You don’t have to be crazy to write here, but it helps.

Welcome to Wellness Wednesday!

There are a wide variety of topics that will fit under this header.  I left it vague intentionally so that I’ve got a lot of wiggle room when it comes to picking topics, and neither I nor you good folk reading this will get bored.

To me the concept of wellness involves body, mind, and spirit, and it’s entirely subjective; I can’t define what wellness means for you, nor can you define it for me.  I’ve known cancer patients who felt like they were healthier than they’d ever been in their lives despite tumors and chemo, and I’ve known people who looked like models on the outside but had such massive eating disorders – or just flat out self-hatred – that they might as well have been in a full body cast for all the life they were actually living.

Sure, you can keep an eye on particular numbers as health indicators, but all those really tell you is the state of your body, not of your life.  I think of wellness as a way of living, not just a way of fitting into the “normal” range on a chart.  And I have no business whatsoever telling you what wellness means for you, as an individual; that’s up to you to define.

I can share my experiences in all these areas and give you information so you can look into topics and draw your own conclusions.  But I’m not a doctor or any sort of healthcare practitioner, and I don’t give medical advice. I’m just a writergirl telling stories.

Let’s start with a baseline, then, so you know where I’m at going forward.

~ I’m about to turn 35 in November.  (C’mon, early menopause.)

~ I have recently been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder type II. Figuring out the right combination of meds and learning to live with the uncertainty has made the rest of my wellness practices really difficult this year…which is kind of annoying since lifestyle changes are a huge help in living with mood disorders.

~ I weigh 300 pounds.  If you need help visualizing that it’s two normal sized people stapled together, or three supermodels stapled together.  If you can stop giggling at the mental image of three supermodels stapled together (a pouty lipped hydra flailing about for cocaine), note that I am vehemently anti-diet, so any weight loss propaganda will be deleted from comments.  Once you start letting people do that, you end up with trolls calling for fat people to be rounded up and butchered like pigs (think I’m kidding? Go read the comments on any article about weight loss, especially if *gasp* the author dares to suggest people’s bodies are their own business), and I love pigs and hate trolls, so I’m quite happy to bring the hammer down.

~ I’m also a vegetarian/vegan wannabe – right now I eat vegan at home and still dabble in the cheesy arts when out in public, but I’m working on that.  Sort of a “vegan in the sheets, veggie in the streets” thing.  It’s been a long process but I’m getting there.  This is primarily for ethical reasons; I don’t evangelize veganism as the Great White Hope for all ailments the way some people do. There is no single health panacea; every body is different.

One thing I’ve learned is that I have to be patient with myself – trying to change too many things at once is a recipe for disaster.  I get easily overwhelmed and if I don’t treat myself with kindness I can throw myself into a depressive period which will negate all the efforts I’ve made.  So far what I’ve learned about bipolar is that it involves starting from scratch a lot.  I’m hoping that once I’m used to dealing with it as what it is (instead of straight depression) I won’t have such agonizing setbacks every time I cycle.  Right now it feels like trying to bail out the Titanic with an “I Break for Lithium” mug.

I also have a wonky knee, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (no, I do not have a gluten problem, thanks for asking), and a sinus arrhythmia (funny story – I got it from taking diet pills).

I think that’s everything.  *laugh*  In the coming weeks I’ll be talking about the steps I plan to take to improve my overall health, which will ideally take a five-pronged approach:

~ Regular exercise, primarily via Nia, some yoga, other dance modalities, and basically anything I can do indoors because this is Texas and Texas is HELL from now until October

~ Veganism, or as close as I can manage, with an emphasis on adding in as many fruits and veggies as I can (rather than trying to “get rid” of anything, crowding less nutritious stuff out with plantstuff)

~ The philosophy of Health at Every Size, which focuses on health rather than weight and shoots a cheerful finger at the idea that you have to be thin to be healthy

~ Regular meditation practice

~ Careful monitoring of my bipolar symptoms and research into the most effective mood-management techniques for me, whether mental exercises, supplements, or other lifestyle enhancements

I hope you’ll enjoy these posts – I feel like discussing these topics here is good for me as it gives me some accountability, and might also provide useful tips for folks out there who have the same sort of issues.  See you soon…next week I might start by providing resources for all of the above things so you can see where I get my information.  I’ve done heaps of research, and continue to do so, on everything I write about when it comes to wellness.  Here at CrazyBeautiful, we work hard so you don’t have to!