New Year's Resolution

    A new year is approaching. In the blink of an eye, or so it seems, the year 2023 will be here. Geeze, I remember when 1977 became 1978. My New Year's Resolution that year was to get off drugs. Yes, I was only 13, but had tried cigarettes, booze (I would not be able to keep that part of the resolution in the summertime!), marijuana - or pot as it was referred to then (get the pun?), Nitrous Oxide and had been offered LSD already in my young life. My brother was a local drug dealer, so I had easy access. However, that didn't mean I should try all of them. I knew that doing such things would have an impact on my later life and if I wanted to be a brain surgeon, I needed all the brain cells I could muster. (I really wanted to be a brain surgeon. Thing is, I've always struggled in biology.)

    I was at my friend Tom's house that night, playing cards and drinking Kool-Aid. I can't recall what we were discussing, but knew we were going to make a lot of noise at midnight. For you kids out there, we didn't have the Internet and did not have access to professional fireworks like the ones that are certain to be set off, weather depending, at midnight on January 1st. We just made noise by banging on pots and pans. Yeah, we had a sad life...

    I've made resolutions almost every year since I knew what they were. In 1988, I actually came through on mine. I lost close to 70lbs on Nutri-System! Problem was, I wasn't able to stay on it indefinitely and the weight came back. The pounds also brought friends. But that's a post for another day. I got down to 167 pounds. I hadn't been that weight since high school. I'm currently at least twice that amount. Which brings me to Resolution, 2023.

    Gyms are packed from January 2nd through about March when many people tend to give up. I won't be going to a gym any time during that period next year. I will go, but after March. I guess that makes this a two part resolution, but all aiming at one goal: to become healthy. I currently have so many health issues and take so many medications for those health conditions, most of them caused by my poor diet and lack of movement. Like I tell all the kids (people under 30 years of age) I run into: DO NOT BECOME SEDENTARY. I'll say it again: DO NOT BECOME SEDENTARY. DO NOT BECOME LAZY. MOVE AROUND, NO MATTER AS TO WHETHER YOU FEEL LIKE IT OR NOT. I've put them in big, bold letters, hoping to get into the head of people whose families, like mine, are on the fatter side. So many diseases are linked to obesity, which is a controllable condition in most cases, that our doctors should be hammering us every time we see them, which in my case at least once a month (that includes specialists). But in at least my case there's only ONE of my specialists that gets on me about it and I have one last appointment with her as she's taken out my reproductive organs, with my consent - actually I pleaded with her - to do so. The other doctors, including my endocrinologist (he's the one who manages my Type 2 Diabetes, yet another self-inflicted disease), usually don't mention it. If they do, they say, "You know what needs to be done." I've heard that so many times I've run out of digits with which to count! Calories in=calories out, right? Not really. The nutritionists where I go for my healthcare, insist fat of any type is a NO-NO. Which is so sad because the people that take this advice, really need help. They won't lose weight, as we've found out. Fat is needed in small quantities, maybe even medium quantities for someone as big as me. The real culprit of putting on pounds is CARBOHYDRATES. Not just any carbohydrate, but the worst is the simple carbohydrate. They serve ZERO function, but damn, they taste soooo good! Simple carbohydrates are sugars, whether it be cane sugar, beet sugar or high fructose corn syrup, which our bodies DO NOT recognize because it's not natural, so it is automatically stored as FAT. Processed simple carbohydrates are the worst. They're mostly tucked away in processed foods, such as frozen meals and prepared meals that need no refrigeration. As my friend and former boss, Steven Bise, told me, the closer to the ground, the better the food. Meaning that fewer hands that touched the product, the better it is for you. 

    I feel like I've gotten off track here, but wanted to share what I've learned about nutrition in my 58 years on this planet. If i'm wrong on any point, please let me know as I want to help myself as well as helping others.

