Good Day

Although I am not a fan of snow, I cannot deny how GORGEOUS spring snow is. I love it......everything looks dreamy with big blobs of wet snow on it.

And even though the snow is deep, the sun came out so brightly and it was warm enough to skip the coat this morning (this is looking SE down my sidewalk).



I hope my tulips survive!

Out the back yard you can see how deep the snow piled. It doesn't really do this in winter because it's too frozen--it just blows away. But spring snow piles up and sticks to things because it's wet (warmer). The fence posts crack me up, silly q-tips.

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A good way to start a questionable day: a great old Cars song on the radio...




This song always makes me happy cuz it's so perky, even though the lyrics are sad. I got to thinking this song is appropos, as I have been thinking about my Grampy more than ever this month. I miss him a lot and I wake up from dreams and remember he's not here and it makes my day a lot less awesome.


since you're gone the nights are gettin' strange
since you're gone well, nothing's makin' any sense
since you're gone I stumbled in the shade
since you're gone everything's in perfect tense...
since you're gone I missed the peak sensation
since you're gone I took the big vacation
since you're gone I never feel sedate
since you're gone well, the moonlight ain't so great...


***

I had a facebook exchange this morning that bears re-posting:

Liz posted THIS LINK about sugar addiction. (click and read--it's short)

Here's one of my favorite parts of the article:

An array of evidence suggests that obesity, diabetes, depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, and assorted addictions share neurochemical roots that are seriously influenced by this high-carbohydrate diet. According to Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons, bestselling author of Potatoes Not Prozac, "sugar sensitive" people are born with low levels of the brain chemicals serotonin (a condition tied to depression, aggression, and poor attention and impulse control) and dopamine (drug and alcohol addiction, low self-esteem, violence, and anger). They also have volatile blood sugar (associated with diabetes, fatigue, moodiness, feeble concentration, and emotional outbursts). Additionally, these people are born with low beta-endorphin, a condition associated with chemical dependence and a sense of victimization and alienation.

As with any addict looking for a fix, sugar-sensitive people with these traits seek substances that alleviate the symptoms, if only temporarily. And, as with any addiction, the short-lived relief compounds the problem — people grow helpless to the pull of refined carbohydrates and low-protein foods (the template of the contemporary American diet), which only deepens their despair. Research suggests that a dependency on refined carbohydrates that begins early in life also creates a higher risk of addiction to drugs and alcohol as adults.

ME: This almost made me cry. I am on a nutrition bender right now, and I just taught the Word of Wisdom lesson in RS wherein I cried and testified of all kinds of things like Alma 46:39-41, D&C 89:4 (evil designs of conspiring men who will poison us to make a buck), Food, Inc. & Michael Pollan, etc…everything I’ve read lately (Anticancer by David Servan-Schreiber, for example--looooved it!) testifies that the cure for what ails us has been here all along, that God has given us everything we need to live healthy lives, naturally, in the earth. We must be willing to put forth the effort—by "the sweat of our brow"—to provide ourselves and our families fresh, healthy food the way God intended. It’s literally right under our noses, whether in a container garden, a community plot, the local farmer’s market , or a trustworthy grocer. The sad thing is that we have been manipulated into these addictions by being told for decades that they are harmless, even healthful, and convenient. And they don’t effect everyone the same way, so one person who has eaten margarine and aspartame and preservatives for decades and is as healthy as a horse will argue this is all BS, while his neighbor is dying of cancer and his wife is immobilized by an auto-immune disease that could be prevented/eliminated/ healed with a pure diet.

LIZ: Jamie-amen & amen. Thank you for taking this to a higher level.

ME: It strikes a nerve. This article describes my addicted sister to a T, from when she was a toddler. While I know it's important the she be accountable for her choices, I can't help identifying all the red flags and the mistakes made by people/ the culture that have helped bring her to that crossroads of addiction.

Then Liz posted THIS fabulous resource on my wall. I have done most of the steps listed there as part of controlling my gestational diabetes, but it's nice to have it for post-partum lifestyle adjustments.

I have never had a "sweet tooth," per se, but I have noticed when I am eating consciously that there are other carbs that I have turned to for comfort or a sense of reward (salty-crunchy ones, and of course, SODA) all my life. It's such a monumental corner to turn, to start believing for real that FOOD IS FUEL, and that I should love and respect my body enough to give it what it needs, not what my emotions want. And on another level, David Servan-Schreiber quotes Hippocrates in Anticancer, by saying, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food." His book is a personal journey of cancer survival and his change-of-heart as a medical professional, from relying on pharmaceuticals to relying on our own spirit/body to heal itself when given the proper nutrition (and medicine, when needed) --for body and spirit.

I know a lot of people read this and say, "Well, duh." And others read this and call it malarkey. I know that the Word of Wisdom is one of those "grey-area" commandments that unfolds and reveals itself to us as we desire to learn and live it better--to "crank it up a notch," as my mission pres used to say--like a parable. I am not writing about this because I have mastered it, but because it's unfolding to me now. There are some things going on with my body that I can't fix, and I accept that. But I have to take responsibility for the things that I CAN fix. Because now I know better, and I need to DO better (but please don't slap that weekly soda out of my hand quite yet, people...baby steps! ;)).

UPDATE:

In the car on the way to pick up the kids, I heard on the radio that TODAY IS RIC OKASEK'S BIRTHDAY (lead singer of The Cars, 2 yrs older than my mom)--what a coincidence! Happy Birthday, Ric! Also, I forgot to say that I am actually grateful for having gest. diabetes because it has forced me to make small changes in diet and activity that make my life so much better. I was worried this baby would kill me, but maybe he's actually saving me from myself. That's all.