Weighty Matters and Food for Thought

This blog post is a little more personal.

All of my life I have been morbidly obese. I tried everything under the sun to try and cure myself of this "problem". I tried every diet, I calculated "points", counted carbs, and restricted calories. I went vegetarian. I went vegan. I went raw-vegan. I exercised fanatically: walking, hiking, biking, swimming, running, belly dance, yoga, and my personal favorite - karate. I think I was the most physically fit fat person you ever met. How many other 300 pound women do you know who can RUN a 5k? But it was all for nothing. The scale never budged more than 5 lbs in either direction. My diabetes remained dangerously out-of-control, and I suffered terribly with chronic pain, asthma, migraines, depression and anxiety no matter how fiercely I followed my health regiment.

And then I came to Kenya. By the time I set foot on the African continent I had made peace with my body, and I had resolved to just make the best of it and try to be happy in my own skin. No more restrictive diets, no more fanatical exercise programs. At times I felt like a circus freak-show. (I already stick out because I'm white, and then to add extreme obesity made me a real oddity.) But by and by something miraculous started to happen. I can't tell you the when and where and how, because I never set foot on a scale for my entire first trip to Kenya. But I started to notice that my shorts were falling down, and my tank-tops were sagging to the point of indecency. One day I got ready for church and dressed in my ONE very nice skirt-blouse-suit outfit, which has served me faithfully and fit perfectly for about 7 years. But after I pulled on the skirt and reached for the matching blouse - the skirt just slithered back down around my ankles.

The last time I weighed myself (I had to pay 5 shillings to step on a set of scales) I had lost 120 lbs in a year and a half. Without trying. That was of course BEFORE I got pregnant, and I don't know what I weigh now, but I'm assuming its about the same. I don't think I qualify as "morbidly obese" any more. I think I am now merely "over-weight" according to medical standards. However, as this is the weight my body chose for itself, I think its safe to assume this is a normal, healthy weight for me.

SO what's different about Kenya?
Well, the food, for starters.

Almost everything is eaten in its natural, whole-food state. Nothing is processed, and even "processed" food is almost entirely chemical free. Imagine picking up a loaf of bread in the supermarket and reading the ingredients. "wheat flour, water, salt, yeast, sodium bicarbonate." Five ingredients. Have you read the ingredient list on a loaf of bread in the USA lately? Because of the primitive shipping industry in Kenya, its impossible to ship foods long distances and keep them fresh... so what you are buying is usually locally grown, and picked the night before its taken to market - carried there on the back of a bicycle, if not on someone's head. Staple foods are simple, and highly nutritious: Sweet potatoes, yams, bananas (the unsweet kind for cooking, as well as the sweet kind for fresh-eating) mangoes, pineapples, collard greens, cassava, beans, cowpeas, mung beans, rice, corn, Irish potatoes, oranges, cabbages, a variety of indigenous green vegetables, spinach, guavas, avocados, tomatoes and onions.

Meat isn't consumed daily, nor is it consumed in the huge quantities that we enjoy in the USA. Its usually coming from a locally raised grass fed cow, sheep, goat, pig, free range chicken, duck or green-fed rabbit which is slaughtered by a local slaughter house and then sold by the local butcher, or more often, slaughtered and prepared by your own family. Refridgeration is rare, especially in these rural areas where there is no electrical service, therefore food is bought and consumed daily, or else dried and preserved naturally.  Smoked/dried fish is another favorite source of protein.

Junk food is here, invading from the West, but its expensive and generally reserved for special occasions like Christmas or Easter. However, some things are sacred, and you better believe I faithfully buy at least one bar of Cadbury chocolate every time we venture into one of the larger towns! My diabetes remains "cured", the only problem now being the occasional "low" but NOT ONCE have I been too high in the last year. Most of my aches and pains and complaints have resolved themselves, or at least make only rare and infrequent appearances, and for that I am thanking God. I live a busy, active life, but I no longer make myself crazy with punishing exercise routines or starvation diets.

Life is good.