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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Epiphany! Bravo!!!

Just finished watching hubby and our friend/handyman cut a dead tree limb from the HUGE oak tree in the front yard.  Can you say "terrified"?

As I washed dishes (from yesterday, yes!), I could see through the door that our friend had his pick-up with the cover on it, parked under the tree.  Then I saw him standing on the back of the cover with the long-saw trying to cut the limb and stepping closer and closer to the edge as my husband stood beneath the dead limb.  THEN I saw our friend standing on the LADDER on TOP of the truck, sawing at the limb. 

I, and all of our Guardian Angels, were praying that the next sound I would hear would be completion of this task and a truck driving away and not the sirens of an ambulance on my street.  Prayers were answered. 

Meanwhile, as I bring my adrenalin level back to normal, I decided to tackle some private thoughts of what is happening in my body and life. 

Yesterday afternoon, I did an experiment.  I had watched a documentary called, "Forks Over Knives", which I highly recommend for everyone.  Before that I'd watched a challenge issued by DearNaptural85 on Youtube regarding beginning a healthy lifestyle and, as if a light bulb popped on, pay attention to how your body feels!

Now this may sound strange to some but I've never really done that, and surely haven't recently.  I believe the times we pay attention to our body, unfortunately, is when it's in pain.  I, having Multiple Sclerosis, watch for unusual physical feelings and pain in my body.  But put a mirror in front of me and I can walk away forgetting how I even look!

Her suggestion was familiar to me because my own daughter had tried to tell me the same thing a couple of years ago (I can be kinda slow to catch on in case you haven't noticed!).  Here is what this wonderful vlogger challenged.  Eat as well and naturally and healthily as possible for 6 days of the week and on the 7th day (whatever day you've picked) eat whatever else you like.  Her theory is that if this is done, each week, on that 7th day, you will feel less and less like eating garbage (my word, not hers) because of how you feel the next day when you begin to eat well again.  Eventually, you will be eating properly for your body and health!

Made sense to me.  So, here's the experiment...I went to a burger place with the name, King, got a double "whooper" meal, and ate it with the goal of noting HOW I actually felt when I finished.  Almost immediately, when I stood up, I felt weakened, moved in slow motion, sleepy, and the worst part, I kept burping burger into the evening until I was rescued by Tums and some seltzer water.  Because there is memory in our muscles, organs, nerves, etc.  I recalled that, yes, I have felt this way before, and yes, it was after a meal like that!  Brilliant observation! So what do I want? A cookie! Sheesh!

Hubby's already on board and is calling himself a vegetarian/vegan.  I sense he doesn't fully understand the commitment yet but he will.  And I know he can do it.  He wants to be that way 95% of the time, he says.  I don't know how that works out in real-time, but I'm in!

Coincidentally, I ran into the beautiful lady that is the cook for the friars at our church.  She's recently adopted a vegetarian lifestyle for them and herself!  We discussed the documentaries, the difficulties, but most importantly, her research that is showing more and more that Jesus was vegetarian.  Father John jokingly calls her a heretic for it but I'm sold!

We discussed how in ancient times and presently in more so-called underdeveloped areas of the world, animals used for food are treated humanely even to death.  Look at the Masai people and Orthodox Jews!  In our 'civilized' society, animals are tortured from birth, never see the light of day, forced to eat chemicals that change their growth, and led to slaughter with fear and anxiety as their last emotions.  As I mentioned earlier, muscle has memory.  We are eating those muscles. 

Could that be a reason we are so anxiety-ridden, angry, depressed, unhealthy, fearful, paranoid, and medicated for all of it?

We attend churches and pray and meditate and practice yoga and tai chi and see psychologists BUT the source of the anxiety and our inability to cope with our personal problems may stem from that on which we feed. 

"Let food be thy medicine."  -  Hippocrates