November 2013 | Unlimited BS

Soooooo, now that the Red Deer election is over I’m going to comment. I kept my mouth shut and bit my tongue a LOT which if you know me at all, you know I struggle with that. I’m not a resident of the City of Red Deer (I’m Red Deer County) so here is an outside looking in perspective of what I saw go down.

Twitter and facebook were insane. Good gawd people, I’m ALLLLLL about social media, love it (most days) but would it really be a deciding factor for who would make the best leaders for a community? Ya, ya, I get it, it’s a great way to communicate to the people but let’s remember our Red Deer twitter community is not full representation of the entire city. You can tell me there are 1,000 Red Deer tweeps, but how many of those are active? How many of those interact with candidates or even follow them? Not enough to win an election. Not yet anyway. We are still a small crew in the grand scheme of things.

Being on social media does not mean that person is transparent. FAR from it. You can be whoever you want to be on twitter! I’ve seen it…it sometimes makes me sick to see the phoniness of some trying to come across as kind do-gooders when what they do behind the computer is far, far different.

I saw tweets of people calling out candidates because they hadn’t responded to a tweet within 24 hours of them sending it. Really?? REALLY? Come on. And candidates being cut down for not participating on a facebook group page. Maybe they are out in your community actually DOING things. Or maybe their child is sick and they could care less about twitter or a facebook post at that moment. Or maybe their internet crashed. Using that to discredit them is unfair and immature.

I love the twitter and yes, even facebook…but let’s get real here people. It’s not face-to-face, eye contact, connection and honesty. It is whatever the user chooses to make it.

Perspective. Our small community doesn’t rule the City. But if we did…we might want to consider group capes.

I’m coming up on a year since my Drug Induced Christmas Miracle…C R A Z Y! What a difference a year makes. I feel really grateful right now. Grateful for Xolair and how this year has panned out healthwise.

There is a picture I have of a games night with the girls a year ago. I look at it and feel a rush of emotion…I remember EXACTLY how I felt that night. Exactly.

I felt terrible. I wanted to cancel because my breathing was brutal and I really had zero energy to even sit upright, let alone host a whack of rowdy wine-drinking women 😉 I was so exhausted and just so done…mentally and physically done. I was glued to my inhaler that entire night and couldn’t wait for it to end so I could just wheeze openly, lay down and try to get it in check.

Since Xolair, it has been a year of discovery. I think I celebrated for a number of months because my allergies weren’t nearly as sensitive. So I ate bread (supposed to stay away from yeast), ice cream (supposed to stay away from cow’s milk), pounded back the cupcakes, and drank wine. I ate chips, dip, chocolate bars. Four months ago, I decided it was time to shut down the party.

Not only was I packing on the pounds, but my asthma was noticeable once again. To be honest, I was genuinely scared that the effects of Xolair were short lived and the party was over for me. I knew I had to stop pissing around and look after myself because if my asthma was coming back in full force I had better be in good enough shape to offset it. I started eating healthy…cut out all processed foods, refined sugar, dairy and grains. Paleo virgin in full force. It took me a couple attempts, but once I researched and understood that the very foods I had sensitivities to, where those not included in the paleo lifestyle. It made sense for me. Inflammation needed to come down. Paleo makes sense for me for a couple other reasons too, but that’s a later post 😉

The thing about all the crap being out of my diet is it’s really easy to determine what my body can’t handle. For me, that is always in the form of inflammation and trouble breathing. First discovery was that the kombucha I was sooooo loving (and brewing my own!) was making me wheezy. So…gone. Then I noticed days when I really threw back the eggs, my asthma flared up. Eggs are also a source of inflammation. I’ve cut back on them huge (only have in my baking for a snack) and already my asthma is in check again.

So yes! Xolair is a life-saver and total game changer for me…but as with everything, there is never a simple pill or easy route to health. I still need to really stay focused or I will slip back into that girl in the picture that even looking at makes me so sad.

No. frickin. way.