Forced to get a car

I am really pissed off right now because everyone that is working with my husband on base is pressuring him into getting a freaking car. When I was talking about moving here to someone, they said that I would want to have a car because everything is spread out. You know what?! We’re doing just fine without a car because we’re in the middle of everything. Apparently they scolded him for not getting a ride around base when he had to do things. “Why didn’t you get a ride?” He had a rain coat. What business of theirs is it? Sure they need to make sure that he’s safe, but we have all the safety gear we need for bikes. Plus, we ride mainly on sidewalks and residential streets. This makes me so mad, their mentality is so lazy! Where I come from (the West Coast) it’s really difficult to bike because there are so many hills. Here, it’s perfect for biking, yet I hardly see even half the people riding bikes that do on the west coast. We’re saving money on gas and insurance because we want to pay off our student loans in 3 years or less. We do not have the money for a car, we have no need for a car because we are not going to movies (closest movie theater is 10 miles away), we don’t go to the casino EVERYTHING WE NEED IS WITHIN TWO FREAKING MILES! It’s none of your GODDAMN business how we get around as long as we’re doing it safely.

If you couldn’t tell, this is really making me mad because they are getting in MY way of paying off my student loans early. We’re going to see if getting a moped scooter will get them off his back, because the higher ups are starting to get on his case. That’s $700-$1000 (with titles, tags, and such) that could go towards our loans. Of course, we’ll take it out of our car fund, because with a scooter it would just prolong the lack of need for a car. Insurance wouldn’t be too bad, neither would gas, most scooters get 85 mpg. So financially, we can do a scooter, but it just really pisses me off the idea that we need a car. As I said before EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING is within two miles of us, which is nothing on a bike, especially on flat land. It’s like it’s not safe on the streets without a car. I mean, we have more safety gear than most people I’ve seen on bikes in this area. I really want to go into his shop and bitch slap those assholes because they’re too lazy to even think of riding a bicycle everywhere. Or maybe ring their necks. Some sort of violent thing. With lots of yelling. And swearing. Because that seems to be the only way to get a point across to them.

Of course I would never do any of that because, truthfully, I am not a violent person. That and I would get arrested for trespassing and assaulting a member(s) of the Air Force. I am letting my rage out on here so it does not build up.

Truthfully, a scooter really wouldn’t be that bad, because we would probably only use one tank a month – him going to and from work. It just bugs me that they are trying to get him to “be like everyone else”. Well, everyone else is broke, in debt up to their eyeballs with no plan to get out of it, and has a multitude of diseases and health problems that they’re just treating the symptoms instead of the actual cause. Why should we be like them? I want to be myself.

Junk Food Addiction

Let me just saw WOW! This article on Science Daily is a real eye opener about processed foods.

The basics of the article is that junk food, or pleasurable food, is addictive, the way cocaine is, and leads to over-consumption of these foods, which causes obesity. Scientists at Scripps Research Institute have finished a three-year study on rats that prove this. They found that when the mice ate high calorie, high fat food whenever they wanted because they had easy access to it, the rats lost all control of their eating habits. When the scientists tried to put those rats back on a healthy diet, the rats would not eat the food. Even when the scientists tried shocking the rats when they over ate, they would continue eating.

What they found in the brain itself was similar to that of someone who is addicted to cocaine. The main receptor responsible for addiction to drugs is called the dopamine D2 receptor. The amount of these receptors is reduced when a person is addicted to something, like in the case of cocaine. These receptors get turned off because they are overstimulated by a rush of dopamine, the pleasure hormone/neurotransmitter. That is how the body adjusts to the over-stimulation.

So now you have proof that junk food is addictive, that includes all the food products that have sugar and high fructose corn syrup. No wonder people have such a hard time changing their life style.

Communication in Relationships

If any relationship, particularly marriages and partnerships, is going to thrive, there must be communication. It is KEY. Communication is not one-sided – if one person is talking, the other should be listening. You both have to talk, you both have to listen.

The big part of communication with your significant other is to ask them questions. How do you feel about this? My husband is not going to be able to be present when I’m looking for a place to rent, but he needs to be part of the decision because we both will be living there. So I asked him what were some things he wanted in the house. I know what I want, but now I can include what he wants too. We’ve also discussed what is an absolute must and what we can live without. While I’m looking at these places, I will be taking pictures of them so I can show them to him online and we can pick a place together.

Decision making is a big part of any relationship. You have to make decisions together. Figure out what you want to come out of the decision then ask what the other wants. Be sure that you both know what the other wants.

Money is the number one reason why 52% of marriages end in divorce. Budgets or spending plans need to be gone over together. One person may be more financially inclined, but both people need to be involved so that they both know where the money is going. My husband lets me do the budget because I am that person. I’ve devised a plan that works pretty well for us and I try to show it to him every once in a while so he has an idea of where our money goes, but he’s not all that involved. I want him to be more involved. He trusts me completely with our money (trust is a big part of communication), which I am grateful for, but this is a team effort. I really want to crack down on our spending so we can start seriously paying off our student loans and I can’t do that without him. However, our debts overwhelm him when he looks at them. He clams up whenever I try to discuss money with him. To help with this, I asked him what would help him not get so stressed over money when we talk about it. He told me that we should discuss money/our budget on a low stress day after dinner. That is something that is very doable. And now he understands that I really want to do this together because doing the budget by myself can overwhelm me sometimes. So he’s going to try not to clam up during our meetings.

