Health Care Reformation

Plenty of medical practitioners testified earlier this year in front of Congress during the health care reform debate and stated it better than I will here, but let me paraphrase what they said that truly resonated with me. We do not have a health care system in the United States. Rather, we have a disease management system. We expect to be treated for and eventually die of heart disease, cancer, or complications due to diabetes. We expect our insurance companies or Medicare (in other words, our fellow citizens) to pay for the expensive medications, tests, and procedures commonly used to monitor and treat these often preventable diseases.

We can do better. I am absolutely certain of this. What we need is less a health care reform than a total Wellness Reformation.

My dream is to be on the leading edge of true reform in health care in this country. My vision of a reformed system is one in which we each take seriously our personal responsibility to care for our bodies. To the best of our abilities, we must invest effort, time, and cash in our own wellness. We can do so much damage control and risk mitigation at home by preparing and eating good clean foods, moving our muscles, and living consciously, authentically, and joyously. Doing so will minimize the cost to ourselves and our communities of providing after-the-diagnosis medical treatments. It's simple, really. Like voting, serving as jurors, paying taxes, and shoveling snow from the sidewalks in front of our houses (I'm talkin' to you, Massachusetts!), I firmly believe we all have a civic responsibility to do so. Then our health care system will be freed up to treat the things that really need attention: congenital illness, accidental injury, infectious disease.

That's right. I'm saying it's our duty to family, nation, and deity to eat our vegetables and abstain from excessive sugar.

Are you shocked? If so, why? Is this really such a radical notion? It's not a new one. You've heard it before. Your mom told you to finish your vegetables or there would be no dessert for you. Your grandma told you fish was brain food. Your great-great-grandfather fled poverty and persecution to bust prairie sod, feed his family, and build a new nation. Your pastor read you religious texts about your body being a temple. These are not wild, crazy, extremist ideas. There's no fascism, socialism or any other kind of -ism at play here. It's just you, your body, and your way down deep honest to goodness knowledge that sitting on your duff in front of the tube with a large pizza and a liter of cola every night is not really in the best interests of your long term health. You also know it's not really in the best interests of economic stability and cost of living in this great nation.

Come join me on the leading edge. If you'd like some help, give me a call. I promise to support you. I consider it my duty.

And now for some photographic inspiration. This is the filling for a beautiful lasagne I made earlier this week. Look at that gorgeous rainbow of goodness! Carrots, red peppers, onions, mushrooms (yes loved ones, I ate mushrooms!) zucchini, broccoli. If it weren't for a Meatless Monday meal, I might have spiced it up a bit with some slivers of turkey pepperoni or some chicken hot Italian sausage but really, once you get these pretties all layered up between silky noodles and gooey ricotta and luscious herby marinara sauce, who misses the meat? Not even Guy, who can still be surprised at the end of a meal by the announcement, "and there was no meat in it!"

Live authentically and well,
Mad Mama

A Morning of Ments

Both excitement and disappointment.

Finally! A couple hours free in my insane schedule to get back to this blog and where is the photo of my Big Red Box from IIN?

So, here, have a picture of my garden produce from July of this year. Isn't it pretty?

I wanted to describe to you all the wonderful things that arrived the Friday morning I was writing to you and got interrupted by the FedEx Home Delivery guy. The box was prettier than anything Santa has ever dropped down my chimney. When I flipped open the top I found a Student Handbook, a red velvet plush heart, a red water bottle with the school's logo printed on it, and a very titillating little white plastic box approximately 4 inches by 2 inches. Sure enough, it contained my IIN-red iPod, fully loaded with coursework. WHEE!!! Let me tell you, it was so exciting, I think the little red velvet plush heart was thumping right along with mine. I was in heaven! Beside myself! Thrilled! Couldn't wait to get started! I shoved the box out of the way but it felt heavier than an empty box should. Whaaaaaat's this? It turns out the box held TWO delicious, lovely layers of wonderful stuff! It was like getting that wooden box of candies from Burdick's and realizing there's another layer of treats below the one you've just mowed through.