    Losing weight is a popular New Year's Resolution (NYR). I don't just want to lose weight., I could take a number of pills or concoctions for that. I want to be HEALTHIER. Both of my folks died from preventable diseases, mom from heart disease and dad from complications of stroke. Mom refused to believe she had Type 2 Diabetes and thus did nothing about it. She didn't feel any differently, so she couldn't have the disease that my dad had since the 1970's. That's the thing about Type 2 Diabetes. One doesn't feel differently. One may have to urinate more, or perhaps get thirstier faster, but it's not noticeable. One might gain weight while another might lose weight. The latter happened to a friend of mine. She wasn't eating anything differently, she wasn't more active, yet she lost weight. Although she was pleased, she was also concerned. After a check up with the doctor, she found out she had Type 2 diabetes. If you suspect you might have it, please see your Primary Care Physician (PCP) to find out, especially if it runs in your family, It's nothing to be ashamed of; but it WILL KILL you if not treated. Oftentimes it doesn't come right out and kill you. No, this terrible disease affects your extremities, one at a time. One might lose a toe, then a foot, then a leg, then a hand and on and on it goes until there's nothing left. It also negatively affects one's heart and entire pulmonary system. I have Type 2 diabetes that's finally under control. It affects one's ENTIRE LIFE. Because I was stressed living at my old place, my fasting blood sugar would sometimes be as high as 300! To those who know about blood sugars, know that's way too high. Every 3 months, people with Type 2 diabetes get their blood sugars check for an A1C reading. It's an average blood sugar reading. Normal is below a 7. Just 4 years ago mine was THIRTEEN! I was off the rails because I was allowing stress rule my life. To cope with it, I was stress eating. I'm now down below seven, but I'd like it around 4. I'd like to be able to be off all medications for the self inflicted disease. Every medication I take, harms my liver. I have fatty liver disease, which doesn't surprise me considering how I've treated my body since 1990.

    After all of this, what IS my NYR?

    I plan to be off ALL processed sugar by the end of the year. I'm not going cold turkey because I'd end up in a mental institution. My body has had processed sugar for most of its 58 years of existence. I used to feel bad about kids who were denied candy and sugar laden sodas (back in the 1970's, ALL SODAS had sugar in them, we didn't yet have the killer high fructose corn syrup). I now envy them. Unless an accident has claimed their lives, they're probably living a good life now. Just because they never became addicted to processed sugar.

    I shall go back to reading labels and if sugar in any form appears in the first 5 ingredients, I will not ingest the product. I WILL NOT eat anything with high fructose corn syrup in it. I will probably lose some weight, but that's just a byproduct of my goal. Three hundred and sixty days from now, barring any low sugar episodes, I should be sugar free. I'll need your help. I'll need you to cheer me on from the grandstands. I'll need your suggestions if you've climbed the mountain I'm about to take on. If you have recipes, I'm all eyes. 

    I've tired of feeling crappy, spending loads of money on prescriptions that are harming my body and am just flat out tired. I'm only 58. My mother passed away when she was only 60. My father passed away when he was 76. I want to make it to at least 80. It starts by saying goodbye to my longest relationship. After 58 years, I will say goodbye to processed sugar.

    I just want to live.

(My high school portrait and hanging with the Mayor of Fairfield, Cat Moy, December 2022)

 

The GIFT of Christmas

    It’s almost Christmas. Even in this day of the internet, people are rushing left and right to pick up those last-minute gifts. They’re running around trying to try to get the perfect feast together. Airports are full and patience is at its wit’s end. But do you really know what Christmas is truly about?        

    I was about 8 or 9 that it hit me. We were raised Catholic and would go to Midnight Mass as a family. Then we’d come home, the adults drinking eggnog with rum or brandy or having a hot toddy (to this day I have NO IDEA what that is!) while us kids had hot cocoa. Then we opened gifts. After dinner on Christmas Eve, we were allowed to open one gift. To make it look like us kids received a lot more than we did, mom would wrap batteries needed to operate a toy. Those she would put on the mantel of the fireplace. We would sometimes open one of those, knowing that if we received batteries, then there would be a cool toy under the tree! That way, we wouldn’t open something stupid like underwear, socks or pajamas. 

