The Wellness Bitch

Some might call me an alarmist. Or a drama queen.

I like to think of myself as a realist with lofty goals.

It’s likely that you found your way to The Wellness Bitch because you had a WAKE UP CALL. Whether that WAKE UP CALL came in the form of illness or education or a frightening documentary, you’re here because you know that it’s time for you to take charge of your health.

One way the folks in charge like to pooh-pooh what we realists with lofty goals have to say about the alarming trend of new epidemics in this country is that the statistics aren’t there to support our alarm.

I’d like to prove those folks wrong. I want to get the Powers That Be to pay attention.

I’ll need your help, though.  Let’s tell the Powers That Be that:

We are the numbers. And we are NOT JUST numbers.

Is someone you love one of our numbers? One of us who have been impacted by chronic illness?

One of us who was told by a doctor that there was nothing wrong? Or nothing to be done?

If you are or know someone who is “one of us,” forward this blog post to them.

Ask them to read it, and if they feel inspired to action, to copy/paste the following statement in the comments section below:

 ”Powers That Be: I’m a number. I’m part of the alarming trend of new food- and environment-related illness. And I’m more than just a number. I’m someone you need to pay attention to.”

And then tell us what condition you suffer from. Feel free to add any personal message you want to send to the Powers That Be. For example, “Stop poisoning our kids with food dyes. Follow Europe’s example and get them out of our food supply.” Or, “If you want to be a true superpower, start paying attention to what other countries are doing to protect their citizens.”

Because there is power in our numbers. And before long, we will be the Powers That Be.

Here’s my powerful truth:

I’m a wellness bitch.

And, this Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for my allergies, IBS, and anxiety – symptoms that served as my WAKE UP CALLS.

I’m thankful for my kids whose reflux, food allergies, asthma, and eczema inspired me to WAKE UP others.

I forgive those who do not know our struggle and invite you to join with us now that you know we exist.

We are:

Addison’s disease
ADHD
Anxiety
Asperger’s
Autism
Asthma
Back pain
Cancer
Celiac disease
Chronic fatigue
Childhood obesity
Chronic pain
Coronary heart disease
Crohn’s disease
Depression
Diabetes
Ear infections
Eczema
Fibromyalgia
Food allergies
Food intolerance
Hashimoto’s Syndrome
Headaches
Heartburn
Hypothyroidism
Hyperthyrodism
IBS
Infertility
Lung disease
Lupus 
Migraines
Psoriasis
Reflux
Rheumatoid arthritis
Ulcerative colitis

We are the WAKE UP CALLS for the ones who will come after us.

We are numbers. And we are more than just numbers.

So they say marriage is obsolete…or at least on its way there. A recently reported study by the Pew Research Center notes a whopping 39 percent of Americans think that marriage is old news.

Is this information bad news, though, for those of us who are already married?

As a woman in my mid-thirties I already feel like I missed the gravy train that is college girl-on-girl experimentation followed by two years living at home feasting off my parents good will before casually setting off for the real world as a volunteer for Teach For America.

Back in my day (she says in her old lady voice), kids in their young twenties with new college degrees were expected to walk away from graduation day with a full-time paying job already lined up.  For me and my fellow college grads, there was no time to chill out or rave hop or kiss your best friend. (Thanks a lot Bill Clinton years!)

And now they’re telling me too little too late that marriage is obsolete? I’m already ten years and three kids in! With conjoined debt and emotional baggage and 20 CD-ROMS labeled “family photos!” Sheesh.

So, you want to know, how is this tied into wellness?

Honey, WAKE UP CALL, if you think your marriage is separate and complete from your health and wellness, you better read Tara Parker Pope‘s book “For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage” or at least start with her Well column for The New York Times. She tends to blog a lot about marriage there, too.

The state of your marriage actually says a lot about your well-being. And the state of your health has a lot to do with your marriage.

It seems obvious. An unstable marriage = more stress = declining health. But, somehow people miss it. Or ignore it. Or deny it.

I’m amazed by how many people I know who have tight bodies from working out with killer trainers and eating strict diets, but whose marriages are dead in the water.

If only they spent as much time working on their marriage as they did working on their abs.

Or others who complain of constant headaches and weight gain and frequent colds, and in the same sentence complain about their wife…I wonder if they ever noticed the connection.

I have a lot to say on the topic of marriage, and I honestly don’t know if I fall into the 39 percent who believe the institution is obsolete.

