Health Movie Review: Super Size Me

Wow. I'm watching "Super Size Me" and I'm blown away. I'm so glad that I have started to eat healthier than I was. This movie should be mandatory viewing before you graduate from high school.

Synopsis: Morgan, a healthy, active man experiments by eating nothing but food from McDonalds for 30 days and walking less than 5000 steps a day.

Crazy thing? His girlfriend is a vegan chef! It must have killed her to watch him go through this experiment.

Why do I think that you need to watch this movie? It's really eye-opening to see what living on McDonald's food does to you--physically, mentally. Not only does it destroy your health and increase your weight, it also addicts you to it. When you see what happens to Morgan, you realize what is happening to you every time you eat this food. You also see what goes on in schools and learn about the way that the restaurant and food industry is keeping us down. Did you know how much advertising we see for unhealthy food options every day? Made me glad that we don't watch "traditional" television with commercials so my kids don't see them. But then I remembered when my daughter came up to tell me all about a commercial she heard on her radio. She was so insistent that the information she was giving me was important, and of course it wasn't. What are we teaching our kids?

My ultimate goal in eating better is to show my daughters how to be a healthy weight. I don't want them to struggle with obesity like I have. I think my next step will be cutting out the Diet Coke. I don't drink coffee, so I've convinced myself that this is the way I get my caffeine. I almost stopped drinking cola entirely a couple of years ago, then my work changed and I was struggling to stay awake, so I started drinking Coke. I eventually changed to Diet Coke because I didn't want all the sugar in my system. So, now I have Aspertame in my system instead. Yeah, I think it's time for the Diet Coke to go. I have kept myself at 1 can most days and lots of water. Think I'll up the water and pitch the cola now.

Getting Healthier and a Little More Organized

It feels like a rare thing, but things are coming together for me. Getting to the chiropractor has put me on the road to health. Looking back over how I had been feeling, I can now clearly see that a lot of what I was feeling was related to my spine. The part of my neck that is out of whack is where all the nerves for things like mood, depression, anxiety, etc are. The fact that the nerves were being choked explains a lot of how I depressed I had been feeling. I'd gone from rarely having panic attacks to having them fairly regularly.

Now that I've had a few adjustments, I can feel a difference. My mood is still out of whack, but it's getting better. I can usually feel when a panic attack is coming on and try to warn my husband so that he knows that I'm not myself. There is nothing quite like seeing yourself being a bitch to the people you love and not being able to stop it. It feels like you're watching yourself be this way. I'm hoping that as my chiropractic visits continue that the moods will even out as my body starts healing itself. Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and the possibility of feeling better is such a huge relief. It was just a couple of weeks ago that I cried in my husband's arms in despair, afraid that I would never get better. It's amazing what a difference a few weeks can make.


As for getting organized, my husband and I spent Father's Day clearing more stuff out of our basement. He had to take a load of stuff to the dump today and we've dropped a lot of stuff off at the thrift shop. Some stuff we were holding on to for silly reasons. My rocking chair was broken and had been broken for years, but it was something he was going to fix. We let it go, realizing it was never going to get fixed and it was just sitting down there making us feel guilty. It feels good to get rid of stuff like that. I'm pretty sure we had two non-functioning VCRs, some blankets we were saving for the local animal shelter and a few other things. It felt so good to get the stuff out of here.

We were able to fold up the futon that has been a dumping ground for years and we finally got the sheet off it so we could wash it. Today he set up my desk for my "office" space. I'm getting psyched to work at home! As much as I like seeing my friends at work, I think going home is going to be a good option for me. I can hardly wait for the approval to happen so I can start working here. No more juggling the single car we have with the kids and who needs to be where. Can hardly wait!