Health – aliciajoseph

Thanks to the Vaccinated

I’m not vaccinated. It’s not a political statement. It’s doctor’s orders. In 2006, I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis. I’ve written a couple blogs about it. I’ve had my ups and downs with the disease, but with medication and various treatments, I’ve been living relatively well with the disease in recent years, and it’d been a somewhat quiet seven years or so. But like all good things, that had to end too.

In mid-March my brother had an appointment to get the vaccine and could get me one, too. At that time it was still difficult to secure appointments for the vaccine. Despite really wanting it since I am one of the immune-compromised vulnerable ones, I listened to my body and it was telling me that something wasn’t right. I won’t go into details, but I suspected it wasn’t a good time for my body to take on a vaccine.

Two weeks would prove me right as I was in the midst of a full-blown flareup. Emails to my doctor put me on more medication and orders to stay away from the vaccine until things got better. This was the last week of March and as we head into mid-July, I am doing better, but not well enough to get vaccinated yet.

I’m hoping a few more weeks changes that, but I’ve been hoping that for months now. I’m not writing about this to get sympathy. I don’t need that. We all have our health issues. I’m writing this to thank the people who have gotten vaccinated. Because of you, people like me are safer. I know some people are unvaccinated by choice, but I am sure I can’t be the only one unvaccinated for health reasons.

It is frustrating that politics have played such an integral role in the attitude to this virus, as well as to its vaccine. If the former idiot in the Oval Office would have just worn a mask at its inception, without complaint or political divide, and did not take his own vaccine in secret, maybe over 600,000 Americans wouldn’t have died and today more people would be vaccinated, thus helping to put a stop to this mutating deadly virus. But we’ll never know if that would have happened because, like I said, we had a dangerous idiot in the White House.

So this blog is to simply thank those who had the good sense to get vaccinated, because while you did it to protect yourselves, you are also protecting vulnerable people like me by slowing the spread of this virus. I read an article a couple weeks ago (I’m sorry but I forgot where) that showed statistics that the more Republican a county is, the less vaccinated they are. The unvaccinated would be at a high risk in those counties, and as I read about the more contagious Delta variant, I am grateful I don’t live in those counties.

Thank you to everyone who got the shot.

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Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Plant-Based Living

I’ve been eating plant-based for about eleven days, as part of my thirty days of plant-based eating. I had decided I’d been consuming way too much processed vegan junk food, and decided to give my body a break from the manufactured foods, and instead, fill it with whole foods as close to its natural state as possible.

Most of the the recipes I made came from a cookbook written by Dr. John McDougall. He preaches a low fat/high carb vegan plant-based diet, consisting mostly of potatoes, rice, pasta, beans, and multigrain breads. Although my previous diet did consist of plenty of fruits and vegetables, my snack choices– chips, ice cream, pastries — were counter productive. The past few weeks my snacks consisted of raw nuts and sliced veggies with hummus. To satisfy my sweet tooth cravings, I turned to fruit, smoothies, or fruit in plain yogurt. (Okay, I cheated one night with a piece of vegan dark chocolate, but I didn’t need nearly as much chocolate as I usually do. That’s progress, right? Please say yes :).

The recipes I’ve made so far have been easy and convenient and very healthy, but there hasn’t been much of a change in how I look or feel, except to say that a couple days ago my face broke out in acne I haven’t seen since I was thirteen. I’m hoping it’s a result of all those toxins exiting my body. Maybe? Could be?

It would be unfair for me to judge the impact this plant-based diet is having on me thus far, because I am currently experiencing a Myasthenia Gravis flare-up that began before I started this diet. In fact, it was because of the flare-up that inspired me to clean up my eating to help give my immune system a boost. I am sure if I wasn’t experiencing muscle weakness that is limiting my physical abilities right now, and I was able to exercise while eating this diet, I’d no doubt see a more physical change in me.

I have over two weeks left to go. I definitely am not going to ever abandon eating plant-based. I think from now on it will always be the majority of my diet, with just a splash of the vegan processed junk I love so much.

Here are pictures of some of the meals I’ve enjoyed eating so far.

Continue reading “Plant-Based Living”

Day One of a Plant-Based Diet

Today’s the first day of eating nothing but plant-based food for thirty days. I’ve been a vegetarian for about eight years, and then turned to veganism not too long ago. So although I eat a lot of fruit and veggies, I am sure that I indulged way too much in my favorite vegan junk food. I’m looking straight at you Beyond Meat! Though I’d always tried to balance the amount of processed foods I ate with more healthy foods, I no doubt overdid it with the delicious brands of vegan ice creams, vegan pizzas, vegan burgers, vegan sausages, vegan corndogs, vegan chicken nuggets, vegan….I think you get the idea.