Layer two held the text Integrative Nutrition written by the school's founder Joshua Rosenthal. It also held a Fast Track business coaching workbook, a hardcover volume of case histories, two DVDs about healthy shopping and cooking, and a journal. As you can imagine, my head popped off from excitement and rolled around the room for a while. (It's OK, it's back where it belongs now. Not sure I reattached it quite right, though. I know what you're thinking: can't be any worse than it was before.)

This morning FedEx Home Delivery Guy dropped off another box from IIN; this time with a whole booty of gifts just for me! Books, magnets, pencils, journals, bags. I grabbed a photo of those too and uploaded them from the camera to MY computer this time. HA! Who knew the memory card transformed into a little USB jump drive? Goodies! Toys! Bookies! I am so happy!!!

Actually, I must say, this feels very much like it's the right thing for me to be doing. I spend every extra minute of my day reading and studying IIN course materials and messages from fellow students. There's a beautiful online forum where we meet each other, have discussions, post assignments, set up study groups, whack each other upside the head with new and novel ideas about nutrition. On top of all the coursework and home life tasks, I've grabbed responsibility for setting up Facebook groups for two special interests: one is a study circle for Boston metro area students and the other is for people interested in sharing tips for living with or treating irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. It's bound to help me with future business tasks if I learn how to do things like this now. Facebook is so powerful! Amazement!

Tonight I'm attending a teleseminar about "Having a Healthy, Happy Family" hosted by health coach and former IIN student, Michelle Pfennighaus. I'm looking forward to learning tips that not only help improve my own family's health but help give me ideas about how to run sessions like this for people I hope to help in the future. More menting happening here (that would be mentoring excitement)!

One last note. Juliet's going commando at school today or rather, her lunchbox is. No, not that commando. I'm speaking of refined carbohydrate-free, totally unprocessed snack and lunch. There's a turkey sandwich made from whole wheat bread and turkey breast I roasted myself, grapes, vanilla yogurt, and vanilla milk (we can talk about all that sugar and my belief in gradually transitioning children's food habits another time). Snack is a BPA-free bottle of Brita filtered water and sliced apples with cinnamon-sugar "dip". Let's hope this adds another ment, astonishment that she's eaten it, to my day.

Guy just phoned. Look what he found! Big Red Box photos! Fulfillment!

Layer 1

Layer 2

Why Mad Mama?

Not that you asked.

I'm punning on the word Mad*. Mad as in crazy and mad as in, y'know:

"I told you to pick up your toys before dinner!"
"You're 6 so you MUST eat 6 bites of peas!"
"Turn off that TV!"
"Put the DS down and get dressed, NOW!"

The kind of mad (grrrrr!) that makes you mad (whoop! whoop! whoop!).

A lot of families I know have mealtime struggles. Either there are picky eaters to contend with or they'll all eat absolutely anything plunked in front of them if only the Chief Cook could figure out how to get something healthy to the table in the 14.37 minutes between soccer practice and homework. My target market for this venture is people who want to eat healthier but still want to live their lives.

I wish I could say I lead by example but I have as much to learn about how to pull this off as those who keep asking me what to do. Until now, I've been too chicken to tell them, "Beats the boogers outta me." Folks keep asking though, which tells me I exude the How-To-Feed-A-Family-Good-Food pheromone. Might as well follow where nature leads.

OMG! FedEx just arrived with a big box from IIN. Gotta go! Wheeeeeeee! See ya!

* Full disclosure: the idea did come to me on a Monday morning following a previous night's viewing of Mad Men. Coincidence or plagiarism? You decide.

Mad Mama Begins

What does it say about you when your copy of Women, Food, and God is littered with shards of Trader Joe's Mini Milk Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Cups?

It says you're ripe for change.

Change is imminent. As of yesterday, I am a fully matriculated student of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition on the path of launching a new career in Health Coaching. Classes begin in earnest on October 18th. Somehow it feels important to capture my experiences here. It's probably just a rampant case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Call the funny farm, if you must.

Yesterday I was feeling elated. Last night, however, the fear began to settle in like that cloud of dust you raise when you finally get around to cleaning those blinds in the guest bedroom. Can I really do this? Was it a such a good idea? Am I the Self-Employed type? Achoo!

We shall see. Stay tuned.