What I do know is that you need to pay as much attention to your relationship as you do your calorie intake.

Or else you’re going to end up sick.

Where ARE you?

You. The person who spends hours on the computer reading health, food and fitness blogs, but won’t show up in real life?

You. The mom who asks a million questions a day on Urban Mom, but won’t leave her house after dark to show up to an event where those questions might actually be answered?

You. The person who sits at home watching “Iron Chef America,” instead of trying out the “Cooking with Healing Spices” seminar at your local community center?

Where ARE you?

Where ARE you when the expert comes to the local health food store to talk about matters that are relevant to you and your family?

Where ARE you when there is a FREE Reiki Circle?

And, where ARE you when you’re invited to a panel discussion with wellness practitioners hosted at your church or synagogue?

Or a holistic health fair with FREE chair massage?

Or a FREE yoga for charity demonstration?

If all the people with undiagnosed chronic illness…

If all the people who parent children with…

If all the people who spend all their time bitching away on message boards and on Facebook fan pages actually came to REAL-LIFE, in person events, you might actually have one-on-one face time with someone who can answer your questions.

If all the people who complain that preventative wellness is too expensive actually picked up their pocketbooks and carried them to the FREE or low-cost community wellness events, they might have the conversation with someone who will change their life.

A conversation. Free. 

A wellness fair or workshop. $10

Finally meeting the person who has the solution to what ails you? Priceless.

The resources are out there. I know because I’m the person organizing these kinds of events.  Or sponsoring them. Or speaking at them. Or attending them. But I’m in the minority.

Where ARE you?

As someone who tries hard to make those resources available to you in an accessible, non-confrontational way, I have a simple request:

Show up.

Get off your butt. Leave your house. And show up.

Not all the time. But some time.

Show up. Try something new. Ask a question.

Show up. Just once. Show up.

RSVP. Bring a friend. Take a chance.

Show up.

Sometimes that’s all it takes.

Today’s guest blog is by my buddy, Alexander Rinehart, a Chiropractor, Certified Clinical Nutritionist and Wellness Adviser to ZenfullyDelicious.com

My name is Alex Rinehart. I am a health professional and I do not have health insurance.

While this might not be your typical AA meeting, please do not judge as I start my own 12-step program:

1. Profess congruency to a philosophy of health where it counts most – my wallet
2. Commit personal responsibility for my own health through diet and lifestyle
3. Scour social media and the internet to find trustworthy health professionals, rather than first checking to see who participates in my plan
4. Spend $400 a month on fresh, organic produce and grass-fed, hormone-free meat
5. Spend $50 a month on a gym membership (and actually use it)
6. Pay for herbs and supplements that meet my individual needs with little worry for side effects and polypharmacy
7. Refuse to spend $330 a month for an insurance policy that still charges a high deductible and co-pay to a 25 year old in great health (while still not covering preventive services)
8. Charge a reasonable cash-per-service fee for my own health services
9. Refuse to play an insurance game that underserves both provider and patient
10. Spend $1 on prevention today to save $3-4 in future treatment (that others pay through higher taxes and higher prices of goods & services)
11. Pay reasonable fees ($25-40/month) for accident insurance to protect me (and my family) from emergency expenses in case of unforeseen injury
12. Seek a tax-friendly, high-deductible Health Savings Account (HSA)-eligible plan, that makes more sense than “settling” with a basic HMO-plan still charges $110/month for coverage I don’t want (when paying out of pocket has cost me historically $80/month out of pocket)

A Brief History Lesson

The American health insurance industry has its roots in 1929, the year of the stock market collapse and beginning of the Great Depression. This was after the “Roaring 20′s” – an economic golden age.

As people were watching their money much more closely (and thus not visiting the hospital), a nearby hospital found a way to attract more patients.

A group of teachers at Baylor University got together and paid the hospital a sum of money in advance so that they could receive full hospital care. Within 10 years, 1300 covered individuals turned into 3 million covered and the company we now know as Blue Cross Blue Shield was born.

That early system has since evolved into the managed care mess we see today. Insurance companies, rather than physicians, now “manage” what care is covered, what the price is going to be, and who (up until Obama) can be denied because of “preexisting conditions.”

The overwhelming focus in the medical-insurance industry has been periodic “screening” and “check-ups”, while only covering treatment deemed “medically necessary” by computerized algorithms. Great for business and defeating early diseases like polio, but a poor model for creating wellness.

