Pausing

In the grand scheme, a single chicken has very little significance but after almost a year of seeing her everyday, enjoying her eggs, having her follow me as I worked on various projects, I am feeling a loss. We have 11 other hens and I do not know any of them individually but each is important to my day. My daily chores typically start with letting the Delaware hens out to free range, checking their water, then taking water, feed, and grit to the Rhodies, taking feed and grit to the Delaware house, and gathering their early eggs. Upon opening the Delaware door I immediately saw the body of one hen. After removing her I had to continue the chores to completion. Knowing why a hen expires can help prevent other occurrences so we tried to figure out what had happened. Looks like she had a prolapse from her vent so we photographed it and sent the photo to a vet. Once we have her opinion we can decide if we need to take any action.

Disposing of the carcass seemed so wasteful and a sad part of homesteading. The joys here are made sweeter by these sad moments, a lesson learned and relearned. Life will go on with no recognition that one of the dozen is now gone but every time I count to ensure all have come in to roost for the night I will remember.

Who is James Edward Wilson?

Who I am. Trying to eat right and exercising occasionally convinced me that I was healthy. Typically delusional. Although not unhealthy, my trajectory was not taking me there. That is what we men do, we are confident that we know how to take care of ourselves and don’t need advice. Self reliance is necessary. Too often, the rigid self reliance practiced by men strands them in self defeating habits. Only those who recognize that much of conventional wisdom fails to match reality will find value in what I am going to share. In my mid 50’s I decided to investigate better health choices after a heart scare. This started my journey to better health and a hopeful anticipation of a healthful future. What I have discovered and experienced has convinced me that if I improve my adherence to what I know, I can expect to live a healthy, active life until age 120. My name is James Edward Wilson and I am 65 years old.

In this blog I will share what I have learned and am practicing that has improved my health and continues to do so even as I increase my age. You can watch as I experiment with what I believe and with me discover how effective these practices really are. To measure my progress I will track measurements of my waist, belly, and abdomen, my resting heart rate, my blood pressure, and my total body fat. Plus I will track my exercise performance. You can watch or join the experiment. One test subject does not make much of an experiment sample so I hope many join in and take the chance of increasing their longevity to 120 years with me.

The blog topics I intend to cover here include:

1. Longevity
2. My Vision
3. Deciding to Decide
4. Commitment
5. Muscle Mass
6. Bone Density
7. Circulation
8. Injury
9. Nutrition
10. Nutrient Dense Foods
11. Shop, Grow, Forage
12. Food Preparation
13. Supplements
14. Exercise Routines

This is my starting point and I expect that discoveries will cause additional topics which may be inserted or appended depending on the nature of the new topic.

Exercise will comprise much of my experiment. To help keep me adhering to my plan of daily exercise I am creating a Youtube channel to function as my daily Video Blog (VLOG). Although I do not have a professional recording nor exercise studio I am pressing forward because success comes to those who act instead of merely conceiving. Even more than the blog I invite one and all to join the VLOG, not as a viewer but as an active participant. The only thing you will loose is old age aches and pains and perhaps a too early demise.

Heartiness Approach Begins Anew

Life is about continuing on, never quitting and starting anew. Discouragement be hanged. Seven years ago last month we began the "get healthy" journey. It worked extremely well for three years. Then we found ourselves living where others fed us what they ate, our time was filled with too much of life and our habits did not get lived to the extent of the prior three years. Although during these seven years we have never gone completely backwards, we have found ourselves with enlarged mid-drifts and weight gain. Especially this last year when we have been managing an Independent Living community, We have struggled to eat the correct foods in the correct amounts, cooked in the correct oils and other ingredients. We knew when we took this job that eating would be a problem. We have not gained what some of our residents have gained because we don't eat a roll at every meal, We don't eat the pasta and all the potato dishes and we don't eat all the desserts. We now have cut out all but perhaps one dessert a week and it has to be worth it. All that said, we have found ourselves depressed, overworked and overeating. SO....We begin again, but not just for ourselves but for all seniors who want to enjoy life and food and still eat correctly. Follow us on our journey to get healthy again. 

The Heartiness Approach is being revitalized to be an active blog and an active website. We hope to flood it with information so others can learn what we know and so we can live what we know. We follow many organizations, books and blogs, but we pick and choose and must have evidenced-based research to back up anything we live or teach. Many of you know that Rhenda was getting her Master's in Holistic Nutrition. She had to reevaluate her priorities and stop the program because of time constraints in her life. She is still using her information and books and research to put together a sound well-documented program for her, for us, and for you. 

