I'm back!

Goodness!  Has it really been three months since I posted on my blog?  It HAS!  Sorry about that.  I really didn’t have the bandwidth to update my blog since I’ve been so busy with work.  When I was done with work each day, I was pretty much DONE with everything.  I didn’t even want to look at a computer, much less post an entry here.  My poor children got the bare minimum attention, because my brain would literally shut down.  Not good.  My poor husband did his best to weather the storm.  I really do love that man.  He’s far from perfect, but the stuff he puts up with… O.M.G. 

That being said, I still love my job.  It has its harrowing moments, but it’s a pretty sweet gig.  We get bagels every morning.  I have awesome benefits; aside from the normal medical, dental, eye stuff, I also get regular training on the company’s dime.  I get to work from home on snowy days… or when I’m sick (shouldn’t be doing that.  I should cut out that crap)… or if I have the cable guy coming over.  I work with brilliant people, and I get to work on way cool stuff to educate present and future generations of students.  Can you say OpenClass?  Have a look.  It’s pretty dang cool.   So even though I’ve had some pretty demanding projects lately, I’m not cutting out my job.  It just isn’t crappy.  Or cut-worthy. 

So how have I cut the crap over the past 3+ months?  Not as much as I’d like.  The Paleo Diet has waxed and waned; Rob is finally on board, though, as he’s reading 4 Hour Body.  We’re going for a BMI test next week.  My quest to weed out my email inbox is still ongoing, but my company gave me an ADDITIONAL, corporate-wide account that had 5000+ emails already waiting for me in it.  I deleted those.  I’ve been weeding out friends and causes and likes on Facebook.  My kids have a box of toys to be donated (or sold at a yard sale), so that’s pretty good.  Recycling efforts were reinforced at Christmas.  I made reusable sandwich wraps for all the nieces and nephews to use in their daily school lunches.  I also tried to wrap as many presents in either recycled paper or reusable bags.  That was cool. 

So, I have been keeping with the spirit of cutting the crap.  I just haven’t been blogging about it or stepping it up as much as I wanted for 2012… at least not so far.  I want to get my reader counts up this year.  I want to write more.  Quite frankly, it’s like therapy to me.  I need it.  And I want to find more ways to cut out the crap from my life.  There is plenty of it!  Help me stay accountable, People! 

The Primal Diet or Lipitor?

So last week I got the results back from my annual physical.  I'm healthy except for two things: my weight and my cholesterol levels.  Neither of these things are a surprise to me.  I've had high cholesterol since I even started measuring it in my early 20s.  My weight has been a problem for the past 15 years or so.  What did get my goat, though, was that my doctor wants to put me on Lipitor.  It's a statin, and I will likely have to take it for the rest of my life.

If I ever start taking it...

And I don't intend to start.

You're probably scratching your head.  Why would I go against the advice of my doctor?  Surely he has my best interests at heart, right?  Maybe, but I'm not entirely convinced that he does.  In his defense, he has suggested diet and exercise in the past to bring down my cholesterol levels. I haven't really changed either in the past 5 years.  He also refrained from putting me on statins since I wanted to have another child.  Statins can cause birth defects, and neither one of us wanted that.  Now that I'm done with child-bearing, statins would be "safe".

Except they're not.

Why on earth would I want to put anything in my body that could cause birth defects in another human being?  You're scratching your head again.  "I thought you were done having babies," you're saying.  Yes.  But if the chemicals in these drugs can cause damage to a human being - at any stage of development and beyond - why on earth was deemed it safe for ANY non-reproducing human to consume? Money, and the FDA, I suppose.  But I digress.

What exactly does a statin do, you ask?  According to WebMD, "Statin drugs work by blocking the action of the liver enzyme that is responsible for producing cholesterol." Wait.  It blocks a normally occurring bodily function to prevent it from producing cholesterol?  I thought the problem was with OUTSIDE cholesterol from a poor diet?  So what happens to the cholesterol I consume through said diet?  That's the potentially harmful stuff, right?  Not the cholesterol my body produces.  Somehow that just doesn't make any sense.  Is my body broken to the point that it and it alone produces too much cholesterol?

Hmmm... WebMD goes on to say that statins lower OVERALL cholesterol, even the good stuff that our body needs.  How is that a good thing?  Do the benefits outweigh the risks?  I'm not entirely convinced that they do, given the list of side effects (again, from WebMD):

• headache
• difficulty sleeping
• flushing of the skin
• muscle aches, tenderness, or weakness
• drowsiness/ weakness
• dizziness
• nausea and/or vomiting
• abdominal cramping and/or pain
• bloating and/or gas
• diarrhea
• constipation
• rash

I've also learned from several chiropractors that statins loosen ligaments (not in a good way) and make it next to impossible to get any results from chiropractic treatments.  I need chiropractic treatments.  They help me stay pain free. 
 
Still, my doctor says statins are safe.  He gave me a prescription and a handy-dandy discount card that would make lipitor only cost me $4 for a months supply... for as long as I take it.  What a huge incentive to buy their product!  All I have to do is present the card at time of payment, and no matter what my co-pay is, all I have to pay is $4!  Still, I'm not ready to commit to putting chemicals in my body for the rest of my life.  There has to be an alternative.

So I'm going to actually counter with what I've been trying to do this whole year of cutting the crap: I'm going to drastically change my lifestyle by eating only fresh fruits, veggies, and meat/poultry/fish.  I'll include a daily exercise plan.  A friend recommended the Primal Diet.  It looks very much like what I intended to do, so I'm going to try their 30 day challenge and go from there.  It can't hurt, right?  And it's certainly better than the alternative. 

I now have an incentive, which is to lower my cholesterol, so maybe I'll get off my butt and actually do this.  If after a few months of this lifestyle change I don't see results in my cholesterol counts, then and only then will I consider Lipitor.

Heaven help my family.  This is going to be one bumpy ride.  

Granola Cereal Bars - How one family broke its junk food addiction on Shine

Granola Cereal Bars - How one family broke its junk food addiction on Shine

Now THIS is what I'm talking about! We need to cut out all that crap! I checked out their blog, and they have some pretty interesting takes on things. I'm now a follower. :) Have a look: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/

Don't know if I can pull this off, but this really has been my goal for over a year now. I'm just not as disciplined as these people are. LOL