{"id":747,"date":"2009-10-01T20:37:55","date_gmt":"2009-10-02T00:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/?p=747"},"modified":"2011-02-24T14:25:56","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T18:25:56","slug":"visiting-momyour-health-none-of-my-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2009\/10\/01\/visiting-momyour-health-none-of-my-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Mom\/Your Health: None of my Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

I flew to Long Island on Monday past to visit my Mom who is recuperating from hip replacement replacement surgery.\u00a0\u00a0 Her original new hip lasted 16 years.\u00a0\u00a0 The surgeon found a big mess and three hours turned into six and a half.\u00a0 After a few days in the hospital and two months in a rehab nursing home, she is back home and doing great.\u00a0\u00a0 Photography locally has been pretty poor both at Jones Beach and at the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Canon 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1\/500 sec. at f\/10.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

This juvenile pectoral was one of a very few birds at the north end of the East Pond on Tuesday afternoon.\u00a0 A visit to the south end on Thursday morning was also challenging.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bulletin #300<\/h2>\n

BIRDS AS ART Bulletin #300 is\u00a0now on-line here:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.birdsasart.com\/bn300.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

The first featured item\u00a0(which had pretty much\u00a0nothing at all to do with photography), generated more interest than anything I have ever posted.\u00a0 I feel that it is so important that I am posting it here as well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

YOUR HEALTH: NONE OF MY BUSINESS<\/h3>\n

Over the past decade or so, the nature photography community has lost several stellar contributors to easily preventable diseases and conditions.\u00a0\u00a0 All of these deaths have been needless. If you are grossly overweight or enjoy a pack or two of smokes a day and are totally happy with your life, please skip down to item 2 below.\u00a0 After all, your health is<\/em><\/strong> none of my business and I can respect that.\u00a0 But heck, there is a good chance that your doctor is telling you that you are in great shape anyway\u2026. Sad but true.\u00a0 If you have been thinking for years that you need to make some serious changes in your lifestyle, keep reading.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, I would like to make a preliminary comment on change.\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone says, “Change is so hard.”\u00a0 That is true only if you believe your own story (Byron Katie: www.thework.com<\/a>).\u00a0 I used to drink a 32 ounce soda with lunch and dinner.\u00a0\u00a0 Every day.\u00a0 I used to eat a box of Oreos a day, that for more than 35 years. Every day.\u00a0 One whole box.\u00a0 Three rows of 12 cookies.\u00a0 \u00a0Now I have had a total of about 7 cans of soda and zero Oreo cookies in the past 14 years.\u00a0\u00a0 Very recently I have tightened up my diet significantly, consuming only protein and about a dozen grams of carbohydrates from some veggies and a salad each at each meal.\u00a0 No cookies, ice cream, cake, candy, pasta, bread, wheat, rye, rice, potatoes, potato chips, or cashew nuts.\u00a0 And no processed foods.\u00a0 Oil and vinegar on the salads.\u00a0 In spite of what you might think, these changes were actually very easy to make once I made up my mind.<\/p>\n

At age 18, I weighed 264 pounds.\u00a0 At 40, I weighed 240. I had had high blood pressure since I was 13.\u00a0\u00a0 Twenty years ago I was told that I had advanced coronary artery disease.\u00a0\u00a0 I had 3-9 bouts annually of a severely irregular heart rhythm called atrial\u00a0fibrillation.\u00a0I was on a ton of heart meds.\u00a0 14 years ago I was diagnosed with non-insulin dependent, adult-onset diabetes and had a bleeding ulcer.\u00a0\u00a0Today I take no heart meds, my ulcer is a thing of the past, I am off all of heart medications, my blood pressure is 120 over 70, and I have not had an a-fib in several years.\u00a0 My last blood work was perfect report but for the blood sugar which\u00a0continues to be difficult to control as eating 666,666 Oreo cookies and about 547 Entenmanns’s French-filled Chocolate Crumb cakes over the course of 35 years took its toll on my pancreas but I am working on that too. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

What gives?\u00a0 I met a wonderful doctor\/chiropractor\/nutritionist named Cliff\u00a0Oliver and followed his advice.\u00a0 I underwent Nutri-Spec testing which\u00a0enabled Cliff to prescribe supplements designed to balance three of my body’s\u00a0systems.\u00a0 I\u00a0gave up soda and milk and began to eat protein at every meal.\u00a0\u00a0I began exercising as much as possible.\u00a0 Some of the changes were\u00a0rapid,\u00a0some were slow in coming, but all were dramatic.<\/p>\n

Though many of you might scoff at all chiropractors (I did at one time\u00a0in my life), I would trust Cliff Oliver with my life over any ten\u00a0traditional\u00a0Western doctors that I know–sorry Doc…\u00a0 He is concerned with how your entire body functions and understands how the various organs and systems inter-react,\u00a0while modern Western medicine is most often only concerned with one organ\u00a0or\u00a0system–drug em and cut em is the usual cure, the former usually with\u00a0suppressive medicines that are harmful to us.\u00a0 (Suppressive medicines prevent<\/em>\u00a0our organs and systems from doing what they are supposed to do,\u00a0supplements\u00a0help them<\/em> do what they are supposed to do…)<\/p>\n

Here is the latest on my battle with diabetes.\u00a0\u00a0 After going off the wagon for several months about two years ago (with Brach\u2019s chocolate-covered peanut clusters), I have been attempting to normalize my blood sugars to no avail.\u00a0\u00a0 About six weeks ago I came home from the doctor\u2019s office with a supply of injectable insulin.\u00a0\u00a0 I made one last call to Cliff to discuss this new course of treatment when he stated that he had spoken to a Doctor Richard K. Bernstein about my case.\u00a0 Dr. Bernstein suggested that I try eating only protein for three days.\u00a0 I did, and my blood sugars dropped about 50 points.\u00a0 I immediately ordered Dr. B\u2019s book here: http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0316167169\/ref=ox_ya_oh_product<\/a> and have been following his program totally and completely.\u00a0 The changes have been amazing. \u00a0The insulin is still in the refrigerator, unopened.\u00a0 I have scheduled 13 hours of appointments with Dr. B in mid-December.\u00a0\u00a0 You can learn more about Dr. Bernstein here:\u00a0 http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Richard_K._Bernstein<\/a> or visit his home page here:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.diabetes-book.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

If you think that learning more about the changes that I have made in my life might inspire you to do the same, please e-mail me at birdsasart@att.net<\/a> with the words Health Basics File in the subject line.\u00a0 This file includes contact information for Dr. Cliff Oliver. Either way, I wish you the best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I flew to Long Island on Monday past to visit my Mom who is recuperating from hip replacement replacement surgery. Her original new hip lasted 16 years. The surgeon found a big mess and three hours turned into six and a half. After a few days in the hospital and two months in a rehab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88,28,27,33,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-88","category-800mm-f5-6","category-anecdotes","category-bulletins","category-mkiii","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}