The other night, my family discovered a wonderful new way to spend an evening post-supper.
Try it yourself – grab a best friend or sibling and record them answering the questions!
http://allysrandomage.blogspot.com/2007/06/101-random-questions.html
You know what I think?
I think that we all go through high school, and have every imaginable extracurricular and/or sport at our disposal…
And then we all go through college, and have all of that again, but this time it’s not enough, so we make up our own clubs and organizations, like Brandeis’ Game Knight and Proscenium…
And then we graduate, and we have…
Nothing.
Look, all I’m saying is, I’d much rather go out on a Wednesday night and play volleyball with some friends than go to another of Worcester’s less-than-classy bars, wouldn’t you?
I mean, gyms like the WCC always have open swim and aerobics classes, so that gives people some options… And sure, my friends are pretty good about planning trivia and ultimate frisbee events; but there just aren’t any good venues out there offering anything else. Where are the Poker clubs? Where are the Theater clubs and Book Clubs and Cooking Clubs?
I guess for now, I’ll continue with my more creative solutions (like line-dancing and karaoke), and exploring new sports/hobbies with friends, like disc golf and pub volleyball. But believe you me: Someday I shall open a Rec Center for Young Adults, and people can hang out and do all of these things. And It Shall Be Comfortable, And It Shall Be Merry, And It Shall Be The Bee’s Knees.
“Be There, Or Be Square.” – Mr. Harper
I eat sugar-free now, but I’ve recently been able to start introducing small amounts of low-sugar, healthy fruits whose health benefits outweigh their sugar content. Particularly, I’ve started to allow some berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, cranberries). Green apples and pears are also good choices for low-sugar fruits. (Bananas and watermelon, on the other hand, are not. However, watermelon is second only to lemon juice as the #1 Alkalizing Food that you could consume – in other words, assuming you don’t have a problem like mine where you have to restrict sugar, the consumption of watermelon helps the body detox fast and restore itself to a balanced pH level. When you think Alkaline, think meditation, prayer, peace, kindness, and love; when you think Acidic, think overwork, anger, fear, jealousy, and stress. Personally, I think we could all use a little push in the alkaline direction 🙂
Cranberry juice is the newest addition to my diet. *Keep in mind that pure cranberry juice is very different from cranberry juice cocktail, the sweet/sugary version that we all buy and drink with breakfast. Pure cranberry juice is extremely tart, so I like to dilute it with water, and occasionally add a few drops of stevia extract (I buy the pure kind from Trader Joe’s) to sweeten the flavor.* Cranberries are an excellent choice for battling H. Pylori, as the flavonoids they contain inhibit the growth of the bacteria in the stomach. But the health benefits don’t stop there. Other wonderful things cranberry juice can do for you include:
– Preventing UTIs (though not curing existing ones)
– Inhibiting tumor and cancer cell growth
– Doing awesome antioxidant things
– Doing awesome anti-bacterial things (such as preventing tooth decay, colds, and ulcers)
– Inhibiting cancer cell growth
You can read more details here. Basically, I just get pumped up knowing how much I’m helping my body with the foods I’m consuming, so I want to share the excitement. Feel free to glean profusely!
*More information about stevia can be found here. There are many benefits, but keep in mind that this is a relatively new, breakthrough product, and it is still being researched. Everything in moderation, my friends. And of course, please remember that using natural produce like berries and other fruits to sweeten foods is almost always preferable to extracted sweeteners. They have powerful nutritional properties that we know unequivocally to support your body in its quest for health 🙂
Why is it so hard to do something when you know you have to do it?
This art project is DUE in 3 weeks. No excuses, it needs to be done. And yet, knowing that only makes me avoid it all the more fervently. Whereas if I had no deadlines, I might just wake up one morning and want to draw! Because I like drawing!
On the other hand, I’ve been on a break from ‘mandatory’ drawing for almost two months now, and in that time, I don’t think I picked up a pencil once. So maybe it’s not just the deadline that keeps me away. Maybe it’s that seeing friends and family outweighs it. Or that my struggle with this candida/h.pylori crap is all-consuming, and that it’s having negative effects on my anxiety levels on a day-to-day basis.
