CATHOLIC BROAD SAYS--I AM THE BOSS OF MY HEALTH!

When our son, Ben, was around four, I asked him to clean up his toys and put them away. He looked at me, watchful and a bit angry and said, "I am the boss of my own toys!"

This is something to remember in our age of instant communication, health warnings, reports which tell us to drink or not to drink, to walk 10,000 steps per day--or is it now 15,000 for cardio health--to get up every 30 minutes and move, that "sitting is the new smoking," and on and on ad nauseum.

Really. I am the boss of my own health, and I am tired to death of health officials telling me what I should or should not do. Having had cancer and now in a good recovery, I am very aware of my health and ways to guard it. Almost too aware, in fact. So, when I see postings on FB about how to keep my telomeres from getting too short, how to avoid inflammation, and how to avoid a bad old age, it makes me want to drink gin straight from a cup, as Annie Lamott once said of God's response to our non-loving attitudes.

I mean, do you ever see people talking about JOY?  Or making Spicy Fish Tacos and how good that is for us? And maybe making love more than once a month (typical for folks in our age group)? Or how about just walking out to your garden or the pots on your steps to sniff the blooms and thank God for her abundance?

I recently read an article in the NY Times by Jane Brody about how having a waist measurement over 35" for women and 40" for men is a health risk. Especially for women, she tells us, because "visceral fat" behaves differently from the fat on your thighs or arms, acting as an "endocrine organ that secrets hormones" and other chemicals, increasing our risk factors. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/well/live/belly-fat-health-visceral-fat-waist-cancer.html)

"Damn, this isn't good," says I, running upstairs to grab my tape and measure my waist. "37"," I shrieked, rushing to the computer and clicking on Amazon.com. "Better order some weights," I told myself, buying 2 ten-pound weights and then a DVD for weight-training by Monique St. Pierre (aka, drill sergeant). Then I made lists (don't you love to make lists?) of things to cut out of my diet:
--less sugar
--reduce wine
--stop baking
--avoid deserts (except for that 1 square of dark chocolate/day)
--skip OJ in morning
--avoid snacks
And then, up my game to 11,000-12,000 steps a day. Plus, I ordered a humongous wall chart to track my fitness, weight work-outs, steps, and hours in garden. It comes with nifty colored markers, all erasable!

This is all good, and I lost 2 inches in my waistline in two weeks. But, as my scientist brother Peter cautions: this kind of article has many good tips in it, but waist circumference doesn't account for body type, nor the inclusion of BMI, and other risk factors over time. Waist measurement per se, he told me, is not necessarily a health risk, unless we are looking at obesity.

But--in these uncertain and frightening times--let's not bring ourselves down here. Let's remember the big picture, as in: calling my friends to catch up on their lives; listening to peoples' stories as I did to Ruby (who wore an adorable, floppy hat) at the perennial garden center as we shared cancer stories and bonded; making wonderful food for friends to share and laugh over; dancing whenever the spirit moves you; putting on old tapes of the World Cup in 2010 to see Sakira sing, "Africa" and dancing with her; and whatever else lifts your spirits and reminds you that we are all held in loving hands, compassionate hands, not small, cruel hands.

Just remember that however we navigate the rest of our lives--
          YOU ARE THE BOSS OF YOUR OWN HEALTH!