Recently, I’ve become more routine about listening to the sermon every Sunday. The life lessons in the Bible bring me a lot of comfort, and hope. People have been going through whatever I’m going through that day for a long, long time, and there’s solutions, healing, and processes that don’t leave you stuck.

Anyway, it’s a really positive thing that I’ve come to enjoy each week. It feels like a life coach. And, I need a life coach. I think the last couple-few years have really just beat the shit out of all of us. I thought that 2021 was literally going to take me out. But here I am. Scarred up and giving 2022 the side eye… “what you lookin’ at?”. So, with all the pain (physically and emotionally) that 2021 brought on, I decided to help redirect / heal / re-entry my brain by making some new habits. One of those habits was listening to the message on Sundays, and now, I’m participating in the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting.

For 21 days, there is a prayer service at 6am, online or in person. The pastor preaches a short message and then leads a prayer topic. Today was day 2 of the 6am service and I am watching online. I must say, starting my day that way does make the heart feel a little lighter.

So… for the fasting. Well, you are supposed to fast something that maybe you’ve put too much time in to that’s not bringing you value, or sometimes something that’s just flat out not good for you. It’s different for everyone. I chose to fast Facebook and Instagram. Yep. 21 days of none of my “main” social media. Right now, I’m super excited about it. I have wanted to break this habit for a long time. Something about being a part of this fast, pushed me to actually commit to it. It supposedly takes 21 days to start a new habit (or leave one).

I thought that since I wouldn’t be writing my sarcastic statuses on Facebook, I’d write my adventures and daily boring-ness here. Something that I hope to be writing in the next couple of weeks, is what habits I’ve changed or improved through this fasting activity.

Self improvement! We trying out here! 👏🏼

Let’s start with mental health. Sometimes I feel like if I read those words one more time, I’m going to explode. Everyone is talking about it, but what’s everyone doing about it? You’ve got anxiety and the doctor prescribed you some sort of sedative (generally speaking). Okay. But what about what causes it?

I chose anxiety because that is as common of a word as the phrase mental health. Replace anxiety with any term you like- depression, lack of focus, fatigue, weight loss, weight gain, thyroid problems, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune disorders, malaise, brain fog… you know, the crap we all have.

So, what’s causing all of this? Yes, we can be sedated or stimulated to counter these symptoms, but, like, what if… we got to the root cause? 🧐

I feel like I have a bit of a say in this chaos, as a patient, because I have had a hell of a go with all of this health. I have an autoimmune disease that ate 2 of my teeth this year. And I am here to tell you- I felt every single “chomp” of my cells eating my teeth, bone, and tissues. I don’t wish that on anyone. Well, almost. Anyway. The first surgery was successful 🙌🏼 Second one is in 5 weeks. In other health news, I also have chronic migraines. In the 18 month journey of the teeth, the migraines got worse, and then became daily and more crazy after the surgery. Living with the mouth pain, and brain pain, I was at the end of my rope. I was either going to make this better or I needed to be in another universe.

I’m allowed 9 migraine pills a month. Great! That’ll get me through 9 days. I’ll just take off of work and vomit and be blind the other 21 days each month- no big deal. 🙄 I wanted more than medicine, obviously, so that I could freaking live. I wanted the answers! The reading began. I read about 4 hours every night. Every. Night. I read about diet. I read about blood vessels. I read about pain. I read about food and what it does (and doesn’t do). I read about chemicals in the food, preservatives, artificial anything. I read about cancer. I read, and read, and read. For 2 months I read about histamine, what histamine does to blood vessels, and what foods release/trigger histamine. I decided to try the low histamine diet, to see if it would help my migraines. And there was certainly a difference. I was still struggling. I went more in depth about the chemicals and all of the artificial crap. I quickly realized that some of my worst migraines were being triggered by artificial sugars- sucralose was a huge offender. I would annihilate that from the earth if I could.

Every time I had a migraine, I would write down everything that I had eaten, which now was getting easier to track since I was attempting to adhere to the low histamine diet. After a couple of months, pretty much everything was falling in to a few common denominators:

• Preservatives such as sulfites/sulfates, nitrites/nitrates were a big huge no no. This is smoked meats and deli meats. BBQ at Jim n Nicks? Hell no.
• Artificial sugars such as aspartame or sucralose. Very painful. These are in anything, absolutely anything that says “diet” in the name.
• Anything fermented- yogurt, sauerkraut, beer, wine, pickles, anything with vinegar such as hot sauce. Nope.

