Below are pictures of inspiration, love, stepping stones, purpose, love, art, community, healing, and trucks :)

As I sit in my office, my most fortunate office, surrounded by the most fortunate company, I feel overwhelmingly blessed.  I have been able to witness some, not all, of the most beautiful creation come together from start to almost finish. From the getting to know the community, bringing people together through our core, from the first, second, third, can stroke to the endless paint brushes of tinted primer. From the essence to the feathering, spirit was captured.  It has been an honour to be a part of this, and to meet such inspiring, helping, guiding, passionate, healthy souls.
 
This whole experience has also brought about inner fears, turmoil and discourse in my heart.  I ran through words of past, I ran through feelings of fear, pain, hurt, understanding and looking deep within my core.  Who am I truly? 
I am selfish.
I am stubborn.
I have narcissistic qualities.
I have anger.
I have rage.
I have standards.
I have goals.
I have work ethic.
I have drive.
I am kind.
I am caring.
I am thoughtful.
I am joyful.
I am fun.
I am silly.
I am youthful.
I possess both good and bad qualities.
I accept myself.
I accept others.
I am responsible for my decisions.
I feel guilt.
I feel pain.
I feel sorrow.
I feel happiness.
I feel pleasure.
I feel love.
I feel loved.
I give love.
I am remorseful.
I am resourceful.
I am beautiful.
I am strong.
I see beauty.
Through all of these words that I am, it is up to me, consciously to water the parts of me I would like to eminate.  It is just as easy to feed the ego, as it is to feed the soul.  

Though this journey is in its infancies, I look forward to everyday :)        

Below is an essay I wrote for my Nutrition class in 2010.

​Enjoy :)

Unhealthy Body Weight
Unhealthy Body Weights are determined typically on Body Mass Index (BMI), genetics, and Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR). 
Body Mass Index:- An index for estimating obesity, obtained by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared.  Age is an important factor in interpreting these values because a high level in a young person is more likely to indicate obesity than in an old one. [i]
Genetics:- Precise information should be obtained from the proposer as to the causes of death of any members of his family, and as to the duration of their last illnesses.  In attempts to discover tendencies to disease, a study of the family history is most important.[ii]
Waist to Hip Ratio:- Waist-to-hip ratio is a measurement that compares the size of your waist in inches to that of your hips. Risk for developing heart disease is typically measured by waist-to-hip ratio.
 
These numbers are then plugged into a predetermined “chart” set by miles and miles of historical statistical data that is typically the “average” throughout the ages and not so much on the person’s “health”.  You may find someone of a “larger” stature, whose BMI is “obese” or larger, WHR greater than it should be, thus giving a false reading of ones health.  There are many scenarios where these statistical data’s will prove to be false. For example, there is “Joe” who lives in Northern Ontario and he is a farmer.  He is married with 3 teenage children; he is roughly 6 feet tall, about 240lbs; he has a BMI of 32 which according to charting methods would “indicate obesity if the BMI was greater than 27.8 kg/m2.”[iii]  This however is not the case; since he eats the freshest of food right there in his own back yard, he is tending to the farm animals, and constantly looking after his crops.  This man is healthy as a horse, hardly ever catches a cold, and is diligent in keeping his physical with his physician once a year.   He will most likely outlive all of us, and have absolutely no vitamin deficiencies.  There are on the other hand those of us who fit into the “norm” but are constantly battling with colds, and flu and vitamin deficiencies.  Why?
  
What are contributing factors for different body compositions?
As we spoke about earlier genetics will play a role in determining healthy, or unhealthy body weights, they can also be used in determining body composition, though is not always the case.  Diet also plays a huge role in body composition and as you will learn about a little later, it is not how much you eat, nor what you think you are eating, but what it is you really are ingesting. Most of what we see when we see obesity is not really obesity but malnutrition, same is true with underweight people, for it is not that they are ingesting less than the “obese” person but ingesting foods with little or no nutritional value.  It is startling the amount of food that is not really food at all.  For instance if you read a label on “pop” there is NO “food” to be found, yet it is readily available and ingested my millions of people everyday; candy, made of sugar, sugar is not food, it is laboratory refined to what we see as sugar today.  Sugar is one of many thousands of products that are in “beautifully decorated packages”[iv] which is their selling feature, not what is inside.  Most of what is inside those packages has less nutritional value than the package itself. 
 
