Getting Back to Roots

It recently occurred to me that the original intent of this blog has gone by the wayside a bit. What started as a journey toward better health has culminated into pretty much whatever life throws at me in the moment. And, while I’m ok with that, I did feel like perhaps the occasional mention of what brought me here in the first place would be appropriate.

It really has nothing to do with New Year’s. I know most people make resolutions, and one of the most popular resolutions is to lose weight/get healthy. Sure I want to do those things, too, but I gave up resolutions some time ago. You can read why here: New Year 2011

No, it’s really more because I’ve neglected my blog for so long, despite having many, many things to say. It’s feeling like I owe it to myself to take just a few moments every couple of days to write something just for me. So if you’ll forgive me a few hundred words, I’d like to ramble a bit.

Progress Report and This Week's Goal

Alright, I should have known planning posts for the weekend would be a bad idea. We’re just too busy most weekends for me to find time to write. We’ve had a good bit going on, too, (which I’ll explain at the end) so I didn’t get a chance to write yesterday either. So, I’m just going to throw my progress report, this week’s goal, and hand updates in one post and to heck with the product review for now. J

My Family is Hooked on Organic Milk

Part of my new editorial schedule includes one post per week, on Fridays, just about my family—what we’re doing, what we’re into, bragging on the kids, gushing over my hubby…things like that. And while organic milk may not seem like it falls into this category, let me assure you that it does.

Discovering Organic Milk

My family goes through milk like they go through clean underwear. Seriously, I can stock up on everything else, but I’m going to be making at least two runs per week to get another gallon or two of milk. I know that commercially produced milk has all kinds of nasties in it—hormones, antibiotics, and….pus. Ick!

This Week's Health Goal: Get More Sleep!

I was thinking last week that, although I started this blog just to have somewhere to ramble, I could probably do with just a tad more structure than I have. So, I sat down and wrote out a tentative editorial calendar. In thinking about adding structure to my blog, it occurred to me that it might not be such a bad idea to add a little more structure to my life as well. (Not the first time I’ve had this thought, but ya know.) So, in an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, I’ve settled on a few series of sorts.

Every Monday is healthy goal day. Each week, I plan to set a small, attainable goal that will work toward my becoming healthier and changing my lifestyle. And I’m going to share it with all of you! Don’t you feel special? J

A Seriously Overdue Update

Has it really been two weeks since I posted anything? I mean, I knew I’d been busy, but didn’t realize I’d been that  busy! This is going to be a long  post. You’ve been warned. J

I took a little time off from writing to go be a florist for Valentine’s Day at my mama’s shop, and then for a bit of rest from the stress that comes with working the insane amount of hours that I do. We also took a little trip down south for my oldest daughter’s first archery competition, and it was nice to get out and about to somewhere we normally wouldn’t visit.

Why Is It So Stinkin' Hard to Drink Water?

Water. It’s the stuff life is made of. Our bodies are comprised of an overwhelming percentage of it. It is Earth’s most precious natural resource barring oxygen. It’s pure goodness and so very useful for a multitude of things. Why, then, is it so blasted difficult to drink?!?!?

I try to drink water, I really do. But it’s really a challenge for me. Water is so bland, so tasteless, so….water. It’s not even that I don’t like water. Water that comes from my well is very good as water goes. I won’t touch city water with a 10-foot pole, but that’s city water—you can hardly even call that stuff water, if you want my opinion about it. Good, crisp well water, however, is quite nice. It just doesn’t taste as good as practically anything that has sugar in it is all.

Getting Healthy: Take 2

You could say this is take two, I suppose. You could also say it’s take 200 if you count up all the times I’ve tried to change my lifestyle in the past. It’s either insanity or tenacity…I’m not sure which. What I do know is that, no matter how many times I fail, my health is something I cannot give up on. And so, I continue onward in my resolve to kick the caffeine habit and get well.

Healthy Food, Good Food

They’re calling for up to an inch of snow in our area tonight. Even if it doesn’t snow, it’s been raining like crazy, so black ice is almost guaranteed. So, like any good Southern girl, off to the grocery store I went for milk and bread. I don’t know why we have to buy milk and bread when it’s supposed to snow, but we do and so I just carry on tradition.

Know When to Hold, Know When to Fold

I want to apologize for going on hiatus the last couple of days. I’ve not felt well at all and it’s been all I can do to sit up long enough to do my work, much less try to blog. So, that said, I’m a little bit sad, a little bit mad, a little bit frustrated, and a little bit glad. I had to break the cleanse last night.

Now, to be fair, my heart was never in this. I wasn’t doing it because I wanted to; I was doing it because I had to. Because my Coke habit had gotten way out of control, as had my coffee habit. Then the thing with my hands…I’ve been making myself sick and I had to try to undo the damage and get started in the right direction.

However, it looks like that as wonderful as the Master Cleanse was for me last time around, it was not the answer this time. I’ve felt bad the entire time, and yesterday was the worst. If it were just headaches or nausea, I could have dealt with that and continued. But I was severely dizzy all day yesterday. I had to go to town and got scared a couple of times that I might pass out while driving. I made it home fine, but the dizziness only got worse.

