{"id":462,"date":"2011-02-25T14:38:30","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T14:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janinajacobs.com\/?p=462"},"modified":"2011-02-25T14:38:30","modified_gmt":"2011-02-25T14:38:30","slug":"detours-on-the-road-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/food-fun-and-fitness\/462\/detours-on-the-road-of-life","title":{"rendered":"Detours on the Road of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Negotiating the maze of current health and nutrition information.....<\/p><\/div>\n

Have you heard the phrase \u2018We plan and God laughs\u2019?\u00a0 It’s like predicting a record golf score after you’ve parred the first four holes.<\/p>\n

Think about your detours on the Road of Life. \u00a0 Some could have been avoided, some could not.\u00a0\u00a0 In 2004 I was fortunate enough to get my own television show on golf, ‘Michigan Golf Weekly’ on CBS-TV-Detroit.\u00a0 On the surface, it was a wonderful opportunity to showcase Michigan golf courses, organizations, and resident personalities.\u00a0\u00a0 However the one detour I didn’t anticipate was my exit from competitive golf – not that I couldn’t compete anymore, but because the TV taping weather window is so brief here in the north that it conflicted with any tournaments I wanted to enter.\u00a0\u00a0 But it was a sacrifice I was willing to make in light of a new and exciting adventure.<\/p>\n

Along about Year 3 of the show, I noticed that my body was changing and I was gaining weight, despite a pretty thorough exercise regimen, walking and carrying on the course, and seemingly proper eating habits.\u00a0 I had a reputation as a ‘chowhound’ in my youth, but had eased off in my 30’s and 40’s. \u00a0 I had just turned 50, but why should that make any difference?\u00a0 It was disheartening to watch the shows and see that yes, TV does<\/em> add 15 lbs. to you, which I certainly didn’t need given the 10-15 lbs. that had crept on anyway.<\/p>\n

About that same time I had begun to have health issues and didn\u2019t know where to turn.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t getting quality answers from doctors, who I thought should know them.\u00a0 Attending an Epiphany presentation through my work as a church Director of Music – and I don’t make a habit of enrolling in too many of these church seminars – for some reason this one caught my attention.\u00a0 The theme was \u2018Take another road\u2019 and the story hit home:\u00a0 finally looking within, I took\u00a0 \u2018another road\u2019.\u00a0 As a research journalist on other issues\u2026..why not study health and nutrition on my own behalf?\u00a0 After a few short weeks, some awful truths were coming to light.<\/p>\n

The only thing certain in life \u2013 besides death, taxes, and that you will never find and keep yourself in the golf ‘Zone’ for long\u00a0 \u2013 is that nothing is certain and everything changes.<\/p>\n

There are some journeys you wish you hadn\u2019t taken.\u00a0 But when you do, you cannot, must not, keep them under wraps.\u00a0 The information I learned was so compelling, almost frightening, that I knew it must be shared.\u00a0 The revelation of this discovery reminded me of an old Jefferson Airplane song which begins, \u2018When the truth is found\u2026.to be lies\u2026..you know the joy\u2026.within you\u2026.dies\u2019.\u00a0 Imagine your psyche if everything you thought you knew about anything was wrong? \u00a0\u00a0What I \u2018knew\u2019 about our food supply and how it\u2019s processed, nutritional information, government responsibility, prescription drugs, pharmaceutical companies, food conglomerates, and the medical profession turned out to be totally wrong.\u00a0 You feel as if you\u2019re out on your own, floating in a vast sea of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

So what do you do?\u00a0\u00a0 I revisited the \u2018learnin\u2019 tree\u2019, as if returning to school.\u00a0 I read everything possible about nutrition and health, went to seminars, lectures, studied research information, spoke to doctors, to nutritionists, to people who had suffered through various ailments.\u00a0 I attended continuing education classes for nurses through St. John Health System in Detroit and now am speaking to groups and individuals about a number of current health issues…..not as a credentialed nutritionist or doctor, but instead as an informed and educated citizen journalist of the world – with experience.\u00a0\u00a0 The advantages of such a position are many, but the most important one is that there are loyalties to no one.\u00a0 No corporation, no conglomerate, no publication, no special interest group.\u00a0 I can provide information that, to the best of my knowledge, is truthful and unadulterated. \u00a0 It has been an exciting journey but somewhat heartbreaking when I see so many people suffering from chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart ailments, hormone deficiencies, and more…..and their ‘medical’ solutions are to take more pills and undergo surgical procedures when in many cases, adjustments to lifestyle and diet can be the answer.\u00a0\u00a0 The saddest aspect is seeing the unhealthy effects that the current American way of life and standard diet are having on the youth of our country.\u00a0 The latest studies indicate the life expectancy of children born after 2000 will not exceed that of their parents.\u00a0\u00a0 It is going down<\/em> not up.\u00a0 Something is drastically wrong here, folks.<\/p>\n

One light amidst the darkness is that the people of the parish where I am Director of Music and also Health Team Leader are approaching in droves with tales of the benefits they’re realizing by reading my columns and following the simple but sound advice.\u00a0\u00a0 Another beam of hope applies to me:\u00a0 I lost most of the weight gained, though it wasn’t easy.\u00a0\u00a0 People asked me how and it was kind of fun to say that I had merely practiced what I preached.<\/p>\n

Best of all, I feel great.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

DID YOU KNOW: <\/strong>Ancient Greek doctors used olive oil to heal ulcers?\u00a0 We think stress causes ulcers but it is actually H. pylori<\/em> bacteria and it infects the lining of the stomach.\u00a0 Anti-oxidant compounds in olive oil are effective against these bacteria and can help prevent the ulcer from ever forming.<\/p>\n

DID YOU KNOW II:<\/strong> Eat your food Euro-style, with the fork in your left hand.\u00a0 This will slow you down and you\u2019ll reach that twenty-minute satiety mark when your hunger begins to dissipate, thus eating less food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you heard the phrase \u2018We plan and God laughs\u2019?\u00a0 It’s like predicting a record golf score after you’ve parred… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1496],"tags":[5373,5374,5375,5376],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-fun-and-fitness","tag-standard-american-diet","tag-obesity","tag-diabetes","tag-st-john-health"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2011\/02\/Triple-Detour.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":790,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}