  Usually, dad played Santa Claus and we spoiled children would fling open all the gifts without recognizing who they were from, just that we got stuff. Stuff that we would call our friends on Christmas Day to see what they got. There was usually just a bunch of wrapping paper in a pile in the living room, with Grandma wearing the bows. (We should have buried her in a bow!) One could smell the scent of fresh plastic straight out of the box. If you're older than 50, then you know the smell. It’s like the smell of old tubes warming up. Kids these days have no idea how long we had to wait for the TV to warm up! And when it did, we only had 4 channels! But back to the chaos that was our early Christmas morning. Actually, it would start on Christmas Eve, when “Santa”, just a local Kiwanian or Jaycee dressed up as Santa, would bring us a bag of toys around 8pm. There were no socks or underwear or pajamas in there, just TOYS! (My brother ruined Christmas for me when I was about 7. I thought Santa actually brought the toys. But Doug took me into the garage and showed me the toys in mom’s hiding place. A few days later, they were the same toys Santa brought us.) Back in the day, we wouldn’t have to worry about being ripped off. They would call mom or dad to let them know they’d be there in about 5 minutes, so dad usually took the wrapped toys and put them out front so the Santa would put them in his bag when he got there. Then he’d ring the doorbell and shout out, “Ho, ho ho! Merry Christmas!”. Yes, Santa came to our door because us kids were that special. When you’re a kid, it’s all about the toys, as it should be. 

       

    When I was about 8 or 9, coming home from Midnight Mass, it hit me. As a younger child, I never thought about the name Christmas. To me, it just meant I'd get some good stuff like a Lite Brite, Lincoln Logs or an Easy Bake Oven, all of which I had as a child. That was cutting edge stuff! One year, my younger sister, Maureen and I received walkie talkies. So did our friend, Tommy, who lived on the other side of our fence. We had so much fun talking on those and then eventually setting up an illegal radio station. We didn’t know it was illegal until a trucker on the same frequency told us. We went back to just talking. Coming home from Midnight Mass that one year, I realized what Christmas meant: it was CHRIST’S MASS. A Mass for the baby Jesus. I still didn’t understand what Jesus had to do with my Hot Wheels set, but I figured out, all on my own, despite the years of CCD, that for some reason everyone received gifts on Christ’s Mass.  

      

    Scholars say that Jesus Christ was really born in the Spring, not the Winter. But as the Holy Roman Empire grew across Europe, replacing paganism, they needed a way to make it legal to celebrate Jesus and not the earth gods that the pagans celebrated. As December 21st was the shortest day of the year, pagans celebrated Saturnalia, celebrating the days to come that would bring more sunshine every day. To discourage people from celebrating a pagan feast – Saturnalia lasted for days – December 25th, which was about the middle of the Saturnalia celebration, was chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Eventually, as people became Christianized, Saturnalia fell from the calendar and many of the traditions, such as lighting a tree, were taken from pagans and put in Christian traditions.

    But what does the birth of Jesus have to do with Christmas? The Magi, you might know them as the Three Wise Men, came from the East, possibly India, to bring gifts of Frankincense, Myrrh and Gold, to the Christ Child. What a baby would do with these things, I haven’t the slightest idea, but those were considered the top toys of the day. (I would’ve brought a binky or some nappies so Mary wouldn’t have to be washing all day!) It is Christ’s Mass, but why? What did the birth of Jesus have to do with the holiday? And where does Santa fit into all of this? 

I had to become an adult to realize all of that. 

    Many Christians don’t allow their children to sit on Santa’s lap and tell Santa their wishes. They believe that Santa is just a throwback to the pagan traditions of old. However, just as God sent His only begotten Son so that humans could finally mend the relationship with God through a figure they understood, Santa stands in for Jesus, so unbelievers might believe that there IS God, who grants us the ultimate gift – everlasting life.  

   

     Think about it. What was the best gift you ever received for Christmas? Do you still have it? Is it worth your life?     

    Santa grants the flesh tangible gifts. We receive cool stuff from Santa, Mom used to even put on the to/from tags on some of our toys that they were from Santa.

   

     The baby Jesus, would eventually die for our sins, thus fixing the connection we had lost with God because of our sins, the sins of the flesh.      

    Santa teaches us to give gifts. Jesus gave us the ultimate gift, his life, so that we may have Life Everlasting.  

    Wow!  

    

    All we need to do is to accept Him as our Lord and Savior.        

    

    Will it make our lives easier? No, it might even make it harder as Satan tries to get your soul back. But you’ll feel a JOY you didn’t know was possible. A JOY that no toy, be it an Easy Bake Oven or even the latest video game can.

    And this JOY will last eternally.  

    Merry CHRIST MASS!