. Generally, I like to do that with food. I'll bet you do, too. Besides, eating can be just plain social and fun in its best moments. People share recipes, are remembered for their recipes as well as their ability to be artistic with food. We gather our families and friends around food. Oh, and we LOVE it when food has that perfect combination of mouth-feel and flavoriciousness which results in contented satiety infused with ardor. Food is simply a recipe for love. I love to eat and I know a lot of other people who also love to eat. For me, food is an emotional experience for sure, especially when I'm cooking. I find the whole process of cooking, from idea to creation, therapeutic. And I love being in control of all the ingredients. I eat home a lot so I can do that, be in control. And I'm careful when I go out.
And since I got healthy, I'm not letting go. I have convicted my criminal bacteria and they are no longer welcome to my gut party. This has been part of my story that has resulted in my immune system being symptom-free since 2001. For me, my journey has been like that movie "Sliding Doors". If I hadn't done what I claim I've done, I would be in another place for sure.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
Being diagnosed with ULCERATIVE COLITIS and living with that diagnosis since 1980 has underscored and highlighted for me the importance of that adage: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
The mental strategies I use are these:
ASK QUESTIONS. BE OPEN TO ANSWERS. BE OPEN TO SECOND OPINIONS. THE TRUTH FOR YOU IS ALL THAT MATTERS. PURSUE THE TRUTH ALWAYS. MAKE EDUCATED GUESSES. ANALYZE. SELF-TEST. REFINE YOUR APPROACH. STAY OPEN TO NEW INFORMATION. FOLLOW LEADS. KEEP IT POSITIVE. DON'T GIVE UP. PURSUE, PURSUE, PURSUE. THE INTERNET IS YOUR FRIEND, BUT BE WARY AND CONSULT MULTIPLE SOURCES IN YOUR QUEST FOR THE TRUTH. DON'T STOP. DON'T BE INTIMIDATED BY OTHERS. BE BRAVE. ASK THE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS. REMEMBER, THERE ARE SOME WHO DON'T WANT YOU TO HAVE ANY ANSWERS. GET THE ANSWERS YOU DESERVE, ANYWAY.
As a child, it started with my dad's weight. He was always a big guy to me. As an adult, I came to believe my Dad had a physical addiction to processed foods, especially sugar and fat washed down with cases of diet soda. Ice cream and pancakes were a particular weakness. He lived to eat and oh how he loved to eat! Not only did he enjoy good tasting food, he ate copious amounts of it. A high-end buffet was his best friend.
I loved my Dad. I saw his bigness as something I wished was smaller because, as a consequence, I was always worried about his health. He had a stroke when he was 66 and died young, of heart failure, at age 71. He gave me unconditional love and supported me even when it was challenging, shared his larger-than-life personality with me, made me laugh, and, being the eternal optimist, gave me my positive outlook on life. I'm always grateful and I miss him a lot.
I miss my Mom, too. She died of cancer when I was just 15. She was an actress and loved to laugh and, like Dad also loved me unconditionally. I learned early that, as big as we might be, our hearts are all about the same size, about the size of a fist. The same size heart can be asked to work in a body with 125 or 175 or 300 lbs. At 5'11", my dad was at the upper end of that scale. His heart was being asked to work too hard for too long.
Hearts can break early under those circumstances. More than one heart, sometimes.
Before my diagnosis, I ate everything. I was young and so I was able to work it off, no problem. After my diagnosis, I couldn't seem to eat anything without feeling like I was eating shards of glass awash with acid. I had to recondition my mind in the face of pop culture marketing forces promoting fast, convenient, tasty, prepared, cooked and attractively packaged, food stuffs.
Without medication, it took me 20 years to accomplish complete health and total remission.
You read that correctly. 20 years of backsliding and flareups.
Thankfully, the flareups were never as bad as I had it when I was initially diagnosed. I would always catch it as soon as I felt the cramping and gurgles and felt that telltale slippery slide of a bloody stool. And then I'd have to heal all over again. Fortunately I never had too far to go, maybe 4 weeks back to full recovery.
Eventually, I turned the negative into a positive. The avoidance of that pain is of paramount importance in my life. I will continue to do everything I can to keep my good health. For me, myself and I, rethinking my food choices was a 20-year process. The allure of processed foods was strong and kept pulling me back. In my rethinking, I've learned to feed my body in such a way that, as a direct result I believe, I am now symptom free, and have been since 2001. For me, a nutritionally-based solution was the answer to my healing.
