I received a ‘Memory” on Facebook the other day reminding me that I moved to Oakhurst five years ago this week. It was such an adventure leaving Salt Lake City where I had lived for 20 years, raised my children and essentially grew up.
I tend not to go backwards into my memories. I would rather look forward to the adventures yet to come, but the Facebook prompt caused me to float through five years of mental photographs with some joy and some sadness.
One of the bright spots was developing a relationship with Kellie Flanagan, the Managing Editor at Sierra News Online. I have been writing for Sierra News Online for two years and it was a dream come true to write weekly in a public forum with such a kind and generous editor and grammarian. Perhaps someday I’ll give up my addiction to run on sentences, or not.
Thanks in part to Kellie, my writing has evolved and part of the evolution process is moving on. So, the time has come to seek out the next adventure and, while I’m not exactly sure what that will be, writing and teaching in the health and wellness field will always be what I am most passionate about.
Thank you to all those who read my blog regularly, as well as those who stumble upon it occasionally. It has always felt like a magical process that I write something, send it out into the world and days later someone stops me in the grocery store to talk about what I had written.
I have spent some time thinking of the things I could have covered more completely or could have said more clearly about living well. My biggest problem when I speak publicly is staying on topic, because there is so much I want to say.
So, ever a lover of lists and bullet points, I am sharing the most essential things that everyone needs to know for the proper care and feeding of the human body:
- Eat food that doesn’t need a label, you will feel alive again.
- Drink more water, less of everything else.
- Grow (at least) one thing in your garden this summer; it will change how you look at food.
- Processed food companies make money off of manipulating you. Read this to yourself a few times before entering the grocery store.
- Don’t drink coffee on an empty stomach.
- Move your body more; humans were created for movement not endless stillness.
- Investigate your health options; don’t leave it up to your doctor to tell you what is best for you.
- Pay attention to how watching television makes you feel- it might be time to turn it off for the summer. You will be surprised in September how nothing has really changed.
- Think long and hard about taking medications, tomorrow they may decide it actually causes Alzheimer’s disease.
- Inflammation diseases (diabetes, arthritis, autoimmune diseases, etc.) can be made better or worse depending upon what you put into your body.
- You are in charge of your body, if you don’t like how you feel either change it or make your peace with it, but know that you’re in charge.
- Read Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dillema.
Take whatever part of the above list makes sense to you and leave the rest behind. No one knows your body as well as you do.
I will be spending the next few months getting my golf game back, writing and having fun with my family. Have a fabulous summer!
Virginia Eaton is a health and fitness coach helping people reorganize priorities.
