Sniff.

This is it -- a tearful farewell from www.sofarsofat.blogspot.com. 
I'm no longer so fat, so I'm saying so long. 

Take care, and come and visit me at my new blog:

www.atopyandme.blogspot.com

Too difficult to decipher:  atopy and me  (atopy = look it up -- or read my first post)

See you later, alligators.

The late holiday edition.

Yes, for posterity and mostly my own personal blog book, here is the holiday letter.

     Holy Holiday Hijacking!

    (An expanded, educational epistle.)

First up this year: The pagan origins of Christmas, or Xmas (the “X” is apparently from the Roman abbreviation for Christ, because the X was the “chi” sound).  The Xians actually STOLE this holiday from the pagans, and made it all about the Baby J.  Well, I’m shocked.  The truth is, no one knows what day Jesus of Nazareth (no one had last names, because I assume there was only one Jesus, or Bob, per town back then) was born.  Most historians believe he was probably born in September.  So why do we celebrate his “birthday,” on December 25?  And what’s with the partying and gifts and whatnot?  Well, THANK YOU pagans. 

In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25, and has been described as “raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving.”  (Sound familiar?)  In Rome, “Saturnalia” was introduced around 217 BC to raise citizen morale after a crushing military defeat by the Carthaginians.  Originally celebrated for one day, on December 17, it grew into a week-long extravaganza.  (SaturnPalooza – a House of Geldorf production.)  The festival included good stuff like a school holiday, gambling, sacrifices (as you do), naked singing in the streets (that’s still a normal Friday night in some places), and role reversal for the slaves (although apparently they had to make their own feast AND the feast for their masters – so not that great for the slaves).  Augustus  tried to reduce the celebration to three days, and Caligula to five.  (Really? I thought Caligula loved a good party!)  These attempts caused uproar and massive revolts among the Roman citizens.  (Duh.)  The customary greeting for the occasion was "Io, Saturnalia!" — Io (pronounced "e-o") being a Latin interjection related to "ho," as in "Ho, praise to Saturn."  But I like to think of it as an early “Yo,” as in “Yo!  What up, Saturnalia?!”

In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ's birth would be celebrated on December 25, and there is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity.  The earliest Christmas holidays were apparently celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets, etc.  So all the good parts of Christmas – the parties, gifts, tree (brought inside by the pagans in winter), etc. were all pagan traditions.  Io Saturnalia!  I can finally get behind this holiday!  Where do I sign up for naked caroling?  (Maybe not in Minnesota.)  And what would be the appropriate dress for a modern sacrificial gig?  I bet you could probably get away with a Frosty sweatshirt or some Christmas tree socks.  Next year: who wore the first tacky holiday sweater?

So 2011 was the year I came back to camping.  It’s been a while (30+ years is a while) since I lit my Buddy Burner and fried an egg on a coffee can with the Troop at Camp Timberlake.  But now I’m an adult that can afford to buy heaters, stoves, air beds and larger-than-necessary tents (6-8-man tent = moi plus 2 dogs).  And, except for one excruciating experience at camp Blow-My-Ass-Across-the-Hot-Desert, it was going pretty well.  I’m gettin’ back to nature, doin’ yoga with a view, kayaking on gorgeous lakes....and then the Connor dog collapses!  Just drops dead at my feet as we’re leaving Woods Canyon Lake (yeah, that’s a lot of geography for one spot, but that’s what it’s called).  So I’m thinking my beloved Connor Dog has gone to the little dog park in the sky (he’s afraid of big dogs).  Not much I can do, but give him a little mouth-to-muzzle.  And, Io Saturnalia!, it worked!  Connor came back to life.  Turns out he has PAH and an enlarged heart, so despite healthy doses of doggie Viagra (vasodilator, it’s not half as creepy as it sounds), he still passes out at altitude.  And even at home lately.  Scares the heck out of me, but now I just go, “Oh, time to blow air up the dog’s nose!”  Despite the PAH, debilitating arthritis, near total blindness, and 18+ years, Connor’s still loving life.  He steals any food within reach (the nose still works), and if there’s any badness (e.g., ripped up trash bag with disgusting goo all over my wool rug), it was Connor (even though I usually find Lola in the middle of the mess).

Lola (dubbed “Loca Lola” by a tree trimmer, and “Killer” by the groomers at Wag N Wash) doesn’t half mind camping.  She doesn’t love it, but she has a great fear that I will someday go somewhere without her poodley self.  Not likely.  What would I do without the personal poodle police?  With Lola, we’re always at Threat Level Red, DEFCON 1, aka GRRRRR!  Let’s just say Lola would push The Button if someone looked at her funny.  Or just looked funny...or normal.  And Bella, my backyard cat-who-comes-in-to-snuggle-on-cold-mornings, remains afraid to fully commit to living in the house with us.  But I’m trying to turn her with some expensive cat food.  Bella likey.  Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

ZZZZZZZ(just demarcating the boring part)ZZZZZ...And what would YOUR holiday be without a big dose of MY continuing health problems?  This year, we have a better understanding and management of the various itchy rashes, insomnia, rhinitis, fatigue, etc. that have plagued me for years.  After MUCH midnight research (don’t get me started on how useless allergists and dermatologists are in dealing with atopy – “Would you like more antihistamines?  Or a nice steroid shot in the ass?  We can do both.”), I discovered that my atopic dermatitis is caused by a genetic defect in filaggrin production (long technical story) that results in a defective skin barrier.  This, it turns out, can be substantially ameliorated with an inexpensive, but specifically-engineered, OTC cream.  (I had tried every anti-itch lotion and cream known to man and Walgreen’s, and was using the $60 co-pay Protopic, none of which touched the problem.)  So skin barrier problem managed.  Check.  Try CeraVe – I need to keep them in business long-term.

