I'm Hungry for Change

Not "nice to have" but "must have" if I want to avoid sickness.

Sometimes you stumble on to something on television that just rocks your world.

Netflix is to blame this time.  I was browsing the documentary section and have decided that at least once a week I am going to watch a documentary on health.  Whether it is about Diabetes or educating myself about our food supply, exercise or weight loss I resolve to learn something different and more importantly listen and re-educate myself.    I have to learn how to take better care of myself even if that means taking myself back to the very building block basics that I probably should have learned as a kid, but didn't.

"Hungry for Change" (it's also available on YouTube) was the documentary I watched last night.  The way they delivered the information for some reason just worked for me.  It's not as though they really presented new information that I had never heard before, but more that the format of the documentary had the effect of going straight to the core of me.

Here is some of what I took away from that documentary that resonated:

• While I am eating a tonne of food, my body is essentially starving as I am not providing it with the essential nutrients it needs for cellular health

• I am always hungry because it is my body's way of continually requesting the stuff it's not getting.  This is a primal dynamic.  It knows that it is starving and so it wants to keep me hungry so that I keep foraging.  It hopes I pick better quality stuff.

• It isn't just a "good idea" to get my proper dose of fruits and veggies.  I'm going to get sick, lose my eyesight and sustain organ and cellular damage if I don't.  There is a cost to running the human body on fumes.

• My body wants to detox.  Every day it tries to.  It's natural goal is to be healthy.  What negates this is everything I put into my mouth that is laden with chemicals, toxins or zero nutrition.

I know you are probably nodding your head.  I said it wasn't rocket science and hardly something I had not heard before.   But maybe it was because they used a character as a theme throughout the documentary who reminded me a lot of myself.  Drinking diet soda, skipping meals, overdosing on coffee, never exercising, constantly in front of the computer.  Sound familiar?     Whatever the director did the method of delivery went right into my heart and brain.

Immediate action includes a conscious dedication to putting more nutrition back into my edible diet.  no more yo-yo dieting.  No more feeling crappy about myself for being over weight.  These negative things don't improve health but actually help to negate it.

Good Changes:

• Going to start using my Vita Mix again to make smoothies and juice from mostly vegetables.  I'm going to make sure I am drinking that pitcher of juice every day to help my body remove toxins while giving it the nutrition I need to survive healthfully.

• Going to get outside (even for an hour) each day.  I'm recovering from a surgery so I can't do the power walks right now or have my dogs tugging at me, but I can go for a slow walk or cruise around the deck and get some sunlight.
• Rather than creating an environment of deprivation I'm just going to focus on 1) Water 2) Sunlight and 3) Veggies 

I got upset this weekend with some situational stuff and I fell off the pill wagon.  But just as a smoker doesn't quit quitting, neither will I.  It's Monday and I am organizing my pills.   I'm also waiting for the chauffeur to wake up (Mom) as I can't drive.   She can spare me a little quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some green stuff.

There was a very large detailed and uncomfortable piece about the dangers of aspartame.  I will write about that in another post.  It saddens me because I get so much pleasure from my Diet Pepsi, but I'm too smart to avoid the irrefutable evidence.  That stuff is poison and I am addicted.  Much like the way I quit smoking, I need to address this dangerous addiction asap. 

A great start to the week though.  Fresh perspective and like a nerd, I caught myself smiling at myself in the mirror today.  A small promise to take better care of myself starts with loving myself enough to think I'm worth the effort.  And I think I finally feel that way.


Height: 5'5
Weight: 223 lbs
Mood: Enlightened.