In 2006, I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis. The first seven years were pretty hard, but the last eight years have been quite bearable, without any serious flareups, until recently. I believe food is the medicine that could keep our bodies in optimal health. I’m hoping the negative effects I’m feeling from my disease will motivate me to stay on course and eat strictly a plant-based diet. I didn’t weigh myself before I started. This is more about feeling better than losing weight, but yeah, I’m hoping for that one too.

I have a pre-planned list of recipes I jotted down from a plant-based cookbook written by Dr. John McDougall, The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook, I have that should cover me for a couple weeks. The fridge is stocked with all the healthy deliciousness of natural and unprocessed foods. The key is staying organized and having a meal plan.

Today’s meal was a simple carrot, celery, kale, and noodle soup, and black bean sloppy joes over roasted potatoes.

One day down. Twenty-nine to go. Easy peasy.

Now is Exactly Why We Need Healthcare For All

I’ve always believed that every person, regardless of how little money they may have in the bank, deserves to go to the doctor when they are sick so they can get better. If there is treatment and medicine available to ease their ailment, as a basic right, a person is deserving of that treatment. My sentiment has consistently been that we are all interconnected in this life. We are a much more stable and functioning society when everyone is as healthy as they can be, and good health begins with a right to good and affordable healthcare.

If you’ve ever played a sport, sang in a choir, or been a part of anything where your success depends on another’s performance, you know you are only as strong as the weakest person on your team. So to assure your success, you build that person up and help them to be at their very best, because it’s for the common good of everyone involved.

That’s how I feel about healthcare. We don’t live in an isolated world. Our personal health can depend on how well the maker of our favorite sub sandwich is or the stranger we high five at a baseball game.

As I write this, the first American to die from the coronavirus has just been reported. We have yet to realize how fast this virus will spread in the States, but there is not a more telling time than right now that demonstrates just how dependent we are on the health of others.

It is to the benefit to us all that people who are sick can go to a doctor and get better.

The Republican’s HealthScare Plan

It’s been three weeks since the U.S Presidential election gave us Donald Trump as President. The shock that a man with no military or government experience will be leading the most powerful country in the world, hasn’t subsided much. And the sting of having such a hateful anti-gay man become the country’s Vice President-Elect, hurts as much today as it did the morning of Nov 9.

The last few weeks of hearing the announcements of Trump’s cabinet has been horrifying. I’m not going to run through them right now, rather, I think each person deserves their own blog devoted to them, because that’s how terrifying they are. A lot of space is needed to show just how scary these appointments are. So I’m not going to talk about Steve Bannon…yet.

The man I want to concentrate on right now is Tom Price. Trump has selected Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Price has been wanting to dismantle Obamacare since 2010, when the law was signed. Donald Trump talked a lot about getting rid of the Affordable Care Act, and it looks like he found the man to do it.

If you are sick, old, or poor you should be very afraid. I know I am. Although I am fairly young, I am also very-fairly sick. I undergo treatments that stabilize me, and they work very well, but they are expensive. I know I am not alone. Many people (too many) suffer from diseases and illnesses they need to rely on medicine/treatment to get along each day. That’s why, when our leaders talk about healthcare, I listen very carefully. And every word that has come out of a Republican’s mouth about healthcare has scared the shit out of me.

An article (click on link below) on http://www.msn.com about Price and the changes he wants to make to Obamacare is frightening. After reading this, I have to ask, why do Republicans hate old, sick, and poor people so much? Is it all Republicans, or just the politicians? I know many Republicans personally, and most are not like this, but this is the party they vote for.

Here are some pieces of the article:

“Just as is the case under Obamacare, people with pre-existing medical conditions or chronic illnesses couldn’t be denied coverage under Price’s approach — provided they had continuous insurance for 18 months before choosing a new policy.”

So Price will keep the no denial for pre-existing conditions because he, and most Republicans, know that people really like that. (Which bears noting we wouldn’t have that clause if not for Obama.) Why do we like that? Because we don’t want to fucking die!!!! If we get cancer or Parkinson’s or a fucking tumor, we want to know that an insurance company can’t deny us or charge us extra because they’re a bunch of dicks. (Pardon the explosion of curses. It’s what happens when you have a disease and politicians with cushy government-provided healthcare start talking about gutting healthcare for us minions.)

I have a huge problem with for-profit healthcare, but unfortunately with Republicans at the helm, restrictions Obama had placed with insurance companies are going to be void, which means less protections for the common people. You know, the ones Republicans don’t give a shit about.

Under Obamacare, it was pretty straight-forward that one could sign up for insurance, during open enrollment, and pick a plan, whether you had cancer or a hole in your head, you were covered without prejudice. But under Price’s plan, insurance companies will be able to deny you coverage, if you had no prior health coverage for the previous 18 months.