I knew that a food allergy was also likely with the atopy, and more research revealed a blood test to diagnose IgG-mediated (delayed onset) food allergies.  Long story short, blood testing revealed allergy to dairy, egg, and wheat.  So now I’m a Vegan who eats meat (TG for bacon), but not wheat.  Which has happily resolved most of my itchy rashes, my allergic rhinitis (incredible, since I’ve had “hay fever” and sinuses full of mucus since childhood), and (bonus) my middle-aged squidge.  I not only began sleeping, breathing, and wearing skirts for the first time in years, I immediately lost all the weight that I could not lose no matter how little I ate and how much I “Brought It” with P90X.  Losing almost 20 pounds killed my blog about losing 10 pounds of mid-life squidge.  (Eh.)  SO, the boring health news is GOOD news this year.  Well, except for my bunions.  But even I don’t care about the bunions.  Bunions be DAMNED, I can breathe and sleep again!

Next year?  I won’t pester you with Linus Pauling and Vitamin C, but please prepare yourselves by reading up on how bad sugar is for you.  I started with Suicide by Sugar.  And let me just put it out there for everyone: wheat and dairy aren’t really good for you (gasp!), and calcium is easy to come by in greens (Oh no, she di-n’t!).  Got kale?  When was the last time you had a vegetable?  Eat your broccoli.  And try some quinoa (even quinoa pasta is readily available) and maybe almond or coconut milk, and Earth Balance instead of butter.  Does a body good....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

So that’s it.  There was an Omenesque fly infestation in the kitchen (check the blog for the gory details), I opened up the living/dining room wall this week (they are weaving my wood floors back together as I type this), my urban orchard is expanding to 15 fruit and nut trees, and I’m still hosting potluck dinners every Sunday.  Life rolls on with some bumps and curves, but basically, life is good and I am fortunate to have decent health and even decenter friends.  Hope this letter finds you and yours happy and healthy, now and through the 2012 apocalypse – good luck with that.

                                Io Saturnalia!

                                

                                Tracy, Connor, Lola, and Bella

✾ If you are local, please join me on New Year’s Day for my Third Not-Even-Remotely-Annual Open House.  This is your only invite – hope to see you between noon and 5 p.m. on January 1, 2012.

God, I'm such a downer! But here's what worked.

First off, Happy 2012!!  And thanks to Tim and Jerry, for hosting a fabulous NYE party.  Love, Love, guys.

Second, Merry Christmas, Io Saturnalia, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, etc.  I'm going to save myself a lot of time and just insert my holiday letter into the blog in a minute.

Third,  I have GOT to wrap up this blog and move on.  When I started this blog 2+ years ago, I weighed roughly 122 pounds and set what I hoped was an achievable goal of losing 10 pounds of mid-life squidge, aka fat.  I tried everything from walking, to Bringing It with Tony Horton's P90X.  I got bird poop in my hair from the walking, and lots of giggles with my friend Ena from P90X, but not much weight loss.  I thought I saw a muscle or two somewhere in there, but it was hard to see, because it remained buried under the layers of fat.

I was eating like a bird, thinking it was just a simple, calories-in-versus-calories-burned formula -- I used to laugh at the "diet" people.  And I still scorn commercial diets.  But I am now well and truly convinced that you are what you eat and it DOES matter where you get your calories.  I thought I was eating right, and switching to oatmeal and eating more veggies and eggs per Jackie Warner's advice, actually helped me drop a few pounds.  But it turns out that I was not eating that well, and that it's nearly impossible to really eat well in today's fast-paced, heat-and-eat food world.  Only when I got blood test results showing my allergies to wheat, dairy (yes, my friends, all forms of dairy -- whey, casein, butter, milk, cheese, yogurt, and even goat dairy, so, no, I can't eat your delicious feta), and eggs, did I truly start eating well.  And I would never have done it without that confirmation and the identification of my specific allergies.