The whole communication thing is all about finding out what works for you as a couple. I recommend taking a compassionate listening class because it gives you some really great tools to help you communicated not only with your spouse, but people in general. It has helped me. In the past few months, the communication between Jason and I has exploded. It is allowing us to grow together as a couple. That is what marriage is about, being partnered with someone who will help you grow and vice versa. The way to accomplish that is through communication.

Taking Control of Your Health

I take a lot of stock in being healthy. I try to prevent myself from getting sick through good diet and exercise. I take control of my health. In fact, I haven’t been to a medical doctor for over three years. I probably will soon though, because a physical is always a good thing, but I do not run to a doctor for every little sniffle that I had.

When I was younger, I loved going to the doctor, I went for everything, even just simple colds. Even if it was a virus, my pediatrician would give me antibiotics. Then in high school I received a book called “Holistic Herbal” by David Hoffman. I started to become interested in natural healing, specifically herbal. So I stopped going to the doc for every little sniffle.

During my senior year in high school I developed ovarian cysts. My doctor wanted to put me on the birth control pill, because that is how he knew to treat them. I declined and told him that I was going to go to a naturopathic doctor. I wanted to treat the underlying cause, not the symptom. The pill messes with your hormones, and messed up hormones, were why I was getting the cysts in the first place. So, I went on a hormone balancing supplement regimen. It helped a little, but I didn’t follow the diet completely that was supposed to go with it, so after I stopped taking the supplements because of lack of funds, I still had some problems.

More recently, I decided to stop eating grains and limit my sugar intake as per the Primal Blueprint (you will find that I will mention this book and way of life a lot). WOW what a difference. No more pain so I’m guessing no more cysts. My face has cleared up, I have more energy, I feel better, I am more motivated to do things – it has been such a wonderful change. All of this without any medicine whatsoever.

I take my health very seriously. I want to live to be old, but I don’t want all the aches and pains that ail so many elderly. For most of my life, I dreaded becoming old because I thought that is what being old meant. Well, I won’t stand for it. I am taking care of myself now, researching things and finding what is right for me in terms of food and exercise. So far, sugar is a huge no-no (as seen in my sugar post), and grains also do not agree with me. Milk makes me stuff up, but cheese and yogurt do not. I enjoy walking, sometimes walking to the store instead of driving just because I can. I have found that house work is a great way to exercise and I occasionally do some yoga, push ups and other weight-baring exercise.

Basically, I have taken my health into my own hands. I do not blindly follow what a doctor says just because he/she has a degree. Sure they went through a lot of school, but that tends to generalize illnesses and treatments, not to mention treat the symptoms and not the disease.

So, my challenge to you is to take your health into your own hands. Absolutely go to your doctor, but ask questions, do research, become active in your health care. What they say is not the end all. For that matter, what I say on here isn’t the end all either. The information I provide on here is research that I find interesting and relevant. I am not a doctor, but like I said, I take my health seriously so I do a lot of research. Guess what, a lot of what I find to be right for me sounds like common sense.

Taking  control of your health means preventing issues from arising. If you already have a problem, try fixing through natural methods before turning to medicine. Medicine does have its place, don’t get me wrong. I think that it is overused in our society today because we look for a quick fix. Antibiotics for instance (however, they are becoming more selective about that, thankfully). Antidepressants. But you know what, both of those have their place. There are some illnesses, like malaria, that need antibiotics. There are people who have serious hormonal imbalances in their brain that can’t be fixed with diet alone.
Taking control of your health just means to be aware of what is going on in your body. A lot of times, going with your gut feeling is right, because it is your body. You just have to listen. It is difficult to learn to listen to your body, but it is the first step in your health. Sure a little ice cream once in a while isn’t going to kill you, but if you have it every day, even every week, that can affect you more than you know.

Listen to your body and take control of your health.

Change, it is the way of life

Change. Some people are afraid of change. Others welcome it. There are many different kinds of changes, some small that hardly affect anything at all and some so massive it changes the course of history. However you feel about change, it’s actually impossible to stop it. All you can do is adjust and adapt to it.

But you can also purposefully make change. One that comes to mind that many people wish to make is how much they weigh, or how they look. Another is being more organized or procrastinating less. You see, everyone wants some sort of change, and most of the time, that change is for the better.

The problem is that people don’t always follow through with their changes. Then they start to pity themselves, think that they don’t have the will power to make the change they want. Or, even worse, they make excuses for why they couldn’t change. I think there are several reasons why this ‘failure’ comes about.

People expect things to change overnight. While it is true that some things to happen quickly, most of the time when you are trying to change something about yourself, it is going to take a while. How to fix it? Be patient. Every time you “mess up” just start over again. And again, and again until whatever you’re trying to change has.

Another thing people often think is that there is only one way to accomplish a certain change. There can be general guidelines, but there is no formula to successfully do something. Think of all the languages that the world has come up with. If you are trying something, like becoming more organized or coming up with a spending plan and it isn’t working for you (and you’ve tried it again and again to no avail) change your approach, don’t just give up completely.

Basically, you have to find what works for you. In the future, I will have pages of different ways to make different changes so that you can have easy access and try out different tactics.

Changing yourself is difficult. But it can be done, with the right frame of mind, perseverance, and patience. Keep up the good work and know that it will pay off.