Avoidance Day #10

Okay, I decided to start a count down of avoidance days. After 10 days we will have a new president (barring any more 'hanging chad' incidents) and the financial crisis should be settled down. Call me optimistic but I think once the election happens, there will be a little more direction in the markets and we will all be able to open our financial statements without collapsing. In the meantime, there is nothing we can do but wait. So for ten days, no blogging on the financial crisis or politics. In addition, no blogging on medical issues because I think I have bored you all with that for long enough.

Today's topic will be food instead. If you think about it, you are what you eat. So if you eat bad stuff, your body will react badly. But if you eat good stuff, your body will be happier and healthier. In the past year and a half (yes it has just about been that long), I have taken the opportunity to stop eating bad stuff and eat more good stuff. I have tried to cut down or eliminate chemical food - this is anything with an ingredient you cannot spell or pronounce. I try to only eat unprocessed foods. This means I don't even open a can of soup much any more. I make my own.

I also try to buy local/eat local. I have become the queen of farmers markets and farm stands. A lot of produce there is organic. At the local markets, I can get meat as well - this is organic, grass fed lean meat. It isn't necessarily cheap so I buy less of it - so we eat more fish and chicken. I do admit to buying meat in a grocery store sometimes but I am picky there too.

In terms of buying organic, here is the list: Apples, Cherries, Grapes, Nectarines, Peaches, Pears, Raspberries, Strawberries, Bell peppers, Celery, Potatoes, Spinach. I think if you can just buy organic of these twelve things you can avoid something like 80% of the pesticides you would normally get. I try to buy these organic, but don't always - it comes down to price. Actually this summer I grew my own peppers. I try to grow strawberries but while I have seen flowers and some green berries I have never had the opportunity to eat a single one - the squirrels beat me every time.

So here I go, blah, blah, blah, eat healthy, live longer, go to the doctor less (now there's a goal in itself.) Now after all this talk about food I am hungry. I need to go eat my strawberries, blueberries and banana with cottage cheese.

Yesterday I do admit to overdoing it a tiny bit. I went for a walk and then we did lots of cleaning up the gardens for winter. The frost finally killed off most of my outdoor plants. I ended up having to take a nap in the afternoon and Walter helped cook dinner. He only does this when I am very tired. Today I am not going to over do it. We went for a walk (hence the late post today) and after breakfast I am going to meet some women I met online who are also breast cancer people... Then I promise to come home and be lazy for a while.