Today, I thoroughly enjoy my daily, smooth as yogurt, bowel movement. No trace of inflammation anywhere. Never constipated, never any diarrhea. Normal.
Imagine, totally normal. That's right, I'm an atypical freak of nature. I'm not alone though.
My success at controlling my IBD, my Ulcerative Colitis, has reinforced my behavior to the point where my will power has merged with my everyday thought processes. The new behavior is now a good habit. It's not a struggle. It's become a lifestyle choice. And I found flavors and foods I never knew existed.
And I learned to cook for myself. I thought, I can read a recipe, how hard can it be? Well, I found out it's not that easy but it sure is rewarding. And now I really love to cook. Our American culture encourages a love-hate relationship with food. Love to eat; hate the weight. I MADE FRIENDS WITH FOOD.
Fast food commercials rotate with weight loss programs on the telly, the internet, and in print all day, every day. Fast food companies spend billions of dollars every year to sway you to their latest offerings. It's a beautiful marriage, fast food and dieting. They're perfect for one another, don't you think? It's a lot of fun to eat fast food and when I eat it I feel wonderful, happy and content. And really full. I like that feeling and you can get a lot of fast food for $5. I sure miss the kids' toys they used to include in their meals, tying the latest cartoon movie to the fast food experience. Another wonderful marriage. Especially for the kids.
And when I would notice a little weight creeping up on me, I could go on a diet of the same food choices, with strict portion sizes so I didn't have to think, packaged, prepared and frozen meals I could microwave. I loved the convenience of diet food because after a hard day's night, I don't want to have to think about food because it's bad enough I have to deprive myself being on this damn diet, so I want it tasty and hot in 2 mins. And, for sure, I'll pay $2.00 to do just that.
And, really, let's hear it for those frozen dinners! Processing a frozen dinner meal includes the research and development and consumer testing of a patented recipe, cooking, portioning, freezing, designing and printing the packaging, assembling the packaging around the frozen food, keeping the frozen food frozen for transit, marketing and advertising the item, paying truck drivers in wages and benefits, providing transportation in refrigerated trucks, and delivery with a smile... all of this, from field/farm to factory to market basket and microwave, all for the price of $2 when on sale?? And they are still making a profit?? Who cares how they do that!! Hurry, at 5 for $10, we're stocking up!
Microwave Marvels, I call them. At $2, however, you really don't want to look at the ingredients acquisition and formation process and how that stuff got formed to look and taste like food. So we won't. Suffice it to say, it's the perfect confluence of taste and savvy marketing. It's easy to develop a love/hate relationship with food. You can love it when it's plentiful and you're satiated, hate it the next day and then hate it even more when you feel deprived by dieting. Only to love it again after being finished with dieting. After a while, I would ditch those frozen delectables and gain all the weight back. Yo-Yo dieting. Gotta love it. Makes me want to go back for seconds.
My journey led me to love food again. I'm not afraid to eat anymore. I'm not afraid of the reactions my body might have. I have bouncers called antioxidants, phytochemicals, flavanols and polyphenols who will kick any exacerbator's ass.
Remember that sailor man who ate spinach and got muscles? That sailor man was correct about one important thing. It's important to eat more plants.
Although not really clear to me at the beginning of my journey, it became obvious I needed to make friends with better food choices. At first, I really didn't know what that meant. I thought all food was pretty much equal and all I had to do was just watch my caloric intake.
IN SUMMARY
At this stage in my health, I can pretty much eat anything except my exacerbators, which literally gives me unlimited healthful choices of real, living, organic and unprocessed food. I'VE CHOSEN TO USE MY HEAD. IT MAKES GOOD DECISIONS WHEN I LET IT. When it comes to will-power, I have to use my head. My brain is torn between what my tongue would prefer, my heart's desire, and all the images of gumdrops marketers have placed in my head. My head holds my only hope to overcome my powerful emotional connection to processed foods. Processed foods contain ingredients that make me hungry for more soon after I've eaten them. And 6 weeks later I could have another flareup. The combination of fat, salt, sugar and mouth-feel is so hard to resist. But, uh uh, no way. Not on my watch. I'm not chowing down on meds, antacids, or processed food. A wise and healthy person once said to me, "If man made it, don't eat it." Powerful. I've taken it to heart.
