RJA#10c

Blackboard is down. But, if I remember correctly, this was a "journal entry", or a scene from a play, a story or something of that sort.

My entry will be more of a journal entry. Part of my journey that raised my attention to write on the subject of "The New Old Body"

Honestly, it is a bit of an embarrassing topic, because I am about the age of many of my fellow student's parent's age! So, I know what they are/must be thinking when I present my topic. There is nothing I can do about that - it is as naturally part of their youth and ignorance on the topic, as the aging process is a natural part of life. So, I imagine others rolling their eyes, and thinking, "whatever!" But, their day will come, and then they will understand - maybe.

So, with that said, my interest in this topic really peaked when I started to struggle with my weight! Not that it was reeling too far out of control, but I noticed that my old ways of dealing with a weight gain were not producing the loss - the results I was looking for! And, I noticed the numbers on the scale climbing, continually! And, they still climbed! And, I started to feel a little panicky about that, and began looking into different weight loss programs. I would lose the weight and go back to my "twenty-year old eating habits", and put the weight back on even quicker than I had taken it off - and, even sometimes with a few extra pounds! Okay, I found that to be truly alarming, and very distressing!!

The search for weight loss plans began - far and wide. And, with the weight loss plans, a few of the good ones spoke on nutrition, moderation, and exercise. The discovery of how and what foods work best with a healthy body, then in conjunction with a work-out plan (which is what I was doing all along - working my tail-end off at the gym, eating like I was twenty, and not losing weight). I learned that the combination of healthy and smart menu planning and eating habits were about 70% of how my body was looking, and the working-out part is a mere 30% - roughly. So, the old idea of: Eat whatever you want as long as you are working out - is EXTREMELY FALSE!!! Don't buy it! No matter what people tell you!

The bottom line, as far as weight goes, is (and, it's not rocket science) you MUST take in fewer calories that you burn each day! It's a simple as that! So, find whatever program works for you, and figure it out based on the calories you are burning each day - and, that's not too difficult to do. If one is not the type to work out in a gym and burn lots of calories at once - then, buy a pedometer (cheaper than a gym membership - or approximately the same as the cost of one month's gym membership) and start walking! First, figure out how much your normally walk in a day, then figure out how to increase that in order to burn a few more calories. Walk around your neighborhood - you will be surprised at the things you miss when you drive by them at 30 mph, and the people you meet and talk to!! Walk around parks, through malls, and maybe on a mountain trail - walking is probably one of the very best things one can do to start exercising.

So, after the weight issues (which will never end), and I was doing really good about getting that under control, I was sent to Iraq - service member. After I served my duty in a combat zone, I came home to find my thyroid all out of whack, and hot flashes hitting me like it was nobody's business!! Hot flashes will motivate about any woman to start a fast and furious research just to simply find relief!! I have no idea what happened while I was deployed, but coming home left me feeling like my body chemistry was completely out of balance. I had a annual physical and talked to the physician assistant - she recommended a few vitamins and minerals or the option of a hormone replacement Rx drug. I declined on the Rx drug, and took her vitamin and mineral suggestions to the health food store and started to talk to the folks that work there, and they were very helpful! I purchased a few things (Black Cohosh and Primrose Oil, among a few other things) - the Black Cohosh is supposed to help with hot flashes and with moodiness and it didn't do a thing for me - grouchier than ever, especially when flashing! Ha! The Primrose Oil, however, worked like a charm!! After a while I thought I could "wean" myself off the Primrose Oil, and low and behold, the hot flashes returned in full force!! You bet your bottom dollar I was back in the health food store buying another bottle of Primrose Oil FAST!! When I was back at the store, another clerk helped me out, and suggested that I purchase the Borage Oil, it has the same effective GLA ingredient as the Primrose Oil, but has a higher dosage - thus, making it more economic! (More bang for your buck, as they say.) So, I bought that, and it works like a charm!! I take about half a dose/day, and I am doing good.

BUT (and, it's a big one), I had a few injuries! My knee was injured in Iraq, and I needed medical care for that, by the time the U.S. Navy got around to helping me get that treated, I had an incident, and my knee gave out on some stairs and down I came in a big tumble. Result: Tearing the superspinatus (sp?) muscle and the cartilage completely off the rotator cuff - after four months of just dealing with the pain and physical therapy, I convinced the medical folks something was terrible wrong, and they relented and ordered me an MRI, surgery followed in less than one week. Three months later, the shoulder is barely strong enough to handle crutches, but it's between semesters and I need as much healing time as possible, so we move forward with the knee surgery. All goes well, but I get a blood clot, prescribed blood thinners, causing the surgical site hemorrhage, creating a hematoma that is crushing the nerves in my knee, and I land in the hospital for three days. I am on blood thinners for seven months - risking blood disorders and all kinds of crazy stuff, and my hot flashes are hitting me harder than ever!! During physical therapy on the knee - I herniate a disc in my back, and the rest is history! Back on blood thinners (because I am high risk for a blood clot) and hot flashin' like crazy - currently!!

My philosophy, drugs are not good things for permanent treatment, or when one can remedy something naturally - it is worth doing the research. Drugs certainly have their purpose, but they can really throw the natural balance of a person's body chemistry off, and it is best to minimize drugs if it is at all possible.

There are so many foods that are naturally created on this earth to keep a body strong and healthy. My research has been to learn as much as possible about nutrition for myself and my family to keep us naturally healthy - and, it has paid off!! I have discovered so many good and wonderful things, that we rarely need medical care for many of the common issues most people dash to the doctor's office for. For instance, a flu or cold - we hit the echinacea, a bag of oranges, and lots and lots of water and fluids to flush the system out! Not orange juice (because that has an extremely high level of sugar in it, AND it rarely helps - plus, the body was not designed to digest so much sugar, and putting a foreign substance, such as sugar - unnatural sugar - causes the body to work harder to digest this foreign substance, and lowers the resistance of the body, eliminating, or lowering, the immune system and any positive effects the little bit of vitamin C had in the juice in the first place), but real whole oranges are the BEST. We try to eat as much of that white membrane inside the peel when we eat that good orange, because that white membrane has more vitamin C than the entire orange has in it!!

This is just a bit of what led me to start researching natural health, and how to get this new old body to respond to my efforts to keep it strong and healthy.