Armed with information about my specific allergies, I was able to summon the willpower (because that's ALL it's about, and it's REALLY hard to summon that willpower) to eliminate dairy, wheat and eggs from my diet.  Yes, it sucks for me -- no more cheese burgers, no more French Toast, no more Blue Boxes of cheesy deliciousness, no more quiche.  Naturally, it turns out that everything I loved was killing me.  (Also one of my favorite country songs.)  But it worked and it worked quickly -- the weight I couldn't lose for a year and a half just melted away.  That layer of subcutaneous fat I bitched about 2 years ago is gone.  And my eczema and rhinitis cleared up too.  Amazing.  I've had allergic rhinitis since childhood, and figured that there was no way to cure it.  That's certainly what all my doctors said.  At the time I started eliminating my food allergens, I was actually sleeping on foam wedges at night to help all the phlegm drain from my head, so that I could breathe.  Once I stopped eating dairy/wheat/eggs, I no longer had the phlegm or the itchy eczema.  I started sleeping through the night for the first time in years.  No more bed wedges.  The food allergy was apparently contributing not only to the eczema, but also to the rhinitis.  Who knew?  (James Braly, M.D., food allergist, and author of Hidden Food Allergies knew -- I cannot thank Dr. Braly and his book enough for this life-changing information.)

It turns out that allergic reactions are inflammatory in nature, they affect multiple organs (including, for me, my largest organ, the skin), and the food allergies start in the gut.  Long story, not-so-short, the gut is more permeable than normal, allowing larger-than-normal food particles to enter the blood stream, which are then attacked by antibodies to the food (in my case, wheat, dairy, egg), causing this nasty inflammatory response as if your body is trying to kill a virus, but it's really attacking your food/nutrients.  You aren't properly digesting food or absorbing the nutrients your body needs to function properly and do things like heal.  There is a whole world of trouble caused by these allergies.  

So the secret to weight loss (not to mention relief from rhinitis and eczema)  in my case, and I believe MANY others out there who just don't know it, is food allergies and avoiding the allergens.  There is a reason that dairy and wheat are the two most common food allergies in the U.S.  And dairy and wheat are in EVERYTHING.  You think it's safe to eat sausage?  "Contains milk."  Hummus?  It's beans, tahini, and oil with some garlic, right?  "Contains milk."  The good news is that the allergies are common enough that manufacturers have to warn you that they're in there.  But it's still an enormous bummer to pick up something that really shouldn't have milk or wheat in it, only to find that they've added it.  So now I'm on a meat + fruit + veggies + grains - wheat diet.  I spend a lot more time cooking and I'm not much fun at parties and frequently annoy people by insisting on reading labels.  But hey, it's my life and my health -- I think I'm worth it.  ;-)

My advice to the rest of the world?  Don't rely on your doctors to figure everything out for you.  Doctors are people too.  Just people.  They've got a medical education, usually from a medical establishment that is certain that it already knows everything there is to know.  The world is still metaphorically flat if you want to convince most doctors of anything that wasn't taught in medical school.  And the medical establishment is heavily funded by large drug companies.  If there is a pill for it, why bother to look at your diet?  And there is a pill for just about everything.  And pills have the benefit of being fast.  The doctor just has to scribble a scrip for you and send you on your way.  These doctor people only have about 5 minutes to actually listen to the problem that has been consuming your life for weeks/months/years, about 5 minutes to examine you, and about 5 minutes to tell you about the drug they're going to give you to see if it will help/keep you from coming back.  Yes doctors have a medical degree, but they don't know everything about everything.  Most haven't studied allergies generally, even fewer have studied food allergies in particular (even my two allergy specialists were useless in helping me), and most don't even know what atopy is.  So, with apologies to my medical doctor friends, I suggest that you educate yourself.  Be persistent.  For some reason, the medical community is not willing to share the real technical articles with the public -- you will get mostly very general articles that tell you nothing useful.  But if you persist, you may eventually strike gold, like I did -- I recommend dermnetnz.org, a New Zealand dermatological web site that actually gives the public access to technical medical information.  Imagine that.  And buy the book.  Yes, you may have to shell out some cash to educate yourself, because they don't like to give out that information for free.  I eventually started buying and reading books on food allergies and nutrition, because I knew (from dermnetnz.org, thanks) that a food allergy was probable with my atopic dermatitis.

Companion advice?  Either keep your information to yourself or be prepared to do battle with the rest of the world, because your friends have never heard of your food allergy, and, therefore, you must be an idiot who believes everything they read on "the internet," big eye roll.  Even worse, if you start sharing  nutritional information, such as the evils of sugar and the benefits of vitamin C, you will confirm for certain people that you are wacko.  Yes, that's just crazy talk.  I hesitate to even write about it here, because I know that I will be judged.  So be it.  I am comfortable that I am NOT stupid, that I have educated myself thoroughly with information from reliable and intelligent sources who know more about nutrition than my friends know, and I will just have to let people think I'm stupid or crazy.  I can live with that.  And I can live with being just a little less fun at restaurants and parties.  I can sleep at night -- I can sleep at night, because I'm not being kept awake all night by eczema covering my arms and legs and phlegm clogging my nose and ears and draining painfully down my throat.  I don't need a double-blind, random-whatever controlled study to prove to me what I already know from educating myself and from personal experience.  I've got my education, and I highly recommend to anyone who will listen, that  you get your own education.  Go forth and read.  It will be time-consuming and frustrating -- there may not be a pill for your problem.  But I think it will be worth it in the long run.  You only live once, right?