Back in the early 1900’s Medical Doctors were seeing an influx of child death before the age of ten with no conclusive cause of death with about 3 million children in a 4 year span dying in the USA.[v]    
A few years and a few hundred thousand autopsies later, laboratory testing, and food testing Medical Doctors came to the conclusion that deaths were being caused by malnutrition.  Many were sceptical, since there were a lot of “plump” children who passed away.  How could someone “plump” die of malnutrition? Well, malnutrition does not have to come in the form of thinness as we all picture. 

Malnutrition:- Any disorder of nutrition causing a lack of necessary or proper food substances in the body.[vi]

Let’s paint a picture…Back in the early 1900’s the radio was starting to become a little more common place, cars too were making popular on roads, places to “shop” were becoming more common place.  For the most part milk and eggs were still delivered daily, at least to the middle class and wealthy, but now women could go “shopping” for food without having to wait for their husbands on a weekend at the market.  Women were able to listen to the radio as they cooked meals listening to these advertisements of “refined” cereals, “blanched” flour, “easy to prepare” such and such. Those advertisements are not here to “state the whole truth in a food advertising campaign for the reason the manufactures insist that their advertisements shall centre about the talking points that will sell their product, always keeping clear of the controversy.  The chief function of the advertising manager is not to educate the masses but to popularize the product he is paid to exploit.”[vii]

These so called exploitations found formaldehyde in milk, they have found poisons in our foods traveling a far distance, more recently have found Aspartame in too many products, and they have put deadly and addictive cigarettes on the market with a “thumbs up” from Surgeon Generals. 
 
The world was changing and who knew a hundred years later we are further behind than when we started.  We are now facing a pandemic here at home in the form of obesity, though it is really malnutrition.
 
Let’s take a minute to think about this, malnutrition is an inadequacy of proper nutrients to the body, when we are malnourished, we become tired, when we are tired we tend not to be productive, thus keeping in reserve what we have just digested.  We also tend to feel sick, catch colds much easier and those colds seem to last longer and longer the more we insist on eating from those “beautifully decorated packages”[viii].  If however, one insists on keeping busy with a malnourished diet, that is when we will see thinness. 
These extremes in Body weight are not only from an inadequate diet, and misinformation about foods that we ingest, they can also stem from media influences. Everywhere you turn there is an advertisement shown where thin is beautiful, tanned is healthy and fake is what makes it.

It is an injustice to see such misinformation and such a predominance of importance of looks.  There is an advertisement enclosed that gives statistical information about looks in the workplace. They state that looks really do matter if you are going to move “up” in a company.  If you are a size 12, completely qualified, personable, hard-working you are less likely to be promoted than your not-so-friendly, slacker co-worker that sports a size 4.  Can this really be true?  Well this advertisement says it is…“ we are not here to state the whole truth in an advertising campaign for the reason the manufactures insist that their advertisements shall centre about the talking points that will sell their product, always keeping clear of the controversy.  The chief function of the advertising manager is not to educate the masses but to popularize the product he is paid to exploit.”[ix]   
 
We, here today, are all ahead of the masses; we are educated on what the body needs to survive.  We know the body requires Sodium for nerve impulses to occur, we know that glucose is a necessity for virtually all functions of the body to occur, we know that balance, homeostasis is what the body is built to do.  It is within our knowledge and within our education that we can help the body achieve that, we can eat what was given to us by the engineer of our bodies, for the needs of our body, not for the “time constraints” of our lives or the pretty packages, or the easy way out.  We should all know that the “easy way out” is really not the easy way out at all.
 
Think twice when you go into the supermarket, think twice when you are tired, think twice when you have had a cold twice in one month.  There is so much power in knowledge and there is so much we can do to overcome media ideals, pandemics, and “beautifully decorated packages”.  It is in your hands.
 
Thank you!
 
