This has been a life changing year for me. I've seen many endings and all of them have been good.
I've suffered from depression and hypothyroidism for 10+ years, I've steadily put on weight and had an incredible lack of energy. This past fall I discovered how to regain my health!
After my diagnosis of diabetes in October, I discovered what it means to eat Paleo and took back my body. Initially the diagnosis felt like the end of the world, but it has proven to be the blessing I needed to regain my life.
I went to see a specialist yesterday. He is an Endocrinologist and head of the Diabetes Unit at our local hospital. I had to wait 2 months to see him but it was worth the wait. After 2 months on my new food lifestyle, he was so impressed with my health, that he said, "I have no words of wisdom for you, just keep doing whatever you are doing."
In 2 months time, my hypothyroid is normal, he could detect NO evidence of it in his exam! I have LOST 20 pounds! I have massive amounts of energy, wake up on my own every morning feeling rested and energized, and even more important to me, I have not had one moment of that sluggish, no spark to life, feeling of depression. I have an enthusiasm and a joy for life that I can't remember ever feeling.
Over the last 50 to 60 years, our options for obtaining food completely changed from those of our parents and grandparents. With the introduction of large chain grocery stores, the small neighborhood butcher shops and grocers, who got most of their meat and produce from local farmers, slowly went out of business, and big corporations took over. They supply us with everything a person could imagine in the form of processed foods, unhealthy antibiotic filled, and grain fed meat, along with produce bathed in poisonous insecticides.
The good news was, people could stop growing their own produce, stop harvesting, stop canning, stop fertilizing the earth with hard work and sweat... and just go to the store!
So, what does it mean to eat Paleo? For me it simply means taking control of my own well being, and not depending on a government to make my food choices any longer.
Once I found out about the Paleo lifestyle and began to expand my reading, I discovered there is an entire life style changing movement going on! Who knew?! Certainly not me in my brain fogged world! People have gone back to homesteading! They grow their own produce, have relearned lost talents like canning, fermentation, pickling, and cold storage in order to save it all. They have whatever farm animals they can, and learn how to care for, and eventually use as nourishment, and products (ie: skin care, soaps, etc), what they can from them.
With all of this year's endings for me... I now have a goal for the new year. We have already started our homestead on paper, and in our heads. Sadly, we have to wait for winter to be over before we can begin the outside portions of this new and very exciting life! This too, has certainly proved to be the ultimate blessing, as it's given me much more time to learn, explore, and pass on the knowledge I am gaining.
Health and Peace in the New Year! See you there...
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