Patchwork Psychology

After going part-time at work (yeah, so much for paying off the student loans), I’ve been traveling more playing music with the Katie Nelson band. I sure like not being at work, and since the rest of the trio is a bunch of health nuts, it became an excellent opportunity to take a look at a different lifestyle.

The first thing I did was to cut out soda altogether. I’ve been drinking an average of 1.5 cans/day of the world-famous Mountain Dew since I was 12, and it shows. Looking at my pilot’s medical certificates, I’ve been gaining about 20 lbs/3 years, or about 7 lbs/year since I graduated high school.

That change was made easier by increased water intake–and I mean increased. Most doctors recommend 64 oz of water (1/2 gallon) per day. However, this is an average. An average person should drink 64 oz/day. Any comments about “what exactly is an average person” aside, I’m not average. I’ve read numerous articles that say a person should drink half of their body weight in ounces. Being that I was 305 lbs, I guess that means somewhere around 150oz, or about 1.2 gallons–dang!

So those things were pretty cool…within a week I was noticing that I felt much better than I had in quite a while. I was running to the restroom often, but I’d also read that that issue will resolve itself over time–and it pretty much has. I also lost a few pounds of retained water.

There are also some other things. One night while driving up to Peshtigo, I realized that I didn’t bring any soap or deodorant. My bandmates promptly informed me that they used neither and hadn’t for some time. Imagine my dismay, having come from a family where these were things essential to the day. They recounted their journey to paraben freedom, and I listened critically.

I had to try it though. Something about it just seemed right–soap bars don’t grow on trees. Why would God create this body to require all of these chemicals to be socially acceptable? Well anyway, I tried going soapless for a week, and I couldn’t tell the difference. A nice warm shower was is all I really need to stay clean.

Deodorant was a different story. The band spent a week at a nice conference center, where most of our time was spent wasting time on our Macs. I decided that it was as good of a week as any to try to leave the deodorant behind–I was going to be in public maybe two hours each day.

Talk about unSure–my arms may as well have been glued to my sides. I was so frustrated–even after a shower my pits were wretched! I didn’t know what the deal was. I figured it might be because I am losing weight or still flushing crap from my body. I tried some natural enzymatic pit rub, but it made no difference.

Then while wasting time at work I stumbled across this video of some yahoo doctor who was talking about the risks and problems with the vast majority of deodorants. His hippie-natural propaganda actually contained some good information, including this tip: try cleaning with alcohol to kill any stench causing bacteria.

It seemed weird, but at this point I was desperate to fit in with my band buddies that I decided to do it. And lo, even after a day of moving my large furniture items across town, my pits smelled the same as any other part of me. Success.

I’ll add on that I’ve also changed my eating habits. I’m not calling it a diet for the sake of going on a diet, but it’s more of a lifestyle change. I’ve been doing some research, and there is just a lot of crap that fast food and the like wants us to put in our bodies–or at least give them our money for. I’ve realized that I don’t really want to put those things in me. It’s more expensive to eat healthy, but it’s worth it. I feel great, and on top of that I’m losing weight. Best of all, I’m enjoying it.

If you’ve made it this far, kudos to you. I offer this challenge: examine your lifestyle and see what things you are doing because they’re all you know or you know no alternative, then see what you really think of those things. Many of my routines had no reason other than “that’s what I’ve always done.” Most of them were useless and bound me to consequences that were even more useless.

There’s little point in doing something if you don’t know why you do it, and there’s no good in continuing to do something if you know it does more harm than good. I used to drink 1-2 cans of Mountain Dew per day because it tasted good–now I drink 1-2 gallons of water per day because it makes me healthy.