 


[i] Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary-18th Edition -1997

[ii] Textbook of Medicine 2nd Edition Edinburgh-E&S Livingstone-1932

[iii] Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary 18th Edition -1997

[iv] The Science of Eating –McCann 1919

[v] The Science of Eating-McCann 1919

[vi] Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary 18th Edition

[vii] The Science of Eating-McCann 1919

[viii] The Science of Eating –McCann 1919

[ix] The Science of Eating-McCann 1919
 
Figure 1
Figure 2http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/sashtml/adv.html

As I sit in my most beautiful office, listening to soft music, brainstorming about things I would like to write.  I am taken to a place, on a snow covered path (sorry guys, it was a long winter), where a girlfriend and I shared many a conversation covering topics from food, to men, to our past, to control we allow others to have over our emotions.  The latter I think is the one I am going to touch upon today.  Whether it be our co-workers, our friends, our spouse or partner, the telemarketer doing their job, or the customer service rep that we are giving an earful to because we are displeased with the service.  Whomever it might be, we often let that person control our emotions, good or bad.  We often, unwittingly attach feelings to people.  We put so much energy into attaching energy to people we can become obsessed with that feeling whether it be positive or negative. 
"I need to call so and so, they ALWAYS make me feel better" or "That person, what a S.O.B....GRRRRR." Those feelings can be momentary, last all day, or can be attached to that person for some time.  No one should hold that many emotional strings in your life.  You are your own marionettist.  You control your emotional strings.  

​As I sit at my desk this morning, I am coming to realize what an impactful role other people can play in your day.  Fresh off a beautiful, restful sleep, a nice invigorating shower, excitement to jump straight into my new office, and cross things off the list, I received an unexpected email about something that should not have been a “thing”.  I found myself a little frustrated.  I found myself a little resentful for helping this person yesterday, as they did not take the help and did what they wanted, which was counter-intuitive, and very unproductive, it was negative production – causing more work for all involved.  Anyhow, I found myself not myself because of this.  I stopped.  I wished this person kindness and clarity.  I centered myself once again and brought back the feelings that I woke up with.
 
Don’t let people or situations get to you like it got to me.  Accept people for whomever they are.  Tornado Tom, I wish you only but the best!

As I embark on this journey 500kms away from the place I have known my entire life, I am reflective, grateful, happy and very active.  It has been sometime now since I stopped treating in the city, though the "transition" weeks felt like an eternity and what a nightmare! With that said, I can happily state I am in my second week of work up here, and I am loving it!  The clinic space is bright, light, and HUGE - giving me more leg room for extra torture! So far it has been the perfect amount of busy. with at least one patient everyday, and some days more.  The hours have been ideal, giving me ample time to trek with Hudson, cook lovely meals, prep meals, do laundry, cook, clean etc! 

I know some of you would like to know about my main squeeze Hudson.  I am happy to report he is doing very well, and loving it up here.  Everyday we get to embark on new, fun, long walks or rather treks through the bush!! It has been a little bit of a learning curve for me regarding his walking schedule since we are in Bear country.  Most of our walks happen after dawn, before dusk, and I am constantly on the lookout for bear poop. Thus far he has not seemed interested in going too far off the beaten trail, but as a precaution I always have an air horn, bear spray, and I sing like I am in the middle of a classic Disney movie.  I found after a few days at work, Hudson was glued to my side at all times, whether it was under my feet while I was cooking, or sitting on top of me while I tried to watch a movie.  This was not like him.  We were going for amazing walks, he was eating fine, and I wasn't exactly sure what it was.  He was lonely.  He has missed seeing you guys!  What do you do for a not so little dude who is lonely?  You get him a friend!! Hudson now has a little friend to play with every day!! His name is Owen, and he is a little 8 week old Kitten.  All the reading I have done, they say to keep the animals separated for a week or more to acclimatize to each other, well that didn't happen.  They have been chasing one another around the house since I brought him home - but trying to get a picture of the two of them is near impossible - they never stop!  I will say, try to picture the very big bulldog and a little tiny kitten from Loony Tunes, and that is what I have on my hands.  Just yesterday Owen tried to make Hudson his bed!!

On another note, I have been trying to enjoy what the City of Temiskaming Shores has to offer, just last weekend I took in the 116th annual New Liskeard Fall Fair.  What a treat!! So many animals!!! And this coming weekend is Oktoberfest.  Haven't decided if I am going to make it there, but I am at least going to try - all proceeds go to build a splash pad on the waterfront!

It has been great sharing with you! Hopefully I will have some pictures of Hudson and Owen on the next update!!

Take care!
Carlye