Cicadas, Amelia Earhart and Your Salad Dressing
I live in Illinois. Two hours south of Chicago. I grew up in the Southwest Chicago suburbs. This is my 4th “17- year cicada” event. I was 10 when I experienced my first, in 1973. It was pretty traumatic, probably because I was so young but more likely because Cook County gets hit pretty hard. I can’t say I remember the infestation from either 1990 or 2007. I was in the thick of parenting, so I imagine I had bigger things to think about.
But I will say, I’m fascinated….dare I say a little excited? They have already erupted North of me in the Chicagoland area and South of me where they may get the overlap of 2 broods at the same time!
I’m a little jealous.
The odd thing is that I don’t like bugs and crawling things, in general. If something needs to be put out of my misery, I call upon my husband to slay the creepy, crawling creature. He once stomped on a mouse out of pure reflex (it jumped out at him from our pantry). Let’s just say he reached hero status that day.
So, my fascination with the 17-year cicadas defies my own reality. The only thing I can attribute it to is that I like the oddities of life- the cicadas, the recent solar eclipse, the current Northern Lights phenom…in Illinois. What?? Not to mention Amelia Earhart, the Bermuda Triangle, MH370, the Pyramids, Stonehenge, Crop Circles….Such mysteries!
What is NOT mysterious to me is why we, as middle-aged women, struggle with weight and health issues.
From the early 70’s on, we were lied to. Every young mom of that era was probably delighted to use processed foods to relieve the heavy burden of feeding her family day after day, evening after evening. Most, I imagine, succumbed to the advertising of the day to some degree. We are a product of those decisions. I’m not blaming our mothers. By and large, they did the best they knew to do. I mean, come on…this was the generation who was told that smoking is good for you. Enough said.
When I first opened my coaching practice, Your Food Fight, LLC, 9 years ago, a big portion of my time was spent getting women off the copious amounts of sugar they were eating. That’s still a good idea, but these days I’m far more interested in helping them remove the destructive seed oils form their diet- corn oil, vegetable oil, cotton seed, grapeseed, sunflower, safflower, canola, etc. All these oils contain a certain Omega 6 fat called linoleic acid, which causes many problems: liver damage, insulin resistance, inflammation and all chronic illness.
So what are we to do about it? I’ll tell you what I do. But you make up your own mind:
Eat at home as often as possible.
Eat whole foods- fresh fruits, vegetables, things that have not been manufactured.
Get to your local Farmers’ Market this summer.
Support a local farmer- buy their beef, pork, chicken, and eggs.
Reduce/eliminate processed foods.
Run from fast food establishments.
Don’t order fried foods in restaurants (you can’t even imagine how many times they have reused the oil your food is cooked in).
Put your own homemade salad dressing in an empty spice jar and bring it with you when you eat out. You can be served a lovely salad that is completely ruined by the dressing.
Want some healthy, awesome salad dressing recipes? Reply to this email and I’ll send you some!
Want to talk about making simple changes to your food and lifestyle that will positively impact your life, your health and your weight? Take me up on my free 20-minute phone chat to see if coaching is right for you! Check out my website! Women’s lives are being changed as we talk through so many of the things that have devastated their health.
Ok, that’s enough for today.
Based on what I have said, what’s just one change you can make? Do it today!
Talk soon!
Renee