As I go about my busy life, I get many reactions:

• “What?”
• “You’re kidding!”
• “Why?”
• “That’s just weird.”
• “I don’t understand.”
• “You had better be careful!”

And, every summer, when I spend a week with my five sisters and their hubbies, I hear many variations of the same surprised reactions. And the reason is simple: I think for myself, and once I reach my conclusions, I act on my beliefs — no matter how unconventional. Unfortunately for my brothers-in-law, I also share most of these ideas with my more adventurous sisters. 😉 Some of the men call me a witch; they blame me for getting their wives into things they consider “weird.”

I was never very courageous in my younger days, and in fact, was always more of a timid follower than my own person. I had learned through experience that it could be “dangerous” to have and state an opinion that was a bit unusual, and my self-esteem was too fragile to hold my thoughts up to scrutiny, so I chose to be safe rather than sorry.

Well, not any more! Now, as a bolder and more confident woman, I relish the opportunity to learn and adopt all kinds of “crazy” new trends and practices and to spread the word to those I love. For me this is just another way to “Show You Care.” I live to learn and understand, and I am less and less afraid of the reactions of others because, . . .  I am learning to live too.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I readily admit that some of the practices I embraced in the past have gone the way of the dodo bird, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I will readily reject previously held beliefs when I learn the error of my ways.

Like Maya Angelou, and many other brave souls, “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”

Perhaps one day I will be re-adjusting and rejecting today’s ideas too, but for now, I’m going to go ahead and share a simple list of today’s practices. As far as I can tell, these still apply in 2018. To the best of my ability, when things are entirely within my control, I choose to support the following:

• refuse to dye my hair at 40, 50, 60 or 70;
• refuse hormones and medications to deal with menopause or other natural issues that come with life;
• refuse to use sun screen;
• give up toothpaste, and anti-perspirant, and shampoo for other more health-friendly products;
• eat what some call a stone age diet, with high healthy fats, including saturated fat, moderate protein, and quite low carbohydrates;
• believe fatty beef and lamb and pork are good for us;
• eat eggs and bacon almost every day;
• eat only twice a day;
• eat little fruit, potatoes, bread, and pasta, sweets;
• drink no fruit juices or soft drinks;
• consume no vegetable oils, margarine or soy;
• limit most processed “foods”;
• cook with lard and coconut oil;
• regularly eat a forkful of cold naturally-fermented sauerkraut;
• eat cold potato or rice for the resistant starches;
• put coconut oil or palm oil, etc. in my morning coffee;
• make and drink my own bone broth, kombucha and beet kvass;
• harvest and eat purslane, and other nutritious weeds;
• harvest, dry, and make tea from my homegrown mullein leaves, and flowers, and nettle, and other beneficial herbs;
• dry brush to help with lymphatic drainage;
• occasionally take cold showers;
• opt out of seasonal flu and other vaccines;
• believe cancer is a metabolic, not a genetic disease;
• believe type 2 diabetes can be controlled with a ketogenic diet;
• believe periodic fasting is useful and healthy;
• believe symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease can be alleviated  by a ketogenic diet;

No, they are not all radical, but some may certainly give some readers pause. And give you reason to call me crazy. But that’s okay: my shoulders are growing broader every year.

I adopted most of these practices after scouring medical articles and journals on the web;  buying and reading books; and listening to podcasts and Ted Talks. I also do a tremendous amount of studying and analyzing of the material I find. Though I can’t always remember or explain the full details to others, I make sure that I understand the material well enough to make wise choices — for me. My research includes scientific articles that are often “way over my head” but I will not stop digging in and trying to understand them fully. Then I draw my own conclusions.

I leave it up to you to do the same. Happy New Year!