Reading labels is a real pain. But, I’ve figured this out- in general (not always, but usually) if the label/title says gluten free, natural, organic, paleo, etc … these foods/products are going to have a much shorter ingredient label and are generally something that I can eat. If I pick up something with a paragraph long label- just put it down. No need to read all of those chemicals that are LITERALLY destroying your blood vessels in body and brain.

I chose to follow a paleo diet. Meat, and vegetables. Nothing processed. I am also attempting to be totally gluten free to see what affects that will or won’t have. The paleo is great for me and my head. It’s working. It’s easy. I know exactly what the frick it is. I’m pleased with it. Finally. Something is easy. I was tired of feeling like shit. Being in excruciating pain. I was ready to save my life.

Back to mental health. During the era of the teeth, I was a totally different person. I could sleep all of the time. I could take 10mg of adderall and sleep 20 hours (when I say sleep, I mean it). My inflammation was nuts. I didn’t want to ride, teach, barn, nothing. And yes, I was very sick and in a lot of pain. But it was more than that. I didn’t feel like me. All of this was running deeper. It wasn’t until months of my nightly “studies” and some simple changes that it all started to come together.

Mental Health is HEALTH. If you are unhealthy, particularly in your gut (which controls more than we know), then it is likely that your brain is suffering some how, some way. If you are suffering from autoimmune disorders, I would bet that you have a “mental health” problem. I’m here to tell you- that is very likely just a HEALTH PROBLEM. And, it’s very possibly highly linked to diet. Lack there of diet or too much diet. If you don’t eat, you’ll be crazy. If you eat too much, you’ll be crazy. If you only eat chemicals, sho nuf going to be crazy. [and y’all know me- when I say crazy I mean “not right”… something affecting you.] I’m not a doctor but I am patient that is PRESENTLY going through this journey. And I know people and listen to their stories of how they have healed. We don’t all have to end up with cancer. We don’t all have to be ADHD or somewhere on the spectrum. We can be healthier, or just plain healthy. But, we have to do better by ourselves. Our bodies deserve it. Our heart deserves it. Our brain deserves it. If we could just live by our spirit and our soul, that’d be great. But we have to have our body to LIVE. And I want to live. A long time. And feel good. I’m going to keep reading. Learning. Trying new things. Figuring it out.

I’m going to heal.

Today, my gym locker was taken. During the “regular year”, gym goers have the unspoken code of who’s is who’s and what time, etc. But at the New Year, all’s fair.

This love and war time in the gym is a special one. It is a super busy time for all. Some regulars are shredding off holiday weight, some regulars are still bulking before they shred for the summer body, and then of course… the newbies: The Resolutioners.

The Resolutioners have made their New Years resolution to become a gym goer, to get fit, to be more healthy, to pick up heavy things, to run fast. They fumble through the gym, scratching their heads and some are wide eyed at the big dude in the mirror shoulder pressing 90’s. The Resolutioner is easy to spot. And there is a lot of stigma (not so positive) about these new members of the fit fam flooding the gym.

But, I write this to encourage us all to give a “hi”, or a warm smile to these newbies, and I’ll tell you why it’s so close to heart. Because after they’ve gotten in your way, and not re-racked their weights, and took your locker: one of them is likely to be as committed to health and fitness as you are. For example, yours truly!

That’s right. I, was a resolutioner. I was finally 30, and growing out of my riding breeches. I wanted to just lose a few pounds. After the first week, I was HOOKED.

Working with a trainer, Evan, things started out much more intense than I expected. He was taking a lot of precautions with my arm, and immediately put it in his own version of rehab. Nevertheless, I was picking up heavy things! And putting them back down! There were endorphins. There was the adrenaline rush. There was strength! I was a strong woman! And this was only the beginning. I had no clue about the potential that Evan would tap in to. These challenges were addicting!

But, aside from awesome Evan and the glorious chemicals rushing through my brain, there was something else: the fellow gym regulars. They. Were. Amazing. A smile, a wave, sometimes a random high five, made all of the difference in how I felt there. I felt welcomed. At home. It became my playground. I looked forward to it. And ALL of that was easier because of people behaving… well… in good humanity.

Total strangers who had maybe never said a word to me, but only a smile, increased my confidence. I felt like it was okay to be there, and eventually like I belonged. I encourage you to not focus on all of the resolutioners who will walk out and never return, but for that one who stays. That one who will grow in this community and lead another person to health. For that one, remember to smile.

I wish I knew who’s locker that I took back in the day. I owe them a protein shake. And who knows, they could have been one who’s smile helped my confidence to keep coming.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.