HEALTHY BODY: "SWEET" NEW BLOG

Yikes!  I'm starting a new blog!  I know...I already have two:  My View From Here which is a bunch of random thoughts on being alive in my life.  https://myviewfromhere-donna.blogspot.com/  Also, Circling the Mat, the blog I write for a local yoga studio because I'm passionate about yoga...yoga is life!   https://circlingthemat.blogspot.com/

But I've been ruminating lately on starting this one -- one that weds how we care for our bodies and how we care for our planet and how we (OK, I) fall short on both endeavors.  This is a New Year experiment and we will see how it goes.  Thanks for taking a look and sticking with me while I birth this new project and relearn how to make this blogger template work, already an exercise in frustration.  I want a cookie.  What?!?

Let's get started with HEALTHY BODY:

I'm cutting waaaaay back on sugar!  That sounds like a typical "that's never going to work" New Year's resolution that will soon end up atop the junk heap of "lose weight, stop smoking, join a gym, clean the garage, etc etc", doesn't it?

But with age comes an urgent desire to stop screwing around and focus on staying alive.  I just turned 69 which actually means I'm a couple of weeks already into my 70th year.  Having declared my intention to live to 106 (with adjustments upward as I get older, no doubt), I have to get serious about living the last third of my life with health and vitality!

My annual holiday season sugar binge was particularly bad this year.  I am determined to tame that monster.  I've armed myself with an arsenal of books and articles, have consulted with my own personal "sugar is evil" guru, a friend with lifelong Type 1 diabetes, who is writing a book on the subject of living most successfully with diabetes by sticking to strict dietary practices (not eating any damn thing you want and then "covering" with insulin!), and I've joined a local online FB group that is brand new and committed to providing a safe, encouraging, and motivating resource for others who want to get off the sugar train.

Let me confess right here, however, that I'm not completely giving up sugar forever and always.  What I am committing to is being intentional about sugar consumption.   Too often I invent reasons to eat sugar-laden treats -- like it's Tuesday.  Hahahaha.  More often it's just a habit; an auto-pilot impulsive non-decision.  Passing a Starbucks?  Time for a mocha!  (And a cookie.)  At the check out counter? Snickers!  Getting groceries?  How about a Danish?!?  Summer?  Ice cream!  Winter? Hot chocolate! With marshmellows!  You get the idea.

What I plan to do (and I'll keep you posted with honesty, I promise!) is to be planful about my sugar consumption.

So far I'm 15 hours and 38 minutes into my "no sugar" commitment for today.  I've only had one brief episode of screaming and stomping my feet.  Success!

Here's to health, for ourselves and our planet...©