A Conversation With One

Conversation normally requires at least two people. However, sometimes the "other one" is in our heads. Okay, the other one is in MY head. Maybe most people don't have another "voice" carrying on a conversation with them like I do.

My "one" can sometimes be my voice of reason telling me to limit what I'm putting in my mouth to healthy small quantities of dark chocolate kisses and fresh hot buttered bread. It warns me when I've had enough Merlot or Chardonnay to drink. My "other one" tells me to listen to my body and ask questions like, "Am I really hungry or thirsty"?

Currently, I am reading a book with which you may be familiar, YOU: On A Diet (Roizen, M.D. & Oz, M.D., Free Press, 2006). There is a lot of information about the internal workings of our bodies that I find very interesting. Some terms and names of internal parts we never knew existed are a little tricky to remember. So, if you read this book, you might want to take notes. I wish I had thought of that sooner. The authors do a fairly nice job, however, of dumbing the content down so us regular brains can comprehend the gist of what is being taught. It even has nifty little cartoon-type drawings to illustrate our complicated inner parts.

Last week I had the dreaded colonoscopy test along with an EGD done here at our local hospital. The results of my tests revealed some "things" that had been making my upper and lower GI tract upset for quite some time. This book that I'm reading explained a whole lot about why we have stomach aches and intestinal problems. Mostly it boils down to what we are putting in our mouths and how much of it we allow to continue going down our gullet.

God created a mean lean machine and some of us are gumming up the works with all the junky fast food we put in our bodies. According to Roizen and Oz, I might have avoided 2 polyps if I had eaten more fruits and vegetables. What? You mean French fries and ketchup doesn't qualify as vegetables? Yeah, and gummy bears are not fruit.

Over the past couple of months, I visited my general M.D. complaining about my stomach. She put me on Nexium (the little purple pill) with no refills until I did those nasty tests. Then, she took me off of dairy products. Leaving off the dairy really wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, and besides there is a pill for the lactose intolerant of us. I can drink Silk (soy milk) on my cereal and Coffee-Mate is non-dairy so my coffee taste the same. Even Starbucks mixes up a nice grande decaf Latte with soy milk that tastes as good as the real stuff. The Nexium just helps tame all the other inflammatory foods battling it out in my stomach and upper GI tract.

Now, all that bad food going into our GI tract isn't the only thing to blame for our stomach unrest. There is also stress. Roizen and Oz calls our small intestines our other brain. They say, "How you feel influences how you eat, and how you eat influences how you feel...Ultimately, when you're caught in a cycle of feeling bad and eating worse, you'll create a chemical stress response in your body--one that is handled by your...fat." So, don't stress! Easy for me to say since I'm retired, ugh?

Well, that is what is going on with me these days. Trying to get my body, mind and eating habits under control. The next book I'm going to read is written by the same guys, YOU: Staying Young." I'll let you know how these books turn out.

So, listen to your other voice when you're hungry. Have a conversation about whether or not you should have another slice of pizza or glass of red wine. You might hear it say, "Step away from the table, Sis! You're about to tip the scales!"

Hope all of you are having a very happy start to 2008.