Thursday, January 10, 2013

Yowza

Ay, geez, I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted. Yes, 2012 was not the greatest time for writing in the short history of the Au Naturale blog, my loyal readers, so if you are a loyal reader, thanks for continuing to be loyal.

I once read an article that took a very pointed jab at all the abandoned blogs littering the internets, and I swore I would never become one of those. Hey, look what (kind of) happened. So I'm slapping myself on the wrist (or back of hand, or across the face) to get back in shape.

You know what else I'm doing? Apologizing for not writing at all, which I swore to you I would never do again. So, there goes that resolution. But look! It's 2013! It's time for new resolutions! The slate is wiped clean!!! At least, I've decided it is.

In any case, I won't make any excuses. There's been a lot of things and big changes going on in my life in the past few months, and hopefully a few good ones coming up in the next few months. I'm not going to give details here because I feel like I might jinx it... as in, what if the good thing doesn't happen and then I have to answer for it? Granted, some of you readers are also folks I talk to on a regular basis and know what this is all about and are probably rolling your eyes at me. The rest of you are probably rolling your eyes because I could seriously not be more vague right now if I tried.

Disclaimer: this is probably the most annoying post I've ever written. Apologies.

But in any case, these Big Life Things have taken over my life, and in the times I finally felt like I had a free hour to write, I instead decided that was yet another hour to devote to working on the Big Life Things. And then I saw an update from a blogger I've been following who is working on similar Big Life Things, and I decided if he can find time to blog, so can I!

So here we are. Um. Hi.

As usual, I have many things I plan to pontificate on. I won't do it in a novel here. I can say that recently I enjoyed a lovely dinner with some good friends and we got into a discussion about healthy things, thoughts on meat vs. vegan, and the follies and thoughts of what has been referred to as the Western Diet and western diseases. My friends made some good points- some of which I agreed with, and some of which I didn't. The ones I didn't had to do with the fact that I am more of the belief than they are that the modern Western Diet- think corn everything, artificial everything, preservative everything- is a cause of many western ills. Do I think it's everything? No, because I don't believe that much of life has simple answers. But I can't imagine how many other things affect our health as much as our very wonky, very unnatural diet.

I didn't debate it much with them because it was super loud in the restaurant, I was uncomfortable because a rotating heater above our table made me feel like I was having post-menopausal hot flashes, and I didn't want to get into a heavy debate at such a lovely dinner. But wouldn't you know it, the next day I saw this article and it reinforced much of what I was thinking, including the fact that one factor cannot explain it all. I wish to learn more about this study:

New Health Rankings: Of 17 Nations, US is Dead Last

It's also a great argument for more gun control. But that is a discussion for a different day, in a different venue.

So ends my crappy new year's post. There are more that I've half-written until the guilt of not working on the Big Life Things left them idling in my drafts folder. But I see a light at the end of the tunnel, and expect this blog to make a resurgence. We're going to party like it's 2011.


2 comments:

  1. Spent too much time justifying this "lifestyle diet" to myself, with my coworkers, my family and now my friends- really, the only real reason to start an "extreme diet" is for yourself. Society's health problems do come from a million angles and going from carnivore to vegan cold turkey isn't going to magically save my wife and i from the predation of stress, work factors, and environmental factors, but I might drop some pounds and a handfull of cholesterol points.
    I laud your re-commitment to blogging and we, in turn, should re-commit ro responses! What good is it to lament lousy food choices alone?

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    1. Oh no!! Please don't think I was criticizing what you guys are doing this month- that was not what I meant at all! I actually think it's great, and if it makes you feel good and get healthy, then all the power to you. When I mentioned "western diet" it was more in the all-encompassing, existential sense, not one particular or specific diet or another.

      To clarify, when we were talking about the whole vegan thing I totally agree with you in that I think the argument that some cultures live longer because they don't eat meat, and therefore that's why we should all be vegan, is bogus. By that argument, Eskimos should have a lifespan of 5 years. I think I was more focusing on- and disagreeing with- the comment that the reason Americans have a higher rate of cancer and other illnesses is simply because we have a longer life span, so there are more "opportunities", per say, to get cancer. Instead, I look at the fact that things like breast cancer is showing up in alarming numbers in younger women now. What is causing that? And that's where I get to my point that it's not one singular factor, but certainly the scary things that many of us elect to put in our body on a daily basis is likely a major contributor.

      I hope that clarifies it a bit? I'm sorry if I offended- I did not mean this as a personal attack on your choices.

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