Makes me wonder how much of my high-anxiety during my senior thesis could have been prevented if I’d been healthy. People don’t realize how much anxiety and depression are tied to digestive issues. It’s been absolutely mind-blowing, observing how my emotions have been thrown all out of whack from this treatment process…
I’m used to having a pretty firm hold on my emotions, and approaching problems rationally before freaking out. But in the past few months, I am having so many more breakdowns than I’m used to, and it’s so weird to me. While one is happening, I’ll sit back and think to myself, “why am I reacting like this? I don’t usually react like this! this is such a silly thing to be crying about!”
But it’s true. When your gut is out of balance, it’s like a 24/7 PMS. One moment you’re fine, the next your boyfriend is asking you what’s wrong and you’re saying “I honestly don’t know” while barely restraining tears, and then you’re running out to the parking lot to sit in the fetal position and cry for 20 minutes, and then you’re so exhausted from emotional upheaval that you fall asleep right there on the pavement, no questions asked, and sleep for an hour, waking up with gravel prints on your face.
For anyone going through crazy mood swings like this, don’t jump to conclusions and think that you have a psychological issue. It’s possible that your body is behaving totally normally and responding to a more serious physical issue, like bacterial overgrowth. Look at your nutrition: are you eating right? Are you exercising?
Because when it comes right down to it, what are we other than the food we eat? Think about it. Every cell in your body grows only because of the nutrients you supply it, water, food, air, sunlight. Without those things we die. We are nature’s parasites, and our brains are powered by the same things our bodies are.
So instead of beating our intestines repeatedly with a glutinous, processed, carcinogenic stick, maybe it’s a good idea to focus on eating the things that help us heal.
Blogging is about sharing something with others, for the sake of others. I want my blog to help friends, family, and the rest of the world to discover things about themselves, learn new things, grow and change and become better people. There is still a time for stories – but when that time comes, I want them to be useful and meaningful. No more self-indulgence. From now on, this is for you.
The past 4 months have been a complete upheaval of everything I ever knew about food and health. (Okay, so maybe I didn’t have any knowledge that could be upheaved in the first place…) Examples of how this is so:
1. I had never really cooked… anything… at all… prior to March 27, 2013. #embarrassing
2. Aside from a few rare occasions, I have not consumed alcohol since March 27, 2013. (Less than 10 drinks in the past 115 days)
3. I can now tell you more about bowel movements than I can about the Princess Bride. (Some of you might not grasp the full significance of that statement, but trust me – for me, that’s unheard of.)
4. I have been battling something called a Candida (yeast) overgrowth in my body, and on top of that was diagnosed with a parasite called Helicobacter Pylori. You can read about them here and here (oh, and here too). They are the reason for the aforementioned upheaval of life. I have been treating them naturally and determinedly for 4 months.
Ok… I’m out of examples. But those are pretty solid examples of the examples I might have.
What I’m trying to say is, my life has been crazy with the discovery and treatment of these diseases (for lack of a better word). Thankfully, and after many false hopes, I believe I’m finally close to recovery.
I guess the reason I reopened this blog and want to make it more public is because, as a result of all these changes I’ve been going through, I am learning a gazillion new things every day that I want to share with the world. There’s so much that I didn’t know before about health and nutrition, and if I had, I might not have been suffering as I have been for the past 3-4 years. If the world had, maybe we wouldn’t have the cancer epidemic we have today. Maybe my blog can be one little step toward preventing cancer in my friends and family; I certainly hope so.
But it even goes beyond physical health. I am learning about the mind, body, and spirit, how to nourish them and become a happy person. The kind of person who has only positive relationships in their life. This is what I want for myself, and it’s what I want for you, too.
My art is about that. It will continue to be. But my art has always been tied to my writing… so perhaps writing is where I need to start. ❤
whilewebloom 