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The Process
My goals in the journey towards natural health-
Date: 6/7/2005 2:01:44 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 1796 times The Process:
I have always been interested in a natural lifestyle and thought of it more as an idolization rather than an actual goal. Even during my vegetarian years I was continually frustrated by family, peers, and friends who belittled me for my “tree-hugger” convictions. After my first surgery and perhaps as a symptom of my impending depression, I felt that it was impossible to emulate a bygone era since we are in daily forced contact with the refuse of our culture. I gave up the vegetarian diet and sunk into a deep depression as a quiet rage and desperation settled over my life. It wasn’t until after my second series of surgeries that I felt the desperation lift. I began the Atkins diet – a far cry from the vegetarian diet, but much more successful for me as I lost 100 lb with very little effort and no feeling of starvation.
My ultimate goal is to adopt as natural a lifestyle as is culturally possible. When I was young I had daydreams of living in the woods, eeking out a precarious existence as a hunter/gatherer. Real life, I’ve found, is not so simple and I am forced to maintain a 9-5, pay taxes and utilities, buy prepackaged foods, chemically aged meats, and treated water while cheerfully raising my daughter with artificial flavorings and colorings and allowing my family and the family of my in-laws to poison her body with sugar. I keep my yearly appointments with my doctor, run through the same intrusive tests and am told yearly that according to the tests there is nothing wrong with me.
I have decided to stop. I have decided to quit allowing other people’s “normal behavior” dictate how I am to live MY life. My transition to healthy living isn’t just physical, it is a complete change of lifestyle. I am taking steps to incorporate natural solutions to everyday life and to challenge the traditions that have created the lifestyle I now must recover from. My first step toward health was quitting smoking and I have been smoke-free for over a year now. A couple of months ago also I quit dying my hair and wearing make-up daily and have eliminated (for the most part) processed foods and milk products. Recently I have attempted to forgo commercial red meat in favor of leaner varieties of game meat and I have incorporated several servings of fish per week along with adding fresh, whole vegetables rather than frozen or canned, and I no longer drink tap water and I try to limit sugar intake as well.
I plan to continue to eliminate, add, and replace – including fluoride free toothpaste, natural soaps and hair products, replacing (my favorite ) perfumes with essential oil blends, cut all processed oils, and I would like to begin exercising again doing something that I enjoy such as organized sports or swimming (however I have reactions to large doses of swimming pool chemicals…). I also plan to toss all of my cleaning chemicals down the drain and concentrate on using old-fashioned cleaning agents. I have considered trying a fast, however I have so many reservations that I don’t think I could complete it.
To help with my stress levels, I will be aiming toward yoga and perhaps some other forms of deep breathing techniques. In a year or so I will probably be looking for another job and have considered going back to school to finally earn my degree – but I don’t know what to major in now that I have discovered my intense dislike for big business.
As long as I am involved in bettering myself I will be content. My ultimate goal is not the finished process, but the continuing trek in self discovery.
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