Turning 60

Well, this is my last week of being in my 50s, I'm 59 which makes my upcoming birthday one of those milestones that I'm not sure what to think about it. I've never been one to fret about age, I always considered age just a number. I've known people who seemed to be forever young, and I've known people who looked and acted elderly long before they should have.

It's funny, ironic, I'm not usually at a loss for words, in fact I tend to be a bit too wordy when it comes to writing. But I don't know what to write, well that's not entirely true, I have lots of thoughts on this subject and have started several paragraphs only to delete them. I don't want to come across as whiny, or complaining, I also don't want to sound like everything is perfect. I need to find a middle ground here. So let's get started.

The whiny parts, I'm aging, it's a fact, the alternative is dying young, something I obviously am not interested in. In the last few years (about 5 or 6 years) I have actively worked on my health, mostly by eliminating unhealthy things and adding in healthy things. (How many times can I say "things" LOL). 

The things I started and continue doing, I began doing intermittent fasting, it just happened to fall when Covid started, it had nothing to do with that, it was absolutely a coincidence, but a good one it turned out. I typically don't get sick, or when I do it's fairly short lived, but during C, as we all know, anyone who coughed, or had the hint of being sick, well it was a scary time. I personally wasn't worried about it, but I know how people acted, especially in public, so getting or sounding sick just wasn't an option.

It turned out that during the height of the C scare, I didn't get sick, not once, no cough, no sneezing, no sickness at all, I fully attribute that to my daily fasting. Later on I do believe I caught it once, from someone sitting next to me in a meeting I had to attend whose family definitely had it. No big deal, it was one and done. I never got tested nor did I take the jab (a personal choice, no judgement), I'm going by the symptoms I had to determine that I did in fact have C.

After I started daily fasting, I began to pick one thing in my diet to eliminate, it wasn't really hard since I love to cook, and I am already an avid label reader, I already chose not to consume artificial chemical garbage, things like artificial sweeteners, artificial colors or flavors, at that time it was difficult to avoid because it was in everything, but I did my best. I discovered when I ate cleanly, I felt better, and it was immediately apparent if I ate something that wasn't good.

The next thing I eliminated was a hard one, it was sugar, all refined processed sugar. I am pretty hard core about that, even homemade goodies, if they contain sugar, I choose not to eat it. Last Christmas, my friend who is a fab cook/baker, was making homemade cookies, I agreed to try one, I ate one cookie and one tiny square of fudge. Well the rest of the day, my head was buzzing and I was dizzy. It was not pleasant, and absolutely not worth the few minutes of pleasure on my tongue.

The only sweeteners I'll eat are natural from fruit, and allulose/monk fruit, and maple syrup in moderation, mostly in my coffee which isn't daily. 

The next thing I eliminated from my diet was toxic oils, things like palm oil, anything hydrogenated, corn oil, basically all of the toxic seed oils. I use butter, ghee, olive oil, and avocado oil. I am truly amazed at the companies who make so called healthy foods that use toxic oils, it's just safer to make my own snacks and foods.

Now with RFK Jr in charge of our foods, he is banning artificial colors and other things, I'm happy about that, it means I'll potentially be able to buy more foods from the store without with less worry. Though honestly I still don't fully trust the food manufacturers to do the right thing, I'll still continue to read labels and if it has something I don't like, I won't buy it or eat it. 

Lacto-fermentation, it's something I have been delving deeper and deeper into, science is learning that we are influenced by our gut microbiome, some are good, some not so good. I am actively working on making and consuming more and more lacto-fermented foods. Right now I have 5 jars of fermented veggies sitting out that I eat from. I also make my own yogurt. All of this is so much simpler than I originally thought it would be, it's not scary at all, just do it!

I am doing other things to improve my health, supplements, hydrogen water, red light therapy, making my own tinctures and the such. All of this is an attempt at keeping my body and mind in tip top shape. I am not perfect, I am overweight, but have maintained this weight over many years, ie I don't yo-yo diet, I feel like maintaining is healthier than losing and gaining over and over. 

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So it's been a few days since I started writing, I almost decided to not post this at all, but then I went over to my friend's house, she could see there was a bit of a shadow over me, so she pulled out 2 boxes and sat them in front of me. I didn't know what to think, she is a big, major big wrapping paper kind of person, she even commented that she hadn't wrapped them but chose to give them to me anyhow.

I opened each box, the first one had a fermentation crock, the kind with a an airlock lid, weights and a thing I can only assume it's for tamping down whatever I'm fermenting. The other box contained 2 large glass jars with lids that also have an airlock/venting system. And there were 2 glass weights. 

I must say that my friend knows me so well, she knew I'd love those items, I would USE them and I'm  going to make some ferments for her as well. 

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Wretha,

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