Do you have that friend that starts talking about their current problems and, while you love the person dearly, you just want to stab your eardrums out so that you don’t have to hear about it….again?! After all, it’s the same thing over and over – my boyfriend’s a jerk, I’m broke, my nail polish keeps chipping, I hate my hair, etc., etc. Ugh! You love ’em, but you’re just plain tired of hearing the same old drama.

I don’t have many friends like that and I suspect it may be because I AM That Friend.

When I feel like I’m being That Friend, I often just stop talking. I get tired of hearing my same old drama myownself; so, I just quit saying anything. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had a few friends actually say something to me about my silence – you’re not writing, you don’t call, you don’t text…wassup?

It’s wonderful to have Those Friends! (Some of you are recognizing yourselves right this very minute, aren’t ya?)

The truth is that I’ve been stuck. I haven’t found the motivation to keep me eating healthfully and I certainly haven’t found the motivation to use that gym membership. I’ve been eating WAAAAAY too much sugar, too much processed food, too much white flour, too much oil, too little fruit, too few green leafies, and too few non-starchy veggies. I haven’t been back to the gym since the last time we talked. This is not the way to get back to feeling healthy and strong. I’ve needed a plan and a whole lotta help coming up with a viable one since the ones I was coming up with were lasting about as long as a snowball in Hell.

So. I ordered some books from Abebooks.com (my most favoritest online book source). They’ve arrived. I’ve finished one and am working through the second. They are the Forks Over Knives books. One is a how-to companion; one is a solid, four-week plan to make permanent lifestyle changes; and, one is a cookbook. All of them are based on the Whole Food, Plant Based lifestyle that has been shown time and again to help adherents lead much healthier lives. Rather than treating the symptoms of a host of illnesses with prescriptions, the practitioners of the WFPB lifestyle are finding that their illnesses are gone. By giving their bodies the tools that they need to repair the damage done by years of eating the Standard American Diet, those people are finding that their vascular issues, diabetes, even some cancers are either cured or significantly improved.

With all of the cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease in my family, I want to get ahead of the game.  As I told you, I want to be Adventure Gram! I want to take my future grandchildren hiking, climbing, kayaking, sightseeing, all kinds of fun things and I can’t do that if my body won’t let me. I want that, yet I’ve been struggling with motivating myself to get there.

Maybe I should have shared that struggle with you rather than retreating into myself like I do. Maybe it would have helped one of you and maybe it would have helped me to share it. I didn’t, though, because I felt like I was being That Friend. By keeping the struggle in, I felt more isolated, which didn’t help anything. I’m betting some of you have done the same thing with similar results.

Well, now, I’ve reached out for help from experts who know scads more than I do. I’m using their knowledge and experience to develop a plan for adopting a healthier lifestyle. I’ll share that will you – even on those days when I’m That Friend.