Something’s Not Right

Finally, I checked my blood pressure, since I am prone to having lower blood pressure anyway. In fact, I believe the only reason I’m not on low blood pressure medicine is because I smoke and have tons of caffeine. Even with that, my blood pressure stays in the perfectly normal range most of the time. But last night, it was abnormally low—and every time I’d check it after that, I’d just be lower.

My husband and I decided that I must have something to eat to get my blood pressure back up. Knowing that breaking the cleanse the wrong way will result in severe stomach pain and nausea, I thought that maybe just licking on a spoon of peanut butter would help…but I couldn’t get it down. So I opted for a bowl of chicken noodle soup, which has tons of sodium in it. It brought my blood pressure to just within normal ranges, but not much more.

As much as I really wanted to be done with the cleanse, I also didn’t want to give up before it had time to work. Plus, I have all this syrup and just bought a ton more lemons yesterday. So I’ve spent the day trying to rethink my approach, not sure as to whether I should continue or not. Then, about an hour ago, my blood pressure pretty much made the decision for me…it was lower than it was even last night—I could barely stand up properly.

Being Flexible

I’m not entirely sure yet what I’m going to do. All I know is that if I try to continue this cleanse with it bottoming out my blood pressure, I’m going to end up really sick. I have to eat at least a small meal every day. So I think what I’m going to try is to continue drinking the lemonade throughout the day, but allow myself at least one reasonable meal per day. I know I won’t get near the cleansing benefits—I may not get any at all—but it would be stupid to continue in this manner knowing that I could pass out any moment from low blood pressure.

Wellness is a great deal about learning to listen to your body and taking action to give it what it needs. Right now, my body needs food. So, as true to form as it would be for me to beat myself up about failing, I have resolved not to. If the goal is wellness, and this path is leading away from that, then it is not a failure for me to listen to what my body is saying. There is something good that has come from this, though…and I’ll discuss that in another post.

Defining Addiction

I’d like to be clear about something before I get too far into this journey. I am not, in any way, trying to minimize serious addictions, make myself a victim, or intentionally publish false or inaccurate information. I do feel that “addicted” best describes my relationship with soft drinks because I feel like I have to have them. And, since Coke is my soft drink of choice, the play on words was too much to resist. But to say that cola addiction is a medically recognized disorder—no, that’s not what I’m doing. So please don’t misunderstand me.

Now that we have that cleared up, I thought it might be appropriate to discuss what addiction really is.

Addictions Come in Many Forms

Street drugs. Prescription pain killers. Alcohol. Pornography. Gambling. Most of us know and recognize these things as forms of addiction. Mine is Coke. Not the white powdery substance you may be thinking—I’ve never actually even seen that stuff in person. No, my Coke is a darkly colored, delightfully sweet, and magnificently bubbled liquid…and I swear, the white stuff could not possibly be more addictive than what I’m using.

Coke is but one of my unhealthy addictions, but it’s the one that makes me the maddest because
it just seems so ridiculous.

I mean, they’ve long known that cigarettes have a chemical that make it difficult for your brain to let them go. That one I don’t feel quite as bad about—at least not from a psychological standpoint. But cola? Who the heck can’t go through their day without at least 6 cans of soda? Me, that’s who!

For the longest time, it was Dr. Pepper. For nearly 15 years it was Dr. Pepper. I didn’t even care for Coke all that much. Then one day several months ago, I got a craving for Coke and we’ve had a shameful love affair ever since. Now, I know that Dr. Pepper is soda, too—that’s why I mentioned it. For nearly half my life, I’ve been incredibly dependent on soft drinks.

An Addiction to Sugar, Caffeine, or Both?

I am a firm believer that high fructose corn syrup—the stuff they sweeten these drinks with—is addictive. I also believe that sugar in and of itself is addictive, no matter the form. I had periods of time that I didn’t drink as much cola, but I did have to have my sweet tea. I could go through a gallon of that stuff in one day all by myself. When I’ve tried to give up soft drinks by not buying them, I default to drinking tea instead of water. Our tea is very, very sweet.

Then there’s the caffeine. Oh, what would I do without my glorious caffeine? I can drink an entire pot of coffee in just a few hours and not think a thing about it. After that, I start in on my Coke. It’s ridiculous! I would bet I get more caffeine in one day than most people get in a week. I know it’s doing nothing for my insomnia except making it worse, but I seriously cannot get through my day without it.

Making a Choice

I’ve been this addicted to Coke and caffeine before. I gave it up—for a while. You can read my story here if you have a while to wade through it. So I know I can come off this stuff, however unpleasant the process may be. It’s staying off it that’s the problem. But I have to. My addiction is doing more than making me fat and keeping me up at night. I believe it may be killing me. And so, I’ve made a choice to begin a journey—and I hope you’ll share it with me.