Heartiness Approach incorporates four sections.
1. Whole Foods
2. Exercise & Fitness
3. Homesteading
4. Stress Management

Holistic Nutrition Study of Whole Food and Refined Foods

I am doing a study with eight participates in five different states for my Master's Program in Holistic Nutrition.  Whole foods are full of wonderful vitamins, minerals and nutrients that our bodies require and love. Refined foods have so many of the nutrients removed with multiple additives. Each participate will be asked to remove refined foods from their diet for a period of two weeks. This is a public blog although the following is not huge yet. Use the comment section to report your progress, support others, share your obstacles, ask questions and write whatever is on your mind.

I will add recipes, additional information, and notes of encouragement along the way. 

Most of all enjoy the flavor, color and taste of eating whole foods. Share what you are learning and enjoying about it. 

   

Self Talk.......Stress

Stress is most likely the biggest catalyst I have for weight gain, nausea, illness, and eating concerns. It seems that no matter how much I talk to myself, there are times when I feel myself slip and can almost physically watch it happen. I know when I am at a low point and the emotional stress becomes physical. Why is that I cannot make my mind respond when I say, "Snap out of this". I am a happy person. I am known for my smile, my caring for others, my compassion and empathy. I love to put others first and I love to interact with them. Caring for the needs of others is the driving force in my life. Others tell me that "the caring" sometimes hurts me because I care too much. How do you treat someone, "Christ-like" too much?

Emotional health preempts diet, activity, and sleep. It trumps any other activity I am doing no matter how much I use "self-talk" to help me stay in control. Writing is perhaps the best thing I can do. Talking is great therapy for me, but when I talk I am talking to someone and if they don't really want to hear what I am saying, then I come away empty and unfulfilled, feeling less important with additional emotions. I have conquered the diet concerns regarding what and how to eat. I sleep well most of the time. But I can't turn my head or heart off.

Conquering emotional stress in a positive way is perhaps the most important objective I have in my personal life.

Tired of being sick and tired

There is nothing like being ill for over a week to put you in your place and call you to attention. Well, I am at attention. I require Heartiness. Five years ago when we started eating correctly we never shopped the middle isles. We never ate at fast food places and we seldom ate out at all. We have been doing better now that we are in our own place but still lack the intensity that we followed for 3 years. I am not saying I would not have gotten sick if I had been eating correctly but I believe I would have recovered much faster. Now, after missing a week of work and starting into my second week of not working I am more committed than ever to be strict with myself, and get well inside and out. 

I am not a vegan. I do not live on a juicing diet. I do eat grains. I do use good oils. I do have balance in my diet. Once again...Portion control, A Balance of Foods, Real Foods....NOT processed, except by me. 

Sharing a Correspondence from a Follower who is a Leader

This post is from one of our followers who gave permission for his correspondence to be put on our blog.He was Jim's CO in the Air Force in Germany.

I finally got serious about my weight and lifestyle on October 28th, 2013 after a physical appointment with my P.A. and some lab work. So, I joined Jenny Craig, which lasted about 2 months. I learned what I could from them (portion control, calorie counting) and then moved on. I bought a lot of freezer containers and I put up the left overs from the holiday meals in meal sized portions. My weight is now down 30 lbs after 3 months (265 to 235), so I’m doing some things right. Just bought a book called the The Ultimate Fit or Fat by Covert Bailey. I bought Covert’s other books many years ago in the 70s and 80s. For me, it’s the component I’ve been ignoring – exercising. Need to get started in this regard. Ultimate weight goal is 180. Got a ways to go.

I’m still nursing. Switched jobs last June. Now working in an observation unit just off the emergency department. Lots of chest pain, syncope, TIA, COPD exacerbation, asthma, etc. Most visits less than 24 hours. Stay overnight with tests, discharge the next day. Serial troponins, EKGs, echocardiogram, stress test if needed. Have sent many patients for heart cath. Root of most problems – obesity and the standard American diet (SAD).

You can put this correspondence on your web site. I did forget one thing.

The root of most problems – obesity and the Standard American Diet (SAD) –  and smoking.

It never ceases to amaze me that my COPD and asthmatic patients are anxious to be released from the hospital as soon as possible to they can get off the nicotine patch and light up a cigarette.

Very similar motivations with alcoholic and illicit drug dependent patients.

Many check out AMA because they can’t wait to be discharged. 

Tom Thompson

We are very proud of Tom for finding what works for him and working it. He is an inspiration. Three Cheers for Tom. Keep up the good work. 

Rhenda Wilson