Wellness is a Verb

Wellness is about eating well, moving well, and thinking well.

I can’t help but make comparisons to 1929. We’re in the middle of a recession following a golden age of the Bush tax-cuts — a period where more millionaires were created than any other time in known history. Increasing access to an expensive and failing system, looks great on paper, but will do little to fix our enormous health problems.

Wellness is needed more than ever. But we need to overcome our addictions, and it just might take a 12-step program to get there.

Through his NJ practice at CoActive Health, Alex Rinehart’s commitment to mind/body/spirit integration is emphasized by working in partnership with his patients to achieve wellness, with specialized services to support chronic conditions.

I’m getting better and better at recognizing the signs of my PMS. It’s a little different now from my college days when the cursed red demon sent me to bed curled up in a ball with a hot water bottle. Back then, the cramps were the worst of it, though. Now, in the days leading up to my period, I find myself fantasizing about eating my children just to get them to shut the hell up for a second.

(Just kidding about the cannibalism, folks. Don’t call the authorities.)

Other surefire signs that my period is coming:

• The desire to magically open up a vortex in the backyard and willingly jump into it, even if it means I will spend the next milennium in a hellish afterworld, just so I can get ten minutes alone .
• The convinction that my friends are all having fun without me on purpose.
• And, the confidence that every single choice I’ve made in the last three weeks was wrong and misguided.

My premenstrual world is a dark, angry place. I feel it as a knot in my throat and a vice at the back of my neck.

All I want is to be left alone, and loved like never before, both at the very same time.

It’s madness. Utter madness.

However, for the first time this week, I recognized the savage beast before she reared her ugly head. And soothed her not with music, but with chatter.

I had spent the whole day with a bunch of crabby kids (mine); I had clients who needed me, but whom I couldn’t attend to because of the crabby kids; I had no food in the fridge; and my period was just minutes away. I felt wired to explode.

But, what’s really awesome, is that it only took a five minute phone call to diffuse the situation.

I didn’t call the fire department. I didn’t call the rescue squad. I simply called the friend who I knew would listen and talk me down off the ledge.

I didn’t need a Motrin or a prescription for Yaz. I didn’t need an anti-depressant.

To be fair, I used non-medicinal tools I have in my tool box, such as deep breathing and positive visualization, but mostly it was the call to my friend that saved the day. Within five minutes, the knot in my throat was gone and I had an action plan in place for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

This story yesterday on CBC News says a new study has shown “amicable chats between friends may help them solve problems.” Which only proves something that girlfriends have known for as long as they’ve been getting periods.

True, honest friendship is a healing remedy we should all keep well stocked.

Some of you are afraid to tell your friends and family about The Wellness Bitch. You know who you are.

You hide me like you used to sneak a ciggy out your window in high school.

You cautiously pull The Wellness Bitch up on your screen at work and then you casually turn your head from side to side to see if anyone is around.

Deep inside you chuckle at my post calling out the mom at the playground, but you’re terribly afraid of ever actually doing it yourself.

I mean, come on. What would people think of you?

As we approach The Holiday Season, I invite you…no I triple dog dare you…to tell your family about The Wellness Bitch.

Choose the perfect time. Right after your mother-in-law lights up the artificially fragranced peppermint from Yankee Candle. Or perhaps after your brother stuffs a Blow Pop in your nephew’s mouth so he can watch The Game in silence.

Tell them about this funny blog called…hee hee…The Wellness Bitch.

Let them know that I sit up here on my high horse (I mean, my desk) and write about all the toxic crap that people are putting in their mouths, on their skin, and using in their homes.

Let them know that the language I use is sometimes “over-the-top” (and make sure to giggle when you say it to let them know that you don’t approve of such profanity).

Let them know that you don’t always agree with how I go about delivering my message (though you secretly approve wholeheartedly), but that you think I have the right intentions.

And, if you’re really daring, you can bring this original handout with you as a prop or as a conversation piece.

Come on, you know you want to. That heated conversation is calling you just the way that Marlboro Light did long ago in the days before you knew it was just as bad for you as a McDonald’s Happy Meal.

Or is it the other way around?

This post by The Wellness Bitch is a Healthy Child Hot Topic – an effort by Healthy Child Healthy World to help inspire a movement to protect children from harmful chemicals

Read more: http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/holiday_table_talk…or_not/#ixzz14B1mTmNx