"A Problem Page For All!"

Yeah, I lost 30 pounds, gradually, since around April. Cherie also lost a lot of weight. We weren't expecting it at all, but it just happened. I didn't even exercise more or anything; just started eating 100% organic foods, fasting once a week, and I started drinking a lot of "tonics" -- a cup of water with a teaspoon or two of raw apple cidar vinegar and some honey to sweeten it. A lot of natural-foodists say that raw apple cidar vinegar alone will aid digestion and balance your body -- that is, taking off weight if you're overweight, and helping you to add it if you're underweight. So, maybe it was a combination of all those factors?! I think I eat less now that we're eating organic foods; they just seem so nutrient-packed that I don't go back for seconds as often. I think I used to eat to help control my mood, too, and I wasn't focusing on it at all, but I know I matured a heck of a lot in the past year, and maybe that came with the package deal?!

Anyway. Overall I'm quite pleased because I knew that I wasn't really at a healthy weight (I was 180, at 5' 6") but I was determined not to let that affect my good opinion of myself. Now, though, I kind of feel that it's time to focus on my health. My whole family's been forced into looking at our health -- first with Cherie getting so sick with mercury poisoning; now Steve not as bad as Cherie, but certainly not doing very well, because of his mercury levels; and some health things I just found out about myself that I'll put into another post. Because of Cher's health we started eating and living a lot healthier than we even used to (and I thought we already were pretty health-conscious, because we ate whole-grain bread, avoided sugar, and always ate our vegetables!), and I guess there's no way to avoid my own health "issues" (to use a strong word?) when it's surrounding me like this!

I appreciate your concern, and I still maintain that every woman (and man) is one thousand percent beautiful just as she (he) is!!!!!!! Beauty comes from within, and our culture is criminal in how forcefully it pushes the ideology of thinness (especially the part about a slim body equating happiness) upon its citizens. I guess I'm just kind of personally looking at myself in a dubiously health-conscious way, and I got sucked into a bit of the culture-speak when I changed my perspective. But I still believe I'm beautiful and sexy (I am!) and nobody, nobody can take that away from me.

Thanks for the pep talk, Fleury!