It's been awhile

I have had a busy and fun autumn this year, so much so I've forgotten to write! I've been embracing the plant based lifestyle while my husband has relaxed a bit with it, he still adheres to it most days. I am thankful for his ongoing support for both our health's sake.
Increasingly this year I saw articles posted on social media about switching to a plant based diet, which have been a both a source of great information and frustration for me. Why is it, that even after 30 years of studies that people are still eating meat and dairy? We have a national health care crisis in our country, and I'm pretty convinced that if we all switched to a plant based diet most of those health issues would be at least partially resolved, leading to less medications and doctor visits. So why the heck doesn't everyone know this? Really, why isn't this taught in school, or mentioned by our doctors?
It sure isn't because there isn't enough proof. There are over 700 independent (non industry funded) studies, not to mention books that have been written about this. Yet there is this wall of silence. It's as if we're all waiting for the doctor to call us into the office one day and start discussing our diet and lifestyle. That's never going to happen. For one, doctors are not taught about nutrition in school. They may be given a few hours, but you and I can both do our own research that exceeds that. The second is financial. I'm not saying doctors are greedy, or solely in it for the money, but because they only have 15 minutes with each patient they can pretty much only do one thing; write a prescription.
Shockingly (sarcasm intended), the pills we are prescribed don't cure us. If they did then the pharmaceutical industry would die off and not be the multi-zillion dollar industry it is today. That industry isn't interested in curing anyone, they are a for-profit industry that honestly couldn't care less if a patient is made better by these drugs. In fact, ongoing medical issues, like diabetes and arthritis are their bread and butter.
So once you develop an ongoing medical issue you are stuck in a vicious cycle of pills, side effects, more pills to resolve the side effects. Personally, when I was diagnosed with arthritis and started my first (and only) round of gabapentin, I quickly saw how this cycle works. I developed side effects and my specialist's solution was to give me more drugs! I had seen the pill cases my in laws have and certainly didn't want to go down that path. So I stopped. It was hard, especially when I didn't have a better solution for my daily pain, but I did know I didn't want to be a slave to pills. Months went by and I found by increasing my activity level it helped with the pain. It wasn't until I gave up meat and dairy that I found true relief.
I now feel liberated from the shackles of our current model of health care. I am back to running 50-60km a week, I no longer have daily arthritis pain, although I can hear the crepitus in my knee even as I walk down stairs, and I no longer feel sluggish. This gives me every incentive in the world to stay plant based.
Lately I've been trying to be perfect, haha. Not satisfied with eliminating my arthritis pain I also wanted to get rid of my eczema as well. I read that 50% of eczema patients are actually gluten sensitive, so I've been cutting down on the amount of gluten I eat. It's only been a couple of weeks but I'm noticing my hands are far less dry and the usual flare up areas are no longer red in color. I haven't eliminated it completely (the toast I ate last night is a testimony of that), but cutting it back appears to have helped, even just a bit. And if that can save me from buying a few tubes of cortate cream in a year, I'll take it. Besides, gluten free food honestly doesn't taste much different than gluten food.
So there I am. Ending off 2017 healthier and happier than when I started. I am forever grateful that I watched "That Sugar Film", "What the Health" and "Forks over Knives" to help start me on this journey.
So what's up for next year? Oh I'm tackling another ultra marathon. Yup, that's right. I'm training up for the Wrasskally Wrabbit 55km in June, and a few other races along the way. I feel like next year will be even better.