EYE-OPENING EXPERIENCE

This kind of follows up with my New Year's resolutions...see, I wasn't going to get into the whole "resolution" thing this year because it's something that I never quite seem to follow through with once the party is over. But this year started out much different than most & caused me to open my eyes to a lot of things that I need to change.

Just a couple weeks ago, on Saturday, January 17th, my father-in-law had a heart attack. He was told by the doctors that he had major blockages of several main arteries & they would have to operate immediately. While we were camped out in the hospital over the course of 3 nights & 4 days waiting for him to recover, we got to talking about what causes such things to happen inside your body. One of the most obvious reasons that the doctors informed us about is what kinds of food you eat. You see, not only the fat & calories are bad for you...it's all of the stuff that is unnatural too! When we ingest processed foods that are made up of chemicals & fake colors & all kinds of additives, our bodies don't recognize what they are & therefore can't break them down. So they just float around in our insides, taking up residence in our arteries & wreaking havoc on our digestive systems. So that made me pay attention to what different foods make me feel like after I eat them. I started to realize that when I ate healthier, cleaner foods, I actually felt like my insides were healthier & cleaner! This caused me to make the switch to organic foods. I haven't completely changed EVERYTHING over just yet, but the major stuff that we eat on a daily basis is all-natural now. I also started to think about the things that we breathe into our bodies, & things that we use on ourselves that get absorbed into our systems through our skin. This started to really freak me out when I did a little research & realized what horrible things go into our lotions & soaps & creams & makeups. Not to mention household cleaners! And to think that my 2 precious cats have been climbing all over surfaces that have been sprayed down with these harsh, abrasives really upset me. So I'm changing those over too.

But not all man-made things are to blame for poor health. We have to be responsible too. We have to control our weight & maintain physical activity to prevent health problems too. This made me really examine myself & my health. I recently went skiing & realized that I had to stop several times because my legs were just burning from excertion. I sit at a desk all day at work & rarely get up until it's time for lunch. I go home & sit on the couch & watch tv with my husband, or go out to dinner with friends & eat unhealthy things. So I've decided enough is enough & I don't want to wind up laying on that hospital bed thanking God that I survived painful open-heart surgery someday...I want to prevent it! I have to make the effort to become more physically fit & to reach a healthier weight...not for vanity, not to look good, but to actually feel good & be IN good health.

So, although it was definitely a very scary experience that I wish had never happened, my father-in-law's heart attack was definitely an eye-opening experience that has set me, my husband & his whole family on the right track for a more healthful future & for that, I'm so very thankful!