Naturally healthy grandma with Lupus?

Taking gentle hikes keeps me healthy.

Sometimes I wonder if people who read this blog look twice at the title and think, “What? How on earth can she call herself a naturally healthy grandma? Doesn't she have Lupus, Rheumatoid and Reynauds syndrome?” Why yes. Yes I do. And so, for my new readers, who might not know my reasoning behind the blog title, I decided to write this, as an FYI.

Lupus runs in my family. So does Rheumatoid. Not sure about the Reynauds, but I'm assuming that since it's often a companion of the other two, it's likely that some of my ancestors suffered from it too. So, even though I'm sick, I have healthy habits now. Pl,us, my inherited Lupus came mainly from my ancestors.

But wait. Lupus is a tendency of sorts. And if you lead an unhealthy lifestyle and follow an unhealthy diet, you increase the likelihood that the tendency toward Lupus will flare into a full blown disease. Unfortunately, I used to have very unhealthy habits, which caused Lupus to take the upper hand, so to speak.

Now, though, I truly am healthier, even though I'm sick. I move more. I eat right. And just an aside, I have been a vegetarian, leaning toward vegan, for a long, long time. That has nothing to do with it. The problem was never that. The problem was junk food.

I ate cheese and chips and cookies. Lots of them. I drank gallons of soda pop. So, even though my diet did not include meat products, it did include tons of fat, salt, sugar, white flour and all the other food evils of a modern society. I'm doing much better now. I'm keeping myself better by doing better. And yes, I still eat some of those things. Just not so much of them.

The other issue was and is having the forced sedentary lifestyle of a writer. So many of my writer friends are sick like me. In fact, probably about ¾ of the people I know with chronic illness are writers. Therefore, I am really making an effort to get up and move, even when I don't feel like it or I have work to do.

Some day, the temptations will take a back burner, so to speak and I will transition all the way to Veganism, which I believe is about as naturally healthy as one can get. And some day, with practice and perseverance, I will be able to move a lot more than I do now.

But you know, even as it is now, I get healthier every day. I am on the path to better health now. And that's why I call myself a naturally healthy grandma. I am using naturally healthy ways to keep myself healthier than I normally would be if I didn't change my lifestyle.

How do I know it's working? Well, sadly, as mentioned above, I have a lot of friends with chronic illness. And even more sadly, the reason that I know I'm doing the right thing is that when I compare their struggles to mine, I see that their illnesses are much further along and progressing more rapidly than mine, even when other factors are identical.

And yes, I know, chronic illness is not always predictable. It can come and go for no reason at all. But I still think that by adopting a naturally healthy diet and lifestyle, I am increasing my longevity and slowing the progress of these illnesses considerably.

So, there you go. That's why I call myself a naturally healthy grandma, even though I have 3 chronic illnesses. It's because despite or even because of those illnesses, I am healing myself gradually and naturally, one step at a time.