Get that? The continuous coverage clause bullshit. Lost your job and could only afford two of the three: rent, food, or insurance. And you choose to eat and have a bed to sleep in every night, but three months later you develop cancer, and now really need insurance. Screw you, Buddy. Pray away your cancer because Republicans just denied you access to healthcare because your insurance lapsed.

“In one of the biggest blows to poor and low-income Americans, Price would repeal the expanded Medicaid coverage in 32 states and the District of Columbia for able-bodied single people and leave those current beneficiaries to fend for themselves on the open market, using other tax credits and benefits.”

Yep, they really hate them poor people. But if that’s not enough:

“Finally, the Price proposals would foster an insurance market very welcoming to young, healthy and financially self-sufficient people but hostile to sicker and older people. For one thing, it would eliminate Obamacare-style mandates for insurers to include a standard package of benefits such as maternity services and pediatric care and allow them to offer cheaper, less comprehensive policies to younger people who are looking for a bargain.”

Price, like most Republican policies, favor wealthy people and big corporations over the working poor or middle class – no matter how much they try to spin being otherwise in their speeches. With Obamacare, insurance companies were mandated to offer basic services stated above for free or very little cost. Price will do away with that and give insurance companies the freedom to charge as they want without a mandate to offer even the basics of service.

Wow, that sounds really great for the people! (Shaking my head in disgust) I’m betting many of those who voted for Trump will soon realize they voted against their own self-interest. If you don’t have millions of dollars in the bank, you voted against yourself. If you’re sick, you voted against yourself. If you rely on any form of government assistance, or government programs, then yes, the fuck you did vote against yourself.

Big time.

The sad thing is, those of us who did vote for our own self-interest is going to suffer along with you because you guys didn’t do your homework. You believed the fake news sites that were overwhelmingly pro-Trump, because most people like their news spoon-fed to them. No one wants to look up facts anymore.

The only thing that gives me some solace is Hillary Clinton is winning the popular vote by over 2.4 millions votes so far. That’s unheard of in modern times. I hope if Republicans, even with their new governmental powers, try to pass policy that hurt the most vulnerable of people, that we stand together and make a lot of noise.

Remember, there are more of us than there are of them.

Power to the People.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/healthcare/8-big-changes-under-tom-price%E2%80%99s-obamacare-replacement-plan/ar-AAkXhse?li=BBnb7Kz

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Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Green For Life

I just finished reading the book Green For Life, about a family whose health issues disappeared soon after changing to an all raw foods diet, including green smoothies. The mother of the family, Victoria Boutenko, wrote the book and seems to have done her research because she offers a wealth of information, with resources to back them.

I bought the book a couple years ago, and when I read it the first time, I do remember making a conscientious effort to include more greens to my diet. I did the whole green smoothie thing, and combined leafy greens with my favorite fruits, blended in a sweet concoction. I remember liking them very much, but I don’t remember why I stopped drinking them. And now I could kick myself.

A couple months ago I started drinking smoothies again. I have been faithful to the green smoothie and haven’t slacked or gotten lazy. I’m guessing that was my downfall the first time around. I didn’t have as much free-time back then and drinking green smoothies requires some dedication in making sure your refrigerator never lacks of the needed fruits and greens.

I’ve been on top of it now, and my body is thanking me with an energy that’s been lacking for many years.

Although I don’t plan on ever going completely raw, I do try to implement one meal a day of only raw foods. That seems to be enough for me, however, I need my green smoothie every day. I crave my greens now. This is something Ms. Boutenko mentioned in her book — the craving for greens – – which was hard for me to believe because who craves greens? Pizza, yes. Greasy french fries, now we’re talking. But dark leafy greens? Who craves those?

It turns out, I do.

I was away this past weekend with my niece and nephews, and for three days I was off my green smoothie schedule. My diet for those days lacked much of anything that could be considered “good for you” by even the most lenient of health nuts. And my body let me know it.

It’s amazing when you your body gets used to the good stuff, and then you cram it with crap, how it lets you know it isn’t happy with your food choices. I heard my body loud and clear, and it will never happen again.

Not that this means I never indulge in sweets or unhealthy foods. If I stated that, my scale would object to that statement. I just make sure I eat more of the good stuff, the green stuff, than the bad.

It turns out Chlorophyll is really good for you. Give it a try!!!!

green smoothie

If interested, here are some recipes from Boutenko’s book for some great tasting smoothies.

Blueberry Smoothie:

1 stalk of celery

2 cups of fresh blueberries

1 banana

2 cups of water

Blend well.

Mango-Parsley

2 large mangos (peeled)

1 bunch parsley

2 cups water

If you’d like to know more recipes, please check out Ms. Boutenko’s Green For Life. It is so worth a read.

Thanks for reading!

Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net